Speaker 1: You're listening to a MoMA Mea podcast.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome back to biz Inbox. I'm m Ven.
Speaker 2: I'm a podcaster and writer here at Mama Mia. And look,
Speaker 2: I do have a toxic work behavior that I feel
Speaker 2: like I need to confess right now, and it's that
Speaker 2: I'm constantly stealing pens from other people's desks. I am
Speaker 2: making eyes with our producer Taylor because I stole this pen.
Speaker 2: I'm holling right now from her desk and I'm here
Speaker 2: joined with.
Speaker 1: And I'm so pursed. Wait are you stealing them from
Speaker 1: other people's desk?
Speaker 3: Correct personal pens?
Speaker 1: Yes? Do you give them back at the end.
Speaker 2: It depends on my day. Like sometimes I forget and
Speaker 2: I think they're all my pens. So if anyone who
Speaker 2: works on me just wants to do like a little
Speaker 2: go past my desk, you can pick up your.
Speaker 1: Land on the way bird for bias.
Speaker 3: They're just there. I need one. I need one.
Speaker 2: So biz Inbox, every week, we're going to be answering
Speaker 2: your burning questions about work. Nothing is off the tables
Speaker 2: and we're not going to give you the big, flowery
Speaker 2: like hustle culture answers. We're going to give you straight
Speaker 2: answers that you need so you can avoid having that
Speaker 2: meant to be at your desk, which I know you
Speaker 2: do have.
Speaker 1: Today we're dealing with matters of the heart, work experience,
Speaker 1: and also just how sacred your lunch hour actually is.
Speaker 2: I am very excited for that question, in particular because
Speaker 2: I have very strong feelings about my lunch hour.
Speaker 3: Let's get into it.
Speaker 2: So our very first question of the week is our
Speaker 2: very first voicemail as well. It's from an anonymous submission.
Speaker 2: This is what they said.
Speaker 3: Hi, I've just got a question for the pod.
Speaker 1: What do you guys think about dating coworkers?
Speaker 3: Is it weird? No wonder? This was anonymous. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: Have you dated a co worker?
Speaker 3: I have not.
Speaker 2: I would if there was options to date coworkers working
Speaker 2: on MIA. There's a very small pool of single men
Speaker 2: that come through here.
Speaker 1: So true. I think going into the office when you
Speaker 1: have a crush on someone just makes it so much
Speaker 1: more fun to go into work.
Speaker 2: I get excited to go to work, but I feel
Speaker 2: like it would also be super risky.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 1: I actually wanted to look up how many people have
Speaker 1: data a coworker?
Speaker 2: Do you know what the number is surely like forty percent.
Speaker 1: It's half. Half of people who responded said they've actually
Speaker 1: dated a co worker, which was way higher than I expected.
Speaker 3: Most of them successful.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I didn't work, I'd chat GPTA, it's me,
Speaker 1: you know, two seconds. But at bigger companies there are
Speaker 1: actually guidelines around this, and I think especially in like
Speaker 1: a post me too world, probably more companies have guidelines
Speaker 1: and they're probably a little bit more clear. So at Google,
Speaker 1: for example, if you were having a relationship with someone,
Speaker 1: you actually had to declare it if they were in
Speaker 1: your team or if you were in the same reporting line.
Speaker 1: And if you were in the same reporting line, that
Speaker 1: wasn't actually allowed to be a thing, so you either
Speaker 1: had to change teams or you couldn't have the relationship.
Speaker 1: But there was actually like a formal process for it
Speaker 1: kind of thing.
Speaker 2: What if you didn't know what your relationship even, what
Speaker 2: if you're like in a situationship That would actually be
Speaker 2: good for people who are scared of situationship of dating.
Speaker 2: You have to be like, well, we have to confirm
Speaker 2: it to the workplace, so true, maybe.
Speaker 1: You should just be in as a process around this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that kind of leads to some of my
Speaker 1: points around timing. But the other thing I think was
Speaker 1: really funny. When I was working in New York, there
Speaker 1: was a creative agency who actually had a benefits policy
Speaker 1: where if two co workers got engaged, they would pay
Speaker 1: for the wedding.
Speaker 3: I know, how good? Is that insane?
Speaker 1: Yes, it's because they were based in like Colorado, and
Speaker 1: they really wanted to attract good talents. So like, if
Speaker 1: you move here and you hook up with, you know,
Speaker 1: someone else who's in the team, then we'll pay for
Speaker 1: the wedding. I thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, a Christmas parties must be wild.
Speaker 1: Totally, but you know what she would actually do? Like
Speaker 1: is it okay? Is weird? I think one, just make
Speaker 1: sure you do understand your company policy around it. But
Speaker 1: to your point around timing and sort of like the
Speaker 1: flow of communication, so it can obviously be so much fun,
Speaker 1: but then you know at some point people are going
Speaker 1: to find out or you're going to need to tell
Speaker 1: people maybe, And like do you want to be in
Speaker 1: control of that flow of information or do you want
Speaker 1: it to happen for you? Yeah, what do you think?
Speaker 3: Well, that's so true.
Speaker 2: I also feel like there's no way it wouldn't affect
Speaker 2: my work, especially if it doesn't work out and then
Speaker 2: you're just seeing this person every day who like you've
Speaker 2: both broken each other's heart maybe, and I think that
Speaker 2: would just be really hard, especially if you love your job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you have to definitely think about your
Speaker 1: reputation because it's like it's a funny thing, right, it's
Speaker 1: like your personal life. It really shouldn't be anything to
Speaker 1: do with work, but it kind of is because it
Speaker 1: can change the way that you're actually showing up at work.
Speaker 1: And I think maybe even possibly for women, it can
Speaker 1: affect your reputation more than men. I'm not sure. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's different now in a post me to world. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's very hard for men. But once you know that
Speaker 1: it is serious, maybe have a think about letting a
Speaker 1: manager know and just showing up and saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: this isn't actually going to affect me and my role.
Speaker 1: I'm committed whatever it is, So maybe think about that.
Speaker 1: But I do think it's tricky if you're just dating
Speaker 1: someone or hooking up, like.
Speaker 2: I would say, either a relationship or nothing, no situationships,
Speaker 2: no casual sex. Sorry, I know I sound like a nanna,
Speaker 2: but don't do it, it's not worth it. So this
Speaker 2: next question comes in from Sarah. Here's what she says.
Speaker 2: I just graduated from UNI and I'm looking for an
Speaker 2: entry level job, but all the jobs want someone with
Speaker 2: experience and I don't have any because I just left UNI.
Speaker 3: I'm so confused.
Speaker 1: What do I do?
Speaker 2: Oh, Sarah. I feel like, especially with young people coming
Speaker 2: into the workforce, it feels like every single generation gets
Speaker 2: hit with the same obstacle. And I got hit with
Speaker 2: it as well when I joined the workforce full time
Speaker 2: straight after UNI. Because every job I went to apply for,
Speaker 2: they just had these requirements that I was nowhere close
Speaker 2: to meeting. Like it was always three to six years
Speaker 2: of experience, or you had to have this certain degree,
Speaker 2: or you had to do this. No one told me
Speaker 2: that I could still apply even though I didn't meet
Speaker 2: all the requirements. And it was only when so I
Speaker 2: was actually scattered for this job I started as a
Speaker 2: social media as system PHR actually messaged me on LinkedIn
Speaker 2: and was like, Hey, we'd love for you to.
Speaker 3: Apply to this role.
Speaker 2: And I looked at the job description and I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't meet any of these like any of these
Speaker 2: at all. And I told my mom and my mom
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, you probably won't get it, but you've
Speaker 2: never interviewed before, so why didn't you just give it
Speaker 2: a go?
Speaker 3: And I was like, okay, and then I got the job.
Speaker 2: No way, And I just hate that so many especially,
Speaker 2: I feel like it's mainly young women who if they
Speaker 2: don't meet like one hundred percent of the requirement, they
Speaker 2: just won't do it.
Speaker 1: I totally agreat I think there's this thing where you
Speaker 1: think you don't have the skills and experience but you
Speaker 1: actually do. So don't think about what you don't have,
Speaker 1: think about what you do have, but it's sort of
Speaker 1: about how you package it up and showcase it interesting.
Speaker 1: So I remember this so deeply as well. So I
Speaker 1: grew up in regional New South Wales. My dad was
Speaker 1: a trainee, my mom is a preschool teacher, and you know,
Speaker 1: one from the world of business. I go to Sydney
Speaker 1: Union get a marketing degree. I feel like I have
Speaker 1: no practical skills on knowledge. I went for one internship,
Speaker 1: didn't get it. I was like, that was embarrassing. I'm
Speaker 1: never trying that again. And I just remember feeling so lost.
Speaker 1: I was working at a bar, met this customer and
Speaker 1: she worked in marketing. I remember leaving my side of
Speaker 1: the bar and just clutching her hands and being like,
Speaker 1: help me. Can I take you for coffe? Can I
Speaker 1: learn about your job? Like I just don't know what
Speaker 1: to do. There's two things that I want to say
Speaker 1: if I was sort of like starting out again twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five, I'm in this death loop of no experience
Speaker 1: but can't get the job, need the job to get
Speaker 1: the experience. Here's what I'm going to say. One, go
Speaker 1: and meet people who are doing the job that you
Speaker 1: want to do and just ask them, you know, what's
Speaker 1: your job, Like, what are the skills that you need
Speaker 1: for someone who doesn't have experience in that actual job?
Speaker 1: Like what are some of the transferable skills? And what
Speaker 1: you're going to find comes up all the time is
Speaker 1: things like project management, writing, events design, like knowing how
Speaker 1: to use cam or whatever. There's all these kind of
Speaker 1: skills that you actually do have. You know, have you
Speaker 1: worked in retail, have you trained other people up before
Speaker 1: in a team? Do you have salese skills? So there's
Speaker 1: probably skills that you do have, And then it's just
Speaker 1: about how you actually showcase those. So what I think
Speaker 1: people need this is not about just having like a
Speaker 1: LinkedIn profile kind of like build something or make something,
Speaker 1: create something that can live a little bit online to
Speaker 1: show that you've got these skills and you can do
Speaker 1: that outside your job. So I'll give you some examples.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's like you build your own substack and you
Speaker 1: have like your substack newsletter. Maybe it's like you start
Speaker 1: a little online community and you do meetups and then
Speaker 1: you're like having some little place online where you show
Speaker 1: what you're doing there. Like maybe it is that you're
Speaker 1: involved in clubs and societies at UNI and we're doing
Speaker 1: event organization whatever. You need to be doing some stuff
Speaker 1: that shows you know, you can manage your project, you
Speaker 1: can like do things, and there needs to be a
Speaker 1: place online where people can go and see that. And
Speaker 1: I think just like packaging up and showcasing some of
Speaker 1: that stuff, you can do that regardless of whether you
Speaker 1: have a job or not, and then meeting people point
Speaker 1: them to that and show them that, and then I
Speaker 1: think that's the better way to do it.
Speaker 3: That's so smart.
Speaker 2: Also, I think what's really important is figuring out the
Speaker 2: values of the company that you kind of want to
Speaker 2: work for and what they appreciate. Like here at MAMEI
Speaker 2: we really appreciate creativity. And I remember one of my
Speaker 2: colleagues and this when I was working in the social
Speaker 2: media team, Mattie King. She got her job because she
Speaker 2: created an Instagram page saying why Mummy should hire me?
Speaker 3: And she did like.
Speaker 2: All these posts about her whole life story and we
Speaker 2: were like immediately yes, like it was just so Mumma Mia,
Speaker 2: and was so perfect and she was brilliant and she
Speaker 2: nailed the interview.
Speaker 3: It was so good.
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that, like massive inspiration. I actually got
Speaker 1: my job at Google because I had a music blog.
Speaker 1: Like you think that's nothing to do with tech marketing, right,
Speaker 1: but it actually is because the transferable skill there is
Speaker 1: creativity and like being able to create a brand. So
Speaker 1: I had this little music blog. It was called the
Speaker 1: Perfect Five. It was just five songs every week. It
Speaker 1: was really cute. This is like back in the day.
Speaker 3: I find it.
Speaker 2: We need to post it on the business some.
Speaker 1: Screenshots of it and we will post it on the
Speaker 1: on the grund for shore. But I remember like showing
Speaker 1: this in the interview and talking about how I was
Speaker 1: really resourceful because they were like, did you pay someone
Speaker 1: to build this? And this is back in the day
Speaker 1: when it was pretty hard. It's like, no, I didn't
Speaker 1: pay someone. I like traded some of my friends, you know,
Speaker 1: I did some stuff with them. They did this, so
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, you're resourceful. You know you got this
Speaker 1: done for free. You've got influence because you're getting friends
Speaker 1: to do stuff, and you've got creativity. So all these
Speaker 1: transferable skills that I was showcasing just because I had
Speaker 1: a music blog and it wasn't even that successful. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: I had people following me, but it was just like,
Speaker 1: you know, you've got something online where you're showing people
Speaker 1: like I can do something.
Speaker 2: That's so good, So just like get creative with it.
Speaker 2: Just put yourself out there and yes, yeah, don't rely
Speaker 2: on your LinkedIn profile. Actually like message people on LinkedIn,
Speaker 2: like follow the people that you want to work with
Speaker 2: and work for and message them and just be like
Speaker 2: can I take you that for a coffee?
Speaker 1: One hundred percent? Can I give you one more thing
Speaker 1: that I would do? Yeah, I was doing this now.
Speaker 1: I would find people who have the jobs I want.
Speaker 1: I would offer to take myth coffee or even just
Speaker 1: like a fifteen minute chat on the phone if you've
Speaker 1: got a vibe with them. I would actually offer, can
Speaker 1: I shadow you when you go to industry events and
Speaker 1: like write up some insights of what you learned at
Speaker 1: that event and post for LinkedIn for you or a
Speaker 1: lot of people struggle with having nicely designed slides, right,
Speaker 1: so I would offer, Hey, I'm pretty candy on camber.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna design some slide templates for you to use
Speaker 1: for your presentations, and I would like sort of do
Speaker 1: some stuff for people to show you've got skills and
Speaker 1: build a relationship like that.
Speaker 2: That's so smart. Okay, So we're coming up to a break.
Speaker 2: So after the break, we're gonna be talking about a
Speaker 2: very serious question that involves my all.
Speaker 3: Important lunch break.
Speaker 2: So this next question comes from Bridget and she actually
Speaker 2: sent this through our Instagram dms. You can follow us
Speaker 2: on Instagram at Bisbye Mama Mia. We do heaps of
Speaker 2: posts on there, and please slide into our DMS with
Speaker 2: any questions you have. She wanted to know what are
Speaker 2: some reasonable things she could do during her lunch break,
Speaker 2: Like she wanted to know is okay to take her
Speaker 2: our lunch break to go to the gym or to
Speaker 2: go shopping.
Speaker 3: So what do you.
Speaker 1: Reckon, Well, bridget on my lunch break. I ed gonna
Speaker 1: get botox.
Speaker 3: That's smart.
Speaker 1: I mean the short answer is it's your life lunch break,
Speaker 1: so do whatever the hell you want with it. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's some caveats to this. So yeah, like at bigger companies,
Speaker 1: they might actually have guidance around this. You might say
Speaker 1: something in your contract about how long your lunch trek is,
Speaker 1: and you know it's going to be different with different
Speaker 1: roles if you're doing shift work or whatever. But let's
Speaker 1: just say like a normal office job, right, it's really
Speaker 1: a question around team norms and company norms and how
Speaker 1: much you have your shit together. If you are doing
Speaker 1: your job and you've got your shit together, you should
Speaker 1: be able to do whatever you want with that time.
Speaker 1: I want to rebrand the lunch hour, the lunch lunchtime, right,
Speaker 1: I want to rebrand this.
Speaker 3: I love a rebrand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not your lunch time, it is your reset time.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's a really important part actually
Speaker 1: of the day. We can't just work for eight hours
Speaker 1: straight like you actually need that time in the middle
Speaker 1: of the day to properly reset. So it's your reset
Speaker 1: time and you should be protecting it, and people are
Speaker 1: going to try and steal that time from you, and
Speaker 1: I think you should protect it. Just a couple of
Speaker 1: things proactively communicate around like that is your time. So
Speaker 1: I would always make sure and I would tell my
Speaker 1: team just like block your lunch hour out in your calendar,
Speaker 1: and I would even set mine. There's a thing you
Speaker 1: can do in Gmail where you set it to out
Speaker 1: of office, so it would just order a decline if
Speaker 1: people try to book meetings over it.
Speaker 2: But let me write that down auto the client.
Speaker 1: That was the culture we had to Google. I maybe
Speaker 1: don't try that if that's not you.
Speaker 2: I wasn't going to call that producers out, but we
Speaker 2: are recording this at twelve forty five pm.
Speaker 1: It really is I think just around kind of proactively communicating,
Speaker 1: And if you're a manager, I think you should be
Speaker 1: having conversations with your team around like what is normal
Speaker 1: to do on your lunch break? Right. I remember there
Speaker 1: was a manager at Google who actually used to just
Speaker 1: put gon surfing kind of thing and block that time
Speaker 1: if it wasn't even in this lunch break. But the
Speaker 1: reason that worked is if you proactively communicate like I'm
Speaker 1: out of the office at this time, he's obviously getting
Speaker 1: his work done, he's on top of your shit. You
Speaker 1: sort of should be in control of your own time.
Speaker 1: You have to think about your reputation and how you're
Speaker 1: showing up and not to be taking the piss. So
Speaker 1: one thing to watch out for is I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people will say, can I eat my lunch
Speaker 1: at my desk during my lunch hour and then take
Speaker 1: off like two to three to go and do yoga,
Speaker 1: And like, technically you should. If you have a conversation
Speaker 1: with your manager and they're cool with that and like
Speaker 1: there's no other important meetings, then technically that's okay. But
Speaker 1: I think there can be a bit of creep sometimes
Speaker 1: where it's like you kind of aren't really doing your
Speaker 1: work during that lunchtime because you're eating, and then you're
Speaker 1: just taking off this time as well, and it kind
Speaker 1: of interior afternoon.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think it's dependent on the person. Are
Speaker 2: you able to question do you have to be transparent
Speaker 2: of what you're doing in your lunch break? Like what
Speaker 2: if I want to go see my therapist.
Speaker 1: Do not need to tell anyone. I mean, it is
Speaker 1: your lunch again. It comes around to companies and teams
Speaker 1: should be talking about this and check you contract. I'm
Speaker 1: not an HI expert, so check your contract. But you
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to tell anyone what you're doing in your
Speaker 1: lunch hour, like that is your time. The one thing
Speaker 1: that you should be doing is letting people know that
Speaker 1: you're not contactable so like because sometimes people need stuff
Speaker 1: right or like it's really hard to book time with
Speaker 1: people into book meetings if you're not having that in
Speaker 1: your calendar and someone does see that as a free
Speaker 1: slot and then they want to book something there and
Speaker 1: you're like, actually, I was planning to go do like
Speaker 1: a hairdresser appointment. It can just be really hard for people,
Speaker 1: so block it out in advance. I would always have
Speaker 1: that hour blocked out in my calendar and yeah, just
Speaker 1: communicate around. If someone tries to booker meeting and that
Speaker 1: you can just say like, hey, this is my reset time.
Speaker 1: Is this meeting important? Can we do it another time or.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lunchtime's out reset times again.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's it.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you.
Speaker 2: So much for helping us clear our little biz in box.
Speaker 2: If you have a work question, please send it our way.
Speaker 2: You'll find exactly how to do that in our show notes,
Speaker 2: or of course, you can always slide into our DM
Speaker 2: so it always open for you.
Speaker 1: If you missed it earlier. This week, Michelle and I
Speaker 1: taught you how to be more productive while doing less
Speaker 1: at work.
Speaker 2: It was so good, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Head back into the feed to hear our two ultimate
Speaker 1: productivity hacks.
Speaker 2: We will be back in your ears next week.
Speaker 4: Bye bye.
Speaker 2: Mamma Mere acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on