S1 Bonus Episode - The Kids Take Over

0:00:00 - (Nicole): This episode of bring your kid to work is brought to you by Lioness Media. It's time to bring your kid to work.

Hey everyone. It's time to bring your kid to work. It's the family podcast that explores the world of work through the eyes of parents and their kids. Each week, we interview one parent and their child to chat about what they do for work, what they like, what they don't like, and how they got there in the first place. Let's find out who we're talking to today.

It's bonus episode time. We had so many great stories this year, but a lot of people have been asking about why did this whole podcast come to be?

So I've got a real special treat. I've got my kids, the big ones - Megan and Alex, interviewing me for a bonus episode. I really hope you enjoy it.

0:00:50 - (Nicole): I'm a bit scared. Hopefully they don't ask me anything too curly. Let's get on with the show.

0:00:58 - (Megan): Hey, everyone, and welcome to a special edition of the bring your kid to work podcast. My name is Megan, and I'm joined with my co host, Alex.

0:01:08 - (Alex): Don't worry, mom is still here today in this episode of the podcast.

0:01:15 - (Megan): That's right. Today is all about turning the tables and putting our amazing mum, Nicole, in the hot seat. She's usually the one asking the questions, but today we're bringing our mum to work.

0:01:34 - (Alex): Absolutely. We've been listening to her talk to all of these amazing people, and it got us thinking, what makes a person start a podcast like this? And the questions. Not to mention, of course, about her experiences with work.

0:01:50 - (Megan): Well, we're about to find out. So buckle up, listeners. Today is all about family, fun and flipping the script. Get ready for a behind the scenes look at bring your kid to work along the way behind the mic.

0:02:06 - (Megan): Okay, mum, let's start at the very beginning. What was your first job?

0:02:10 - (Nicole): My first job was with my mum and dad in the butcher shops over the Christmas holidays. It was their busiest period, and my sister had a job, so I would have been home alone. So they came up with this hair brain scheme that I would pretend to be Santa.I would dress up as Santa and greet the customers at the butcher shop, which basically kept me from being at home alone. I think I was ten when I first started doing that. So every Christmas I would be at the butcher shop wearing a full Santa suit. Very clearly not Santa, very clearly pretending. Beard, pillow down the shirt, the whole thing. And when it got really, really hot because it was summer, I would go into the cold room where all the meat was stored and just kind of take off my fake beard and just sit there and try and breathe a little bit easier in the cooler air. So that was my very first job. It evolved into doing bookwork on weekends as well. So I'd do payroll. Dad used to actually pay people with money and envelopes and stuff, so we'd do all that together on a Saturday afternoon. And, yeah, that was my very first job, from ten to probably 15.

0:03:28 - (Megan): Did everyone know that you weren't the real Santa?

0:03:32 - (Nicole): Oh, well, it was pretty funny because the customers, every year they would come for their Christmas ham and they'd be all, doesn't Santa have very pretty blue eyes? And hasn't Santa grown this year? They knew very well that it was me pretending to be Santa. It was pretty fun.

0:03:48 - (Megan): And what about one where your parents weren't the employer? Did you have a job that you started during school?

0:03:55 - (Nicole): The first job I got where I had to go for a job interview was at Maccas. So I was 14, and they're opening a new maccas in my town. I was really excited to go down to the cricket club and go for an interview. I got the job and started working at Maccas just after my 15th birthday.

0:04:13 - (Megan): And did you enjoy Maccas?

0:04:15 - (Nicole): I loved it.

0:04:17 - (Megan): What did you enjoy about it?

0:04:18 - (Nicole): Drive through was absolutely my favorite thing. Friday nights, really busy, lots of cars and just having a great time with friends. It's a really good first job, I think.

0:04:28 - (Megan):What's the worst job you've ever had?

0:04:32 - (Nicole): Oh, the worst job. It's kind of a toss up. There's a couple of things that make things a bad job for me. One of them is having to wake up really, really early. So one of the jobs that I didn't really love that much was when I worked at the bus depot at Toowong. It was different shifts that you had to do because buses obviously start really early in the morning and they finish really late at night, so you needed people to cover those shifts. And one of the shifts was starting at 330 in the morning. So I'd have to set my alarm for 2:30, get up and have a shower and maybe have something really little to eat that didn't make the microwave ding, so it didn't wake up your dad, drive to the torn bus depot, open the gates next to the big fuel tanks, go through the massive servicing garage where they did all the servicing of the buses, and pick up any lost property overnight, and then drive around to the front of the depot, open that up, change over the security tapes and open the entire depot.

And I was by myself and it was so early, I really struggled with that one. But the other kind of worst job. I think, is one where you don't feel very supported by the people that you're around, and that makes a huge difference. So if you don't feel like you believe in what you're doing, if you don't feel like people have your back, that's a really hard thing to come back from, because then you come home from those jobs and feel a bit rubbish, and then everybody in the house knows that you feel a bit rubbish because not very good at hiding when I feel like rubbish.

0:06:19 - (Alex): So what makes a good boss? What's something your favorite bosses have done that have made a difference for you at work?

0:06:26 - (Nicole): A good boss is someone who sees your potential, not just what you can do right now, but what you are capable of and gives you challenges to stretch yourself and to make yourself grow. And they back you and they give you credit when you've done a great job.

So they don't go to their boss and say, oh, it was all my idea and I did it all myself. They say, for example, one of the best bosses I've had was always, this was all Nic, she did it all. This was her idea. What a great execution. Those are the kind of bosses that you want, someone who sees what you're capable of and helps you get to that place, but they don't let you get away with stuff either I think when you need to learn a lesson, they're quite happy to teach you in a kind and productive way.

So, yeah, those are really good bosses, ones that believe in you and want to see you reach your potential. So, yeah, that would be the thing that makes a difference for me at work, someone who saw me and saw the qualities that I had and thought, you've got some skills that are unique and you've got attributes that we can grow, and I'm going to help you get there. And they were really specific about that. So that made a difference to me, for sure.

0:07:44 - (Megan): When you were in school, what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up?

0:07:48 - (Nicole): So when I was in primary school, I was quite sick as a kid, and it took a long time to work out what was wrong with me. I'd finally gone to this pediatrician who said, this is what's going on, this is your diagnosis. And I honestly thought that he was some kind of magician. And from then on, I wanted to be a pediatrician. And then in high school, we were dissecting a bullseye in science. The teacher said, lift up the bullseye -I mean, they're pretty big - Lift up the bullseye and have a look and see what a bull sees and that was it.

Everything started getting loud, and I felt hot and I had to run out of the room because I was about to faint. So I figured if I couldn't cut up a bullseye, I probably wasn't going to be able to get through medical school. But after that, I wanted to be the first female prime minister of Australia. And also that didn't happen.

0:08:43 - (Alex): Did you go to uni?

0:08:44 - (Nicole): Yes, I did go to uni. I went to uni a lot. I've been to uni a lot, and not just as a student. I actually worked at a university for a while, so I've been on both sides of it. I started university because Brisbane City council paid for half of my uni when I was working there.

I don't know that I would have gone otherwise. And they were really supportive of me getting a university degree, even if it wasn't completely related to what I was doing for a job, which was amazing. And I started it before Megan was born. And it took me eight years to get my bachelor of arts. After you were also born Alex. And so I did that by correspondence, part time, mailing assignments back and forth and all that sort of thing. It was pretty bonkers.

0:09:33 - (Nicole): And then decided to go back when you guys were a little bit bigger and get my teaching qualifications. And then I had your sister and your brother and did a master's degree, so I got my master's of learning and development. Been to uni quite a lot. I really love to learn. I hate assignments, but I really love to learn. And that's the price you kind of have to pay when you go to university, is that you have to prove that you've learned something. So really enjoyed it, but it's a long process.

0:10:02 - (Alex): Why did you start, bring your kid to work?

0:10:05 - (Nicole): Well, I started it because I was also teaching and had grade elevens and twelves who really didn't know what they wanted to do for a job, or they had ideas, but had no idea what the job was. Fascinates me that you can want a job but not have a clue about what your day would look like, and so whether you would really like it, I wanted to tell those stories. I wanted to get it out there so people had an idea rather than going in blind. And also, if you're in the middle of your career and you go this is not for me. Whatever I'm doing right now is not for me. It's quite special to be able to hear someone else who does a job that you might aspire to and hear how it impacts their entire life. So not just about how they feel about their work, but how their kids, if they want to have a family, how their kids feel about that job, because you're a whole person. You're not just a worker bee.

0:10:55 - (Nicole): And so it's nice to get that kind of all round understanding of what a job means in your life. And you guys were going through your transition into adulthood and trying to work out what you want to do for a job.

0:11:09 - (Megan): Apart from being a podcaster, what has been the best job that you've had?

0:11:15 - (Nicole): Oh, best job apart from this one? That's really hard to answer because I think there's so many different things that you get from different jobs. I loved Macca's drive through on a Friday night, but I think that was because I was still a kid. Really fun to be with my friends, and that was great.

But as an adult, I think one of the best jobs that I had was my first kind of grown up job, Brisbane city council, when I worked in what they used to call, and I don't know if they still do records management. It was a lot of filing and actually opening the mail in the mailroom of a morning. So I'd have to be at work at 07:00 and there was a basement in city hall that we would all gather in and open all the mail. People paying their parking fines or people complaining about a dog barking all night long.

0:12:04 - (Nicole): Anything that people wanted to talk to council about that they would send a letter about, we got to open them all and then make sure there was a file for whatever needed to have a file and distribute it to whoever needed to do the work. To answer the question, that was really fun, to be able to be the first person to figure out what somebody needed and to be able to get it to the right place. I like that.

0:12:25 - (Megan): How do you choose the guests that you have on the podcast?

0:12:28 - (Nicole): Oh, I like people with interesting jobs. I think there's so little information about what people do every day in the jobs that they have and when kids are choosing a job or when you're thinking about changing your career as an adult, you actually don't have a sense of what people's day to day is like. So you think you might want a particular job, but what does that person's day look like? How do they spend their time is that something you'd be interested in?

0:13:01 - (Nicole): So I like to choose guests who have lots of different jobs to try and get a really good picture for people of all the different kind of jobs that they can do, because particularly as a kid, you only really know about the jobs that your parents do. And then there's teachers and doctors and nurses and police officers. You don't have a big sense of what's out there in the world. It's all about trying to find things that are unique and different and give people a sense that there's a world of possibilities.

And of course, they have to have kids and they have to want to be in a podcast. So that's another thing that makes me able to choose my guests.

0:13:38 - (Alex): Okay, so you run the podcast, but what does a day actually look like for you

0:13:43 - (Nicole): What do I actually do all day? This is one of the things I do. So I record podcasts, as you know, and that takes up a little tiny sliver of what the job entails as a podcaster. The biggest thing is the editing. For every hour of audio that I record, it takes me at least three times as long to edit, and it is a process that I have to get in the zone for. And so it sometimes takes me a little while to work up the energy to sit and concentrate on doing that editing and then there's the social media aspect.

0:14:25 - (Nicole): Putting together things for Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. That happens to be something that I use to promote the podcast. So I put that out there as well. Then I'm chatting to guests or scheduling guests or making sure that I can get the next person ready to go. It's lots of different bits and pieces, but I think the biggest chunk is the editing. And I also do some editing for another podcast as well. So, yeah, that takes up a lot of my time.

0:14:51 - (Alex): And if you couldn't be a podcaster anymore, what do you think you might be doing instead?

0:14:54 - (Nicole): I think my favorite jobs have had space for me to have conversations with different people. So they call that stakeholder relations, where you have a job that you have to do, but you have to talk to somebody else about it or you have to tell them what's going on. We have to get their input. So having a job that requires me to do some writing, do some chatting with people, I mean, since I've become a grown up, I've wanted to be Richard Fidler when I grew up. He does those Conversations on ABC Radio. Yeah, I think that's a couple of other things that I would do instead.

Megan, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

0:15:33 - (Megan): So when I was little, I had a couple of different errors of what I wanted to be. I know it started out as early as I can remember from when I started school. And I was really obsessed with my prep teacher and loved everything about her. And so I would come home and force Alex to be my student and I would practice being a teacher and we would role play school. And so I think that's probably the first one that I really wanted to be when I grew up was a teacher.

0:16:04 - (Megan): A couple of other things I loved. I really loved sharks and stingrays and dolphins. And I thought that marine biology was going to be really interesting. Until I worked out, I hated science and swimming in the ocean. That one ruled that out. I also really loved acting and singing. And I thought that I wanted to do something either on stage or behind a camera and do film work. And I thought that that was really interesting as well. And did classes and lots of stuff at school that I loved.

0:16:36 - (Nicole): Alex, what did you want to be when you got big?

0:16:40 - (Alex): It's hard to think of just one job I've had wanted to be throughout my life. I went through paleontologist. There was a lot of ideas around being a cop, but yeah, everything changed every year. And I had a new want every year.

0:17:01 - (Nicole): And Megan, you're a teacher. What do you like about the job that you have and the job that you get to do?

0:17:08 - (Megan): I love working with kids. I think being the oldest of four kids myself, and also being one of the oldest cousins in my family, I was always surrounded by kids and loved playing with them, and that was always a passion. And so it made sense to try teaching. I love being on my feet all day. I love that no day is ever the same. You never get bored. I also just love working with families. It's really nice to be a part of so many people's village.

0:17:36 - (Megan): They say it takes a village to raise a child. I have such a privilege of being one of the people in the village. And I think you can learn so much from kids, and I do every single day. It's a really rewarding career. I get to see so much progress. I get to see kids from the beginning of a year to the end and how much growth they've had throughout, which is incredible. I also love the people that I work with.

0:18:04 - (Megan): Generally, teachers are so passionate about what they do. I think if you don't have that passion, then you don't really last or you don't pick a career in teaching without that passion. And so it makes for really inspiring conversations and professional developments. And you're always learning from each other and everyone does things so differently that it's so amazing to have such a wide variety of people around you that are doing the same thing as you that you can learn from and also go, oh, I like that. But I think I'm going to do it differently and vice versa.

0:18:40 - (Nicole): If you weren't a teacher, what other job do you think you might like to try?

0:18:45 - (Megan): If I weren't a teacher, what would I be? I think that one's really hard for me because I can't really see myself.

0:18:52 - (Megan): Doing anything other than teaching. Maybe within teaching, designing resources and helping like beginning teachers and things like that, potentially. But I can't see myself sitting in an office. I can't see myself. I think I've really found the one thing that makes me tick and the one thing that I can look forward to going to work in the morning. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't think I have an answer for you there.

0:19:20 - (Nicole): Alex, what do you like about the job that you have now?

0:19:23 - (Alex): The best parts about my job right now are the people I work with. Because they're always there to support you, especially if you understand that it's not your fault and they don't make you feel bad about not being able to come in.

0:19:39 - (Nicole): So what do you think your ideal job would be? What's a great job for you, Alex?

0:19:51 - (Alex): And the ones that I do look at, I can find something I like about them, but you can always find something you don't. I want to be somewhere in business. I've been doing a lot of stuff with my esports diploma, looking into marketing, recruiting, all sorts of stuff that involved the relationship between consumers and an agency or a company or a product. Those relationships and what works within them is very interesting.

0:20:22 - (Nicole): Alex, do I like my job?

0:20:24 - (Alex): You definitely like your job. Being on the podcast, you do.

0:20:29 - (Nicole): What do you feel was my favourite job that I've had?

0:20:32 - (Alex): I think this is your favourite because you don't have to answer to bosses who either don't know exactly what they're doing or to micromanage. You get to be a little bit more free with what you. It gives you a lot more freedom to hang out with us, hang out with the kids. It's a lot more rewarding for you. I believe.

0:20:59 - (Nicole): Megan, you've seen me take on lots of different jobs over the years. Which do you think was the best fit? The best one for me?

0:21:12 - (Megan): I think the job that was the best for you, I think is a job that you done every day since the day I was born. And that was be my mum. Although it's not a paying job, it is a full time one. And I think we all, the four of us, are so lucky to have such an incredible mum that stayed home with Alex and I for a large portion of our upbringing and back at work. And whatever the situation was, it didn't matter because we had the best mum ever.

0:21:42 - (Megan): And so I am a little biased, but I have to say that that was one of the best jobs, is the best job for you. But in terms of paid employment, I always think that jobs that give you, that you have passion for are very people aligned. You're very good at making really strong, deep connections with people from all different walks of life. And I definitely notice when you have not only a team that you feel connected to, but the job involves you connecting with other people. And I think that's why this podcast is fantastic. It has the best of both worlds where you're connecting with people and you're able to have deep conversations and have some level of impact, but it's also on your own terms. You're not being forced into what someone else wants for you. You're able to fully be yourself. And I think that that's something that's pretty special about doing this podcast.

I don't know. I think the local government job, I think I saw a lot of passion in. I know you had some amazing people you worked with, but I think I haven't seen that passion for what you do as much as with local government. You'd come talking about the mayors that you saw and what they were doing. And I think when you were running for parliament as well, there was a lot of passion about how you could change things and the impact that you could have on people.

0:23:10 - (Megan): That was really interesting and exciting to watch. You care so much about what you were doing and also the hope and the inspiration of what a future could look like if things were changed and things like that. And so I think any kind of job you've had where there's been that impact that you could see right in front of you and have those strong, deep connections with people in all different kinds of walks of life, I think. Have been the best for you. Yeah.

0:23:41 - (Nicole): I understand why people love being interviewed for the pod so much. Our kids really do have some insights into our strengths and weaknesses that even we might not see. Wow.

Thanks, Megan. Thanks, Alex. I love you guys heaps.

0:23:56 - (Nicole): I hope you've enjoyed this special bonus episode of bring your kid to work. This one wraps up season one for us. We've heard some fantastic stories so far on the pod and I'm so excited to introduce you to new jobs and new fab parent and kid guests in season two. I look forward to talking to you all next week.

Bye for now.

0:24:17 - (Nicole): Bring your kid to work was recorded in Meeanjin on the lands of the Jaggera and Turrubl people who've been sharing their stories for more than 60,000 years. Thanks for listening to a favorite episode of bring your kid to work season one. We can't wait to bring you more stories in season two, and in the meantime, we're replaying some of our favorites and we may even have a cheeky bonus episode in there too.

0:24:39 - (B): We hope you love it. If you haven't already, make sure you give us a review on your podcast player of choice. It helps other people find the show and follow bring your kid to work and subscribe wherever you're listening now and send your favorite episode to a friend. These stories are too good to keep to ourselves. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at bring your kid to work and on Facebook at bring your kid to work the podcast and did you know? You can join the conversation join bring your kid to work career conversations community on Facebook for great career tips and conversations about the journey of work, workplace culture, and parenting while working.

0:25:18 - (B): If you have an idea for someone for us to interview in season two, please jump online and visit bringyourkidowork.com to drop us an email or dm us through the socials. Thanks again for listening. Bring your kid to work is a Lioness Media production. This episode was produced and edited by me, Nicole Lessio. Our music is composed by Rakkuo with graphics and design by Anastasia Makhuka. Follow bring your kid to work on your podcast player and all the socials and visit bringyourkidowork.com to see our blog transcripts from our episodes and to sign up to our newsletter for the latest updates.

Talk to you soon.