Season 08 Episode 08: Levellin’ Up: Health Screening vs Human Rights

“It is my human right to grab a meat pie from the local pie cart,” Trajce defends his actions. “Everyone is stressed, so what is your stress level?” enquires Alan, in his effort to empathise and disarm a respondent. “What’s your level, not your age, but your level?” asks Sara, “We’re levelling up – that’s empowering!”

In this episode, the WhyWork crew dig into the uncomfortable truth that many wellness initiatives are a shiny distraction from the core work-related manifestations of harm. Recognising that work is linked to wellbeing, the legal pundits, Trajce and Alan, dig into regulatory materials to determine if the legislation reference the term “wellbeing” as a workplace obligation.

The team debate obligations and terminology - health, welfare, wellness, wellbeing, and wholeness - and how the meaning of these terms might alter depending on each person. Trajce questions the logic of yoga rooms in toxic work environments. Alan reminds us that if work is designed poorly, no fruit bowl or mindfulness session will make up for it.

Together, the team explores how psychosocial hazards, like role conflict, chronic heavy workloads, and low support, erode wellbeing. They query design strategies to improve these conditions. Spoiler alert: it starts with good work design and ends with authentic leadership.

Sara espouses the benefits of sense-making in organisational psychosocial risk management sharing details about her team’s new online material, workshop training, and collaborative development of a software feature in digital risk management software-as-a-service: Psychosocial Risk Assessment and Integrated Solutions for Employers (PRAiSE) with both the PRAiSE Certified Assessor and PRAiSE Certified Manager program, complementing the Psychosocial Risk Analyser (PRA) feature in ErgoAnalyst.

This one’s for the safety leaders, HR teams, and execs who want to move beyond platitudes and into prevention and health promotion.

Season 08 Episode 07: Danger, Design, and Digital Realities

WARNING: This episode discusses injuries caused by recreational fixed plan – we advise listener discretion.

“How do you design better work when the risks are invisible, intangible, or hard to map?" asks Trajce. In this forward-thinking episode, the WhyWork crew explores how Shared Virtual Presence (SVP) is transforming the way organisations approach risk, work design, and collaboration.

Trajce shares his perspective on the value of SVP in creating shared language and visible systems thinking, and Alan digs into how digitised assessments are finally bringing mental health into mainstream safety design. Alan and Trajce dig around to see how legislators included concepts of “workplace wellbeing” in their materials. Conversely, Sara challenges Trajce to think about design experts who can think like a criminal to combat crime in work and product design, “Boys will be boys,” says Trajce, which is a statement that Sara challenges.

Continuing the theme on recreation and risk, the team recall more related cases that exemplify foreseeability challenges.

Sara introduces the launch of PRAiSE (Psychosocial Risk Assessment and Integrated Solutions for Employers) and PRA, the new task-based Psychosocial Risk Analyser feature within the ErgoAnalyst software platform. These tools are helping teams visualise, quantify, and respond to both physical and psychosocial risks in context, merging technical rigour with empathy-driven co-design (Digital Solutions Development through ViVID Design Labs).

This episode is for leaders, designers, and problem-solvers looking to embed real change - digitally, visually, and collaboratively.

Other episodes addressing theme park and recreation-as-work:

S03 E05: Whakaari – The Smouldering Dragon

S03 E06: Cha-Cha-Chat Thrill Rides

S03 E07: Intentional Design & Submersibles

Season 08 Episode 06: Rootin’ Tootin’ Wild Theme Park Rides: When Fun turns Fatal

WARNING: This episode discusses a serious injury to a child – we advise listener discretion.

“Theme parks are workplaces where serious harm could eventuate,” bemoans Trajce.

In this gripping episode, the WhyWork crew dive into the devastating case of a child who suffered a traumatic scalping injury while on a Wile E. Coyote-themed amusement ride

Alan walks us through the case, unpacking the sequence of mechanical and human errors. Trajce brings his classic bluntness and empathy, highlighting how poor design choices - literal holes in theme ride ceilings and safety protocols - lead to traumatic circumstances in people’s lives and, in this case, affects a child. The team pulls the lens back to explore broader lessons on accountability, risk design, and the ethics of foreseeability.

"A kid went to have fun and came back scalped. That’s not a freak accident—that’s a system failure," says Trajce. "We can’t keep blaming workers or bad luck when the problem is clearly baked into the design," argues Sara.

Alan Explains, "The head went through a hole in the ride’s casing - something that never should have been possible. Once we traced what happened, the design gaps were obvious. This case reveals chain of small, overlooked decisions that created a massive risk."

This episode is a tough listen, but a vital one. Through humour, honesty, and some hard truths, the podcast team asks: What kind of systems do we really want to build for our kids, our teams, and our communities? “What will be enduring and sustainable?” asks Sara.

Alan, Trajce, and Sara reflect on some of their favourite Looney Tunes characters - Yosemite Sam, the rootin’ tootin’ red-moustached cowboy; Marvin the Martian, Sylvester (Sufferin’ succotash) – who was yours?

Other episodes addressing theme park and recreation-as-work:

S03 E05: Whakaari – The Smouldering Dragon

S03 E06: Cha-Cha-Chat Thrill Rides

S03 E07: Intentional Design & Submersibles