Game Plan

Latest Episodes:

The Clean Person’s Guide to a Messy Desk Dec 20, 2016

Show notes

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.

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Actually, the Office Dress Code Is Alive and Well Dec 13, 2016

Show notes

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.

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Robots Aren't Coming For Your Job. They're Already Here Dec 06, 2016

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"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.

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How to Be a Good Loser Nov 29, 2016

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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.

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The Greatest Movies About Work Nov 22, 2016

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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.

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Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Is as Bad as Ever Nov 15, 2016

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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.

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The Right (and Wrong) Way to Quit Your Job Nov 08, 2016

Show notes

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.

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Inside the Hardest Job Application Process in the World Nov 03, 2016

Show notes

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.

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How to Have the Perfect Meeting Oct 25, 2016

Show notes

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.

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Why You Really Should Read Your Employment Contract Oct 18, 2016

Show notes

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, Brett Gallaway. He breaks down the standard terms of a boilerplate contract and what signing that dotted line really means.

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