Game Plan

The conventional wisdom on crying at work is: Don't do it. Executive coaches advise clients to hold back tears in times of distress. But what about when there's no stopping the waterworks? It happens. Many of us have had emotionally overwhelming moments at the office, and you know what? It's totally acceptable. That's right. It's OK to—sometimes—cry at work. This week, Francesca and Rebecca tackle the taboo of tears in the office, arguing that crying at work, in moderation, is natural and can even be beneficial. They're joined by crying experts Susan Orlean and Sarah Thyre, who host Crybabies, a podcast about which movies, books, and music make people cry. Together they discuss strategies for making the most out of a good office cry.

When Susan Fowler, a former engineer at Uber, told Human resources she was being sexually harassed, the company did nothing about it, she said. When she discovered other women had reported being harassed by the same manager, HR still did nothing. Last week, in a viral blog post, Fowler painted a picture of a toxic work environment where management ignores bad behavior and punishes people like Fowler. Her story is not unique to Uber, or the technology industry. This week on Game Plan, Francesca and Rebecca dive into toxic workplaces, how people cope with them, and how they finally get out. Maureen Sherry, a former trader at Bear Stearns joins them to talk about the bro culture of Wall Street, where she endured sexual harassment for 12 years before finally getting fed up and leaving. (Correct spelling of Bear Stearns in final sentence.)

Do you suffer from exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficiency at work? Does the idea of getting up and going into the office fill you with dread? You might be suffering from burnout. While we tend to throw around the term, it's a specific psychological state. People who work in high-stress, high-stakes professions, such as medicine, are the most at risk. Yet even we cube-dwellers can overextend ourselves and reach a breaking point. This week on Game Plan, Rebecca and Francesca seek advice on how to avoid burnout from Wharton professor and author of "Give and Take" Adam Grant. He explains how to be a "giver" at work without losing enthusiasm and energy for your job.

The phrase “workplace safety” conjures images of factory floors or corny training videos that warn office workers against spilling hot coffee. But as work has begun to bleed into our personal and online lives, what it means to stay safe on the job has become murkier. On this week's Game Plan, Francesca and Becca talk to Lauren Duca, a freelance writer for outlets that include Teen Vogue. Duca's articles and TV appearances have made her a target of severe online harassment, so she must work while considering whether bigoted, violent e-mails and social media posts constitute legitimate threats or mere words. We wrestle with how—and whether—employers can look out for workers when the threats to employee safety are virtual.

In an ideal world, hard work and good ideas would be enough to succeed. In reality, getting things done at work requires playing the game, navigating office politics and persuading people to buy into your vision. This week on Game Plan, Francesca and Rebecca get some tips and tricks from Derek Thompson. He's the author of "Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction," a book that explores the popularity of all sorts of things -- from politicians to art and music. He explains how to use his insights to get ahead at work.

People must take extended leaves of absences from work for many different reasons. The luckiest workers get paid for their time off, and have employers that make leaving and coming back as easy as possible. But for even the most privileged, reentering the workplace after a bunch of time off isn't entirely seamless. One of our own, Game Plan co-host Francesca Levy, knows the realities of coming back very well. She's just back from a months-long hiatus for her own maternity leave. For her, in some ways, coming back has been easier than expected. In others, it hasn't: Pumping, anyone? Anna Sale, the host of "Death, Sex & Money," joins the show to talk about what she calls a "visible" leave and how she balances work and parenting.

Most people wish they were more productive at work. To feed this never-ending desire for increased efficiency, an entire industry peddles so-called productivity hacks that promise quick fixes to snuff out procrastination and boost output. Unfortunately, most of this advice amounts to snake oil. This week on Game Plan, Sam and Rebecca take a novel path to solving their productivity problems: The subconscious. Gary Latham, an organizational psychologist at the University of Toronto, joins them to discuss his decades of research into how subtle influences to our psyches can help us get more done at work. Productivity here we come!

Four years ago, Sheryl Sandberg started a national conversation about women in the workplace with her wildly popular manifesto, Lean In. In it, she urged women to "lean in" to their work lives in ways that don't come naturally: Speak up in meetings and ask for raises, for example. For many, this advice was refreshing, even radical. Unfortunately, a lot of it doesn't work, research has found. Sandberg herself has even walked back some of her claims, admitting it would be hard for a single mother to follow her advice. No matter what women do, they can't seem to get ahead. They still make up less than 20 percent of c-suite jobs, and the pay gap persists. So, what now? This week on Game Plan, Sallie Krawcheck joins Sam and Rebecca to offer her advice on what women can do to succeed. In her new book, Own It, she argues that women don't need to act more like men to get ahead at work. Being a woman, she says, is more than enough.

Every year we come back from the holidays and resolve to be our best workplace selves in the coming year. Some of us make specific New Year's resolutions, such as keeping a tidier desk. Others simply try to start the year off on their best foot. And then, about a month later, we slide right back into our old habits. Let's make this year different! On this week's Game Plan, Sam and Rebecca make their own workplace New Year's resolutions. To make sure they stick to them, they enlist the help of Gretchen Rubin. Rubin, of "The Happiness Project," who also wrote a book about habits, "Better Than Before." She offers strategies on behavior change and making 2017 a year of good habits.

New year, new workplace. That's our motto here at Game Plan. And with a new government administration, many workers' lives will likely change this coming year. But how exactly? Will Donald Trump follow through on his promise of a federal paid maternity leave law? And will automation continue to gut jobs or can we keep humans employed? This week, on the final episode of 2016, Sam and Rebecca talk about some of the biggest changes coming to a workplace near you in 2017. See you next year!

Are you a messy person who yearns for a cleaner desk? Or maybe you're a neat freak looking for ways to avoid contracting the disgusting germs of your less considerate co-workers. No matter your preferences, you probably have to sit near and around people with different cleanliness levels. It's not always pretty, but especially in open offices, it's reality. Jolie Kerr is here to help with your neuroses. Kerr is a cleaning expert and the host of the "Ask a Clean Person" podcast, and she joins this week's Game Plan to help Sam and Rebecca with their messy desks. Okay, just Rebecca's messy desk. Sam is a fellow clean person. Jolie shares her tips and tricks for any office dweller looking to live their cleanest, healthiest and best work lives.

In the modern office, workers dress in a wider variety of ways than ever. The phrase business casual means a lot more than Dockers and a button-down, and more and more workplaces allow for jeans, hoodies, fashion sneakers and other casual looks. The change in attitude to work wear has even led the New York Times fashion columnist to declare The End of the Office Dress Code. We'd like to respectfully disagree. The office dress code hasn't gone anywhere, it just looks different. This week on Game Plan, Sam and Rebecca talk about the new work dress code. People continue to put on uniforms to signal who they are and what they do -- it's just less codified. Sam and Rebecca talk to three guests who do just that, using their clothing to get what they want at work.

"Automation anxiety" usually reflects expectations of an era in which robots will do all the work, leaving us lowly humans unemployed, broke and bored. For many, that reality isn't some not-so-distant future -- it's happening right now. Automation has already gutted manufacturing jobs in America and is threatening transportation, warehouse work and routine white-collar work, including aspects of finance, law and computer programming. This week, Sam and Rebecca talk about how robots are changing the workplace and what it means for the future of the job market. Will jobs even exist in the future? Well, yes -- they'll just be different. David Deming, a researcher at Harvard, joins them to talk about what kinds of skills and labor the robots can't take. Hint: Be human.

For about a decade, failure has been cool. Facebook's motto "move fast, break things" became the mantra of the entire technology industry and a failed startup was a badge of honor for its success stories. This year, however, losing has taken on a whole new meaning, and for millions of voters, it has real consequences. For those of us not used to losing, or who ignore the small failures of our daily work lives, how do we deal with or learn from our lowest moments? Sam Weinman joins the show to talk Sam and Rebecca through the dark times. Weinman's forthcoming book, "Win at Losing: How Our Biggest Setbacks Can Lead to Our Greatest Gains," is a manual for getting the most out of career lows and other life bungles. For anyone feeling like a loser these days, listen up.

Election season has been emotionally challenging for many of us. For the lucky, Thanksgiving will be a much-needed break from the relentless news cycle. For most, it will be a turkey-laden political minefield. Will wine make things better or worse? Unclear. Nevertheless, Game Plan is here to distract you. This week, Sam and Rebecca head to the movies, specifically, movies that tell some universal truths about life at work. "Office Space," of course, is widely considered the single greatest piece of art ever created on the subject of the workplace. But, there are a few other films that we think deserve a place in the office movie hall of fame.

President-elect Donald Trump has been accused of sexual harassment and, during his campaign, used language that would be considered inappropriate in the workplace. Considering he's now the highest-profile example of leadership in our country, we got to thinking about the state of sexual harassment in the workplace. Many of us want to believe we live in a post-Mad Men era, in which most people know not to harass each other at work. As it turns out, in many ways we don't. Claire Suddath, a reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek, spent the last few months talking to almost 20 women who experienced various forms of harassment at work. Harassment, she learned, is still incredibly common. "When I started asking people about this, I got a flood of responses unlike anything that I have ever gotten for any other story that I've worked," she said. Join us in this week's episode as we explore just how far we have -- and haven't -- progressed.

Quitting a job is a delicate process. It's effectively a breakup. And much like ending a romantic relationship, there's no ideal way to do it. The person getting dumped (the employer) will feel hurt. But there are a few things that departing workers can do to soften the blow -- and hopefully not ruin the possibility of a future relationship. It's an issue that's especially relevant now, because Americans have been voluntarily leaving jobs at the highest rate since the 2008 recession, according to the Labor Department. For tips on how to leave a job with grace, Sam and Rebecca enlist the help of an expert: Reyhan Harmanci, the soon-to-be former editor-in-chief of Atlas Obscura, who has left her fair share of jobs over the years. She about talks tricks of the trade and the key to quitting in style.

With less than one week until the election, Rebecca and Sam shamelessly turn their attention to the only thing anyone wants to talk about: the campaign. What does this political season have to do with life at work? Running for president, it turns out, is a lot like a super intense, hyper-scrutinized, multi-year job application process for the most important position in the world. Like any job search, it starts with networking (campaigning), ends with a job interview (debate), and is, in and of itself, a full time job. This week, Sam and Rebecca talk to four campaign managers, who worked this election season with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, and Rand Paul about what it's like to apply for the job of president of the United States of America. They explain how running for president is the hardest job application process in the world. And, how like the traditional hiring process, it could be improved.

Ah, meetings, that productivity suck we can't manage to escape. One survey estimates that they cost us an astonishing $37 billion in lost productivity. And yet they continue: Workers spend 15 percent of their time in meetings, another survey found. This week on Game Plan, Sam and Rebecca talk about their meeting pet peeves, from how hard it is to be heard as a woman to dealing with annoying characters and unnecessary showmanship. There must be a better way -- Chris White, formerly of Goldman Sachs, knows the secret. In fact, White banned meetings altogether during his two years at Goldman. Now that White runs his own company, he gets stuff done by holding meetings on his own terms. Join us as White imparts the secret of how to run the perfect meeting.

From the pesky, far too long, constantly updating terms of service agreements to our similarly verbose employment agreements, nobody reads the fine print. Want an example? A survey of 1,000 people in the U.K. found that more than 90 percent hadn't read their employment contracts. Yet the stuff we sign when we start a job can come back to bite us. Take the non-disclosure agreement, which has come up in multiple high-profile stories this year. One woman accusing Roger Ailes of sexual harassment may face legal action for breaking an NDA by telling her story to the press. Trump campaign volunteers also sign an NDA agreeing not to "disparage publicly" Trump or anything related to him -- even after they stop working for him. The Republican nominee has hinted that he might bring that policy to the White House. So it's time to get smart about the world of employment contracts. And because both Sam and Rebecca are guilty of skimming their employment agreements, they seek the help of a labor and employment lawyer, Bre