R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Holy cow, the last quarter of 2023 is upon us. We’re itching our heads trying to figure out how it all flew by so fast.

It’s clear that transparency in AusCorp is trending up, with companies these days being increasingly held to account. Just this week, PwC finally released its self-commissioned Report on its culture, governance and accountability, which followed a similar report from EY in July.

It’s a bit of a media circus right now which unfortunately seems quite “on-trend” for AusCorp this year.

💡 Brain’s Trust - conversations in AusCorp

I. R E S P E C T

Aussie Corporates should all be made aware of the relatively unknown “Respect at Work” legislation that passed last year.

Why is it interesting?

The new law introduces a regime that aims to protect the more vulnerable in AusCorp, and specifically imposes a duty on employers to take “reasonable and proportionate” measures to eliminate sex discrimination, harassment and hostile work environments. This means that the duty is now to prevent, rather than to react to, these kind of situations (if companies do that at all).

This duty has also been given teeth, in the form of the Australian Human Rights Commission. It is being empowered to investigate and enforce compliance with this duty from December 2023. If your company hasn’t done so already, it better have its prevention measures up by then.

Want more?

For employees who feel like their employers aren’t doing enough, there’s a useful Respect@Work website which contains a tonne of resources to help you deal with a situation, including where to seek help to address workplace sexual harassment.

II. BYO Snacks

We ran a snap poll earlier this month to quiz AusCorp about its snack preferences and received a tonne of submissions about what your favourite nibbles were during work hours.

Why is it interesting?

According to poll results (where 4 options were given), the humble biscuit… took the biscuit. Followed closely by protein-derived snacks, nuts and lastly popcorn.

We also opened up the DMs to hear what else AusCorp liked to graze on and to give everyone some snack inspiration, here were some of the more unique ones:

• Beef jerky / biltong

• Flavoured fava beans / Wasabi peas

• Corn Thins + Peanut Butter

• Banana + Peanut Butter

• Pineapple on rice cakes

• Breadtop buns

• Roasted Seaweed

• Mochi

• Frozen Up&Go

• Charcuterie - someone is feelin’ a bit fancy

• Vita-weats and vegemite - el classico

• Carrot sticks and baby cucumbers with hummus - el classico #2

• Boiled egg and soy sauce (as depicted below):

A Message from Ansarada

Can you redact the fact?

Our friends at Ansarada are challenging you, our curious reader, to decipher the hidden fact from their latest Deal Indicator report. Can you guess which job roles are working the hardest, sorry, logging into data rooms the most this year? Click to find out!

📮 Postbox - DM highlight

10 Reasons Why

Justice Jayne Jagot, recently appointed High Court judge, and overall top gal, recently launched into some real talk at the Minds Count Annual Lecture in August, commenting on the paradox of a career as fascinating and rewarding as law being marred by misery, stress, anxiety and more.

Why is it interesting?

Justice Jagot’s comments hit home not only for the legal industry but AusCorp in general as well. She set out 10 workplace behaviours that are destructive of wellbeing and damn, it really does sound like she is in touch with reality, unlike some other leaders in our world:

1. Imposing artificial deadlines

2. Imposing artificial deadlines with unreasonable turnaround times

3. Person imposing artificial deadlines with unreasonable turnaround times and then being unavailable to approve delivery

4. Persons in power engaging in routine procrastination

5. "Keep them hanging around while I do something more important" syndrome

6. Setting up meetings at unconventional times

7. Setting up meetings and continually deferring these into the evening

8. Giving tasks without context

9. “Unconstructive” feedback

10. Not giving credit, losing your temper, not taking responsibility

If any of these resonate or god forbid, you are on the receiving on any of this, then it’s probably about time to tell someone that Justice Jagot wants a word.

🙊 Community Bantz - DMs that didn't make the feed

MeToo Tips

🩺 Health Check - health tip/reminder

This month’s Health Check is brought to you by Unyoked, who provide off-the-grid cabin stays across AUS, NZ and the UK.

Nature is Healing

As a species that used to hunt outdoors for game and forage for berries in the wild, we would have spent a majority of our time outdoors. These days, the average human spends a third of their lifetime trapped in the office and many of those other hours in urban surrounds.

It’s obvious that nature - true wild untamed nature - has taken a back seat in our lives, and for some, perhaps something that is even inconvenient or undesirable.

Why is it interesting?

Many tout the healing properties of nature. They feel refreshed, reinvigorated or even “reborn” when they have had dose of Mother Nature’s goodness. Studies have shown that the more hours you spend resting (i.e. without access to emails, calls, the trials and tribulations of life), the more effective your work will be. In fact, winding down in nature can even help restore attention deficits that may have arisen from overwork.

A quick break to bring you this Unyoked offer…

Other than the obvious benefits of breathing in clean, fresh air, being one with nature has also been shown to:

• lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels;

• reduce nervous system arousal;

• enhance immune system function;

• increase self-esteem;

• reduce anxiety; and

• improve mood.

Want more?⁠

In an increasingly urbanising world, there is a growing body of works that looks at the importance of nature on our physical and mental wellbeing, including techniques such as grounding.

Even getting out into the outdoors 20 minutes a day can do wonders, so it’s now just a matter of prioritising this in your life.

👴🏻 Old is Cool - meme throwback (22 September 2022)

👍 The Nook - AusCorp recommendations

🏉  Rugby World Cup (event, 8 Sep - 28 Oct) - We’re well and truly into it now. Carn the Wallabies!

🏟 AFL Grand Final (30 September) - Collingwood are the favourites and face off against the Brisbane Lions in what will shape up to be cracker. Neither teams have lifted the silverware for more than 10 years so we’re expecting a real dogfight.

🗿 Sculpture by the Sea (starts 20 Oct, Bondi) - This year marks the 25th year of the world’s largest, free-to-the-public outdoor sculpture exhibition. Check out the pieces along the 2km Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk.

📕 Throne of Glass (book | Goodreads 4.2/5) - "A political action fantasy novel that currently spans 6 prequel novellas and 7 novels in a highly engaging story reminiscent of Game of Thrones with multiple main characters, character growth, unexpected deaths, fantastic world building, and strong leads. Sarah J Maas brought back my love of casual reading with this series."

📺 From (TV Show | IMDb 7.7/10) - "It's a fairly recent series about a group of strangers trapped in this town with shapeshifting monsters that come out at night. Really exciting show with Stephen King vibes."

🗣 No Such Thing as Fish (Podcast) - "It's a trivia podcast that's been running for years. Goes up late Friday and its a good way to tune out the Friday sads."

🍷 Railway Wine Bar (Wine Bar, Melbourne) - “New wine bar in Highett from the Melbourne publican behind the redevelopment of Marquis of Lorne, Union House and Mount Erica Hotel and his business partner. Great vibes and great wines.”

☕️ Belissimo Cafe (Cafe, Brisbane) - “This cafe has Brisbane's best coffee blends and a chicken supreme sandwich that is sometimes better than sex.”

🍞 Micro Munchie (Toastie Maker, Product) - “Can confirm that the toasted sandwiches are better than a sandwich press. Just a bit of trial and error to find the right cooking time. Also works well with cookie dough!”

💻 Made in Australia - showcasing Aussie start-ups

What a Pearler!

Pearler (not the investing app) is an AI start-up that promises to take the pain out of answering pesky business questionnaire-type documents at work. They recently secured $330,000 in pre-seed funding from the South Australia Venture Capital Fund in August.

What is it?

Founded in 2019 by Robin Garnham and based in SA, Pearler is still in its early days. It’s recent pre-seed raise however has meant that its founder can now work on this full-time and hire a BD rep to accelerate its growth.

Answering a questionnaire is a laborious and arduous exercise, and frankly, not something that people study years at university for. Pearler promises to make this process easier, by helping users to more efficiently respond to documents such as requests for proposals, requests for quotes, cybersecurity checklists and grant applications.

On top of stakeholder management, Pearler speeds up the process by drawing from a company’s “internal body of knowledge to craft the best responses to any questionnaire-style document”. There’s no doubt that this sounds far better than the otherwise torturous exercise of manual population.

🚗 Under the Hood - what we're working on

Jobs Board

We’re continuing to talk top companies in Australia who have expressed an interest in partnering up with our AusCorp Jobs platform.

If you’d like to build your firm’s profile and get jobs in front of our community of 96,000+, send us an email!

We’re currently looking for any companies interested in sharing their finance, law, accounting, consulting or tech jobs.

Layoffs Tracker

We’re continuing to update our Layoffs Tracker in light of continuing reports of stealth redundancies. We’ve also put this into a nifty graph for those who missed it:

✍️ Feedback Loop - share your thoughts

If you have want to provide more detailed feedback or have any topics that you want to hear more about, you can let us know HERE.