Trigger warning for baby and pregnancy loss, miscarriage and still birth. Daria courageously and openly talks to us about the devastating experience of losing her baby girl at full term. She recounts how she slowly began to heal, grieve and move forward. She tells us about her 3 daughters and how she has built a community group at the Bank of England to support others going through fertility, loss and pregnancy difficulties.  Trigger warning for baby and pregnancy loss, miscarriage and...

We talk to Jenn Barnett and Jemima Ankuma from Grant Thornton’s Diversity and Inclusion team about all things social mobility. They explain how they ensure that people of lower socio-economic backgrounds can join, progress and thrive at the firm - and the profession more broadly - and why social mobility is also a very personal passion for each of them too.

Laura Walker and Chloe Fletcher, who have shared senior finance roles at Asda, talk to Anna all about their experience of job sharing, the practical considerations and the benefits to both companies and individuals.  They explain how with their current venture, The Job Share Revolution, they support both businesses and individuals who want to explore job sharing from establishing a business case for the job share, finding job share pairs and setting up efficient processes, communications and...

We talk to Stonewall Changemaker of the Year 2022 Kayus Fernander about his career at Citi; his journey from being a private, young, black, gay junior within the bank, through to being an open, confident and active participant in and advocate of inclusion groups, initiatives and discussions. He talks about diversity groups, company culture, intersectionality and how we can be better colleagues and managers in the workplace.

Psychologist and therapeutic coach Kyle Davies talks to us about his own experience of anxiety and depression as a young adult, the contributing factors and the natural tendency to mask and avoid situations which exacerbated it. He brings his professional expertise to the conversation, exploring his approach to therapeutic coaching, how we can build our own resilience and listen to our bodies' indicators during life's stresses.  

In this episode of WorkLife Stories, legal senior associate Rachel Dean tells us about her career so far, including how she started out and her move from private practice to an in-house role. She reveals the drivers for her decision to move, what she learnt from the experience and why she ultimately moved back to a law firm afterwards. She offers her advice for anyone considering a move in-house either by secondment or permanent role and how it can enrich your skills and experience.

In this episode, we talk to Jayne Ruff about her book entitled: Imperfect Parenting – Honest Stories from Global Parents in which she pens a chapter on balancing careers and family life. She talks about her own experiences of maternity leave, going back to work and the importance of personal values, honest emotions and flexible boundaries in our search for work life balance.

In this episode of WorkLife Stories, we talk to George Bullock and Russell Cook from Macquarie, the Australian head quartered, global financial services group. George and Russell have both been participants in Macquarie’s Pride Employee Network Group’s Reverse Mentoring Scheme and are now members of the steering group that runs it. They talk about their own experiences of reverse mentoring, how they have grown the popular scheme, the importance of active allyship, mentoring conversation...

Elaine Halligan, parenting coach at The Parent Practice and author of ‘My Child's Different’ tells us her story of a recent discovery that - like her son - she also has ADHD. She talks openly and inspiringly about her own traits, and how she uses them positively in her life and career. She offers her own advice and expertise for both adults and parents of children who may have ADHD or other neurodiverse conditions.

In this episode, we meet Felix Koch and Phil Burgess, the former co-heads of the London office of creative agency C Space. They talk about how they transformed an office with low morale and high attrition after a merger, to a thriving, inclusive, award-winning team. They discuss what worked and what didn't, how they set their shared goals and values alongside very different leadership styles. Find out more about Felix and Phil’s current venture WITHIN, here: https://www.within.business

In this episode, psychologist Jessica Chivers talks to us about her son who has ASD and ADHD and her daughter who has suffered from an eating disorder. She discusses how she has helped them through difficult times of the past few years, navigating different care and educational settings to get them the support they needed. She explains how looking after her own mental health and relationships has given her the strength and resilience to better support her family.

In this episode, Max Siegel talks to us about his lived experience of being transgender. He talks about his upbringing, his family, his feelings about his body, his mental health and the emotional and physical changes he's experienced. He also offers his advice to parents of children who may be going through something similar - and to us all as friends and colleagues of trans people.  

Dorett Jones and Pamela Jones, who are specialists in equity in the workplace and founders of the Genesis Consultancy, talk to us about how employers can create safe, healthy working cultures that help employees of any background, race, gender or sexuality to grow, develop and stay at organisations. They discuss an employee's typical journey from recruitment through to exit, where the pitfalls may lie and where companies are successfully striving to make their workplaces truly inclusive.

Laura Wheeler and Caroline Murphy chat to Anna Richards about their experience of moving out of London, from the practicalities and the stress along with the emotional adjustment needed, diversity and how our identities are linked to where we live.

In this interview with one half of Two Dads UK, Michael Johnson-Ellis talks about how he and his husband Wes built their family through surrogacy and how this experience has led them to support LGBTQ+ couples wanting to become parents. Michael talks about how he hopes the law will change to recognise and support gay couples better and how he thinks corporate employers can help employees going through surrogacy more effectively.

In the latest episode of our podcast 'WorkLife Stories', Anna Richards talks to Lorna Cook and Devila Vekria who are both members of our Support Group for Carers of Elderly Relatives. Lorna and Devila tells us about how they manage their caring responsibilities alongside their careers including the challenges, routines and positive advice they have for others who may be in a similar position.

[Trigger warning]. In this episode, we hear from independent health visitor and birth trauma specialist Liz Poole about the different types of trauma people may experience around birth, how this trauma can manifest itself if the associated emotions are not fully processed and how colleagues and friends can support those we suspect might be suffering. Support can be sought from:  Pandas UK  The Birth Trauma Association MENtalk lincs National Maternity Voices Better Births  PMH...

Cityparents’ Anna Richards talks to Joy Burnford, Founder of My Confidence Matters about progress in gender balance in the workplace, the main issues she sees for women at work today and how corporates and leaders can help to address them.

In this episode which recognises International Day of Disabled Persons on December 3rd, we talk to Esi Hardy, the founder of Celebrating Disability. She talks to us about her own experience of disability in the workplace and about how employers and managers can help their disabled employees and colleagues to flourish, be happy and fulfil their potential at work.

We talk to lawyer and father of two Robin Carvell-Spedding about flexible working for fathers and parental leave in the corporate world. A long-time advocate of flexibility and work life balance, Robin reflects on the impact of the pandemic on the role of fathers at home and at work and shares his views and experience of taking parental leave after the birth of his two children.

HR director Caroline Atkins reflects on her 30 year career of which 20 years has been as a working parent. She offers her advice and experience to other working parents and her views on remote, flexible and part time working that has helped her to get the most out of her career and family life.

Journalist and author Melissa Hogenboom talks to Anna Richards about the shift in identity that takes places as women become mothers as she explores in her book, The Motherhood Complex. They discuss the division of domestic responsibilities and the 'mental load' in families with two professional parents and the impact of these inequalities on women's careers, mental health and motherhood.

Simon Kettlewell has spent the last 20 years raising and caring for his 4 children. His latest novel 'Eternity Leave' draws on his experience of being the primary care-giver of his children while his partner pursued a senior level career in healthcare. In this episode, Simon talks to us about his book and the issues he has encountered around gender, identity, self-esteem and isolation. He offers his advice to new parents and anyone considering breaking the mould of the more traditional family...

In our latest interview, British Nigerian author Nels Abbey talks about his experience of racism in the financial world, explains how we can all be better colleagues to each other and offers his advice to black people wanting to succeed in the corporate world as delivered through his very funny and satirical book ‘Think Like A White Man’.