# work life balance
32 moments across 30 episodes. Click any moment to jump straight to that part of the episode.
50:20Workplace Surgery: Is work-life balance realistic in competitive industries?Al Elliott: I love that. I love that. I must have heard that story half a dozen times, and I love hearing it. Brilliant. Okay. And it was called shitposting. That's what— that's officially where you're coming down on. YoEP 308 · 9 Jun 2026·workplace surgery· 50:20–57:4746:24Workplace Surgery: The workaholic wellbeing hypocriteAl Elliott: There we go. That's your new TED Talk, The Notion of Demotion. I like it. I like it. Okay, on to question number 2. This person says they're a hypocrite, but they don't know quite how to stop. So they write, EP 306 · 2 Jun 2026·workplace surgery· 46:24–55:0147:20Purpose balance over work-life balance: Losing his dadLeanne Elliott: Mike. Al Elliott: So we've got Mike, Joe, Aidan, Kieran. I know that 3/4 of those people are amazing people because you've just told me all the things that they've done. Tell me more about Mike. What was—EP 295 · 23 Apr 2026·interview· 47:20–52:5038:26Home life and talking about work at the dinner tableAl Elliott: So let's talk about home life. So do you talk about work at home? Xavier Shariff: Yes, we do talk about work at home. The rule is we shouldn't, and you have to check each other, but it's really hard not to. TEP 271 · 29 Jan 2026·panel interview· 38:26–48:3549:18Workplace Surgery: when policies say balance but staff disagreeAl Elliott: Lovely. Lovely. If you wanna learn more about the RX7, which those 3 are one of the— are 3 of the 7 Rs that Leanne's developed, Then just check out the show notes. You can actually book a call with Leanne andEP 266 · 13 Jan 2026·workplace surgery· 49:18–52:130:00Digital hangover: what it is and how to recoverAl Elliott: Coming up this week in work Leanne Elliott: 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 sEP 238 · 7 Oct 2025·news roundup· 0:00–7:584:24Isabel's biggest career regret and what she learnedIsabel Berwick: Yeah, I guess my biggest one is I have a lot of regret around the fact that when my kids were small, I took a step back with my career, or rather I didn't put myself forward for promotion or management joEP 235 · 25 Sept 2025·interview· 4:24–6:4446:33Story 6: 200 UK companies go four-day week permanentlyAl Elliott: Okay, let me find it. So, uh, number 1. So more than 200 UK companies have permanently adopted a 4-day working week with no pay loss, and this affects over 5,000 workers. 2 years after participating in a grouEP 226 · 26 Aug 2025·other· 46:33–52:273:13Why can't we detach from work?Al Elliott: Nice Elaine Smith: I am a clinical psychologist, so that is my training. And now I specialize in mental health at work, and I'm particularly interested in leadership and the impact that leaders can have on meEP 219 · 31 Jul 2025·interview· 3:13–6:5334:49The one thing to rememberLeanne Elliott: I mean, for people listening who are like, okay, I've got some good tips here, some good things that I can do before I go, whilst I'm on holiday, there is the inevitable reentry, that going back into workEP 219 · 31 Jul 2025·interview· 34:49–38:202:56Story 1: 'Locking In' – Hustle Culture 2.0Leanne Elliott: I've got a new word Al Elliott: Oh, I love when you get new words. Do I guess the new word? Completely guess it? Leanne Elliott: SureEP 208 · 24 Jun 2025·news roundup· 2:56–10:0840:18Workplace Surgery — firing a client over a 2am callLeanne Elliott: Hmm Al Elliott: Honestly, I'm ready to let them go. Good. But when I told a friend, they said I was overreacting. I just need firmer boundaries. Am I being emotional? Is it okay to fire your top client ifEP 204 · 10 Jun 2025·workplace surgery· 40:18–44:5532:53Workplace Surgery: can business owners put their wellbeing first?Leanne Elliott: You, you, this is very normal. Very, very normal. And I think there's a couple of things here. First of all, and this is a bit of tough love, you haven't run out of time. You've just chosen to prioritize EP 192 · 29 Apr 2025·workplace surgery· 32:53–39:1222:40Hot Take: Being busy isn't a personalityLeanne Elliott: Welcome back. As regular listeners will know, every week we ask a workplace expert for their hot take on the world of work. Our hot take this week comes from someone who's on a mission to make work feel bEP 190 · 22 Apr 2025·hot take· 22:40–36:199:57Story 2: The rise of 'micro-retirements'Al Elliott: 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 eEP 178 · 11 Mar 2025·news roundup· 9:57–18:0038:35Workplace Surgery: the after-hours club problemLeanne Elliott: It's always going to be the way, isn't it? You're not going to be able to be in every conversation at every point in time. There's going to be an element of some decisions you won't have as big an impact EP 172 · 18 Feb 2025·workplace surgery· 38:35–41:3213:24Katie O'Malley on the childcare crisisLeanne Elliott: So of course, building that platform gets a lot harder when you're juggling work and family responsibilities, which brings us perfectly on to our next prediction. Katie O'Malley thinks 2025 could be the yEP 159 · 2 Jan 2025·other· 13:24–18:080:33Why we're not talking about work on Christmas EveLeanne Elliott: Nice Al Elliott: 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 isEP 156 · 24 Dec 2024·other· 0:33–2:2344:54The 'leisure' that isn't really leisureLeanne Elliott: Right. You know, that's not really leisure. So it created this. And you get— so you get these unbelievable things, which are just what I call— how would you describe them? It's basically a kind of gridlocEP 156 · 24 Dec 2024·other· 44:54–47:3339:02Workplace Surgery: Remote work boundariesLeanne Elliott: Yeah, very common problem. And I think we actually— I think, was it last Tuesday we talked about the latest research is out on hybrid and remote work? And that is a recognised problem with remote working EP 152 · 10 Dec 2024·workplace surgery· 39:02–44:2033:26Work-life balance — and the myth of the 'always-on' lawyerAl Elliott: I've never been someone who wants to work the long hours. So, I've done it when I've had to, but it's only been when I've had to. And I remember a conversation with the partner I was sharing an office with. AEP 141 · 31 Oct 2024·other· 33:26–36:1636:04Workplace Surgery: Work-Life Balance in AccountingAl Elliott: Excellent. Okay, on to our second question, Le. This person writes, I'm a partner at a mid-sized accounting firm with about 50 employees. Our industry is known for long hours, especially during tax season, buEP 132 · 1 Oct 2024·workplace surgery· 36:04–42:431:41Are you a workaholic?Leanne Elliott: Question Al Elliott: Yes Leanne Elliott: Are you a workaholic?EP 128 · 17 Sept 2024·news roundup· 1:41–6:302:06UK's new right to request a four-day work weekAl Elliott: Consider it cued. Lee, what have you seen this week? Leanne Elliott: 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 reporteEP 126 · 10 Sept 2024·news roundup· 2:06–7:1812:49News: Australia's Right to Disconnect LawLeanne Elliott: Yeah, I've got some news from Down Under. This is hot off the press Al Elliott: Antipodean news Leanne Elliott: Yeah, sure. As of yesterday, the 26th of August, 2024, 2024, Australian workers now have a nEP 123 · 27 Aug 2024·news roundup· 12:49–17:2415:19Tip 3: The 4-Day Work Week Is Not a Fad with Joe O'ConnorAl Elliott: Um, I first got interested in the 4-day week and shorter working weeks more generally all the way back in 2018, back when really the 4-day week, if we're being honest, was more of a philosophical discussion tEP 100 · 23 May 2024·other· 15:19–19:2612:20Moonlighting: the side-job trendLeanne Elliott: 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, EP 95 · 7 May 2024·news roundup· 12:20–15:0213:18The ethical dilemma of being over-employedAl Elliott: 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 aEP 86 · 2 Apr 2024·news roundup· 13:18–18:0531:50Clip 8 — The 4-day workweek with Joe O'ConnorAl Elliott: So that was episode 35, the generational panel. On to episode 36, which is all about the 4-day workweek. So we had Joe O'Connor along with a couple of other amazing guests talking about the 4-day workweek. JoEP 52 · 17 Aug 2023·other· 31:50–34:2350:20The commuting conundrum — how travel time wrecks happinessLeanne Elliott: I think leaders should care about happiness and positive wellbeing But that is kind of the outcome, isn't it? It's like saying, you know, should leaders care about being profitable? Of course. But caring EP 51 · 10 Aug 2023·other· 50:20–55:5826:19Work-life balance: the good, the bad, and the 'bing!'Ross: does work— Al Elliott: does working remotely make you happy? Beth: Yes!EP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 26:19–33:0223:56"Having it all" — what does that even mean?Leanne Elliott: I've never felt that maternal drive. But by definition, no, I don't have it all. But can others? Is this a truth or is it a lie? Can women have it all? Here's Hannah Al Elliott: I think having it all is kEP 32 · 29 Mar 2023·other· 23:56–26:08
Jumping to a moment opens the episode page with the player already cued to that timestamp — press play to hear it.