Have you ever wondered what it’s really like to work, travel, and connect across America?

In this solo episode of the Happier at Work podcast, Aoife O'Brien returns from a five-and-a-half-week US book tour with eye-opening reflections on American culture, workplace mindsets, and what unites us all as humans. She shares her honest observations on wealth disparities, the vastness of the country, technological innovations, and how open people in the US are to new connections, including stories that led to unexpected opportunities and meaningful relationships.

Aoife also digs into the universality of workplace concerns, revealing that despite cultural and political differences, we all seek security, connection, and a sense of purpose at work.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

• The “pay it forward” culture that supports newcomers and fosters supportive professional communities.
• Insights into the variety of political opinions across states and how people navigate sharing their views.
• Universal workplace concerns: job security, team support, personal growth, and the impact of AI on work.
• The realisation that challenges around purpose, connection, and security are not unique to any one country, they’re truly shared human experiences.

Related Topics Covered:

Human Openness & Connection, Technology, Engagement

Connect with Aoife O’Brien | Host of Happier at Work®:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Related Episodes You’ll Love:

Episode 228: Fostering Genuine Curiosity and Building Trust at Work with Julie Pham.

About Happier at Work®

Happier at Work® is the podcast for business leaders who want to create meaningful, human-centric workplaces. Hosted by Aoife O’Brien, the show explores leadership, career clarity, imposter syndrome, workplace culture, and employee engagement — helping you and your team thrive.

If you enjoy podcasts like WorkLife with Adam Grant, The Happiness Lab, or Squiggly Careers, you’ll love Happier at Work®.

Editing by Amanda Fitzgerald.

Website: https://happieratwork.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HappierAtWorkHQ

Mentioned in this episode:

Thriving Talent book - out now

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I'm back now from a five and a half week book tour around the US with thriving talent and one of the big questions that people ask me is, what did I learn while I was there? This is the Happier at Work podcast. I'm Aoife o' Brien and today I'm going to share about my observations and some of the things that I saw in America that were maybe a little bit different than expected or some of the things that I really enjoy. Enjoyed. So what are the learnings that I took away? If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to get involved in the conversation. I'm most active over on LinkedIn, so if we're not connected there, feel free to connect with me there. You can also drop a comment below or don't forget to leave a rating or a review on your favorite podcast platform. One of the first things I wanted to talk about was the idea of wealth and poverty. For, for me, the wealth in America is just enormous.

Like, there is so much wealth there and there's so much disparity between the wealthy and the poor. So in New York, for example, there were people driving around in black SUVs. I know, like, that was something that really stuck with me, that there was a lot of that going on. There was also a lot of homeless people. I didn't notice it so much in New York, but in other cities for sure. People coming up to your cars begging for money, people doing drugs on the streets. Like, the discrepancy or the disparity between the wealthy and the poor was very, very obvious from a wealth perspective. No one openly shared what their salaries were, but they, they really hinted.

And I got to see people's homes, inside people's homes. And seeing that is, you know, that's a kind of a demonstration of wealth, isn't it? And seeing the cars that people were driving as well. So that was one of the big things, was the wealth and specifically the kind of the discrepancy, like I say, between the wealthy and the not so wealthy. These big contrasts, just living side by side, which I thought was an interesting thing to see. The second thing I want to talk about is the sheer scale. So I decided for this trip that I was going to do five and a half weeks. I think it started out as a month, but it turned into five and a half weeks. So I was going to be doing five and a half weeks around America.

And the reason for doing such a long trip was because America is so far away. So to get to New York, I think it was six hours and 40 minutes to get home from LA. It was about 10 hours, maybe just shy of 10 hours. And I traveled from New York to Philadelphia, to Boston, to Chicago, to Austin, to Portland, to Seattle, to San Francisco and to la. And then I flew home from la. So the sheer size of the country, I kind of forgot just how big it was. And I probably wouldn't do such a long trip again. I would go either east coast or west coast or south or Midwest or maybe combine the Midwest and the south together.

But anyone who's been to America, you know the food portion sizes, the food portions are huge. I was really lucky to be taken around in Texas. And we visited this. I'm not sure how to explain it exactly, but it's like a truck stop, gas station, gigantic supermarket all rolled into one. It's called bookies. It's spelled B, U, C, E, E S Bookies. And it's this character and they have the character going around as well, like kind of in the story. He'd get your picture taken with him and it was just huge, like the, the sheer scale.

But I think that's Texas for you. Texas State. Like it's just a huge state. So everything there is extra portion sized. I want to talk about the technology as well. So I had the opportunity to take a Waymo, which was, I must say, really cool. I don't know whether I would have done it on my own. I did it with a friend and I'm not sure would I have been brave enough to actually do it by myself.

But yeah, Waymo is basically everywhere in San Francisco. It was really cool, really interesting and kind of a little bit scary as well to see, see a car basically driving itself, but you kind of get used to it. So they were everywhere in San Francisco. I saw some of them in la. Not as many as in San Francisco, but San Francisco is pretty covered with Waymo's. You'll see them driving around the place I was staying. They were coming in and out of the garage right beside us, like the parking garage, as they say in America. So yeah, Waymo, Uber, everywhere.

Much more so than I think in Europe and Ireland certainly like Ireland were still kind of on taxis and using taxi apps and things like that. They seem to have an app for everything. And there's always this search for convenience, for efficiency, for how to do things better, more effectively, cheaper. There's always this kind of drive, which I think is really interesting. I want to talk as well about the people. So what I found was that people were so friendly I feel like America, and maybe New York in particular, there's this perception that people are quite rude. I've never found that with New York. And by the way, New York is still my favorite city ever.

I would love to live there someday. I just love it there. I just think it's brilliant. I found just strangers everywhere so willing to strike up a conversation or to reciprocate if I struck up a conversation with someone else. They're so open to connecting, and I mean that in the literal sense. So connecting on LinkedIn, LinkedIn and then actually meeting up in person for a coffee with someone who you've just connected with. They were so open to do that. I feel like there was so much more access to quite senior people that I had in America than I would have get access to in Ireland even.

So just that openness to connect with people I thought was really, really interesting. So people offering recommendations, people connecting me with other people then as well, like, like a chain. And that resulted in me attending an amazing breakfast for senior Irish people in New York and getting to meet with those senior Irish people, which is really amazing. It also led me to being featured in Forbes. So one of my past podcast guests, Julie Pham, she connected me with one of her contacts who's a Forbes contributor. We met up in person in Seattle and. And I sent a copy of the book to her and she turned that into a Forbes article and was basically, yeah, saying really positive things about the Thriving Talent book, which is amazing. All came from connections that I had.

And so they are really open to connecting you on with other people as well, which I think is such a nice thing to do. There's a real pay it forward culture as well. And interestingly, you know, and again, this is another chain. I was thinking back to how I connected with this person and it kind of goes back maybe five people. So one person connected me with another person who connected me with another person who connected me with someone else who then told me this story. So he's an Irish man, he owns a business in Chicago. And he said when he first came to Chicago, he got such an immense amount of support, especially from the Irish community. He's always really willing to help other people who arrive from Ireland.

And he was giving 50 people J1 opportunity to work in his business as well, which I think is incredible. So that whole thing of paying it forward, thinking I got this help, who can I help? Or you might even think I haven't got that level of help, but how do I make that different for other people? There is such that attitude of paying it forward, helping that next generation, helping other people who are trying to do good things in the world. The third theme then, I think, is people. We're all just human, and we're all just trying to figure things out. So in relation to politics, people were quite open about their political opinions. All of the places that I went were quite liberal places. But what I learned by going there was in some of those states, you go outside into the countryside rather than being in the big cities, city, and you find yourself in more conservative territory. And I didn't really know that.

I kind of knew the red states and the blue states and things like that. I wasn't aware that if you kind of go out a little bit further, you might run into a bit more conservativism on the political opinions. I think some people were a bit more guarded and didn't share unless they felt it was safe to do so. But with a lot of people, they were quite open. And this, you know, I'm thinking back to some conversations I had with Uber drivers, for example. They have an opinion about. About what caused what and what people should do and what we should do next. And, you know, people have differing opinions about how the political realm is.

And I think, for me, it's very divided. And that's something that, you know, we can see that from outside of America. You don't have to be in America to see how divided it is. But I think it's really interesting, the opinions that people have about how that came about and what the solution is and how it compares with Europe and the politics in Europe, for example. I think when it comes to careers and work, that's where it got quite interesting. People are concerned for themselves, but also for other people within their teams as well. Like I say, it comes back to this idea of being human. So we're thinking about, well, what does that mean for me? What does my progression look like? Am I enjoying the work that I'm doing? Is it different to where I came from? How can I add value? How can I make sure that my team feels supported as well? How do I get along better with my colleagues? All of these kind of questions came up as well as.

And this wasn't always surfaced, but the idea that AI is taking our jobs, or AI is taking over, or I'm using AI, or I'm training AI basically to do my job, what does that mean for me in the future? So those conversations didn't always come to the surface, but I was reminded of a conversation that I had on episode 300 of the podcast around AI. And just because we can doesn't mean that we should. So if we can use AI for something like, should we actually be doing it, or what does that mean for the humans and job creation and providing value? That really brings me on to the final point, and that is that the problems that I saw are. Are pretty universal. Like there's not something unique about America. I think you can really boil it down. They have, yeah, maybe a different accent. They think I have a different and funny accent as well.

The political system is different. They have different kind of lifestyle. And again, that differs within America depending on where you are. But we. We all have that same underlying concern for ourselves and for the. Our loved ones, for our teens, for those around us. And that is the idea of feeling secure in what it is I'm doing. Will I have a job here this time next year? Am I safe here? Things like finding a sense of purpose, Am I really living up to my purpose? Am I doing something that is impactful? Am I contributing positively to the world, looking for opportunities? How can I grow? How can I expand what I'm doing? How could.

How can I reach my potential? And how can I capitalize on that feeling, this sense of connection with other people? So, you know, that was a big theme, working with great people on important problems. And great will differ depending on who you speak to, but it is that sense of connection. And, you know, the actual definition may differ from, like I say, differ from person to person, but it really boils down to finding those right fit people for you. So I think my conclusion on America is the trip was absolutely well worth it to make such a huge difference. Being on the ground, meeting people physically, in person, I think it just makes all the difference for building relationships, for showing that you're actually serious about building something, you know, about growing, about the impact that you're going to have. I think it was really, really important from that perspective. And like I said, I think the problems that I experienced are, or that I heard about, that people shared with me were the kind of problems that are universal. So it's not something that is unique.

It's. They're shared problems that we have as humans. And I think we can come together to solve those problems as well. I think at the end of the day, we're all just human. We're here, we're doing our best. We're concerned for ourselves. We're concerned for those other people around us as well. And we want to have an impact on the world and we want to do the right thing.

I would love to hear your thoughts on my experience of America. Is there something that you agree with? Something that you disagree with? Something that you've seen that's completely different? I would love to know. Do get involved in the conversation. As I mentioned, I'm Most active on LinkedIn, but also feel free to connect by leaving a comment or a rating or a review on your favorite platform.