Unprofessionalism
What does it really mean to be professional?
For generations, professionalism has been associated with competence, composure and control. But many of the unwritten rules we follow at work were built for a different world, one that asked us to hide uncertainty, suppress emotion and prioritise appearance over connection.
Each week, Dr Myriam Hadnes, behavioural economist, facilitator and founder of workshops.work, sits down with people who've questioned those rules. Their stories start with a professional risk. Few set out to be disruptive. Most simply reached a point where the conventional way of working no longer served them or the people around them.
Together they unpack the risks they took: admitting they didn't know, showing grief at work, challenging authority, asking for help, dressing differently, changing careers, trusting others, leading in ways they'd never seen modelled.
This podcast doesn't ask you to reject professionalism, or treat authenticity as some ideal to reach for. It’s about judgment: Which professional norms help us collaborate, lead and build trust? Which ones create distance between people? And how do we recognise the difference?
If you've ever felt the gap between who you are and who you think work wants you to be, this podcast invites you to look again. Not every professional rule needs breaking. But every one is worth questioning.
Unprofessionalism
012 - The Courage to Unmask with Roi Ben-Yehuda
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Roi Ben-Yehuda was one dissertation away from finishing his PhD when he realised he didn't want what was waiting on the other side. He walked away. Then years later, settled into a good job he liked, with a new mortgage and two small babies at home, he felt that pull again and walked away from that too, right in the middle of a pandemic.
Both times, the "thou shalt” voice telling him to stay on course was very loud. Both times, he ignored it. But the last one he gave himself nine months to make it work or face the consequences.
In less time than that, he built a company centred around the virtue behind his "unprofessionalism". One he believes to be the source of all virtues: courage.
He even has a mathematical formula: courage = power x purpose ÷ dragons. The dragons are the doubt, the fear, the inner voice that tells you the risk isn't worth it. And his whole work is about shrinking them — not by ignoring them, but by naming them, auditing them, and asking one simple question: what is the cost of doing nothing?
He also makes the case that we celebrate courage only when it works out. And that this is exactly how companies train people out of trying.
Links to learn more about Roi Ben-Yehuda: