Working It

We’ve heard a lot about diversity and inclusion in workplaces, but one group is often left behind: people with disabilities, visible and invisible. Given that millions of people were allowed to work flexibly during the pandemic, how can we extend that mindset shift to make permanent improvements for staff with disabilities? In this episode Isabel Berwick talks to campaigner Caroline Casey, founder of the Valuable 500, an alliance of 500 global chief executives who are committed to disability inclusion. Caroline points out that the silence at the top of companies sets the tone for everything that happens - since CEOs aren’t coming out as having lived experiences of disability, that allows inertia further down in their organisations.  For an account of how it feels to be a neurodiverse employee, and the benefits that this difference brings to a team - Isabel talks to Naomi Rovnick, an FT markets reporter who was recently diagnosed with dyspraxia.  Caroline and Naomi offer some practical next steps for managers and leaders in any organisation: it’s time to be open about disability. Want to read more? How employers ‘ghosted’ one young journalist with a declared disability by Isabelle Jani-Friend https://www.ft.com/content/e91c8785-8517-4f1a-b471-c80e80d6d8e2The hidden workplace skills of those with dyspraxia by Sarah Laitner https://www.ft.com/content/b4255c98-ca7a-11e5-a8ef-ea66e967dd44FT special report on modern workplaces and disability  https://www.ft.com/reports/modern-workplace-disabilityCaroline Casey’s Valuable 500 survey on disability and inclusion reporting among FTSE 100 companies, run in partnership with British media group Tortoise  https://www.tortoisemedia.com/disability100-report/FT subscriber? Sign up for the new weekly Working It newsletter. We’ll cover all things workplace and management - plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. One click sign up at www.ft.com/newslettersWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of a two-part series on the end of work as we know it, Isabel talks to two of the FT’s experts on employment and work trends - Sarah O’Connor in London and Taylor Nicole Rogers in New York. As record numbers of people quit their jobs, refuse to return to offices, or simply put a brake on their time-sucking ‘greedy jobs’ like corporate law and investment banking, this post-pandemic moment marks a profound shift in our relationship with work.  Have we really left the 9-5 behind to renegotiate how we feel about work and our employers? Taylor talks about the stunning success of the Reddit antiwork forums, and other ways in which workers are reclaiming their time and identities, while Sarah points out that there really are millions of people who have left our workforces. This is a topic FT readers can’t get enough of - and Isabel will be chewing over some of their spiciest comments.  Listen out for the next episode in the series focusing specifically on The Great ResignationWant to read more? Taylor Nicole Rogers on the anti-work movement https://www.ft.com/content/1270ee18-3ee0-4939-98a8-c4f40940e644Sarah O’Connor interviews economist Claudia Goldin about the ‘greedy jobs’ phenomenon https://www.ft.com/content/92be2a2d-aee3-48c5-922b-84eea37072f8Pilita Clark talks to the man who coined the phrase ‘The Great Resignation’  https://www.ft.com/content/3e561d41-0267-4d40-9c30-01e62fa9c10fSarah O’Connor on quitting your job https://www.ft.com/content/ad9f2346-19ef-4695-b6c9-c0983176eb23More background on China’s ‘lying flat’ movement  https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/the-lying-flat-movement-standing-in-the-way-of-chinas-innovation-drive/FT subscriber? Sign up for the new weekly Working It newsletter. We’ll cover all things workplace and management - plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. One click sign up at www.ft.com/newslettersWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we delve into perhaps the workplace's most divisive issue: should you bring your dog to the office? Isabel (a cat person) talks to Lindsay Bumps (dog person), from Ben & Jerry’s ‘K9 culture committee’. The ice-cream maker has had dogs in its offices since the 1970s, so it knows how to get the balance right for everyone: the animals, their owners and even the 10 to 20 per cent of the population who are allergic to dogs. What can Ben & Jerry's teach the managers who are just starting to allow pandemic pooches in the workplace?Then, Isabel talks to Henry Mance, the FT’s chief feature writer and author of How to Love Animals: In a Human-Shaped World. Henry has written for the FT about the boom in office dogs — and he thinks there are many benefits to having pets in our workplaces. Can he win round Isabel and her fellow office-dog sceptics? Want to read more? Henry Mance on dogs in the office  https://www.ft.com/content/b25d8001-3ca5-4927-a990-7027acc6e4ccWe love animals — why do we treat them so badly? Henry Mance in the FT https://www.ft.com/content/fdc7ae21-bd59-4887-8417-7905d57b67baSome cute photos of Ben & Jerry’s K9-5ers  https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/our-k9-5ersWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michele Romanow and Andrew D’Souza are the co-founders of Clearco, a $2bn lender to ecommerce start-ups - and they shared a romance before sharing assets. They’ve now split up as a couple, and in this episode, they go public with what happened - and why they think they still make a good team. Then Isabel talks to FT colleague and Working It regular Emma Jacobs about the different ways organisations try to police office relationships, and why that is never going to succeed in stopping people from falling in love or having a messy break-up. Want to read more? Emma Jacobs on workplace handbooks - a new twist on the old rules of the office https://www.ft.com/content/b69d4fb7-9b6b-4507-bb0e-ac9a02de37baThe rise of office romances - the stats https://www.shrm.org/about-shrm/press-room/press-releases/pages/new-shrm-survey-the-rise-of-workplace-romance.aspxSuccessful co-founders who are couples https://sifted.eu/articles/married-cofounders/ClearCo’s Michele Romanow and Andrew D’Souza https://clear.co/en-uk/about-us/We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new generation of young professionals are becoming online stars in their own right through their social media channels. But what happens when personal brands meet the old-fashioned big corporate workplace? In this week’s episode of Working It, Isabel talks to Eve Cornwell, an English ‘lawfluencer’ who has been online for the past five years, blogging about her journey to becoming a young lawyer - before reinventing herself in the tech sector.  Eve believes that ‘lawfluencers’ like her, are helping to build a more diverse pipeline of applicants by making a career in the law seem accessible to all. She also posts videos about her personal life - and challenges. But the line between our personal and work selves can become ‘blurred’. And working alongside very successful young stars can be difficult for less famous colleagues. Isabel discusses the fast-evolving dilemmas around influencers at work with FT graduate trainee Akila Quinio. She’s Gen Z - but doesn’t have a big social media presence. Are we all going to have to have personal brands in future?     Want to read more? The ‘lawfluencers’ who blog about their lives at top law firms, by Akila Quinio https://www.ft.com/content/94f50e66-7c6b-48d3-a277-4d4fa7f00662Eve Cornwell’s YouTube channel  https://www.youtube.com/c/EveCornwellChannelEmma Jacobs on the employees who take to TikTok https://www.ft.com/content/c7f8fb0e-8f1a-4829-b818-cb9fe90352faFT editorial on the perils of using staff as influencers https://www.ft.com/content/2a72dc23-0926-4c84-b026-a139b0a56d7eWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a tight global labour market, older women are having a moment. Employers are offering more leadership and promotion opportunities, as well as practical policies to help manage the hormonal upheavals that hit half the population in their forties and fifties. In this episode Isabel talks to Navene Alim and Landy Slattery from the UK’s Channel 4 television network, who pioneered the workplace menopause policy in the UK several years ago. They talk about how it has benefited everyone in their workplace - and the silence and misdiagnosis that until very recently often accompanied women’s symptoms of brain fog, sleeplessness and anxiety. Many big companies are putting together policies to support and promote older women - the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. But, as Isabel discusses with Working It regular and FT columnist Brooke Masters, there are downsides to being open about our health status. Sexism and ageism are still rife - might there be a cost to sharing too much? Want to read more? Channel 4’s pioneering menopause policy is free for other organisations to download and adapt  https://assets-corporate.channel4.com/_flysystem/s3/2020-10/Channel%204%20Menopause%20Policy%202020.pdfAn FT feature on the stigma around menopause fading in workplaces  https://www.ft.com/content/311504fa-04a2-11ea-a958-5e9b7282cbd1Almost 1mn women have left the UK workforce because of menopause symptomshttps://www.hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/almost-a-million-women-have-left-the-workplace-due-to-menopausal-symptoms/135691FT columnist Elizabeth Uviebinene on femtech investment  https://www.ft.com/content/5ed48a73-a75c-44d7-924d-b65eec28c64fCompanies supporting older women into leadership https://www.ft.com/content/162a607c-4072-4706-91fd-5a7fb252be91We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s traditionally been mothers who have had to take time off work to look after children. But in the past two years, the pandemic has accelerated a huge shift towards many more fathers wanting to play an active role in family life. In this episode of Working It, we look at the fast-moving changes in workplace parental leave trends - and what that means for mothers, fathers - and the co-workers who pick up the slack.Isabel talks to Matt Schneider, co-founder of the US-based City Dads Group, about why paternity leave matters - and the barriers that still stand in men’s way. Are we really still hard-wired to think about men as breadwinners and women as caregivers?Then she discusses why paternity leave matters more than ever in the current hot labour market, with FT management editor and Working It regular Andrew Hill. If the older, male, leaders in organisations take a dim view of younger colleagues taking paternity leave, do they risk losing them to other companies with a more forward-thinking culture?And we find out that equality for men in this area might just be the key to women’s advancement - and even help to close the gender pay gap.Want to read more?Join a City Dads Group in the US https://citydadsgroup.com/The FT’s Emma Jacobs on family leave policies as the key to staff retention https://www.ft.com/content/b14b4e7a-e87d-4aee-a267-8100661e4b57France doubles paternity leave https://www.ft.com/content/36efc7ea-9deb-489a-ac82-97138b7b34f5McKinsey survey on paternity leave and why it matters https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/a-fresh-look-at-paternity-leave-why-the-benefits-extend-beyond-the-personalWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The last two years have made us all experts in digital communications at work - or so we think. In fact, many of us are unwittingly upsetting colleagues, or even jinxing our own careers, by not practising good email etiquette and Zoom hygiene. In this episode Isabel talks to Erica Dhawan, who really is an expert on digital communication, about the common pitfalls and generational differences [be careful how you use those ‘thumbs up’  emojis, everyone]. We relive some of the best/worst digital fails of the pandemic, including the Netflix staff sacked for dissing colleagues on a public Slack channel and the infamous case of the Texas attorney stuck in the Zoom kitten filter. Erica shares some of the strangest things she has to do as a workplace communication consultant - including teaching Gen Z staff how to get over their fear of voicemail and landlines. Isabel and Erica discuss practical things we can do to improve the way we talk to colleagues online. Including a definitive ruling on the vexed subject of whether or not it is rude to put a period on the end of texts, emails and DMs…   Want to read more? Pilita Clark on email etiquette  https://www.ft.com/content/3bb151b5-e785-4305-a1f0-6eb71a9dd327Tim Harford on making email work for you  https://www.ft.com/content/e32ea720-be03-4264-95a2-21696e530e84Erica Dhawan’s website  https://ericadhawan.com/Erica’s advice in Harvard Business Review  https://hbr.org/2021/05/did-you-get-my-slack-email-textWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the worldwide social justice protests that followed, businesses acted swiftly to pledge change for their BAME workers. Nearly everyone wanted to post a black square on their corporate Instagram feed - but what real action has been taken? And is there anything you can do to speed up change in your own workplace? In this episode Isabel talks to Taylor Nicole Rogers, the FT’s US labour and equality correspondent, and Working It regular, to get a snapshot of where corporate America stands on diversity, equity and inclusion. She talks about her own workplace experience as a Black woman - and the toll of ‘code switching’ - changing the way you talk, act or dress - to fit in with white corporate culture.Plus, Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, a huge human capital management company, on what US payroll and employment data can tell us about progress on diversity at work. Want to read more? Taylor Nicole Rogers on why Black American workers need economic reform https://www.ft.com/content/377a163d-fdbf-4f11-bb4a-e26465f8c2aaPilita Clark on why minority staff want to spend more time working from home https://www.ft.com/content/0049bea8-2d5a-42f4-9ac6-cc79402a7bb9The evolution of the chief diversity officer - and the problems of embedding diversity right across workplaces, by Emma Jacobs https://www.ft.com/content/6eac296d-acf6-4b41-9349-dc9723212914ADP’s Nela Richardson on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nela-richardson-59813613/Employers shift focus from education to skills - featuring LinkedIn’s programmes  https://www.ft.com/content/4e610474-9c93-4e47-a042-915d2222cc4bWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who wouldn’t want to have a regular paid day off to go surfing, take a long walk - or to care for family members? During the pandemic a growing number of companies have been experimenting with four-day weeks and in this episode Isabel talks to Andrew Barnes, founder of 4 Day Week Global, a non-profit organisation that helps companies switch to a more flexible working week. Andrew first brought in four-day working weeks at his own company in New Zealand, and found productivity and staff happiness rocketed. Isabel also talks to the FT’s Emma Jacobs, who has written about the benefits - and drawbacks–of four-day working. There are many reasons why corporate leaders don’t like the idea - not least because some of them confuse presenteeism with productivity. But are these objections valid? Or could a shortened working week on full pay even be a way for bosses to hold on to staff - and halt the Great Resignation?Want to read more? Pilita Clark’s FT column ‘Get ready for the four-day working week’  https://www.ft.com/content/c5d83853-682e-4076-81c1-813b246309f8Emma Jacobs’ feature on shorter working weeks during the pandemic https://www.ft.com/content/2973bdb4-aef7-4766-b4a5-3f83dd0d667fEmma’s interview with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, an expert on shorter working weeks https://www.ft.com/content/7bb06122-57d0-11ea-abe5-8e03987b7b20Andrew Barnes’ organisation 4 Day Week Global has lots of resources  https://www.4dayweek.com/We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Working It we take a step back from day-to-day workplace life and explore the issue of whistleblowing. What drives people to speak up against their employers - and what happens to those staff? Does it necessarily end your career in that company? Isabel talks to Siri Nelson, executive director of the US National Whistleblower Center. Siri has devoted her professional life to protecting the rights of those who speak up. She offers advice for listeners who have seen something wrong and want to report it (first step: get a lawyer). Siri and Isabel discuss some of the whistleblowers who have changed history - including Sherron Watkins. In 2001 she was a popular member of staff at US energy giant Enron, but when she spoke out about corruption in the company, it made her an outcast at work. Her efforts were not in vain, though - and Watkins ended up testifying at government hearings. Plus, Isabel gets some insights from the FT’s whistleblowing expert, Brooke Masters, our chief business columnist. What sorts of staff decide to report wrongdoing? And how can managers ensure that our corporate cultures encourage honesty - and can deal with internal problems before it is too late? Want to read more? National Whistleblower Center [US] - lots of advice and resources https://www.whistleblowers.org/Whistleblowers UK -British campaigning group https://www.wbuk.org/ Brooke Masters on why whistleblowers deserve our thanks - and protection https://www.ft.com/content/7e89bfa8-25d5-11e8-b27e-cc62a39d57a0The corruption of cronyism in workplaces - and a whistleblower's experience of calling it out https://www.ft.com/content/98fdcde8-eba1-45b3-98a6-eceb5269e07cAndrew Hill on the business lessons learned from Enron, 20 years after its collapse https://www.ft.com/content/4676e3e2-bdaa-4c78-8011-49508279c9eaWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Working It is a bit different. It turns out our most read stories so far this year have been about hybrid working, a term that describes working weeks split between the office and working from home. Not only do readers binge on the topic, they also have very strong views, so we thought we’d open up the debate here, too. Isabel talks to FT experts Camilla Cavendish and Pilita Clark, who have both written columns on hybrid work that went viral. Camilla and Pilita point out that the progressive view on hybrid work is that employers need to be flexible and allow more homeworking, even after the pandemic ends. But the reality is that many business leaders are afraid to say to their staff that there are many benefits to being in the office. We talk about loneliness, mental health, collaboration and what the future of hybrid work will look like. Isabel also shares what some of the FT readers think. Why is hybrid so polarising? Because it’s so personal. Want to read more? These are the columns we discuss in this podcast:Camilla Cavendish - ‘It’s Time to Admit That Hybrid is Not Working’https://www.ft.com/content/d0df2f1b-2f83-4188-b236-83ca3f0313dfPilita Clark - ‘If You Thought Hybrid Working was Hard, Wait Until 2022’https://www.ft.com/content/006e0751-21ee-4ab0-8bd2-0b954c7132dfWe love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we are stepping outside the 9 to 5. Side hustles, second jobs, crafting and more have boomed as millions of workers embraced working from home during the pandemic. Isabel talks to Tim Fung, co-founder of Airtasker, a platform for buying and selling services and skills, used by many as a way to earn extra cash. How does he cope with his own staff’s side hustles?Taylor Nicole Rogers, the FT’s US labour and equality correspondent, explains that many people have two jobs because of shortfalls in pay. But during the pandemic many of us lost touch with our workplaces and focused on developing a sense of personal purpose and identity. Building an Etsy business or sock-selling empire is one expression of that - and having tasted freedom, it’s easier to walk away from a main job.Isabel and Taylor come up with strategies for managers dealing with staff side hustles.    Want to read more? Follow Taylor Nicole Rogers on FT.com for her reporting on employment trends https://www.ft.com/taylor-nicole-rogersThe banker turned bamboo socks seller  https://www.ft.com/content/5f0e6c76-7cda-4b62-bb2f-36fd4771efaaFinancial influencer Ken Okoroafor on how his side hustle TheHumblePenny.com became a big business https://www.ft.com/content/27eff0d1-e2d0-4e41-afaf-c2aadf437873We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many of us work with - and manage - people 30 years older or younger than we are. And sometimes it can feel like there's a bit of dissonance between the "wisdom and experience" that Gen X and Boomers can bring, and the "innovative energy" of those in their twenties and thirties. So what, and how, can both learn from each other? Isabel (Gen X) explores how reverse mentoring programmes are bridging the generation gaps in a growing number of organisations. She talks to Alvaro Romero Artigas, a (Gen X) senior manager at Santander, the bank, and to his mentor, Philippa Whelan (a young Millennial) who have been in a reverse mentoring partnership since 2018.  Josh Chaffin, the FT’s New York correspondent (Gen X), talks about the different expectations of younger colleagues and the importance of making an effort to know colleagues with different cultural reference points - and that’s not just an age thing.  Plus, Josh challenges Isabel’s fixed ideas about corporate culture. He says that younger staff and new staff can help change culture from the bottom up - it’s not just about older people passing on their institutional knowledge. Want to read more ? Tips for managers in a multi-generational workplace, by former Google executive Sarah Drinkwater https://www.ft.com/content/f56d6a1b-9d64-4380-ac84-a44cb1bebb0fThe return of the corporate handbook, helping to create workplace culture for everyone. By Emma Jacobs https://www.ft.com/content/b69d4fb7-9b6b-4507-bb0e-ac9a02de37baWhy reverse mentoring works and how to get it right - from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2019/10/why-reverse-mentoring-works-and-how-to-do-it-rightWhat younger staff expect from their managers - tl;dr - they want a LOT of information and feedback. This is a really useful survey from IMD business school https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/making-generational-differences-work-what-empirical-research-reveals-about-leading-millennials/We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email the team at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Team building sessions and awaydays have always been a part of office culture. But in a post-pandemic world, where we meet our colleagues IRL, or even in the virtual metaverse, will the awayday survive? Isabel explores the appeal of the awayday with Ed Mumm, who owns Dig This, a ‘super sized sandbox’ for adults in Las Vegas. Driving Ed’s giant diggers is a popular team day out, giving staff the chance to let loose and compete for prizes. Andrew Hill, FT management editor, talks about more ‘out there’ awaydays - including geese herding and Hunger Games reenactments - and what staff get out of them. Research on the topic is scant, but it’s likely that the impact is short-term and focuses [can an impact focus on?] on improved interpersonal relations.The serious version of the awayday is the corporate offsite, where leaders gather to discuss strategy or do a course. There’s a long history of big companies having their own ‘campuses’ for training and retreats - famously GE’s Crotonville in New York State. That might be coming back into vogue - Salesforce’s Marc Benioff has talked about buying a ranch for his employees. Finally, Andrew and Isabel discuss what might be next for team building and strategy days. Aside from ayahuasca journeys - favoured by some out-there start-ups - the metaverse offers a lot of potential for remote teams to gather in one place, joined via headsets.  Want to read more ? Andrew Hill on working in the metaverse ttps://www.ft.com/content/61ce8588-5233-44d0-aa12-ce9ed60fb314 ... and on strategy awaydays ttps://www.ft.com/content/4aa19b24-6935-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea034fGE’s own fascinating history of Crotonville - established in the ‘Mad Men’ era, and still going strong https://www.ge.com/news/reports/inside-crotonville-ges-corporate-vault-unlockedEd Mumm’s Dig This in Las Vegas, where you can watch your boss drive a giant digger https://digthisvegas.com/From our colleagues at the tech news site Sifted, strange stories of taking psychedelics on team awaydays https://sifted.eu/articles/psychedelic-retreat/We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email us at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or Instagram.Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Empathy has been one of the buzzwords of the pandemic, with managers under pressure to listen to employees’ woes and understand what they are going through. But what do we mean by empathy at work, and how much is too much when it comes to caring?Isabel talks to Belinda Parmar, founder of consultancy The Empathy Business, about small changes that can make a workplace more empathetic, and why that’s often a good thing. She finds that more empathy leads to higher productivity and engagement. The downside to empathy is that it’s easy for senior staff to burn out when they give too much of themselves to others. Isabel and Brooke Masters, the FT’s chief business commentator, find some possible solutions [like listening to - but not crying with - your staff]. Finally, Belinda gives tips on how to support team members and colleagues, and the power of having a best friend at work. Isabel and Brooke talk about their experiences of friendship at work - it might even stop you burning out. Want to read more? Brooke Masters on the long hours culture and burnout in Wall Streethttps://www.ft.com/content/19a14cad-b5fc-4fc3-aa5a-ca306af5b831Isabel’s column on the importance of friendship at work https://www.ft.com/content/62b2db86-60e7-11e9-b285-3acd5d43599eMcKinsey’s in-depth report on burnout in the pandemic - tl;dr? It’s still under-reported and burnt out people are … less likely to respond to surveys about burnout.https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/coronavirus-leading-through-the-crisis/charting-the-path-to-the-next-normal/employee-burnout-is-ubiquitous-alarming-and-still-underreportedBelinda Parmar’s consultancy The Empathy Business, including the Empathy Index she mentions in the podcast [published in 2016 in the Harvard Business Review] https://theempathybusiness.com/https://hbr.org/2016/12/the-most-and-least-empathetic-companies-2016We love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle in 2022? Email us at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or Instagram.Subscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe !Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spreading your working hours over five, six or seven days is now an option for thousands of employees at Arup, a global design and engineering company, based in London. In this episode, Isabel talks to Diane Thornhill, Arup's director of people for UK, India, Middle East and Africa, about the company’s “Work Unbound” seven-day work week experiment in Australia and the UK. Diane talks about the importance of senior leaders ‘leaving loudly’ themselves. That means signalling publicly that it’s OK to step away from the desk and take flexible time off.But how does a seven-day work week affect teams’ communication and collaboration? And do people really want to be able to work all the time? Isabel chats to the FT’s Emma Jacobs, who has written on Arup, about the perks and pitfalls of an always-on work week. Plus, the importance of transparency - in a flexible workplace, it’s vital to be open with our teams about where and when we are working. Is that always a good thing?We love to hear from you: email us at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or Instagram.Mentioned in the podcast: Emma’s article on Arup’s seven-day work week https://www.ft.com/content/1405cb93-6625-4834-ac07-09e4062e7aa7Arup’s own website https://www.arup.com/news-and-events/arups-new-hybrid-work-model-allows-6000-uk-employees-to-choose-their-working-daysThe FT’s Sarah O’ Connor on the mysterious decline of our leisure time https://www.ft.com/content/9df289b9-d425-49e6-899f-c963b458625fPresented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Using social media for work is blurring the boundaries between our professional and personal lives. Do employers really want us to bring ‘our whole selves’ to a job or is there a chance that being very open in public might impact on our careers? When Jonathan Frostick had a heart attack, he posted his thoughts about how he planned to change his life on LinkedIn. That post went viral -  and Jonathan heard from people all over the world who said his inspiring words had helped them re-assess their work/life balance. Isabel talks to him about what happened next. She is also joined by the FT’s Emma Jacobs who has written a lot about the ways we use LinkedIn, TikTok and other social media to talk about our work, our lives - and even call out bad employers, and how this is all evolving. We would love to hear from you - email us at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or email her direct at [email protected] in the podcast:Emma Jacobs on Jonathan Frostick and how LinkedIn got personal https://www.ft.com/content/8d910754-3568-412c-8a10-9e4806a83b11And Emma on staff who shine on TikTokhttps://www.ft.com/content/c7f8fb0e-8f1a-4829-b818-cb9fe90352faA first-person account from a lawyer about how he came out to his network on LinkedInhttps://www.ft.com/content/624efffd-acb5-400d-ae9e-ee207840fa34Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A workplace without bosses sounds... idyllic. In this episode, Isabel explores the topic of flat hierarchies with Alexis Gonzales-Black, an expert in organisational design. A few years ago, Alexis helped Zappos, the Amazon-owned online shoe business, to bring in ‘Holacracy’ - a way of sidelining bosses and shifting decision-making down to individual teams so they have autonomy. The experiment wasn’t a total success, as we hear, but Alexis talks about how leaders can step back and make the most of employees’ skills and expertise. But what about other ways that companies knock down workplace hierarchies? Isabel chats to Andrew Hill, the FT’s management editor, about a consultancy that abolished job titles (cue: confusion all round) and US company WL Gore (makers of Gore-Tex), where leaders are appointed through acquiring skills and followers - not just because someone higher up gives them a job.  Plus, the dark side of boss-less workplaces. Do they give toxic colleagues a free pass to behave even more badly? We love to hear from you: email us at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or Instagram.Mentioned in the podcast: Alexis Gonzales-Black on Zappos’ experiment with Holacracy: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/insights-holacracy-interview-alexis-gonzales-black-usha-gubbala/More on what happened to Tony Hsieh, Zappos’ late CEOhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-death-of-zappos-tony-hsieh-a-spiral-of-alcohol-drugs-and-extreme-behavior-11607264719FT article by Alicia Clegg -’ Boss-less business is No Workers’ Paradise’https://www.ft.com/content/34a86220-d639-11e9-8d46-8def889b4137Andrew Hill on innovative management ideas https://www.ft.com/content/f14b3205-f140-4e74-8743-04b881b63134Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chances are, not even your best friend knows how much you earn at work. In this episode, Isabel tries to work out what we are worried about - surely salary secrecy only helps our bosses? She talks to Joel Gascoigne, chief executive of social media business Buffer, which publishes its employees’ salaries on its website - including that of Joel himself [$290k]. He thinks radical transparency helps with all sorts of potentially difficult issues at work. Isabel also talks to Brooke Masters, the FT’s chief business commentator and an expert on CEO pay. Brooke thinks there are often good reasons for secrecy: when companies are forced to be open about top leaders’ pay, CEOs can compare themselves to people leading other organisations and demand even higher salaries. Isabel and Brooke also talk about how the rest of us can negotiate a pay rise. To do that, it may help to know what your colleagues are paid ...We love to hear from you: email us at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or Instagram.Mentioned in the podcast: See how much everyone is paid at Buffer https://buffer.com/salariesBrooke Masters’ column on CEO pay in the pandemic https://www.ft.com/content/0676c6f6-1ad2-490d-b8cf-d3bccdb76182Want to get a pay rise? Here’s how https://www.ft.com/content/967db31f-f49b-4039-a295-23db588d2a1cListen to Claer Barrett’s #MoneyClinic podcast on getting a pay rise https://link.chtbl.com/K3vLw7lVNational Bureau of Economic Research - the wider effects of pay transparency https://www.nber.org/papers/w28903Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Almost two years into the pandemic, we’ve become used to hybrid working but it’s often hit and miss in terms of how well it works. In this episode, Isabel talks to Sacha Labourey, co-founder and chief strategy officer of all-remote tech company CloudBees, about what keeps his staff engaged and happy. One tip for managers is that overcommunicating with your team is the key to making things better when you are often - or always - apart. Isabel also speaks to the FT’s New York correspondent Joshua Chaffin about the return to the office in NYC. The insider view? Turns out it is lonely at the top for CEOs holed up in their corner offices while the employees stay at home.  We would love to hear from you: email us at [email protected] or Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or Instagram.Mentioned in the podcast: Find out more about CloudBees and its ‘distributed work’ https://www.cloudbees.com/careersJoshua’s story on lonely CEOs in New York https://www.ft.com/content/4743268e-e903-4822-acba-c22495367bbfJoshua’s article on why commuters won’t be lured back to offices https://www.ft.com/content/d17d6e2b-c29b-4505-81f4-b3a416f55ca2And… What went wrong at all-remote company Basecamp https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/05/banning-political-discussions-at-work-isnt-that-simple-experts-say.htmlPresented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trusting your staff to take as much time off as they need to rest and avoid burnout sounds like the ultimate post-pandemic workplace reset, but what would it be like in reality?In this episode, Isabel talks to Amy Cowpe of Charlie HR, a human resources software company based in the UK, about its radical unlimited vacation experiment. What happens when you give people the freedom to make their own choices? The experiment (spoiler alert) didn’t work - but not for the reasons you might expect. Even so, some big-name companies, including Netflix, have long had a ‘no vacation’ policy. How do they make it work? Isabel also talks about the history of paid holidays - her own grandmother had just one day off a month as a live-in maid for a rich English family in the 1930s (yes, it was a bit like Downton Abbey). We would love to hear from you: email us at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or email her direct at [email protected] in the podcast:Charlie HR’s blog about its unlimited vacation experiment: https://www.charliehr.com/blog/we-tried-unlimited-holiday-heres-everything-that-went-wrong/Pilita Clark in the FT on why unlimited time off means more time at work: https://www.ft.com/content/ca935b70-bf14-11e7-9836-b25f8adaa111Psychoanalyst Josh Cohen’s long read in FT Magazine on how to avoid burnout (feat. Herbert Freudenberger’s work that coined the term ‘burnout’ in 1974): https://www.ft.com/content/ea0ea4cc-0320-11e9-9d01-cd4d49afbbe3   Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Puppy party anyone? That’s what one employer is offering its staff to lure them back into work. Perks have always been a part of employment packages but, during the pandemic, employers have become a lot more imaginative in a bid to keep their people engaged remotely - and then get them back in the office. What is the point of these perks, do they work - and what do managers need to know to offer staff what they really want?Isabel talks to Alicia Ries, director of communications for Emea at Steelcase, a US-based furniture company that brought in a welcome programme including barbecues and its own bagpipe band when its employees returned to work. Alicia discusses what really motivates staff and how employers can help them thrive. We also speak to FT management editor Andrew Hill about the weirdest workplace incentives and what the research says will really keep us engaged at work.We would love to hear from you - email us at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter or email her direct at [email protected] in the podcast and further reading:Andrew Hill’s article on back to work perks, including Steelcase  What are the most in demand new perks? Charlotte Middlehurst’s FT article: https://www.ft.com/content/6f34b761-aa03-42e7-b5f2-0b128102e33bFrederick Herzberg’s research into what really motivates employees [tl;dr - make the job more interesting] from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2003/01/one-more-time-how-do-you-motivate-employeesPresented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The wellness industry is a trillion-dollar business, and the pandemic has turbo-charged it. One of the biggest trends has been the rise in employers buying their staff access to meditation and fitness apps. But does this ‘quick fix’ approach work? And are there better ways to boost wellbeing?Isabel talks to Lorna Borenstein, chief executive of Grokker, a corporate wellness app about the reasons why she set up the platform and how clients and her own staff use it. It’s all part of a culture of taking care of employees — a topic Lorna has explored more deeply in her book It’s Personal, offering advice to other managers on how to help staff feel better [tl;dr: talk less, listen more]. We also speak to FT colleague Emma Jacobs, about the corporate care culture. She is a little more sceptical.We would love to hear from you - email us at [email protected]. You can also follow @isabelberwick on Twitter and Instagram or reach out via email: [email protected]. Thanks.Mentioned in the podcast and other interesting reading:-Emma Jacobs’ prophetic pre-pandemic guide to workplace wellness by app: https://www.ft.com/content/d1d58aae-437c-11ea-abea-0c7a29cd66fe  -FT series, Burnout: https://www.ft.com/burnout- Deloitte report [2020] on employee mental health showing £5 benefit for every £1 spent https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consulting/articles/mental-health-and-employers-refreshing-the-case-for-investment.html-Video: Emma Jacobs on how to detox from your smartphone: https://www-ft-com.newman.richmond.edu/video/b4115321-b915-3a42-9814-ad0be4c0e7f5?playlist-name=section-0b83bc44-4a55-4958-882e-73ba6b2b0aa6&playlist-offset=206Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Working It, the new show from the Financial Times. Every Wednesday, from October 27, join host Isabel Berwick for expert analysis and watercooler chat about ahead-of-the-curve workplace trends, the big ideas shaping work today - and the old habits we need to leave behind.Whether you’re the boss, the deputy or on your way up, we’re shaking up the way the world works. This is the podcast about doing work differently.We hope you’ll enjoy it and we’d really like to make it as interesting and useful to you as possible, so please do let us know what you think or like or don’t. Email us at [email protected]. Follow @isabelberwick on Twitter and Instagram or reach out via email: [email protected] by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.