Would you like to unlock the creative, imaginative and innovative potential in your team or organisation…BUT…don’t want to listen to another serious podcast which offers 7 steps, 5 habits, 3 mantras, and a hard sell in a pear tree?
Then join ‘The Occupational Philosophers’, a ‘not-so-serious’ podcast with Simon Banks (middle-aged Australian surfer man, artist and published author) and John Rice (middle-aged British man with a love of curiosity and philosophy) as they chat with a ‘clowder’ (great word!) of curious cats from the fields of Comedy, Academia, Philosophy, Neuroscience, Psychology, Design, Marketing, and Business, to explore how you, your team, and your organisation, can develop your curiosity, spark your creativity, and free your imagination, so you can grow your business and your people….sounds great huh?!
But don’t just take our word for it, read what our listeners think:
“Worth a listen, one of them has a strange Australian accent”
“They’re not philosophers, they’re idiots”
“If you like business, philosophy, humour, creativity, and imagination, then have a listen - if not, then I would leave well alone”
http://www.occupationalphilosophers.com
Episodes
Tuesday Oct 01, 2024
Tuesday Oct 01, 2024
Everyone's banging on about play at work. But what about the forgotten people? The ones who haven't smiled since 1985, who stare blankly at walls, who genuinely love a spreadsheet. Where's their day?
In this Inbetweener, John and Simon make the case for a National Serious Day. An antidote to all the frivolity. A corporate liver cleanse to flush out the fun. A chance to finally celebrate the colleagues who have absolutely no personality, hobbies, or sense of humour, and have been quietly enduring forced smiles for decades.
Proposed activities include:
- Mandatory silence for the first three hours of the day, with pay docked for any facial expression
- A meeting about meetings, with no outcomes, bring your own sandwich
- A team-building event where everyone reads the HR handbook out loud, line by line, footnotes included
- The ISO 9001 Quality Manual, optional second reading
- No jammy dodgers. None.
Halfway through, John realises he actually quite likes the sound of this.
The studies, allegedly, back it up.
A Romanian corporation has introduced No Laughter Mondays and it's now the most attended day of the week. One middle manager reports staring at her apartment wall, thinking about spreadsheets while her colleagues are out golfing, and she's never felt more efficient. Couples who switched to serious-chat-only marriages are going to bed at 9 pm and have never been happier. Children, fed in silence with no bedtime stories, are thriving.
It's basically modern stoicism. Seneca would approve.
The Occupational Philosophers think this idea has legs. Listeners are invited to nominate a date, suggest other national days, and join the movement. Just don't enjoy it.
Stop playing, don't make stuff, stop having fun for goodness sake. Come back inside, open some spreadsheets, and knuckle down some serious work.
Say Hello
www.occupationalphilosophers.com
Substack
https://occupationalphilosophers.substack.com/
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Their day jobs
- JOHN: https://www.bowlandconsulting.com/
- SIMON: www.simonbanks.com.au
- SIMON SHOWREEL: https://youtu.be/YZQdJI6qGvg
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