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We talk to Ian about the important role that Dads play in achieving gender equality in the workplace. He discusses the challenges and ambitions he hears from fathers looking to balance home and work, including shifts in personal identity, differing approaches to taking parental leave, difficulties in challenging traditional norms and the importance of parenting ‘out loud’ at work. He talks about his own family set up: his experience of being the main care giver for his children and how we can all better share the mental load of family life.

Melissa talks to us about her career in commodities andglobal markets over the past decade at Macquarie and how the bank's Black Employee Affinity Group, BEAM has supported her. She explores the significance of mentors and female rolemodels like Managing Director and CEO Shemara Wikramanayake in her career. She tell us about BEAM, its goals and how she now champions and mentors junior bankers from ethnic minority groups. She shares her view of the future and offers her advice and support to those at the start of their careers in finance.

We talk to Sheila all about Multiple Sclerosis (MS), her symptoms and diagnosis and what daily work and home life looks like for her. She speaks inspiringly about clinical trials, her supportive family, friends and colleagues and her unique outlook on life and humanity.

This Mental Health Awareness Week Rob Stephenson talks to us about his own wellbeing, his passion for music and his quest to break the stigma of mental health in the workplace. He explores the importance of dialogue, role models and storytelling in helping others to feel comfortable talking about their own mental wellbeing and leaves us with simple, positive and practical tips to improve our own.

In this episode, Anna talks to self-confessed former stressaddict: Subira Jones. Subira recounts how her tendency to throw herself into work in order to cope with life’s challenges, ultimately led to her burning out. Now an advisor to global brands and individuals on stress and burnout prevention, she explains the difference between needing a break and burning out, the dangers of resilience and the warning signs that someone may not be coping as well as they appear to be.  

Single parent coach Orla Donoghue talks to us about her own experience of being a single parent as well as her coaching work for both individuals and organisations. She explores the challenges that single parents face, dispels some of the assumptions that are commonly made about single parents and how employers, colleagues and friends can help.

Trigger warning: cancer. In our latest podcast, Addy talks to Anna about her diagnosis of bowel cancer in 2019 and the following 5 years of treatment and recovery, both physically and emotionally. She talks about how she found out she had cancer, working throughout treatment (alongside lockdown and home-schooling) and how her family has coped. She offers her advice to anyone suffering with cancer or for those with friends, family or colleagues anything similar.

Trigger warning for baby and pregnancy loss, miscarriage and still birth. Daria courageously and openly talks to us about the devastating experience of losing her baby girl at full term. She recounts how she slowly began to heal, grieve and move forward. She tells us about her 3 daughters and how she has built a community group at the Bank of England to support others going through fertility, loss and pregnancy difficulties.  Trigger warning for baby and pregnancy loss, miscarriage and still birth. Daria courageously and openly talks to us about the devastating experience of losing her baby girl at full term. She recounts how she slowly began to heal, grieve and move forward. She tells us about her 3 daughters and how she has built a community group at the Bank of England to support others going through fertility, loss and pregnancy difficulties.   Supportive resources: 1) Dad Still Standing podcast: dadstillstanding.com A resource for bereaved fathers, close relatives and families that want to understand the partner perspective around baby loss. 2) Petals: petalscharity.org Petals is a baby loss counselling service supporting parents who experience mental health issues as a result of bereavement, trauma or loss related to pregnancy. 3) Tommy’s: tommys.org A leading pregnancy and baby charity with an aim of making pregnancy and birth safe for everyone.

We talk to Jenn Barnett and Jemima Ankuma from Grant Thornton’s Diversity and Inclusion team about all things social mobility. They explain how they ensure that people of lower socio-economic backgrounds can join, progress and thrive at the firm - and the profession more broadly - and why social mobility is also a very personal passion for each of them too.

Laura Walker and Chloe Fletcher, who have shared senior finance roles at Asda, talk to Anna all about their experience of job sharing, the practical considerations and the benefits to both companies and individuals.  They explain how with their current venture, The Job Share Revolution, they support both businesses and individuals who want to explore job sharing from establishing a business case for the job share, finding job share pairs and setting up efficient processes, communications and review frameworks. 

We talk to Stonewall Changemaker of the Year 2022 Kayus Fernander about his career at Citi; his journey from being a private, young, black, gay junior within the bank, through to being an open, confident and active participant in and advocate of inclusion groups, initiatives and discussions. He talks about diversity groups, company culture, intersectionality and how we can be better colleagues and managers in the workplace.

Psychologist and therapeutic coach Kyle Davies talks to us about his own experience of anxiety and depression as a young adult, the contributing factors and the natural tendency to mask and avoid situations which exacerbated it. He brings his professional expertise to the conversation, exploring his approach to therapeutic coaching, how we can build our own resilience and listen to our bodies' indicators during life's stresses.  

In this episode of WorkLife Stories, legal senior associate Rachel Dean tells us about her career so far, including how she started out and her move from private practice to an in-house role. She reveals the drivers for her decision to move, what she learnt from the experience and why she ultimately moved back to a law firm afterwards. She offers her advice for anyone considering a move in-house either by secondment or permanent role and how it can enrich your skills and experience.

In this episode, we talk to Jayne Ruff about her book entitled: Imperfect Parenting – Honest Stories from Global Parents in which she pens a chapter on balancing careers and family life. She talks about her own experiences of maternity leave, going back to work and the importance of personal values, honest emotions and flexible boundaries in our search for work life balance.

In this episode of WorkLife Stories, we talk to George Bullock and Russell Cook from Macquarie, the Australian head quartered, global financial services group. George and Russell have both been participants in Macquarie’s Pride Employee Network Group’s Reverse Mentoring Scheme and are now members of the steering group that runs it. They talk about their own experiences of reverse mentoring, how they have grown the popular scheme, the importance of active allyship, mentoring conversation frameworks and guidance and the need to embed learnings into day to day working life.