We’ve all been there: the presentation we’re dreading, the deadline we’ve been avoiding, the boss breathing down our neck. So how best to cope with the resulting stress and pressure? Host Isabel Berwick sources top tips from Chris Hunt, a bomb disposal operator, and Mark Wilson, professor of performance psychology at the University of Exeter. Both also explain how pressure affects you physiologically. Want to get in touch? Write to [email protected]  Do you have a workplace dilemma you’d...

LinkedIn started life as a simple jobs site. Now, it’s something far more complex, with influencers vying for attention, and tech bros spinning improbable yarns about how hard they work. How can ordinary people get better at using the site without becoming bores? How much is it acceptable to share about yourself on LinkedIn? And what can we learn from the site’s power users? Isabel Berwick speaks to Meagan Loyst – a LinkedIn “Top Voice” – to find out. Later, Isabel speaks to Hannah Murphy, an...

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...

Millions of working adults struggle with ADHD worldwide. The condition often affects people’s ability to focus and complete tasks, making professional life difficult. Shortages of ADHD medicines have compounded the problem, with some patients forced to go without, or ration, their medication. How can managers better understand employees who are struggling with ADHD? What adjustments can they make to improve working conditions? And what can workers themselves do to cope? Host Isabel Berwick...

The UK has a well-reported productivity problem, with mediocre managers, poor communication and chronic underinvestment all hampering growth. What can Britain glean from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, all of which have more productive economies? And what lessons can be learned from Japan, the only major, developed economy that is less productive than the UK? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to FT senior business writer Andrew Hill to find out what ails Britain. Later, she chats to Leo Lewis (the FT’s...

Tattoos used to be frowned upon in corporate settings. But as more of us get inked, is that attitude starting to, well, fade? Employers have been easing restrictions on tattoos – but if responses to a recent FT column are any guide, plenty of people still can’t bear them. Isabel speaks to the author of that column, Pilita Clark, about what tattoos can mean for your career. Isabel speaks to tattoo enthusiasts Isabelle Campbell (an FT VP working on product and technology) and Lucy Snell, a...

Meetings are an inevitable part of office life – but how many of them are actually useful? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Kaz Nejatian, chief operating officer of ecommerce group Shopify, to find out why the company slashed staff meetings and what the effects of that policy – dubbed “Chaos Monkey” – have been. Isabel also speaks to Dr Joe Allen, director of the Center for Meeting Effectiveness at the University of Utah, to find out how managers can make meetings less painful. Got a workplace...

Amy Edmondson is a professor of leadership and management at Harvard Business School and one of the world’s most influential management thinkers. She talks to host Isabel Berwick about her new book, Right Kind of Wrong, in which she argues that companies can only hope to succeed when they make it ‘psychologically safe’ for their teams to fail. Plus, Brooke Masters, the FT’s US financial editor, tells Isabel about the time, early on in her career, when she made a mistake. What did she learn...

We’re getting better at talking about the roles that gender and race play in career progression. What’s less spoken about is class or social mobility. In this episode, host Isabel Berwick talks to John Friedman, professor and chair of economics at Brown University, who studies the impact of childhood inequality, and hears from Sophie Pender, a London-based corporate lawyer and founder of the 93% Club, a UK network that connects and empowers people who went to state school, about how class...

Since the start of the pandemic, tens of thousands of people in the UK have retrained as psychotherapists or counsellors. What is it about the field that has attracted so many, and what does this phenomenon tell us about work? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to the FT’s Bethan Staton, who wrote a brilliant piece on this topic, to find out more. Later, she speaks to Michael Skapinker, who worked as an FT reporter, senior editor and award-winning columnist before training as a counsellor. Michael...

Clear communication can be the difference between getting what you want at work, and missing out. But some of us are better at it than others. Host Isabel Berwick speaks to BBC News analysis editor Ros Atkins, best known for his viral explainer videos, about how we can learn to get to the point. Atkins has made his career conveying information effectively. His recent book, ‘The Art of Explanation,’ distils lessons from more than 20 years at the BBC. Some work jargon is a lot worse than...

Not all that long ago, you might have done the same job – or kind of job – for your entire career, but as life expectancy increases and social mores change, a growing number of people are pivoting to new jobs in middle age. In this episode, recorded at the FT Weekend Festival at London’s Kenwood House, Isabel Berwick speaks to three experts to find out why changing careers can have surprising benefits – and how to do it best. Isabel is joined by Jan Hall, founding partner of leadership...

Brits love to moan about their managers – but maybe they have a point. The vast majority of bosses in the UK get no formal training on how to lead, and most MPs don’t think improving the quality of management should be a priority, according to polling and data from the Chartered Management Institute. Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Ann Francke, head of the CMI, to find out where British managers go wrong – and what better leadership could do for the British economy. Later, she speaks to the...

It’s Friday afternoon in the city. You’re surrounded by office blocks, there’s a restaurant or bar on every corner… so where is everyone? If occupancy and travel data are anything to go by, they’re probably at home. Isabel Berwick speaks to Stanford economics professor Nick Bloom and FT columnist Pilita Clark to find out whether cities will be ghost towns on Fridays for the foreseeable future. She also asks: if people aren’t at the office on Friday, what are they getting up to? Finally, Chris...

New data from Gallup shows that almost one in five Brits say they feel angry at work – a sharp jump from last year and comfortably higher than our European counterparts. So how can we stop getting wound up in the office – and how should we deal with colleagues who fly into a rage? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Mike Fisher, founder and director of the British Association of Anger Management, about how workplace fury works. Isabel also hears from Liz Fosslien, the bestselling co-author and...

Corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes are commonplace, and with good reason. They can help with staff satisfaction, retention and improve business outcomes. But all too often they are implemented in incoherent ways. Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Lily Zheng, a DEI strategist and consultant, about how companies can develop initiatives that make a lasting difference. Want more? For a limited time this summer, we're making related articles FREE to read for all Working It...

Work has changed immeasurably since the pandemic – and office design has adapted too. Laura Beales, co-founder and chief operating officer of Tally Workspace, tells host Isabel Berwick why beer taps are out and phone booths are in, while Ebbie Wisecarver, head of Global Design and Development at WeWork, discusses how the company’s approach to design has matured since Covid-19. Finally, FT columnist Simon Kuper discusses how he made his perfect office: a beautifully appointed, 19th-century...

The Harvard Business Review once published a damning report about middle managers, saying that the very title “evokes mediocrity”. Was that fair? And what does it take to be a good middle manager? Host Isabel Berwick, the FT’s work and careers editor, discusses with Andrew Hill, the FT’s senior business writer and former management editor. This is a repeat of an episode published on October 18, 2022. Want more? Andrew Hill on why being a manager matters more than ever  How demands on team...

If you often feel underqualified and full of self-doubt at work, you may be suffering from imposter syndrome. But as host Isabel Berwick finds out in this episode, in some cases that may actually improve your performance. Isabel speaks to Sian Beilock, president of Columbia University’s Barnard College, a cognitive scientist who studies how people perform under stress, and Viv Groskop, author, comedian and host of the podcast 'How to Own the Room'. Sian unpicks the psychological aspects of...

It can be dispiriting that six years after the #MeToo movement went viral, alleged office sexual predators continue to be unmasked by the media – including the recent FT exposés of hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, and of star architect David Adjaye, both of whom dispute the allegations against them. In this episode, host Isabel Berwick speaks to her colleague Madison Marriage, who led the Odey investigation, about how hard it can be to get victims to come forward. Meanwhile FT business...

Do you ever find yourself lost for words? Or maybe you have too much to say? This week’s episode features a masterclass in chit-chat from Matt Abrahams, a lecturer in communications at Stanford University, podcast host, and author of the forthcoming book 'Think Faster, Talk Smarter'. Good conversation is an essential tool of self-promotion in the office. So what do we make of Matt’s advice here at the FT office? Host Isabel Berwick gets the views of award-winning FT columnist Pilita Clark and...

The US surgeon-general Vivek Murthy recently issued a report calling attention to an epidemic of loneliness and isolation; he warned that people’s lack of social connection was “as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day”. Worst affected are men: in 2021, a study by the Survey Center on American Life said the percentage of men without any close friends had jumped from 3 per cent to 15 per cent since 1990. Can the workplace help alleviate the problem? Host Isabel Berwick talks to Jonathan...

When the British broadcaster Davina McCall woke up one morning in her forties dripping with sweat, she didn’t know what was happening to her. She’d never heard the word perimenopause. But as she did her research, she became in her words an “accidental activist”, determined to raise awareness and help menopausal women, especially in the workplace. In a recording taken from the recent FT Live Women in Business summit, Working It host Isabel Berwick talks to Davina about her campaign and how...

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...

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 gospel FT subscriber? Sign up for the weekly Working It newsletter with...