Eurofound Talks
Eurofound Talks
Podcast episode
Episode 1
1 December 2021

Sustainable work

Never before have we had so much discussion about the way we work, the future of work and how this will impact our lives and those of the next generation. COVID-19 turned everything upside down as we have seen from the results of our unique pan-European Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey and we are still striving to make sense of the new hybrid, blended work experience. Will this in fact mean we can finally work longer and better while still maintaining a good quality of life? This podcast takes a deep dive into the opportunities and challenges associated with what we call ‘sustainable work’.

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Mary McCaughey

Head of Unit
Information and Communication

Mary McCaughey is Head of Information and Communication in Eurofound. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and the College of Europe, Bruges, she started work in Brussels with Europolitics and the Wall Street Journal Europe. She worked with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) in South Africa during the country’s transition to democracy, and in 1998 she took up the post of spokesperson with the Delegation of the European Union in Pretoria, heading up its press and information department during the negotiation of the EU–South Africa free trade agreement. Following the end of the Kosovo War, she worked as a communications consultant for the European Agency for Reconstruction in Serbia. She took up the post of Editor-in-Chief in Eurofound in 2003.

Barbara Gerstenberger

​Head of Unit
Working life research

Barbara Gerstenberger is Head of the Working Life unit at Eurofound. In this role, she coordinates the research teams investigating job quality in Europe based on the European Working Conditions Survey and industrial relations in the EU. She joined Eurofound in 2001 as a research manager in the then newly established European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC). In 2007, she moved to Eurofound’s Information and Communication unit as Head of Communication Products, before being appointed Coordinator in the Directorate in 2011. Previously, she worked as senior research officer in the European Metalworkers’ Federation in Brussels. A graduate in political science from Hamburg University, she completed a Master's degree in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

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Mary McCaughey
Marianna Baggio
Aleksandra Kazmierczak
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European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
The tripartite EU agency providing knowledge to assist in the development of better social, employment and work-related policies