Game Plan

In the first episode of The Pay Check, we go deep on pay discrimination. Host Rebecca Greenfield tells us about an equal pay fight in her own family. We take you inside a gender discrimination case against Goldman Sachs that’s been unfolding for over a decade. And we look at how companies magically make their pay gaps disappear—without actually paying women more.

In our last episode of Game Plan before a hiatus, we cleared our backlog of Half-Baked Takes; the weekly segment in which we give voice to some of our most passionate ideas before thinking them all the way through. Come for the take-down of guessing your co-worker’s age, stay for definitive rulings on the value of sheep and movies.

We'd like to think that what we wear to work doesn't matter, but tons of research has found that it does. Yes, people judge you based on your outfit choices. The right work wear can also make us feel good and enhance our performance. One study found that participants dressed in suits negotiated for more money; another found that formal wear facilitates creative thinking.  This week on Game Plan, Rebecca and Francesca learn how to dress well for work. Chris Rovzar, the editorial director of Bloomberg Pursuits, our luxury and lifestyle vertical, joins the show to answer all their work fashion questions. 

Employers are increasingly putting prospective workers through personality tests. The idea is that certain characteristics lend themselves to certain types of work, and that a straightforward job interview can’t identify them. Rebecca and Francesca talk about how much personality matters at work, and the pitfalls of testing workers. Guest Melissa Dahl discusses her book “Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness,” and whether awkward types can get a leg up in the workplace.

The initial allegations against Harvey Weinstein have opened the floodgates for what seems to be an unrelenting stream of sexual harassment claims against the powerful. But this isn’t the first time the country has had to reckon with inappropriate behavior in the workplace. In 1991, Anita Hill testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the alleged harassment of Clarence Thomas, who was ultimately confirmed to the Supreme Court. This week, Francesca and Rebecca look back at the decades since her testimony and talk about what has and hasn’t changed. We hear from Hill, who Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait interviewed at Bloomberg’s “Year Ahead” conference, about how we can take the current moment and create safer workplaces.

Career coaches claim to help navigate everything from nailing a tough interview to figuring out what you want to do with your life. Rebecca and Francesca sat down with prominent career coach Vicki Salemi to talk through their own career transitions and find out what really goes on in these sessions.

Most of us are really bad at thinking about and planning for our retirement. Only a third of Americans contribute to employer-provided 401(k) accounts. And around half have no retirement savings at all. There are lots of forces working against us when it comes to saving up for the future. But never fear, the behavioral economists can save us. See, it’s not our fault that we’re bad at saving: We’re wired to make bad retirement decisions. At least that’s what Steve Wendel, a behavioral scientist, us. Steve teaches us how to take advantage of our shortcomings as humans, and trick ourselves into becoming super savers.

After dozens of women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment over decades, some singled out the Hollywood power structure for criticism. But in recent years, harassment scandals, inequities and patterns of abuse and mistreatment have been uncovered in nearly every field. There are common themes across disciplines, but they each require unique solutions. Becca and Francesca talk to Beth Alpert Nakhai, an archeologist and professor who is working to make digs safer for women.

By some measures, at the end of last year LGBTQ workers in the U.S. had more protections than ever before. The Trump administration, however, has proven to be hostile to the LGBTQ community. All of these big picture policy changes trickle down into people’s every day lives. Francesca and Rebecca dig into what it’s like to be an LGBTQ worker in 2017. The hosts of Nancy, a WNYC Studios podcast about queer life, join them to talk about the decision to come out, how to navigate discrimination, and other unique challenges of being gay in the office at this moment in time.

Work meetings at hotel bars, making small talk with total strangers, and waiting in line to use the restroom: It's that time-tested corporate ritual, the conference. This week, Rebecca and Francesca went to a conference to report on the $14 billion conference industry. Attendees shared their thoughts on conferences, panels, and compulsory networking.

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," offers moderate and realistic solutions to get the creative juices flowing.

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.

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.

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.

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 wrong political view could even get you canned.   When do political beliefs become too extreme for the workplace? Can what you believe ever get you fired? Rebecca and Francesca talk to Art Leonard, a labor law and first amendment expert, about what can and can't get workers in trouble. Does the First Amendment protect us all or does at-will employment mean anyone is at risk of termination at any time for anything they do? The short answer is: It's complicated.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.