High-quality relationships with other women at work, and the productivity and creativity those connections bring, are built on trusting one another with our emotions. Two researchers share findings from their recent survey about emotional vulnerability in the workplace. Guests: Beth Livingston and Tina Opie. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Many companies are still sorting out the right policies to put in place around sexual harassment. But even where good policies exist, we all need the skills and confidence to respond to and prevent inappropriate behavior at work. Guests: Marianne Cooper and Sarah Beaulieu. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Women are responsible for most eldercare, and it’s often an exhausting, isolating job that has to be done on top of your paid work. We talk with a researcher who’s gone through it herself; she shares coping strategies and advice on how to support the caregivers on your team. Guest: Anne Bardoel. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Thinking of gender as man/woman and masculine/feminine leaves out a lot of people. We talk about the problems the gender binary causes at work and get advice on how to support transgender and nonbinary colleagues. Guest: Lily Zheng. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
We discuss how women think about and approach competition at work and get advice on how to keep our disagreements — and people’s perceptions of them — from turning negative. Guest: Leah Sheppard. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Do women really apologize more than men at work? We speak with a psychology professor and a leadership consultant about the impact that saying “sorry” and using other minimizing language has on job success, and what words and phrases to use instead. Guests: Karina Schumann and Sally Helgesen. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Just because some of us are single and childless doesn’t mean we don’t have problems at the office or responsibilities outside of it. We talk with a woman who’s been writing a series of essays about her singlehood, as well as a researcher who studies this demographic. Guests: Shani Silver and Tracy Dumas. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
There are a lot of reasons women should feel optimistic about having both a career and children. Two professors tell us about the takeaways from their research on working motherhood and from their experience raising three kids each. They give advice about managing expectations, transitions, and difficult times. Guests: Danna Greenberg and Jamie Ladge.
Visibility at work is important for our professional advancement — and tricky, especially for women. In this live episode, we talk about navigating the risks and rewards of being in the spotlight, as well as the best ways to increase our visibility. Guest: Muriel Maignan Wilkins. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Stress can enhance our performance at work, but not if it leads to burnout. We talk with an expert on workplace well-being about how women experience burnout and how to manage its causes, symptoms, and repercussions. Guest: Mandy O’Neill.
Women at Work is back April 15 with stories, conversations, and practical advice about being a woman in the workplace. Expect to hear from us every Monday for the next couple of months.
Amy Gallo is a contributing editor for HBR, an expert on conflict and difficult conversations, a prolific giver of advice — and now she takes up the baton of co-hosting the show from Sarah Green Carmichael. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
In this special live episode, we share stories, research, and practical advice for strategic self-disclosure, and then take questions from the audience. Guest: Katherine Phillips. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Women will be a stronger force against sexism and racism at work if we know and trust each other. We talk through best practices for listening to, learning about, and advocating for women who are different from us. Guests: Tina Opie and Verónica Rabelo. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
We bring you three stories about parental leave, from listeners whose experiences with it changed them, for better or for worse. They talk about having to fight for more time off, go back to work before they were ready, care for sick babies, and try to hide their exhaustion and stress. Ultimately, they’re stories about how inadequate leave policies hurt families and companies.
We hold ourselves back when we let differences like race or class divide us from other women. We talk about the very different experiences and professional relationships black and white female managers had in 1970s and 1980s corporate America, and how workplace sisterhood is still in short supply. Guests: Ella Bell Smith and Stella Nkomo. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
If you’re your family’s chief breadwinner, research suggests that the pressure you’re feeling is different from what men have been dealing with for eons. We talk about the highs and lows of being in this role and examples of support at work and at home that can make it more manageable. Guest: Alyson Byrne. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Women have to work harder to be recognized for our ideas. And that recognition is essential for getting the assignments and the promotions we deserve — for moving our careers forward. We talk about how to present an idea in a group so that you come out owning it. Next, we cover how to respond when someone takes credit for your work. Guests: Amy Jen Su and Amy Gallo.
Perfectionist tendencies are a trap that can be difficult to avoid, but we’ll be more productive and advance faster if we don’t worry so much about making the occasional mistake. We talk about how perfectionists can get out of their own way, and how to effectively manage a perfectionist. Guest: Alice Boyes. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Both male and female managers tend to give women low-quality feedback. And when we don’t hear how we’re really doing at work and what we can do to improve — and men do — we’re put at a disadvantage. We talk about how to get high-quality feedback that is direct, specific, and focused on behavior we can change. Guests: Robin Ely and Ella Bell Smith.
Being a great decision maker is uniquely challenging for women. It’s not us; it’s sexism. Stereotypes about the way we make calls can be insulting and distracting. Knowing that we’ll be judged more harshly than men when we make mistakes is discouraging. We talk about how to make informed decisions that stick, despite gender bias. Guest: Therese Huston.
Women around the world have access to vastly different amounts of paid parental leave. In some countries, they can take a year or more. In the U.S., they’re not guaranteed any paid leave at all. We talk about how to manage your leave, or someone else’s, no matter how long it is. We also hear from a woman in Washington, DC, who had the rare opportunity to take a year of paid leave. Guest: Daisy Wademan Dowling. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Women are expected and asked to do thankless tasks — order lunch, handle less-valued clients — more than men, and research shows that doing those tasks slows down our career advancement and makes us unhappy at work. We talk about why we wind up with so much office drudgery and how to get some of it off our plates. Guests: Lise Vesterlund and Ruchika Tulshyan.
Women at Work is back Sept. 17 with stories, conversations, and practical advice about women and work. Expect to hear from us every Monday for the next couple of months. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
We’re delighted to be making more episodes for you. And we’re asking you to help shape this next season to fit what you’re dealing with and needing guidance on. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.
Professional women get all kinds of advice — some of it helpful, some of it really unhelpful, and some of it nice-sounding but pretty impossible to use. We question some of the classic advice women get (and give) on asking for more money, achieving more by doing less, and not burning out. Guests: Ashleigh Shelby Rosette, Arianna Huffington, Tiffany Dufu, Susan Orlean, and Alison Beard. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network. For links to the articles mentioned...
While once accusations of sexual harassment would be met with — at most — a monetary settlement and a non-disclosure agreement, today they are more likely to be publicized and investigated. Now, the challenge is, how do we harness this new attention to sexual harassment to make work a safer place for women? Guests: Joan Williams, Amy Gallo, and Michael Kimmel. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network. For links to the articles mentioned in this episode, as well ...
The gender wage gap is the lifetime financial curse that punishes so many of us. What’s going on in women’s careers that causes us to earn so much less? Guests: Claudia Goldin and Margaret Gullette. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network. For links to the articles mentioned in this episode, as well as other information about the show, visit hbr.org/podcasts/women-at-work.
As leaders, we know we’re supposed to be authentic, but for women, that can be tricky. For one thing, it can be hard to even know what our “true selves” want with all the demands competing for our attention. For another, there are different expectations about how women should look, and behave. In this episode, we talk with an expert on authenticity, as well as a woman trying everyday to bring her best self to work and help others do the same. Guests: Tina Opie and Candice Morgan. Our theme music...
Simmering resentments over whose career comes first. Bickering over household tasks. Arguments over who should pick up the kids this time. This is the portrait of two-career coupledom in much of the popular media. But for a lot of couples, the reality is much rosier. Mutually supportive relationships let us take career risks, help us be more resilient to setbacks, and even “lean in” at work. In this episode, we talk with three experts to help us paint a picture of what a truly supportive dual-ca...
