Hustle culture is breaking down quick. The rise of the 4-day workweek experiment is upon us, and for good reason…it might actually work. The duo talks with the feisty and beloved Ryan Mae McAvoy about her team's transition to the 4DWW, her lessons learned, and her extreme love of cats. Take the day, give 'er a listen!
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FOLLOW US!
Follow the podcast on Linkedin, Instagram, and TikTok at @peopleproblemspod
Follow the hosts:
Alexa Baggio on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn
Tyson Mackenzie on Instagram at @hr.shook
Ryan- Mae McAvoy on LinkedIn
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You can see the book Alexa references here: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
And the article here: The Four Day Workweek Shows Us That Working More Doesn't Mean More Success
Alexa
What's up, Tyson?
Tyson
Not too much. I feel like I.
Alexa
Know how we're doing.
Tyson
I feel like I need to give an update because I think.
Alexa
You owe the peeps an update.
Tyson
Yeah, like, so.
Alexa
Give it to us. Last time I want all the updates.
Tyson
I'm talking about, you know, going to be in real life with people. And I was so excited for my girls. My first business trip since Mat leave and everything, and like, holy shit, man. Two days in person.
Alexa
Real people are exhausted people.
Tyson
I am so done. Like I my social beta is done until. Until next year. We're done.
Alexa
We're done. We're not that far away from next year, luckily.
Tyson
But no, I know. Is it too early? Is it too early? I don't know. But, like, honestly, I guess I could not believe, like, how physically exhausted I was after being on, like, you know, work capacity for for two days shoulder and like, it's like, not enough that we have to spend all day together. But then there's like the drinks and then the dinners.
Tyson
We organized events and unlike people, did you not get enough of each other? Like, it's a lot. It is a lot. I just want to go back to my hotel. This is real by myself and like, pump my boots and just like go to sleep and, like, be done with it. Like, that is like, all I wanted. But yeah, anyways, yes, your girls still dressing, so let's just No judgment.
Alexa
Just be free zone. Here are the People Problems podcast. Well, I'm glad you got your first one under your belt. I'm glad you survived it. Yes. Your colleagues are thankful that you survived it.
Tyson
Yes, I am. I hope you survived.
Alexa
So good. Good. And the family is still in one piece. We are still still married. Still.
Tyson
The house is still up. Yes.
Alexa
Exactly. All right. Cool. Well, that's helpful. That's good to know. Yeah. I mean, you've basically mentally got like two weeks before the holidays. So it's fine. I know. I can't wait. Yeah, I know. It's it. Tis the season. Speaking of the season, it is time to let the people know that we have some hotline bling going on these days.
Alexa
So we are announcing the launch of our People Problems Hotline. You can call in and leave us a note with your people problems, story responses or feedback at three ten 5646462. You'll stay anonymous if you want to or not, but you can call in with your crazy stories and your best questions for us here at the People Problems Hotline three ten, five, six, four, six, four, 62.
Alexa
All right, Tyson, we've got a wonderful guest today. I'm very excited for this topic. This is a bit of a continuation of last week's episode. We were talking sort of our unadulterated thoughts on holiday times and breaks. But without further ado, I will introduce Ryan May. Ryan is the director of People Office at Blackthorn IO and considers herself a nontraditional people person.
Alexa
She has worked in the people's space from start ups to ski areas, and she uses humor to lighten the mood, which everyone will be keenly aware of shortly and reminds folks that she is not, quote, regular or she is cool. H are right there for you, tyson. And when she's not working on culture benefits and caring for her team, she lives her best old lady life knitting, reading, wine tasting and hanging with her cats.
Alexa
Biggest cat person I've ever met. She also has an unhealthy amount of Christmas trees, causing her December electric bill to be the stuff of nightmares. Ryan may bank may be the best bio we've ever read here at people problems. And you are definitely the biggest cat person I've ever met. So now I'm outnumbered by cat people as a representative dog person here.
Alexa
Welcome to you.
Ryan-Mae
And I tried to order I ordered some of Tyson's merch because he's got the cool H.R. shirt and I was like, oh, my gosh, I saw that my bio and it like, it just didn't. I don't have my shit together enough to like time merch deliveries. For, like, commitment.
Alexa
Well, tell us a little bit about your foray into people Ryan made for the people, for the peeps, for the kids. It's time for the peeps. Tell us a little bit.
Ryan-Mae
About.
Alexa
Into the space and then we'll get to the topic.
Ryan-Mae
Kind of started as an accident. I got a business degree because I actually feel like the best cop out when you're like, I don't really know what I want to do. I actually went to the ski area and it was kind of one of the things where like ski areas are seasonal and they're like, But you have all this education.
Ryan-Mae
Do you like one work in a job? I was like, totally. Like that's I don't know what that means, like and I still joke to this day, it's the greatest gig I ever had. So we did that for a couple of seasons and then I was like, Oh yeah, I'm moving to Silicon Valley and get my big girl job coach.
Ryan-Mae
It happened, so it was really cool. I was like, The world is my oyster. Like, the world shut down. So I got a job and it was like, You're the people person. Oh, by the way, we actually have to be in person. We've been deemed essential. So if you could just like, figure out what that looks like. Like, to this day, leaving my previous company was the hardest thing.
Tyson
So we enjoying we can we talk about that like what you mentioned, like you just like weren't liking the situation, like what was going on there? Yeah.
Alexa
What happened? What changed?
Ryan-Mae
It was I feel like it was the classic H.R., like, oh, you're the culture carrier. Okay, well, when anyone from leadership says something totally toxic, I can't fix that.
Alexa
Were you a team of one?
Ryan-Mae
I was a team of one.
Tyson
The problem is, is that people and this is what I'm learning is that people think that not so much that H.R. like made the decision, but that H.R. has the power to influence the decision and change the decision. I get that all the time. It's like, yeah, like, I know that we're not supposed to do X, but like, can I like can you just act like can you just, like, can find some way to certain.
Ryan-Mae
Like, steps to do it.
Tyson
Circumvent.
Alexa
The authority you don't have?
Tyson