Isabel Berwick, host of the FT’s Working It podcast and newsletter editor

I had a great introduction to the world of work. I worked as a graduate trainee at Haymarket, interviewing GPs for a couple of papers for family doctors. Although it wasn't glamorous, I wanted to go to work every single day. Actually, I think if you've got good colleagues, and you're learning things, and you're meeting interesting people, it doesn't really matter what topic you're writing about.

Working as a news editor in the 1990s, I didn't sleep much. I was incredibly ambitious, and it was a challenge - we weren't fed PR scoops so had to work really hard to fill the empty pages. Looking back, it's kind of a blur, but I'm so glad I did it. It's useful to see what achieving your ambition looks like.

I got into financial journalism at a really exciting time. Banks were collapsing, there was a scandal about people being mis-sold endowment policies. And then my introduction to the Financial Times was at the height of the dot com boom. I wouldn't swap those experiences for anything.

Lionel Barber [former FT editor] was a fantastic ambassador for the FT. He was a great newsperson and did a wonderful job of making the brands better known globally. I didn't work with him all that closely, but when I was working on diversity issues at the FT, I spoke to him a lot more. He was very involved in change. 

It was a dream to get into podcasting. I was an early listener of podcasts and found them such a rich source of information. There's an intimacy to them, but also a sort of glamour - old-fashioned audio.

Our podcast, Working It, is intended as a gateway. We knew there was an appetite for more audio about work and workplace issues. I like to think we're offering the very best of our journalism in an accessible way, for people who may or may not become subscribers in the future. 

Audio is a gift to journalists. So many stories we are moved to tell have the potential to make amazing podcast series, but I think in the past they've been under-resourced and under-exploited. Storytelling is storytelling however you tell it - and I've never lost my journalistic curiosity.

I also enjoy the informality of newsletters. I like that there are so many different ways for media to reach our audiences and subscribers - and I'm delighted that I have the chance to get my teeth into work and careers, and the weird stuff that happens in workplaces…

I'm happy these days to have a more intimate connection with readers or listeners. So for audio, you're right there in someone's ears; for newsletters, you're in a person's inbox. It's a renewal of the connection we perhaps lost in the pandemic.

The biggest issues in the post-pandemic workplace are flexible working and empathic leadership. People are deluded if they think the five-day week is coming back permanently. And there has been a profound shift from autocratic leadership to a more collaborative or ‘vulnerable' model - managers are admitting when they don't know things or make mistakes.

"Bringing yourself to the workplace" is really important. But it depends very much on the workplace. It comes down to the company thinking about the culture it is creating - we've had a few corporate scandals lately that suggest organisations are not even following basic rules of engagement with their employees.

Motherhood or any caring responsibility need not compromise your career. After my maternity leave, coming back to work part-time was difficult because my boss at that time moved me out of my job - he wanted a full-time person in the position. It gives me great joy to know that things have moved on… although I realise that things are still far from perfect.

The impact that work has on our lives is not taken seriously enough. There's a sort of assumption that you should be able to compartmentalise what happens at work when we've seen more blurring than ever between work and life. If you have a micromanaging boss, for example, it can affect your confidence, your sleep, your personal life and your mental health.

Work is not just about working, it's about thriving. I'm currently writing a book about how to thrive in a post-pandemic work environment - likely called something like ‘Thrive'! - and it's about how we should have high expectations for a place we spend a large percentage of our working hours. Ambition is not just for the workplace but for our whole lives.

I haven't had a glorious rise to the top. It's been a bumpy old road on a bad gearbox sometimes, and terrible, shitty things have happened to me in my career… but I believe every experience you have makes you who you are.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabel-berwick-8b4922167/