Unprofessionalism
Professional performance is exhausting. Maintaining the mask. Editing ourselves. Pretending we know when we don't.
This podcast is about people who dropped the performance. And what happened next.
Each episode features someone who broke professional conventions and found something better on the other side: the executive who disclosed grief in a corporate setting and found it opened new ways of relating; the coach who realised her authority came from integrity, not compliance; the designer who ignored the 'approved tools' and saved thousands of hours.
Conversations circle around three questions:
- What does it cost us to perform professionalism instead of showing up as ourselves?
- How do we create spaces where people can bring their full attention and humanity to work?
- When is the “unprofessional” move actually the most responsible one?
If you feel the tension between who you are and who you're expected to be at work, this podcast shows you what happens when people stop managing that tension and just stop performing.
Hosted by Dr Myriam Hadnes—behavioural economist and founder of workshops.work. New episode every week.
Episodes
375 episodes
015 - The Price of Being Difficult with Tramaine Schilders-Teo
Tramaine has a rule for herself and everyone she manages: what you allow will continue. She learned by watching what happened when she didn't set a boundary, and what happened when she did.With +15 years of managing teams across industri...
014 - The Cost of Being Yourself with Michael Bungay Stanier
Thirty years ago, in a room full of blue suits with padded shoulders, pearls, and red ties — all competing for one of the most prestigious academic scholarships in the world — Michael Bungay Stanier walked in with long blonde hair, earrings, an...
013 - The Mask I Still Wear with Myriam Hadnes
While working in Vietnam, the uni president, once told me I was getting away with a lot — working from home, teaching with comic books, skipping the standard slide show — because I was young, female, pretty, and white. As harsh as it might soun...
012 - The Courage to Unmask with Roi Ben-Yehuda
Roi Ben-Yehuda was one dissertation away from finishing his PhD when he realised he didn't want what was waiting on the other side. He walked away. Then years later, settled into a good job he liked, with a new mortgage and two small babies at ...
011 - Claim It Before You're Ready with Leanne Hughes
Leanne Hughes wrote the name of a podcast she didn’t have on a blue Post-it note, dropped it in a hat, and when her name was called — walked on stage and described the show as if it existed. It didn’t. A few months later, the First Time Facilit...
010 - When a CFO Chooses Humanity over Numbers with Martin Frederik Garbers
When Martin Frederik Garbers’ company was acquired, he was handed the unenviable job of letting twenty-five people go. His own days were numbered too, but he chose to spend them sitting through the hard conversations, one by one, as a human bei...
009 - Creating a Return on Humanity (When ROI Isn't Enough) with Philippa White
As her classmates chanted the purpose of business (spoiler: to make money), Philippa White couldn’t help but feel like she'd wandered into the wrong room, as the business school black sheep.She'd grown up watching her uncle bridge worlds...
008 - The Generation That Refused to Fake It at Work with Alex McCann
Alex McCann isn’t a qualified career coach, occupational therapist, or psychologist. But he’ll be the first to tell you that.He walked away from a six-month internship, would sneak off to watch films when he should've been serving popcor...
007 - The Good Girl Trap with Anna Lundberg
Anna Lundberg had spent her whole life being the good girl. Top of the class as valedictorian, Oxford graduate, and the shiny P&G title to show for it. She’d ticked every box, perfected the image, and then she did something very off-brand: ...
006 - The Lie of Not Enough with Mark McCartney
Mark McCartney showed up to facilitate a C-level team in Berlin on the hottest day of the year, drenched in sweat, and opened by pointing out his own stain marks. They laughed. The room shifted. That's Mark — someone who left a 15-year finance ...
005 - When the Rules Stop Serving You with Rotem Kazir
Sometimes, just sometimes, the rules are there to be broken. Because when you dare to break them, miracles and moments of beautiful humanity could be waiting just on the other side.Rotem Kazir was trained never to let her coaching client...
004 - The Business Case for Belonging with Jon Berghoff
Jon Berghoff walked into a room of C-level executives from billion-dollar companies and noticed they'd all filled the back rows first. He spent two hours debating whether to say something. Then he got on stage and asked them to move to the fron...
003 - Unmasking Professionalism: Code-Switching as Survival with Dr. Tieren Scott
Early in her career, Tieren Scott was told she needed to sound more "bubbly" when presenting. Her manager pointed to a colleague in the room as the example. Tieren's natural voice — grounded, measured, clear — wasn't the problem. It just wasn't...
002 - From Taylorism to Trust: Rethinking Work’s Old Rules with Mike Parker
A software engineer fired a test missile and watched it cartwheel into the ocean. He looked at the code and thought: that looks like what would happen if I hadn't loaded all the microcode. Did I load the microcode? Oh God. Did he tell anyone? N...
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001 - Permission Granted: Breaking Rules to Build Integrity with Jillian Reilly
Jillian Reilly was young, running a multimillion-dollar AIDS programme in Zimbabwe, and supposed to give a diplomatic speech to a room of religious leaders. She sat through the procession, looked at her script, and decided she couldn't do it. W...
000 - Welcome to Unprofessionalism with Myriam Hadnes
Welcome to Unprofessionalism! My shiny new podcast, a provocation in the making, and the place to challenge everything we’ve been taught about being professional.Together, we’ll be peeling back the limitations of professionalism...
355 - The Final Episode of Workshops Work with Myriam Hadnes
And that’s a wrap, folks! After 355 brilliant, beautiful, mind-opening conversations about facilitation, life, and everything in between, I can now confidently say that I have found the magic ingredients that make workshops work.Join me,...
353 - How to Facilitate Constructive Discomfort through Brave Spaces with Dr. Dauv Evans
Brave work is messy work. It’s an invitation into the dōjō – to be humbled, to get vulnerable, and leave behind what you thought you knew.Life-long learner, executive coach, culture consultant and facilitator, Dr. Dauv Evans joins me thi...
352 - Less Thinking, More Sensing: Embodiment in Facilitation with Mirjam Leunissen
Take a moment to tune into your body. Do your muscles feel tense, is your heartbeat slow and steady, is your jaw clamped tight?Embodiment coach and one-week-old facilitator, my fiancée Mirjam Leunissen joins me this week for a podcast fi...
351 - The Fierce Compassion of Facilitation with Shireen Naqvi
From a childhood imaginary classroom, to the moments before a traffic light turns green, Shireen Naqvi has been viewing the world as a beautiful facilitation opportunity her whole life.Guided by the divine belief that humans are the best...
350 - Workshops Without Words: Learning from the Clown with Suzanne Dietz
Not all clowns hide sadness behind a painted smile. Some wear their emotions on their sleeve, with earnest, overt authenticity, and deep self-awareness!After taking a sign language course, Suzanne Dietz discovered how freeing it was to e...
349 - Facilitation in Japan: Silence, Safety, and Subtlety with Yuko Gendo
Silence is a virtue, and nowhere is this more deeply understood than in Japan. A pause rich with meaning, where thoughts are carefully explored, emotions are quiet, and things are said, without any words at all.So, how do facilitators ho...
348 - Reclaiming Indigenous Wisdom in Facilitation with Katerina Kupenga
Carrying the wisdom of five generations before her, Katerina Kupenga inherited a special legacy from her ancestral namesake: the gift of Māori facilitation.And as a proud wahine Māori from Ngāti Porou, Katerina joins me to share this ric...
347 - When 100 People Feel Like One Team: Crafting Connection Online with Perle Laouenan-Catchpole
Gathering hundreds of people is most facilitators’ worst nightmare – but for Perle Laouenan-Catchpole, it’s her dream.With her signature feminine energy and warmth, Perle connects large online groups as one, cohesive team, creating a sen...
346 - Power, Confidence and the Courage to Speak Up with Matthew Hill
Do you dare to be powerful and confident? Matthew Hill, leadership trainer, conflict mediator, and intercultural facilitator has spent years guiding executives into their inner strength – but his approach might just surprise you.He invit...
