The Work We Want : Recent Episodes
Arden Evenson
Our current world of work was designed for white men with wives at home and secretaries outside their office door. So it’s no surprise that the way we work isn’t working for a lot of us. In this podcast, we explore what it will take to cultivate a sustainable, more inclusive world of work – one that is safe and welcoming for everyone and allows us to find joy and fulfillment in our jobs and outside of them. We interview experts actively engaged in the work of work who join us to share their vision for the future and define steps we can take right now to improve our workplaces.
In this episode, I talk to Chantaie Allick - the founder and chief storyteller of Ramsay & Co and a co-founder of Re-work.
After experiencing burnout several times in her own career, Chantaie dove deep into the research to better understand the root of her burnout and how to recover from it. She joined forces with her friend Natasha Singh who went on a similar healing journey and created the Re-Work movement and community to help folks rework their relationships with productivity, and redefine how they engage with the world.
Chantaie and I cover a lot in our conversation:
- The constant unlearning of how we think about work and success;
- How the Re-Work community and movement came to be;
- The internal and external factors that lead to burnout;
- The Re-Work Framework to get to a healthy, less stress-filled place with our work.;
- The value of rest and play;
- What leaders can do to help employees avoid burnout; and
- What job seekers should be looking for to find a job that works for them.
Chantaie Allick is the founder and chief storyteller of Ramsay & Co which helps creative entrepreneurs, founders and passionate startup leaders market, communicate, and grow their business with purpose and clarity. She is also the co-founder of Re-work a community and movement about redefining work and ambition and success on our own terms.Connect with her on LinkedIn: Chantaie Allick
Follow her on Twitter: @Chantaie
Join the Re-Work’s community: re-work.ca
Visit Ramsay & Co’s website: ramsayandco.ca
In this podcast, we reference these resources (click the link for more info):
If you're going to South by Southwest, you can join Chantaie and Natasha’s session Re-Work: Redefining Our Relationship With Work on March 11th, 2023. You can find all the details here.
Check out the Nagoski sisters’ book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. It is a fantastic book that teaches all about the stress cycle.
Check out Stuart Brown’s book Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. It talks about all of the things around neuroplasticity and the value of play.
Become a convert to the value of play, listen to Andrew Huberman’s podcast episode Using Play to Rewire & Improve Your Brain. It talks about all the reasons why play is amazing and gives you all the proof points you need.
About Firefly Advising:Our current world of work was designed for white men with wives at home. So it’s no surprise that the way we work isn’t working for a lot of us. Firefly exists to help bridge the gap between workers and employers through improved workplace communication. Our team works with all levels of the organization to build the communication skills necessary to navigate the modern world of work more effectively and courageously.
Visit our website: fireflyadvising.com
Follow me on Instagram: @fireflyadvising
Connect with me on Linkedin: Firefly Advising
In this episode, I talk to Amy Fair - a marketing and communications professional in the cybersecurity industry who has experienced difficult layoffs firsthand.Amy saw one of the worst parts of work when she was laid off twice in her career.
Thankfully, she was able to survive and move past the layoff both times. She is now thriving in her new position and has taken what she learned from her experiences and is helping others navigate layoffs. Amy and I cover a lot in our conversation:
- Giving yourself grace and the space to feel your emotions and check in with yourself when you are laid off;
- The critical importance of nurturing your network and some simple tips to do it;
- How to assess layoff risks when looking for your next job"; and
- Ways to better handle layoffs as a leader
Amy Fair is a Content Marketing Manager at SpyCloud and has 17+ years of experience as a marketer in the B2B technology sector. She is a working mom of two, who is passionate about taking the stigma off of layoffs, helping others survive and move past that experience, and putting a stop to toxic work environments.
Connect with her on LinkedIn:Amy Fair About Firefly Advising:
Our current world of work was designed for white men with wives at home. So it’s no surprise that the way we work isn’t working for a lot of us. Firefly exists to help bridge the gap between workers and employers through improved workplace communication. Our team works with all levels of the organization to build the communication skills necessary to navigate the modern world of work more effectively and courageously.
Visit our website: fireflyadvising.com
Follow me on Instagram: @fireflyadvising
Connect with me on Linkedin: Firefly Advising
In this episode, I talk to Carla Reed - a nonprofit human resources professional and HR leader with nearly 15 years of experience working in HR and talent management.
Carla has been on the frontlines with staff and leaders navigating the new dynamics of work as they continue to shift under our feet and has some truly valuable perspectives and insights on how things have been changing in the last few years. Carla and I cover a lot in our conversation:
- Carla’s experience working in HR in social justice spaces in the past three years;
- How the future of work is being shaped right now;
- The current push for more transparency and flexibility in the workplace;
- Using collective reimagining to help get us closer to the work we want;
- How to create effective racial equity and inclusion policies that do more than check a box;
- The Glass Cliff for Black women and how to hold organizations accountable;
- The new ways management and executives are having to show up (and the unlearning process involved); and
- The work Carla and I want to see in the future.
Carla is a Certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR, SHRM-CP) with progressive experience in non-profit and for-profit organizations complemented by extensive leadership skills gained through elected board and leadership positions. She is deeply passionate about the future of work, including human resources technology, as well as connecting the overall employee experience with organizational business goals through streamlined process development.
Connect with her on LinkedIn:Carla Reed About Firefly Advising:
Our current world of work was designed for white men with wives at home. So it’s no surprise that the way we work isn’t working for a lot of us. Firefly exists to help bridge the gap between workers and employers through improved workplace communication. Our team works with all levels of the organization to build the communication skills necessary to navigate the modern world of work more effectively and courageously.
Visit our website: fireflyadvising.com
Follow me on Instagram: @fireflyadvising
Connect with me on Linkedin: Firefly Advising
In this episode, I talk to Sandhya Sudhakar - a certified executive coach and Enneagram practitioner who works with culture and leadership development for high-growth teams.
Sandhya is an experienced former P&G leader, with a deep understanding of how to align people strategy to business strategy.
Sandhya and I cover a lot in our conversation:
- Incorporating ease and rest into your business;
- What we need to consider if we want to avoid burnout for ourselves and our teams;
- The signs of burnout that we often overlook;
- Fostering emotional intelligence and psychological safety as a team leader;
- Self-awareness as the first step toward good communication; and
- Trends and thoughts about the way we will work in the next 30 years.
Sandhya is the Founder of SELF at WORK, Enneagram 3w2, Design Enthusiast, Data Nerd, & Lifelong Learner. She spent over 16 years successfully managing teams and bringing commercial plans to market in the Consumer Products and Hospitality industries. She has developed an expertise in authentic leadership and uses her professional experience, education, and her passion for the human side of business to help you and your team be yourselves at work so that you can love what you do AND love how you feel while doing it.
Visit her website: www.selfatwork.com
Watch her free training, Wellbeing at Work: www.selfatwork.com/freetraining
Connect with her on Linkedin: Sandhya Sudhakar
About Firefly Advising:Our current world of work was designed for white men with wives at home. So it’s no surprise that the way we work isn’t working for a lot of us. Firefly exists to help bridge the gap between workers and employers through improved workplace communication. Our team works with all levels of the organization to build the communication skills necessary to navigate the modern world of work more effectively and courageously.
Visit our website: fireflyadvising.com
Follow me on Instagram: @fireflyadvising
Connect with me on Linkedin: Firefly Advising
Book a discounted coaching session: https://bit.ly/theworkyouwant
In this last episode of 2022, I wanted to do something a little different. After interviewing nearly a dozen folks (some of whom you’ll hear from in the new year), I thought it only fair to share a bit more of myself.
So in this episode, I talk about my own relationship with work and the decisions I made that got me where I am today. Born a high-achieving eldest daughter, it took a while to untangle what I wanted from work with what others thoughts I should be doing. And, it's still a work in progress.
I also talk about my hopes for the future and what's filling my cup outside of work as we move full-speed into the holiday season.
Book a discounted coaching session: https://bit.ly/theworkyouwant
In this episode I talk to Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez - a journalist, author, podcaster and the creator of one of my favorite newsletters: Too Ambitious.
Stefanie I cover a lot in our conversation:
- The role of ambition in our lives (has it really changed, or is it just how we're talking about it);
- The intermingling of personal finances and how it impacts decisions we make in our career;
- Ways to navigate the uncertainty of our lives without being able to control everything; and
- How to think more creatively about our careers and find a way of working that really supports how we want to live our lives.
Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez is an author and journalist covering the many ways ambition touches women’s lives - from money to power to career. She is the host of the podcast Money Confidential, but I know her best from her wonderful newsletter Too Ambitious. Stefanie’s advice has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg, and more, and she is also a delightful and insightful follow on Instagram (and TikTok I'm sure, but I'm 36).
Subscribe to her Newsletter: Too Ambitious
Listen to her Podcast: Money Confidential Podcast
Follow her on Instagram: @stefanieoconnell
Find her on TikTok: @stefanieorodriguezIn this podcast, we reference these resources (click link for more info):
Quiet quitting is more complicated for Black Americans by Trey Williams
Ambition is Out by Jamie Ducharme
They Don't Want to Retire Early, They Just Want to Work Less by Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez
In this episode, I caught up with a former colleague of mine Aketa Marie Williams. Aketa is a writer, philanthropic leader, and the host of On Women and Mothers, a podcast for moms in the workforce. I invited Aketa on to talk about working mothers – how the world of work can better support them, tips for how to navigate work as a parent, and what I – a working woman who plans to have kids can do to prepare for this shift down the road.
But this conversation isn’t just about mothers, birthing parents, and caregivers – it’s about the power of trust to create healthy workplaces; the importance of including workers when designing new company policies, the power of strong, clear boundaries and other ways the working world can change to help more of us thrive in it, and outside of it.
I always love chatting with Aketa, and no matter your current parenting status or plans, I know you’ll enjoy my conversation with this delightful, inspirational human.
Aketa Marie Williams is a nonprofit leader and the host of On Women and Mothers, a podcast for moms in the workforce. In her first season, Aketa and her guests discuss the need for leaders to model flexibility and grace, what it means to ask for and provide “reasonable accommodations,” and how to strengthen boundaries at work. The conversations are insightful and engaging, and I really encourage you to take a listen – whether or not you are a working parent.
In this episode, I chat with Amanda Middendorf - an experienced HR professional and the founder and managing partner of Perennial Leadership Consulting.
Amanda and I talked about a topic that many of my guests and listeners care about – equipping rising managers with leadership skills as early as possible in their career. But what I found most interesting about our conversation was WHY Amanda is so focused on this work – she opened my eyes to new perspectives about the importance of these roles in our organizations and how critical this next generation of executives will be in changing the way we work for the better.
I think you’ll take away something new from this conversation too.
Amanda Middendorf is the founder and managing partner of Perennial Leadership Consulting , a firm dedicated to equipping the next generation of executives with leadership skills as early in their careers as possible. Amanda is a seasoned HR professional who, prior to starting Perennial, led Human Resources for a large corporation.If you are a rising manager who can relate to what Amanda is talking about, or a senior leader who wants to better develop your organization’s rising managers and high potential, then check out http://perennial-leadership.com/ to explore how you can work with Amanda and Perennial.
In this episode, I talk to Lindsey Lathrop-Ryan – a certified coach, trainer, and speaker who teaches women and underrepresented professionals how to promote their skills and strengths and advocate for themselves at work.
We talk about the challenge of defining for ourselves what success looks like and letting go of what we “should” be doing. We also dive deep on the topic of self-promotion at work – a necessary skill (for better or worse) in today’s work environment. I got a lot out of our conversation and Lindsey has some great advice for how individuals and managers can make the workplace work better for more of us.
Lindsey Lathrop-Ryan is a coach who is committed – and I can vouch for this – to getting her clients recognized and paid, without the guilt or worrying whether or not they’re doing it "right." (Something I love to worry about as a recovering perfectionist). Lindsey and I have been internet pals and Instagram friends since early in my days of building Firefly and I am SO excited to welcome her to The Work We Want. Join her next #IamRemarkable Workshop (it's free!) on Tuesday, Nov. 22. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iamremarkable-presented-by-lindsey-lathrop-your-career-jumpstarter-tickets-444266792937In this podcast, we reference these resources (click link for more info):
"Can you be successful without self-promotion" by Ruchika Tulshyan
Glennon Doyle's book UntamedHow Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job
In this episode, I talked to Shereen Sater, a consultant and coach who cares deeply about making work better for folks at all levels of an organization.
We talk about a lot of different things. What leaders need to do to improve employee happiness, the tendency to overemphasize hard skills in the hiring process. And how to better navigate transitions in our jobs and companies. But when I listened back to our conversation, what I really heard were different examples of how we can show up as humans in our work. How we can communicate more openly with each other, how we can support each other without overwhelming ourselves. And how it's okay to feel our feelings and acknowledge them.
Shereen is the co-founder of THREAD Coaching and Consulting. THREAD focuses on developing leaders and intentionally creating the culture they want. She’s all about helping companies walk the talk. Shereen has her Masters in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University, and I was recently thrilled to learn the title of her thesis – Does culture really eat strategy for breakfast? An exploration of the relationship between organizational culture and innovation.
In this podcast, we reference these resources:
https://www.cultureamp.com/science/workplace-culture-insights
https://learning.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/learning/resources/pdfs/LinkedIn-Learning-2020-Workplace-Learning-Report.pdf
https://hbr.org/2022/07/the-c-suite-skills-that-matter-most