In this episode of Transform Your Workplace, Brandon Laws sits down with Aoife O’Brien, Career & Culture Strategist and founder of the Happier at Work framework. Drawing from personal experience and years of research, Aoife shares insights on what makes work fulfilling—and what drives people away. From the impact of toxic cultures to the importance of psychological safety, she unpacks how leaders can create environments where people thrive. Don’t miss this practical, inspiring discussion on building happier, more effective workplaces.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Aoife O’Brien is a Career & Culture Strategist helping leaders in FMCG, tech, and telecoms build thriving teams. She’s the founder of the Happier at Work framework and host of the top 2.5% Happier at Work Podcast.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, Sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
WHAT WORK SHOULD BE
Early in her career, Aoife O’Brien loved work. She described herself as ambitious and energized, especially while working in two standout organizations—one in London and another in Australia. “They both had these amazing cultures,” she recalls. “And I think I took it for granted. I thought that that’s what work should be like. I thought that’s what work was like.”
But that perspective shifted dramatically after experiencing two very different workplace cultures. One of them, she explains, was “toxic […] for everyone who worked there. It was quite competitive, quite misogynistic, [and had a] really high turnover rate.” The other one wasn’t toxic across the board, but it was a poor fit for her personally. “It just was an organization where I could not thrive.”
That stark contrast between positive and negative environments left a lasting impression on O’Brien. “I suppose I want to tell people that this can exist,” she says, referring to healthy, thriving workplace cultures. “You don’t have to stay in a role that you really dislike or that you feel is not a good fit for you.” But the responsibility doesn’t lie solely with individuals. According to our guest, “As an organization—really, I mean leaders—it’s your responsibility to create that environment that perpetuates thriving at work.”
These formative experiences continue to shape how Aoife O’Brien thinks about work and what it should feel like when it’s done right.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Promoting Your Values
“Organizations have a culture, whether it’s intentional or not, and the culture is largely based on the values and the behaviors of people who work in that organization. And if you’re really intentional about it, then you can decide ‘this is what we want our organization to be.’ And in order to be intentional, you need to celebrate and recognize people who are doing really great things and behaving in the expected way. But you also need to call out behaviors that are not tolerated. If you’re not intentional about it, if you just let it kind of be organic and you’re not kind of really getting in there and deciding how you want the culture to be, then it kind of becomes a bit of a free-for-all.”
Somewhere In Between
“Having a micromanager means you don’t have the autonomy, you don’t have the freedom to do what you want, how you would like to do it, all of that kind of thing. So that’s one extreme end. But the other extreme end is when you lack guidance or direction. And if you’ve ever had a laissez-faire manager who just leaves you to it, who doesn’t tell you what needs to be done, who doesn’t set clear priorities, who kind of leaves you to figure things out, it’s not as detrimental as having a micromanager, but it’s still pretty bad. And you’re kind of left floundering, going, ‘I need to spend time figuring out what it is I need to do here.’”
Showcasing Your Strengths
“So to me, it’s about knowing what those strengths are, having other people recognize your strengths. So do they know what your strengths are and what you bring to the table? What are your unique strengths? And do other people empower you to use your strengths as well? So you could be spending most of your time actually not working in your area of strength. And I’ve recently read The Big Leap, and I’m kind of becoming aware of this idea of the ‘zone of genius’ versus the ‘zone of incompetence.’ You could be spending a lot of your day not working in your zone of genius. That’s also not good for business. It’s not good for you because you don’t feel gratified by the work that you’re doing, and it’s challenging and it’s stretching you. But equally, from the business perspective, they could be deploying you in a much different way to get better results.”
The Power of Safety
“Everything needs to be underpinned by psychological safety, and that means that you feel free […] to speak up, to challenge what’s going on. And it’s the underpinning because […] if you see someone who’s behaving in a way that’s not in alignment with the values, who are you going to say that to? Do you just kind of brush it under the carpet? Do you not say it to anyone? If you see an opportunity for someone to use their strengths more, […] if you’re in a safe environment, it’s okay to speak up and to share that.”
Accepting Some Break Time
“On the one hand, it’s that I need to make sure that I’m being productive in all of the time that I have. And I think that’s kind of a curse of modern times where if you have any downtime, you need to use that in a productive way. And productive could be, ‘I’m catching up on Netflix’ or ‘I’m reading,’ but you can’t just be idle and do nothing. And that’s a perception that we have. I think we need to break that. It’s this whole ‘time is money.’ And if I’m not doing something with my time, then it’s a total and utter waste. I think we need to move away from that mentality. It is hard to do that. I think just to actually spend your time doing nothing. Sometimes we just need a break, and I think we need to accept that.”
The Upcoming Book
“I’m planning to call it Thriving Talent. It’s based on the ‘Happy at Work’ framework, which we talked about. So I go into much deeper dive into each of the different areas. And I have to say, I’ve loved the process of writing the book because it’s kind of forced me to explore in much more granular detail all of the different aspects of the ‘Happy at Work’ framework. […] What I want to do is get it into the hands of the people who need it—so the global talent leaders, HR folk, the leaders who need to read this with a view to this is a framework of how you can think about things. This is a framework […] to become a better leader, to lead your talent in a different way, as a way to ask questions, as a way to lead with curiosity, to help people to understand themselves and to help them to manage their own careers, but also to create that environment that I think we all deserve to work in.”
Walking Away From What’s Toxic
“And I think this is the funny thing, because who wants to work in a toxic environment? I don’t think anyone does. And yet toxic work environments exist. And that’s what I can’t really get my head around. I’m like, ‘If no one wants to work in a toxic environment, how are we allowing these toxic work environments to prevail?’ You know, are there people who are staying there who don’t believe that they can do something else?”
LEARN MORE
To hear more from our guest, Aoife O’Brien, check out her podcast Happier at Work or connect with her on LinkedIn.