WhyWork Podcast

Season 07 Bonus 01: Mock Podcast: "Diamonds were her best friend... until carats became complaints - Part 1."

This episode was presented during the Human Factors and Ergonomics Association of Australia (HFESA) 2024 Annual Conference, Brisbane, Queensland. The episode outlines the details of workplace affairs when too much bling and not enough boundaries become fodder for a workplace complaint. The dissection of the case of workplace relations between a jeweller and a store shop worker that eroded and resulted in a landmark payout under the Australian Sex Discrimination Act (Refer Taylor v August and Pemberton Pty Ltd - [2023] FCA 1313). "Love makes...

Season 07 Trailer 06: Special Release Episode Part 3: Shiny things or shadowy motives?

Human Factors and Ergonomics Association of Australia (HFESA) Annual Conference 2024 workshop - Special Release Episode Part 3: Shiny things or shadowy motives? On the road and on tour: Listeners become podcasters for a day - Serious learning done playfully.

Season 07 Trailer 05: Special Release Episode Part 2: Shiny things or shadowy motives?

Human Factors and Ergonomics Association of Australia (HFESA) Annual Conference 2024 workshop - Special Release Episode Part 2: Shiny things or shadowy motives? This could be a part of your workplace, listen in, and enjoy. If you attended the workshop, you might hear yourself on air - part of the story.

Season 07: Special Release Ad 1: Human Factors and Ergonomics Association of Australia (HFESA) Annual Conference 2024 workshop: Shiny things or shadowy motives? The dimininishing sparkle of blurred lines, crossed boundaries, gift giving, and unclear relationships forming in the workplace.

Season 07 Episode 11: From ‘Command & Control’ to ‘Customer Service’ – Beyond ‘hazard salad’ in psychosocial risk management.

The team revel in debate on the new Queensland state and Commonwealth government literature on psychosocial risk management. Sara is relieved to see updates to regulations on psychosocial risks (Work Health and Safety [Psychosocial Risks] Amendment Regulation 2022 because of their focus on work design. Trajce explains aspects of The Commonwealth Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work (Dec 2023) which includes “intrusive surveillance” as a psychosocial hazard, requiring employer risk management and interventions. The team reference Season 01 Episode 05: Kozorov and The Need for Purpose – an e...

Season 07 Episode 10: That old chestnut –Pets & work from home

Pets at home or in the office are a ‘thing’ in modern workplaces. Alan explains, “Some organisations host ‘dog for the day’ events.” Trajce shares his faith-based workplace perk, a ‘Blessing of the animals,’ whether the animal is a police horse, a guinea pig, a dog, or cat. In response, Sara dreams of being blessed which prompts the boys to imagine Sara in all kinds of ‘furry’ dress-up costume scenes. In response to Sara’s protests, Alan concedes, “Sara is just a party animal.”

Trajce describes a Work Cover claim involving...

Season 07 Episode 09: Gilmore versus Blue Care: A hankering for sex

WARNING: This episode includes discussion on a workplace sexual assault – we advise listener discretion.

Alan introduces the case, Gilmore versus Blue Care, a community home care provider. In this case, a personal carer submitted her claim against her employer because of her report of sexual assault when providing daily living support to older men living in a group home. These men each had various forms of mental health disorders and daily living support needs, necessitating their care provision. However, Alan paints the scenario of collective vu...

Season 07 Episode 08: Bollywood & The Digital Footprint

This episode starts with Sara reflecting on the nature of her spirit animal and the symbols of her brand identity: a mix of frivolity and banditry. For more on spirit animals, tune in to S02 E14: Spirit Animals.

Trajce introduces a case on an injured worker who submitted a claim against her employer, a national grocery chain. The claim arose from her experience of heel pain. However, the employer discovered that the injured worker enjoyed dancing and maintained this activity throughout her claim period. In fact, she danced "with...

Season 07 Episode 07: AI Ethics: A Beautifully Shambolic Disaster

WARNING: This episode includes discussion on a workplace fatality – we advise listener discretion.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is off its tree!” protests Trajce. “This stuff is dangerous. Its hallucinogenic – a beautifully shambolic disaster. Society must put the rails on it.” “Are you going to try to reign in Sara?” asks Alan, “Impossible!” he follows.

Trajce explains his experiencing on using AI to research case law. Tested three times, the AI spit out a different version of events. He warns against the implications to legal practitioners on relying on such inco...

Season 07 Episode 06: Free to air - The blue channels and digging in the trenches

WARNING: This episode includes discussion on both sex and serious workplace fatalities and injuries – we advise listener discretion.

“Have you guys heard about the airline kerfuffle?” nudges Sara, as she shares a media report, “There was a flaw in the movie selection technology.”

“It was a bit romantic, maybe a bit too romantic,” agrees Alan. “Bare boobs and prosthetic penises, or so the story goes,” Sara elaborates. She asks the boys, Trajce and Alan, to consider the impacts on workers and the po...

Season 07 Episode 05: Tickle versus Giggle for Girls

WARNING: This episode discusses a fatal incident – we advise listeners to use their discretion.

Alan shares a human right’s case on 'Tickle versus Giggle for Girls,' an alleged case of discrimination from joining a ‘club’ via a service App based on gender identity. “This is squarely political,” says Trajce, “each party has a strong interest group behind them as this case enters into appeal.

Trajce shares more stories on these issues and his experience on managing the allocation of toileting facilities (loos and showers) based on gende...

Season 07 Episode 04: Cheap and nasty: The unintended consequences of workplace interventions

This episode extends the discussion from Season 07 Episode 02 on workplace incentives. Thank you, Michael Grima, who shared a media report on paid Tinder leave benefits. “You get paid to go out on a date?” Alan marvels. “Love me, Tinder…” Trajce croons. “I guess being in love is supposed to make you productive,” Sara reasons. Trajce digs in, “Coffee, Botox, I’ll take it all. I’ll buy in I’m cheap and nasty!”

Sara needles the boys to consider the legal implications of a workplace incentive gone...

Season 07 Episode 03: Passionate or polemic?

Alan and Trajce poke the bear of workplace diplomacy with examples from politics. Alan share a story of a city mayor who referred to a new councillor as a ‘ranga.’ “What’s a ‘ranga’?” asks Trajce. Listen to this episode to find out!

Trajce shares more stories about politicians and their apologies to cover their gaffes. In turn, Sara challenges the boys to think about middle-ground and high-ground fatigue, when being politically correct is simply bland. “Passionate or polemic?” Trajce teases, after remarking on the power of words. “Words break your heart,” Alan sh...

Season 07 Episode 02: Workplace incentives to combat the return-to-office ball-&-chain

The WhyWork crew, Alan, Trajce, and Sara, revel in entertaining stories about novel workplace incentives to motivate staff to return to the office. Thanks to Dr Agustin Chevez for sharing the story about cosmetic Botox booths as a workplace return-to-the-office incentive. Alan cautions, “Take care not to make your workplace incentive look like a contractual agreement.”

Sara shares her angst about the common phenomenon of workplace mediocrity versus innovation. “If you’re free from workplace innovation fatigue,” says Trajce, “call Sara.” She discusses more on Dr. Chevez’s w...

Season 07 Episode 1: Two Years of WhyWork: Celebrations, Travel, Trivialising Workplace Safety, and Design

Celebrations - The team, Alan, Trajce, and Sara reflect on their two years of podcast recordings together. “Has it been two years?” Alan and Sara marvel as Trajce announces their two-year anniversary.

Trajce delivers a delicious view on his recent travels to Montmartre, France, and his experience with the art of Burlesque theatre. He advocates for holiday travel to his recent destination of Slovenia, “It has a Tassie vibe,” he makes as a comparison much to Alan’s surprise, “Or maybe it’s a Slavic Tas...

In this special WhyM’scal Mash re-mix episode with Alan, Trajce, and Sara, we dive into the unpredictable world of psychosocial exposures at work, blending excerpts from jaw-dropping, thought-provoking stories from past episodes. From the festive chaos of a Christmas party gone awry (S01 E01: Bubbles of Trouble) to a tourism industry tale featuring unexpected and unwelcome behaviour in shared accommodations (hint: it was more than a piss up, [S02 E07: 4 Men and Women 2]), this mash-up explores the complex and sometimes bizarre challenges that arise when work intersects with human behaviour.

It doesn’t stop there. We tack...

Season 07 Bonus o1 - Re-Release Episode - a little frivolty to start the new year. What is your Spirit Animal?. The river otter, the wise owl, and the transformation of a deer to a stag and back again. When ‘fuzzy science’ can be meaningful in terms of personality profiles, values, and our behaviours. Why not have fun and reflect on who we are, how we are, and why? This episode reveals more intimate details about the mugs from backwater Brissie: Trajce, Alan, and Sara.

Season 07 Trailer 03: We're back to unpack - Botox, s3x offences, Bollywood dancing, and work from home topics are on their way to your listening ear.

Season 07 Trailer 02: A teaser on the exploration of the entertainment industry and issues of principal contractors managing subcontractors - it all blows up when there is a fatality.

Season 07 Trailer 01: Botox and Bollywood, a teaser on more to follow in WhyWork Season 07.

Season 06 Episode 15: Turbulence on the ground

WARNING: we discuss a passenger fatality - listener discretion advised.

Thank you to subscriber, Grace Kennedy, for suggesting this topic. Grace described her experience in the airport arrivals lounge when passengers headed down an escalator to collect their luggage. The passenger congestion was significant, causing a pile up so severe that this led to people back pedalling on the escalator, attempting to walk backward to return to the floor above.

“Airports are busy, and this would not be the first time to consider cranky travellers,” remarks Alan. Traj...

Season 06 Episode 14: From the club to the courtroom

WARNING: This episode includes refences to both sex and suicide - listener discretion advised.

Trajce presents a judgement from the United Kingdom involving a lawyer hiring a law student as his legal secretary. The confronting aspect of this scenario? They first met in a strip club where she worked as a stripper to fund her studies.

“This reeks of people and power. In this scenario,” probes Sara, “does this lawyer think that he can ask anything of his personal assistant?” Trajce shares more details: in the inte...

Season 06 Epsiode 13: From underwear to underworld: Criminal ties

WARNING: This episode includes sexual references - listener discretion is advised.

Trajce jokes about purchasing a pair of Tradie’s underwear, a discussion thread continuing from Season 05 Episode 04. Trajce wonders if ads like this offend peoples' sensibilities.

Alan responds, “There will not be many situations in a workplace when you would contemplate showing a video of people in their underwear.” Sara asserts that context matters, arguing “You can’t judge an event for infinity – the spirit of the times matters, the ‘zeitgeist’.” Alan reassures her, “You’re exactly right...

Season 06 Episode 12: It's going SWM'ingly

The podcasters, Trajce, Alan, and Sara, discuss the conventions of establishing Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS). Alan likens SWMS to mythology, rigorously enforced from powers that be, though he believes that the legal doctrine supporting them is unclear. Alan asks, “Do they really work?”

Trajce shares his research on breaches of work health and safety law, including fatal events. “In these cases,” he reveals, “90% of the defendants presented a SWMS – 517 cases, in fact.” In these cases, the SWMS were either not followed, not well considered or constructed, or work simply changed and th...

Seaon 06 Episode 11: The collective sighs - let's talk about s-X, baby

Let’s talk about…. sex as a primal survival urge. The WhyWork Podcast reflect on their debate about the Australian Tradie’s underwear ads discussed in Season 05 Episode 04. Sara makes a joke about performance drivers much to the chagrin of the boys, when Trajce quotes a Talking Heads lyric, “We’re on the road to nowhere…”

Sara explains primal inner-mammal neurobehavioural drivers of human activity, philosophies advanced by researcher Dr Loretta Breuning , and the ways in which these ideas are used in gaming technology, could improve...

Season 06 Episode 10: Moooo – It’s a stampede!

WARNING: A fatality is discussed in this episode – listener discretion is advised.

Country boy Alan shares a story about cows in Wales. In this case, a cow went haywire while farm workers offloaded it from its transit vehicle to a pen. The cow was agitated, jumped off its ramp, killing a 75 y/o farmworker, and injuring another man. “Can you keep the cattle calm?” begs Trajce. They team dissect the case, remarking on the lack of enclosures and barriers as restraints on the spooked bovine creature. This case prompts Tr...

Season 06 Episode 09: IRL? In Real Life? Software solutions and AI in work design

Trajce struggles with the ideas of ‘flow efficiency,’ likening this to urine tract functioning. Sorry, Anna Linning - a subscriber who asked about ‘flow’… Alan connects the idea to Flo’s scones, Flo Bjelke-Petersen’s famous pumpkin scones. Sara brings the boys back around to discuss psychological flow, theories from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and links these ideas to job redesign and software solutions. She shares one of the ViVA team’s software solution partners, “Beam me up with Beamible” for agile job design with what-if scenarios and cost a...

Season 06 Episode 08: The sentinel gateway - keeper of the path ahead

WARNING: This episode discusses a workplace fatality - listener discretion is advised.

Alan shares an industrial safety law case involving the disrepair of a gate, which prompts Trajce to reflect on his early-career prosecution of an industrial gate failure, leading to the news headline, “Fallen gate crushes mum.” The team remark on the feasibility and severity of these events deserving serious assessment, challenging the reliance on probabilistic risk assessments versus consequence. Sara shares a work reality of the difficulty of industrial gate use, especially as a...

Season 06 Episode 07 - We revisit the right to disconnect.

Trajce provokes conversation on the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023 among the team again. Sara asks, “Why did we throw legislation at this? I want to know - how did they develop their problem statements? Is this legislation really hitting the mark? Are there system designs to protect workers versus needing to rely on legislation to advance these rights when the world of work has moved on from the 9 to 5pm, five day a week, patriarchal workplace?"

“Court is the last resort,” marvels Trajce, “But I th...

Season 06 Episode 06: Scope creep and Snag-arees

WARNING: This episode includes sexual inferences.

“The power of the beep is getting to Trajce’s head,” says Alan. “This is a very serious podcast,” Trajce protests.

The cause for the bleep is revealed: “Oh my gosh,” Sara says through laughter, “There is a ‘snag, drag, and bag’ phrase online describing people pulling fish out of the ocean, a ‘snag drag queen’,” she jeers, while exclaiming that, “This is a ‘snag-aree’!”

Trajce gets back to case law, telling a story about a newly-appointed receptionist at a UK law firm. He describes all th...

Season 06 Episode 05: I spy with my little eye

Sara introduces the topics of ‘design for crime’ and surveillance systems with predictive analytics generated by artificial intelligence. Alan speaks about his experiences with intelligent surveillance systems and their ability to see, feel, hear, and determine responses. Alan explains that business must establish their purpose and context when using video surveillance before consulting legal teams. “Bingo!” exclaims Sara, “Explain the design brief.”

Alan presents a work health and safety case in which the regulator charged a work health and safety manager for their alleged inadequate development of a work proce...

Season 06 Episode 04: A bonza boom & crash: Decommissioning with dignity

Trajce and Sara compliment Alan’s dress sense - smooth, Italian, Mafioso, modelled after a Kappa soccer sports brand, while Sara reflects on her ‘rugby mum’ look for the day. Trajce teases Sara with her unlaced shoes in contemporary gangsta-fashion, primed for larceny. “It’s a sport and leather vibe,” says Trajce.

Trajce contemplates the need to evaluate a design journey, going beyond the pointy end of an event with direct causational pathways. “A designer is a parent of consequences,” he declares. The crew focus on examples of deco...

WhyNOT? A Wisdom Shot: BONUS. Respectful workplaces contrast with those in which managers demand working to unrealistic standards. Trajce cautions, "Attitudes like this could be construed as belittling, bullying, and harassment."

For more on this topic, listen to S05 E11: German work.

Season 06 Trailer 06: An uppy or a downy - potty talk prep - WhaAAT? We've reached the lowest watermark - prelude.

WhyNOT? A Wisdom Shot: BONUS. Alan explains that work health and safety law penalties are deterrants. Often, executives and officers are not intentional criminals, and yet criminal law applies to breaches of workplace health and safety obligations. Alan elaborates, "It's extremely rare that an employer has wanted an employee to be injured or consciously thought about causing injury, but the penalties serve as deterrants and are thought to improve workplace practices across industry." For more on this topic, listen to: S05 E08: Smooth criminal: The sociology of industrial crime.

Season 06 Episode 03: Roger rabbit, reconciling responsibilities: Who’s job is it anyway?

WARNING: This episode discusses road safety fatal hazard exposures and construction failures.

“A cream bun goes a long way for you,” Alan teases Trajce when Trajce admits that he could never prosecute a baker.

Alan describes a work health and safety legal case when a football club grandstand roof collapsed during construction. The construction workers were fortunate to avoid significant injuries.

Sara regales a story about her drive home from her son’s rugby practice when a car sped past the...

Season 06 Trailer 05: A teaser about road construction discussions. WhyWork?

Warning - this trailer mentions fatal incidents.

Season 06 Trailer 04: A teaser on the exploration of the entertainment industry and issues of principal contractors managing subcontractors - it all blows up when there is a fatality.

Season 06 Trailer 03: Awww. Stay Louder... Flashback Season 05 E12: Awww. Stay Louder and moving on to the the bulls and the cows... Moooo...

Season 06 Episode 02: An uppy or a downy

WARNING: This episode includes discussion about the fatality of a child.

“Are you an ‘Uppy’ or a ‘Downy’?” asks Alan.

“We have reached the lowest watermark on the show here,” says Trajce

Alan is entertained by Sara’s social media post about universal in public facilities. “Are we living for design or are we designed for living?” queries Trajce.

“Exactly!” exclaims Sara, “Design shapes behaviours.”

Alan introduces the idea of prosecution of designers. Trajce pontificates on causational chains of responsibilities. Sara recalls a media-reported...