This Working Life

Hosted by ABC Australia

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Episodes

248

Latest episode

Sep 2026

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About the show

You spend so much time on work, why accept the status quo, when there are ways to do it better? Get expert advice, research and hacks that will crush your inertia. Join Lisa Leong and other This Working Lifers as we experiment and explore the latest in the world of work. We cover policy issues, like hybrid workplaces and remote work, employee wellbeing and organisational culture, the use of AI, employee surveillance, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion. We talk about progress on wider issues that relate to work, like work life balance, organisational change, restructures, and casualisation. On This Working Life our focus is on everything related to the people in a workplace too, including culture, individual experiences, performance management and career advice.

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60 recent

October 4, 202625 min

Is AI killing entry level jobs?

Is AI coming for your job? Well, maybe not yet. But there are early warning signs that entry level jobs are getting squeezed and traditional career pathways are closing up. Research from Stanford Digital Labs in the US has shone a light on what actual impact artificial intelligence is having on employment, and it's not necessarily what the big tech bosses have been telling us! Lisa scales the corporate coalface to find out what's coming. Guests: Dr Bharat Chandar , Research Fellow and Labor Economist at Stanford Digital Labs Dr Michael Legg , Future of Law Professor at the University of NSW ======= You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

September 27, 202625 min

It's burnout season!

Are you burnt out ... again?! How does it keep coming round like clockwork? We're entering burnout season, and author Karl Treacher agues in his new book Built to Burn that you burning out is a feature of the system, not a bug. Are we facing an epidemic of burnout? What can we do about it? Lisa's picked up her hose and is running towards the burning building. Guests Karl Treacher , CEO of The Culture Institute, Executive in Residence at Griffith Business School and author of Built To Burn ====== You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

September 20, 202625 min

Wellness shortcuts do more harm than good

Are you drowning in digital? Are the company sponsored mental health tools helping you at all? They've become the norm as they're cheaper and easier to apply than traditional methods. But research is showing that these applications and online tools aren't always cutting the mustard when it comes to improving our mental wellbeing at work; especially when they're applied as a catch all. What makes you go ommmm? Lisa investigates. And the Radio National Top 100 Australian Books countdown is underway - make your vote count! Our Work Book guest this week is Dr Stefan Volk! His pick for our This Working Life bookshelf is Outlive by Peter Attia. Guests: Dr Julieta Galante, Medical Doctor, Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne Dr Stefan Volk , Professor of Management and the Co-Director of the Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group at the University of Sydney ======= You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

September 13, 202625 min

Simone Stolzoff wants you to be uncertain!

It feels like we’re constantly being asked to know things, to be rock solid in our information. But is this desire for control and certainty stopping us from making better decisions both at work, and about our working lives? Journalist and author Simone Stolzoff has a lot of ideas about our brains and how we go to work! He’s been circling the globe hunting out people who trying to understand doubt and uncertainty for his new book How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World That Demands Answers. So, what don't you know? Guest: Simone Stolzoff , journalist and author of How to Not Know and The Good Enough Job ====== You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

September 6, 202625 min

You're being measured!

Do you measure up? Digital and AI tools coupled with an increased desire for productivity means we’re being marked more closely than ever before. New research shows that when we know how we're being measured we stop prioritising the work that isn't measured, especially if we think the systems aren't transparent or fair. Lisa gets stuck into the modern map of "metricisation" to see how to defend soft skills from a passion for measurement! The Radio National Top 100 Australian Books countdown is underway - make your vote count! Our Work Book guest is ABC Business reporter Daniel Ziffer and his pick for the This Working Life book club is Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. Guests: Dr Martin Edwards , Organisational psychologist and Professor in Management in the University of Queensland Business School Daniel Ziffer , ABC Business Reporter and author of A Wunch of Bankers: A Year in the Hayne Royal Commission ====== You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

August 30, 202625 min

Fluorescent lights burning you out?

How does your office make you feel? Are you an open plan convert or dying under the halogen lighting? We spend a lot of time in our workplaces and the way they’re designed can have a huge impact on our mental and physical wellbeing. Psychologists and architects are worried we've sleep walked into a world where the standard office design is actively burning workers out quick smart. It's a problem for employees stuck in environments draining them of the will, and employers losing good staff to bad design. So how do we fix it? Lisa dons a hard hat and goes looking for a smarter way to design modern workspaces. And it’s the first week of the Radio National Top 100 Australian Books countdown ! We kick off our series Work Book, getting the skinny on books that have changed the way people work. Rob Kelly's pick for our Work Book reading list is The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis. Guests: Dr Patrick Aouad , Neurologist, neuroscientist and the CEO of healthcare company CU Health . Natalie Phillips-Mason , Founder of Inclusive Change Michael Spinoglio , Design director of Spaceful Rob Kelly , Producer of This Working Life ====== You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

August 23, 202625 min

What do you do in a crisis?

How do you react in a crisis? Are you fight, flight, fawn or flee? We all react differently to moments of panic and stress but one thing we all have in common is that they cause us to make rash and poor decisions. Are we stuck like this or can we re-train ourselves to respond to panic and act or lead with a clear head? Guest: Dr James Donald , Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies at Sydney University and co-author of The Clear Leader ======= You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

August 16, 202625 min

How to get hired in the AI age

Artificial intelligence use in the job hunt is happening so fast it's hard to keep track and applicants and employers are feeling harassed by the speed of the change. Candidates find themselves trapped in a paradox where they need to write applications that make it through the screening while also standing out when an application eventually reaches a human decision maker. AI interviews are increasingly popular as well for hiring organisations which job hunters are reporting can make the process depressing and dehumanising. Research on the impact of these tools in their first years also suggests that the use of AI tools for hiring runs the risk of discriminatory practices being baked into the process. There's also a concern that employers run the risk of ending up with a distinct lack of diversity of thought in their teams. But employers and hiring managers love these tools and argue that they can improve the process for job candidates as well. So, what do we do? Lisa logs on with a legal researcher into the impact of AI hiring models and gets the goods from behind the digital curtain on how to beat the bot! Guests: Dr Natalie Sheard , Lawyer and McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne studying discrimination by AI systems, particularly those used in employment. Rudy Crous , Organisational psychologist and CEO of AI Human Relations firm Compono ======== You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

August 9, 202625 min

We're too tired to work!

Are you just too tired to work? Australians feel exhausted. Eighty two per cent of Australian knowledge workers reported being on the verge of burnout last year, and businesses are scrambling to catch up with the cost of mental fatigue. But sleepiness can be a killer too and a major shift is underway in how Australian industries treat tiredness in the workplace. It's not a new phenomenon, people were talking about "brain fag" in Victorian England, but the way we think about fatigue and the way we treat it in the workplace is in flux. So why are we so tired and what can we do about it? Lisa puts matchsticks in her eyes and tries to solve the tiredness trap. Guests: Dr Drew Dawson, Professor, Director of Research Development at Central Queensland University and expert in Fatigue Management Strategy Dr Elizabeth Stephens, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland and co author of the new study - A Cultural History of Workplace Fatigue which will conclude in 2029 Dr Kari Leibowitz, Health Psychologist, Speaker and author of How To Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days Further Listening & Reading! Dr Kari Leibowitz on This Working Life in 2023 speaking about the power of harnessing stress =========== You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!

August 2, 202625 min

Is Gina Rinehart right about cash bonuses?

Australia’s richest person and long time supporter of Australian Swimming Gina Rinehart has been offering cash bonuses for Aussie swimmers at the Commonwealth games, $20,000 for a gold medal! It can be a nice to have after a huge challenge or a drawcard to make people work harder, but there can be a danger to motivating your team with extra dollars. So, Is Gina Rinehart right, do cash bonuses work? What actually motivates us? Lisa digs into the world of motivation and incentives to try and figure out what works for us and how you can motivate people without alienating them. Stacey Parker's co-authored article on compensation and design for Motivation Science Mark Puncher's work sheet on connection with work Guests: Dr Stacey Parker - Associate Professor and endorsed Organisational Psychologist at the University of Queensland's School of Psychology Mark Puncher - CEO of Employer Branding Australia ========== You can binge more episodes of the This Working Life podcast with your on the job correspondent Lisa Leong on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Please email us at thisworkinglife@abc.net.au if you would like to get in touch, we read them all and love hearing from you!