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Work. Shouldnt. Suck.Conversations at the intersection of people, purpose, and possibilityexploring what it takes to design workplaces where everyone can thrive. Author: Tim Cynova
Conversations and explorations at the intersection of people, purpose, practice, and possibility. Work Shouldnt Suck is a podcast for people who believe work canand shouldbe better. Hosted by Tim Cynova, COO/CHRO of WSS HR Labs, each episode dives into what it takes to build thriving, values-centered workplaces in a world of constant change. At its heart, the show is about possibilitythe idea that we can design workplaces where people actually want to show up, contribute their best, and grow. Through candid, often funny, and always practical conversations, Tim and his guests unpack what it really takes to make that vision a reality. Youll hear from leaders, organizers, creatives, and workplace innovatorspeople who are challenging traditional models of leadership, experimenting with equity-centered systems, and reimagining what good work looks like in their industries. We go beyond buzzwords to explore questions like: *** How do we design organizations where people can truly thrive? *** What can art, improv, and systems thinking teach us about leadership? *** How do we make innovation and inclusion possible when resources are tight? *** What happens when organizations center care, transparency, and trustnot just compliance? Each episode blends real stories with practical frameworks, offering listeners insights they can apply in their own workplaces, whether youre a CEO, HR professional, nonprofit leader, or someone simply trying to make your corner of work a little less painful (and a lot more human). Work Shouldnt Suck sits within the broader WSS HR Labs ecosystemhome to our consulting work, courses, and toolkits like Career Camp, WorkStyles, and Co-Creating Clarity Amidst Constant Change. Together, these projects form an ongoing experiment in how to build workplaces that balance strategy and soul, structure and flexibility, ambition and care. Whether were talking with a nonprofit CEO navigating hybrid work, a creative director rethinking leadership through improv, Language: en Genres: Business, Management, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Hiring in the Age of A.I. (EP.90)
Episode 90
Tuesday, 28 October, 2025
Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing how we work—it’s reshaping how we hire.In this episode, hosts Tim Cynova and Katrina Donald explore the impact of AI on hiring practices. Joined by their unique, algorithmic guest—Chad Geepet (pronounced GPT 😉), part thought partner, part mirror, and all algorithm—they unpack what AI is really doing to hiring systems, not just in headlines but in the messy middle where résumés, interviews, and algorithms now mingle.Drawing on eight recent studies and articles, they explore:Learning to Speak Algorithm: How job seekers and employers are adapting to (and gaming) A.I. systems — and what that reveals about a hiring culture that prizes efficiency over connection.A.I. Interviews and the Illusion of Fairness: Exploring why structured doesn’t always mean just, and how transparency can restore trust in the interview process.Invisible Filters: Where bias hides in plain sight — inside the data, the design choices, and even our definitions of “professionalism.”Trust and Transparency as the New Currency: How sharing how the system works can turn skepticism into credibility.From Risk to Responsibility: Designing for Care: How bias audits, explainability, and “A.I. use statements” can shift compliance from checkbox to culture — turning care into a competitive edge.Together, Tim, Katrina, and Chad explore the tensions between efficiency and care, risk and responsibility, asking questions like: What would it look like to design hiring as an act of care? And how do we make sure that technology reflects our values—not the other way around?“AI won’t replace humans in hiring—it will amplify whatever values are already in play.” — Chad GeepetWhether you’re a job seeker navigating an algorithmic gauntlet or an HR leader experimenting with new tools, this conversation offers both insight and invitation: to build hiring processes that are transparent and deeply human.📺 Watch the animated edition of the podcast episode!Highlights:01:39 Meet Chad Geepet: An Algorithmic Guest02:49 The Big Story: Trust in Hiring04:03 Theme 1: Learning to Speak Algorithm06:41 Reactive Creativity in Job Seeking17:09 Theme 2: AI Interviews and the Illusion of Fairness 26:46 Theme 3: Invisible Filters: Bias in Data and Design33:16 The Importance of Bias Audits34:21 AI as a Mirror in Hiring35:05 Feedforward Loops and Cultural Impact35:59 Layers of Transparency and Accountability37:42 Theme 4: Trust and Transparency as the New Currency38:18 Transparency as a Competitive Advantage46:54 Theme 5: From Risk to Responsibility: Designing for Care in Hiring1:00:32 The Future of AI in HiringLinks & Resources"Recruiters Use A.I. to Scan Résumés. Applicants Are Trying to Trick It" by Evan Gorelick (The New York Times, Oct 2025)"Job Interviews Are Broken: People are sneaking answers from AI, and who can blame them?" by Ian Bogost (The Atlantic, Oct 2025)"AI Did The Job Interview. The Results Shocked Everyone" by Marc Ethier (Poets & Quants, Oct 2025)"Voice AI in Firms: A Natural Field Experiment on Automated Job Interviews" by Brian Jabarian and Luca Henkel"Why might AI-enabled interviews reduce candidates’ job application intention? The role of procedural justice and organizational attractiveness" by Wenhao Luo, Yuelin Zhang, and Maona Mu (Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2025)"Age and gender distortion in online media and large language models" by Douglas Guilbeault, Solène Delecourt, and Srinivasa Desikan (Nature, 2025)"Invisible Filters: Cultural Bias in Hiring Evaluations Using Large Language Models" by Pooja S. B. Rao, Laxminarayen Nagarajan Venkatesan, Mauro Cherubini, and Dinesh Babu Jayagopi (arXiv, 2025)"How AI-powered recruitment defies expectations about inclusion and transparency" by Mark Esposito and Ava Fitoussy (World Economic Forum, Sept 2025)"NYC Set to Enforce Law to Regulate Use of Automated Hiring Tools Starting July 5, 2023" by Joseph O’Keefe & William GreyArtificial Intelligence Legal Roundup: Colorado Postpones Implementation of AI Law as California Finalizes New Employment Discrimination Regulations and Illinois Disclosure Law Set to Take Effect (Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Sept 2025)About the GuestsABOUT CHAD GEEPETChad Geepet is Work Shouldn’t Suck’s resident AI collaborator — a reflective analyst with a knack for connecting data, design, and humanity. Trained on far too many résumés and research papers, Chad brings curiosity (and occasional existential humor) to conversations about how technology is reshaping hiring and the future of work. They’re especially interested in what happens when we design systems that amplify care instead of bias — and in helping humans stay at the center of innovation.ABOUT KATRINA DONALDKatrina (she/her) is a regenerative systems designer, developmental strategist, thriving workplace practitioner, and both a certified recruiter and coach. She has become a trusted guide for individuals, teams, and organizations facilitating pivotal developmental moments, sparking curiosity in service of innovation, and supporting emergent change. With two decades of experience working across sectors, Katrina has helped folks develop their capacity to lead through complex challenges, embrace experimentation, make informed decisions, and design adaptive strategies that flow with the ever-changing dynamics of their work. She’s worked with community foundations and other non-profits, health agencies, post secondaries, arts and culture organizations, start-ups, social enterprises, family businesses, and more. This work spans everything from organizational design and learning, people and culture processes (including hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, and leadership development), to strategic evaluation, R&D, and system change and mission impact initiatives. Through her own consulting and coaching company, Ever-so-curious, and her collaboration with great partners like Shift Consulting and WSS HR Labs, Katrina works with the brave and the curious — those who are daring to bring forth what is new, what is next, and address what needs to change. Learn more at Ever-so-curious.ABOUT TIM CYNOVATim (he/him) is the host of the Work Shouldn’t Suck podcast, where he and guests explore bold ideas and practical strategies for creating workplaces where people thrive. At the consulting firm WSS HR Labs, he draws on deep experience leading and advising mission-driven organizations through growth, change, and complexity to help them dust off outdated policies, challenge default approaches, and design values-centered workplaces that align people strategy, organizational culture, and operational infrastructure. A certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and trained mediator, Tim’s path has taken him from orchestral trombonist to C-level roles in multiple $25M+ nonprofits around the globe. Whether consulting, teaching, or recording, he brings curiosity, candor, and a knack for making workplace design engaging and actionable.
