449 episodes listed below
Practical psychology for better work.
Happier At Work is a clear, practical leadership show built around the human side of performance. Aoife O'Brien connects workplace culture, self-leadership, mental health, AI-era learning, and team dynamics with advice leaders can actually use.
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Happier At Work is a leadership and workplace culture show built around the question of what helps people do their best work. It is practical first. Aoife O'Brien brings a warm, structured style to topics that can easily become abstract, from psychological safety and motivation to self-leadership, confidence, and mental health. Recent episodes show the range clearly. Some are solo reflections tied to the launch of Thriving Talent, where Aoife explains the framework behind the book and the reality of writing, editing, publishing, and marketing it. Others are interview-led conversations with guests who bring perspective on modern workplace problems. Dr. Mary Collins discusses the tensions and strengths inside a multigenerational workforce. Damon Lemby talks through learning when AI is always nearby. Melissa Doman focuses on the mental health pressures leaders carry while they are expected to support everyone else. The show favors usable language. It names a problem, gives it a workplace shape, then asks what a leader or professional can do differently. That makes the episodes feel more like guided reflection than theory. There is room for vulnerability, especially around doubt, criticism, stress, and the fear of being ineffective. There is also a strong emphasis on responsibility. Culture is not treated as something owned only by HR, and leadership is not reduced to managing other people before understanding oneself. The show often returns to the gap between potential and the conditions needed to reach it. It is especially strong when translating research-adjacent ideas into plain managerial behavior: mentoring across generations, using AI thoughtfully, noticing personal triggers, or building belief through consistent action. The pace is brisk, but the ideas are usually restated enough to land. It suits listeners who want workplace improvement without corporate gloss. The show's value is its steady movement from personal experience to practical principle.
Made for: For leaders, managers, HR-minded professionals, and ambitious employees who care about culture, performance, learning, and retention. It is especially suited to listeners who want reflective workplace advice with practical next steps.
What sets it apart: The show combines interview-led expertise with Aoife O'Brien's own behind-the-scenes leadership and publishing reflections. It stands out by connecting culture theory to everyday pressure points: meetings, feedback, self-doubt, stress, AI use, and team differences.
Happier at Work is a workplace psychology podcast for commercial leaders who want to drive performance, engagement, and retention through better leadership and culture.Hosted by workplace culture strategist Aoife O’Brien, the podcast explores what really shapes the modern work experience, from leadership and career growth to confidence, workplace culture, and employee engagement.Each episode blends expert insight, psychological research, practical strategies, and honest conversations to help leaders and professionals create environments where people feel valued, supported, and motivated to do their best work.Guests include leading psychologists, bestselling authors, and experienced professio…
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Aoife O'Brien turns workplace psychology into practical questions about leadership, trust, learning and the design of work.
Aoife O'Brien treats work as a system that leaders can question, redesign and understand from the employee's side. Most episodes pair her with a guest, and her follow-ups keep abstract ideas connected to recognizable management decisions.
When you're everyone's safety net at work, Aoife O'Brien asks who catches you.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical, strengths-based look at how mixed-generation teams can move past assumptions.
Generational tension at work is usually reduced to a tidy set of assumptions: older employees are treated as less fluent with technology, while younger employees are cast as short on emotional skills or hard-earned judgment. Dr.
A grounded episode on why learning still matters when AI can answer almost anything.
This episode keeps its focus on a practical question: when AI can surface information instantly, what kind of learning still needs steady human attention?
A grounded, useful look at the pressure leaders carry and the triggers and coping habits that shape how it shows up at work.
Leadership mental health lands here as a practical workplace issue, shaped by the strain of doing the job, keeping the job, and managing how others read the person in charge.
A careful case for designing work around the different roles people need it to play.
Work is treated here as something people effectively hire to serve different purposes, not a single fixed experience that should mean the same thing to everyone.
A workplace-minded look back at 2024 episodes on perfectionism, defense mechanisms, and patterns people bring into corporate life.
Happier at Work opens the new year by looking back at five standout 2024 episodes, with Jordana Confino's conversation on perfectionism sitting at the center.
Fast signals for leaders watching work change.
MH Pelletier discusses building resilience at work from individual and collective perspectives, addressing why resilience is needed and how to improve performance.
What if we reimagined work to be a product, and Dart Lindsley explains what you hire work to do for you?
Jordana Confino explains how a college breakup drove her to perfect her grades as her only source of worth.
Aoife O'Brien interviews Sergey Gorbatov about taking control of your career by uncovering values and strengths and asking for effective feedback.
Aoife O'Brien interviews Klaudia Mitura about the science of happiness, offering practical tips to improve happiness in life and at work.
Wanda Wallace tells Eva O'Brien that 'climbing the ladder' is "a lousy metaphor" for long-term careers and suggests a giant oak tree with uneven branches instead.
Aoife O'Brien shares the behind-the-scenes process of creating a dedicated book website and working with a copywriter for her book 'Thriving Talent'.
Aoife O'Brien shares insights on writing and editing a leadership book, emphasizing the importance of structure and clarifying thinking.
The host shares behind-the-scenes insights into the publishing process of her new book 'Thriving Talent', discussing her long-held dream of writing and the journey to publication.
The host celebrates the publication of her book 'Thriving Talent' and summarizes its core themes about reaching full potential at work.
Aoife O'Brien discusses overcoming fear in leadership and the importance of self-leadership in the final chapter of her upcoming book Thriving Talent.
Do different generations really clash at work?
How important is learning when AI is everywhere?
Organizational psychologist Melissa Doman returns to Happier At Work to discuss her book 'Cornered Office: Why We Need to Talk About Leadership Mental Health.' She cites a study on 'leadership well-being and mental illness prototypes' showing people wrongly assume seniority naturally confers better mental health.
Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor, links organizational learning to team conversations that convert individual knowledge into better action.
James Louttit links workplace overwhelm to prioritization, arguing that people need transparent rankings rather than repeated yes-or-no decisions.
Aoife O'Brien interviews Dart Lindsley about reimagining work as a product that can be designed to benefit both businesses and individuals.
Kevin Eikenberry discusses his book 'Flexible Leadership' and provides tools and strategies for leaders to adapt to modern work environments.