Hello!
I have been busy compiling your favourite workplace newsletter – a combination of things you need to know and things that will make you laugh out loud.
In this issue there’s a workplace trend, news snippets, and sage advice in the “Dear Jen” column.
And of course, I share my recommendations for your viewing pleasure.
I hope this newsletter brings you some wisdom and joy!
Cheers,
Jen
What trend am I seeing across the workplace world?
Compliance fatigue.
I’ve never met a client who said, “I’d love to breach the Fair Work Act today.”
I have met plenty who have said, “Can someone just tell me what I’m actually supposed to do?”
Buzzword of the Week: Microshifting
Microshifting breaks the working day into short blocks instead of one nine-to-five stretch. Work early, pause for the school run, return, finish after dinner.
Done well, it lets people work when they’re sharpest. Done badly, nobody knows when anyone is available, meetings become a scheduling escape room, and knock-off time becomes a rumour.
Job of the Week: Chief Crocodile Wrangler
Most of us have one rule about crocodiles. Stay well away from them.
The Queensland Government recently advertised for someone whose entire job is the opposite.
Based in Cairns, the Wildlife Officer in Charge leads the ranger team reducing human-wildlife conflict. Permanent and full time (though how permanent may depend on your footwork).
This is not a job for someone who quite likes animals. It is a job for someone who looks at four metres of prehistoric muscle and thinks, there’s my Tuesday sorted.
Applications have closed, so you can’t apply for the role this time around – unless something happens to the successful candidate…
See: Queensland Government SmartJobs: Wildlife Officer In Charge
When “Looking the Part” Is the Problem
Le Monde newspaper sent reporters into LVMH’s Paris headquarters and made a remarkable discovery. Everyone was young, slim and impeccably dressed. The odds of that happening naturally are about the odds of finding a sausage roll in the canteen.
Chief executive Bernard Arnault sarcastically apologised for the “failure of bodily diversity” and promised to raise the matter with the canteen. (Yes, really).
Take-Out Point: Dress and presentation standards are common and often sensible. The safe ones connect to the role, apply to everyone, and survive a second look at who they quietly exclude. If your entire shopfloor could moonlight as a fragrance campaign, take that second look.
See: LVMH boss denies appearance-based discrimination in hiring
“I should have planned getting gastro a week in advance”
A worker allegedly messaged their manager. Gastro outbreak at their second job. Symptoms already brewing. Tomorrow’s shift in doubt.
The manager’s reply, verbatim. “No way. You need to manage it. As you know we are short staff here. You need to let me know 1 week in advance. It doesn’t work anymore like this here. You are the one who picked this shift.”
Take-Out Point: The NES does not require clairvoyance. Personal leave applies when illness makes an employee unfit for work. Ordering a contagious worker in is how one absence becomes six. Gastro does not consult the roster.
See: News24: “One week in advance”: Aussie boss’s response after worker calls in sick
A Faster Queue to the Same Mess
The Federal Government has announced that it intends to establish a new federal Fair Work Court to provide a specialist forum for workplace relations disputes.
The government says the current route through the federal courts can be costly, complex and slow. It has pointed to some workers and small businesses waiting more than two years for a resolution, with legal costs sometimes exceeding the value of a claim.
Take-Out Point: Underpayments should be fixed fast. But a new court just adds a faster queue to the same broken system. Underpayment claims exist in these numbers because almost nobody can apply the award system with confidence. Fix the awards, not the furniture. Solve that, and much of the caseload never arrives.
See: New Fair Work Court to provide simpler, fairer and faster workplace justice
and: Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work
11 August – Australian Census Night. The Census is held once every five years. Unlike that spreadsheet Karen asks everyone to update every Friday.
12 August – International Youth Day. Younger workers have an annoying habit of asking “Why?” It turns out that’s how workplaces get better.
15 to 23 August – National Science Week. Nine days celebrating science and curiosity. Perhaps start with the office fridge, which has been running its own unsupervised biology experiment since March.
19 August – World Photography Day. Staff photo competition, one entry each. Dog owners will experience this rule as a human rights violation.
24 August – National Skills Week Begins. Time to check your workforce plan. If the plan is “hope Bob never retires”, it’s not a plan, it’s a countdown.
Have you recently promoted a high-performing employee and want to support them to step up and succeed in their new role?
Are you hiring for a critical role and know the cost of getting it wrong is far greater than the recruitment fee?
Do you have a complex workplace situation and need a calm, experienced professional to coach an employee who may not fully recognise the impact of their behaviour, support a team through tension, or address a sensitive issue before it escalates?
This is where Deborah adds real value.
With more than 30 years of HR leadership and executive coaching experience, Deborah combines strong commercial judgment with a practical, human approach to help leaders make better decisions, build stronger teams and deliver results.
Deborah is someone you can bring in when the stakes are high, and you want more than advice; you want clarity, traction and a better outcome.
Contact Deborah: deborah@jenniferbicknell.com.au | 0419 203 600
Or Jennifer Bicknell: jen@jenniferbicknell.com.au | 0411 275 920
Dear Jen,
I need your help with something I never imagined I’d have to write.
My boss has a habit of picking his nose during Teams meetings. Internal meetings. Client meetings. It makes no difference. And yes, the camera is always on!
What should I do about this?
Cheers,
Picking My Moment
Dear Picking My Moment,
I usually encourage people to have direct conversations wherever possible. However, this may be one occasion where I would not recommend starting there.
There is a power imbalance, and speaking to your boss about their nose/finger co-ordination could be a serious career-limiting move if it does not land well.
This is where HR earns their keep. HR is not just there for policies, performance reviews and reminding everyone to complete training. Sometimes they are best placed to have the conversation that nobody else wants to have.
Speak to HR privately and let them work out the best way to handle it.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Jen
The all-celebrity Traitors Australia has dropped on Network Ten/10. One of the best reality formats ever. Shifting alliances, secret meetings, and someone banished at the round table with no evidence, no warning and no right of reply. If it happened in an office, someone would have the general protections claim drafted by episode two.
Fans of The Devil Wears Prada will be pleased to hear the sequel is now streaming on Disney+. Enjoy Miranda Priestly’s return, but remember that in Australia, “that’s all” is not constructive feedback, impossible deadlines are a psychosocial hazard, and midnight phone calls now come with a right to disconnect.
Speaking of Patrick Brammall, Colin From Accounts season 3 has begun its weekly drip feed on Binge. It’s the final season, so savour it. It may be the only rom-com where a workplace power imbalance, an undisclosed conflict of interest and a dog all play pivotal roles.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Netflix’s remake of Little House on the Prairie as much as I did. Aussie actor Luke Bracey makes an excellent Pa Ingalls – and quite possibly has the best hair ever to grace the prairie. Don’t write it off because you’re embarrassed that you grew up with the original. I did, and I was wrong.
Lioness season 3 has begun its weekly drip feed on Paramount+. No lions, just female CIA operatives embedded undercover near high-value targets. Zoe Saldaña leads, Nicole Kidman runs the operation, and Morgan Freeman is the US Secretary of State. For those nights when mindless viewing won’t quite cut it.
