What happens when you build a workplace where people can say "I'm not OK today"?
They become more dependable. Not less.
That's the central idea from our latest episode with Catherine Eadie and Carolina Uggenti Stewart, Research Fellow at the MRC Institute of Genetics and Cancer at The University of Edinburgh.
Her perspective has been shaped by two major life transitions; moving from Italy to the UK, and navigating a cancer diagnosis and both changed how she thinks about support at work.
When Carolina arrived in the UK, she spent months mentally translating not just language, but humour, customs, and social cues. She nearly quit. What kept her going was the people around her. Her point is practical, not soft: invest time helping someone settle at the start, and they'll perform better long-term. Go slower now, go faster later.
They also get into the harder realities, a decade of temporary contracts, the retraining trap when you try to leave academia, and what good actually looks like when an institution gets it right.
Because when people feel supported as human beings, not just employees, they do their best work.
