Work Appropriate Crooked Media

Rainesford Stauffer joins host Anne Helen Petersen to hear from listeners about the vagaries of ambition when it comes to work — and how to conceive of ambition as a potentially positive force outside of work.

On this show, we talk a lot about systemic workplace problems, with roots in rapid-growth capitalism, the gender and racial wage gap, etc. Today, we're doing something a little different-- we're talking about the things coworkers do that are just plain annoying. Lyz Lenz guest hosts.

"Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" sounds like sage advice, but it doesn't account for the burn-out, demoralization, constant churn, and low pay of so many passion jobs.

For people who aren't white, straight, cis men, being your authentic self at work can be risky. Even though your identity isn't and shouldn't be a problem, many workplaces treat it like one. We received a slew of listeners' questions along these lines-- from choosing to come out at work, to celebrating LGBTQ+ employees in a hostile work environment, to caring for oneself in the process of asking for accommodations-- so host Anne Helen Petersen invited writer and creator Morgan Givens to help answer them.

Laura Mariani, a neuroscientist-turned-recruiter, joins host Anne Helen Petersen to answer listeners' questions about deciphering job postings, inquiring about remote work policies, and pivoting industries altogether.

This is Work Appropriate's version of a holiday episode! As work parties ramp up, so do small talk conversations about diets and eating habits. So what can you say at the holiday potluck when your boss says she's being "so bad" for eating a brownie? What can you do when your workplace cafeteria has calorie counts plastered everywhere? How can you have a frank conversation about accommodations you need for work travel when you have a larger body? Virginia Sole-Smith, writer of the Burnt Toast newsletter, joins host Anne Helen Petersen to answer all these listener questions and more.