Launching Wednesday 16th September 2026.
The Wankernomics podcast is a deep dive into workplace bullsh*ttery.
Each week, co-hosts James Schloeffel and Charles Firth drill down, deep dive and unpack examples of corporate bullsh*ttery from the real world, deconstructing the way people use to bullshit their way to success (or failure).
Wankernomics answers the questions you always wanted to know but were too busy stuck on an all-hands company-wide Teams call to ask: What does it mean when someone talks about ‘operational cadence’ in a weekly all-hands staff meeting? What is the most horrific employee recognition scheme ever conceived? Why does it feel like waiting times for call centres are getting longer and longer?
The Financial Times has called Wankernomics the “workplace comedy phenomenon”. Since 2023, Wankernomics has run mock corporate workshops to sold out audiences across the globe. Mixing real-world stories with personal anecdotes from James and Charles’s 20+ years in the working world, the podcast is informative, funny and totally relatable.
Follow now so that you can find it in your podcast feed, every Wednesday morning.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Host James and Host Charles interview each other about whether modern productivity apps hinder or help creative output, using The Beatles as a case study.
6 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT
The onboarding episode: new starters, please listen to this first
Host James and Host Charles welcome new listeners, explaining the Wankernomics podcast's mission and purpose to ensure a smooth onboarding experience.
29 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
How many buzzwords can you fit into a single job advertisement?
Charles and James unpack the meaningless language of job advertisements, revealing the psychology behind corporate jargon and its impact on understanding roles.
22 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Government bureaucracy: There’s a form to fill out before you can listen to this episode
Most workplaces have at least some ridiculous processes that seem to serve no purpose. But when it comes to pointless bureaucracy, Government departments are best-in-class.
Charles and James tell two stories – one from Australia and one from the UK – where bureaucracy got completely out of hand.
You’ll hear about stationery budgets, re-used envelopes, wayward traffic cones, and a very different definition of ‘mogging’.
Please note, before listening to this podcast you must fill out a mandatory form, undertake a safety briefing and attend a subcommittee meeting.
Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.com (Wankernomics.com)
Full tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live (Wankernomics.com/live)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
15 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Is this the worst employee recognition scheme ever created?
In 2025 a worker was sent an email from their employer to recognise their three years of service. Inside the email was a button that read, ‘view recognition’, which when clicked on, revealed the reward. We don’t want to spoil how absurdly bad this reward was – you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out.
In this episode James and Charles reveal some of the worst employee recognition schemes imaginable, and how some organisations are even outsourcing their employee recognition to third parties.
Then they deep-dive into an infamous incentive scheme at one of America’s biggest banks that was so morally horrifying it led to a multi-million dollar fine and a minor change to the company’s logo.
Along the way, James and Charles unpack how large organisations outsource responsibility and how jargon is used to paper over morally questionable, or even illegal corporate behaviour.
Warning: this episode contains buzzwords and other corporate bullsh*ttery that could be offensive to some listeners.
Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.com (Wankernomics.com)
Full tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live (Wankernomics.com/live)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
15 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Your Call Is Not Important To Us
In 2023 the entire network of Optus – one of Australia’s largest telecommunications providers – went down for 12 hours. The outage caused major disruptions across Australia as 11 million people went without internet and phone access.
So how did the outage align with the company’s purpose statement of “Powering Optimism With Options”. And what the hell does “Powering Optimism With Options” even mean?
Charles and James unpack Optus’s response to the crisis, and in the process uncover some of the most ridiculous corporate jargon ever seen. You’ll hear about “Possibilities yet to be imagined”, the obsession modern brands have with being loved and a very weird story about an internet-enabled cat feeder.
It’s a best-practice tale of corporate bullsh*ttery with lessons for anyone wanting to understand how modern organisations work.
Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.com (Wankernomics.com)
Full tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live (Wankernomics.com/live)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
15 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
“Free donuts in the foyer”: The Enron scandal retold
You probably know the story. In 2001 Enron – then one of the largest companies in the world – collapsed after it was found to be using illegal accounting tricks to hide massive debts and fake huge profits.
But what was it actually like to work there?
James and Charles apply a Wankernomics lens to one of the world’s biggest ever corporate scandals, unpacking the company values, analysing the office culture and reading the actual emails that were sent around the office at the time of the collapse.
What they ultimately discover is a corporation that, on the surface, is much like any other, with all-staff emails about free donuts in the foyer, over-enthusiastic interns trying to impress the boss, and a set of ‘organisational values’ that are farcically detached from the actual conduct of the company.
Warning: this episode contains buzzwords and other corporate bullsh*ttery that could be offensive to some listeners.
Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.com (Wankernomics.com)
Full tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live (Wankernomics.com/live)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
7 Sept 2026
Trailer
After taking on board extensive stakeholder feedback and running a strategic analysis to identify gaps in our end-to-end customer offering, we’re thrilled to advise that we’re starting a podcast.
Coming this September, The Wankernomics Podcast will drill down and deep dive into real-life stories about workplace bullshittery.
Employee recognition schemes that went wrong. Job ads that make no sense. Emails that drip with corporate wankery, and ridiculous workplace processes that are set up for no reason at all.
You’ll hear how a multi-national organisation purposely added an extra 20 minutes to its on-hold message so people would hang up.
And the bizarre story of how one large company went to the effort of temporarily suspending one of its core organisational values while it conducted criminal activity.
There are stories about big companies like Facebook and Boeing. And stories from workplaces you’ve probably never heard of but will definitely relate to.
Along the way James & Charles will unpack it all in their trademark Wankernomics style, and share their own stories of working in the corporate world.
Get on board! Coming mid September, wherever you get your podcasts
Sign up to our the free Wankernomics thought leadership program (our free email newsletter) at Wankernomics.com (Wankernomics.com)
Full tour schedule: Wankernomics.com/live (Wankernomics.com/live)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Inside a recent episode
Why The Beatles never used Trello or Jira
Published 13 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Well, he skipped all those milestones along the way. I mean, there were check-in points which he ignored and he went straight to the end. Yes. And just delivered the deliverable. Yes. Yes. Without thinking about all the other stakeholders. But also in the oversight, like what about the brand management? Did it align with the values of the Beatles? Exactly. And what about stakeholder input? I mean, no one else, none of the other people involved got a chance... Yes, what about Ringo? Why did Ringo never get to have input? Well, let alone the record company, maybe some of the fans. There's a lot of people who would have said, hang on a second, I've just got a bit of feedback on the work in progress of this song. […]
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
