PODCAST · business
Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing
by Bob Merberg
Gritty, factual storytelling that makes sense of work and working life. heighho.substack.com
Episodes
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Employee Engagement SOS?
Is employee engagement a sinking ship? According to Gallup, engagement is taking on water, with the firm’s frequently repeated survey findings showing an engagement rate of 31% — a 10-year low. But a closer look surfaces insights that lead us to believe employee engagement may be very much…
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Understanding Evidence-Based Practice for Employee Wellness Leaders
“How do we do an evidence-based wellness program when there is no evidence?” This was a question asked of me by a distinguished wellness director. She also happened to be a physician who understood better than most the meaning of evidence-based practice. You may agree or disagree that there is no...
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Let Your People Go... to the bathroom (podcast version)
A conversation (AI-assisted) about an employee wellbeing topic a lot of people never think about: Delaying bathroom use because of lack of scheduling flexibility, lack of access, or excessive job demands. This has serious physical and mental health consequences, and you’ll be shocked at the range...
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Joseph Zito — Hero of the Triangle Factory Fire
A quick, AI-assisted conversation describing the heroic actions of Joseph Zito, hero of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. This episode is based on Bob Merberg’s web page, The Story of Joseph Zito. Learn more about the fire, and how it became an inflection point in the arc of employee…
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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Today’s AI-assisted conversation is based on my post, "A Nation that Catches Workers Before They Fall," about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which was an inflection point in the arc of American worker wellbeing. In this episode, the AI took some liberties, expanding the scope of the…
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Health Circles: An Organizational Solution to Improve Work and Health
"Organizational solutions" are gaining traction in conversations about employee wellbeing. Organizational solutions entail changing how work is done. Enjoy this AI-assisted conversation about one example of an organizational solution, health circles, which includes a lively discussion of a…
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Mental Health Stigma
This AI-assisted conversation takes a deep dive into Bob Merberg’s excerpted presentation, given to a group of employees around the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, about mental health stigma. Unfortunately, for all the preoccupation with mental health stigma the last few years, many people...
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Designing Jobs People Want to Do
Change the work, not the worker. This lively AI-assisted conversation takes a deep dive into the basics of job characteristics, motivating job potential, job design, and job crafting. It’s based on a recorded practice session for one of Bob Merberg’s presentations — the rough cut is available on...
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Teen Worker Wellbeing
This experimental AI-assisted two-person conversation is based on the Heigh Ho article, Teenage Workland: Taking stock of teenage worker wellbeing (in words, numbers, and music), which includes the chart the podcast speakers refer to. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this…
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Civility Policy Lands Coffee Chain in Hot Water
Something different: This episode is a conversation that dives deep into a mash-up of two Heigh Ho articles... When Civility Policies Run Amok-accino and Ambiguous Civility Policy Burns Workers The episode is AI-assisted, but don’t let that put you off. It’s a polished dialogue that sounds like a...
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A San Francisco Bus Driver Navigates the Ups and Downs of Transit Operation
(Subscribe to the Heigh Ho newsletter at heighho.substack.com.) Get a look from "the seat" as Muni driver Mc Allen describes why he loves his job and San Francisco and public transportation in general. Mc also shares sides of the role we rarely see: a bus driver’s schedule, time off, pay, and the...
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Steering Thru Stress: What Bus Drivers' Working Lives Teach Us About Wellbeing
The job stress of city transit operators, especially bus drivers, has probably been studied more than any other occupation. Along with other jobs in the transportation industry, bus driving is often cited as one of the most stressful jobs. Though it may seem esoteric to office workers, the…
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Back to the Salt Mine: Labor Where You Least Expect It
Gazing out over Lake Erie from the Cleveland waterfront, you’re likely to see commercial and recreational watercraft. You’ll see white-capped waves and, in winter, some ice floes. But you may be in the dark about what lies beneath — not underwater, not on the lakebed, but 1800 feet further down,...
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How Work Expands to Fill the Time Available to Complete It
In 1955 British naval historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson published in The Economist an article about bloated government bureaucracies, stating: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” He dubbed this Parkinson’s Law. Unfortunately, Parkinson’s Law is commonly...
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Interview with a Truck Driver
You'll have a new world opened for you as you listen to comments by Dustin — a Texas-based long-haul driver — about pay, work schedules, and life on the road. Dustin also shares his perspective on work/life balance, 4-day workweeks, work-from-home, and the public's perception of truck drivers...
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Job Crafting, with Rob Baker
Rob Baker, author of Personalization at Work, and Bob Merberg explore job crafting, where a worker tailors their job-related tasks, relationships, and thoughts to optimize how it fits to their strengths. The conversation uses the allegory of Snow White’s and the forest animals’ job crafting in…
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Really? Workers Gladly Forgo Wages?
Have you noticed business media banging the drum about workers’ willingness to accept less pay in exchange for certain benefits? The business world’s insistence that satisfying jobs can only come at a financial cost to workers serves primarily to defend and reinforce a flawed status quo. This is…
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Unpaid Domestic Work and Invisible Family Load (Mental Load) — with Nikki Reynolds
You’re invited to eavesdrop as Nikki Reynolds of Inspired Wellbeing Solutions and I have a no-holds-barred conversation about unpaid domestic work — which includes tasks like caretaking, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and mental load — and the disproportionate burden it places on women. In the...
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Unpaid Domestic Work and Invisible Family Load
Unpaid domestic labor, also called unpaid work, is time and energy expended within a household or family for the benefit of its members. It places disproportionate burden on women, with implications for emotional, financial, and occupational wellbeing. Find the original Heigh Ho post, with all...
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Dishing on Meaningful Work, Finding Your Passion, and Loving Your Job
I asked dishwashers in an online forum… “What's your reaction when you hear people talk about doing what you love, finding meaning in your work, following your passion?” Listen to their answers, which are sure to surprise you. For lending their voices to this episode, my sincerest thanks to —…
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Hardscrabble Jobs: Character Builders or Mental Health Risk Factors?
A Surprise Appearance A mistreated newsboy becomes a titan of industry. This episode reveals a unique connection between Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and working life, especially as it relates to the jobs we hold in our youth. What seems like character-building experience to the beholder may…
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What’s So Radical About Sabbatical?
This episodes includes 3 ways sabbaticals enhance employee wellbeing while creating opportunities and the 3 pillars of good sabbatical policies. When first awakened to the sabbatical idea, I reacted skeptically. I’ve since seen that most medium and large companies can offer sabbaticals — longer,...
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Lessons Learned Working at a Warehouse
One thing I learned from this job, and the many warehouse, retail, and food service jobs I had thereafter, is to refrain from assuming that most people's work lives are anything like mine and yours. Workers like little Louie and Old Joe, the bookie, the thieves, the truck drivers… We live and…
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The 7 Dwarfs: Engaged Team Players or Marginalized "Others"?
Labor utopia or dystopia? What looks like a degrading portrayal of outcasts has also been framed as an homage to the American worker. In Disney’s Snow White classic, the depiction of the seven dwarfs informs modern perspectives on labor in the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Read the...
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How Can Unions Be Resurgent When Membership Rates Are at an All-Time Low?
Despite the fact that leaders seem determined to suppress the meaning of Labor Day, news reports in recent years may leave you with the impression that organized labor is resurgent. Stories abound about workers organizing and/or about work stoppages (or looming strikes) at Amazon, Starbucks,...
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Snow White-washing Child Labor, Then and Now
Today’s Episode features another installment in our series looking at work through the lens of Disney’s 1937 animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has its share of chilling moments, though Disney sanitizes the darkest details of its source material —…
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Here's How Music Affects Work and Workers
This episode is based on one of the most popular posts in the Heigh Ho series looking at work through the lens of Disney’s 1937 classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Here, I use Snow White’s hit song — Whistle While you Work — as a springboard to explore the history of music at work, with…
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Snow White and Working Life
Bob Merberg kicks off a series looking at work and wellbeing through the lens of the 1937 animated Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In this epidode, we set the stage… examining why the influence of pop culture — including media targeted to kids — shouldn’t be underestimated....
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Announcing Bob Merberg's Heigh Ho Podcast
This is a quick introduction to Bob Merberg’s new Heigh Ho podcast, created in conjunction with the newsletter, Heigh Ho — Work, Workplaces, and Worker Wellbeing. Upcoming episodes feature spunky, evidence-based storytelling about work. Subscribe to the newsletter at https://[email protected]....
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Domestic Work — Unpaid and Unseen
Unpaid domestic labor, also called unpaid work, is time and energy expended within a household or family for the benefit of its members. With a tie-in to Snow White — and references to iconic cultural works like Dina Goldstein’s “Snowy” photo and Emma’s “You Should Have Asked Comic” — this…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing have?
Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing currently has 30 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing about?
Gritty, factual storytelling that makes sense of work and working life. heighho.substack.com
How often does Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing release new episodes?
Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing has 30 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing?
You can listen to Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing?
Heigh Ho — Work and Wellbeing is created and hosted by Bob Merberg.
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