I think I got pretty lucky when working at PwC. It was around the time that I had started thinking about changing careers and getting into urban place-making. An opportunity came up to project manage a church building in transition in Melbourne’s north-east, and the Partner in charge of me at the time gave me the all-clear to work on it.

My guest for this week, Ruby Lee, had a very different experience with one of her employers. She was starting on her own quest of understanding how to align her values with her work. One of the ways she was doing this was through a blog, which quickly caught the eye of her employer. While they praised her for what she had written, Ruby was still asked to stop writing as it could reflect poorly on the organisation.

I think historically this has been the experience for many people as they have experimented with different ideas while working full-time. Organisations have feared that in allowing people to have a side-business, or write their own views, this would distract people from their employed job, and open the organisation up to reputational damage.

Today Ruby has found herself working in HR and recruitment at [Cogent](https://cogent.co/), the place where I work part-time as well. We both have side-businesses that are encouraged and seen as good for us and the organisation.

Ruby’s side-hustle is called [The Careers Emporium](https://www.thecareersemporium.com/), an on-line community where she helps people take ownership of their careers and empowers them with insider knowledge. She is passionate about helping those who are wondering what they are doing at work each day, those who are looking for something new, and those who want to excel within their current organisation.

And while she is building a reputation in helping individuals navigate their work life, I think she is also helping to change the conversation within organisations about thinking about the whole person of their employees.

The changing nature of work is one of my favourite topics. I want to see workplaces where at the end of the day people feel more well than they did at the start of the day; where more of our differences, whether they be temporal, locational, or environmental, are embraced.

Ruby is one of the people who is helping individuals and organisations change the way they think about work. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation, and I hope you do too.

If you enjoyed listening to Ruby you may also enjoy listening to Dr Jason Fox on redesigning work, Nicole Avery on creating a side-hustle, or Carmen Hawker on mixing passions with work.

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