Edda 0:00

Hi I'm Edda

Ryan 0:03

I'm Ryan,

Edda: 0:05

and this

Ryan 0:08

is work feels.

We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the lands on which we work and live and we pay our respects to indigenous elders past and present. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Welcome to the All Staff Email everyone.

Edda 0:33

Welcome, welcome. Welcome. This is where we discuss our hopes and dreams for the future and general things that are happening in our lives and in the world.

♫ Work Feels Jingle ♫

Edda 0:48

So how's life Ryan?

Ryan 0:49

Life is good. There's been even more life updates since our first episode came out.

Edda 0:58

Tell me Ryan, break the news.

Ryan 1:01

I got engaged!

Edda 1:04

Congratulations.

Ryan 1:06

Thank you. It was very exciting. Took a little bit of a surprise.

Edda 1:11

So you had no idea what's gonna happen that day?

Ryan 1:14

No, no idea

It was a regular beach day. Just went out to a beautiful beach-walk through a national park. I thought we just had like drinks and food and all the essentials in the bag. I didn't know there was a cute little engagement ring hiding in that bag; and it was lovely.

Edda 1:35

Lucky you didn't go to unwrap all the cheeses and then unwrap the ring.

Ryan 1:39

No, and then the ring flies out.

Together 1:42

[ Laughter ]

Ryan 1:42

No, he kept that very hidden. It was just lovely.

Edda 1:46

Nice. Did he get down on one knee and say some cute words?

Ryan 1:52

He did. He put a lovely song on. And I turned around and it was on one knee and I was like, 'Oh my God.' I was so shocked that I didn't say anything, aso he was like 'Say something!'. I was like 'Yes! Yes! Yes!'. That was beautiful way to start the year.

Edda 2:18

Congratulations! Very exciting.

Ryan 2:21

Thank you. So that's definitely my biggest update. Other than that back at work. I just got through the first week of work, which is always a struggle. On Monday, my brain was like, How do I do my job? It took me like, a good two to three days to be like, 'Ah, yep, okay'.

Edda 2:40

Yep, just have to warm up those brain cells.

Ryan 2:45

Holiday mode is a real thing. We haven't had a proper holiday for the last couple of years being stuck in Sydney with lock downs and COVID the following year.

Edda 2:59

Yeah, I don't think I would know how to apply myself for a full day of work. I haven't done that in a very long time.

Together 3:07

[ Laughter ]

Edda 3:09

I'm more of a stents gal. I like to do a good three hours, four hours. And then that's me done for the day.

Together 3:19

[ Laughter ]

Edda 3:24

I have heard that we're really only productive for about four hours of the day. And the rest is sort of meetings and faffing and research, all essential to a job, but real quality work is apparently for about four hours a day.

Ryan 3:43

Particularly with just the amount of disruptions. It depends what your role is, but the amount of disruptions that I get in a day like the notifications, the people coming over and talking to me. I'm just like, oh my god, leave me alone. I have fully embraced the new Do Not Disturb modes that Apple has.. So I have the work mode, which is good where I can turn off a lot of my notifications, which I've embraced this year. I'm like, Okay, I've got to turn some of these off.

So there's a mode on your iPhone (I'm an Android user)?

Instead of your regular Do Not Disturb you can create custom ones. So I had a fitness one and now I have a work one. Very late to the game.

Together 4:40

[ Laughter ]

Edda 4:41

Do you screen me out on work mode or do I get through the firewall?

Ryan 4:46

No, you're definitely screened out on work mode.

Pretty much everyone is screened out except for work emails, and Marcus.

Together 4:57

[ Laughter ]

Edda 5:01

Okay, Mum doesn't even make the cut?

Ryan 5:05

No, mom doesn't even make the cut. It is good though, because I have noticed a massive difference. Even if you ignore a notification, the fact that your phone lights stops the flow.

Edda 5:23

And it sits there at the back of your mind. 'You want to open me'.

Ryan 5:28

'Open me up and me. I'm a pointless piece of information.'

Together 5:32

[ Laughter ]

Edda 5:37

Okay, I have Do Not Disturb mode, which I love. But now that I have a baby, it freaks me out if I'm not with the baby. So whoever's got the baby would have to get through my firewall.

Ryan 5:51

Speaking of Bryn, how is little brain going,

Edda 5:53

Oh, he's good. He's now three months, and he's advancing into the next size of baby clothes which is very exciting. Yeah he's doing well. I'm coming to the end of my maternity leave payments from the government. So the government pays you for 18 weeks in total.

This means that I need to think about going back to work.

Ryan 6:24

What are your thoughts on 18 weeks? Do you think that's adequate?

Edda 6:27

I don't think it's enough to be honest. They are changing it. There is some legislation which will increase that to 26 weeks.

Ryan 6:53

I was just about to say is this a labor Albo' policy?

Edda 7:01

Albo' has pulled through and is gonna boost it a bit, which is great.

Ryan 7:11

All right. I've got some quick stats. The top 10 countries in the world for maternity leave: Estonia is 62 weeks for maternity leave.

Edda 7:22

That's incredible.

Ryan 7:24

Croatia is 58, Bulgaria is 58, The UK has 52 weeks of leave, Montenegro is 52, Albania is 52, Island is 42, Macedonia is 39 and Norway is 35 weeks. Top 10 worst countries for maternity leave: United States of America is number one with zero weeks which is crazy. It's just insane. Top 10 for paternity leave for all the father figures and birthing parents out there. Korea you get 52 weeks. Sweden you get 12 weeks. Slovenia is 12. Iceland gets 12 weeks. Also interesting that basically the top 10 were all in Europe and the UK, unless I'm being very geographically stupid.

Edda 8:42

Quite surprising, and that shows my cultural bias. I was surprised that Estonia was number one. I would have thought it was a Finland or a Sweden.

Ryan 8:49

So I guess it's a reflection of the importance that culture places on those first few months and that first year of parenting, raising and nurturing babies.

8:49

♫ Work Feels Jingle ♫

Edda 9:11

So we went live with our first guest episode a couple of weeks ago where we interviewed Erfan and Juju, and it was a huge episode to tackle first up

Ryan 9:23

It was more like we produced a small documentary rather than a podcast episode. It was investigative journalism everyone. Hats off to Edda for doing the hard yards with all the editing, it came together beautifully. And we're very proud to have that one out there.

Edda 9:45

Yeah, it is a huge episode. So we wanted to release it in two parts, even though at the end of the day, it doesn't make it any shorter than two parts. But perhaps it's less daunting to get started on it if it's not an hour and 40 minutes long.

Ryan 10:02

A huge thank you to everyone that listened. From here on out, we're going to get a bit tighter with the edits' and also not interview our guests for quite as long.

Edda 10:19

I think we definitely got carried away. But there's so much to cover. When you're talking about racism in the workplace and cultural diversity you can't really just cut that short for convenience.

Ryan 10:33

The biggest issues facing humanity: it's hard to cut those issues down to a tight 30.

Edda 10:43

That's right.

I could listen to Erfan for hours and hours. He's just an endless source of knowledge. It was absolutely incredible talking to him.

Yes, I think we just scratched the surface with him. So if anyone is looking for any kind of unconscious bias or anti racism training for their workplace, reach out to Erfan from Kind Enterprises,

Ryan 11:12

Or even just for further learning, if you were inspired, or you feel that you want to learn more, yeah, definitely have a look at Kind Enterprises and all of Erfan's books. Has he got two books, or three?

Edda 11:28

He's got three, I think he's got a book and he's got two books of poetry. Amazing. Yeah, I've just ordered another round of books because they are such excellent gifts. And I'm taking a different approach to my gifts. This year, I'm going to be organized and pre purchase gifts and birthday cards. So when someone's birthday comes up, I just go into my birthday box, and I pick out a pre purchase gift. A little bit less personal, sorry to anyone who's going to receive a birthday present this year, but it helps me to actually have a gift for people.

I think one of his books is an excellent gift to spread around. Speaking of our first episode, I wanted to share some very exciting statistics with you, Ryan, please do. We had someone come on board our mini podcast team to transcribe our episode. Thank you very much to Peter who came to transcribe. I think you said it's about 17,000 words, which he read word for word.

Together 12:36

[ Laughter ]

Edda 12:40

A novella.

He sent through some very exciting statistics. So the number of times that we said "um" in the first episode was 275.

Together 12:55

[ Laughter ].

Edda 12:57

The number of times we said "eh" is 111. The number of times we said "like" 147.

Ryan 13:09

That's like crazy. Totally, like crazy. Like I'm so totally crazy.

Together 13:16

[ Laughter }

13:16

♫ Work Feels Jingle ♫

Ryan 13:21

All right, team, now we're going to have a quick chat about what's in the news this week in the working world.

Edda 13:28

♫ Whats the news today ♫

Ryan 13:30

Edda what's our news topic for this week?

Edda 13:33

Okay, news topic, definitely been all over the airwaves and probably heard way too much about it, but chat GPT is in all of our feeds, and everyone's losing their minds, particularly universities and schools. So Chat GPT is an AI chat tool that has basically almost a Googles worth of knowledge in its system. It doesn't have all of Google in there, but it has some ridiculous amount of data in its' machine. You can just ask it anything. Anything from, what's the weather like in Australia, to please write me an essay on unconscious bias, and it will produce it. And, after you ask them to write the essay, you can say, 'what's the reference reference list for that essay?', and then it will spit out a reference list. So essentially, it is potentially going to replace Google in some form because you can just ask it, questions and it summarises multiple sources and gives you an answer that, rather than having to scroll through group Google and look at various sources and figure out what to trust, this aggregates a whole number of sources and gives you an answer, or gives you a blog post, or gives you an essay with all of the information that you ever needed. For example, if you jump onto our website, I put up a blog post on psychological safety that was written by Chat GPT. And I've written at the bottom of the blog posts that this is written by an AI as a bit of a experiment, because I think that it's a weird ocean that we're navigating at the moment because it sort of feels a bit in-genuine just to put a question in and get a blog post out and then put it on your website, as if a lot of thought and effort has gone into a blog post. But what I thought it was really good for was just the basics like this is what psychological safety is, here are some of the key points or key drivers within psychological safety, and this is what we need to remember if we want to achieve psychological safety. So it's a really good summary of the topic. I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece, or a particularly engaging article. But I think it's it's a really excellent starting point, if you don't know what psychological safety is, to kind of bring you up to speed. So that was written by an AI, it's on our website, and we'll probably do a few more of these foundation topics using chat GPT until we realise or figure out maybe it's not the right way to go. What do you think Ryan?

Ryan 16:33

I think AI has obviously been around for quite some time now, bubbling away in the background, and probably in more things than than what we care to realize as just your average human. However, the most recent iteration and application has really captured the attention of the world's media. When use us when you sent it to me, I was like, 'what'? You sent me just a paragraph first and then a few paragraphs and then you sent me the whole essay version. = I My mind was absolutely blown. I could not believe it. How long did you say like the essay one took? 30 seconds?

Edda 17:19

Not even Wow. It is so quick. I think it's definitely going to force universities in schools to rethink how they assess. But the thing is, it's so perfectly written, but it's also so boringly written. When I read through the psychological safety article, it has zero flair, it has zero personality, it really does feel like it's written by a computer. So it's not as engaging to read through. But when you're writing in a university setting, there is this academic writing style, which is quite boring, and it doesn't have any flair. So maybe this is really well suited to academic writing. It is not so suited to human storytelling and engaging blog posts or pieces of literature that require a bit of personality. However, I'm sure it will get there. Because I put into this Chat AI, 'write me a link LinkedIn post', just to do a few test runs. I said I want to announce my podcast on LinkedIn.

That's right. You sent me the plain one and then a fancy one.

Together 18:47

[ Laughter ]

Edda 18:49

Then I asked them to write me a LinkedIn announcement about my podcast. It gave me a very generic but lovely, easily wording. Easy to read. And then I thought it was a bit boring. So I said, "same, but use complex words", just to see if that would add in some kind of interesting words. And then it came up with this hilarious version, which was almost like an English person from the 16th century.

Ryan 19:27

It's so funny, I just want to read a tiny bit of the fancy AI. think, listeners, if you want to do this, just as an experiment, it's quite hilarious. Could be some good workplace chats.

'Hey, everyone, I'm so excited to finally share with you the first episode of my podcast [insert podcast name]. My co host [insert co host name], and I had such an amazing time recording this episode, and we can't wait for you to tune in. In this episode, we are chatting with Juju and Erfan about [insert topic]. These two are incredibly knowledgeable and it was such a pleasure to learn from them.' Anyway, that's your average one. Then this really got me. This is when Edda asked it to do the said same but with complex words: 'Salutations, esteemed listeners, I am exuberant to finally unveiled the inaugural episode of my podcast [insert podcast name]. In conjunction with my co host [insert name]. We had a truly remarkable time recording this episode and are eagerly awaiting your auditory consumption of it. In this episode, we engage in a discourse with Juju and Erfan pertaining to [insert topic]. These individuals possess an abundance of erudition on the subject matter, and it was great pleasure to partake in their wealth of knowledge. They proffer a plethora of sagacious insights and personal anecdotes, which we are convinced will be of great value to you, our esteemed listeners.'

Together 21:29

[ Laughter ]

Ryan 21:30

I think this would be great if you're writing an email at work.

Together 21:34

[ Laugher ]

Edda 21:38

Emails are no longer boring.

Ryan 21:44

If you're looking at some, you know, first second week back entertainment with your colleagues, this could be a hilarious way of making a fancy email, maybe even just like the Friday lunch email or Friday drinks or something. 'My esteemed colleagues, I do request the pleasure of your company joining me for a gin and tonic.'

Together 22:12

[ Laugher ]

Edda 22:12

Maybe we should publish a few Friday lunch emails for people to copy and paste to bring some joy to the workplace.

Ryan 22:23

If you haven't used this we will pop a couple of AI links into the show notes of this episode.

Edda 22:34

I think we're only really scratching the surface of how hilarious our lives can be with the support of this Chat GTP system.

Ryan 22:47

I guess it raises a lot of issues in my mind for educational institutions, then get some serious technology to counter the use of this. And I came across a really interesting article on Dezeen, which is one of anyone who's in the design world will know Dezeen. And they were talking about AI and the trends for 2023 years and Tom Dixon, who's a really famous British designer designs, said that AI is the biggest threat and opportunity that the profession faces in 2023. I thought this was really interesting because it does present so many opportunities for us to make things faster, to help us get things done, for technology to assist us in the way we live our lives and predict what what we want to need. However, that then brings up all of the potential issues in my mind of what kind of unconscious bias does AI have?

Edda 24:10

Also it is just going to make us a bit lazier.

Ryan 24:15

Yes, this is what I think. As soon as you sent me those articles, I was like, 'Wow, is this the death of the essay'? Is this the death of the report?

Edda 24:26

I've been paid to write a lot of blog posts in my time. If I could just import a number of my blogs so that it could read my style, and then pattern-recognition the way that I write and then spit out a piece of writing with my my personality, then I don't think that anyone's going to pay me to write blog posts. People could pay me to write blog posts, but my creation process is going to be only 10 minutes.

Ryan 25:20

I think there's probably some roles in society that are definitely under threat from technology. However, does this technology give us the power to then solve bigger issues and different problems, hence creating even more jobs?

Yeah. Can I read another passage?

Yes.

Edda 25:57

Okay I just found this on Twitter. This is from Thomas Potassic, who posted this on Twitter. They asked Chat GTP to write a biblical verse in the style of the King James Bible explaining how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR. The AI said: 'it came to pass that a man was troubled by a peanut butter sandwich for it had been placed within his VCR and he knew not how to remove it. And he cried out to the Lord saying, oh, Lord, how can I remove this sandwich from my VCR for it is stuck fast and will not budge. And the Lord spoke unto him saying, fear notch my child, for I shall guide thy hand and show the way. Take thy butter knife and carefully insert it between the sandwich and the VCR and gently pry them apart. And with patience and perseverance, the sandwich shall be removed, and our VCR shall be saved.'

Together 27:17

[ Laughter ]

Ryan 27:17

Wow, so this full on blending of a particular tone, and then a particular circumstance and then a particular topic is incredible.

27:27

♫ Work Feels Jingle ♫

Edda 27:32

The final segment of today's show is our listener question. The listener question today comes from a person in Victoria and they ask: What do you think about swearing in the workplace?

Ryan 27:47

Well, one funny experience I can talk to is when we moved to London I realised, coming from an Australian architecture firm with a lot of men in it, the amount of swearing that Australian men do even in a professional setting is exponentially higher than how British people conduct themselves in the workplace. I realised when I started working in London, I think I dropped the F-bomb once or twice, and people were like, clutching their pearls. People were like "Oh my", clutching their pearls that I said this fucking thing and I noticed straight away and I was like, oh, sorry, that's Aussie mouth full of profanities. I realised it particularly with men in senior management positions. Somehow I think in Australia, men talking to men or just talking to anyone, if you're in a sense of a powerful role or something, you almost have this right to be able to swear if you're really passionate about something, you can still drop the F-bomb. Whereas I think in the UK, I got there and it was seen as "Oh, no", that was actually very rude and very unprofessional. Even when there was heated conversations between senior management in the office or in a meeting, I never heard a swear word. I generally noticed that professionalism in that traditional sense. Do you drop the F bomb if you're in Workplace?

Edda 30:00

Yeah, I'm very open with dropping swear words in the workplace. I would probably hold back if I'm just starting with a new client. I probably wouldn't say fuck in an email. But I wouldn't say shit, or shitty. I feel that's more acceptable in an email. But it does make me think, because we have a three month old and my partner and I swear quite a bit in the home just when we are expressing ourselves. And I think sometimes it's kind of a bit funny to swear. So then we started thinking, do we need to start limiting our swear words? Do we need to start not swearing in front of our child? We had some friends visit the other day, they've got a two and a half year old and they just alerted us to the fact that their two and a half year old drops the F bomb from time to time because he's overheard it. So simple statements like "Hey, where's Dad?" Mum says "he's in the shower". The little two year old responds with "FUCK".

Together 31:18

[ Laughter ]

Edda 31:18

Which is hilarious. But at the same time you think, okay, it's probably fine to do that at home. But when they go to daycare, they're gonna get in trouble? Or are the other kids gonna start swearing?

Ryan 31:31

Professionalism at daycare. Right, darling, you have to be professional when you go to daycare today and paint your pictures.

Together 31:40

[ Laughter ]

Edda 31:43

I think swear words are just words unless they are slurs or they are bringing people down. You know, if you stub your toe and you say fuck, I think there's anything that wrong with it. So how do you tell a child that it's okay to say "fuck" if you stub your toe, but you can't say "fucking Serena wouldn't share her lunch".

Together 32:15

[ Laughter ]

Edda 32:15

It's very challenging.

Ryan 32:19

And I think it's also the way in which you use it whereas I don't think I have ever used swearing in an email. But I definitely have said it just in person in the office.

Edda 32:36

Swear words. They're an interesting one. Let us know Do you swear at work? Do you swear in emails? Do you swear to your children? Do your children swear we would love to hear your stories on swearing in the workplace at Kindy' and in the home?

32:51

♫ Work Feels Outro ♫