Is training really corporate sludge?

Eat Sleep Work Repeat - better workplace culture

Bruce Daisley

Management, Workplace Culture, Science, Work, Business, Culture, Social Sciences

4.7 • 989 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Most company training is a waste of time that turns firms into bureaucratic sludge holes. That’s roughly the conclusion of today’s episode which is a conversation with Andre Spicer and Mats Alvesson

They have a new book out The Art of Less. Andre has been a guest a few times before - way back in 2018. This podcast is old. In 2018 this podcast was ahead of Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO at the top of the podcast charts. (Andre talking about open plan offices)

The idea that much of what companies do is related to their self identity, what the company aspires to be in the world - with the end result that it doesn’t achieve these things.

Things we discuss:

'The Death of the Corporate Job'
how 'initiative-itis' is dragging down organisations
how training is corporate sludge that doesn't achieve its goals
corporate culture as an act of 'grandiosity'

Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today's episode is brought to you with Delivery for Work. Do you know what perk matters most to teams?
0:05.3	Yep, it's great food. No one knows this better than Delivery for Work, the simple food solution for your business.
0:11.6	Food's one of the top perks employees ask for, and they'd rather have a delivery than a canteen.
0:15.5	In fact, research from Delivery for Work found office food delivery is three times more popular than unsight catering.
0:23.1	With thousands of restaurants to choose from, it's easy to keep everyone happy.
0:26.7	Team lunches, late night meals, office events, even pantry supplies.
0:31.1	And it couldn't be simpler.
0:32.3	Businesses love it because you can set up meal allowances in minutes.
0:35.8	Let employees order on the Deliveroo app they already use
0:39.3	and track everything in one clear dashboard.
0:42.7	The best part?
0:43.7	No chasing receipts.
0:45.2	Just one simple monthly invoice.
0:47.9	Join over 10,000 companies already giving their teams the perk they really want with Deliveroo for Work.
0:53.4	Learn more at work.
0:54.7	org.deliveroo.co.com.uk. That's work.deliveroo.com.com.
1:05.0	This is Eatersleep Workerfe. It's a podcast about workplace culture.
1:08.9	Hello, I'm Bruce Daisley. Most company training is a waste of time that turns firms into bureaucratic sludge holes.
1:16.8	That's roughly the conclusion of today's conversation,
1:19.9	which is a discussion with Andre Spicer and Matt Alverson.
1:24.4	They've got a new book out called The Art of Less.
1:29.1	Andre's been a guest a few times before, actually, way back in 2017, I think he was an episode, guests twice. This podcast is well old.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bruce Daisley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bruce Daisley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.