Applying psychology to shape workplace culture

When Sasha D’Arcy was in high school, she had a friend whose mother was a clinical psychologist. Hearing her talk about her career around the dinner table, Sasha knew psychology was the right path for her.  

'She was a clinical psychologist who worked a lot with children. So that kind of scoped out what I thought psychology was,' she says.

Despite entering her studies with a very clinical mindset, Sasha went on to learn that psychology offered a much broader range of career options than she first realised.

Sasha remained laser-focus on a clinical pathway until halfway through her honours, when she had a realisation that changed the course of her career.  

'That’s leaving it pretty late, to be honest. At that point most people are putting together their masters applications. But by then I’d had quite a lot of clinical work experience and I realised, "I actually don't think I can do this full time".'

Sasha had worked for four years during her studies as a receptionist for the same friend’s mother who’d first inspired her to pursue psychology. During that time she also trained as a behavioural therapist, seeing children at the clinic and providing behavioural support in homes and schools.  

'I just loved it. But I was thinking about my personality – very emotional, very concerned with other people's needs. I had thought that would make for a great psychologist, but what I was learning along the way was that a great psychologist is actually someone who has great boundaries and can separate from their clients and can switch off.'

'I didn't have that kind of resilience yet in my life. I felt very passionate about it. I loved the content and the people that I got to work with in that space, but it just wasn’t sustainable for me at that point.' 

So, with her honours supervisor’s help, Sasha started to explore the different types of roles available for psychologists and what their day-to-day jobs looked like.  

'I went around and spoke to as many people as I could in all different professions of psychology – and I ended up landing on organisational psychology. Not because it sounded the most exciting to me, but it sounded like it made sense, and it would be sustainable.'  

'It's a little sad because I feel like if more information had been out there about organisational psychology, I probably would have gotten more excited about it!'

Sasha enrolled in the Master of Psychology (Organisational) at Deakin, where she dove head-on into her new chosen specialty.

'I adored all the academics who taught me. Hearing about their lives and what they'd done really excited me. Everyone that was in the course was brilliant. I was looking around and I was like, "these are such inspiring people, they’re so whip smart and they're great at talking to people". I definitely felt like I was in the right place.'

But having made such a last-minute switch from a clinical focus, there were doubts for Sasha to manage as well.

'The course covers everything from data and analytics to counselling intervention. I loved the units on wellbeing, counselling, coaching, intervention, and facilitation. Those are me in my zone – it didn’t even feel like studying. But some of the units on stats and frameworks – the stuff you need to set your foundation – scared me a little.

What I've realised now is the course is intentionally so broad because organisational psychology is so broad. You're never going to work across every single area, and you're never going to love every single part of it. That's been both my experience and my peers’ experience.'

Following a three-year stint in consulting after completion of her masters, Sasha began working as an organisational psychologist in Medibank’s People Science team.

'We're undergoing a big culture change as a business and we're trying to bring a lot more creativity, joy and health to our workplace and workplaces everywhere. We want to be the healthiest workplace in Australia by 2030.'

With around 4,000 employees in a range of different roles – including nurses, call centre employees, corporate workers and sales staff – Medibank is a business with diverse opportunities for an organisational psychologist.

Sasha’s role focuses on culture transformation, including a four-day work week experiment.