236. Office frogging, A.I. workslop and Deloitte's awkward pay gap. PLUS! Are lefties really more creative?" - This Week in Work, 30th September 2025
Description
Welcome back to Truth, Lies & Work, the award-winning podcast where behavioral science meets workplace culture.
Hosted by Chartered Occupational Psychologist Leanne Elliott and business owner Al Elliott, bringing you the latest workplace stories that actually matter.
News Round Up
Office Frogging - Gen Z's Job-Hopping Trend
Gen Z workers are hopping from job to job like frogs on lily pads, chasing better pay and growth. But here's the thing - this isn't new. Millennials did this too, they just didn't have a catchy name for it. The real question: are you giving people a reason to stay?
Forbes article on Office Frogging: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2025/09/18/office-frogging-gen-zs-career-trend-disrupts-employer-expectations/
Workslop - AI's Productivity Problem
AI-generated content that looks polished but has no real substance. Research from BetterUp Labs and Stanford found 41% of workers have been on the receiving end, costing almost two hours of rework each time. AI use at work has doubled since 2023, but 95% of organizations see no measurable ROI.
Harvard Business Review article: https://hbr.org/2025/09/ai-generated-workslop-is-destroying-productivity
Deloitte's £4.9m Pay Rise Problem
Deloitte UK's chief executive Richard Houston received a 17% pay rise to £4.9 million while staff got 2.9% and revenues actually fell by 1%. He's now paid 65 times the median Deloitte salary. When staff see the boss's pay racing away from their own, fairness goes, then trust, then loyalty.
The Times article: https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/deloitte-uks-chief-executive-receives-17-percent-pay-rise-to-49m-kshc08cqr
Truth or Lie?
Left-Handed People Are More Creative Because They Use the Right Side of Their Brain
The verdict: LIE. While Roger Sperry's Nobel Prize-winning split-brain research showed the hemispheres have distinct strengths, creativity doesn't belong to one hemisphere. Both sides work together constantly in healthy brains. Left-handers may have language spread across both hemispheres and larger corpus callosums, but that doesn't make them automatically more creative.
Workplace Surgery
Real listener questions this week:
- Is DISC profiling actually useful for leadership or just another personality tool with slick marketing?
- How do senior leaders answer tough questions without actually committing to anything? (Featuring the SCARF model)
- What do you call the role when you're ready to step back from day-to-day running of your business?
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