This Working Life

Saying "yes" too often can leave you feeling overwhelmed and perhaps a bit resentful. You might hear yourself saying "yes of course I can" when your inner voice is screaming "no!" So here's how you can say "no" more often at work, without feeling rude. Guests Natalie Lue — Author, The Joy of Saying No Benjamin Law — Writer and broadcaster Hema Kangeson — Founder, The Leaders Circle Bruce Tulgan — Author, The Art of Being Indispensable at Work Alisha Taylor-Jones — Diversity and inclusion professional This story was first broadcast on 3rd February 2023

Experts say balance may not be the best thing to aim for. So is the concept of work life balance itself, flawed?  Learn ways to put life first and make small changes that can help you get more satisfaction in life and work.    Guests: Tim Duggan, author, Work Backwards Dr Stacey Parker, Centre for Business and Organisational Psychology, University of Queensland Carly Hopgood, engineer and work life coach

You’re doing well in your career and are being steered towards the leadership track.  But it’s a common complaint within organisations that new managers don’t get the right kind of training or support. So how can you prepare? We dig into the essential skills, and the best ways to learn them. Guests:  Karina Calder, head of leadership and development, SW Accountants and Advisors  Dr Stacey Ashley, leadership coach and author, The New Leader  Professor Greg Harper, Pro Vice Chancellor, Centre for Organisational Change and Agility, Torrens University Australia

Melanie Perkins, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk all have one thing in common. They’ve leveraged the entrepreneur mindset to achieve success in business.  Whether you work for yourself or within a larger organisation, what can you borrow from high achievers that’s relevant to your career?  Guests: Rachael Neumann, co-founder, Flying Fox Ventures  Alex Newman, Professor of Management and Associate Dean (Faculty), Melbourne Business School  Eleni Dracakis, business psychologist

You've likely been told to disrupt yourself and get better at dealing with change. But what if rapid change isn’t allowing you to do your best at work? Leadership expert and co-author of Nine Lies About Work, Ashley Goodall, argues that change, for the sake of it, can be counter-productive. So how can we create more stability at work? Guest: Ashley Goodall, leadership expert and author, The Problem with Change This is a companion story to our episode Uncertainty at work stressing you out? Here’s how to deal with it.

We know that putting up slides with lots of text, and talking about them at the same time, is not a very engaging way to get your point across in a presentation or training session.  So why is it still happening? And how can we all tell better stories at work?

Awareness of psychosocial safety is growing and we know how destructive bullying can be. Yet incidents continue to occur, with performance management and generational differences creating flashpoints. Despite decades of research and tighter regulations, many organisations struggle to prevent workplace bullying. We find out why, and learn about a prevention program that is making a difference.

What if instead of adding tasks to your long to do list, you considered what you could take away?  Professor Leidy Klotz has a theory that can help and he’ll teach you how to start subtracting at work. And Dom Price gives a coaching session that will help you stop, reflect and figure out what to let go of.

You have staff who are neurodivergent, and you want to help them do their best work. What do you need to understand, and what supports should you put in place, to make that happen?  We visit a neurodiverse workplace to find out, and hear from a specialist recruiter who supports neurodivergent employees in large corporate firms.

Have you ever been in a room with a leader who has you hanging on every word, and leaves you feeling inspired?  Some would say that person has  ‘executive presence’.  But what do they have really?  And are the qualities that make employees willing to really listen to and follow a leader, changing?

Finding it hard to get your brain into gear? You might feel your mind wandering a bit, daydreaming of being somewhere else. To help you get you back on track, one of the world’s top experts on attention, Dr Gloria Mark from the University of California Irvine, explains how our attention spans have declined and what we can do about it.  And Sydney University Associate Professor Paul Ginns provides a simple hack to keep you focused through your work day.  This episode was first broadcast on Jan 28, 2024.

The psychology of performance is not just for elite sports, it can also help you do better at work. As the Paris Olympics kicks off, we share some lessons about performance and wellbeing and help you adapt them to your own career.

Like it or not, redundancies are a part of the career cycle for many of us.  Whether it’s happening to you or someone you know, hear stories from people who have been through it, and those who help them, about how to prepare for and navigate that phase.

In 2021 we asked experts to gaze into a crystal ball and give us their predictions for how work would change as a result of a global pandemic. Were the futurists right, and what changes do they see coming in the next few years?

Laughter is good for us, but sometimes jokes and funny quips just don't land, especially when they're delivered by your boss. If you're a leader or you report to one, here's how to use humour to make work a more enjoyable experience for all concerned.

Put a pin in it, leverage that, circle back, LMK (let me know) - ugh! Some of us are drawn to use jargon and buzzwords, while others are annoyed by them. Learn when and how to use jargon so that you can avoid miscommunication at work.

How is the use of artificial intelligence in meetings, recording transcripts, generating notes, listening in (!), affecting your work, and how do you feel about its presence in the 'room'? Learn what AI can do in meetings, to improve productivity and team building, and what's still to come.

Job cuts have been announced,  a restructure is imminent, you've got a new boss, AI is about to change your job. These events are all part of regular working life, so what can you do? Learn why we struggle with uncertainty at work, and get some skills to help you cope.

They’re usually the last step in the process, but reference checks are an important part of a job hire. And if you get them wrong, you can have a real situation on your hands. What's best practice when it comes to reference checking: whether you’re hiring, trying to be hired, or giving a reference for someone else?

The junior person feels like they’re being micromanaged, but the manager feels like the job is not being done properly. When does good supervision tip into micromanagement? Shona Ryan had such a difficult time being micromanaged as a millennial worker, that she decided to research the topic.  We hear what she learned, and get advice from an expert on how to break the pattern of micromanagement.

You’ve probably got a focus music playlist but did you know being musically trained can help you in other jobs? And no, it’s not too late if you didn’t learn the piano when you were a child. Guest: Dr Diana Tolmie - Musician and Senior Lecturer in Professional Practice at the Queensland Conservatorium And thanks to Sophie, George, Mark and Deirdre for sharing their stories. And if you liked this episode you’d enjoy our episode on the power of being a generalist at work - find it in our podcast feed from March 2023.

Our childhood phantasy careers (different to fantasy with an ‘f’) help uncover our unconscious motivations and can unlock job satisfaction in our careers. Here’s how to figure out yours. Guest: Paul Harvey - Lecturer and Executive Coach at the INSEAD Business School And thanks to Afrouz, Karen and Ryan for sharing their stories.

"Don't we all hold many things? We all have to work jobs often we don't fully politically or ethically agree with because we have to pay our rent." When we have the privilege to choose what work we do, how do we ensure we're ethically aligned with that career choice? And once we’re working in a job, how can we ensure we’re behaving ethically day to day? Guests: Dr Tim Dean - Senior Philosopher, The Ethics Centre Maryam Kouchaki - Professor of Management & Organizations, the Kellogg School of Management Jess Shane - radio and podcast producer If you enjoyed this episode, you'd like our episodes about values at work (from April) and why good people do bad things (from June 2023). Find them in our podcast feed.

“I can honestly say this is a question that I’ve never encountered before.” New Yorker magazine reporter and author of Supercommunicators - How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, Charles Duhigg answers your questions about how to navigate tricky conversations at work, sharing advice and skills to truly connect with colleagues. Thank you to listeners Lorissa Garcia, Louise Thomson and Tanmay Vora for your questions.

A new person joins the team and immediately sparks fly... or perhaps you start seeing a colleague in a different light and the friendship turns into something more...  Workplace romances are common and it’s no wonder - we spend a lot of time at work, and we have a lot in common with people in the same industry as us. But what are the rules around falling in love or flirting at work? And what are the costs of dating a colleague, or even a boss?  Guests: Dr Amy Nicole Baker - Professor of Psychology, New Haven University Mia Pantechis - Principal Lawyer, Maurice Blackburn And thanks to Rose and Nick for sharing their story.

Feel like you're cycling through the same old ideas? Or just tired and out of inspiration?  Albert Read has some tips on how to use and strengthen your 'imagination muscle'. Guest: Albert Read is managing director of Conde Nast and author of The Imagination Muscle. During the conversation, the concept of the T-shaped worker came up - which is being both a generalist and an expert. You can listen to our episode on that topic here or find it in our podcast feed entitled 'Forget expertise. Here's why being a generalist is great for your work' from 24 March 2023.

From creativity to collaboration, to growth and generosity, we can easily name values. But can we as easily apply them in our day-to-day work?  Hear how we can more effectively identify and apply values in our jobs and why it’s so important to do so.  Guests: Greta Bradman - Psychologist and CEO/Founder, The Compass AI  La’Kita Williams - Founder and CEO, CoCreate Work

We all know the impact stress can have on our minds and bodies. But it turns out that it’s not the stress itself that’s impacting our health - it’s how we think about it. In the fifth and final instalment of This Working Life's special series about your health at work, we hear stories of work-related stress and our expert panel tell us how to change our stress mindsets so we can harness its power to work and live better. Guests: Alison Earl - Author, speaker and trainer on mindset and resilience Dr Kari Leibowitz - Health psychologist and mindset researcher, Stanford University

We all know what we need to do to be healthy and feel good so why aren't we doing it? In the fourth instalment of our special series about your health at work, we’re hacking health habits to help you feel more energised and creative in your workday. Hear personal stories and expert tips on how to overcome the afternoon sugar slump, move more without going to the gym, and sleep better to power up your workday.  Guests: Amantha Imber - organisational psychologist and author, The Health Habit Dr Norman Swan - Co-host of RN’s The Health Report and What’s That Rash? Lizzie Williamson - author, The Active Workday Advantage And thanks to Renata Bernarde for sharing her story.

Have you ever cried at work or been yelled at in front of your colleagues? In this third instalment of our series about your health at work we’re digging deep and talking about emotions at work. You’ll hear why it’s good for you to talk about your feelings at work, what selective vulnerabilities are and why you should know about them, how leaders need to be more emotional, and what the detrimental costs of emotional labour are when we don’t express ourselves at work. Guests: Liz Fosslien - Expert on emotions at work and author of No Hard Feelings and Big Feelings Dr Saul Karnovsky - Senior Lecturer in Education, Curtin University And thanks to Alana for sharing her story.

One in five of us are living and working with chronic pain. So why aren't we telling our colleagues and bosses about it? If you live with chronic pain yourself or someone on your team does, we have the answers for you to help you navigate it in the workplace and learn the surprising key that can help alleviate it.   Guests Dr Duygu Biricik Gulseren - Assistant Professor, York University Kathy Hubble - Founder, Amelio Health And thank you to Keith Wyatt for sharing his story.

Welcome to a special series about your health at work. In Everything's fine... we'll be diving into topics that can be tricky to talk about with our bosses and colleagues, particularly when it comes to our wellbeing. When asked "how are you?" we might say "everything's fine" with a brave smile. Sound familiar?  From physical pain to mental strain, over five episodes you'll be hearing personal stories and professional advice to help you actually feel fine at work. In Part One we’re digging into job strain. It happens when your job demands are high and your job control is low. It can make us feel anxious, depressed and impact our physical health. So why is there still stigma around it and what’s stopping us fixing it?  If this episode raised any concerns for you, you can call LifeLine on 13 11 14

On average, Australian women are paid $18,461 less than men per year. The recent report released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows a gender pay gap across every sector in Australia. But what’s behind that yawning gap? Professor Lyndall Strazdins from the Australian National University calls it the “massive unresolved problem of our time”. It’s been dubbed the ‘Hour-Glass Ceiling’. So what is it exactly and how can we make men work more like women to fix it?

So you may have witnessed some tense conflicts at work. Someone may have even raised their voice at you. But how can we harness the power of conflict at work? In this episode we dig into how to nail negotiation and conquer conflict at work with William Ury - Co-Founder of Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation and author of Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict.

There's been a lot of talk about the new right to disconnect laws. But what do they mean for you, practically?  In this episode you'll understand how it'll help you switch off from work (and what that will do for your health and wellbeing) and what you and your team can do to prepare.

It’s been dubbed the Hollywood narrative of leadership - that leaders are special, and that we can’t work or succeed without them. This is what Professor Alex Haslam calls ‘Zombie Leadership’. In their paper, Alex and his co-authors detail what Zombie Leadership looks like and how we can kill these dead ideas that still walk among us.

It’s estimated we make up to 35,000 decisions every day so how can you make better decisions at work?  Before you start drawing up pros and cons lists, listen to this episode to hear how you can make decisions with less stress and a lot more satisfaction - from small everyday ones, to big ones like changing career.

Friction is everywhere - from our systems to our relationships at work. But there’s good news - not all friction is bad and if you know how, you can be a friction fixer. Robert (Bob) Sutton is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Stanford Business School and co-author of The Friction Project. He takes us through the different types of friction and how we can fix it. Meanwhile, we hear personal stories from a few This Working Lifers about how they tackled friction in their jobs - thanks to Hamish Thompson, Kate McCallum, and Yashika Nayyar.

Finding it hard to get your brain into gear for the work year? You might feel your mind wandering a bit, daydreaming of being back on the beach. To help you get you back on track, one of the world’s top experts on attention, Dr Gloria Mark from the University of California Irvine, explains how our attention spans have declined and what we can do about it. And Sydney University Associate Professor Paul Ginns provides a simple hack to keep you focused through your work day.

Feeling a little bit stuck right now? Like you want to progress on something but feel a bit glued up? Why does this happen to us? It turns out getting stuck is not a bug in our system — it's a feature in our success. So how can we get unstuck? Here are some tips and techniques to help you navigate a breakthrough.

Saying "yes" too often can leave you feeling overwhelmed and perhaps a bit resentful. You might hear yourself saying "yes of course I can" when your inner voice is screaming "no!" Here's how you can say "no" more often at work, without feeling rude, and what it can do for you and your team in the long term.

Our image and expectation of a good leader is changing, and increasingly we're needing them to use both their head and their heart in making decisions. Leadership expert and author Dr Kirstin Ferguson argues that the art of this type of leadership is knowing what is needed when. So what does this balancing act really look like?

We've seen the Great Resignation, Lying Flat in China and Quiet Quitting. And now we're hearing murmurings of another movement that some are calling 'Anti-Striving'. So what exactly is it? And what will making peace with feeling less ambitious bring us in the long-term?

We've all had to work with 'that' difficult person that we just clash with. It's tense. It's stressful. And it's exhausting. So, do we have to get along to do our best work? Or is it in our best interests to make peace and move on? And how can we best do that? The solutions might surprise you.

When we make a mistake or fail at work we might want the earth to open up and swallow us whole. But what makes a fail ‘right’ and how can we talk about it at work? Amy Edmondson is a Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Renowned for her world-leading research into the concept of psychological safety, a crucible movement in the 1990s helped her understand our relationship with failure and how we can better embrace it at work. In her new book Right Kind of Wrong, Amy explains the three archetypes of failure and which ones help us fail in the right way.

We know curiosity is good for us and our work, but few of us actually feel it day to day. So what’s causing this gap? We find some answers and solutions so you can feel more curious in your work and career.

From loud chewing to breathing and keyboard tapping, many of you have your pet peeves when it comes to sounds at work that drive you to distraction. But for some of you, it’s a disorder that can cause extreme reactions like anger, panic, and fear. It’s called misophonia and in this episode you’ll understand exactly what it is, how it impacts people at work and what you can do about it.

“If I can just get to Christmas, fall over the finishing line, it’ll all be fixed.” Sounds about right, but unfortunately it’s not true. In this episode we’re diving into why we’re feeling so tired, how it’s impacting our work and what we can do about it while avoiding the ‘Great November’ disease.

“Fiction seems to do something in our brains that nonfiction doesn't.” What was the last book you read? And did you know it gave you something more than just some relaxing downtime? It turns out that books, especially fiction, can develop key skills needed for our careers. Book and short story recommendations mentioned: Poseidon, Franz Kafka The Helpline, Katherine Collette Out of Sheer Rage, Geoff Dyer

How do we go from wanting to do something to actually doing it, and doing it well? According to Organisational Psychologist and Professor Adam Grant, we need to tap into our hidden potential and hone our character skills.

“I remember I wrote 500 words of my thesis on Christmas Day. I was really proud of that at the time.” Dr Thomas Curran is bruised from the perfection trap but he slowly made his way out of it. But how did he do it? He shares insights from his own experience, unpacks why perfectionism is on the rise, what it can look like at work, and how you can move away from perfectionist tendencies yourself.

They’re not creatures of the night, but creatures in every workplace. Ever had a colleague that left you feeling drained of energy after a conversation? Or perhaps you’ve been feeling low in energy yourself and worried you might be the one sucking the fun out of the room? Either way, we’re here to help. Learn how to identify the workplace energy vampire and arm yourself not with a garlic necklace but with some useful tools to help restore energy levels without drawing blood.

Why do our ‘old’ concepts of “High Performance Team” and "Peak Performance” need a rethink? Recorded live at SXSW Sydney, we interrogate these concepts and why it can lead to burnout, brittleness and budget blowouts. Ben and Aubrey share stories about their own burnout and the powerful role that values can play when it comes to our performance.

Ever felt that overwhelming sense that there’s just not enough time to do your job? And that everything is suddenly urgent? How did we get here and how can we stop the urgent work loop? Tips from Dermot Crowley: Six dials you can tweak to manage urgency: Time, Quality, Scope, Resources, Budget, and Risk. How to plan ahead to avoid urgency:  Daily: 10 minutes each workday morning to get focused Weekly: 45 minutes once per week to get organised for the coming week Monthly: 1 hour at the start of each month to step back and get some perspective

“If we do this, it could profoundly change how we are together.” Is your day full of meetings leaving you tired and working late just to get everything done? Surely there must be a better way... In this episode, Lisa Leong finds out how we can do meetings better and looks at one technique called The Circle Way.

You’ve been asked a curveball question in a job interview, or your boss has asked what you think in a meeting. Suddenly your heart races and your palms get sweaty. So how can you think clearly and speak in a compelling way when you’re put on the spot? Matt Abrahams has some surprising tips and insights to help you get through these anxiety-inducing moments - from how to maximise mediocrity to harnessing the power of small talk.

“We are all artists, sometimes we forget that”. Even if you don’t think you have a creative job, or that you yourself are artistic, there’s a lot you can learn from the ‘artist’s way’. In this episode you’ll learn lessons to incorporate into your working life no matter what your profession is - from how to get inspired and innovate to getting into a flow state.

You want to talk with your boss about a pay rise but even just thinking about it causes your heart to race and your palms to get sweaty. So how can you navigate negotiation at work like a pro and, most importantly of all, properly prepare so it goes well?

Our habits, good and bad, influence how we live, and how we feel and perform at work. And if you’re human, chances are you want to shake off some bad habits that set in over winter. So here’s how you can do it (with zero willpower).

In her new book Storytellers, Leigh Sales shares hard-won lessons on how to craft a story, how to listen and how to be brave enough to ask hard questions at work. We also learn from her music practice, what helps her flow state, and how anxiety has been a pretty consistent part of her work life.

A colleague gets promoted. A friend lands their dream job. You feel happy for them, but also, a pang of pain... what is that? Is that envy?? It’s natural to feel envious, but many of us deny it or try to ignore it. But how we react to this feeling can be the key in unlocking its power. So how can we use it for good?

What can guiding a horse teach us about leadership?  In recent years, ‘Equine Assisted Learning’ has been used in leadership development. But what is it exactly, and what can it teach us about leadership for the workplace?

We spoke with original Matildas player Dr Shona Bass in our recent episode The Matildas Effect but we loved her insights so much we decided to bring you the whole interview.  She reflects on what makes ace teamwork, the DNA of the Matildas that persists to this day, and what we can learn from them for our own working lives. With thanks to intern Kate Lawrence.

Yesss, we’ve got World Cup fever! So what lessons can we learn for our work from the amazing gameplay the Matildas have shown, even without star player Sam Kerr playing in the first few games? We’re unpacking the 'Matildas Effect' and figuring out how we can pull together as a team and unlock the power of ‘us’ to do our best work.

How can we best protect (and repair) our relationships at work? When we start working with someone we tend to just dive into the work at hand. But what happens when we start by learning how we can best work together? Coaching expert and author Michael Bungay Stanier believes this can be the key to building the best possible relationship. And it starts with five questions. So what are they? And how can we best ask them? Guest: Michael Bungay Stanier - Coaching expert and author, How to Work with (Almost) Anyone: Five Questions for Building the Best Possible Relationships The Keystone Conversation Questions:  The Amplify Question: What’s Your Best? When do you shine and when do you flow? The Steady Question: What Are Your Practices and Preferences? The Good Date Question: What Can You Learn from Successful Past Relationships? The Bad Date Question: What Can You Learn from Frustrating Past Relationships? The Repair Question: How Will You Fix It When Things Go Wrong?

What does it mean if you declare your workplace to be anti-racist? Where does lip service end and actual systemic change occur? How does this differ from diversity and inclusion?   How do you begin to dismantle the structural racism in your workplace and rebuild an organisation where everyone feels safe, where everyone thrives?    This episode will cover the multifaceted approach of anti-racism education in the workplace and offer some solutions to address the psychological impacts of racism.

There's the age old saying, do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life. But how easy is it to find what you love? What energies you, what fulfils you?   Acclaimed author and researcher Marcus Buckingham helps us bring love into the workplace and helps us find love in what we do every day, no matter our job.

Micro stressors - they’re just a normal part of the day, right? From when you wake up and check your messages, listen to the news, wrangle your kids, jostle your way to work, and then deal with that colleague…you’re stressed without anything major actually happening. Rob Cross says the people who maintain and prioritise their social connections, often through shared activities, are way less affected by these micro stressors.

This week we meet some of the next generation of Indigenous entrepreneurs who are influencing the way we think about business and community. Drawing on the strength and resilience of their elders, these business leaders show us what makes First Nations businesses stand out and what helps them thrive.

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions, but in the workplace, we don’t tend to talk openly about them.   Based on her own journey, entrepreneur, podcaster and author, Morra Aarons-Mele Morra learnt that through understanding her anxiety and others’ mental health, it made her a better leader. Through empathy, vulnerability and kindness she also challenges traditional understandings of what success and leadership looks like.

In Seth’s latest book, The Song of Significance he gives us insight into what real leadership looks like and how it can transform the way we work.

“It just seems some of the lessons about ethical behaviour don’t appear to have really sunk in” - Peter Ryan,  ABC's senior business correspondent, reflecting on the recent PwC scandal. Often when we think about ethics in business and work we focus on the wrongdoer - the bad apple. But it’s also those surrounding them that are at fault. Those who are complicit. Turns out we can all be complicit, sometimes without even realising. So how can we avoid it?

If you could work four days instead of five, for the same pay, would you?  Organisations and businesses around the world are tentatively saying 'yes' and trialling the four-day work week.  Recently, Bunnings announced it will trial a version of the four-day week for tens of thousands of its full-time employees. It’s a first for the retail industry and will be watched with interest. And just last month the results of the latest 4 Day Week Global pilot were published. Starting in August last year, 26 organisations across Australia and New Zealand trialled the four-day week for six months. So how did they go and what can we learn from it?

What happens when we feel stuck in our job or career, and how can we get unstuck? From overcoming fear to discovering what really makes us tick, we discover the best techniques to get unstuck and have a breakthrough. We hear personal stories, famous anecdotes and practical tips to help you navigate being stuck in your work.

On average, workers are in the office half the time. But some leaders say that’s not enough. But why? Should leaders really be worried about office culture dying, and teams suffering? We explore what’s behind these calls, what time in the office is good for, and what experts have found is more important than time in the office that leaders should really pay attention to.

Do you feel frustrated at work? Maybe you feel like you're not playing to your strengths, or not being valued.  Well, before you chuck it all in: have you heard of Job Crafting? Since this foundational work started over 20 years ago, it’s come into its own with the rise of hyper-personalisation of work through the pandemic. So how can we craft our jobs? Surprisingly, it’s much easier than you think. And managers - there’s something in the research for you too. And it even shocked Amy… Guest: Dr Amy Wrzesniewski - Michael H. Jordan Professor of Management at Yale University’s School of Management

We’ve got more generations in our workplaces than ever before. And as a shortcut we often box people according to their age - known as generational stereotyping. In this episode we look at how we box others, and even ourselves, and learn how it affects our workplaces and how we can change this behaviour.

You’ve finally landed your dream job. You’re filled with excitement and optimism but after only a couple of months something doesn’t feel right. And you realise that this job is not so dreamy after all, and even becoming a nightmare. Welcome to Glossy Work. So what’s going on here and what can we do about it?

Why is Dungeons & Dragons good for the workplace? Since it came out in the 1970s, D&D has gone from geek subculture to the pop-culture mainstream. And now, it’s being recognised as a great way to develop skills for work. Yes, now you can finally say that your time spent playing games is actually upskilling. But it’s not just D&D - card games, board games and other fantasy games give us skills for work: critical thinking, strong communication, empathy and teamwork to name a few.

A new study has revealed that we trust management decisions made with AI involvement more than those made by humans alone. But what does the future of this digital co-worker look like? And how many of us actually trust the technology, and how does where we live change that level of trust?

“It’s not reasonable to ask people to function without daylight, sleep and proper food for weeks and months at a time” - Ruby, lawyer. There’s been a lot of talk lately about reasonable and unreasonable work hours, thanks to a certain high profile legal case. Research has found Australians are working some of the longest hours in the world. It’s costing us tens of billions of dollars in unpaid wages, with experts calling it 'time theft'. So when is it ok for your boss to ask you to work overtime? And what is overwork doing to our brains and bodies?

The weekends are easy to fill with a long list of things you want to get done. Chores, errands and, yes, even work make their way onto that list. Then all of a sudden it’s Sunday night and you feel like you haven’t rested at all, and another work week is right around the corner. So how can we better harness the power of the weekend for an energised and productive week ahead? The good news is that it’s a simple solution you can implement immediately.

It’s being called “world’s best practice” and we’re being told to take it seriously. A new code of practice and regulation will be protecting your psychological health at work from April 1st. It explicitly addresses psychological harm and the psychosocial hazards at work that can cause things like burnout, depression and anxiety. So what are these hazards exactly, and how will the code work in practice?

Picture a capital T.  The vertical line is the Expertise line - your deep experience in your field. Then the horizontal bar is the Generalist line - your other interests and experiences that can combine with your expertise to strengthen it. This is called the T-shape - and it’s being recognised as a powerful tool for people and teams to innovate at work.  But what exactly we can put into the horizontal line that can add to our vertical expertise line might surprise you.

Meaning, purpose, identity – all of these are wrapped up in our work and career. So it's no surprise that when we step away from work we can feel a bit unmoored. In the second half of our two-part special on the 'unretirement' movement, we look at what's underpinning this return to work in retirement years. It can come down to rediscovering purpose and meaning in both life and work. But how can we do that?

While you might be dreaming about the day you can clock off work forever — why are we instead seeing so many people leaving the green and re-opening the laptop? It's all part of a trend being dubbed the 'great unretirement', in which 40% of the nearly half a million people who entered the labour force in the last three years were over the age of 55. Which has led to Australian workers now retiring at the oldest age since the early 1970s. So, what's driving it? And who are the people getting back into work when they're meant to have their feet up?

We’ve all had to work with ‘that’ difficult person that we just clash with. It’s tense. It’s stressful. And it’s exhausting. So, do we have to get along to do our best work? Or is it in our best interests to make peace and move on? And how can we best do that? The solutions might surprise you.

We’ve seen the Great Resignation, Lying Flat in China and Quiet Quitting. And now we’re hearing murmurings of another movement that some are calling ‘Anti-Striving’. So what exactly is it? And what will making peace with feeling less ambitious bring us in the long-term?

How inclusive are workplaces for the rainbow community? What is working and what needs improving? We hear how small things like conversation starters can help LGBTIQ+ people feel more welcome and safe at work, and how larger things like equitable design in physical and virtual spaces can improve belonging and job satisfaction.

Our image and expectation of a good leader is changing, and increasingly we’re needing them to use both their head and their heart in making decisions. Dr Kirstin Ferguson argues that the art of this type of leadership is knowing what is needed when. So what does this balancing act really look like?

Saying "yes" too often can leave you feeling overwhelmed and perhaps a bit resentful. You might hear yourself saying "yes of course I can" when your inner voice is screaming "no!" So here's how you can say "no" more often at work, without feeling rude.

We've learned about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and how they can influence each other. But if we go deeper into the heart of motivation, we find its kernel: engagement. So how can we be truly engaged in our work?

Forget what you think you know about motivation. We’ve done the work for you and found some science-based motivation hacks, so you can get the job done and actually enjoy it. We bust some myths and find out what really motivates us - from incentives, to mindsets and increased empathy.

Resolutions don't work. Set goals the right way. For us to really commit to a goal and achieve it, we should ensure we’re making a ‘worthy’ goal. That’s according to author Michael Bungay Stanier who, in his new book How To Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters, gives us nine steps to help us find our worthy goal, commit to it and just begin.

We all know the impact of stress on our minds and bodies. But it turns out that it’s not the stress itself that’s impacting our health - it’s how we think about it. We hear from people about their experiences of work-related stress and how it impacts them, and our expert panel tell us how to change our stress mindsets so we can harness its power to work and live better.

Mindfulness…being mindful,  meditating, you know it’s good for you, but it just never feels like there’s enough time.  Using meditation to create mindfulness is an ancient practice, and the science backing it has been piling in for years now. But how can we be motivated to make meditation part of our essential routine? How will it actually help our working lives?

If we confront our regrets and use them as signals, they're a powerful force for working smarter and living better. That’s according to New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink. He’s collected the regrets of thousands of people around the world and discovered what connects us in our regrets, and how we can use them to live and work better. So let go of any shame around your regrets, and learn how to harness their power.

Many of us are enjoying the flexibility of working from home - being able to organise our work time to suit our circadian rhythms, family responsibilities and health. But with this flexibility and freedom, has there been an erosion of the concept of a “work day”?  What boundaries should there be - in law or in your employment agreement?

Feeling a bit brain fried? Fatigued from the year… over stimulated from all that screen time?Maybe you need to head outside...We look at how getting out into the natural world can help you function better in your day to day work life. What’s going on here with our brains, what’s the science behind it?