August 4, 2025 • 4 mins
White-collar workers will be familiar with workplace annoyances - including unnecessary meetings, corporate acronyms and an overuse of LinkedIn - and it's all been observed by a pair of Aussie comedians.
The duo put modern workplace culture under the microscope in their book - 'Wankernomics'.
Co-author James Schloeffel says he's spent a long time in the corporate world and he's used this book to discuss the issues he's observed over the years.
"But I think, also, it's a way for other people to have that therapy session too. It is quite cathartic, I think, reading this book."
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you work in a white collar workplace, the chances
are that you have put up with more than your
fair share of corporate bs. You know what I mean,
The meetings that could have been emails, the stupid acronyms,
the mission statements, the LinkedIn. A couple of ossie comedians
have put together a highly tongue in cheek guide on
how to navigate modern office culture. Kids warning, it's called
Wankonomics the book. One of the authors is James Schleffel. Hi, James, Hi,
(00:24):
how are you well? Thank you very much? So is
the idea here that you can basically rise through the
corporate will just by using stupid acronyms and jargon and
looking like you know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, it's actually the only way that you can rise
through the corporate ranks, because look, it doesn't matter how
smart you are, Like you could have a PhD in
theoretical chemistry, but you're just not going to be matched
to the person in middle management who has an omni
channel thought leadership idiation solution that is going to cascade
to SLT for feedback. So this kind of language is
(00:55):
the key to surviving, if not thriving, in the corporate environment.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I mean you sound you know what you're talking about.
Is this based on some real world experience or just
you've been observing this?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It is based in real world experience. I did work
in the corporate world for a long long time, and look,
in many ways, Wankonomics is a bit of a therapy
session for me. It's a way for me to work
through the issues that I've built up over the years.
But I think also too, it's a way for other
people to have that therapy session too. It is quite cathartic.
(01:25):
I think reading this book, what is the evil.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Role that LinkedIn plays here?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well? Look, LinkedIn is a funny place, isn't. It's actually
my favorite social media platform because it's this weird place
where everyone is inexplicably excited about everything, like you know
what I mean. Like, it doesn't matter how mundane someone's
day has been, they will talk about their little achievements
at work, as with the excitement levels that they would
(01:54):
usually only muster when they're on class A drugs. So
you know, even if you've just you've just finished a report,
you've sent out a document, you need to be thrilled
or excited or ecstatic about it. That's what LinkedIn is.
It's a funny place.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It feels to me like it's a very exclusive club
of people. Mean, even though it's very accessible, it's a
very exclusive club of people. Or at least they like
to think they're exclusive and special for using LinkedIn, don't they.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, you've got to make yourself sounds special. But that's
the key to it. So look, you would never say
something like on LinkedIn that you maybe worked in a
bar when you were at university. You would say that
you managed a portfolio of liquid assets. You know, that's
the kind of that's the kind of wankery you need
on LinkedIn to give those kind of minor accomplishments. Give
(02:42):
them a bit of a bit of a push, make
them sound like they's something special.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So what's the proportion do you reckon of, as you
call it, whankory? What proportion of whankory versus actual ability
do you need in order to succeed?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, here's the funny thing, right, So we've done some search, Sorry,
we've made up some research that has shown that there's
about twenty percent of people in any given workplace that
have absolutely no idea what they're doing, totally out of
their depth. And we've all seen these people. They're usually
in senior management positions, and so they will use these
(03:18):
long winded words, overly complex sentences to give the impression
that they know what they're doing, because like instead of
saying I'm incompetent, you would say something like there are
a lot of moving parts, and then all of a sudden,
everyone thinks that you're very, very clever. The problem is, though,
the language of that twenty percent then very quickly spreads
(03:39):
to the other eighty percent, a bit like how a
virus spreads. I mean, it's incredibly infectious because you could
have someone saying a phrase like circle back at the
start of a meeting, and by the end of the
meeting that three or four people are saying circle back,
and then by the end of the week the entire
office is speaking like that. So it spreads incredibly quickly,
(04:00):
and unfortunately there's no vaccine for it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
James, thank you very much. Appreciate your time, very very much,
and your mutual hatred. Of our mutual hatred, I suppose
of Lincoln James Schliffel, who was one of the authors
of Wangkonomics. If you want to get it, you could
just go to the website wanconomics dot com and it'll
tell
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You where for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
If you work in a white collar workplace, the chances
are that you have put up with more than your
fair share of corporate bs. You know what I mean,
The meetings that could have been emails, the stupid acronyms,
the mission statements, the LinkedIn. A couple of ossie comedians
have put together a highly tongue in cheek guide on
how to navigate modern office culture. Kids warning, it's called
Wankonomics the book. One of the authors is James Schleffel. Hi, James, Hi,
(00:24):
how are you well? Thank you very much? So is
the idea here that you can basically rise through the
corporate will just by using stupid acronyms and jargon and
looking like you know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, it's actually the only way that you can rise
through the corporate ranks, because look, it doesn't matter how
smart you are, Like you could have a PhD in
theoretical chemistry, but you're just not going to be matched
to the person in middle management who has an omni
channel thought leadership idiation solution that is going to cascade
to SLT for feedback. So this kind of language is
(00:55):
the key to surviving, if not thriving, in the corporate environment.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I mean you sound you know what you're talking about.
Is this based on some real world experience or just
you've been observing this?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It is based in real world experience. I did work
in the corporate world for a long long time, and look,
in many ways, Wankonomics is a bit of a therapy
session for me. It's a way for me to work
through the issues that I've built up over the years.
But I think also too, it's a way for other
people to have that therapy session too. It is quite cathartic.
(01:25):
I think reading this book, what is the evil.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Role that LinkedIn plays here?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well? Look, LinkedIn is a funny place, isn't. It's actually
my favorite social media platform because it's this weird place
where everyone is inexplicably excited about everything, like you know
what I mean. Like, it doesn't matter how mundane someone's
day has been, they will talk about their little achievements
at work, as with the excitement levels that they would
(01:54):
usually only muster when they're on class A drugs. So
you know, even if you've just you've just finished a report,
you've sent out a document, you need to be thrilled
or excited or ecstatic about it. That's what LinkedIn is.
It's a funny place.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
It feels to me like it's a very exclusive club
of people. Mean, even though it's very accessible, it's a
very exclusive club of people. Or at least they like
to think they're exclusive and special for using LinkedIn, don't they.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, you've got to make yourself sounds special. But that's
the key to it. So look, you would never say
something like on LinkedIn that you maybe worked in a
bar when you were at university. You would say that
you managed a portfolio of liquid assets. You know, that's
the kind of that's the kind of wankery you need
on LinkedIn to give those kind of minor accomplishments. Give
(02:42):
them a bit of a bit of a push, make
them sound like they's something special.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So what's the proportion do you reckon of, as you
call it, whankory? What proportion of whankory versus actual ability
do you need in order to succeed?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, here's the funny thing, right, So we've done some search, Sorry,
we've made up some research that has shown that there's
about twenty percent of people in any given workplace that
have absolutely no idea what they're doing, totally out of
their depth. And we've all seen these people. They're usually
in senior management positions, and so they will use these
(03:18):
long winded words, overly complex sentences to give the impression
that they know what they're doing, because like instead of
saying I'm incompetent, you would say something like there are
a lot of moving parts, and then all of a sudden,
everyone thinks that you're very, very clever. The problem is, though,
the language of that twenty percent then very quickly spreads
(03:39):
to the other eighty percent, a bit like how a
virus spreads. I mean, it's incredibly infectious because you could
have someone saying a phrase like circle back at the
start of a meeting, and by the end of the
meeting that three or four people are saying circle back,
and then by the end of the week the entire
office is speaking like that. So it spreads incredibly quickly,
(04:00):
and unfortunately there's no vaccine for it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
James, thank you very much. Appreciate your time, very very much,
and your mutual hatred. Of our mutual hatred, I suppose
of Lincoln James Schliffel, who was one of the authors
of Wangkonomics. If you want to get it, you could
just go to the website wanconomics dot com and it'll
tell
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You where for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.