All the pings and buzzes of the office make it difficult to get anything done—let alone our best, most creative work. But the solution is not a digital detox. There are ways to overcome creativity blocks at work that don't involve an off-the-grid hermit lifestyle. Francesca and Rebecca discuss how to do their best, most creative work in a world that makes it hard to take the time to do deep thinking. Instead of a detox, their guest Manoush Zomorodi, author of the book "Bored and Brilliant," offe...
Oct 04, 2017•33 min
Francesca and Rebecca examine the increasingly tenuous relationship between workers and companies. Lots of people in the gig economy, contract workers, and even salaried employees enter a system that promises freedom from corporate America but doesn’t offer much in the way of comfort and advancement. Guest Rick Wartzman, author of “The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America” explains about how we got to this point. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Sep 27, 2017•29 min
One of the unfortunate realities of office life is having to work with people you don’t like. How do you deal with having to do your job alongside a bona-fide work jerk? Rebecca and Francesca talk to Robert Sutton, author of the No Asshole Rule and the Asshole Survival Guide about the best coping strategies for working with the worst of the workplace. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 20, 2017•32 min
Silicon Valley types like to say the quality of your work is all that matters, and good ideas rise to the top, no matter whom they come from. But why do the people who rise to the top in a meritocracy tend to be the ones with all the advantages? Francesca and Rebecca talk to Ryan Carson, the chief executive officer of Treehouse Island Inc., a coding school, about why he once believed in meritocracy and then—suddenly—didn’t. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Sep 13, 2017•28 min
We live in politically polarized times, and those tensions are seeping into the workplace in all sorts of ways. In liberal enclaves like Silicon Valley, conservatives feel isolated and judged at the office. People on the other end of the spectrum feel attacked by the administration's policies—and have no problem telling their bosses their views. For some, the increased political chatter in the office has led to increased hostility and stress. And it can have even more extreme consequences: The w...
Sep 06, 2017•31 min
People just starting out in their careers get one piece of big advice: Find a mentor. And that’s true—research has found the many benefits of having a career guru. But finding the right person often feels stressful and forced. Instead of getting anxious about finding that special someone, it’s time rethink the idea of mentors. Francesca and Rebecca talk to Phyllis Korkki, the executive editor of the story-telling app Hooked, about how to seek out unconventional mentors. See omnystudio.com/listen...
Aug 30, 2017•28 min
In 2015, Millennials became the biggest generation in the American workforce. Last year, they overtook Boomers as the biggest generation overall in the U.S. These changing demographics have led to some tension at work for people both old and young. Rebecca and Francesca speak with Karen Wickre, a 66-year-old Silicon Valley veteran, about what it’s like to work among the youngs. We can all learn to get along! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Aug 23, 2017•26 min
Maybe you're dying to change careers—or being forced to because your job is going to a robot—but it just seems impossible to start over in a new field. There might be a better way. Francesca and Rebecca look at the skills-based approach to job switching; a way to assess what unrelated jobs may be unexpectedly similar to yours. We talk to Claire Cain Miller, a New York Times reporter who embarked on a major data study to cross-reference thousands of skills and jobs. See omnystudio.com/listener fo...
Aug 16, 2017•29 min
Workplaces can be the perfect breeding ground for crushes, but there are major downsides to getting romantic with colleagues. Francesca and guest host Jenny Kaplan talk to author and advice columnist Cheryl Strayed about the advice she gives lovelorn workers—and how to handle yourself when friendships at work grow into something more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Aug 09, 2017•29 min
Rebecca and Francesca head to an office that lets everyone control their own desk temperature using a phone app. We'll see if it's possible to resolve the annual office air conditioning wars, or whether someone's always doomed to be uncomfortable. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Aug 02, 2017•18 min
Is there anything more annoying than coworkers who interrupt you? Research has shown that women get interrupted more than men. Author and Professor Chris Karpowitz talks to Francesca and Rebecca about how that affects the kinds of conversations and decisions that happen at companies, and what can be done about it. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 26, 2017•32 min
A big part of our work lives takes place not in the office, but instead stuck in traffic or on a crowded train en route to and from our jobs. The average American spends 25 minutes getting to work, up from 21.7 minutes in 1980—and people living in major metropolitan areas have it much worse. We are spending a lot of time shuttling between work and home. These increasingly long rides to work are stressful, frustrating and bad for our health and the economy. Is there a way to make commuting tolera...
Jul 19, 2017•30 min
Among a certain set of companies competing for talent, there’s been a perks arms race. Health benefits and vacation days aren’t enough to sweeten a good salary anymore. Companies now offer to pay off student debt, subsidize egg-freezing services and provide cash stipends for employees to go on vacation. Francesca and Rebecca talk about the state of cushy workplaces and whether anything can compensate for a job you just don’t like. Jason Fried, chief executive officer and co-founder of Chicago-ba...
Jul 12, 2017•28 min
Each week on Game Plan, Francesca and Rebecca share their half-baked takes, a segment where they talk about their not super well thought out ideas and opinions on work and work related activities. In the spirit of the summer slack off, this week Francesca and Rebecca outsourced that task to their colleagues to present the very first half-baked take marathon. In it, they talk about important office topics like office footwear, the case for coffee in the afternoon, and an innovative idea to make o...
Jul 05, 2017•21 min
Venture capitalist Keith Rabois set off a Silicon Valley firestorm earlier this month about what it takes to succeed. When another tech investor wrote on Twitter that working on the weekends and burning out isn’t cool—and doesn’t work—Rabois fired back. “Totally false,” he said, suggesting that dogged dedication (usually measured by long hours) was the only way to reach the top. Lots of people objected to his assessment. Francesca and Rebecca speak with one of Keith's critics, startup founder an...
Jun 28, 2017•33 min
So, you want to move to Canada? Or New Zealand, or Australia or another English-speaking, culturally adjacent country to the U.S. that doesn’t have our current president. After every election, Americans threaten to get out of dodge—and 2016 was no different. Rebecca and Francesca talk about the realities of starting over in another country and what it takes to actually pick up and move your life to a new place. They talk to author Suketu Mehta, who grew up in India and came to America when his f...
Jun 20, 2017•27 min
Letting employees occasionally work from home makes them happy, can save companies money and there's research to suggest it could help close the gender pay gap. But some companies, like IBM, say remote work encourages habits that hurt collaboration, innovation and productivity. Last month the company told hundreds of thousands of employees they had to report to headquarters. So what's the future of work? Guest Christopher Mims, a technology columnist and a 10-year veteran of working from home, e...
Jun 13, 2017•24 min
Fake it 'til you make it! That's the career advice many of us get upon first entering the workforce. Since you're a newbie, and won't understand lots of parts of your job, just pretend — and one day, all of a sudden, you'll be a bona fide expert. It's not bad advice, and research has even found that it works. But what happens when you still feel as if you're faking it, long after you've actually made it? Francesca and Rebecca discuss the phenomenon known as imposter syndrome. Many competent (oft...
Jun 06, 2017•31 min
Student debt doesn't only affect students and recent grads. It’s a burden that can follow people through their working life and influence every financial and career decision they make. It’s easy to feel panicked by doom-and-gloom news, so to separate worries from reality, Francesca and Becca talk with Bloomberg's Shahien Nasiripour, who covers student debt and education policy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
May 30, 2017•34 min
Workers used to leave their opinions and feelings at home. No talking at work about politics, religion or other personal stuff was the rule. Not anymore! Companies ask us to bring our whole selves to the office. But for those of us averse to sharing with our coworkers, the current political climate and social media have made it impossible to resist. These days, many of us talk to coworkers about Trump, our personal lives or something we just spotted on Facebook. But is putting it all out there n...
May 23, 2017•29 min
Francesca and Rebecca talk about when listening to music out loud, and with your co-workers—becomes a job requirement. They report from various scenes of communal workplace listening, including retail chains, where employees have to listen to whatever somebody at headquarters decided fits a store's vibe, and a public relations firm that's experimenting with a cooperative DJ-ing environment. Even in operating rooms, many surgeons use music to focus on their high-stakes work, but one—Becca's dad—b...
May 17, 2017•22 min
We're used to seeing accessible bathrooms and wheelchair ramps at the office, thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act. But in many ways, employers still don't go far enough to accommodate people with disabilities. The unemployment rate is two times higher for disabled people than the general population. Those who do find work get paid less, making 63 cents on the dollar, on average. And, of course, there's workplace bias. Francesca and Rebecca talk to Gideon Goldberg, a software developer ...
May 09, 2017•27 min
Families in America used to look pretty similar. Moms in the 1970s were far more likely to stay home with the kids, while dads went to the office and paid the bills. That paradigm has shifted dramatically. Now, more households have two working parents than ever. America also has more single-parent households — and more female breadwinners. Yet the rules and norms of office life — commuting to the office, spending most of the weekday there, and working late if you have to — haven’t adapted to the...
May 02, 2017•30 min
First days at a new job fall on a continuum. There are the days-long orientation with each minute planned out with activities, powerpoints, and trainings. And then, sometimes you get to work on day one and the manager has no idea what to do. He gives you 20 minutes of paperwork and the next eight hours are spent pretending to work on tasks that don't exist. What happens on a first day can color the rest of a worker's experience at a job -- so much so that companies spend an average of $4,000 per...
Apr 25, 2017•23 min
If throwing money at problems solved them, much of corporate America would look like a rainbow coalition by now. Companies have poured millions into diversity initiatives with the aim of recruiting and retaining more women, minorities and people from underrepresented groups. But a lot of what they’ve done hasn’t worked. On this week’s Game Plan, Francesca and Rebecca ask whether companies are doing enough—and doing the right things—to diversify their staffs. Ellen Pao, former CEO of Reddit, join...
Apr 18, 2017•35 min
From smoking-cessation programs to step challenges, companies do all sorts of things to push employees toward getting healthy. Why? Sick workers are expensive. If companies can create healthier workforces, they save tons of money on health insurance costs. These efforts have helped spawn a $6 billion dollar corporate wellness industry, but they aren't really working. People don't care enough to participate, and many wellness initiatives don't have a good return on investment, studies have found....
Apr 11, 2017•25 min
Work friendships are a complicated dance. Research suggests we’re more inclined to undercut our colleagues than the people in our personal lives, and a big factor in what makes us feel close to work buddies is their sheer physical proximity. So are we all conniving frenemies on the job, or can we actually form meaningful bonds? Guest Jessica Methot, an expert on workplace relationships at Rutgers University, discusses the value of even surface-level work connections, and drops some surprising sc...
Apr 04, 2017•29 min
For many office workers, March means hours spent surreptitiously watching college basketball games and obsessively checking in on brackets. Even if you're not a March Madness fan, we all have our own workday distractions. (The Olympics, anyone?) Even when there’s nothing major going on, with Slack, an unrelenting news cycle, and open offices, getting through an entire workday without some kind of distraction is pretty much impossible. For the easily distracted—which is all of us, right?—we have ...
Mar 28, 2017•29 min
Lots of us suffer from email overload, but few have taken such dramatic steps to address it as Dan Ariely. He’s a behavioral economist at Duke University who was so buried by emails he wrote software to help triage his messages, and uses a two-page auto-response to redirect all but the most important ones.\u0010\u0010Rebecca confesses this week that she has 2,026 unread emails. That number might send you into a cold sweat or sound kind of low, depending on what kind of email personality you have...
Mar 27, 2017•30 min
Everyone's heard the new mantra: Office life can be hazardous. Staring at a screen all day ruins your eyes. Poor air quality deprives your brains of energy. Worst of all, sitting is the new smoking. In an attempt be healthier and more productive in our cubicles, workers and workplaces have hacked the office to encourage better patterns of behavior. There's no more popular hack than the standing desk. But does it live up to the hype? Rebecca and Francesca seek answers from Mark Benden, director o...
Mar 14, 2017•25 min
