Wankernomics
Wankernomics is a comedy podcast about workplace bullshittery, hosted by James Schloeffel and Charles Firth. Each week they unpack real-world examples of corporate nonsense and deconstruct how people use buzzwords and dubious tactics to get ahead. They explore questions like what 'operational cadence' actually means and why call-centre waits seem endless. The show blends real stories and personal anecdotes from over 20 years in the working world. It has been called a workplace comedy phenomenon and has also run sold-out mock corporate workshops since 2023.
Episodes
Why The Beatles never used Trello or Jira
Workplace productivity apps like Trello, Asana, Jira and Miro are everywhere now. But do they actually increase productivity, or are they just another thing to add to your workload, that actually ends up slowing everything down? In this episode James and Charles try to get to the bottom of what these collaboration tools actually are, and debate whether there is anything more boring that someone ta
The onboarding episode: new starters, please listen to this first
Our People & Culture team advised us that we rushed ahead and launched this podcast without first doing an onboarding episode. What a disaster. How will people know how to listen to the podcast? Have they done the safety induction? Where is the kitchen? And are they even aware of the Wankernomics Mission and Vision Statements? Or Purpose Statement for that matter? In this episode, James and Ch
How many buzzwords can you fit into a single job advertisement?
"When I grow up I want to manage the delivery of complex cross-functional initiatives and shape scope across business cases" said no-one, ever. Job advertisements have a language all of their own. Meaningless phrases like “Dynamic, fast paced environment”, “self starter”, “unlocking incremental value”, “key stakeholders”, “driving insights” and “our people are at the heart of everything
Government bureaucracy: There’s a form to fill out before you can listen to this episode
Most workplaces have at least some ridiculous processes that seem to serve no purpose. But when it comes to pointless bureaucracy, Government departments are best-in-class.Charles and James tell two stories – one from Australia and one from the UK – where bureaucracy got completely out of hand.You’ll hear about stationery budgets, re-used envelopes, wayward traffic cones, and a very different defi
Is this the worst employee recognition scheme ever created?
In 2025 a worker was sent an email from their employer to recognise their three years of service. Inside the email was a button that read, ‘view recognition’, which when clicked on, revealed the reward. We don’t want to spoil how absurdly bad this reward was – you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out.In this episode James and Charles reveal some of the worst employee recognition schemes im
“Free donuts in the foyer”: The Enron scandal retold
You probably know the story. In 2001 Enron – then one of the largest companies in the world – collapsed after it was found to be using illegal accounting tricks to hide massive debts and fake huge profits.But what was it actually like to work there?James and Charles apply a Wankernomics lens to one of the world’s biggest ever corporate scandals, unpacking the company values, analysing the office c
Your Call Is Not Important To Us
In 2023 the entire network of Optus – one of Australia’s largest telecommunications providers – went down for 12 hours. The outage caused major disruptions across Australia as 11 million people went without internet and phone access.So how did the outage align with the company’s purpose statement of “Powering Optimism With Options”. And what the hell does “Powering Optimism With Options” even mean
Trailer
After taking on board extensive stakeholder feedback and running a strategic analysis to identify gaps in our end-to-end customer offering, we’re thrilled to advise that we’re starting a podcast.Coming this September, The Wankernomics Podcast will drill down and deep dive into real-life stories about workplace bullshittery.Employee recognition schemes that went wrong. Job ads that make no sense. E
