Let's Talk Worklife: Recent Episodes
Prathiba Wilson
Welcome to the podcast Let's Talk Worklife. This is your host Prathiba Wilson. Here in this podcast, we'll talk a lot about worklife with a bit of extra attention on working woman life.As adults we spend a lot of time @ work, but there is not enough space where we discuss about it. To make something better, there is no other way except to talk about it. When we spend an awful amount of time at workplace, it's only logical to make it better, for our own good. So through this podcast I hope to bring interesting content on topics related to work-life and working woman life.
What is the definition of successful working women? From this episode's perspective women who have grown in their careers to leadership position at a quicker pace or women who have grown in their career in a rate at par with their male colleagues or at least close.
For some women being a successful working women is a goal , for some being a working women in itself is a goal to succeed. In this episode the focus is to highlight the attributes common attributes picked from other working women who have been more successful in their careers than others. It's a learning point for all of us women who want to be successful or be at a place better than where we currently are.
Barring people in the age of 50s or 60s everyone in their teens, 20s , 30s and 40's are all addicted to social media in one form or the other. We are all addicted to such quick wins and lightning second highs you have to wonder when this affects our behavior outside in the society in general, how will it not affect our behavior in workplace. The key words to underlines in social media addiction is "minimal effort" "max immediate reward" our brain is getting wired to this cause and effect "minimal effort" and "max immediate reward".
So what are the effects this social media addiction could potentially produce in work place behavior. Some of it is already happening.
1 ) Quick rewards and appreciation
2 ) Thinking short term
3 ) Focus on breadth than depth (meaning count matters more than relationship)
4) Focus on me than the team or org goal
Join me in exploring each point in detail in this episode of #letstalkworklife
An article from HR Dive says " Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives may be among the first parts of a business to be eliminated in a recession, per data from Monster’s January 2023 future of work report" . Eleven percent of employers surveyed said that DEI programs “are among the first to go when they are forced to cut costs,” second to company events and bonuses."
Isn't it surprising why organisations would cut DEI cost if those initiatives are bringing positive changes?
So in this episode we explore the costs allocated on DEI initiatives, where does it go and what are the practical changes that needs to be brought in to make the DEI cost allocation provide meaningful returns. Also, can DEI objective be set up as an absolute objective?
letstalkworklike
When we say win - there must be a prize. If there is a prize it's up for grab by anyone participating in the race. The prize could be a job, a business success, a movie's success, championship in sports - many things. Prize = money. When it involves money and people it's transaction. So basically once you decided to win a prize you are fighting to grab someone's money & attention. In sports, in movies, in business, in job, everywhere when we want to win - we can't simply apply puritan logic of it's my skill with which I am winning. Whether its art or science or sport only when someone is willing to pay their money and attention will you be able to win a prize. It's your skill in display and use. However it's the payment in the currency of money or attention or time that makes your skill worth the money. That's when you win a prize.With that understanding in mind - how do women win in a men's world. In this episode, episode # 18, how to win in men's world, first we'll explore how things are and then figure out how or what we should do to win!
If you ask any hiring manager what is the experience bracket they look for esp in the IT industry environment -they would say 3 to 8 years. This group is neither freshers nor too old where you have to give very high hikes or bigger job titles. They have the right amount of experience, right burn in the stomach to work hard and earn and not old enough to get complacent.
This episode specifically focuses on IT industry in India - IT industry has a weird supply demand problem - on one side it has supply of young engineers coming out of colleges every year and on the other hand it's not easy to get quality engineers/designers. Where do the experienced SE/SDs go? SE-SD layer is the oxygen layer of the industry yet it's the layer that's undernourished and hence lost in the sea of workforce.
In this episode we explore how to nurture the SE/SD layer into their decades of experience. How not to let them become a liability, rather respect their experience and help them thrive.
Jacinda Ardern quit as New Zealand prime minister early Feb this year, ahead of this year's election in October saying she no longer has "enough in the tank" to lead. While it was surprising many around the world were shocked. It wasn't perceived only as a political news, it was more than that. She was a celebrated darling of the left wing politics and a role model for women leaders, whether she called for it or not, she was portrayed so. So when she decided to quit, it shocked many. There are many unasked, unanswered questions - the main question what does it imply to be a women leader? Can women leaders handle pressure? Can vulnerability shown by women leaders celebrated and copied? Can women leaders have it all?
So this episode explores all these questions.
lifeasworkingwoman
Working woman especially working moms get asked this question - how do you do it? Meaning how do you manage both home and work and most women absolutely hate it
Keira Knghtley in an 2018 interview to Vogue mentioned "WHY don’t journalists ask men how they balance their home life and their career?,” “Why don’t you ask male actors how they feel being a father and going off to shoot a movie? More times than not, that’s the first question that I’ll be asked — how do you balance motherhood with your career?”
In general it's taken as a condescending question. Its widely and generally written out that this question is not a right or a great question to ask women , working mothers that is
In this episode let's flip it and ask ourselves - from one working woman to another is the question that offending after all. If it's infact offending is it entirely the society's fault in asking the question to working mothers.
Imagine Thomas Alva Edison lived in our times and he chose to invent electricity influencer style. He would have started creating a VLOG first before even touching his equipment for experimenting. Then he would have worried about growing his audience and addressing their concern even before perfecting his experiments. Would electricity have seen the light of the day if he tried doing all experiments before a big audience through his VLOGs?
Influencer as a career option shouldn't be aspired by everyone but it seems to be the case. Can this be ignored?
let'stalkworklife
EaseMyTrip co-founder's tweet on a candidate's behavior - it caused a bit of noise in twitter. In this episode we dissect the tweet - is it appropriate for a leader of a startup in unicorn club to tweet in the given situation. What does it say about the leader and lessons for future leaders!
letstalkworklife
Working woman get frustrated and decide to quit, as in quit permanently at different stages of their career.
It could be at a point where you decide to dedicate more time towards kids and elderly, managing both home and work has become just too much, something got to go.
It could be at a point when you search for a job to re-enter the workforce and you feel there are many obstacles on the way be in terms of the role you would like to get or salary isn't enough or many different reasons.
There are very many reasons you as a women might decide to quit. But whose loss is it anyway?
In this week's episode we are going to explore or deep dive into the continuing debate around work from home or work from anywhere as against work from office. Now spotify announcing work-from-anywhere policy is old news, They introduced it around Feb 2021. But then one year, well a little more than one year later the CEO has made announcement their employee turnover has dropped after adopting that policy. So let's really check out what they did, how they did and how well they have made it work for them. What is the lesson for others if they wish to adopt it for their organisations.
Let's talk about loyalty. That thing old people have. Shall we?
What is loyalty?
Why is loyalty to orgs defined in tenure?
Can hikes buy employee loyalty?
What other factors contribute to employee loyalty?
If you have to imagine visually how population of men and women in workforce are in terms of count over decades..men's count would be like a wall, consistently the number keeps ups over years, assuming each year is one layer in that wall. On other hand count of woman in workforce has to imagined like a human pyramid, gradually reduces over year, and thins at the top or reduces over years.
In this scenario of woman in workforce thinning over years, how do companies get woman into leadership positions? And when they do, is there any inherent downfall in the plan? Is it sustainable? When women are encouraged to become leaders with all sorts of inclusive and mentorship program by companies, but that isn't backed up by healthy numbers at all levels - how will it be effective?
lifeasworkingwoman
In this episode we are going to take a look at that "that eye popping pay rise" that's hitting India Inc and which is also the reason behind "Great resignation" in India.
letstalkworklife
Hello and welcome to the 7 th episode of Let talk worklife. In this episode we are going to talk about the important career trap woman should avoid. When you say Sloth - the one thing that pops up is the slowness, now do you know why Sloths move slowly?They do it for a very simple reason: survival. The way Sloth has learnt to adopt by being very slow and Survive in the animal kingdom, many working woman have learnt to be in Survival mode for a very long time in work life. However unlike Sloth where that survival mode is a live saver, for working woman survival mode for a long time is a career trap.
lifeasworkingwoman
Hello and welcome to the sixth episode of Let's talk work life.
Office spaces are opening up, now the question is like do we want to really go back to work. Many of us if not all of us have gotten used to the to new ways of working, i.e working from home. Now at the close of pandemic, the general view is the hybrid model is here to stay meaning a mix of work from home and work from office.
But how will Indian industries adopt. Will they adopt hybrid model?
It's one of the difficult questions woman have to answer and justify. And if you are a new mother who took break and want to come back the question is even harder to be answered and justified.
Why do we want to work.
In this episode we try to understand how to approach the answer to the question by touching on sense of identity and sense of self worth.
Work life is often compared to drudgery - right or wrong it's probably because over the years we tend to do the same work again and again. Even when you get promotion or change companies, there is a certain amount of "the usual factor" to it.
How do you make work fun in such environment.
Learn from the kids. Here in this episode we discuss how to take cue from a child's behavior and emulate it in our workplace
If you love the episode, subscribe to the podcast.
DivHERsity publised - a Benchmarking Report 2020-2021 -An analysis of the 2020 report shows that there has been no increase in women participation in workforce as compared to 2019, which stands at 34%. The report also highlights that the gender gap exists at all levels of the talent pipeline for women, and it widens as they move towards senior management/CEO levels. - which isn't surprising.
Here in this episode - we explore the three main factors in the context of work environment established in the job market that acts as hurdles for women coming back to workforce.
1 - Imagery of lack of worklife balance
2 - Lost network connectivity
3 - Interview process and support system
Pretty privilege - now what is that ? You ve never heard that word before ? Then in this episode you'll learn about it. You've heard about it but you don't believe you never had that advantage? Check the episode, you might want to rethink that belief...especially in the context of workplace.
In this episode, I explore "I don't dream of labor" phenomenon in Indian context.
- Is it a matter of privilege?
- What do you dream of if not labor
- It sounds like an anti-corporate movement, is it?
- Is it a anti-work movement?
- Lack of purpose in corporate jobs.