Speaker 1: Before we start the show, we have an announcement. After
Speaker 1: a year and a half of game Plan, we're going
Speaker 1: to be putting this show on hold. We're sad about
Speaker 1: not getting to talk to you guys every week, but
Speaker 1: if you have a half big take that you've been
Speaker 1: sitting on, now's the time to call it in. I'm
Speaker 1: an E n t J. Let me decipher that for you.
Speaker 1: It's a personality type. The E stands for extroverted. Even
Speaker 1: if these letters mean absolutely nothing to you, they might
Speaker 1: mean a lot to a company trying to hire you.
Speaker 1: This is game Plan. Hi, I'm Rebecca Greenfield an E
Speaker 1: n t J. And I'm Francesca Levi E n f P.
Speaker 1: And this week we're talking about personality types and why
Speaker 1: they matter to your employer at all. The E N
Speaker 1: t J spell it out, Um, you should probably explain
Speaker 1: what it is. Yeah, So that is the Myers Briggs
Speaker 1: personality types. It's a personality test that I'm kind of
Speaker 1: obsessed with. I don't know about you, where they give
Speaker 1: you four letters and there are sixteen different combinations. You're
Speaker 1: either an E or an I, so an extrovert or
Speaker 1: an introvert And then big surprise, we're both extroverts, both extroverts,
Speaker 1: and then you can be an END or an S
Speaker 1: and then E N. Yeah, it's just thinking, feeling, and
Speaker 1: then a PJ, which is perceiving, judging, and then your
Speaker 1: combination determines who you are as a person. Right, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do the math right now, but a
Speaker 1: bunch of different possible combinations. You're so good at math,
Speaker 1: and it's supposed to tell you something about I don't know,
Speaker 1: like how you approach problem solving or just move through life.
Speaker 1: And people get into Myers Briggs like you see it
Speaker 1: on people's Twitter bios, and you know, people describe people
Speaker 1: describe themselves that way, Like there's something about those binary
Speaker 1: choices in four different categories that people relate to when
Speaker 1: it comes to trying to understand like who they are.
Speaker 1: But this is more than just a fun thing that
Speaker 1: I talked about with my friends all the time. It
Speaker 1: turns out that lots of employers use them to determine
Speaker 1: who they should hire. So they have you take a
Speaker 1: Myers Briggs personality test and then decide if you're the
Speaker 1: right fit for the job. Like I just saw some
Speaker 1: article on CNBC about the Myers Briggs, that's the most hirable.
Speaker 1: I think it's the E. S. T J, which neither
Speaker 1: you nor I had. So Yeah, So companies use not
Speaker 1: just Myers Briggs, but other personality tests that staffing firms
Speaker 1: have provided or that they've created in the house. And
Speaker 1: there was a wave of companies starting to do this
Speaker 1: a few years ago where it was felt that there
Speaker 1: were things that you could tell about somebody that you
Speaker 1: can't really get at through a job interview, and to
Speaker 1: really understand where they're going to be good at a job,
Speaker 1: you have to kind of go under the surface. And
Speaker 1: I think that's how these personality tests as part of
Speaker 1: the job application process kind of rosen prominence. Yeah. A
Speaker 1: friend of mine told me that his company made him
Speaker 1: take one that's put on by Gallup called strength Finder,
Speaker 1: And you take another one of these tests. It's a
Speaker 1: hundred seventy questions and it tells you your top five strengths.
Speaker 1: And according to Gallup, they say it's valuable because when
Speaker 1: employees are doing things that played to their strengths, they
Speaker 1: claim that they're more productive, happier, more engaged. So you
Speaker 1: should take your strength Finder test and then you can
Speaker 1: figure out what you're best out and do that at work.
Speaker 1: Of course, the flip side is that if you don't
Speaker 1: have the strengths that they've decided you're looking for, they
Speaker 1: can just not hire you. Yeah, they're definitely a lot
Speaker 1: of downsides to these personality tests, mainly that a lot
Speaker 1: of them are not exactly based on any science or psychology.
Speaker 1: There have been so many articles about how my Ris
Speaker 1: Brigg says completely based on no psychology or science and
Speaker 1: probably made up. There have also been criticisms that they're
Speaker 1: kind of discriminatory. That basically, whenever you're evaluating somebody on
Speaker 1: your personality or looking for a good personality fit, you're
Speaker 1: looking for somebody who just slots easily into the corporate
Speaker 1: culture that you already have set up or that you
Speaker 1: most desire. As the employer. The personality type is basically
Speaker 1: a proxy for being like the people who already work there. Okay,
Speaker 1: but I do think your personality matters in the job
Speaker 1: that you do. I feel like I hear a lot
Speaker 1: about this from introverts and extroverts, like there are certain
Speaker 1: jobs that are just better for introverts and certain jobs
Speaker 1: that are better for extrots. And that seems to make
Speaker 1: sense to me. Yeah, you often hear I mean, you
Speaker 1: and I are in communications oriented roles, so being an
Speaker 1: extrovert is helpful. We have to talk to a lot
Speaker 1: of people all the time in our jobs. Um, but
Speaker 1: I've heard about coders being introverts and needing in quiet
Speaker 1: spaces and like even low ceilings and confined rooms to
Speaker 1: feel most comfortable. So there's definitely different types of jobs
Speaker 1: that draw different types of personalities. Um, the question is
Speaker 1: how you identify those people and whether you're doing it right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean a test is not exactly the right way
Speaker 1: to be measuring the type of people who should be
Speaker 1: working at the type of places, right, But if you
Speaker 1: know maybe more about yourself and who you are, then
Speaker 1: you can kind of figure out how that matches up
Speaker 1: with your skills and what job you might be best
Speaker 1: to go into. I think you get into trouble when
Speaker 1: it's employers making the decision about what your personality is.
Speaker 1: There's probably some upside to knowing a little bit about
Speaker 1: who you are, what you like and don't like, and
Speaker 1: what characteristics you have, and like what would be the
Speaker 1: ideal office for you based on that, And that's what
Speaker 1: our guests is going to talk to us about today.
Speaker 1: Alissa Doll is the author of cringe Worthy, a Theory
Speaker 1: of Awkwardness. Her book is about figuring out what's behind
Speaker 1: those awkward moments you feel and how you can use
Speaker 1: them to your advantage. So, Melissa, what would you say
Speaker 1: your personality type is so the small distinction that like,
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with I'm kind of interested in understanding awkwardness
Speaker 1: more as a feeling than a personality trait, if that
Speaker 1: makes sense. It's something that like I think it can
Speaker 1: be both things, certainly, but sometimes I think that people
Speaker 1: who you know are quote awkward kind of like the
Speaker 1: Michael Scott's or like Larry David's of the world, maybe
Speaker 1: don't always feel it themselves. So so that is one
Speaker 1: way to kind of like maybe bring it back to
Speaker 1: personality that there are people who are more likely to
Speaker 1: feel this way, and I certainly am like kind of
Speaker 1: the whole book was just like this query of like,
Speaker 1: why does this feeling drive me insane? And way longer go.
Speaker 1: When I started working on it was like me trying
Speaker 1: to like just construct these barriers between myself and this
Speaker 1: feeling that because it drives me insane. But it kind
Speaker 1: of became like, Okay, maybe this is something useful. Maybe
Speaker 1: sometimes it sounds like you're saying you can have a
Speaker 1: feeling that doesn't necessarily translate to how other people perceive you,
Speaker 1: or you can be a person who makes other people
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable all the time and not even notice it.
Speaker 1: What is that feeling? Can you say a little more
Speaker 1: about it? Yeah? So, in psychological literature, they are these
Speaker 1: things called self conscious emotions, and it's kind of like
Speaker 1: shame and embarrassment, and that's kind of how I am
Speaker 1: understanding awkwardness. So it's kind of like the self conscious
Speaker 1: aspect of those things. But there's also this under a
Speaker 1: layer of uncertainty of just like what am I supposed
Speaker 1: to say or do now? You know? Um? And kind
Speaker 1: of like the distinction if this helps between that helps
Speaker 1: make it clear in my mind. Is a scene from
Speaker 1: the Office from the American Office. It is the episode
Speaker 1: where Michael like burns his foot on a George form
Speaker 1: and yes, a good one to know that one well.
Speaker 1: And so he thinks that pill in the office aren't
Speaker 1: like being adequately understanding of his impairments, and so he
Speaker 1: kind of calls this like this meeting about like let's
Speaker 1: talk about like impairments and disability and like how we
Speaker 1: just like shouldn't you know, stigmatize people who struggle with
Speaker 1: these things and Um, and he brings in Um, the
Speaker 1: building manager who uses a wheelchair, and he kind of
Speaker 1: like starts saying like, this is just I've used a
Speaker 1: wheelchair since I was a little kid, Like, it's not
Speaker 1: even necessarily something I noticed at this point, and Michael
Speaker 1: breaks in and he says like, well, if you noticed it,
Speaker 1: didn't you, but it was the first thing you noticed
Speaker 1: when he walked in here. And so to me, that
Speaker 1: kind of makes the distinction between like, Michael is incredibly
Speaker 1: awkward and that was an incredibly awkward thing to say,
Speaker 1: but I don't think he feels it, you know, but
Speaker 1: everyone else in the room is like, oh my god, Like,
Speaker 1: what what do we say now? I'm so uncomfortable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like he's an awkward person, yes, but we all
Speaker 1: feel awkward, yes, And I think that there are people
Speaker 1: who are more bothered by that feeling, and you're one
Speaker 1: of those people. I think. So I'm wondering when was
Speaker 1: when did you realize that this was something that really
Speaker 1: got to you, this awkward feeling, or that you even
Speaker 1: had it, So, I mean, if I can kind of
Speaker 1: like armchair psychologist myself, I think like when we're teenagers,
Speaker 1: everybody feels this to it a really extreme degree, like um,
Speaker 1: and we know that and there's there's researched on that
Speaker 1: as well, that teenagers are really like sensitive to moments
Speaker 1: that kind of like deviate from the norm. How does
Speaker 1: like the work environment or just the working world in
Speaker 1: general exacerbate these these feelings or does it? I think
Speaker 1: definitely so, because work is like this atmosphere, and it's
Speaker 1: a coincidence that like there are two like giant hit
Speaker 1: shows about awkwardus in the office, right like and the
Speaker 1: Office of the office and the office, and like there's
Speaker 1: like international versions to this is like a very you know,
Speaker 1: like a international thing. I think it's that there are
Speaker 1: spoken rules, but then there are so many like unspoken
Speaker 1: rules about you know, you definitely like have to be
Speaker 1: here at a certain time and you have to get
Speaker 1: this in at a certain time, but then there are
Speaker 1: all these like unwritten rules about like what is appropriate
Speaker 1: and like what should be communicated and what shouldn't be
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like navigating that like the gray areas.
Speaker 1: I suppose is where this can come up for me
Speaker 1: certainly so, and you also mentioned it's a lot about
Speaker 1: a self consciousness, and we're so often in situations that
Speaker 1: work with people were definitely not comfortable with and wouldn't
Speaker 1: necessarily be around. I wonder if that has something to
Speaker 1: do with it. Oh, definitely, Yeah, that's that's actually a
Speaker 1: really interesting point. Yeah, So it's kind of like figuring
Speaker 1: out how to relate to other people or like how
Speaker 1: they're kind of seeing you. Um. But for for me,
Speaker 1: kind of one of the aspects of self consciousness at
Speaker 1: work is um. Some something I reade about in the
Speaker 1: book is like part of awkwardness is like when the
Speaker 1: version of yourself that like you kind of keep this
Speaker 1: little version of yourself in your mind. And I think
Speaker 1: sometimes awkwardness can be the result of seeing that maybe
Speaker 1: you don't look that way to other people. So sometimes
Speaker 1: this can be extremely dark in the workplace, Like if
Speaker 1: you just kind of google like awkward workplace situations, when
Speaker 1: that comes up a lot is like salary negotiations or something,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, and that's like literally you have to say,
Speaker 1: like I think I am worth this much, I think
Speaker 1: that I have X experience to get this job, and
Speaker 1: and it's kind of I think it's awkward because you're
Speaker 1: putting yourself out there to have people say to you like, well,
Speaker 1: actually I think you're worth this much. So yeah, and
Speaker 1: it takes you right out of your comfort zone of
Speaker 1: like what is a normal interaction that's such a rare
Speaker 1: conversation that you have a salary negotiation that there aren't
Speaker 1: you don't automatically know the rules for it. Again, it's
Speaker 1: it's something where they're there are sort of rules, but
Speaker 1: there aren't really. I mean like sometimes it's even like
Speaker 1: in a job interview. Sometimes it's brought up right away.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to ask about it. It's uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's a lot of grayness there.
Speaker 1: So we talked about the awkward job negotiations and salaries,
Speaker 1: But do you have any specific examples of awkward moments
Speaker 1: that you've experienced at the office or seen your coworkers
Speaker 1: experience that you want to share. They're like big ways
Speaker 1: in small ways, this can come up, you know, Like
Speaker 1: just recently, we kind of had like a bit of
Speaker 1: a restructure at work, and I didn't like literally didn't
Speaker 1: know who my boss was for a minute. Which was
Speaker 1: weird and uncomfortable to admit. Um, But by that point
Speaker 1: I was finishing up the book, so I knew not
Speaker 1: to be afraid of the awkwardness, and I just had
Speaker 1: to kind of have the conversation and say I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Who was my supervisor at this point or this was
Speaker 1: a long time ago, but I got a promotion and
Speaker 1: nobody knew about it, like my boss didn't tell anybody
Speaker 1: about it. So I had to just bring up, like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is making things weird for me. It was extremely
Speaker 1: award to tell people like I'm more senior than you
Speaker 1: now yeah. Yeah, So I had to be the one
Speaker 1: who kept having to be like, well, I actually remember
Speaker 1: this specifically, like, um, I was talking with somebody in
Speaker 1: like a different department who hadn't heard it about any
Speaker 1: of this, and they kept saying like, oh, should we
Speaker 1: run this by X person? And I just kept having
Speaker 1: to say like like no, no, we don't need to,
Speaker 1: like no, I'm I can give you okay on this
Speaker 1: or yeah. So that was that was That was awkward. Um.
Speaker 1: So you have some techniques or ideas in your book
Speaker 1: of how to kind of overcome some of these awkward situations.
Speaker 1: Do you want to kind of give us a taste
Speaker 1: of those. Okay, Well, to me, like the big the
Speaker 1: biggest kind of thing to kind of get your head
Speaker 1: around is like, can you maybe start to see these
Speaker 1: moments as as funny rather than rather than horrible, rather
Speaker 1: than scary? You know. I mean it's it's not always possible,
Speaker 1: but that can kind of help these things be less scary. Um,
Speaker 1: And you know, the uncertainty aspect of it's just like
Speaker 1: human nature to be to be kind of apprehensive about
Speaker 1: uncertain situations. Um, but just to kind of learn how
Speaker 1: to like withstand that is comfort of uncertainty. Um. This
Speaker 1: is in the book, but this of a friend who
Speaker 1: told me about um, their boss who this was like
Speaker 1: a notorious story around their office. I guess where people
Speaker 1: would like come in and um like ask for a
Speaker 1: raise or ask for a promotion, and the boss would
Speaker 1: just like like sit there and just like let like
Speaker 1: awkward moments of silence, just like tick By. And the
Speaker 1: story I guess was that people just would end up
Speaker 1: being like never mind, like you know what, I'll take
Speaker 1: a pay cut, I'll take into motion, you know. So
Speaker 1: so if you can kind of like figure out how
Speaker 1: to just be comfortable in awkward silences and awkward moments
Speaker 1: and just realize it's it's uncomfortable, but it's not going
Speaker 1: to kill you. Sort of feels high risk, but maybe
Speaker 1: the reward is higher. So, um, you know, just for
Speaker 1: an uncomfortable situation where that I mentioned before that you know,
Speaker 1: I had gotten this like weird secret promotion, Like I
Speaker 1: just kind of that was really weird for a while,
Speaker 1: and I was really afraid of talking to my boss
Speaker 1: and being like, I'm can you can you like send
Speaker 1: a note about this? Can you tell people about this?
Speaker 1: But I finally did it and then he was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, no, I see, I see how that would help.
Speaker 1: And so then, um, you know that did help. People
Speaker 1: are so clueless and really well if you didn't think
Speaker 1: to do that, yeah, exactly exactly. It's kind of just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, kind of a motto for me has
Speaker 1: sort of been like you have to either face the
Speaker 1: awkwardness or just like accept the situation, like and and
Speaker 1: maybe maybe sometimes you can with withstand the situation, but
Speaker 1: I think it's usually worth trying to just say something
Speaker 1: and have the awkward conversation. You also argue that maybe
Speaker 1: we shouldn't try to get over awkwardness and that it's good.
Speaker 1: How can that be possible? What I mean more by
Speaker 1: that is that if you are a person who is
Speaker 1: like sensitive to these moments, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Like that means that you're picking up on discomfort and
Speaker 1: you're picking up on these on these moments where there
Speaker 1: is some kind of like gray areas, and that's not
Speaker 1: a bad thing. It's good to be like aware of that.
Speaker 1: I would much rather be the kind of person who's
Speaker 1: aware of that than the kind of person who just
Speaker 1: like causes discomfort and Michael Scott and Michael Scott, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't. I would rather be the kind of person
Speaker 1: who is aware of these moments and you know, you
Speaker 1: could learn to use them, like my friend's boss, who
Speaker 1: like you know, is able to just like have some
Speaker 1: uncomfortable moments take by It sounds like also you have,
Speaker 1: as you described earlier, sometimes you have these feelings that
Speaker 1: aren't necessarily perceived by others. So maybe just knowing how
Speaker 1: how common it is allows you to let yourself off
Speaker 1: the hook a little bit for those those moments. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: I mean this is this is something in the book
Speaker 1: actually ah, it's called the spotlight effect. This is something
Speaker 1: in this psychological literature, and it's kind of this idea
Speaker 1: that like your flaws are much more, they stand out
Speaker 1: more in your mind just because you're paying more attention
Speaker 1: to yourself, you know. But like there was a there
Speaker 1: was a question actually, um, kind of in your guys
Speaker 1: email to me that was like, you know, or maybe
Speaker 1: maybe we talked about this, maybe someone said this during
Speaker 1: our conversation, but like, you know, a time when someone
Speaker 1: else caused an awkward moment. I've been like trying to
Speaker 1: think about that all morning, Like I'm sure, of course
Speaker 1: that's happened, but like, why can't I think of anything?
Speaker 1: You know. It's just like your own moments stand out
Speaker 1: more in your mind just because you're paying more attention
Speaker 1: to yourself. And it's not to say that other people
Speaker 1: aren't noticing, because they certainly do. But but maybe they
Speaker 1: notice and then they immediately forget about it, or like
Speaker 1: they noticed there just who cares? You know, I that
Speaker 1: was weird, but like, you know, like I said something
Speaker 1: weird two hours ago. So that's a lesson. We've definitely
Speaker 1: talked about here on game Plan that people don't really
Speaker 1: care about you know, what's really thinking about you as
Speaker 1: much as you're thinking, oh my god, it's such a
Speaker 1: like freeing thing when you realize that actually just like yeah,
Speaker 1: no one, no one really cares that much. Like it's
Speaker 1: it's great. Are there ways though, that you do think
Speaker 1: we can use our awkwardness to our advantage at work?
Speaker 1: One thing, like maybe like if you say something, um,
Speaker 1: and it was taken in the wrong way and so
Speaker 1: you kind of caused an awkward moment um, you could
Speaker 1: kind of think of that as an opportunity to grow
Speaker 1: a little bit or to learn a little bit, you know,
Speaker 1: if someone didn't perceive you in the way that you
Speaker 1: think you're coming off, like, oh, I didn't mean it
Speaker 1: that way, but that's that's how they saw that. And
Speaker 1: maybe I should take that in and consider that and
Speaker 1: consider how I can say things better or I can
Speaker 1: do things better so people are understanding me. Um. But
Speaker 1: I don't know, I really think just like part of
Speaker 1: it is just like keeping a sense of humor about
Speaker 1: it too, Just like if if you if you are
Speaker 1: attuned to these moments, just like just letting yourself off
Speaker 1: the hook a little bit for him, if you see
Speaker 1: other people if if you're more attuned to this in yourself,
Speaker 1: you probably notice it more in others too, and kind
Speaker 1: of just like helping them out of situations. Um. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I liked what you said about if you're awkward or
Speaker 1: if you have a lot of these moments, it's probably
Speaker 1: a sign that you're more tuned in and the average
Speaker 1: person to the social dynamics of a situation. So may
Speaker 1: be being aware of that can actually give you a
Speaker 1: slight advantage, even if in the moment it feels terrible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do think so. Yeah, it's like you're you're paying
Speaker 1: attention to these like these nuances of human interaction, and
Speaker 1: so it means you're maybe like noticing people's moods or
Speaker 1: people's reactions to you, which can certainly be to your benefit.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't really want this feeling to totally go away,
Speaker 1: you know, because like when it comes up, it like
Speaker 1: it means like, oh, something went wrong, why you know,
Speaker 1: And that's that's useful. Well, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming and talking to us about awkward. Thanks. Thanks guys.
Speaker 1: We think of personality types as these fixed things like
Speaker 1: you are an E. N T J. But I like
Speaker 1: how Melissa makes a distinction where awkwardness is a feeling
Speaker 1: like you are you feel awkward and therefore you can
Speaker 1: overcome it. It's not like something that you're stuck in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's probably a lot more helpful to think about,
Speaker 1: you know, areas where you might have strengths and weaknesses
Speaker 1: than it is to just try and classify yourself and
Speaker 1: leave it there forever, because you can probably close off
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities. Like even when I take that
Speaker 1: Myers Briggs test, like I've taken it a few times
Speaker 1: and I always get a slightly different result. I'm always
Speaker 1: an extrovert, but you know, the P and the T
Speaker 1: and the J like that gets mixed around a little
Speaker 1: because you're always shifting and changing. So I think that's
Speaker 1: probably part of the danger of using it to screen
Speaker 1: people too, But it can probably give you some clues
Speaker 1: into the areas that maybe you could work on a
Speaker 1: little bit more if it's right for your job thoughts. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't always have to be an E N T.
Speaker 1: J if you don't want to be. Yeah, you can
Speaker 1: change and grow as a person. And the other thing
Speaker 1: I think is important to remember is that if you
Speaker 1: are doing a job and you feel like your personality
Speaker 1: isn't perfect for that job. Like, let's say you're an introvert,
Speaker 1: but you're in a job that requires a lot of communication.
Speaker 1: It's not totally out of the question to try and
Speaker 1: move toward work that you are better at because you
Speaker 1: are more suited to it personality wise. I think we
Speaker 1: can tend to think like, oh, there's jobs that just
Speaker 1: need to be done here, and that's what my boss
Speaker 1: hired me for, so they'll never consider me doing this
Speaker 1: other thing. But actually, like, if you're not very good
Speaker 1: at your current job or very productive in your current job,
Speaker 1: because you're not super well suited to it and there's
Speaker 1: something you could be better at, like good manager will
Speaker 1: be able to identify that. It's better to have you
Speaker 1: being productive and engaged at work at something you're good
Speaker 1: at than kind of checked out at something you're not
Speaker 1: that good at because it's just not your personality. So
Speaker 1: what you're saying is I'm still allowed to be weirdly
Speaker 1: into taking my mayor's brace. Yeah, just have fun with it,
Speaker 1: don't take it too seriously. And now it's time for
Speaker 1: half bake takes half fake takes. If you have your
Speaker 1: own half fake take you can call into our hotline
Speaker 1: at two and two six seven zero one six six.
Speaker 1: If you called it recently and it didn't work, we
Speaker 1: are so sorry. There were technical difficulties on our end,
Speaker 1: but we promised to get it up and running again,
Speaker 1: and it's our last chance. So Colin Francesca, what is
Speaker 1: your half pick? Take? Well, Melissa got me thinking about
Speaker 1: awkward moments, and I have a virtual one that I
Speaker 1: just want to get off my chest because I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of people probably feel this as well.
Speaker 1: It's that special mortification that you get when you open
Speaker 1: up your workplace group chat software of your preference and
Speaker 1: you see a message from a colleague and you like
Speaker 1: reply really excitedly, like oh my god, yes, I totally
Speaker 1: agree or whatever. You have some urgent response, and then
Speaker 1: a line break appears and you realize they actually sent
Speaker 1: that message, like on a Friday, and it's Monday morning
Speaker 1: or even late last night, and you just completely missed
Speaker 1: the conversation. But now you're weighing it is a You're
Speaker 1: in the middle of the conversation. Do you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about? Am I talking to the wind here? No?
Speaker 1: I get it, um, I get less. I'm more upset
Speaker 1: that um people aren't going to be as excited about
Speaker 1: my response because it's been such a long time. It's
Speaker 1: like less a feeling of mortification and I don't know,
Speaker 1: I guess that's really messed up. I mean, it's never
Speaker 1: like it's never work related, because if it were something
Speaker 1: that was relevant to work, like, it wouldn't matter when
Speaker 1: you responded if somebody's like, oh, you know, this thing
Speaker 1: needs to be done by this deadline, and then two
Speaker 1: days later you're like, okay, Roger that it's fine. It's
Speaker 1: not embarrassing. It's more embarrassing when someone's like, L O
Speaker 1: L can you believe this thing happened? And you're like,
Speaker 1: I know, right, I don't know. I always feel I
Speaker 1: feel like a tech dummy, Like really, I couldn't just
Speaker 1: read the time stamp. No, you just have really good
Speaker 1: work life balance. You shut that sock off or whatever,
Speaker 1: And that's how I should follow up each mortifying response.
Speaker 1: Oh maybe you noticed I sent this three days later.
Speaker 1: It's because of my good work life fell exactly, Becca,
Speaker 1: What is or have big take minus about open office?
Speaker 1: No at all? You know who you are if you
Speaker 1: if you take a zi cam. Sorry, go ahead, which,
Speaker 1: for those of you don't know, is a zinc tablet
Speaker 1: meant to combat the common cold if taken early enough.
Speaker 1: My husband is a big zy cam evangelist, So yeah,
Speaker 1: if you take a zi cam in the open office,
Speaker 1: no less than three people will tell you that it
Speaker 1: doesn't work out loud to your face. And I feel
Speaker 1: like this happens with other things too, like yeah, or
Speaker 1: like just feeling the need to tell you what should
Speaker 1: be they think common knowledge about your habits. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I want to do this, I understand.
Speaker 1: I've seen the blog posts. I know when it's about
Speaker 1: something like a cold remedy and people are like people
Speaker 1: are basically saying like, oh, it's just the placebo effect.
Speaker 1: You're not getting any better from that. Like what do
Speaker 1: they want for you to like spit it out and
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, thank you so much. I'm
Speaker 1: just going to stay yeah, like sorry, not sorry. And
Speaker 1: by the way, the placebo effect is still an effect.
Speaker 1: So if that's all it is and you feel better
Speaker 1: and you feel better haters, Yeah, I don't know. Mostly
Speaker 1: I'm annoyed about the know it all is um not
Speaker 1: not like dying on a hell of herz I cam
Speaker 1: mostly just don't need to be a know it all
Speaker 1: on my face while my habits. Yeah, it's like it's
Speaker 1: like if somebody were eating a turkey sandwich and you
Speaker 1: were like, you know, turkey actually doesn't taste very good.
Speaker 1: Like your opinion is totally not relevant to what someone
Speaker 1: else is doing with their own personal health and safety.
Speaker 1: I think it's just another like pitfall of the open office,
Speaker 1: too close people in your business exactly. And this has
Speaker 1: been half big takes, half baked takes. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to another episode of game Plan. You can find me
Speaker 1: on Twitter. I'm at rsy Greenfield and I'm at Francesca today.
Speaker 1: You can tweet at us with any message, including your
Speaker 1: half baked takes. You can also call and leave us
Speaker 1: a voicemail at two and two six one seven zero
Speaker 1: one six. If you want to hear from us even more,
Speaker 1: sign up for our newsletter. You can find it at
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Speaker 1: you like our show is go to Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen and shoot us a review. Rate us subscribe.
Speaker 1: All of those things are really helpful for the show.
Speaker 1: The show is produced by Liz Smith and Magnus Hendrickson.
Speaker 1: The head of podcast is Francesca Levie. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next week. Bye. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. Buffalo, buffalo, buffalo, buffalo, buffalo. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I get it now