In short
A “Truth, Lies and Work” summer episode where host Leanne and Al play “Corporate Family Fortunes,” a quiz based on YouGov-style survey results about office annoyances, workplace staying factors, communication irritations, weird desk-drawer finds, and how people unwind after stress. It’s framed as light, holiday-friendly banter with frequent dad jokes and some strong language.
Guests
Danny Wareham, organisational psychologist, leadership expert, speaker, and author of Constellation. His book argues leadership is less about a single person at the top and more about relationships across the organization, proposing a leaderless leadership model guided by purpose, culture, and context.
Key claims
Danny promotes “championing” others on LinkedIn rather than self-peacocking; workplace value is tied to recognition (e.g., from managers, senior leaders, colleagues, customers).
Notable examples
“Microwave fish” as a top office annoyance; “team building activities” as least-liked work social event; “stealing credit” and “rude customers” as anger drivers; “WhatsApp group messages” and “email threads” as communication irritants; weird drawer items include medication and shoes used to avoid being seen in the toilet.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOSetting the Fun Tone
0:10 to 0:34
Explaining the light-hearted theme of the episode.
“Hello, welcome to another of our Truth, Lies and Work summer sessions.”
Introducing Danny Wareham
0:34 to 1:43
Guest Danny Wareham discusses his book and its leadership model.
“It was, I think it was originally in the UK with Des Lennis, your favorite player, Les Dennis.”
Returning to the Conversation
2:37 to 3:39
Reintroducing the hosts and the guest after the ad break.
“I'm a chartered occupational psychologist.”
Danny's Journey as an Author
3:39 to 7:20
Danny shares his experiences since publishing his book.
“I think swears are the same as your alcohols.”
Engaging on LinkedIn
7:20 to 8:26
Discussing the dynamics of self-promotion on LinkedIn.
“because being in business can be a little bit lonely, a little bit, the highs are not quite as high because there's no one to share it with and the lows are a little bit lower because there's no one to share it with.”
Christmas Films and Their Formulaic Nature
8:26 to 11:19
Light-hearted debate about Christmas movies and their clichés.
“Bless you it does make it sound like we spent Christmas together like it was some kind of what's one of the terrible Christmas films like The Holiday or something you'll get complaint letters now.”
Playing Corporate Family Fortunes
11:19 to 14:02
The hosts start the game segment based on office annoyances.
“I'm far too young, obviously, to remember these programmes.”
Office Annoyances Survey Game
14:02 to 15:00
Explore common annoyances in the office as participants play a game.
What Makes You Angry at Work?
15:00 to 18:26
Discussion about various factors that anger employees at work.
“one point danny has zero fix i will tell you what what else was on there so you already got eat smelly food uh you already got speak loudly number two was eat someone else's food from the fridge Of course.”
Team Building Activities Discussion
19:16 to 19:32
Conversation about unpopular team building activities in the workplace.
“on an episode and two out of three of us are devilishly good looking and you're not gonna I'm going to say with Phil, host of Nudge, UK's number one marketing podcast.”
Show all 24 chapters
Team Building Activities Discussion
19:34 to 20:48
Conversation about unpopular team building activities in the workplace.
“Tell us about your latest episode, Phil.”
Social Event Preferences
20:48 to 23:28
Participants share their least liked work social activities.
“That's not only on the board, but also you win our star prize.”
Persuasion to Stay with Employers
23:28 to 28:06
Exploration of factors that would persuade individuals to remain with an employer.
“And so on Fridays, on Fridays, we'd all go to the pub at lunchtime.”
Understanding Workplace Preferences
28:06 to 28:34
Discussion on the intelligence average and workplace culture preferences.
Personal Anecdotes and Work-Life Balance
28:34 to 29:55
Sharing a personal story about a dilemma of attending a concert vs. spending time with family.
“She looks like she's trying to set fire to the microphone using the power of her mind.”
Communication Preferences at Work
29:55 to 30:56
Exploring different communication methods in the workplace and their irritations.
“And she's like, I thought you just like, as a turn of phrase, I was like, no, I literally just need to sit and think about it.”
The Impact of Voice Notes
30:56 to 33:17
Debating the pros and cons of using voice notes in communication.
“It's not instant, but it's not messaging.”
Email Communication Challenges
33:17 to 35:59
Discussing frustrations with email and its role in workplace communication.
“I enjoy a voice note because I think there's some stories that just have to be a voice note.”
Understanding Communication Irritations
35:59 to 38:19
Discussing the ways of communication that irritate workers the most.
“Where it squashes you, so you end up with like just about 15 characters in your email and it squashes it all down.”
Unusual Office Desk Finds
38:19 to 42:00
Sharing humorous and strange things found in office desks and drawer items.
“We've got, what's the weirdest thing you found in an office desk drawer?”
Office Anecdotes: The Shoe Story
42:00 to 43:35
Learn about a humorous story regarding a colleague's unusual toilet habits.
“And that's why I said, Danny, I didn't quite hear what you said.”
Unwinding After Work: Survey Insights
43:35 to 45:28
Discover how British workers unwind after a stressful day at work.
“That is number four with 35 % drink alcohol.”
Analyzing Survey Results
45:28 to 49:57
Explore the psychology behind survey responses about workplace activities.
“These are the, what was the interviewer like?”
Wrap-Up and Reflections
49:57 to 51:01
Reflect on the episode's content and prepare for upcoming topics.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Our survey said... This episode contains probably some strong language and likely some adult themes and probably some dad jokes. Listener discretion is advised.
0:10Leanne:Hello, welcome to another of our Truth, Lies and Work summer sessions. For the next few weeks, we're taking a little break from workplace news and the heavy topics to bring you something a bit more fun. You know, the sort of episode you can stick on while you're driving down the coast, you're lying by the pool or just pretending to relax on holiday. So today we are playing Corporate Family Fortunes. Now, I'm sure everyone knows what Family Fortunes is. It was, I think it was originally in the UK with Des Lennis, your favorite player, Les Dennis. And then I believe it went Steve Harvey Harley over in the US.
0:45So I'm sure you already know what it is. Don't worry, I'm going to explain exactly how it works. But essentially, we just got a lot of surveys and I'm going to get these guests. well, guests are going to be Leanne and our guests are going to guess Leigh.
0:57Leanne:Yeah, that makes perfect sense. All the sense. Smoothest intro ever. Absolutely. So yeah, after the break, we're joined by, exciting drum roll, organisational psychologist, leadership expert and author Danny Wareham. Hey! So Danny's book Constellation, oh, it's so good. It explores such an interesting question. what if leadership isn't about a person at the top but it's about the relationships between everyone else it introduces a whole new leaderless leadership model where purpose and culture and context really are the things that guide how organizations succeed we will leave a link in the show notes of course yes we will so we'll join danny and leanne for corporate family fortunes after this very quick word from our beautiful lovely sponsors thank you for paying our sponsors Thank you.
1:48The dirty little secret is that most businesses think they know their customers. They have the data, the records, the history, but it's scattered across three teams and four systems. And in our case, it's about 216 ,000 spreadsheets, which means nobody can actually use it.
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2:29Leanne:Hello, hello, and welcome back. This is Truth, Lies and Work, the watering podcast where behavioral science meets workplace culture. Brought to you by who? The HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered occupational psychologist. My name is Al, I'm a business owner. And normally we'd be here to help you simplify the science of work and build amazing workplace cultures, but not this week. Nope. Today we're joined by organisational psychologist, speaker and author and all round fucking nice guy, Danny Wareham. Danny, welcome. Hello, hello.
2:57We got our first F gone in as well and it wasn't me. I thought I'd just set the scene. I just like, you know, allow you to swear as much as you want. I mean, this is probably going to be quite sweary because we all are quite sweary people. We're Brits, aren't we? Yeah, I do like to ease into my profanity at 10 o 'clock in the morning, though. Little soup song of Fs.
3:19Leanne:Is that how it works? The later in the day, the stronger the words can be? Yeah, yeah. We shouldn't record this in the evening. I know we did talk about potentially having a wine, but it'd be a very short, redacted episode. It'd be a Trump-esque redaction, I think, by the time this went to air. Yeah, you were smart booking this in for the morning, to be fair. Yeah, yeah. I think swears are the same as your alcohols. You start off in the morning with a breakfast beer, and that's okay. And then lunch, I mean a glass of wine. And then if you fancy mid-afternoon like an Aperol, that's fair enough.
3:51I think that's, please drink responsibly. By that rationale, so I always think that time doesn't exist when you're in an airport. It's okay to have a whiskey at three in the morning. So does that mean it's okay to drop a C-bomb at four o 'clock at Manchester Airport?
4:06Leanne:Oh, I think it's necessary at Manchester Airport, to be honest. I'm just going to advise you of those of that word pairing I think the c is a far less gonna get you far less trouble than the b word the bomb so I think you probably don't want to say the word bomb in an airport that's what I would say fun story I got stopped at security because they thought I had a bomb yeah in Manchester airport um so I was going through and and just as you do and they're like madam is this your bag and I was like yes I'm like please step over here don't touch anything and then the supervisor came out i was like what's in the bag what's in the bag and i was like i don't know some chocolate and some headphones and he was like oh i'd bought three bars of lint chocolate for al's birthday but they're all stacked together and they were next to my headphones so it just looked like a block with a load of wires and he turned it around and showed me and like was like lol we thought you had a bomb i was like no not today anyway so talking of bombs danny um what bomb what bombshells have been happening in your life recently what do you know i published the book last year and it's slowly got some critical traction it's been landing really really well people really love it so and thank you for the shout out um lee so off the back of that it's now award season so there's this whole can you come and speak at this can you come and tell us about this can you um come and do a meet the author event and and talks about consolation so i basically i've lived my entire life on avanti West Coast trains for the last sort of six to eight weeks.
5:36Yeah, living on hotel food. So it's been a really strange time because I don't feel like an author. I'm just a council lad that had an idea, put pen to paper and people seem to find it really resonating. So it's quite nice and it's lovely for my ego too. And also I'm curious because your LinkedIn's, LinkedIn's is that the right word your posts on linkedin are pretty decent right they're really good in fact you fun fact you're the only person who i follow and ring that bell thing that's purely from the friday though isn't it that's that's not because of any sort of thought leadership or opinion pieces that's just because you like the odd dad joke it is true and also i'll be honest i do my my entire phone screen is covered with notification of danny danny danny danny danny danny but how do How do you do the whole thing of I've been awarded this award for the book without sounding like an absolute wanker like everyone else does?
6:34Well, I can't decide if I sound like an absolute wanker. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? It's a really strange balance for me because I'm not very good at peacocking. I think most people tend to be quite bad at kind of blowing their own trumpet. But the reality is when you're a small business owner, you kind of have to. because nobody knows you've got a trumpet unless you blow it a little bit. So nobody else can kind of cheer, lead you on and so on. So there's a careful balance. One of the ways that I find works quite well is champion other people. So how do you share other people's content or add to their discourse or raise their profile?
7:17Because a rising tide raises all boats. And also there's something nice about cheering everybody else because being in business can be a little bit lonely, a little bit, the highs are not quite as high because there's no one to share it with and the lows are a little bit lower because there's no one to share it with. So anytime you can kind of spread the load and just be a decent human. And then that gives you a bit of social capital that when you do want a peacock and be an absolute wanker, it's okay to say.
7:42Leanne:Do you know, who were we talking to? Oh, it was Nick Power. Oh, yeah. Who was like, did really well on LinkedIn. He's a bit quieter recently, but maybe I haven't won this bell. But he came on the show and he was just like, I'm not going to talk about how to approach LinkedIn and sales. I'm not going to buy something off you if I don't like you. So make me like you first and then you can sell to me. And I think that's what you're so brilliant at, Danny, is that how you present on LinkedIn is exactly who you are. Like when we met you through the podcast, when we met you in real life last Christmas, it's just Danny Wareham.
8:17Leanne:And that comes across so beautifully. so yeah I'm so I'm so pleased for you because it's all these awards and this recognition is all that you absolutely deserve so congratulations my friend. Bless you it does make it sound like we spent Christmas together like it was some kind of what's one of the terrible Christmas films like The Holiday or something you'll get complaint letters now. I was going to say how dare you that's one of my favourite Christmas movies Leanne likes those Christmas movies where like Like a woman goes back to her hometown to look after her elderly father. And then there's a bookshop, which doesn't seem to make any money.
8:55And there's a really handsome guy who has a bookshop. And then you're like, do you know, I've watched three minutes of this. And I know it. I know the movie.
9:03Leanne:Yes. I mean, Hallmark is probably a good sign of kind of a good Christmas movie. But I also love anything that's like just really joyous. And also for some reason, Christmas just wants me to celebrate even more. the lgbtq plus community like my favorite like and it's not even a thing you know what i can't remember what it's called but there's a movie where there's this um gay couple and it goes to me it's fine for the first time but it's it's just like it's not even a thing like that's not part of the story do you know what i mean a bit like schitt's creek like it's just not even it's not even really part of the story but it's just central to the characters being just so beautifully rounded and human i think i get a bit too excited christmas films are the original ai slop
9:48wow wow i feel very attacked with it it is it is bot shitting it's like a woman who's who's built her career in the city moves to open a christmas tree farm in you know blowhole or something yeah yeah they're very formulaic i'm not saying they're bad you know i i love fish and chips fish and chips is always the same and i can have a lot of fish and chips there's nothing wrong with formula compared to ai slop danny you've got one
10:22Leanne:opportunity to recover this where do we stand on the muppets christmas carol oh i i i'm gonna sidestep the question with another question because there's a whole debate and certainly in the uk around what constitutes a christmas film and i think if christmas is a character then it's a christmas film so muppets christmas carol christmas it couldn't happen any other time of year so it is a christmas film and it is amazing but then you know like you know batman returns is that a christmas film because it happens at christmas or die hard or gremlins or gremlins is because part of the story is about her um father dressing as santa and and getting stuck in the chimney and passing away.
11:08And that's why she doesn't celebrate Christmas. Then on the flip side, Frozen has no Christmas in it at all. Anyway, who had on their bingo card a discussion about Christmas in August?
11:19Leanne:Yeah. It's not long though, is it? Stop it. The nights are closing in. The nights are closing in. Yeah, it's darker. Stop. Let's play our game. Now, I think I have a button here. One second. Let me see if it works. Oh, I think this is the original. Can you hear that, Danny? Can you hear that? Is it? I'm far too young, obviously, to remember these programmes. I don't remember that being the theme tune to family for Auckland, but is it? Well, according to a website that I illegally downloaded it from earlier today, it is the theme. So we will leave it at that. If it's on the internet, it's got to be true.
12:05so yeah exactly exactly all right let's kick things off so i think what we'll do is we start off and i will ask a question and you need to buzz in now you've got no buzzer so i suggest you either to shout your name or constellation or whatever it is you want to say so and then i will i will award the first question uh to this person if they get it right then they can continue if they get it wrong then it goes to the other person okay so we asked a hundred we didn't you gov did and in fact chat gpt found all these for me but we asked 100 people to name something colleagues
12:40Leanne:do in the office that really gets on your nerves oh okay straight away lay lay lay go on microwave fish that is the top answer it says eat smelly food e.g fish so i'm gonna say microwave fish Oh, so do you want to play or pass? What was the question again? Name something colleagues do in the office that really get on your nerves.
13:09Leanne:I'm going to pass. Pass. Oh, Danny. Okay. So I think you get three lives here. So name something colleagues do in the office that really gets on your nerves. Lots of things annoyed me in the office in the corporate world. I'm going to take, it's a random one. It might be specific to me. Taking your shoes off. shoes off under the desk. Gross. That is pretty grim. Also, people who take shoes off on the plane. That's just unacceptable. Yeah, not unacceptable. Anyway, let's see if it's on the board. I'm just going to get my... No. Also, that's it. That means everybody that is working in an office, feel free to take your shoes off.
13:47It doesn't annoy anybody.
13:50Leanne:I am loving how committed you are to this. I added them to the soundboard and everything. I can see. I just haven't memorized exactly where they are, so I might press the wrong one. Lee, do you want to have another go? Things that annoy you about colleagues in the office. Talking to your lad on the phone. Our survey said... Oh, no, I pressed the wrong button. No, no. We have to accept your first answer. That's what I'm saying. I'm not competitive.
14:18Okay, so that is number four. 27 % of the people said speak loudly. Lee, do you want to, you get another go
14:26Leanne:I'm going to go with interrupting like when you're trying to concentrate and they want to chatter Our survey said No, I'm sorry it's not on there Danny, one last so, let's just make this exciting and you go, you get one opportunity and you win this round Brill, my most annoying thing was instant messenger where somebody sends, hi Danny and then nothing just ghosted so i don't know what that would class on but instant messenger being misused oh i'm sorry no it's not on that i will tell you so i think that goes to leanne so leanne's got one point danny has zero fix i will tell you what what else was on there so you already got eat smelly food uh you already got speak loudly number two was eat someone else's food from the fridge Of course.
15:18And number three was eat loudly. There's a lot about eating here. No work getting done. And finally, the last one was weird. Whistle or sing when working. Not sure that would really necessarily upset me. Was this a survey of 100 chimney sweeps?
15:39Exactly. The last one was a Victorian workhouse. Okay, so let's go on to something. else what right so we asked 100 people what makes you angriest at work so danny sings you're trailing do you want to go first incompetent bosses oh just gotta see whether i'm gonna put okay i'm gonna say that's on there because we've got an over demanding boss which i will put in there that's number three so brilliant you are you're now in control of the game danny are you going to pass or are you going to play? I'm going to pass because I love watching Lee's face as she's computing all of these ideas. So Lee, show us your face.
16:26Yeah. What's funny about having this game with an introvert is that there's genuinely like five seconds you go, hmm, I'm going to have to cut out.
16:32Leanne:And you do it. There was a video put on LinkedIn of an episode I think we did last summer and you were telling a story. I basically didn't say anything. And she commented something like like your your facial expressions we're doing a lot of the heavy lifting there lee i was like yeah i'm gonna get one of those transparent rendering buffering gifts and i'll put it over your face when you're thinking things that make you angry at work yes what makes you angriest at work um oh do you know what i used to kind of get a little bit pissed off when people were like people are late oh no i'm sorry i'm sorry danny back to you and we'll give you two chances here so two lives i i'm probably going to get hate mail for this but small talk coffee vending machine oh how's the good apparently if you ask somebody what the how the weekend was you want to know about it in real time it's like when someone says let me tell you about a dream i'm like no no no don't do that okay i am gonna say yes because there's something very similar to this but it is the bottom answer only three percent of people okay so you got the opportunity to win this round danny we want to angry for yeah what makes you angriest at work can i pinch from the previous round stealing stealing my food stealing my yogurt out of the fridge oh no i'm sorry it's not in there it's only do we give you one more chance to win so you've got one yeah go get steel yes steel um things that make me angry at work are horrible customers oh that's exactly what i was gonna say it is the fourth it is the fourth answer rude customers or staff at 37 so again that's leanne down to two i swear i haven't seen these no she hasn't actually she genuinely hasn't uh so that is brilliant okay so we'll just quickly go through these so you You got the foot to top.
18:32Answer was a colleague not doing their job properly. That was 49%. 44 % taking someone else's credit. Sorry, someone else taking credit for my work. Right, yeah. You got the boss. You got the rude customers. And then finally feeling excluded by others at work. 26%. That's a bit sad, isn't it? Not being given training or an induction. There you go, Lee. If you do one thing, train your managers. I was going to say, throw her that soapbox. Throw her that soapbox. I know. Well, before you do, well, whilst you're on your soapbox, let's go for a quick break and then we can cut that bit out okay we're back in just a second
19:04Leanne:did you know that the uk's number one management podcast that's us by the way and the uk's number one marketing podcast are both on the same podcast network we actually have a lot in common we both use behavioral science to help people do better at work and we both had to wrangle rory sutherland on an episode and two out of three of us are devilishly good looking and you're not gonna I'm going to say with Phil, host of Nudge, UK's number one marketing podcast. It's brought to you, we need to do this in threes. The HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination. Or business professional. Seamless.
19:39Seamless. Tell us about your latest episode, Phil. We've just done an episode on fake fandom and how New York indie bands are paying agencies to create fake TikTok videos about how much they like their work. And we talk about the behavioral science behind fandom and how that encourages people to enjoy the music and all of that good stuff. and do some big things about how this affects the world of politics, business and brands as well.
20:01Leanne:It is. It's such a good show. Of course, you'll hear all the stuff you want to hear about how to grow your business by using behavioural science in your marketing. But there's also just some really interesting episodes that will be right up your street. Personally, I enjoyed Can Balsamic Vinegar Make Beer Taste Better? It can. And are we all just status-seeking monkeys? I am. Go and listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts. But come back. Yeah, come back. definitely come back because nudge isn't as good as this so come back i'll cut that out
20:34welcome back welcome back we are playing corporate family fortunes which is um well you should know where's your jingle where's my jingle hang on here it is there it is
20:46so according to the internet this is the jingle for family fortunes according danny it's not so we look forward to your letters okay so we asked 100 people what which work social activity would you least like to attend hang on hang on i think there might be a delay here i think there might be a delay so we'll start again which work are you ready danny which work social activity would you least like to attend hey as i've said it and i don't know how to phrase it but those um team build sessions where you do something that's kind of quirky like learn to play the bongos together or that kind of team building activity is a little bit left field so we are looking for team building activities is it on the board press the wrong button i'm on mute one second i've got to wait for the effect to finish.
21:45This is going so well. Oh, that was real loud. That's not only on the board, but also you win our star prize. You, Danny, you have won a weekend away in a spa in rural Staffordshire where you will get beaten with heather and strange hairy men will rub things on you. Well done, yes. And what's this heather like? Is it tall? Told you, Dad jumped. Yes, so which social work activity would you like to attend? Team building activities are our top answer with 31%. Are you playing or are you passing, Danny?
Read the full transcript
22:25I will pass. I will pass again. Okay, Lee. So you have just one life, just to make it go a bit quicker. Karaoke. Karaoke. And... If that's there, I'll give you the money myself.
22:42oh man i don't know i it's not specifically there so would you put that into a slightly broader
22:48Leanne:no it's wrong if it's not there it's not right fair enough fair enough uh danny i need your opinion on this i have got one-off celebrations like birthdays christmas leaving parties that's not the same is it i i don't think it's the same and actually playing devil's advocate i don't think it's the one-off it's the uncomfortableness of having happy birthday sang to you oh yeah i I saw this guy and he does it. He did it like every time he went out with his girlfriend, he would tell the staff that it was her birthday. So every single day he filmed it, every single time she's like, you bastard. Anyway, sorry, Lee.
23:23So we are back to Danny. Danny, which social work activity would you least like to attend? Pop, drinking. Oh, yes. After, hang on, I'll press the button. After work, drinks or social events. Yes, that is the number two answer. so i think we'll give that round to danny i think just arbitrarily coming back i think the pub is
23:48Leanne:fine when like if you go with like colleagues like peers yeah but when i went when i went as a manager i wouldn't really drink very much and people would just get pissed and just start telling me stuff that i was like you shouldn't be telling me that before we go on the question i did my teacher training um in 1995 so i did my teacher training and that was when it was still planet. What do the kids say now? Like the mid-1900s? Oh, come on. 1995. Diana King, shy guy, was in the charts. Anyway, carry on. All right. Anyway, so the teacher training. And so on Fridays, on Fridays, we'd all go to the pub at lunchtime.
24:31Leanne:Wow. Genuinely, all the teachers would go to the pub at lunchtime. We'd all have a few pints and we'd go back and do our Friday afternoon lessons. You're on the overhead projector. That's... bold with the acetate was that what it was called the little things yeah the plasticky things yeah I always wanted one where you could turn it like we had one in the lower school where as we were singing all the hymns they turned it so it went across like credits but manually manually oh yeah of course manually yeah and also in primary school they genuinely brought out a cine cine camera and played it on the on the wall like one of those big things oh wow I know how old are you Al?
25:10Was there a history when you were at school? Was there a history? It was still happening. Not saying he's old, but his national insurance number's one.
25:25Okay, I'm going to... Excuse me. All right, as we go back onto the game. All right, so we got a question. We asked 100 people, what would persuade you to stay with an employer?
25:33Leanne:Wait, wait, what were the other work things? Oh, man, I've lost it. What was the question I asked? The work events. work uh work events this is super slick just like the rehearsal super super you know what i mean right okay so which work social activity would you at least like to attend to attend danny got team building activities leanne got after work drinks social events no that was danny as well danny got that number three was i don't like any work social activities that's just someone who's just grumpy like me and number four was group discussions or meetings number five was work social clubs or networks and then we did talk about one-off celebrations which is birthdays christmases and leaving parties so there you go now i have lost my place so i need to find the place so just uh what would persuade you house we asked 100 people what would persuade you to persuade you to stay on employer oh nice nice nice daddy daddy started reading the question previously develop me develop growth in role development uh yes yes hang on press the button now flex uh in your face in your face just give them one away better career development opportunities is number four are you playing or are you passing uh i will play this time excellent you should okay what else are we going to look for on that board remuneration pay me yes number five better benefits package 35 of people press the button now 35 of people all right so keep going keep going you can do this do i do i keep going do i have to come up with four answers oh yeah because i'm gonna win them i've obviously i've got myself on challenge tv and watched a couple of episodes and honestly the lack of preparation i know i've got stuck in an episode of catchphrase and um so one uh what was the question again i'm not stalling for time honestly but of course we asked 100 people what would persuade you to stay with an employer even if another job paid more the people the peoples uh yes i'm gonna prescribe that better workplace culture no wrong button wrong one wrong one oh don't do that i'll not do that one forward so yes you've got one you've got number two and you've got number five do you want to keep playing one two and five yeah because i'm super super biased to what given what i do i know what the answers should be but if you've asked a hundred people i remember being told i was in a maths class and talking about statistics and the teacher said to me um not as early as 1980 but the teacher said to me um imagine imagine how intelligent the average person is half the people are less intelligent than that oh that's a great way of explaining averages so these hundred people i can't guarantee they're experts in culture and engagement so i'm gonna hand it over to somebody that is oh are you passing it i'm passing it oh lee you've been dropped in the shit i see a shape in the head just to remind you lee we had better workplace culture and better benefits package three to get um i'm gonna say work from home flexible yes better work life better no i've given another one away flexible working arrangements was number three can i take um balance just as a side note i know i know this is obviously a audio channel but we need to get Leanne's thinking face somewhere.
29:13It needs to be a meme out there. She looks like she's trying to set fire to the microphone using the power of her mind. Wow. And a deep in thought. Yeah.
29:24Leanne:Do you know what? It's true. Like, when I was sometimes like, like an example, I was meant to go to a take that gig with my friends and Liverpool made the final of the European Champions League and my dad hadn't been able to watch that match for a long, long time. And he's getting a bit older. So I was like, what do I do? Do I cancel the gig? Do I go watch football with my dad? And I was talking it through with my friend. And I was like, do you know what? I think I just need to sit and think about it. And I did in silence for about five minutes. And she's like, I thought you just like, as a turn of phrase, I was like, no, I literally just need to sit and think about it.
30:00Leanne:I think I'm going to go to the football with my dad. She does this. She does this. It is so, so weird. I'm like Leanne what do you what do you think about this do you go I'll have a thing and then I'm just sit there like what the hell do I say now what do I do I brought in a crossword now that's what a Sudoku that's what I do when I think sorry Danny what were you saying anyway is there any any others left Al that you haven't already told us no I have told you them all so we're going to go on to this next question how much is a cheating a winning by now sorry no I think Danny needs to get that because I cheated because you said the answers so I think Les and Steve's jobs are safe.
30:37I don't think... Yeah, I think we're both losers here. Right, so we're two all. Two all. I'm saying we're two all. Anyone listening will probably tell me I've got the scores wrong. Okay, so this one, this is going to be a good one, I think. So which, we asked 100 British workers, which way of communicating at work irritates you the most? Instant messenger. Yes. It's not instant, but it's not messaging. I've got messaging apps, Teams, Zoom chat, et cetera, et cetera. In fact, to be fair, the messaging apps, they're meant the messaging in the Teams and Zoom. Yeah. I'll give you a little bit of a foreshadowing there.
31:18Joe, are you going to play or are you going to pass? I'm going to play because I have a particular pet peeve, and I think it's as I'm getting older. WhatsApp group messages. So group messaging platforms. where it's basically the reply all of communications yeah it's not i'm afraid it's not
31:42Leanne:by looking at me it's the answer i don't know it looked like it looked like you're about to say something i didn't want to interrupt you and buzz you i was just i was thinking about all the all the group chats i'm in i'm like yeah maybe i'm afraid not i'm afraid not i'm sorry daddy that was such a strong start and then uh and and then you yeah yeah threw it away at the end although to be fair i also hate whatsapp group messages uh and also one of my pet peeves is voice messages because i'm like i'm like you are what you're doing there is you're expecting me to listen to you in your time yeah rather than actually read it in my time you're a podcast host right that's that's a point what you do
32:28oh man you're absolutely right i don't mind i don't mind a voice note but depends who it is like a little little 10 second hey danny just thinking about you is you know have you seen such and such she's quite nice but my mum leaving me a podcast episode is totally different but yeah do you know what we there was someone we we both know um who we won't go into details but they have stayed at our house um and they are they're fine they're fine but genuinely got a 10 minute voice message and it was like and it was like i can't tell you i can't tell you but it was like yeah so um uh sorry just one second let me put the kettle on yeah uh so what was i saying I was saying, yeah, so mainly what I'm thinking it, and I'm like, Jesus.
33:13And even on 1.5, it was still like, I think I got about through a minute.
33:17Leanne:I enjoy a voice note because I think there's some stories that just have to be a voice note. Yeah, fair. And I also really like it is like, because like living away from a lot of our friends, I feel like I'm talking to them like it's a phone call, but it's not, you know, in real time. So we can come back to it when you've got a minute. I enjoy a voice note and I am guilty for leaving quite a long voice note. in your group there's one of your friends who just instead of everyone holds the phone to their face and talks and there's one of your friends who seems to take the phone throw as far down the bottom of the garden as they possibly can yeah talk and it's just like that's all yeah definitely and another that just loves the millennial pause like it's a good three seconds to make sure it's like and then start talking yeah did i interrupt you there danny i i was I don't mind, honestly.
34:06It depends who it is as to whether I listen to the voice note. But if somebody sends me, whether it's a video or a voice note that is over sort of 30, 40 seconds long. I mean, I got sent a video that was seven minutes long the other day. You should watch this. It was really interesting. It won't be. I would not watch a seven-minute video if it included clues to solve my own murder. You need to catch my attention early. in it. So, yeah. But then am I encouraging, I'm thinking out loud here, but am I encouraging kind of click-baity voice notes to be left for me now? I'm not sure. We maybe should edit this out because I'm just going to get a variety of voice notes that are seven minutes long now, aren't I?
34:48Shot myself. Maybe.
34:49Leanne:But you've sent us voice notes, Danny. Like when you've listened to something on the show and you've been like, lol. Yeah. And that's lovely. That is nice because it's like, you sent a 40-second voice note. By the way, anyone who's listening who doesn't have Danny's WhatsApp number, it is. please four four seven seven you're also in a slightly different time zone to me so i i like the asynchronicity if that's a word of like i can say something to you as if i'm live but i'm not live because you're in a different geography in a different time and you might be taking a month off and all that kind of stuff yeah danny just to be clear you know that that it's still the same time for us we're not literally an hour in the future or an hour in the past you know that don't I'm I'm current well I'm currently an hour in the future on I'm not we're we're ahead here but no I don't in that case I'll stop sending your voice notes so that's that's what I'm taking from this conversation no no I love a voice note I like a voice note grumpy oh man anyway anyway so we're looking for two no three more of these no two more of these we've had um we've had messages and we've had what was the second one I just want to double check if we had a second one I don't think we have Nope so we're looking for three I lost I said WhatsApp which is why I've just had a 45 minute conversation about WhatsApp I've pushed the button Leave Email Email It is not Shut up I fucking hate emails I don't like emails Do you know what I hate is when and it happens a lot where we live is that people don't seem to like they don't like starting new threads so you get to the point of an email where you're fifth down and it's now talking about something else and everything's got even, why do email apps do this?
36:27Where it squashes you, so you end up with like just about 15 characters in your email and it squashes it all down. And so you have to, yeah, I hate that.
36:34Leanne:Yeah, email threads, ugh. Is email going in room 101, Danny, to change the format? I like email, but for probably different reasons. So when I'm looking at cultural diagnostics, one of the things I look at is email, how's it used? is it a communication tool or is it a library of arse covering evidence is a a good insight so the amount of people i see that have got 10 000 emails and it's a i will keep this or um understanding the politics of who to cc into certain messages so i i actually find it really useful as a as an insight into culture but as a actual communication i'm not so sure i'm not so sure fair fair so you're looking for so do you want to shout out together what you think one of these answers is this is worst one was communication i i forgot it's been 20 minutes it's not wine it's not wine i'm on a call we asked 100 british workers which way of communicating at work irritates you the most you've had messaging apps so we go one two three and you shout out what you think it is so one two three interruption phone can i can i just have five minutes oh we've got there's one there's a can i just have five minutes oh but that doesn't annoy people so steal food and ask for five minutes apparently that's okay to be fair i have got here face-to-face conversations and did you say phone calls phone yeah so i've got phone calls and face-to-face conversations.
38:16So Danny could go under there, but unfortunately, phone calls are 21%. Face-to-face is 11%. So Leanne wins that round. So it's 3-2. I know, I know. All right. Okay. Right. Let's have a go at this one then. So let's ask you two. I've got two questions here. We've got, what's the weirdest thing you found in an office desk drawer? Or what's something you've secretly done at work that you've never admitted to? Which one of those two do you want?
38:41Leanne:Oh, they're both really good. I know. should we do them both and i might and just yeah yeah doing both all right so we'll start off with we asked 100 uk workers what's the weirdest thing you found an office desk drawer again i'm blaming that i'm blaming the uh the delay uh okay lee go for it a vibrator can we find it right i'm gonna say because we've got toys or games and we can put that in toy i'm not sure that's the same thing love i appreciate the support but unless it's like sex toys or games it's not okay you all didn't do the answer it's the same right i'm not coming for a game of kaplunk does sound like a like a sex road isn't it i won't see what i was about to say carry on we'll we'll we'll we'll do that in the uh in the truth lies in work after hours that's what that's gonna be danny you get to go as soon as you've gone sex i'm gonna have to go drugs oh yes yes we've got um medication is the third the third strangest thing it's not that strange i know this this isn't this isn't great i'm not gonna lie to you it's nature the strangest thing would be something like completely novel and one person out of a hundred will say I can't even think of something that's a bit random.
40:14Well, see, you said drugs. I'm going to go, yeah, medication, because that's more exciting than generally. I'm going to give you an idea of the quality of this question that 14 % said, what's the weirdest thing? You found an office drawer? They've answered, nothing unusual.
40:30Leanne:Oh, God. At least make it up. You've got moldy coffee cups. Oh, yeah. Moldy coffee cups. So I think, Danny, you get to play. So I will be a little generous with this. So say something a bit ridiculous, and I'll probably be able to link it to something that's a bit more mundane here.
40:52It's going to be old tat. So like old leaflets. I used to work in telephony, so finding old technology, like antiquated, like a phone from 10 years ago. so you're saying out of date sorry i didn't hear the exact part so out of date chisel chisel is a word for anything that can get this question right sorry i really tried with that i've tried to i gave you an opportunity saying i didn't hear what you said so you could change your answer but unfortunately no that's not in there the nearest thing i've got to that is a toothbrush or toiletries hmm yeah no lee this is getting a bit
41:35Leanne:shit so should we just uh can i have one more guess yeah one more guess i'm gonna say
41:44biscuits biscuits uh if you were to give me a qualification of biscuits like a chocolate i am sorry no the uh the nearest i got to that is out of date food um i'll give you i'll give you danny said out of date stuffs i ate an out of date shizzle and he was talking about pamphlets And that's why I said, Danny, I didn't quite hear what you said. Out of date what? And he doubled down. He doubled down. So, yeah, I'm sorry. You're going to put that as a draw. So you're both going to get a point. So you're on four.
42:16Leanne:Both really bad at that round. We're all nice to hear. I'm thinking the most random thing, and I swear this is a true story, was somebody had a pair of shoes in their drawer. And there's nothing odd about that. But we did a sight sweep and we emptied lockers because there was a lot of people that had left over the years and we had to free up some locker space. And this chap had shoes in there and it was because he was paranoid that anybody would see him in the toilet. So when he used to go to the toilet, he used to put a different pair of shoes on. So if anybody looked underneath and saw these shoes, they would not see him walking around the office in the same shoes.
42:54So the item is not odd, but the reason for doing it, Froot Loop.
43:00Leanne:that's a that's a big commitment to privacy that isn't it yes i'm good i'm good yeah they weren't big clown shoes or anything like that no because that'd be nice
43:17jesus brilliant oh i love it it took me a second as well it took me a second i was i can't i can't tell my uh my toilet warrington story again because i've already told it but if you're interested go back to uh go back about 15 episodes and i'll tell you a story about me taking
43:30Leanne:photos in a toilet in warrington a women's toilet in warrington yes yes well that kind of sport we'll just google it and it's in the warrington echo
43:43okay we'll do one last one which is we asked 100 now ready to buzz in ready to buzz in because currently we are four to leanne and three to danny so we asked what we asked um 100 british workers how do you unwind after a stressful day at work danny danny danny danny danny danny how do you wonder after a stressful day a beer a chill we don't like you doing it socially but It's okay on our own, apparently. There we go. That is up there. Well done. That is number four with 35 % drink alcohol. Fabulous. Fabulous. Okay, are you playing or paying or drinking? What, God, I wish I had a go at playing because it doesn't seem to make any difference at how terrible I am.
44:35I think I've been answering from a Danny position. So my next guess will be something that I don't do, which is go the gym, exercise. Oh, yes. Hang on. Yes. Brilliant. So that's two for two. You're going to keep going. I drive way too fast to worry about my cholesterol. Worry about what? So what was the answer? Was that exercise or gym was the answer for that one? Exercise was the answer.
45:02Leanne:And what order are these? So that was number four and number five. So drinking was number four. Drinking. So more people drink than they exercise. But there's three other activities they'd rather do than... Okay. That's why I'm wondering if exercise is more specific, like I go and play a sport or go for a walk. I'm going to say walk the dog. I'm going to be a little bit... I'm going to say that all of that would come under exercise. So the top three are very different. Four's different. One of them isn't that different. Watch TV. Watch TV is... Oh. Well, it's not there, but... I don't think, I think it should be.
45:46Leanne:Who are these people? How are they spending their time? These are the, what was the interviewer like? We need to look into the psychology behind the items and the, was it a particularly attractive individual doing the questions? In which case, you know, what's that social vulnerability bias looking like? Yeah, exactly. You know, I love extreme sports, cliff diving, skydiving and flying. I volunteer it in animals shelter. The problem is I can't do much.
46:19I saw this tweet the other day, someone saying, I tried this in real life and it actually kind of worked. So I went to a librarian and said, I'm looking for a book on how to pick up librarians. Do you have one? And this librarian's like, oh, very smooth. Anyway. I'm looking for a book on how to deal with rejection without killing.
46:38Leanne:Wow. Do you have it? Well, if we're going to go dark, I'm looking at a book. Okay. Wow. I think we've got our first edit. Almost an hour. We've got our first edit. Yeah, that's going. That's not stated. That's not stated. Okay. Oh, my God. Okay. Right. So we're up to Lee. I think you can have a guess. is it what's the question is to relax after work unwind after a stressful day at work and i'll be honest the first two ones are weird yeah just just something i'd be like well i wouldn't answer that that's a weird thing to say cook cook is i'm gonna say eat so i've got danny comfy so i'm gonna give you that well done and uh one last yeah do you want to give one more one more um what would a weird people do?
47:35Maybe they go shopping. Go shopping. Oh, it's not there. Danny, to draw even. You just need to give me one of the other answers that's on there.
47:47Leanne:I'll do some, wait, wait. Do-do. Oh, yeah. What are we going to do? Do-do. Have I got any sound effects for this? Let me have a look. I don't. I'm going to go out on a limb, and I think that the question might have been asked to Pharrell Williams. So I'm going to go change clothes. Get changed. Get out of my uniform. I'm sorry. That was... Tee that up just for me. I've never used it before in the pod and I love it. I'm sorry. so that means that Leanne wins four. No, Danny won that one because I only got one right. So that means it's a draw, isn't it? None of us are losers.
48:41There we go. Okay, right. And I don't know how to stop that effect. Okay, just turn that down. Sorry about Daphne before my previous effect. I will just give you the, this is why I should have probably made some of these answers up rather than relying on something. you should check your ai work this is this is not ai slop this is al slop how do you unwind after a stressful day at work number top answer was spend time with family oh really yeah i know that would be the wow i would not want to do that second second one is much more likely
49:12Leanne:spend time on my own oh right yeah and third listen to music which should be listen to music stroke watch tv i think i should have gone in there and edited that myself i'm amazed watch tv isn't on there yeah we had comfort eat we had spend time with friends and then nothing five percent people just said i do nothing so that was the world's worst answers to family fortune i'm so sorry i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna go and first of all talk to chat gpt and have a face to face with chat gpt and say this this wasn't very good was some of those from actual you gov surveys yeah but the you gov survey were a bit dull questions they were like um what's your biggest concern about ai at work i thought that's going to bring that bring the fucking yeah mood down exactly um and then and then a lot of them were just like what office annoyance what annoys you most what's your biggest workplace pet peeve and i'm like these are all the same things there is one which you both will really enjoy and it says what makes you feel most valued at work there are six answers of which all of them use one particular word would you have a guess at the word did we have this question it'd be culture well what is more of a growth keep keep throwing manage good managers yeah it is train your managers that they they're all recognition from and then it goes from my manager from my senior leader from my manager's manager from a customer from a colleague other forms of recognition so there we go it's like we want to be seen yeah yeah exactly yeah i know anyway right if you are still with us then congratulations i think all of us really checked out a few minutes ago uh thank you for putting up with this absolute shit show of an episode but hopefully you just sat there and it's just washed over you as as the waves from the adriatic sea would wash over you were you in the port of split indeed indeed and the good news is we've got another summer session coming up next week we're doing it next week we're doing am i the arsehole with Dr.
51:13Leanne:Jake Tuba. I'm not going to lie. It's borderline. We might get cancelled for next week. So tune into that and we'll see how it goes. As for today, a huge thank you to the awesome Danny Wareham. We love you so much, Danny. Thank you. I love you too. This has been fab. We definitely need a dress rehearsal next time. This was, yeah. This didn't go as well as I hoped. But you two were absolutely awesome. thank you so much i will i am sat right here i can hear what you're saying i meant i think he's talking about himself right yes exactly how was al's performance today
51:55oh man oh i'm so sad i'm so sad because you two were absolutely brilliant and uh yes i made a shit of that uh so if you want to know learn more about danny go and find him on linkedin i think he occasionally posts maybe like once every two hours or something uh you go and check out his book also dannywareham.co.uk is that your website it is or fergan.co.uk as well brilliant and happy bees make happy honey no what's the word tasty told you we need rehearsal honestly um if you did
52:25Leanne:for some reason probably all danny enjoy today's episode then we would love it if you left us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcast it really helps people discover the show and we genuinely take your feedback on board uh we have now cut the jingle from our news roundup we're trying it because we had some feedback and they didn't like it so we genuinely listen let us know um what we can do better um but if it's not like glowing maybe just email us that and like the review make that the good stuff um and then on thursday we are joined oh this is a good one dr rachel morris she is coming on to talk to us about five ways to switch off over summer it's a shame the camera stops at leanne's neck because she's just playing an imaginary piano then she goes Dr.
53:07Rachel Morris. I love it. I love it. Also reminds me, I'll send you that. I'm sure you've seen the video of the guy from Cash in the Attic or whatever, where he just plays the piano. He always does this. How much would you sell this house for?
53:16Leanne:Yeah, they do the doong, doong, doong. It's a very visual thing. I will send it to you, Danny. Danny, any closing thoughts or regrets that you want to hear?
53:26Well, as I've just been asked by Leanne, I will put my regrets in an email rather than in the public forum. No, it's always brilliant just spending time with you guys. And if you like imaginary instruments being played, you should also check out Trump's accordion, which is not a new voice. It's worth a new voice. Danny, Danny, will you come back for another session of something? I will be sod it, yes. It depends. If we're going to do Family Fortunes again, my competitive edge says absolutely not. I don't like competing at the time to lose that. Through no fault of my own through the blatant cheating as having the host and my competitor sat in the same room within button reach feels somewhat...
54:22Exactly. Oh, right. I promise you, listener, I promise you this, genuinely. The Anne didn't see any of these answers, but I don't think it would have helped her if it did because they were all a bit shit. so it was a draw it was a draw okay so we're looking forward to dr rachel morris on thursday we're looking forward to dr jake god it's dr heavy isn't it a little bit of dr jake next tuesday i'm stupid you've got a phd haven't you danny no i don't i don't just a boring old masters or two masters or two more masters than i've got right we'll speak to you soon Say bye, Daddy.
54:57Leanne:Bye-bye, Daddy. Did you say bye-bye, Daddy? Okay, right, stop this. Our survey's set.
From the publisher
Welcome to another edition of our Truth, Lies & Work Summer Sessions! For this episode, Al and Leanne take a quick break from workplace news and heavy behavioural science to host a special summer game: Corporate Family Fortunes.
Joining the fun is organisational psychologist, leadership expert, speaker, and author Danny Wareham. They dive into survey results on the most irritating workplace habits, awkward social activities, how people really unwind after a stressful day, and the hidden psychological traps of office life.
⏱️ Episode Chapters
00:00 – Intro & Summer Sessions Housekeeping
02:40 – Introducing Danny Wareham & Constellation
05:00 – Post-Book Tour Life, Award Season, & Authentic LinkedIn Content
09:50 – What Makes a True Christmas Movie? (In August!)
13:05 – Round 1: Most Annoying Office Habits & Smelly Food
16:45 – Round 2: What Makes People Angriest at Work?
20:50 – Round 3: Which Work Social Activities Do People Avoid?
28:00 – Round 4: What Keeps Employees from Quitting?
34:00 – Round 5: Annoying Communication Styles & Voice Note Debates
45:30 – Round 6: The Weirdest Things Found in Desk Drawers
51:00 – Round 7: How Workers Really Unwind After a Stressful Day
57:50 – Wrap-up & What’s Coming Next Week
🎧 Want more from Danny Wareham?
– Website: dannywareham.co.uk
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-wareham/
– Buy Danny's Book: https://dannywareham.co.uk/constellation-leadership/
📬 Connect with Al & Leanne
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork
– Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott
– Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne
– Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com
– Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat
Mental health support
UK & ROI — Samaritans Call 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org
UK — Mind Call 0300 123 3393 or visit https://www.mind.org.uk
US — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org
Australia — Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au
Global helplines
https://findahelpline.com