The gig economy’ sometimes gets a bad rap – people hear it and they think of ride-share drivers who really want to be full time. In fact though the gig economy is a much more nuanced place, one that encompasses different kinds of gig workers, including those who are highly skilled and who very much want to work the way that they are doing. Pre-pandemic, they perhaps made up a sliver of the workforce, but there are reasons to believe that in the post-pandemic world they are going to be increasing...
Nov 25, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast With the pandemic raging and organizations in flux, is this any time to think about a vacation? In North America in particular, we have a mindset that taking vacations is a little bit lax and with the pandemic and its stresses that mindset is going into high gear. On top of that too, we can’t really travel right now, so it seems like the right thing to do to put off vacations. But is it the right thing? We don’t really need elaborate studies to tell us that working flat out is probably not the b...
Nov 18, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Spurred by social media, intergenerational warfare seems to be on the upswing, including in the workplace. And, given the conflict and the idea that generations are working against each other we can lose sight of the fact that we could potentially gain from each other unless we make a concerted effort to do so. Our guest on today’s episode aims to do just that. Charlotte Japp, the founder of CIRKEL a platform that aims to bring people of different ages together with the aim of letting them get t...
Nov 11, 2020•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a world where civility is in short supply, is there a way to keep our workplaces civil? These days, politics often divides us, with feelings running deep, and the extra stress of the pandemic can bring tensions to the fore. Still, there are ways to keep things civil and to keep relationships between co-workers productive. Our guests today are the brains behind something called ‘The Civility Project’, and they have concrete ideas on how to do all of that, even at times when it seems like it is...
Oct 21, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The gig economy gets a lot of negative press, but is it actually a bad thing? Although some think it is synonymous with income insecurity and bad management practices, in fact for many it is the way they choose to work. For professional workers who have in-demand skills, working on a gig basis rather than accepting one job can be more lucrative and give them more control of their time. For employers, using gig workers allows them the right workers to do the work they need rather than pay workers...
Oct 14, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are getting close to a vaccine for Covid-19 and a return to something approaching normal in the workforce. But will normal look like for companies? And how should companies plan for the post-pandemic future of work? Our guest today is Cathryn Barnard a Partner at ‘Working the Future’ which is UK based consultancy firm helping businesses with organisational future-proofing.’ She has been working with companies to talk about how they should position themselves to be ready for the world post-the...
Oct 07, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are you afraid of unemployment or are you sure you are forever employable? As the economic outlook becomes increasingly uncertain, many people would put themselves in the first category but would certainly like to be in the second. Our guest today is Jeff Gothelf, author of ‘Forever Employable: How to Stop Looking for Work and Let Your Next Job Find You’ and he believes you can be, by cultivating your strengths, growing your personal brand and figuring out how to monetize your expertise. For som...
Sep 30, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are re-imagining everything else, so maybe we need to imagine the office as well. The physical office we are familiar with has its roots in designs first imagined a hundred years ago, with a bit of a Dilbert-style reboot thrown in during the 1950s. Now, as we think about physical safety as well productivity, how should we re-design offices? Is there a way to physically work together and not spread any kinds of viruses? is booking desks any better than working in a cubicle? And does any of thi...
Sep 23, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are there things that animals can tell us about how to cope wth work stress and ultimately how to work better? Our guest today is a psychotherapist with a passion for horses, and she has found a way to marry the two together. As she points out in this episode, human beings are mammals, but they are mammals who do not do a good job of being attuned to their own needs and acting on them. At a time when many of us feel that our lives are not completely in control, it may be time to take a cue from ...
Sep 16, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Six months into the pandemic and with more months to come, most workers are coping but not without difficulty. Whether it is stress about being home and isolated, or stress about going back to work and possibly getting sick, a lot of people are under strain, and there are indications that that strain could last for years after the pandemic is over. Is there a way to avoid the stress, or at least to manage it? From asking for help when needed (not always an easy thing to do) to dealing with the a...
Sep 09, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast It may have been a bit of a struggle to make it work, but the pandemic has forced many companies to keep their teams intact even when they are not under the same roof. As workers have de-camped to far-flung places, perhaps permanently, we are struggling with what the future of cities will be, and what offices will look like in future too. But there is another questions that goes with that, and it is how we should compensate people. If your team members are in different places, with different cos...
Sep 02, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does flexible work mean to you? It might mean leaving a few minutes early to catch your kid’s soccer game, or it might mean totally restructuring your job so you can travelfor a few months. In both cases, however, employers have traditionally been hesitant to open up the floodgates and embrace too much of it. Our work-lives have tended to be defined by barriers that set up when and where we work, and although there has been some fraying around the edges, for decades there has been reluctanc...
Aug 26, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast The school year is starting and the pandemic is not ending and Generation Z will have to deal with that. In fact, they will probably have to deal with the impact of the pandemic for years as the effects of it shape the way that they approach their lives and careers. But never mind the future: right now their parents are trying to figure out how to configure their own work with the educational needs of their children. It is a work in progress. Our guest today is Rebecca Holmes, who is the Preside...
Aug 19, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast It is something you hear about a lot – the need to be innovative. We hear that innovation is the key to economic growth, or the companies need to encourage innovation – but what does that really mean? Our guest on today’s episode is Anders Haugeto who is the founder of a company called Iterate which is a tech company whose main purpose it to become more innovative. He believes there are actionable things you can do to be more innovative, and that by doing them you can improve your own company’s ...
Aug 12, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Fourth Industrial Revolution is in full swing and according to the World Economic Forum, the transformation it imposes on us will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. For business to weather this revolution and come out on the right side of it will take the right leadership, particularly as this revolution intersects with the pandemic. To talk about how that can happen, we are joined on this episode by Jeffrey Russell , who is the President of Accenture Canada. We talk about ...
Aug 05, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Climate change it was an issue before the pandemic, and it will be an issue when the pandemic is over.More than that, the issue of climate change will be a long term issue that impacts the future of work. Between the ways that we operate our factories and organizations to the kind of careers that the next generation follows, so many of our economic decisions that we make will be linked to issues around climate change, and in turn they will impact our work-lives for decades to come. To delve into...
Jul 29, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast When we think about the words that go with ‘leadership’, ‘heart’ is rarely among them but perhaps it should be. The pandemic has shown us that business as usual is no longer going to get the job done, and as well we are all acutely aware that we are indeed fighting a global pandemic together, This may well be the time to think more about compassion and heart, not just because of any moral principles but because leading from the heart may well be the most effective way to get the job done. Our gu...
Jul 22, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why choose one career when you can do more than one at the same time? In these days of gig jobs and the need to pivot as the economy change, maybe we should thinking hard about ‘portfolio careers’ or doing several things at the same time. That could happen in the context of one organization where one worker can wear many different hats, or it could be that more of us will do one multiple things at once. It is what used to be called moonlighting kicked up a notch, with an assist from technology a...
Jul 15, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does a Navy fighter pilot have in common with leading during the pandemic? A lot, at least according to our guest today. Communicating wel, reinforcing core values, remembering to listen- these are all things that leaders in the navy are trained to do, and they are things that can serve leaders well as they navigate un-chartered territory now. Join us as Jeff McLean, former fighter pilot turned consultant at ghSMART talks about why the lessons from his first career are serving him well in h...
Jul 08, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are all used to interacting with one another in person, at the office, at meetings, just casually. Particularly when it is a business context, we tend to think about how we should present ourselves and we know all about the firm handshake (now a thing of the past) and looking attentive at meetings. Now though we are increasingly interacting by video conference and the rules for that are very different. Being on video – whether we are talking about Zoom, or Microsoft Teams or anything else – i...
Jul 02, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Freelance work something of a controversial workforce trend. To some, it is the dreaded gig economy, those who are forced to work on contracts or driving ride shares because they cannot find that holy grail, the full-time job. To others though, it represents freedom, the ability to have some control over their professional lives and maybe even to earn more money while they are doing it. To be sure there is some of the first out there, but we should not lose sight of the fact that it is the secon...
Jun 24, 2020•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast The pandemic has forced a giant-scale experiment in online education, and by many accounts it is going very poorly. From first graders to college students, everyone seems to be frustrated at having to take the classroom experience to a crowded space in the kitchen, and many are clamouring to get back to the in-school experience. But will it ever happen? After all, the experiment was a poorly planned one, and perhaps should not be seen as the benchmark of what online education, something that was...
Jun 16, 2020•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Remote work is having a minute, or rather a series of them. Some companies have used it for years, some have been adamantly against it, but both kinds are being forced into it at the moment. As the pandemic forces millions to figure out some kind of home office set up (the kitchen table works in a pinch), we are in the midst of a great work-at-home experiment. Maybe it will be a giant success, or maybe it will make everyone want to get back to their cubicle as soon as possible. More likely, the ...
May 29, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many sectors have been impacted by the pandemic, but none more completely than the travel sector. One week is was functioning at full capacity, and then the next the lights had completely gone out, or so it seems. When they go back on, they will shine on a completely different sector, one is which work roles have changed quite dramatically. To get some perspective on where travel and its workers are headed, in this episode we talk to two guests with slightly different vantage points. Will Seccom...
May 29, 2020•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the labor market goes through an evolution that started long before the pandemic, our communities are being transformed as well. In many cases that means good things, as when successful companies hire and prosperity increases. Other times there are less-positive spin-offs, with some people being left out of the economic party. In the best cases, business works together with educational institutions and community partners to shape the communities they operate in, and in the process hopefully d...
May 28, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast All of a sudden, front line workers are being treated as the heroes of this pandemic and that is only fair. Bus drivers, grocery workers, cleaners, meat plant employees – all of these people jobs that need doing and they put themselves at risk in the process. In acknowledgement of that, many employers are boosting their pay and bonuses in a bid to reward them for what they are doing and indeed to make sure they stay on the job. Longer term, however, the result of the pandemic may be that these s...
May 26, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast As a society, we tend to both love and hate our arts sector. Love them, because we do value the contributions that music and visual arts and theater and film make to our lives particularly now. In the midst of this pandemic, how many lives have been brightened, even if for a minute, by watching Andrea Bocelli perform at the Duomo in Milan on Easter Sunday, or by seeing an impromptu concert by a fiddler on Twitter? But there is clearly some there as well, because so much of the sector operates on...
May 26, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ready or not, the world of work is changing. And, whoever you are, you need to figure out your place in the future of work. We need to re-imagine everything. Who are the workers that will be in demand in the future? Will robots take our jobs or become our trusted co-workers? Should companies let workers work from home or will that guarantee an all-day frenzy of watching Netflix? Oh, and will jobs even exist in future? My name is Linda Nazareth and by profession I am an economist…through my caree...
May 21, 2020•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
