Skip to content
Melo Podcasts Home
CategoriesLanguagesFollowing

Episode · This Working Life

Take a break!

5 Jul 2026 · 25 min

Play episode WhatsApp Download

Episode notes

When you’re under the pump, it can feel like taking a break at work is impossible. But that can be habit forming, and bad for your physical and mental health. Learn the benefits of building breaks into your workday, and how to do it in a way that feels manageable.

Podcast

This Working Life

ABC Australia · Business · English

You spend so much time on work, why accept the status quo, when there are ways to do it better? Get expert advice, research and hacks that will crush your inertia. Join Lisa Leong and other This Working Lifers as we experiment and explore the latest in the world of work.   We cover policy issues,

More from This Working Life All episodes →

  1. 9 Aug 2026 · 25 min

    We're too tired to work!

    Are you just too tired to work? Australians feel exhausted. Eighty two per cent of Australian knowledge workers reported being on the verge of burnout last year, and businesses are scrambling to catch up with the cost of mental fatigue. But sleepiness can be a killer too and a major shift is underway in how Australian industries treat tiredness in the workplace. It's not a new phenomenon, people were talking about "brain fag" in Victorian England, but the way we think about fatigue and the way we treat it in the workplace is in flux. So why are we so tired and what can we do about it? Lisa…

  2. 2 Aug 2026 · 25 min

    Is Gina Rinehart right about cash bonuses?

    Australia’s richest person and long time supporter of Australian Swimming Gina Rinehart has been offering cash bonuses for Aussie swimmers at the Commonwealth games, $20,000 for a gold medal! It can be a nice to have after a huge challenge or a drawcard to make people work harder, but there can be a danger to motivating your team with extra dollars. So, Is Gina Rinehart right, do cash bonuses work? What actually motivates us? Lisa digs into the world of motivation and incentives to try and figure out what works for us and how you can motivate people without alienating them. Stacey Parker's…

  3. 26 Jul 2026 · 25 min

    The dangers of silence at work

    Speaking out at work is hard. It's even harder in a culture of silence. To take the decision to break the quiet is an act of bravery, ands it's one many of us are unwilling to risk. But the dangers of a culture of silence are many, and they impact employers and employees alike. While it can be a scary thing to do, research has found that people staying silent to protect their own heath and wellbeing almost always have worse results for their mental health in the long term in a silent workplace. Lisa speaks, loudly, with an expert on why people stay quiet. Guest: Dr Nate Zettna: Lecturer in…

  4. 19 Jul 2026 · 25 min

    Is it getting harder to find a job?

    After the 100th email auto reply, the AI application screening and writing the umpteenth cover letter of the week, the job hunt can feel like a real drain. If you're feeling like it's harder to find a job now than last time you were looking you are not alone. A combination of people staying put, international forces and a tight economic market have all impacted the white collar worker world. And that's before we think about AI! Despite unemployment numbers remaining pretty flat the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that in the first 3 months of this year one point one million people…

  5. 12 Jul 2026 · 25 min

    Is being good at your job holding you back?

    Are you being asked time and again to be the one who gets everything done, is your reward for crushing it, just more “it” to crush? You might be paying a competence Tax! Research consistently shows that people who are seen as high achievers are stacked with more of the same rather than being given pathways to doing new things. it's a story a lot of people can relate to but it can be a very difficult trap to escape. Lisa is joined by a world expert in what she calls "the curse of competence" to give you the tools to break the hex! Guest: Dr Ruth Gotian: Success researcher, Associate Professor…

  6. 28 Jun 2026 · 25 min

    How to avoid "Wellness Washing"

    You may have heard of greenwashing, now experts are worried about wellness washing where workplaces paper over the cracks with wellbeing measures but leave the chasms underneath.

  7. 21 Jun 2026 · 25 min

    Why are we so bad at onboarding?

    You're starting a new job but you don't have what you need, or you certainly feel like you don't! Why is this such a universal experience and why are employers so happy to leave people to sink or swim? We dive in to the good, the bad and the ugly of onboarding and try to figure out how we can be doing it better, for bosses and for workers. Lisa also checks in with the Australian HR Institute about new research showing the global "job hugging" trend has arrived on our shores. Guests: Dr Talya Bauer - Professor of Management at Portland State University Sarah McCann-Bartlett - Chief Executive…

  8. 14 Jun 2026 · 25 min

    What your boss is getting wrong about AI

    AI usage is on the rise, but its implementation within jobs and workflows is causing problems. Research shows there is a capability gap amongst Australian workers, and a lack of AI fluency and context-poor AI use is creating job strain. What can leaders do to turn this around? Guests: Dr Rebecca Hinds, head of the Work AI Institute at Glean Dr Sean Gallagher, founder of Humanova and the former Director of Swinburne University's Centre for the New Workforce

  9. 7 Jun 2026 · 25 min

    Don't be left out in the cold: why you should care about your organisation’s strategy

    Tying together what your team does within your organisation’s strategy is a key skill for middle managers and something workers at all levels can benefit from. Learn how a strategy is put together and ways you can work towards it. Guests: Brandon Lee, Associate Professor at Melbourne Business School, consultant, researcher and executive educator Rebecca Murray, principal of strategy consultancy, Marlborough and Ferdinand

  10. 31 May 2026 · 25 min

    Tackle overwhelm with the 'Teamwork Doctor'

    If you’re always busy but feel as though you’re not getting on top of things, you may be experiencing cognitive and emotional overload. Liane Davey, the ‘Teamwork Doctor’, calls this “thoughtload” and offers ways to manage overwhelm and focus attention, to improve productivity and wellbeing in individuals and teams. Guest: Liane Davey PhD organisational psychologist and author Thoughtload: Manage the Madness and free your Team to do great Work

Take it with you

The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.

Get it on Google Play