News round-ups

The European hiring crisis: why 50% of new hires leave within a year

This episode contains some coarse language. Listener discretion is advised. Coming up this week in work.

Why short-form video is bad for learning and memory

Or if it was like a difficult management conversation, it might be like that. Yes. So you can act it out.

Gen-Z perfectionism: rising socially prescribed perfectionism and fear of failure

I too saw a study this week, Al. from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest. It was actually published in Psychological Bulletin. Oh yeah.

Story 1: The HR rebel calling out unhinged leaders

Pressing that button. Who are we going to do first, Leanne? Should we go to you first? Yeah, you can come to me first. Mine's a bit, a bit, a bit sillier this week, a bit lighter, but also not. Rebecca, you worked in HR

Story 2: Why women's progress at work is stalling

So I shared this article with from The Economist, which is basically about how women's career progress is stalling statistically. And, you know, when I was kind of like up and coming in my HR career, Sheryl Sandberg's Le

Word of the Week: Botsitting and Botshitting

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like it's been at least a couple of weeks Yeah, I have to, I have to thank Nicole Eisendorfer for sending this to me

Finance burnout: Is money really the motivator?

Ooh Number 2 is that they are struggling because 95% of them say they are burnt out to some degree, and 3 quarters have actually thought about walking away from work because of it. Number 3, it's not just about the money

Microsoft's Xbox layoffs: Who pays for lost focus?

Layoffs. Sadly, layoffs at Xbox, which are of course part of Microsoft. They are laying off 3,200 people. That's roughly 20% of Xbox's workforce Wow

NatWest's responsible AI training for 60,000 staff

Coming up this week in work I know you've heard of companies prioritising AI, but have you heard of any prioritising responsible AI?

Ford's AI rollback and human rehiring spree

I think you get that immediate feedback when you talk to somebody as well, don't you? So if you are being a bit blunt, you might see that eyes of the— the raise of the eyebrows or the eyes widening might make you rein it

Talk or type? The psychology of disagreements

Hmm Interesting. And it crosses cultures. So Goldschmidt, Gailey, and Keith tested underdog support across Israel, Japan, and China. This was in 2018. And all 3 countries, of course, have very different values, different

Story 1: Is remote work making us lonelier?

Oh, an amazingly interesting story has hit the press here in the US. Big story in the New York Times about remote work and the downsides to it, based on an article that was published just recently in Science. And the big

Story 2: The UK's NEET crisis and unemployment

There's a term in the UK which is called NEET, N-E-E-T, and it stands for Not in Education, Employment, or Training. Not sure, we'll ask you in a second about what it's like in the US, whether you've got a similar kind o

News Roundup: The Rise of Stalling Out in Mid-Career

I've got a new word Go on

News Roundup: The Death of the Technical Interview

Okay, I want to tell you about a guy called Steve Yegge, I think, or Yegge. His surname is Y-E-G-G-E Yeg

News Roundup: Microsoft's Leaked Employee Engagement Survey

Yes. Would you like a sneak peek at their employee engagement results? Love one

Word of the Week: Dark Showering

Coming up this week in work Imagine if there was a simple way to wind down your body and brain after a hard day at work. Something really simple that you're probably doing every day anyway. Well, there just might be, and

Google embraces AI in job interviews

Well, we've seen a lot, or I've seen a lot of stuff about companies who are still trying to work out how to stop candidates from using AI in job interviews. And it's becoming increasingly difficult because there's severa

The M&S cyberattack: who pays for corporate failures?

Should employees lose their bonuses because the company got Oh, go on, tell me more. So this is from The Times, and it's about the fallout from the very famous, infamous, not sure the difference, cyber attack Different s

Word of the Week: restroom lurking

Let me tell you really quickly the story. All right. So I was in a shopping center, uh, which amusingly was called Cock Edge, um, in Warrington. Um, and it had, uh, And so they'd got a supermarket, a couple of the shops,

Tech firm fires entire HR department

Yeah, yeah, agreed Anyway, that went in a different direction than I expected. What have you seen this week, Al?

Word of the Week — 'Circling Forward'

I've got a new word You love a new word. So just in case anyone's not heard this before, I'm sure you have, but every week Leanne comes up with a new word and we have to guess what it is

When candour hurts the business (and someone poisons the chocolate)

So I was choosing this article, and I was thinking it's got to be something that annoys me or else we're not going to have any fun. So this article really annoyed me. The title of it alone, I mean, Henrico Castro-Piers,

Two brothers, one firing, and the ultimate Teams call blunder

Yeah So the company this, they're working for, um, is called, uh, OPEXUS, and they do— and this is probably the most important thing— they do a lot of stuff with, um, the government. So they deal with government contract

FOBO: Why Gen Z is resisting AI

I've got a new word. Yes. Okay. Now we do make notes on this just, just so that we, and we do share the notes. And what I noticed was that Leanne completely redacted proper, like, like, um, Good Morning Vietnam style.

The JP Morgan scandal & US job cuts

Have you heard about the salacious employee lawsuit happening at JPMorgan? I haven't.

Lovable's automatic 10% pay rise

Wow! Now bear in mind this is a This is a small company really in terms of AI. I think it's 100 and let me just check. I did—

Story 1: Six words defining the new world of work

Oh, nice, nice Anyway, go look at it. I feel like it's funnier to watch

Story 2: The Gen-Z career ladder is being rebuilt

Well, I've been reading The Guardian this week and feeling very fancy Oh, I'm sure a lot of people who know you'd be very surprised to hear that you read The Guardian

Story 3: Is toxic leadership the new norm?

6 in 10 workers say they currently have a toxic boss Oh, 60%

Microsoft's voluntary retirement programme

Coming up this week in work Microsoft have just launched a one-time retirement programme targeting employees whose age plus years of service equals 70 or more. They're calling it voluntary, giving people the option to le

Is Microsoft encouraging older workers to leave?

Is Microsoft encouraging older workers to leave? Yes

Jensen Huang's radical rules at NVIDIA

Go and find out more about her, about Momo mid-late career. Okay. So I want to talk about something I've seen, which also includes a huge, huge company. So let me tell you what's happened. So this CEO pays his top execut

The wellbeing investment you're overlooking

Um, what else have I seen? Wellbeing. Are companies actually missing the one wellbeing investment that actually works? I'll answer this for you. Yes Excellent. Tell us what it is

5 skills LinkedIn says will AI-proof your career

5 skills LinkedIn says will AI-proof your career in 2026. Okay Right, go on

Mark Zuckerberg's digital clone

Well, let me cheer you up with a story about our favourite crazy, crazy billionaire, Zuck, Mark Zuckerberg. So it was in The Guardian this week that Meta, which is the company that owns Facebook and Instagram and WhatsAp

DoorDash CEO reads 2,000-word complaint emails

Would you read a complaint letter from your employee if it was 2,000 words long? You fell asleep? That's from Friends, in case you don't know. 8 sides, double. Anyway, I don't know. Yes, of course I would

Wrap-up and outro

Excellent. You've just given us a masterclass on, on onboarding people there. That is brilliant. That should be, we should do something on that soon. I think Onboarding?

The Sh*tcut: When Speed Kills Quality

And I saw it and I thought, I'm going to use that when Lex and Sal are on the show because I think they'll appreciate it. My new word of the week, sh*tcut. Very into it. Tell us more.

Sweden's 4:30 PM Empty Office

Sally. So I've got some, you know, obviously massive, massive news for us all. I found an article today that was published in Indian media around an Indian tech professional who's working in Sweden. And she was walking a

Token Anxiety: The New AI Stress

See what the opposite of a good news So I've got a new word myself because I was a bit jealous. I've got a new word myself, and I'd like to hear what you think it means. So token anxiety. Thoughts? Do you want to start,

Leading Through Burnout When You're Running on Empty

So I'll read the question. Uh, so this person's writing in and basically the problem is that their team's burning out and so are they. So they write, I can see my team is burning out. The energy's gone. People are just g

Building the Right Culture Uphill

There you go. So that's also a very good resource. Great. Okay, now question number 2, how do you lead the right culture when the organization won't? So my organization talks a lot about values like psychological safety,

The 'Hiring Like Me' Trap

No notes. Thank you so much. No notes. Okay, so onto question number 3. It's about hiring, whether you're hiring wrong or not. When I started my business, I hired people just like me. I'm sure we'll have some comments on

Story 1 — Londonmaxxing: the secret to rapid growth?

But still cue the jingle though Oh, of course. Cue that jingle. Leanne, what else have you seen? No, not what else. What have you seen?

Story 2 — Is hustle culture just a young person's game?

Anyway, what have you seen, Al? Okay. Uh, onto something I read about hustle culture. Uh, you probably all know what hustle culture is. It's the idea that you sort of get up at 5:00 AM and then you go to bed at 3:00 AM a

Jake's special gift for listeners

Before that though. Oh. Uh, Dr. Jake has a very special, lovely gift for our listeners Do you?

Story 1: Psychological sovereignty & the 2026 overwhelm

I think we need some kind of doomsday jingle this week, please, because is anyone else just starting to freak out about the state of the world? Yeah

Story 2: NotebookLM: your personal AI Mike Ross

Lovely. Okay, so I want to talk about my I haven't really got an article for you this week. I've got more of a kind of a love letter to a tool I've been using for about a year now Okay

Story 3: The pink ice cream maker fiasco

Pink ice cream makers for International Women's Day. I can kind of see it where like the MD walks into the room of HR and goes, guys, I've had an idea Right

The $75 lunch that beats any exit interview

Coming up this week in work Are exit interviews actually useless? One headhunter is calling them the cockroaches of the employment world

HowToJob & Interviewly: AI interview coaching

Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about something I teased in the intro. There's a platform called How2Job. The name How2Job— job has now seemed to become like a, like a verb. We job, I job, you job, he jobs, she jobs

The power of intergenerational teams

I am wondering, Al, whether older workers are being overlooked Right. How about, do you know what would be really funny if you said, I wonder if shorter workers are being overlooked? Okay. Older workers are being overloo

Story 1 — The Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale

Jingle is being cued What have you Got a new word

Story 2 — The rise of 'new-collar' jobs

Link in the show notes Our What We've Seen This Week

Story 3 — Would you walk out of a messy interview?

Would you take the job if the recruiter ghosted you twice? No. Well, no, hang on. So just explain what you mean by ghosting, just in case anyone doesn't know

Brand Well-being: The New Competitive Advantage?

Yes, yes Not sure about those data points. Check, check those. Yeah, dig deeper into those. I'm, I'm sceptical as to As to that and would— yeah. Anyway, what have you seen this week, Al?

The Death of Coworking and the Rise of Proworking

Because they're older people who are sensible And they've got families, and they've got homes, and they've got roots somewhere else, but their expertise is needed. So why relocate everyone when you can just do things rem

The Silicon Valley Anti-Tech-Bro Shift

In the brains of these supertaskers. So a similar demanding memory task. So people were sat in front of a screen where squares appeared in different positions while letters were spoken through headphones, and participant

Story 1: The rise of friction-maxxing

I've got a new word Talk to me

Story 2: Jack Dorsey's AI gamble

Okay, well, it's not necessarily what I saw, it's what Jeremy Klein from Change Work Life Podcast saw. He sent me a WhatsApp message because we are that kind of friends. We have— we watch— As opposed to other kind of?

Story 3: The climate of constant connectivity

Well, speaking of leaders being annoying, right? This is a bit of research I came across that was basically looking at what is the impact of leaders' late-night behaviour on employees Where'd you see this?

Intro and this week in work

Coming up this week in work Good news everybody, it's only 23 days until spring

Story 1: The rise of silent disengagement

Thank you, Natalie So I've got to tell you, right? So this morning, you know some of this story, you don't know all of it. We, if you don't know, listener, we live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically Herzegovina, whi

Story 2: Gen Z leading the return to the office

Well, kind of similar and a little bit tangential. Not tangential Tangential meme

Story 3: Why the last stretch feels hardest

There's an idea There's an idea

Story 1: The career comedown

I've got a new word Yeah, you know by now, she, Leanne comes up with a word, I try and guess what it is. So what's the word?

Story 2: Google's Generative AI Leader certification

Certification Not certification

Story 3: Hope is the emotion that creates meaning at work

Well, this is very meta, isn't it? What makes work feel meaningful? For me, something where I can create something. So maybe this is why I do like generative AI. If I feel like at the end of the day, something exists in

Winter Olympics banter and the lure of niche sports

Coming up this week in work The biggest workplace problem in 2026 has been named. It isn't pay, it isn't burnout, it's managers. I am shooketh, Al. Shook. We are asking, who's responsible for fixing it? Is it HR, the boa

Matrescence: the transition nobody plans for

Matrescence Matrescence. Um, oh, oh God. Um, essence of mattress. Uh, it's doing your work from lying in bed. You're in your mattress and it's the essence of being mat— no, I don't know. Is it maternity?

The AI agent that called its owner while he was sleeping

Wow. I love this, right? So I'm gonna tell you a story that sounds like science fiction, but it isn't. So bear with me. There's gonna be a little nerdy stuff in here. So if I say something, I'm like, it doesn't make sens

The biggest workplace problem in 2026: managers

The biggest workplace problem in 2026 has been named. Now I think it's AI. Now I'm not sure. But no, it's been named as managers. Shock, horror. Oh my gosh. I had no idea that was coming Wow

Story 1: Who actually gets flexible work (i-deals)

Right And no more

Story 2: Corporate politics: the IT director's survival guide

Ideals. Ideals. Yeah. So there you go. What have you seen, Al? I was on Twix, Twitter, X, whatever it's called now, and I found a brilliant article from someone called The IT Unprofessional. To be fair, I think it might

Story 3: Why banks are hiring behavioural scientists for AI

I'm with you My official answer, if I worked in said organisation, would be, well, this is terrible, we need to look into this. But yeah, it's a funny little anecdotal story. I think I applaud it. I don't condone it, but

Intro and News Roundup Kickoff

Coming up this week in work I have a new word. I'll explain it properly in just a bit. It's a new way people are treating work, and it matters for anyone who hires or manages a team

Gen Z 'Growth Hunting' and What It Means for Employers

I've got a new word Okay, you alluded to this in the intro. What is your new word?

Does Complaining Rewire Your Brain?

Okay, so I saw an article this morning, um, on X, which was about complaining and how it's proven to literally rewire your brain. X— I do like X, but a lot of stuff on X tends to be just a bit made up. This one's actuall

Wellbeing Perks: The $200 Cleaning Stipend

I saw a very cool article in Fortune by somebody called Christina Lee, who has just joined Slate, the company, as head of marketing. And she was talking about how she She shared a thought about burnout and wellbeing, and

Word of the Week: Wintering

Yeah. And if it's important, email me Okay. It's on to your favourite time of the week, Leanne. It's time for the World of Words

Story 2: When is it really time for a career pivot?

Approved. Stamp. Bosh, bosh, bosh What have you seen this week, love?

Story 3: Mattel launches its first autistic Barbie

Yeah Moving on

Top 1% Employer Certification: What Makes a Great Workplace?

Coming up this week in work Jobs platform Escape the City has launched a top 1% employer certification. They say these employers have passed an in-depth culture audit supported by anonymous employee feedback. Does this l

Apple's Leadership Shake-Up: Is Innovation Stalling?

Apple. Now, you know a company, it doesn't normally make a lot of fuss, and suddenly they start making a lot of noise. That unfortunately has Apple right now, in the space of a week, they've waved goodbye to 4 senior lea

Veteran Talent: The Hidden Leadership Value in Liminality

I've seen some new research this week, Al. It asks basically, are we doing enough for people who've served our country? So people in the military, when they leave said military and build civilian careers, how are we help

Wrap-Up and Holiday Content Preview

Yeah. Gather more data. I think we're both saying Gather more data or just send some, some dog poo in a box to this house. Okay. Right. So that is all for now. Remember that our holiday content, which we're calling it be

Generation Alpha are coming

It is. It's time for the news roundup. Al, cue the Christmas jingle Yep. Did you like the Christmas jingle from last week?

The rise of micro-joys

Everyone knows that the link is always in the show notes. So I came across an article and it It was based on some research by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. Um, they've got a book called Pro— The Progress Principle. A

Starbucks faces its largest strike yet

Starbucks Oh yeah

Story 1: The toxic COVID culture inquiry report

COVID inquiry, Al. Have you seen it? COVID? Now, what was COVID again? I've forgotten

Story 2: The rise of AI-xiety

Nice Yeah, very nice. But she also writes for Fast Company amongst other things, which is where I read this. She's talking about anxiety around AI and she's called it AI-xiety. AI-xiety

Story 3: Dreamers vs doers

Why do we dream of changing careers, Al, but we rarely do? I don't dream of changing careers. I enjoy doing this

LinkedIn's most unforgettable interview moments

Coming up this week in work Good news!

QuitTok makes a comeback

Go for it Thank you for asking me, Leanne, what I've seen this week. I've seen something this week, which also I've seen about, about 5 years ago. It's something called, well, it's basically quitting in public, which is

Confidence rises at the bottom, falls at the top

Entry-level workers are feeling more hopeful than their bosses right now That's interesting. That's a bit of a turn, isn't it?

Can the government really Keep Britain Working?

Coming up in This Week in Work. A major new government report tackles one of the UK's biggest workforce challenges: why half a million more people have left work due to long-term sickness since 2019. So can the governmen

Nicknames for lazy coworkers: is banter really harmless?

James Hardy, is it? James Hardy? James Hardy.

The Post Office scandal: how trust collapsed

Fair enough. Fair enough. So, Leanne, what else you seen this week? Well, I have seen some really cool research on the Post Office If you're not, if you're not from the UK, or perhaps you've not heard from the UK, there

Trump appoints DEI critic to lead EEOC

39 plus 2. And also because we live in Mostar, it looks like it's gonna be really nice weather. It's gonna be like 19, 20 degrees on your birthday Past November, that is it

Quiet-quitter rises to senior leadership

Anyway, let's brighten the mood, shall we, my love? What have you seen this week? Okay, so I was reading on— now don't, don't judge me

Impact of music misfit at work

Well, do you know what else got my beef boiling this week, Al? Beef boiling? That's not a phrase

Career catfishing: when job promises don't match reality

Of course. What is it? Career catfishing

The interview hack: calling companies to schedule interviews

Yeah. What have you seen this week, Al? I've been on, on X, Twit, Twix, as would be my will. And there was a great repost for, or a great post by a guy called, whose handle is Rational Aussie. And the, the favourite of a

Why people keep giving: the psychology of volunteering and recognition

I have seen some research, Al, that asks the question, why do some people keep giving their time even when they start to feel taken for granted? Hmm

Waitrose axes autistic volunteer after pay request

Coming up this week in work Waitrose came under fire this week for axing an autistic volunteer after his family asked if he could be paid for some of his work. He'd stacked shelves for 4 years, over 600 hours unpaid. So

AI clones are coming for your coworkers

Yes, let's talk about your thing Okay, so Viven or Viven, I'm not quite sure what it's called. Uh, essentially, right, this is the situation. You need to ask someone at work for something and they're off. Or perhaps they

The three-month notice period problem

How do you feel about a 3-month notice period, Al? Uh, I haven't had a job since 2002. I don't really understand. I don't even know what notice period is. Notice period is when you have to, you say, I wanna quit and they

Intro — coming up this week in work

Coming up this week in work A new Telegraph article claims 70% of managers can't handle younger workers. Our younger workers apparently are ruining offices by avoiding phone calls, wearing headphones, and setting boundar

Six ways Gen Z are 'ruining' the workplace

Sure is, Al. Cue the jingle. Okay, Lee, what 6 ways Gen Z are ruining the workplace Oh God, not another. It's always the Gen Zs. Why don't we do 6 ways that Generation X are ruining the workplace, or 6 ways that boomers

The 40 jobs most at risk from AI

Speaking of growing bored of this conversation many minutes ago, Al, what have you seen this week? So there was a great article on, it's on sky.com, news.sky.com. I'm sorry to say

Amazon's AI-fuelled HR layoffs

Well, I'm not sure I'm gonna lighten the mood with this one, but Amazon is preparing another round of job cuts. Um, only this time it's HR that's gonna get the chop. So this is according to Fortune, uh, which reports the

Intro and news roundup kickoff

Coming up this week in work Would you make 100 phone calls a day for £24,000 a year? Well, a London firm is hiring salespeople in Dubai with brutal targets and barely any base pay. They call it resilience, but what does

Story 1: Breadcrumbing at work

I've got a new word Go on

Story 2: Starbucks' fabricated empathy problem

Well, I was on Twitter. There's a woman called Minda Zetlin. Originally, I think I saw this in Inc.com, but I did a bit of digging. She writes for everything. She's pretty incredible. We have to get her on the pod becaus

Story 3: The Dubai sales machine

Would you make 100 calls a day for £24,000 a year? I kind of did

Digital hangover: what it is and how to recover

Coming up this week in work MrBeast is vibe-checking new hires with 90-day trials. That means temporary contracts, rental cars, and a clear shot at proving you're an A-player. Is it actually smart hiring or just a way to

Is workplace humour too risky?

HR HR who?

MrBeast's vibe check hiring trials

All right, so let's all be dark and humourless at work. Leanne, what else have you seen? I've seen, is vibe checking new hires the way to recruit A-players? This was the question raised in Business Insider this week, rep

Office frogging: Gen Z's job-hopping trend

I have a new word Well, we know what it is because you said it in the, in the top

Workslop: AI's productivity problem

What? Yeah, I know. I was a bit jealous of you coming up with a new word, so I've got my own. When I said got my own new word, it was in Harvard Business Review. Check me out. As I'm speaking to you, I'm drinking tea and

Deloitte's £4.9m pay rise problem

Deloitte's UK chief executive has received a 17% pay rise, taking his annual salary up to £4.9 million Sorry, I thought you said that was 4.9 million

News Roundup — 'Job hugging': the new quiet quitting?

Cue the jingle, Al The jingle is being cued. Okay, Leanne, what have you seen?

News Roundup — Arthur Brooks on career risk and regret

Coincidentally. Al, what have you seen this week? Well, talking of coincidences, I saw something quite similar. It's kind of similar to what you were saying. There's a guy called Simon Sinek. I'm sure you've come across

News Roundup — Is something brewing at Microsoft?

Oh, is there something big brewing at Microsoft? There's something going on there. Do you know? We spoke to Bill recently Do you know what? He's not answered my calls for a few days. I think he might be at his lodge, at

CEO Scandals: Nestlé, Secrecy, and Workplace Relationships

Coming up this week in work Would you sack your CEO over a secret office romance? Well, Nestlé just did, and it's not the affair that caused the backlash, it was the secrecy. So when does a relationship become a trust is

1000 Days of ChatGPT: Transforming Work or a Cheat Tool?

So as I said to you before, I alluded to before, it's been, it's been around about 1,000 days since the launch of ChatGPT. Now, this isn't just my nerdiness of actually having a big calendar and marking off the days. It

19 Ways to Improve Your Life According to Science

Changing the tone slightly. 19 ways to improve your life according to science. I have actually talked about this article before on the podcast, but ages ago, probably like a year, maybe even 18 months ago. And I kind of

Wrap-Up and Takeaways

Okay, so that's it for this week. Thank you so much for the letters. Thank you for listening this far. Thank you for putting up with all our rambling Yeah, we were a bit rambly and ranty today

The intruder paradox: reframing imposter syndrome as a workplace problem

Coming up this week in work Is imposter syndrome really a confidence problem or a workplace one? New research suggests it's inclusion, not insecurity, that's holding people back

Hiring A-players: tough love or recruitment theatre?

Yes. So I saw on Twitter or Twix or X or whatever we're calling it these days. This post, I'm only going to say the person posting it, their name is, first name is Michael, who's essentially 6 strategies about how to fin

Return-to-office mandates are harming wellbeing before they're even enforced

What have I seen this week? The fear of being ordered back into the office is apparently affecting UK employee wellbeing. That's according to The Guardian this week I don't think you need to say any more. That makes sens

Stories We Don't Have Time For: the Coldplay gig boss

But, um, look forward to your letters. Um, I've got a new segment. I've just thought of a new segment. I'm gonna call it Stories We Didn't Have Time For Right

Wrap-up and summer plans

I feel like I should say other HR agencies are available And not sponsored

Story 1 — Empathsplaining: performative empathy in leadership

Got a new word Okay, tell me what the new word is and do I guess it?

Story 2 — The Silicon Valley engineer with 22 jobs

If you don't know Geoff, you should. Everyone should know Geoff. He's just the nicest guy in the world. He also knows an awful lot. We had— we cut a little bit of the interview. We talked at length about Ted Lasso and ho

Story 3 — What happens when leaders break their word

So, Leanne, anything else to add or should we move on to what you've seen? Move on. Let's move on. I guess a similar theme really. I saw some research that basically looks at what happens when leaders say one thing and d

BrewDog's Wellbeing Rebrand: Real Change or PR Stunt?

Okay, I've done the jingle. Leanne, what have you seen this week? BrewDog

NatWest Thinks Like a Tech Company: Employee Journeys and Failure-Free Work

Oh yeah Yep. And it was, it was, it's only like 50 years old, so it's not like super, super old, like some of the old, old banks, but it does own like Coutts, which is like a, you know, where the, where the royals, where

Career Plateaus and Secret Burnout: The Hidden Cost of Feeling Stuck

Um, I've seen some research and you know how I like my research, Al You love a bit of research. Yeah, honestly, when Leanne goes to bed, she'll just sit there and read research. You can imagine her with a little nightcap

Story 1: Great bosses exist (and here's the proof)

Anyway, Le, your favourite time of the week, I believe It is time for the news roundabout. Cue that lovely jingle

Story 2: Monster Jobs goes bust: what killed the job board?

Fabulous. Well, talking of tough times then, um, one of the giants from like 2005, 2010 has just Declared what I think is called Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which what I understand that to be is they've not gone bankrupt, but

Story 3: The emotion hack that actually works at work

Okay, Lee, what else have you seen, my love? Has science found an actual emotion hack?

Intro and News Roundup Kickoff

Coming up this week in work Is hustle culture making a comeback, just in some slightly prettier packaging? There's a new TikTok trend that looks like discipline but might actually be driving burnout. So what does that me

Story 1: 'Locking In' – Hustle Culture 2.0

I've got a new word Oh, I love when you get new words. Do I guess the new word? Completely guess it?

Story 2: Steve Jobs and Creative Rule-Breaking

I have been reading an article about Steve Jobs. Now you might have heard of him iPhone dude

Story 3: Perfectionism and Burnout in Tech

You won soundbite of the week, that's for sure. Um, no, I do have something else and it is really cool. I have a study about perfectionism and a study that asked, is perfectionism causing burnout? Oh, do you know what's

Intro and News Roundup Kickoff

Coming up this week in work What do you do when your team has gone all passive-aggressive, but it's all happening online? From eye-roll emojis to snarky emails, digital communication is changing how conflict shows up at

Digital Incivility: The Passive-Aggressive Problem You're Ignoring

I have a new word Yes, go on

Loud Living vs Quiet Quitting

I saw something in Fast Company. Well, actually, to be fair, I saw it on LinkedIn, but the actual article was in Fast Company by Ali Kushner Look at you, you're on LinkedIn this week, you were on Insta last week

Why Pride Month Feels Different This Year

Do you know what? It's more what I haven't really seen. Um, it's Pride Month, June. I don't know about you, but it feels a bit different this year. It feels like everything's been a bit quieter. I've not seen as much onl

Story 1 — Are we normalising trauma at work?

It's going so well. Okay, Le, what have you seen this week? Have you started the jingle? I didn't ask you to

Story 2 — 8 ways to say 'screw you' at work

Well, this is probably applicable to, uh, to a lot of people you just mentioned in that. I saw a post on— it was on Instagram, which is not my usual— Goodness, what were you doing on the Insta?

Story 3 — Why you're still hiring the wrong leaders

Sticking on the recruitment, um, chat, actually, um, a case study fell into my email inbox this week and I thought it was really quite cool. Um, I mean, I think we've all made a hire that we regret at some point, or we'v

Story 1: Are you a duck shuffler?

It's my, it's my new word. It's my word of the week. So, you know how people, like the saying, get your ducks in a row? Yep

Story 2: The economy isn't crashing, it's changing

It was so cool. Okay, so this week I saw an infographic on X, and it is showing the job sectors that most new roles are being developed for in the US. Now, just some context, This is, I think, January to March 2025, only

Story 3: The small-world illusion: why watercooler moments don't matter as much as you think

Well, I saw a new bit of research. So you know how a lot of these return to office mandates are based on the fact that we need those watercooler moments, and that's what we're missing Just define what watercooler moment

Happy staff = better business (Best Places to Work 2025)

Coming up in This Week in Work. When it comes to leaders, do we actually prefer rebels or rule followers? This week we're looking at the psychology of trust and why some people earn it by working around the rules, not fo

The $40 loan that went viral

Talking of giving employees things, there was this post on Twitter by a guy called Joey Salvin. He runs a moving company in Boston. That's USA. So Boston, Massachusetts, not Boston, Lincolnshire, if you're from the north

Do we trust rule-benders more than rule-followers?

I'm not sure the type of people on Twitter give a shit about what I have to say, truth be told. Excuse my language. Off Twitter, back onto the mainstream press. What have you seen?

Story 1 — The reverse bucket list

The reverse bucket list is all about looking backwards instead of looking forwards. So I saw this in HuffPost, um, an article by Caroline Bologna. I think that's how you say her name. And it's pretty simple. Instead of f

Story 2 — What the UK can learn from Iceland's 36-hour week

No, I, I've just, I just had a go. Uh, so anyway, so she's Icelandic. She's been living and working the 4-hour working week for 6 years. But the question is, is it actually working? Now, this is a longitudinal study, Lea

Story 3 — Why mental health training for managers isn't enough

I have. Well, sticking with the theme of mental health, really, um, so you know that I kind of say quite a lot, if you do one thing, train your managers Train your managers, yep

News Roundup: Touching grass

Nice Welcome back. It's Leanne's favourite time of the week

Toddlers vs CEOs: Emotional regulation

I saw a great post on Twitter by Peter Steinberg. He's Stipeet is his handle. That's a cool name. Yeah. Um, and, uh, he's actually quite a cool guy. Um, if you go and look at his profile, you'll see what he's doing. He's

Bullying at work: Bad management, not bad people

Well, sorry to dampen the mood after the holiday chat. Bullying Oh

Stuart's story: The job he was relieved not to get

Have you been in a situation where you've gone, ooh, this is not good, and therefore I don't want to pursue this? I was actually relieved once where I didn't get offered a job. In fact, it's more than once, but one time

Why bad hiring experiences happen

So as someone who's been on both, both ends of this, you said at the beginning, why do bad experiences exist? If, if, if you know how to do a good job, why are people not doing a good job? I think there's an element ther

Top 3 takeaways from Stuart

Absolutely. So Just quickly then, the top 3 things we're taking away from Stuart's story. Leanne, what are they? Number 1, just talk to people. Communicate. If someone's putting the time and effort into applying for a ro

Klopp to Slot: A masterclass in leadership succession

Coming up on This Week in Work, fraud, deception, or just a sign of the times? As more workers secretly hold down 2 or 3 full-time jobs, we ask, is this about greed or survival in an economy which is pushing people to th

Spotify's 'we hire adults' approach to remote work

Okay, so Ryan Hogg on Yahoo Finance Ryan who?

The rise of polygamous workers: fraud or frustration?

Polygamous workers Ooh, say that word again

Mindful maneuvering: the new leadership buzzword

Coming up this week in work, will your job be obsolete in 5 years? According to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs report— catchy title— about 92 million jobs will become obsolete by 2030. Is your job title o

21 job titles predicted to disappear by 2030

Well, your job will be gone in 4 years Yours will

What actually makes employees stay? It's not perks

Le, anything else that caught your eye this week? I saw a new study that asked what actually makes employees want to stay. not just tolerate their jobs, not quite quit, but actually want to stay engaged and perform. And

More from Sophie: leadership in an AI world

That is a fantastic Sophie Wade. I will leave a link back to an episode that she did right in the early days of the podcast and shared some wisdom there, and probably some predictions that have now come true. The key thi

Story 1: What is 'alonement space'?

I've got a new word You always have a new word. Go on

Story 2: Are you lucky? The Bezos interview question

Yeah. Sending, sending us, sending celebrities into space this week. They all seem to get a little bit overwhelmed when they came back to Earth after 18 minutes of being in the lower atmosphere. I think Katy Perry kissed

Story 3: What great teams actually do differently

I saw a study this week. It's a study from 20— is it '22 or '24? Maybe 2022. But it was new to me and I was very, very excited by the results. A study of 1 million employees found that one thing that great teams always h

Corporate Buzzword Bingo

Coming up on This Week in Work. Is the British attitude to work quietly killing innovation? One writer says yes and claims it's the reason American businesses are 5 times more successful. Are we too relaxed as Brits to c

Is British work culture holding us back?

Well, I came across this maybe potentially divisive LinkedIn post this week. A guy called Tom Scourfield. He's a British ghostwriter with American clients. First of all, he wrote in like Fortune magazine or something, bu

What really motivates people in a crisis?

Well, speaking of, um, of a large nation causing global instability, um, there has been a bit of a pickle the last 10 days or so. Not going to talk about it, um, but global recession is a word that's been, been thrown ar

Story 1: Is Gen-X the biggest work loser?

Has Gen-X become the biggest work loser? I'm Gen-X and I'm a bit of a loser, so yeah, maybe

Story 2: The 5 words that make you more persuasive

Uh, Dr. Cheryl Robinson. She wrote an article in Forbes last week about the 5 words you should be using at work to get ahead and be perceived as a leader. Leah, these are 5 single words. They're not technical. Can you ha

Story 3: Can work coaches fix long-term unemployment?

So if you're wondering why, why should Leanne be able to talk about this? Um, my previous role Um, back, back a few, I was in welfare to work where I would build programmes like this that would include coaching to help l

Wrap-up and what's coming Thursday

True Anyway, so I think that's all for now. Uh, you join us on Tuesday for another edition of This Week in Work. And if you have a little look at our YouTube channel, Leanne's been adding all kinds of great stuff over th

Primark CEO Quits Over Inappropriate Behavior

Nice. Check out hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses. Welcome back. It is now Leanne's favourite time of the week. It's time for News Roundup Yes, it is. Cue that jingle, Al

Jack Dorsey's 'Good Layoffs' at Block

I don't know Oh, this is a trend at the minute, isn't it?

The Dark Psychology of Job Ghosting

We talked about this about 6 weeks ago. I think I was coming up with this idea of, and there was a, was there a particular term for it back then? Did we come up with this term? Was it not job ghosting?

London's hiring crisis and remote work

Yes, it is. It's time for the news roundabout. Cue that jingle Pressing play. What have you seen this week, Leanne?

Bossware and video surveillance at home

Yes, it's all to do with a new word that I've seen. It's called bosswear. Have you ever, ever heard of that? Bosswear? No, but like the scouser in me wants to be like, oh, it's boss, it's boss. Like, that outfit looks gr

Holiday benefits last longer than you think

Yeah Don't say. We can't say. You'll know who they are. Anyway, Leanne, what else have you seen this week, love?

News: BoomerAsking — the conversation habit we're all guilty of

Yes, it is. It is time for the news roundup. Al, cue the jingle Jingle's being queued. Leanne, what have you seen this week?

News: Why 42% of employees are turning down promotions

Well, Le, I have been reading this week in Forbes— not quite as highbrow as some of the publications you've been reading, love— but I've been reading in Forbes, um, an article about nearly half of employees are now turni

News: Jamie Dimon attacks corporate DEI — is he right?

Yes, I have to ask you, Al, are diversity policies hurting companies? Oof, this is a thorny one. I mean, the thing is, what's difficult is that I have edited this afternoon Sarah Gashier's Our Hot Take. So I have a littl

Debrief: Wellness washing and leadership accountability

Goodness, Sarah certainly didn't hold back there. I think what a term that I really liked that Sarah used was performative EDI, because I think that explains it perfectly. These organizations that are parading these dive

What's next: The King of Pops founder story

Okay, I think that's the end of the episode, Leanne. Uh, coming up this Thursday, well, let's just say this is one of the most fun interviews I've done In a while, we're bringing you the story of Steve Kass, who went fro

Story 1: Labour's 'Trumpian' civil service overhaul

The UK Labour Party is preparing to unveil Trumpian plans for the civil service. That is according to the The Guardian this week. So big changes are coming to Whitehall, and they're already being called Trumpian by criti

Story 2: The rise of 'micro-retirements'

Well, there was a few articles I saw recently about this, what people are saying, this new workplace trend called micro-retirement. And basically the article's saying that's where Gen Z and millennials take extended brea

Story 3: AI performance monitoring: productivity boost or micromanagement nightmare?

What happens when AI is used to track, monitor, and, and evaluate employees? Well, well, no, probably not. Um, this is an article that I saw posted by Matt Smead, who is a business psychologist, posted on LinkedIn. Um, i

Asda scraps 10,000 staff bonuses

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Sergey Brin calls for 60-hour workweeks

Well, this one caught my eye. I've always been, well, I'm not always, but Back in the day when I was starting my businesses, I was fascinated by, uh, by Google because it seemed to come from nowhere. Um, one, there's an

The employability paradox

Well, speaking of talent and keeping it, have you heard of the employability paradox? No

Story 1: Meta's masculine energy and what it really signals

So you know how Mark Zuckerberg said that he wanted to see more masculine energy in the workplace? Well, from what I've seen, it basically means being a dick Oh

Story 2: Task masking: the new workplace resistance movement

Yes, I have got a new term for you. It's going— You're finding all these new terms at the minute, aren't you?

Story 3: A 4-part framework for finding meaning in a chaotic world

Well, I mean, I have been a bit ranty because there's a lot going on. And the truth is, I have been getting messages from So many of you lately saying that everything is just getting a bit overwhelming, and I get it. The

What's next and Wrap-up

Sad times. Um, talking of— well, let's, let's, let's brighten things up a little bit because, um, if you've not enjoyed this, then the good news is that we're coming to an end now because we're going to say goodbye I thi

Story 1: Jamie Dimon's leaked Gen-Z rant

JP Morgan CEO lost his shiz. Have you seen this? No, I haven't Oh, actually, no, I did. Was it like a— was it a sneak Zoom secret recording that was leaked or something?

Story 2: Career catfishing and office ghosting

Okay, Leanne, I've got a new term for you. I know you normally do the terms, but I'm doing the term this time. So yeah, career catfishing. What have you heard of it? What does it mean? I've not heard of it. I've heard of

Story 3: Short breaks boost learning

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah And clearly it worked out quite well for David, but equally, this might not have been the best approach, Mr. Beckham Senior. So researchers have basically found that real improvements don't happen whe

What's Next and Outro

Sensitive nature Yes, of a sensitive nature. Okay, so this Thursday we're bringing you an absolute zinger. We are joined by Skye Watterson, who is one of the top experts on adult ADHD. She is a podcaster, an author, a Ph

Intro and News Roundup Kickoff

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Floodlighting: The Toxic Boss Tactic

Jingle has been cued. What have you seen this week, Leah? I've got a new word

Basecamp's Profit-Sharing Model

As you know, I occasionally go on X or Twitter or Twix, as I call it, Um, and, uh, there's one of the guys I follow on there called Jason Fried. Um, he's the guy who runs Basecamp, formerly 37signals. Um, and he's just g

Why Napping Boosts Performance

Good news, Al! Napping improves our performance at work Yes, yes, yes! I love a nap

Wrap-Up and What's Next

Beautiful, beautiful answer as always. Anything to add, do you think, before we sort of say goodbye to these lovely people? Nothing to add

Intro and News Roundup Kickoff

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Story 1: 200 UK Companies Commit to Permanent 4-Day Work Week

200 companies in the UK have committed to a 4-day work week. Yay! That's good news

Story 2: Netflix Founder Says Stop Calling Workplaces a Family

Well, this is one, an article I saw. Well, it's not an article, it's a post I saw on X or Twitter or whatever we call it now. Stop calling your workplace a family. Now, you have been banging on about this, Leanne, for a

Story 3: Text Abbreviations Make You Seem Lazy and Fake

Text abbreviations make us look fake and lazy LOL

News Roundup: Workplace Buzzword Bingo

News roundup. I didn't say that bit. It's time for the news roundup. That's my favourite section They know that. They know that. Anyway, what have you seen this week, Le?

News Roundup: The Managerless Economy

Okay, we are back with a very satisfied dog. Al, what have you seen this week? Well, the Wall Street Journal, you know, that, um, that publication I like to use, you know, to look important. They were basically talking a

News Roundup: Which generation is the most sensitive?

Which generation is the most sensitive? You're not gonna— you have to read that article, right? Yes, you have to read the article because in your head you're like, oh yeah, I know, but go on

Welcome back to the first This Week in Work of 2025

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne

Soft quitting: a new term for an old problem

I got full named there. That's been a long time since I've been full named That'll get cut

The TikTok ban: what it means for your workplace

Well, you can't have escaped the fact that TikTok might be going away. This is quite an interesting one because I think by the time we're recording this— before— yes, so this will go out after the deadline. So the deadli

2025 wellness trends: unconventional or recycled?

Hello, Andrew Hi, Andrew. Um, and he sent it to me and I was like, oh, interesting. Um, so yes, January, of course everyone's looking for a prediction, everyone has a prediction. We had our own as well. We did it in 2 ep

The power of talking to yourself

Well, talking about Christmas, I love Christmas You do

Should bosses have favourites?

Well, I have a question for you, Leanne. Should bosses have favourites? Should they have favourites? No. Do they have favourites? Probably

Why young professionals are leaving the UK

Yes, and it's another one that's right up your street, Al. I think you'll like this one. So according to an article in The Telegraph, there is a growing trend of young professionals leaving Britain for sunnier shores Uh-

What motivates older workers?

So this week I saw a really interesting study into exactly this— what motivates older workers. And to give some context to this, because you might be thinking, why should we care? Well, in the UK right now, about 72% of

The psychology of workplace secrets

Shh, got a secret Tell me

Apple's employee privacy lawsuit

Um, I have seen an employee lawsuit that I thought was quite interesting. It accuses Apple of spying on its workers Now, I heard— I did read a bit about this. Yeah, you heard about this one?

Next episode teaser and outro

Yeah, this week we've got a really special episode for you. We are continuing to shine a light on mental illness in the workplace following a call to action from Dr. Sarah Hughes, who is the CEO of Mind. So our guest is

Dark empaths in the workplace

Dark empaths Right. That sounds a bit weird. Go on

How to mend a broken work relationship

Well, breaking news, Al's wearing a pair of spectacles on the pod. If you're watching it on YouTube, you will see, um, I got these new specs, which is great, so I can actually see, um, Leanne now. However, Because I'm we

The great homeworking experiment

What have you seen Well, I'm not sure we've talked about remote work for a little while Remote work. Now, how does that work?

Story 1: Keir Starmer's Get Britain Working White Paper

Keir Starmer's government has launched the Get Britain Working white paper, aiming— Catchy, easy to say

Story 2: Digital Surveillance Tools and AI-Powered Monitoring

How about you, Al? What have you seen this week? Well, as you probably know, Leanne, you definitely know, and regular listeners, you know, I'm pretty bullish on AI, artificial intelligence

Story 3: Thanksgiving Table Debate Advice from the APA

I thought it might be, um, I thought it might be fun, uh, to talk about, um, how Thanksgiving, um, especially given recent events in, in the US, there may be, um, some people that are a bit apprehensive about going home

Intro and this week in work preview

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Story 1: The Gen-Z skill gap

I saw, um, a bit— an article about Gen Z. I feel like we don't talk about enough on the show. Should maybe inject a bit of youth. Um, yeah, no, I saw— I mean, they're everywhere, aren't they? You gotta, gotta feel for th

Story 2: Basecamp bans political discussions

Well, a couple of weeks ago there was a small election in a small country over the sea. What was it? I think they call it— is it America? I can't— I don't know how you pronounce it, uh, but there was a— USA

Story 3: Fortnum & Mason's diversity fail

Well, going from one blunder to another, Fortnum Mason. I know, I know that maybe you have shopped there, actually. You're quite posh, Al. Shopped at Fortnum Mason? No. Waitrose is about the highest echelon I think I've

Intro and Weekly News Roundup Kickoff

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Why Trump Won: Analyzing the Election Outcome

Well, unless you have been, um, blissfully living, um, off-grid for the past week, then you would have seen that Donald Trump won the 2024 US presidential election, securing 286 electoral votes to Kamala Harris's 226, su

Nike's New CEO: Promoting from Within vs. Fresh Blood

Well, this was an article on LinkedIn, but it was originally reported in the FT. The Nike— Nike? Nike? How do you say it? Nike or Nike? I think I say Nike, but I'm not sure if that's right

Encore's Overtime Savings Program for Seasonal Staff

Um, I came across an article in Fortune and I thought it's kind of timely given the time of year it is. Dare I use the C word? Not that one, the other one— Christmas. Um, it is a-coming. Um, so I thought this was maybe q

Story 1: LinkedIn's shift from professionalism to personalisation

What have I seen, Al? You know how you really hate LinkedIn because of things like humblebrags? Yep

Story 2: Gen Z and Millennials are ready to move on

Well, a little article on HR News caught my eye. Uh, we talk quite a lot about the generational difference But a recent research project from Oak Engaged uncovered some pretty surprising findings. Almost 60% of Gen Z say

Story 3: The psychology of facial expressions at work

I don't know, it's fairly quiet. What are we, Tuesday the 5th of November? I think there's not much going on today apart from, from the Grow Europe. I don't know. Um, oh, of course, it's the US elections day, isn't it? S

Introduction and news roundup teaser

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne, I'm a chartered psy

BBC email blunder: Tony Livesey's incivility lesson

That was smooth. That was smooth. Okay, Lee, what you've seen this week? Have you ever accidentally sent an email to the wrong person at work?

Amazon's culture crisis: former employee speaks out

Well, Amazon. Amazon had never been renowned for their workplace culture, but are the Amazon employees finally publicly standing up to the recent changes in the culture? And I talk about recent Changes in a second. One p

The battle for Boohoo: Mike Ashley vs. executive bonuses

Well, speaking of things that are up to anger, angriss in the, in the in the world, the battle for Boohoo. Have you heard about this, Al? No

October Theory: the new New Year?

Nice. Check out hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio d

Finding purpose after burnout (Suneel Gupta)

What have you seen this week, Al? Well, I've been reading CNBC. Not quite sure why, but it came up on my newsfeed. I don't know what the— the problem with those Brits is that we look at some of the— we can look at some o

EY's cheating scandal

Well, these people might need it in their workplace. Have you heard about the, uh, the, um, EY cheating scandal? No

Intro and weekly roundup preview

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals

News Roundup: The Big Birthday Crisis

I will cue. Okay, Lee, what have you seen? This week I came across quite an interesting study, um, that was showcased in an article from Fortune about milestone birthdays. And as somebody who is, who is in the midst of a

News Roundup: WordPress vs. WP Engine drama

There is a, I think it's called a shitstorm. I think that's the technical word. A bit of drama in the WordPress world. Just a bit of context. They're the website people That's right

News Roundup: Remote work vs. in-office connection (Cornell study)

Well, of course, everywhere the debates around remote work, return to office is continuing. I actually saw an article very like in the last hour or so that I would have included but didn't quite have the time to read thr

Intro and weekly news roundup kickoff

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Story 1: Salary transparency and Gen Z talent

I came across some interesting news about salary transparency I thought was worth talking about, um, and especially worth thinking about for small business owners looking to hire Gen Z talent, which is a question that se

Story 2: Do childless bosses lack empathy?

Childless people Um, I believe it's childfree. Is that the more politically correct term?

Story 3: Cynicism's impact on leadership

Um, well, funnily enough, um, I came across an interesting study looking at cynicism All right

Story 1: The UK's 'Accidental Managers' Crisis

You know that I'm a little bit of a broken record, Al. If you do one thing as a business owner, what do you do? Train your line managers

Story 2: Can AI Replace Human Managers?

Well, talking of managers, perhaps. And what's interesting is that we both choose— we choose our articles and we don't necessarily see what each other's chosen. Here's the one who, for anyone who hates their boss or mayb

Story 3: The Diversity Hiring Backlash

I did. I came across a study about diversity in hiring practices, and I thought it was really interesting and kind of worrying. There might be a theme to my stories this week. Maybe I'm in a funny kind of mood. Diversity

Intellectual humility in leadership

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Tesco's fire and rehire fail

All right, so I saw an article, um, about Tesco. Now, if you're not from the UK, then Tesco's like a very large supermarket, so they sell everything. They also do things like insurance, phones, all that kind of stuff. I

Can AI help us find purpose at work?

Well, I mean, we have been hearing quite a lot about AI recently Oh yeah

Fresh Voices: Anna Papalia and Interviewology

Welcome back to our September segment. We are calling it Fresh Voices. That's not true, I'm calling it Fresh Voices. Al insists on calling it New Voices, but here we are. We basically want to showcase the thought leaders

Wrap-up and takeaways

So, there you have it. That is this week's world-famous weekly workplace surgery. If you've got a question, you know how to get in touch. Check the show notes. There'll be an email address in there. Just send it over, an

Intro and weekly news roundup kickoff

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psy

Are you a workaholic?

Question Yes

The Gen Z Whisperers

Well, Le, you've heard of Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. You've heard of horse whisperers. We've now got Gen Z whisperers. I saw it in the Guardian newspaper. I say I saw it in the Guardian newspaper, I didn't like lif

The changing face of sick leave

Well, another interesting article I saw this week came from Business Insider discussing how sick leave has changed since the pandemic and how it might be getting a little more complicated. There may even be a mention of

Fresh Voices: Connie Hadley on team rituals

Welcome back. Our second segment in September is called Fresh Voices, where we showcase the thought leaders that have caught our attention and share their fresh insights on the modern workplace. This week's fresh voice i

Intro and welcome to This Week in Work

Nice. Check out hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio d

UK's new right to request a four-day work week

Consider it cued. Lee, what have you seen this week? Well, it seems we're in a season of, um, of new workers' rights. So I can't remember if it was last week, a couple of weeks ago, we reported on the Australian governme

Founder Mode vs. Manager Mode

There is a whole thing going on at the moment on social media that we need to talk about. It's based on this question: What makes a founder different from a manager? So some people say it's the title. Some people say it'

19 science-backed ways to improve your life

Yes, I saw an article on the BPS. That's the British Psychological Society website. And they gave us 19 science-based hacks to improve your life. So it's one of those lists that you always see on like, on like magazines

Fresh Voices: Marion Campan on finding your ideal workplace

Welcome back. This is our September segment. I'm calling it Fresh Voices, where we showcase the thought leaders that have caught our attention and share their insights on the modern workplace. Today we are introducing Ma

The psychology of the Pumpkin Spice Latte and the fresh start effect

Okay, Le, what have you got first? Well, it is the first episode of September. I'm wearing black to mourn the end of our Brat Summer. It is over. And as the crisp air of autumn begins to settle in, there is a change chan

Eric Schmidt's outdated views on Google's work-from-home culture

Google is in the news yet again, and it's their ex-CEO who's been a bit outspoken. You might remember his name, Eric Schmidt. I'd like to call him the boomer's boomer. He left Google in 2020, but a recent Stanford lectur

High-stress jobs and heart health: new research

I do. Well, I think it— I mean, I guess the, the idea of, of, of, you know, hustling to, to win, um, leads us nicely into a new study that's recent— recently been published looking at the links between stress and heart h

Fresh Voices: Rob Kalwarowsky on handling a bad boss

When I started working, I thought I had it all. Played on a junior national team, went to MIT with— got a mechanical engineering degree. My first job in mining, I saved my company millions. I thought I was on the fast tr

News: Menowashing

Okay, Le, what have you seen this week? Um, well, aside from being trolled on YouTube, I have seen a new word

News: Managers vs. Leaders

Yeah, if you are new to this conversation, if you are like me and you're in your late 30s, quickly approaching 40, uh, I will leave a link to— we did an episode probably about a year ago on like an introduction to women'

News: Australia's Right to Disconnect Law

Yeah, I've got some news from Down Under. This is hot off the press Antipodean news

Workplace Time Capsule: Equal Pay 1968

Lee, I think you've got something special for Yes, moving on, it is time for our Week Place Time Capsule and our final time capsule. Yes, our August segment has come to an end, but if you do like this, let us know, we mi

Introduction and This Week in Work format

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network The audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psyc

Doomscrolling and its impact on mental health

Yes, let's start with my favorite time of the week. Al, it is time for the news roundup. Cue the jingle Okay, Lee, what have you got?

Wisdom work in a multigenerational workforce

So what about you, Al? What have you seen this week? Well, there, there's a guy called Chip Conley

Breakfast habits of successful executives

Well, after doomscrolling, I thought I would end things on a lighter note. Al, have you ever wondered what the most successful people in the world have for breakfast? I don't know. I'm thinking of Gordon Gekko. I'm prett

Workplace Time Capsule: Tarry's Chip Shop, 1960s Edinburgh

We are moving on to our Workplace Time Capsule, our new segment and quickly becoming a fan favourite, if I do say so myself. So this week we are heading back, all the way back to the 1960s, 1960s Edinburgh in fact, and t

News Round-Up: Gen Alpha Slang Decoded

It is, it is time for the news roundup. Al, cue the jingle So what have you got, Leanne?

News Round-Up: Bad Bosses and How to Spot Them in an Interview

But I was reading Fast Company magazine because I'm basically a boomer. I was reading Fast Company magazine, um, and there was a great article written by Tracy Bauer, or Brower. I'm not sure, Tracy, how you say it. If yo

News Round-Up: Crowd Psychology at the Olympics

Carry on But yeah, it's— I just, I absolutely loved it. I absolutely loved it. So it got me thinking, as one, as I'm sure the many new supporters of these types of sports, what roles do supporters play when it comes to s

Workplace Time Capsule: The Peter Principle (1974)

Okay, so after this very, very quick break, we have got the brand new Workplace Time Capsule segment that Leanne just invented and sprung on me a few minutes ago. And we've also got the world-famous Weekly Workplace Surg

Stress bragging: the hidden cost of wearing busy as a badge

I have a new word, or a new term. Okay, kind of. Um, I, I don't think you'll need the definition for this necessarily, But it's something that I've seen talked about more frequently and using this term. You ready for it?

Gen-Z slang guide: no cap, slaps, stan, delulu and more

Well, I found a new guide to Gen-Z talk. It's an article I saw in Forbes yesterday, and it's a guide for old farts like me, um, on words that Gen-Z use. Now, before I begin, don't take this as me telling you to go and us

Kamala Harris's laugh: why a belly laugh wins votes

They've got an election. We called it the Jenny-lec. Um, for a new president Oh, right

Future of Work in 2074: what Arthur C. Clarke got right

The audio destination for business professionals It can

The multitasking myth

I saw an interesting article this week on The Telegraph website. I'm very cultured. Um, about multitasking. I know we talk about multitasking quite a bit, Al, don't we? Because both of us are generally pretty bad at it.

Greece's six-day working week

Well, some news from Greece in The Guardian this week. The Guardian's a UK newspaper. I don't particularly follow it for its political views, but I have to be honest, it is some of the best writing and the best articles

Quiet quitting in the UK

Um, I can't imagine the Prime Minister will be in power very long with ideas like that, Al Well, I don't know, if he's working an extra day a week, then perhaps he's got more time to get things done. I don't know. Leanne

Hero Tax: Why Heroic Jobs Earn Less

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a business psyc

Top Traits of 10/10 Candidates (Adriane Schwager)

To be honest, I don't say anything on Twitter. I just, I just Sit there with popcorn and see what goes on. But yeah, so I was, I was trawling Twitter and I saw this post by the amazing Adrienne. Adrienne, I've only ever

The Retirement Age Debate

Well, I saw something this week. In 2027, which isn't that, isn't that far away now, just a couple of years, uh, we are going to have a record number of Americans about to turn 65. Um, the question is, should they be for

Forest bathing: the new workplace wellness trend?

I have a new term for you I like a new term. Go on

Adam Grant on hybrid working

Well, Adam Grant Oh yeah

Pride Month and financial well-being

Well, we are in week 3 of Pride Month now, and there has been a flow of so many wonderful organisationals and individuals spreading awareness about the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community. And one that I think is re

Book Club: The Psychology of Secrets by Andrew Gold

I'm excited about this one. And again, when I, when I first show my book, I haven't started reading it, so you can start with me and we can read it together. Um, but I'm, I'm really looking forward to this one. It's call

Book Club: Find Your Yellow Tux by Jesse Cole

No, we can't ask that because no one was gonna No one's gonna say that. So my book recommendation is called Find Your Yellow Tux by Jesse Cole. I read this maybe about a year and a half ago, 2 years ago. I heard him on a

News Roundup: Moonlighting and the cost-of-living crisis

Okay, Lee, let's kick off with you. What have you got? Isn't this the thing I've seen? It's something that was brought to my attention a few weeks ago. We were talking about moonlighting on the podcast, Al. You remember

News Roundup: Gen Z career trends

Interesting. Well, What you've said there kind of dovetails perfectly into what I was, what I saw, which is very, very similar. So I saw this stat that said, um, it's from LinkedIn. It said the 2nd most common job title

News Roundup: Election stress disorder

Well, I think we probably need to call out the elephant in the room. The UK is in election season. Sigh. Yes, Rishi Sunak announced recently that the UK will have a general election on the 4th of July, and after 5 prime

Summer Book Club: This Is Why You Dream

Yes. Thank you very much. End of the news roundup. Leah, book segment. This is what we— what you came up with last week, I think, the Summer Book Club. Um, if you— we'll leave a link to the books in the, uh, in the show

Pride Month in the workplace

Okay, Lee, so what have you seen this week? It is Pride Month. Happy Pride to all of our LGBTQ+ listeners, friends, family, colleagues. Happy, happy Pride. Pride Month, it's such an important month. It's such a joyous mo

Unbossing explained

Yeah As Leanne's talked about before, when she was managing and she had an amazing boss, both of them— her boss supported her and then she supported the people underneath her. In fact, I think there was one manager benea

Humour and mental health research

what else have you been looking at this Yeah, I wanted to stay on the theme of, of joy, um, after my first, um, article on Pride. Um, and, and I saw an article in the— it's a British Psychological Society's Research Dige

Summer Book Club launch — This Is Why You Dream

Um, Truth and Lies Summer Book Club Oh God, you're not in charge of titles

Intro and weekly roundup setup

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a business psyc

Walmart's RTO mandate and the research against it

Well, last week, Al, you might remember that we chatted about a survey that found that flexible and hybrid working is now the number one work perk that employees are looking for I do

Why leadership courses don't stick (and how to fix that)

Uh, well, in the HBR, which is the Harvard Business Review— I've heard of that publication

Stress languages: imploders, exploders, fixers, numberers & deniers

Have you heard about love languages, Al? I think so. I'm not quite sure what con— how we're going to fit them into the context of work, but Let's see

Outsetter's choose-your-own-adventure compensation model

What I love is that Leanne's basically going, I don't want to hear about it now. Shut up, Al. We were talking about this, this Jeff guy. So on Twitter/X, I don't know how to call it. I suppose I should be calling it X. I

ChatGPT: The hidden AI revolution

Nice Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a business psyc

Amazon's leaked tech email templates

So what have you seen this week, Alastair? Well, Alastair, you've full named me. Am I in trouble? Leanne accused me of being grumpy before, but you know, you have one of those days where you're just a bit like, everythin

What workers actually want from perks

Yeah, HuffPost I was looking at this week. They have reported on work perks. Um, and what people actually want. We hear lots of, lots of ones flying around, don't we, in terms of, um, fancy office complexes, especially i

Jurgen Klopp and the psychology of leadership

So yeah, I mean, football fans— or sorry, soccer fans for our American audiences— will know it has been a pretty big weekend for the Premier League. Uh, the season came to an end, Man City won again, and Jurgen Klopp, Go

News Roundup: McKinsey's Copenhagen clash

So, Leanne, is it your favourite time of week? It is, Al. It's my favourite time of the week. It's time for the news roundup. Cue that jingle

AI in recruitment: a flawed future?

Yeah, I'm definitely putting it in the same category as, as pool table in the break room. Um, and I also, I hope that there will be some, some maybe some kind of TikTok coming out about this. I can see them around like,

The homemaker pay gap: a listener's insight

Yeah What's, what's the science? If you look to the right, you're recalling, the left, you're lying, or something like that. Um, I can't remember which way around it is, but I know that I spend a lot of time when I'm thi

TherapyTok: therapists on TikTok

Nice Hello and welcome to the Truth, Lies and Work podcast, brought to you by who?

Google's 15-minute onboarding secret

Well, Inc magazine had an article about how Google uses a 15-minute conversation to onboard. So Google did a load of research to understand why some new employees adapted quicker than others. They concluded with a list o

Moonlighting: the side-job trend

Yeah, a pretty interesting article actually about moonlighting. So moonlighting is when, if you're not sure, people hold a second job or additional jobs outside their main job, their main employment. Um, it's usually pre

Co-founder couple lessons

Today, if you're learning to drive, which is quite a strange thing. But we have been a co-founder couple now for about 2 or 3 years. So over 17 years, um, we've had our own thing, done our own thing, and then about 2, 3

Is Tesla the new Enron? Elon Musk's leadership under fire

It is time for the news roundup. Al, cue the jingle What you got, Lee?

The power of cooperatives: Mondragón and employee ownership

I'm going to move on from fudging, being a fudger and Hitler, to go— God, I don't know whether I'm gonna have to like edit that out. That's one of those things that's just gonna get us deranked or something. Anyway, so l

Men's mental health in coastal towns: suicide prevention and support

Anyway, what else you got, Leanne? Yeah, I mean, talking about, about health, an article about men's mental health in the UK did, I did catch my eye this week, um, and I wanted to share it so we could talk about it and m

Burnout discussion recap with Jeremy Cline

Jeremy was an exceptional interviewer, and it was a really great conversation. His show is really great as well. He explores lots of different topics around mental health, around career transitions. So much. And it's an

News: Micromanaging vs. giving too much freedom

It's time for the news roundup. Cue the jingle. What have you got, Al? An article in Inc. magazine this week asked the question, if micromanaging is bad, can you go too far the other way? What was interesting in this art

News: The layoffs reality check

Well, changing the mood slightly— layoffs. We see a lot about it. There have been tens of thousands in the tech industry, and given the continued economic situation, we could be headed for more. We saw the UK and Japan g

Clip: Leanne on the We Are Human Leaders Podcast

Yep, it's those pesky Gen Zers again thinking they're first to come up with things. I mean, of course they're just— because every generation thinks they've invented something new, and the older generation smile quietly a

News: 'New' Gen Z work trends that aren't new

Like what? Well, there's a term called loud laborers, which was first popularized by a guy called André Spicer. We have some names on this podcast. He's an organizational behavior professor and dean of Bayes Business Sch

Highlights from last week's episode with John Smith

Anyway, so that is the end of the news roundup. Last week we had the gracious and loquacious John Smith. By the way, I've just come up with that term and I'm enjoying it. That's what we're getting on a t-shirt. We had Jo

Red Rooster's free childcare scheme

The dirty little secret is that most businesses think they know their customers. They have the data, the records, the history, but it's scattered across 3 teams and 4 systems. And in our case, it's about 216,000 spreadsh

Is McKinsey actually a good place to work?

Yeah, moving on, moving on. Uh, okay, so we're going to talk a little bit about McKinsey now. McKinsey's kind of a bit of a closed-door affair, um, but when you do hear from people who have been working there, they've sa

The death of the 'chairman'

Yes, I read something about chairs this week. Chairs.

60 Second Highlights: Nora Burns' new podcast & Thursday's guest

Couple of the little bits before we get on to our surgery. If you missed last Thursday's episode, we had Ben Branson-Gately, apparently no relation to Richard, um, the co-founder of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Or

Workplace Clinic: 'I found the perfect candidate. Do I need to keep looking?'

Yes. Okay. So question number 1, I found a perfect candidate. Do I need to keep looking? Now I'll give you the context of this so you can make— so you can decide whether it's the right thing to do. So this person said, I

Workplace Clinic: 'Is 40 too old to change careers?'

So question number 2 is actually from Reddit, but it's such a good question that I thought it would be good to put to you. This person writes, I'll be 40 later this year and I'm considering making a major career change,

Workplace Clinic: 'I sent an embarrassing email to the CEO'

Fabulous. Okay, I think we've got time for just one more, but it's a very short one. Um, I'm chuckling because I'm reading it. My colleague sent an email complaining about me to me by mistake. Oh man.

Resume red flags: what recruiters are really looking for

And after the break, we'll have our Workplace Clinic. Still got to think of a name for it. Maybe, I don't know, um, the Culture Clinic. That sounds a bit weird, where I put your questions to Leanne around workplace cultu

Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 2024

The 3rd red flag is quite interesting, though. The author suggests that frequent job hopping is bad. Lee, what do you think about if someone's hopped a lot of jobs? I mean, you can't go back and change history, but at th

Dharmesh Shah on coding principles as company culture

Yes, well done, well done Marriott, well done Gen Z, well done everyone, well done Leanne Well done everyone, good job, good job, good job, good job

60 Second Highlights: Dave Klein on bad managers

Marie, if you're listening, hook us up, would you? And of course, speaking of great guests, we had the amazing Dave Klein on the podcast last week, last Thursday's episode. Dave and his wife have created the Management A

Google's hiring evolution: skills vs. personality

Nice. Check out hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses And that's the other thing. If you think she's good and her performance is good, then she's not good. She's freaking incredible because sh

Service dogs: a new frontier in PTSD support

Well, April is here. April is National Stress Awareness Month in the UK, so you will probably be seeing lots of mental health-related content out there over the next month or so. One caught my eye today, and I also thoug

The ethical dilemma of being over-employed

The last one is just one, something I saw on, it's a website called YourTango. I don't think it's the same as Oh, Tony! You know the advert from the, um, from the '80s, from the '90s? Only British people of a certain age

Recapping the Future of Work series

Absolutely. Okay, so looking at the last couple of episodes, which are the Thursday's ones, which if you've missed them, they've been great. We've basically done this Future of Work 2-part series. The first part had the

Wrap-up and call to action

Yeah, no, he's nice, he's nice, he's nice Anything to add?

Rebrand reveal: from Truth, Lies and Workplace Culture to Truth, Lies and Work

Hello and welcome to the Truth, Lies and Work podcast, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a business psychologist My name is Al. I'm a

News: Uber Australia fined $272m for unfair dismissal of non-Uber drivers

Yes, I do. This is, this is as polished as ever, as you can imagine. Yes, so we've got, first of all, we've got a little news roundup which is going to tell you what's going on in the world of work. Secondly, we have a d

News: Finland's happiness secrets and the happiest Gen Z countries

What have you got, Al? Okay, so Finland is the world's happiest country according to a World Happiness Report. A Finnish psychologist thinks this is down to the 4 phrases that people of Finland use. So the first one is,

The great office return debate: Boots' mandate and expert insights

Oh, okay Uh, they don't sell shoes if you're not from the UK. They are actually a pharmacy and they sell snacks and shampoo, like a drugstore makeup type thing that you might get in USA, Canada, Australia. But anyway, th

Looking ahead and listener engagement

Yeah And that's why your savings might be a bit more, a bit more precious to you. Um, but yeah, if you've got time to recover, I'd say go for it

The BBC — more than just the newsreader on your telly

So when I think of the BBC, I think about, um, You know, the guy on the telly reading the news, or the girl, or them. And we don't often think about the people, say, that might be editing the footage that they spent 3 ye

News Roundup: TikTok's badge monitoring app and the erosion of trust

What do you got, Lee? Well, I have a bit of a mixed bag of News Roundup this week. First of all, I did want to remind people, our regular listeners, and let our new listeners know if you are listening in real time, we ar

News Roundup: Gen Z 'Zargon' quiz

And as always, you know, it's not about the decision that you're making. If you would prefer as a business leader to have an organization that is on-site, to build your culture on-site, that is your prerogative. That wil

News roundup: quiet cutting and the psychology of time

So excited to get into this interview. But before we do that, it's our favorite time of the week. It's the News Roundup Cue the jingle

News Roundup: Illyism — third-person self-talk boosts wisdom and emotional intelligence

Well, I thought I'd start off with the news roundup Oh, let's do that. So it's our favourite time of the week. It's the News Roundup

News roundup: Shift shock

Cue the jingle What have you got, Leah?

News roundup: LinkedIn finds on remote work

What else you got, Leah? Well, something that I thought was quite interesting actually. I was on, I was on the old LinkedIn. as I've mentioned, I like to dip my toe in from time to time. Me too, I know you will. Um, and

News roundup: Corp Talk Bingo with Ashley Menzies Babatunde

Very cool, very cool. Got anything else, Lee? Well, for our final segment, Al, I know you enjoyed the, uh, Corp Talk Bingo last week, a bit So I thought I'd come up with something else for you. So this is actually inspir

News roundup — 'rich session', Threads vs Twitter, and Elon's leadership style

But first is our favourite time of the week. It's the news roundup Cue the jingle

News Roundup: Grandternity leave

So before we meet them, it's our favourite time of the week. It's the News Roundup Cue the jingle

News Roundup: Elon Musk's latest

I have a little something that caught my eye this week that I thought might make for an interesting discussion. Um, you haven't seen A Bug's Life, have you? I've seen about 4 films, and 3 of those are Bourne Identity one

News roundup — loud quitting, female CEOs, and the Titan tragedy

It's our favourite time of the week, the news roundup Cue the jingle

News roundup: rust out, Elon Musk on remote work, and exercise vs therapy

I've got a new word Lovely. New word alert

News roundup — Bare Minimum Monday, Women's History Month & WSJ on office friendships

Best advice from a teacher just reminded me. I've never been very good at spelling, and my English teacher— this is back in the day, we had to write my English A-level, had to actually write, not type— and she said to me

News roundup — rage applying, Gary Lineker and the BBC

So before we hear more from our 4 guests, let's get my, my favorite time of the week. It is the news roundup week with the amazing Leanne Elliott, business psychologist. Hello, Leanne. Cue the jingle. I love the jingle.

News roundup — Elon Musk and Halli Thorleifsson

You must know what he's done. I do know what he's done. The Icelandic, um, Icelandic guy.

News round-up: Wellness washing and Starbucks

Yes. This is, yeah, this is still in testing phase, this particular session, but this particular segment. But let's see how we go.

News roundup: hush trips, Amazon's return-to-office, Blinkist

Go on Hush trip