Women at Work Harvard Business Review

We talk through questions from listeners seeking advice on the challenges they’re facing early in their career — from being excluded from meetings to how to be more assertive.

Coming back to work after parental leave, after having a baby during a pandemic, when you and your colleagues are still working remotely — is complicated. Our colleague describes how she’s approaching remote reentry, and we turn to an expert on all things career and motherhood for guidance on handling childcare, boundaries, and professional relationships during this transition.

After a team member of ours faced a serious medical problem, we recognized how little guidance there was for communicating a health crisis or chronic illness. We talk through common decisions, fears, and conversations.

As we wait for company leaders to make good on the anti-racism commitments they made earlier this year, we check in with four Black women about how their work lives have and haven’t changed. Then we talk with an expert who helps us understand how to keep pushing forward and supporting our Black colleagues while we wait for long-overdue change.

Sometimes you want to make a career change, like a big one. We hear from a woman who is in the process of navigating a bold transition. Then we talk with an expert about how to clarify your goals and ask for what you need to make your next move.

With the help of an expert in side gigs, Emily confronts the hobbies, projects, and pursuits that she’s neglected, in hopes of helping herself and others invest in interests outside of a full-time job.