WhyWork Podcast

About WhyWork Podcast

The WhyWork Podcast is an organisational strategy session and legal dissection of workplace events that are laced with humour. Your bloggers, Alan, Trajce, and Sara, explore the contemporary and uncomfortable realities of work and the boundaries that are tested. Alan and Trajce dismantle case law and Sara pushes all to consider how to redesign the world of work so that business objectives are realised and that people thrive. Good stories are told. The WhyWork team throws shade on some of the stories and the people involved as they consider defensible and remarkable work design strategy. When you listen to the WhyWork Podcast, you realise that no skeleton in the workplace closet is too sacred to unearth. It’s like listening to the water cooler gossip but then shit gets real, and it all becomes serious – fast. This is a must-listen for executive and emerging managers, work design strategists, human factors specialists and ergonomists, work health safety and law specialists, organisational scientists, occupational health academics, and anyone humoured by office and workplace antics! Get ready to exclaim, “She said WHAT...?” and “He DIDN’T! OMG!”. Laugh along with us while you learn lots.

Publisher

Alan Girle, Trajce Cvetkovski, & Sara Pazell

Category

business · science

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

16 Feb 2023

Latest episode

13 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

228 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Sept 2026

   S10 Trailer 05: WhyWork: Why Silent?

   S10 Trailer 05: WhyWork: Why Silent? The WhyWork (https://whywork.com.au/) crew - Alan, Trajce, and Sara - are on extended break. But the world of work is as crazy as ever. We encourage In the meantime, Check out Sara's afternoon keynote presentation on Good Work Design at the Work Well Conference 2026 (https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/news-and-events/events/2026/work-well-conference-brisbane-2026), 7th Oct, Brisbane Conference Centre, sponsored by the Office of Industrial Relations, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. She will also present on a similar topic for WorkSafe Tasmania in their Safe Work Month, "Good Work Design for Sustainable Futures: Curating Better Work, by Design.' (https://worksafe.tas.gov.au/topics/services-and-events/month/webinars/good-work-design-for-sustainable-futures-dr-sara-pazell) Subscriber's can also check out Sara's disarming, growing, library of 1-min ViVA health at work (https://vivahealthgroup.com.au/) video recordings-- Work Design Instagram Provocations. (https://www.instagram.com/viva_healthatwork/) While Alan remains content taking a break, walking the dog, and sunning himself across the Tasman seas (oh, yes, he is still working around Australia - contact Alan directly (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alangirle/)for expert WHS law advice and defense strategy), Trajce is taking a hiatus helping to produce work, health, and safety legal reflections for The Safety Verdict by Longton Blackwell. Watch this space - 2027, here we come again. In the meantime, we remain available to provide keynote address podcast special recordings and work re-design workshops (https://whywork.com.au/workshops/) - reach out to design your best work education experience yet!

2. 

   27 Jul 2026

   S10 E05: The Convergence: Nothing is Out of Bounds

   S10 E05: The Convergence: Nothing is Out of Bounds Warning: This episode includes tribute to the life and death of one of the podcast hosts' father. We advise listener discretion if this is a sensitive topic for you. This episode explores why the management of modern work demands integrated thinking. Rather than separating psychosocial hazards, manual handling, critical controls, environmental conditions, and organisational performance into independent programs, the hosts argue for a whole-of-system approach to designing work. Drawing on legal cases, operational experience, contemporary events, and personal reflections, the discussion examines how workplaces can move beyond siloed thinking to understand the interaction between people, tasks, technology and organisational systems. Along the way, Alan, Trajce, and Sara’s conversation touches on leadership, performance management, work-life boundaries, resilience, and the personal experiences that shape our understanding of meaningful work, including Sara’s tribute to her father and his influence on her systems-design thinking. This episode is a reminder that every workplace challenge exists within a broader human system—and effective solutions rarely come from a single discipline.

3. 

   27 Jul 2026

   S10 E06: The Circular Saw Case: A Labour Hire Blind Spot

   Season 10 Episode 06: The Circular Saw Case: A Labour Hire Blind Spot Warning: This episode references workplace injuries and fatalities - we advise listener discretion. In this subscriber-exclusive episode, the WhyWork team, Alan, Trajce, and Sara, examine a real labour hire incident involving a serious circular saw injury to explore where responsibility begins—and where it ends. “Nothing to see here,” says Alan, “or, at least, that is what some organisations might hope to explain.” The discussion considers due diligence obligations across recruitment agencies, host employers and supervisors, including verifying competence, ensuring workers understand instructions, selecting appropriate equipment, providing effective supervision and communicating critical safety information. The hosts also discuss migrant workers, language barriers, visual communication, verification of competency, PPE obligations, and the danger of assuming that everyone shares the same understanding of risk. Sara drifts into her recollections of scuba diving while massively pregnant, “like a beached whale wriggling in my tight scuba outfit,’ she humours. Trajce giggles at her Eastern European underground mining experience, likening her experience to the ‘Compare the Market’ meerkat mascot, Viktor. Combining legal analysis with human factors and practical operational experience, this episode demonstrates why effective safety depends not simply on assigning responsibility, but on designing systems that make safe work possible. Acknowledgement: This episode is part of our Subscriber Case Study Series and was inspired by a real case submitted by Desai Link, Principal Consultant at Dynamic HSE. We thank Desai for contributing this case to encourage practical discussion and shared learning across the safety profession.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

25 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 50 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

66

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

82

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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