Mind Your Work

Burnout is a commonly discussed topic these days, but what exactly is burnout and is it really a “millennial condition” as the popular press suggests it is? In this episode, we explain what it means to experience burnout at work and discuss some of the workplace challenges that often lead to burning out. We also provide some suggestions that may help you, or others, cope with burnout. We cap off with some discussion about burnout as a cultural phenomenon and if burnout can be viewed as a form of adaptation to the kind of work we do. Timestamps: 1:10: What is burnout? 2:46: What causes burnout at work? 4:54: Examples of stressors (autonomy, role ambiguity, role conflict) 7:34: Even more stressors - emotional dissonance and work-life conflict 9:48: Preventing and coping with burnout 12:00: Helping others cope with burnout as a manager or peer 14:02: Do we live in a burnout culture? 19:26: Does burnout protect us from emotional demands at work? 22:35: This is not Homework: Burnout self-assessment Mentioned This Episode: Buzzfeed article on burnout This is Not Homework – Are you showing signs of burnout? Take this shortened version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory to find out (Disclaimer: This in no way constitutes a medical diagnosis) [email protected] – Email us your ideas here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. Our transition music for this episode is "Looking Back” also by Lee; licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

In this episode, Jose and Nicholas discuss Nicholas’ third favorite topic, personality models. In Season 1 Episodes 2–3, we discussed a single model of personality but there are many others out there. This time we talk about some of those other models and, boy, do we have opinions. Although we don’t like many of these models, we do our best to explain our concerns and link them to what research knows. Join us and learn about what you should be looking for when it comes to different models of personality! Timestamps: 0:30: Why are we talking about personality, AGAIN? 2:00: The Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI): Why it’s popular and why we don’t like it 7:20: The True Colors model of personality: We also don’t like this one 9:10: Personality in the context of selecting and coaching employees 11:00: Our takeaways from the episode’s discussion 13:00: Thank you for listening and soliciting feedback! Mentioned This Episode: [email protected] – Email us your ideas here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! Credits: Our intro and outro music for Unscripted is “Pamgaea” by Kevin McLeod, licensed under licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. You can find more of Kevin’s music at incompetech.com. Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

When was the last time you avoided speaking up or trying something new because you were afraid of what others might think or say about you? This is a common feeling in psychologically unsafe environments. This episode, we discuss what psychological safety is, why it is important to foster in work environments, and how to go about creating a psychologically safe space for your team. We also share our own experiences with two highly charged environments that require significant amounts of vulnerability and (by association) psychological safety for you to “perform” effectively. Timestamps: 1:00: What is psychological safety? 2:35: What implications does psychological safety have for workplaces? 4:25: How do you foster a psychologically safe work environment? 7:37: This is not Homework: Identifying psychologically safe and unsafe environments 8:41: Our experiences in psychologically (un)safe environments 8:58: Nicholas’s example: improv classes 14:39: Jose’s example: playing in a band Mentioned This Episode: Science for Work evidence summary on psychological safety - https://scienceforwork.com/blog/psychological-safety   [email protected] – Email us your ideas here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. Our transition music for this episode is “Southside” also by Lee; licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

In the first episode of our new series, Unscripted, we use a video by Jon Bois of SBNation to jump into a discussion about careers that are considered works of passion, the possibility of consumers co-opting the labor that goes into a product, and how careful psychologists need to be when nudging people at work to behave in certain ways. Timestamps: 0:11: An introduction to Unscripted and why we're talking about this video 2:20: Losing ownership of your work when that work is your passion 5:53: The thin line between encouraging passion and taking advantage of employees 9:46: Our takeaways from today’s discussion 11:50: Wrapping up and getting you involved in the conversation! Mentioned This Episode: “Randall Cunningham Seizes the Means of Production” by Jon Bois of SBNation – 20 minutes of your time well-spent! [email protected] – Email us your ideas here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! Credits: Our intro and outro music for Unscripted is “Pamgaea” by Kevin McLeod, licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. You can find more of Kevin’s music at incompetech.com. Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

If you work on a computer, you’ve likely been touched in some way by the advances that have made “Office 2.0” possible. In this episode, we discuss a key aspect of tech-enabled work environments: telework and virtual teams. We cover what the research says about the pros and cons of these arrangements, some important factors to consider to have an effective virtual team, and how to know if you are well-equipped to be effective as a remote worker. Timestamps: 1:00: What is Office 2.0? 1:35: What are teleworkers and virtual teams? 2:58: Prevalence of virtual teams and benefit to organizations 5:02: Impact of telework and virtual teams on employees 6:50: The importance of trust and social interaction in virtual teams 10:01: Balancing office work and telework 12:16: Competencies and traits that help with remote work 14:50: Our experience making a podcast as a virtual team 19:45: This is not Homework: What other technologies could we leverage for the podcast? Mentioned This Episode: [email protected] – Email us your ideas here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. Our transition music for this episode is “I’m Going For a Coffee” also by Lee; licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

The year is coming to a close so we take a few minutes to review Season 1 of MindYourWork and talk about some exciting new things happening in Season 2! Timestamps: 00:25: Introduction and thanks! 01:50: Adjustments to the release schedule 03:33: Our exciting new mini-series 06:40: A preview of Season 2 Mentioned This Episode: Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! Send us a tweet with suggestions at MindYourWorkIO Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

We’ve all set goals that we never attain. The research says that goals, however, are one of the most powerful motivators we have access to. In this episode, we explore goal-setting theory and provide you with all the information you’ll need to design better goals and tap into their motivational power. Timestamps: 01:27: Why are goals powerful motivators? 03:02: How to design better goals (Goal-Setting Theory & S.M.A.R.T. Goals) 06:45: Misapplications of S.M.A.R.T. Goals and their consequences 10:48: Other important pieces to make goals effective motivators 13:04: Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) and expanding goals to a broader context 16:30: The importance of understanding what your goals might be missing out on 22:30: This Is Not Homework: Applying Goal-Setting Theory & S.M.A.R.T. Goals Mentioned This Episode: Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! MindYourWork on iTunes – Please leave us a review, it really helps others find us https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1390387919?mt=2&ls=1 Objectives & Key Results – felipecastro.com/en/okr/what-is-okr/ Humanyze Research – https://hbr.org/2014/09/give-your-unsung-office-heroes-a-raise and http://www.humanyze.com/case-studies-multi-national-tech-company/ MYW Goal-Setting Infographic: A brief guide on how to design better goals! (https://imgur.com/pLZxmdV) Addendums: 9:01: An important aspect of the logging company study we mention is that the drivers were not offered any reward for meeting the goals and were not punished if they did not meet their goals. Incredibly just setting a goal for the drivers was enough to influence performance without any tangible outcome tied to it. 11:45: An important clarification is that the Pygmalion effect did not originate from military research (although there is support for its existence in a military setting). It actually stemmed from work by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson who studied this phenomenon in the classroom and published their findings in 1968. Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at leerosevere.bandcamp.com. Our transition music for this episode is “Evening Glow” also by Lee; licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0). Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

What is it about an organization that makes it an attractive place to work? In this episode, we describe the process of organizational attraction from beginning to end and explain why someone would likely choose one organization over another. We also discuss modern strategies for engaging and attracting candidates such as social media and reframing the candidate experience. Timestamps: 01:32 Episode outline 03:20 Stage 1: Subconscious attraction and brand 05:20 Stage 2: Initial attraction to the organization 07:54 Stage 3: Attraction through tailored information 09:58 Mechanisms of attraction 11:10 Stage 4: Attraction from the inside: verifying attraction through experience 12:36 New strategies for attracting employees 13:32 Arby’s Twitter account: Using social media to attract candidates 16:26 General Electrics’ Instagram and the curation of brands online 21:20 Reframing the “candidate experience” through data 23:35 This is Not Homework: Recruitment videos Mentioned This Episode: Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! MindYourWork on iTunes – Please leave us a review, it really helps others find us Recruitment videos: 1. Amazon Services Recruitment Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRdn71yG9Lk 2. New Zealand Police Recruitment Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9psILoYmCc 3. Fiverr Recruitment Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5rvJOcff_I Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. Our transition music for this episode is “Good Morning” by Audiobinger, licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0. You can find more music by Audiobinger at freemusicarchive.org Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

What’s the difference between leaders and managers? Are leaders born or made? In this episode, we answer these questions and discuss leadership through the lens of “transformational leadership” – a concise way of describing why leaders are so effective and held in such high regard. We conclude with discussing what you can do if you want to become a better leader yourself. Timestamps: 01:03 Episode outline 01:33 Are leaders born or made? 03:50 Thinking about leadership and management as behaviour: initiating structure and consideration 08:18 Transformational leadership 11:46 This is Not Homework and How can you improve your leadership? Mentioned This Episode: Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! MindYourWork on iTunes – Please leave us a review, it really helps others find us MYW Leadership Infographic – A 5-minute guide to understanding and building your capacity to lead and manage with poise (https://imgur.com/a/AfdHybK) Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. Our transition music for this episode is “Here's the Thing” also by Lee; licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0). Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!

This episode focuses (no pun intended) on the practice of mindfulness and its implications for our behavior and personal experience at work. The hosts discuss everything from whether being mindful is something you’re born with or whether you can learn it to what are the potential negatives of mindfulness on your ego! Timestamps: 00:48 Discussion of workplace distractions and does your cell phone lower your IQ 01:50 Understanding what we mean by mindfulness 05:06 Nature vs. nurture and mindfulness as a trait 06:39 The research on the benefits of mindfulness 10:10 Potential negatives of mindfulness and misapplications in the West 14:08 Common mindfulness interventions 17:32 The hosts discuss their personal experiences with mindfulness 20:09 This Is Not Homework and your thoughts on implementing mindfulness at work Mentioned This Episode: Mindyourwork.io – Find us here! MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet! MindYourWork on iTunes – Please leave us a review, it really helps others find us Handbook of Mindfulness: Theory, Research, and Practice (2015; Eds. Brown, Creswell, & Ryan) – Comprehensive textbook on the science of mindfulness Headspace – Guided meditation app for beginners to seasoned meditators Awake at Work (2006; Michael Carroll) – Practical guide for being more mindful in the workplace Credits: Our intro and outro music is “Ingenuity” by Lee Rosevere, licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 3.0). You can find more of Lee’s music at https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/. Our transition music for this episode is “Chinatown” by Audiobinger, licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0. You can find more music by Audiobinger at freemusicarchive.org Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!