Introducing Power for Sale, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. In Untold: Power for Sale, host Valentina Pop and a team of FT correspondents from all over Europe investigate what happened in the Qatargate scandal, where EU lawmakers were accused of accepting payments from Qatar to whitewash its image.Subscribe and listen on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing Life and Art, from FT Weekend. It's a new twice-weekly culture podcast from the Financial Times. On Monday, we talk about life, and how to live a good one, in a one-on-one conversation that explores everything from food and travel to philosophy and creativity. On Friday, we talk about “art” – in a chat show! Three FT journalists come together to discuss a new cultural release across film, TV, music and books. Hosted by Lilah Raptopoulos, together with the FT’s award-winning writers and editors, and special guests.Click here to follow Life and Art, from FT Weekend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a repeat of a popular Working It episode, Isabel Berwick asks if HR has an image problem. For some managers, the phrase “human resources” has become synonymous with the idea of needless corporate policies that get in the way of growth. From the employee's perspective, there is often doubt on whether HR is there to protect them - or the company. Host Isabel Berwick speaks with Jamie Fiore Higgins, an author and executive coach who spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs, about her experience of HR at the investment bank. Isabel also speaks to Georgina Shaw, a people partner at Lush, a company without a conventional HR department, and discusses HR’s role in the corporate structure with Andrew Hill, the FT’s senior business writer.FT subscriber? Sign up for the weekly Working It newsletter with one click here. We cover all things workplace and management — plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. We'd 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 Isabel on LinkedInSubscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — and do leave us a review!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Manuela Saragosa. Produced by Novel.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all want to achieve more - and produce better work - without spending more time at our desk. Isabel Berwick asks senior FT columnist Tim Harford how best to tackle the problem of productivity. Tim shares some of his top tips for avoiding distraction and creating a state of “flow” at work. Plus, could AI come to the rescue?Want more?Will ChatGPT be Homer Simpson’s Salvation?How Cal Newport rewrote the productivity gospelFT subscriber? Sign up for the weekly Working It newsletter with one click, here. We cover all things workplace and management — plus exclusive reporting on trends, tips and what’s coming next. We'd love to hear from you. What do you like (or not)? What topics should we tackle? Email Isabel directly at [email protected]. Follow Isabel on LinkedInSubscribe to Working It wherever you get your podcasts — and do leave us a review!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Produced by Audrey Tinline. Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Mix by Jake Fielding. The sound engineer is Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s been a lot of big finance and economics news in 2023. Whether it's stories about rising interest rates, tech industry layoffs or bank runs, it can almost feel like you need an MBA just to make sense of it all. That’s why the Financial Times is launching a bonus series called Behind the Money: Night School. Over the next five weeks, this show will help you understand the concepts behind the biggest economic stories of this year. U.S. managing editor Peter Spiegel chats with FT journalists as they unpack the basics around things like energy markets, inflation and the rise of artificial intelligence. This series is supported by Blinkist. If you want to find out more about conversations like this, check out the Blinkist app.Behind the Money: Night School is out now. Find it by subscribing to the Behind the Money podcast wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An epic post-pandemic workplace culture clash is hotting up this summer, pitting bosses who want everyone back in the office against workers who have embraced autonomy and flexibility. Even if leaders won’t say so publicly, many of them want to see workers at their desks. Host Isabel Berwick talks to organisational behaviour expert Professor Anita Woolley about the reasons why CEOs won’t let go of control - and why staff are always likely to resist their demands. Then the FT’s chief UK business correspondent, Dan Thomas, tells Isabel about the current state of office occupancy, and the secret frustrations of business leaders with staff who refuse to undertake (increasingly expensive) commutes. The pair discuss whether looming recessions and economic woes might give business leaders the upper hand. Want more?Office returns stall as UK workers cling to flexible working - Dan Thomas and Ella Hollowoodhttps://www.ft.com/content/5ed49b8a-6c69-418c-9a26-7f43a99b1d1fWhy CEOs are so WTF about working from home - Gilliant Tett opinion columnhttps://www.ft.com/content/8a3f1fa7-8c0c-4068-b0d9-f12c84f0b8d6Stanford professor Nick Bloom’s WFH Research - lots of useful data herehttps://wfhresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WFHResearch_updates_June2022.pdf…and why asking for five days a week in the office means fewer workers complyhttps://twitter.com/I_Am_NickBloom/status/1534535041702711296/photo/1FT subscriber? Sign up for the weekly Working It newsletter. We 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 — and do leave us a review!Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan and Manuela Saragosa. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Behind the Money is back with all-new episodes! From hostile takeovers to C-suite intrigue, Behind the Money takes you inside the business and financial stories of the moment with reporting from Financial Times journalists around the world. The podcast returns May 25. You can follow the show now! 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.