Welcome back to Truth, Lies & Work, the award-winning workplace podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture. Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the ultimate audio destination for business professionals.

In this episode of This Week in Work, hosts Al and Leanne Elliott are joined by a very special guest: Rebecca Taylor, host of the HR Voices podcast! Together, they unpack the hilarious reality of unhinged leadership conversations, dive deep into the newly stalling progress of women at work, put "forced fun" to the test under the psychological microscope, and answer some incredibly sticky workplace relationship questions.

🔥 Stories Covered

1. The HR Rebel Calling Out Unhinged Leaders

You might not be surprised to hear that some of the conversations HR professionals have to have with leaders are… somewhat unhinged. But what happens when an HR professional calls them out on LinkedIn in the best, most direct way ever? We dive into the viral waves being made by the brilliant Emma Djemil (Founder of Be Unstoppable and The HR Club).

Follow Emma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/be-unstoppable/
Check out the post: https://lnkd.in/p/dHKzfSRe

2. Is the "Lean In" Generation Now Leaning Out?

Women have made extraordinary gains in the past few decades across the world of work, but are things stalling? Sheryl Sandberg’s infamous 2013 book advised women to "lean in," but new data suggests women's progress at work appears to be stalling. Leanne and Rebecca dissect the learned behaviours—from over-apologising and avoiding conflict to taking on invisible "empathy tax" work—that are holding talented people back, and ask: Have workplaces actually changed enough?

Read the original article in The Economist: https://archive.is/20260706073156/https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/07/05/womens-progress-at-work-appears-to-be-stalling

🧠 Truth or Lie: Does Fun at Work Undermine Performance?

For generations, work has been treated as the serious part of life, while fun is something you earn once the job is done. If people are laughing or messing around, it must mean less work is getting done… right? Leanne dives deep into decades of organizational psychology to give you the ultimate verdict.

The "For" Case: Research shows that forced, "managed fun"—like mandatory pajama days or awkward icebreakers—can cause employee cynicism, frustration, and emotional exhaustion. Additionally, blurring work and play too closely can encourage workaholism and make it harder for people to switch off.
The "Against" Case: On the flip side, spontaneous humour and micro-breaks (even short personal internet breaks!) actually restore attention, boost mental energy, and increase productivity by up to 9% when done in moderation.
The Verdict: Forced fun rarely works. True workplace fun isn't something managers can force; it’s a natural byproduct that emerges when organizations get the psychological safety, autonomy, and human elements right.

💬 Workplace Surgery❓

In this week's workplace surgery, we take on your real-life culture and management dilemmas:

"I’ve been casually seeing someone at work for about a year. Until now we’ve worked in different departments, but I’ve just been promoted and will be managing their department. Should I tell my employer about the relationship, or keep it private unless it becomes an issue?"

Plus we answer:

Should a manager judge an employee’s private social media? What to do when a team member runs a public account following adult content but is otherwise an excellent employee.
What do you do when the toxic person is the founder? How to handle senior leadership when the person destroying the culture owns the entire business and there is no board.

🎙️ Connect with Our Guest: Rebecca Taylor

We are thrilled to be joined this week by Rebecca Taylor, host of HR Voices—the incredible scenario-based podcast for People Leaders who have to make the tough calls in real-time employee relations.

Listen to the HR Voices podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hr-voices/id1833927442
Connect with Rebecca Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebebeccataylor2/
Support for HR Professionals: Check out AllVoices, the ultimate platform to manage employee relations, documentation, and investigations in one secure place: https://www.allvoices.co

📬 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