Season 05 Episode 07: Trajce raises the issue of the Barnaby Bother. It was a Boisterous Barnaby Bumble… Alan explains the alcohol-infused ‘Barnaby bumble’: It made national news, all around Australia, and it was highly embarrassing to anyone involved. Trajce reminds the crew that Zahi Steggall, Member of Parliament New South Wales, SW MP, has implored, “We must do something about alcohol use in parliament.” We cannot trivialise this. Yet, alcohol consumption is culturally indoctrinated in...

WhyWork Podcast subscriber Anna Linning asks, “How are different organisations managing the phenomena of digital and instant communication modes in their business - Teams, social media, intranets, and the like?” “Doctor, doctor, give me a call,” Alan chimes, reflecting on Anna’s work in an Australian occupational medical practice. The team debate the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2023 on the right to disconnect because of the issue raised by Anna: the communication impact on mental and emotional...

WARNING: This episode references suicide and sexual matters. The WhyWork crew debate the contest of being forthright in social relations. Trajce reveals a case of a young, drunken lawyer determined to approach a colleague on the dancefloor at a work party. The courts deemed his behaviour to be highly inappropriate and sexualised. This sounds like Season 01 and Episode 01, ‘Bubbles of Trouble.’ “It’s rather sudsy, ” Alan reflects. “It’s the ‘A’ word,” says Trajce, “the Aaa-lcohol that...

Sara laments the damage to her little toe that got no roast beef, “… and it was on my birthday!” she punctuates the story. No, she hadn't been drinking... The team debate the idea of drinking at work, particularly when it is distributed. Sara describes a case when a teacher concluded his remote video call with his employer by drinking from a cask of wine. When disputed, the parties agreed on the facts that this violated workplace agreements and code of conduct. Alan slurps his lemon soda in...

“These lawyer boys are like Teflon,” Sara labels, “You see? There you go again– deflection! That is deflection number 02 this morning,” she accuses Alan. After discussing Alan’s adventures, soaring above the lush, grassy, green, open paddocks of Tasmania and Trajce’s newfound love of the Reformer and his Pilates socks, the team venture into workplace discourse. Trajce asks, “If I ask you about your right to disconnect, what does it mean to you?” Alan, Trajce, and Sara debate the amendments to...

Season 05 Episode 02: More than just paper airplanes: The projectiles impacting our teachers "I have injury statistics on teachers," inivites Sara, "Tell me how is it that they are struck by flying objects? Hit by projectiles!" That question leads to confessions by the boys as they recall their school days. Sara remembers her Italian language teacher who used to throw chalk at students. "It's the reverse now!" exclaims Trajce. Sara challenges the team to consider the enduring impact of good...

Season 05 Episode 01: Citizen Control. "Consultation - meh! Peh!" complains Sara, with disdain. "There is a lot of corporate hazing and gaslighting," reflects Trajce. This episode was spurned by the presentation by Dr Elise Crawford of Central Queensland University on her reesarch of worker particpation in their work design during the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia Queensland seminar last year. Sara elaborates on the tiered scales of organisational citizenship which can...

WhyWork Season 05 Ready for Take Off, Coming Soon

There's more: The English legal profession, "Trajce, you're always on top of this," says Alan. Consultation, Teachers. Lawyers. All of it is on the table. We're back. Educate your mind because the system will keep you blind.

Honey, we're home. Season 05 is coming to you soon. Kitchen benches and silicosis. It's a thing. Work design versus interior design. Home renovations and engineered stone. Yah, let's do this. "Testing, testing, testing, hi there." "It's an intro, guys". Educate your mind.

Honey, we're home... Season 05. Educate your mind because the system can be blind. Create a new path. We're back. Teachers. signage, personal protective equipment, controversy, systematic design, and more giggles. Let's just call it like it is. Caught on film.

Season 04 Episode 13: Alan, Trajce, and Sara discuss the casualised work phenomenon introduced in a rampant way during the pandemic, causing the management of distributed work and the advent of remote video call meetings.Trajce discloses one of his secret nicknames, The Count von Count from Sesame Street, which is met by Alan and Sara’s appreciative laughter who cannot 'unsee' Trajce as The Count. Sara shares a junk food gem, passed to her by a past workmate and friend, Dr Brent Oldenburg,...

“Never smile at a crocodile,” chimes Alan. This episode speaks on working with critters; the first, a case of two soldiers attacked by a crocodile in Far North Queensland. Comcare charged the Australian Department of Defense for breaching federal work and safety laws for failing to maintain a safe system of work, training, and policy implementation. “You’ve obviously seen an alligator or two in your travels across America, Sara,” Trajce suggests. The boys start chest-thumping their machismo...

Season 04 Episode 11: The things we do for fun. WARNING: This episode discusses fatalities Alan reflects on the prosecutions and a pending coronial inquest on the fatalities of the six Tasmanian children (and three injured children) while playing in jumping castles during their school fair. “The judgement on the facts is pending,” Alan explained, “and there are no industrial manslaughter judgements in Tasmania.”  The team grapples with the loss of innocent lives and the relaxed approaches to...

Season 04 Episode 10: Prosecuting ‘nicely’ WARNING: Suicide is discussed in this episode. Alan introduces a model of prosecution adopted by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator that provides guidance to industry and focuses on the most important prosecutorial issues. Alan and Trajce dream of dismantling ideological boundaries so that business and industry can return to the fundamental questions on, “What is our purpose?" In this way, creative solutions can be found to solve age-old problems....

CAUTION: This episode speaks on near miss harm of a child. Season 04 Episode 09: This episode speaks about the first pillar of work design, workplace protections, and the sociopolitical influences of worker empowerment. Thank you to subscriber, David Denoux, who shared his story on construction work and safety concerns. “If something goes wrong, terribly wrong, it will change your life,” warns Alan, “just say 'no' and walk away.” Sara reminds Alan and Trajce that sometimes a worker may not...

Season 04 Episode 08: This episode covers two main topics. The first, thanks to our subscriber Andrew Nicholls, a design and technology teacher and researcher, who informed us of his advocacy for the provision of personal protective equipment to school technology and design staff. Alan reminds us of the case against a university because of levies charged to nursing students for their fit testing of respiratory protective equipment before they undertook their hospital placements. Trajce sites...

Season 04 Episode 07: This episode stemmed from conversations with Dylan Matthews of the BHP FutureFit Academy on the seemingly innocent and instructive applications of the Hierarchy of Controls (HOC) in safety management: elimination, substitution, isolation, engineering, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment (ESIEAP – ‘Every Sunday I Eat A Pie’). Trajce is fired up by this topic as he recalls the 17th Century philosophy of Thomas Hobbes on jurisprudence, governance,...

WARNING: A fatality and suicide are discussed in this episode. Season 04 Episode 06: “We’re all human,” Alan explains, “even during our methane messaging,” as he details the news story of U.S. Biden administration’s climate envoy, John Kerry, delivering a passionate speech on climate change in the most awkward exchange that was captured on film. The idea of ‘messaging’ led to the trio’s, Alan, Trajce, and Sara’s, expansion on the WhyWork Podcast’s vocabulary After Alan introduces topics on...

WARNING: Suicide is mentioned in this episode. Season 04 Episode 05: Trajce introduces the idea of psychosocial factors causing work-related mental health disorders and psychological injury in a case in Victoria that led to the reguator's prosecution of a government agency. Alan explains that the injured person in this case committed suicide and even though this loss of life was not directly related to the workplace dynamics, the prosecution fine was significant. "This case," Alan recalls,...

Season 04 Episode 04: "It's time to put the lid on dust," Trajce advances. Engineered stone, silica exposure - this has been in the media of late. The trio, Alan, Trajce, and Sara, discuss who is vulnerable to these exposures and why. Trajce argues that the regulators must not demonise one hazard exposure. Rather, pragmatism is needed to determine the safety of work. Alan argues the case that even when a business adheres to the workplace adivsory exposure standards for respirable dust, it...

Season 04 Episode 03: Sara provokes thought on rites of passage by asking, “What are we holding on to in work and education simply because of a social construct established by rites of passage?” and, “Are the rites of passage of old still useful now?” Sara challenges the notion of adhering to rites of passage versus embracing transformative, generative work or education system re-design. She provides healthcare examples and asks how work designers effectively elicit knowledge to inform their...

Season 04 Episode 02: Sara speaks about a WooFA (WFA) experience while walking her dog mid-work break when a bulldog muscled its way up a drive and launched into an attack on her dog. The boys, Alan and Trajce, discuss employer liabilities, and Sara reminds the boys that businesses like Joanna Clough’s, “The Dog Safe Workplace”, were established to help address and train businesses for these instances. The reflections continue to cross over in healthcare and other WooFA (WFA) experiences....

Season 04 Episode 01: “I’m a GIF gal and you are Emoji men,” says Sara. “Is it the eggplant emoji?” she teases. Trajce rolls his eyes and, in his exasperation, argues that it takes 3 seconds for the conversation to devolve among our trio. “I wouldn’t know,” he says, “it is just a nightshade fruit to me.” Trajce limits his hieroglyphics lexicon of an emoji library to four: the smiley face, the cappuccino, a beer stein, and a glass of red wine. “In vino veritas… in wine, there is truth,” he...