At the occasion of Mental Health Awareness Week our punks explore what role our working environment plays when it comes to our mental health. Despite billions spent on measures to reduce work related stress, employees report higher than ever rates of burnout and are leaving the workplace altogether en-masse. And this concerns younger generations as well as older.
Is there something fundamentally wrong with how companies lead, manage and organise work? And what role do new technologies play in all this?
Join us for this episode and share your thoughts in the comments. Here are some references to points raised by our punks:
- The annual spend by businesses on mental health and wellbeing: https://www.reportlinker.com/p0589592...
- 'How burnout became the new normal', HBR: https://hbr.org/2024/04/how-burnout-b...
- The UK government is seeking to reduce benefits to people with mental health issues: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/...

Inspiration for this month's episode has been Boeing's slow but steady slip from great engineering firm to hesitant choice for your next holiday flight. How the actions and words of a few people at the top drive the behaviours and decisions throughout the organisation. With real impact for customers and workers alike. Can organisations on a cultural decline be turned around? Do we as individuals also need to have a good look in the mirror? Join us for this episode for a few spiky views.
As always we quote some people much smarter than us. Here are the references from this episode:
- 'Ultra-Processed People - Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?', by Chris van Tulleken (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/45130...)
- '1,500 UK businesses have become B Corp certified, an increase of 50% in less than a year': https://bcorporation.uk/
- 'Quality Is Free', by Philip B. Crosby (McGraw-Hill Books, 1979)
- 'Humankind - A hopeful history', by Rutger Bregman, Bloomsbury Publishing - 'School for Moral Ambition': / moralambition

Our guest in this episode is Rebecca Cullum, who earned her stripes in leadership development in the IT and mobile phone sectors. Now operating independently, Rebecca supports leaders and their teams in establishing the culture, behaviours and mindsets that are required for 2024 and beyond. No surprises that these include being open to flexible working practices, encouraging learning and experimentation and accepting that what worked in the past may not work in the future.

Some of the references from this episode:
- Professor Saras Saraswarthy explains ‘Effectuation’, how serial entrepreneurs approach new ventures, including the principle of ‘Affordable Loss’: https://effectuation.org/hubfs/Video%...
- W.L Gore - the story of the organisation and the Four Guiding Principles, including the Waterline principle: We are all shareholders, and we will consult with the appropriate Associates before taking an action "below the waterline" that could cause serious damage to the long-term success or reputation of our enterprise.
- Manual Of Me: Explore and explain how you can work better together: https://www.manualof.me/