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Entrepreneurship can be meaningful, exciting and full of possibility. It can also be lonely, uncertain and exhausting. Some days, the work that once energised you may feel like one more thing you can’t face. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed or that you have to make a big decision today. It may mean you’re tired and need a little room to recover. Start by making the day smaller When everything feels urgent, your mind has little space to rest. Choose one task that would make tod

In a meeting, the room goes quiet. A plan has obvious gaps, but nobody raises them. People glance around, read the mood, and decide it is safer to go along. That is social conformity: adjusting what we say or do to fit the group. It can help teams coordinate, but it becomes risky when agreement matters more than honest judgement. How conformity breeds risk When people expect dissent to be unwelcome, they may stay silent about hazards, mistakes, unfair treatment, or unrealisti

A fire alarm sounds. Someone glances up, waits for a colleague to react, then goes back to their screen. That pause can be a warning sign. When people have experienced repeated drills, unwanted alarms or unclear messages, they may start to assume the next alarm is nothing to worry about. This response is often called alarm fatigue: repeated alerts lose their power to prompt action. For workplace evacuation planning, that loss of trust matters. A plan can be well written, exit

Personality tests can help teams talk about how they work. But when a label becomes a limit, quieter employees may have to work harder to be seen for what they can do. You’ve delivered the project, solved the problem and earned strong feedback. Then a promotion comes up and you hear: “You’re great at the detail, but we need someone more visible.” For an introvert, that can feel like being overlooked for a quality that has little to do with the work itself. It can also be a si

No Year 12 certificate? You can still get a job, build skills and move towards a career. Here’s how to make your next step count. Leaving school before Year 12 can make the job search feel harder. Some employers list a high school certificate as a requirement, and you might worry that not having one closes off your options. It doesn’t. Many Australian employers value reliability, practical skills and a willingness to learn. And there are several ways to get started, from entr

A past conviction can make the job search feel harder, but it doesn’t define your skills or your future. Understanding what you may need to disclose, preparing for a conversation about your record and getting the right support can help you move forward with confidence. Start with what the job needs A criminal record does not automatically prevent you from working. In Australia, employers may consider whether a record affects the inherent requirements of a particular role, the

Personality assessments are often presented as a shortcut to understanding how people work. But when a test can influence someone’s job prospects, how useful and how fair, is it? Personality tests have a place in conversations about work. They can give people a shared language for discussing communication styles, preferences and potential areas for development. But there’s a big difference between using a test to start a conversation and using it to decide who gets hired, pro

We’re taught to finish what we start. Stick it out. Push through. Don’t give up. But sometimes the bravest, smartest thing you can do is quit. Quit the job that keeps shrinking you. Quit the habit that no longer serves you. Quit chasing a goal you chose for an old version of yourself. Quit saying yes when every part of you means no. Quitting isn’t always failure. Sometimes it’s a course correction. The sunk-cost trap It’s easy to keep going because you’ve already put so much

AI can help a business move faster. It can summarise documents, draft customer responses, analyse data and take repetitive work off employees’ hands. But speed and convenience don’t settle the harder questions: Is this fair? Is it safe? Would we be comfortable explaining how we used it? Using AI ethically isn’t a matter of avoiding the technology. It’s about making deliberate choices about where it belongs, who remains accountable and how people are treated along the way. The

Your team may know how to give feedback, run a meeting and manage a deadline. But do they know how to handle the emotions that come with them? Every workplace has moments when emotions run high: a difficult conversation, a missed deadline, a change in direction or a colleague who seems withdrawn. These moments can strengthen trust or quietly erode it. Emotional etiquette is the everyday practice of recognising emotions, responding with care and communicating in ways that resp

How to Recognise Your Strengths and Frame Them as a Superpower A neurodivergent diagnosis can bring clarity. It may help explain why some parts of work feel unusually demanding and why other things come naturally. It can also give you new language for asking for the conditions that help you do your best work. There’s no single way to be neurodivergent. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and other forms of neurodivergence can affect people differently, and your diagnosis doesn’

A shared lunch can be a nice way to connect with colleagues. But if your workplace calls it “family style,” does that mean you have to give up your lunch break to join in? A family style lunch usually means eating together as a group, often sharing food, to encourage team connection. It isn’t a special category under Fair Work law. What matters is whether the lunch is genuinely optional or whether your employer expects you to attend and take part in work-related discussions o

An insecure boss can make work feel unpredictable. They might take credit for your ideas, react defensively to feedback, keep a close eye on your work, or feel threatened when you succeed. You can’t make someone else feel secure. But you can protect your work, communicate clearly, and decide what you need from the relationship. Notice the pattern A single tense interaction doesn’t necessarily mean your boss is insecure. Look for repeated behaviours: dismissing your contributi

1. Turning up unprepared Not knowing much about the role or company can make it seem like you’re not very interested. Read the job description, look at the company’s website and think about how your experience connects to the role. 2. Giving vague answers General claims like “I’m a great communicator” are more convincing when backed by an example. Explain what you did, how you approached it and what happened as a result. 3. Speaking negatively about past colleagues or employe

For a long time, managers had the louder voice at work. They assigned tasks, gave feedback and helped decide who got promoted. If a manager was difficult to work with, employees often had little choice but to put up with it—or leave quietly. That balance is changing. Employees talk to one another, compare experiences and share what it’s really like to work for a particular manager. A reputation can now travel well beyond one team, and bad management can follow a leader from r

A fair workplace doesn’t always mean treating everyone exactly the same. People bring different experiences, needs and barriers to work. Understanding the difference between equality and equity can help us build workplaces where everyone has a genuine chance to contribute and progress. Equality means giving everyone the same support or opportunity. Equity means recognising that people may need different support to reach a fair opportunity. Think of a team training session sch

A job interview can cost you money before you’ve even had the chance to earn any. Getting to an interview may mean paying for petrol, parking, public transport, or a rideshare. If petrol is between $2.33 and $2.85 per litre, even a short drive can add up, especially when you’re attending several interviews or travelling a long distance. What might one interview cost? Here’s a simple example for a 40 km return trip in a car that uses 8 litres per 100 km: Petrol: 3.2 litres, or

The news used to tell us what mattered. Now it often tells us what might make us click. Once upon a time, journalism was supposed to do a fairly straightforward job: find out what happened, check the facts, and explain why it mattered. These days, it can feel like the first question is a little different: How do we get you to tap this before you scroll past? That shift has consequences. A headline like “You won’t believe what happened next” promises a revelation. The story be

Needing time away for medical care can feel personal, especially when you’re unsure how much detail to share at work. The good news: you can be clear, responsible, and professional without explaining your diagnosis or treatment. Start by deciding what your manager genuinely needs to know: the dates or expected duration of your absence, any flexibility you may need, and a plan for urgent work. You do not need to lead with private medical details. A simple conversation might so

Short answer: often, yes , but it depends on the injury, the role and the adjustment. In Australia, an injury may be covered as a disability under federal anti-discrimination law. If you can still perform the essential (“inherent”) requirements of your job with reasonable support, your employer generally needs to consider and provide reasonable workplace adjustments. An adjustment might include altered hours, working from home, extra breaks, equipment, changes to how particul