What I’m Listening To —  A Job Done Well: For Managers Caught in the Middle 

July 9, 2026

If you’re like me, you might like a good podcast. The kinds I listen to are fairly broad: everything from The Foreign Affairs Interview to serial fiction to BBC’s Uncanny. One that caught my ear recently is also out of England. A Job Done Well: For Managers Caught in the Middle stars Jimmy Barber and James Lawther, two industry veterans with extensive experience in multi-million-dollar organizations.

Now the advice from Jimmy and James is straight-up, often very funny and focuses on the office realities of middle managers: those sandwiched between their reports and senior management. What I like especially about the podcast is that it doesn’t couch workplace realities in the euphemism and corporate jargon many of us may experience (or perhaps even suffer) in modern life. Jimmy and James don’t sugarcoat office dynamics and the dysfunction that can come with them. Rather, they describe the issues plainly and astutely, all to help us navigate them a little more easily.

A list of some of the episodes will give you a flavour of Jimmy and James’ mildly iconoclastic approach:

  • Why Most Workplace Communication Fails
  • Everything We Get Wrong About High Performers
  • Why Performance Reviews Make Companies Worse (And What Actually Works)
  • Why Nothing Ever Changes at Work

My favourite episode so far was Everything at Work is Really About Status. It was riveting:

In this eye-opening episode, Jimmy and James are joined by Ceri Newton-Sargunar — neuroscientist, chaos theorist and self-proclaimed “ologist” — to dissect how our primal need for status (success, power or virtue) shapes behaviour, from boardroom power plays to the quiet despair of middle managers.

This episode, much like author Will Storr’s book The Status Game, gives you an organizing idea to see and appreciate the often-hidden structure of working life and how it may affect workplaces, for better and worse. Listening to Jimmy, James and Ceri in this episode, I not only appreciated the hidden role of status in office dynamics but also in my own life and, of course, in my working life.

A Job Done Well is a very listenable podcast, especially if you’re interested in everything from office politics, process, strategy, managerial realities and how to better communicate your ideas to your teams or even those you answer to. Highly recommended.

If there’s a podcast or other resource you feel may help members like you with their working lives, please do let us know! 

 

Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-job-done-well-for-managers-caught-in-the-middle/id1713693132

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@Ajobdonewell