Speaker 1: This is it. This is the last time for a
Speaker 1: while that you'll hear from us. Game Plan is taking
Speaker 1: a break. We decided for our last show, what better
Speaker 1: way to go out than with an episode full of
Speaker 1: half bake takes. You're welcome. This is game Plan. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Rebecca Greenfield and I'm Francesco Leavy. And this week
Speaker 1: we can't even bear to think about life without game Plan,
Speaker 1: so we're not Yeah, we're gonna keep it light and
Speaker 1: we are going to give the people what they want. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure you all want half bake takes
Speaker 1: because that is what we've heard of fan favorite part
Speaker 1: of the episode, and it's our favorite part of the episode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is always the easiest part of the show to record,
Speaker 1: the segment at the end where we air our on
Speaker 1: formed but very passionate ideas about the workplace and other things.
Speaker 1: So what about our way to say goodbye than to
Speaker 1: just go through some half baked takes that we have stockpiled. Yep,
Speaker 1: we have on a half big take backlog to clear,
Speaker 1: so let's jump right in and start doing it. Half
Speaker 1: fake takes. All right, what is your first half bag
Speaker 1: take to share? So here's a little piece of meeting
Speaker 1: etiquette I've been struggling with. In this highly connected world
Speaker 1: that we live in, it's very easy to contact people
Speaker 1: when they're not physically around, like say they're a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes late for a meeting, So you might get
Speaker 1: a little ping on your group chat app, or you
Speaker 1: might get an email that says like, hey, this meeting started,
Speaker 1: We're in the meeting room. Where are you. My question
Speaker 1: is one, what is the right number of minutes to
Speaker 1: wait before you send that email? Because I've gotten that
Speaker 1: email as early as one or two minutes after the
Speaker 1: meeting started, and I think that that's a little uncool
Speaker 1: because our our building is enormous and massive, and some
Speaker 1: conference rooms are hidden in weird corners, and like it
Speaker 1: could take you ten to fifteen minutes just to find one.
Speaker 1: So like, two minutes late for meeting, okay, you don't
Speaker 1: want to be late for meetings, but like, calm down, people.
Speaker 1: My instinct is always four minutes after I find myself
Speaker 1: looking at my watch and saying, this person's latens four
Speaker 1: minutes and I want to email them, but I forced
Speaker 1: myself to wait until after five minutes. Well, this brings
Speaker 1: up my second point, which is when is it too late?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like there's a there's an accurate window
Speaker 1: or an appropriate window. And like because I've emailed people
Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes after a meeting started, and I'm really
Speaker 1: at that point. I'm just making the point like I
Speaker 1: came to the meeting room and waited, and I served
Speaker 1: my time here, knowing full well after like five or
Speaker 1: six minutes that you probably weren't going to come. Um.
Speaker 1: And so the point of that email is really just
Speaker 1: to say I sat in a meeting room for fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes alone because you're not gonna then keep sitting there
Speaker 1: after you send that email, right, so you kind of
Speaker 1: on the email and then leave the room. It's very
Speaker 1: it's as I we often talk about performative, right. So
Speaker 1: I think the half big take then is depending on
Speaker 1: what time you send the email, you're sending a different message. Yes, right,
Speaker 1: it's either like hurry up and get to this meeting,
Speaker 1: or it's like did you forget about it? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: forgot about this meeting, and I just want to make
Speaker 1: you aware that I did not forget about it. Um.
Speaker 1: So I I like your four minute more. I think
Speaker 1: the four to five minute mark is probably a good
Speaker 1: starting time that people and then well, but if it's
Speaker 1: a half hour meeting, like five minutes late is fairly late.
Speaker 1: So I'd say, yeah, like maybe the five to seven
Speaker 1: minute window. That's when you can send like a good
Speaker 1: faith email that or chat that's like, yeah, what do
Speaker 1: you hurry? Hey, we're in whatever conference room. I sometimes
Speaker 1: say we're still doing this, which I think might be aggressive. No, No,
Speaker 1: I would receive that as as intended still on question
Speaker 1: mark and you're hoping the answer is no, right, or
Speaker 1: sometimes like when you have plans, yeah, you always want
Speaker 1: the meeting to be canceled. I'm here, Yeah, that's aggressive here,
Speaker 1: I am okay, Becca, what's your first half bag take
Speaker 1: of this marathon? Mine is about self care at the office. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm not very good at self care in general, but
Speaker 1: the best self care hack I've ever done is just
Speaker 1: buying a bottle of really fancy hand lotion and sticking
Speaker 1: it on my desk. Amen improved my quality of life
Speaker 1: so much, especially in these dry winter months. How fancy
Speaker 1: are we talking? Are you? Are you comfortable discussing this
Speaker 1: brand called bar and Co. I think it maybe from St. Louis.
Speaker 1: It's it's a Midwestern brand. I believe I got any
Speaker 1: and you know it's pretty comes in a glass bottle.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's really nice and it's glass things at
Speaker 1: the office. That's another that's another way to up your
Speaker 1: desk game. I think there's a lot of small self
Speaker 1: care hacs one can do that I haven't quite done yet,
Speaker 1: like having a nice mug or a really nice glass
Speaker 1: or water bottle or I'm not there. I'm just at
Speaker 1: the hand lotion. But it's great. But the hand lotion
Speaker 1: is it's like more than just a psychological thing because
Speaker 1: you're in you know this circulated air. Your skin does
Speaker 1: get really dry in the winter. Like this is a
Speaker 1: this is a non gender specific thing. Everybody should be
Speaker 1: lotioning it up. Should we talk about the one hand
Speaker 1: lotion liability issue? There are lots of potential downfalls and
Speaker 1: that your hands get very greasy. Well, you just have
Speaker 1: to be careful how you time your bathroom visits and
Speaker 1: your lotion hand lotioning sessions, because if you wash your
Speaker 1: hands too soon after you lotion up, it's it's gross.
Speaker 1: It's also like falls off or washes off, and then
Speaker 1: it's a waste of highly fancy lotion. For some people. Also,
Speaker 1: if you use a biometric device, let's say, and you
Speaker 1: have to swipe your finger on something, you can mess
Speaker 1: it up with the hand lotion. I didn't even think
Speaker 1: about at Yeah. And then there's another lotion liability. Well,
Speaker 1: there's rings. If you wear a ring or jewelry, it's
Speaker 1: you've got to kind of take them off and then
Speaker 1: wait a while before you put them back on. Otherwise
Speaker 1: you get them. Yeah. But okay, no, no more downsides
Speaker 1: of lotioning. I honestly get excited to get to work
Speaker 1: and put it on. How many times a day do
Speaker 1: you do it? Just once? Oh? Just get in. For me,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a compulsion. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: when my hands are idle, I put on the lotion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so maybe I should cut it down. It's your habit. Okay, Francesca,
Speaker 1: do you have another half big take for us? Do I?
Speaker 1: Here's an office pet peeve of mine. Um, anytime I
Speaker 1: hear this phrase quote, well you're too young to remember this,
Speaker 1: but insert anything here. First of all, this is usually
Speaker 1: said I've noticed by men two women. Second of all,
Speaker 1: it usually and often incorrectly assumes someone's age. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: not really, I don't have a lot of conversations with
Speaker 1: people about my age, and like, to be honest, I
Speaker 1: don't actually hear this as much as I used to.
Speaker 1: But you know, it tends to assume someone's age, and
Speaker 1: I think women tend to be a Women are often
Speaker 1: assumed to be younger than they are because people think
Speaker 1: we're dumb. But then also suppose you are too young
Speaker 1: to remember whatever thing. First of all, you might be
Speaker 1: like chronologically younger than you know when that thing happened,
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you don't know it happened. And it's
Speaker 1: just I feel like it's a way of undermining people,
Speaker 1: Like it's sort of like masked as a compliment, like
Speaker 1: oh you look young, but actually it's saying like I've
Speaker 1: experienced more, I've been around the world, I understand the
Speaker 1: way things work, and you wouldn't remember, you know, there
Speaker 1: was somebody called Reagan who was president. Was My main
Speaker 1: problem with it is that, which is, if you weren't
Speaker 1: alive during this time period, how could you possibly know
Speaker 1: about X thing? But it's like we all know who
Speaker 1: the Beatles are, right, Like, yeah, just because you were
Speaker 1: waiting online for their album to come out, and yeah,
Speaker 1: now maybe now I understand why it bothers me so much.
Speaker 1: It does suggest that, like, you're so stupid that you
Speaker 1: wouldn't know about anything that's culturally significant outside of the
Speaker 1: time period you're alive. Yeah, I'm with you. I really
Speaker 1: don't like it. It happens a lot, I think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a way of people who I honestly think the
Speaker 1: people saying and are just insecure. Yeah, they feel like
Speaker 1: they're surrounded by a bunch of youngs and they're lashing out.
Speaker 1: They need to show that they're superior because they were
Speaker 1: really into I don't know, Rah, I don't know. So
Speaker 1: you're not superior people, and you also might be wrong
Speaker 1: about someone's age. So stop guessing, Becca, what's up next?
Speaker 1: This is a pretty selfish half bake take. It might
Speaker 1: be specific to our office, but there is somebody here
Speaker 1: who hates Sunshine and I don't know what's wrong with you.
Speaker 1: But you're I don't know what's wrong with you. There's
Speaker 1: something wrong with you. Basically, here at Bloomberg, we have
Speaker 1: blinds that we share because we're in a big, open office,
Speaker 1: and you have to request two facilities to raise the
Speaker 1: blinds if you want them raised, and you have to
Speaker 1: request to lower them if you want them lowered, and
Speaker 1: I've been told that having them lowered is preferenced over
Speaker 1: having them raised because you can live with dark horrible office,
Speaker 1: but you can't live with glare on your screen. I
Speaker 1: like them up. I want sunshine in my life. It's
Speaker 1: dark out. Also can start at like four pm. Start
Speaker 1: at four pm. I've had people asked for the blinds
Speaker 1: to be down when it's raining outside. What is that?
Speaker 1: So there might be more You might have more than
Speaker 1: one secret enemy here. Yeah, get multiple people requesting to
Speaker 1: be shrouded in darkness all day, in the darkest hours
Speaker 1: of winter. Why would you want that? And then also
Speaker 1: there is no screen glare on our side. The sun
Speaker 1: does not. You can't actually see the sun the orbs
Speaker 1: by building these people about the sun. Do you think
Speaker 1: they're vampires? Maybe maybe we work with vampires. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've gotten into wars. It really upsets me, you know.
Speaker 1: I think that there are I don't understand why someone
Speaker 1: would actually prefer darkness over sunlight, but I definitely have
Speaker 1: noticed that there are those people who don't mind darkness
Speaker 1: in the winter. And I feel like there's like widespread
Speaker 1: awareness of seasonal effective disorder now and most of us
Speaker 1: kind of understand we're generally sadder in the wintertime because
Speaker 1: there's less sun. And so I think now like the
Speaker 1: weird people are the people who don't suffer from sad Yeah,
Speaker 1: lucky you. I can literally feel the seratonin or whatever
Speaker 1: flow through my brain when those blinds go up, just
Speaker 1: saying I'm with you, Becca, that's hard. Okay, Francisca. Before
Speaker 1: I ask you for more half big takes, we have
Speaker 1: a listener half big take this week. Let's hear it. Hi,
Speaker 1: this is Katie from Chicago. My hat take take tested
Speaker 1: along with you buy good shoes in the last episode,
Speaker 1: and it's that buy a decent purse or work bag
Speaker 1: and keep it looking nice. Too many people, well there's
Speaker 1: no rough too early and uh corla used that does
Speaker 1: that buy the correct bag for the environment you're in.
Speaker 1: You should not be walking in with your gym backpack
Speaker 1: into a meeting with executives. So thank you guys so much. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would layer another thing onto this, which is coats,
Speaker 1: um and cold weather environments. It's very easy to like
Speaker 1: hang on to that, you know, comfy but ratty looking
Speaker 1: puffy coat that you've had for a few years and
Speaker 1: a certain point it's it's totally true for bags and shoes,
Speaker 1: but I think that yeah, bags and coats getting neglected
Speaker 1: to a point where it's like you could have a
Speaker 1: totally sharp outfit and it's undermined on those rare occasions
Speaker 1: when you you like walk into an environment like let's
Speaker 1: say you're visiting someone else at their office and you've
Speaker 1: got like this sad coat and sad bag, because those
Speaker 1: are things you do you don't think about as part
Speaker 1: of your outfit because they go on the outside and
Speaker 1: you don't have them on all day, but someone's bound
Speaker 1: to see you in them at some point, and then
Speaker 1: you're going to feel sad. I think I agree, But
Speaker 1: I do like the trend of people wearing backpacks and
Speaker 1: even though it makes subway commuting help, we will not
Speaker 1: get into that, but it's more comfortable. But there's so
Speaker 1: many nice backpacks. You're right, I think if you want
Speaker 1: a backpack strategy, as long as you're thoughtful about it,
Speaker 1: and you have a backpack that like you know, like
Speaker 1: the caller said, fits with the environment of your office.
Speaker 1: So if it's like a nice leather backpack, or whatever.
Speaker 1: I like it. Yeah, I think the overriding theme is
Speaker 1: like outerwear in general, it also matters. Okay, Frantasca back
Speaker 1: to you more half bag takes. Well, I have a
Speaker 1: half big take that is kind of like the sum
Speaker 1: total of all my life's thoughts up to this point,
Speaker 1: and I've I've really been saving it for the right moment. It's, um,
Speaker 1: it's not work related, but it's it's pretty important. So
Speaker 1: I'm just going to get right into it. Um. I
Speaker 1: have a kid now, as you may know, and it
Speaker 1: has exposed me to a very insidious lesson. Our children
Speaker 1: are being taught by the children's book industrial complex, and
Speaker 1: it is wrong and dangerous and that thing our children
Speaker 1: are being taught, and that we are we are arrived
Speaker 1: at adulthood. Believing is the lie that sheep are cute.
Speaker 1: Sheep are not cute. If you've ever seen a sheep
Speaker 1: in real life, you know that they are mean. They
Speaker 1: are pretty gross. They have crazy eyes, they make a
Speaker 1: noise like a human baby, which is weird and creepy,
Speaker 1: and they're dumb, so they will attack unprovoked. Sheep not cute,
Speaker 1: not fluffy, Okay, dirty and gross. Mean, you can't tell
Speaker 1: me otherwise. Wow, there's a lot to unpack here. My
Speaker 1: main reaction to this is, are maybe most barnyard animals
Speaker 1: not cute, Like we've cutified this group of animals for
Speaker 1: our children's sake. Yes, and maybe, like I think that's
Speaker 1: probably true. And the most egregious example is shee and
Speaker 1: sheep like pigs, we know, you know, like pigs, like
Speaker 1: it's like oink oink, they're pink and you know in cartoons.
Speaker 1: But also we kind of know pigs roll around in dirt,
Speaker 1: SOI pigs have like, you know, positive and negative stereotypes,
Speaker 1: but sheep it's just so far from the reality of
Speaker 1: what they really are like. And I you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I don't want to brag, but I'm the founder of
Speaker 1: the Cute Animal chat room here at Bloomberg, and I
Speaker 1: forbade sheep from being included in uh in that room.
Speaker 1: Now a lot of people violate that and they know
Speaker 1: who they are. But um, you know, I set the
Speaker 1: rules for what animals are cute. Sheep are not allowed. Also,
Speaker 1: hairless cats not cute? Oh yeah those are not cute. Hi. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't want to accept this, but I see what
Speaker 1: you're saying. I think even if you see a picture
Speaker 1: of a sheep like a real sheep in the wild,
Speaker 1: babies are those lambs lammies. See. I'm obviously not a
Speaker 1: farm person, but I've been around farm city girl over here,
Speaker 1: and I did have a bad experience where I heard
Speaker 1: of sheep came way too close to me on a
Speaker 1: very high cliff in the United Kingdom. That's where this
Speaker 1: is coming from. So I know what sheep are really like.
Speaker 1: They have shown me their true face. Stop spreading this
Speaker 1: wide to your children, because if they get around a sheet,
Speaker 1: they're gonna try to pet them. They don't want to
Speaker 1: be petted. They'll probably bite your child. Okay, I'm really
Speaker 1: happy that I got that out there. Becca. What's your
Speaker 1: next half bag take? So my final partying half bake
Speaker 1: take is pretty simple. It's that movies are too long.
Speaker 1: Just all movies, not not hashtag not all movies, but yes,
Speaker 1: a lot of movies. It seems like in the last
Speaker 1: five years maybe movies have become on average more than
Speaker 1: two hours, or lots of movies are more than two hours.
Speaker 1: It's very rarely that you'll have a good hour and
Speaker 1: a half hour movie that's not a children's movie. Basically,
Speaker 1: and it's too long. It's hard to go two and
Speaker 1: a half hours without a bathroom break. Yeah, it gets
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have to have a bathroom break during a movie.
Speaker 1: You need to get editor. Movie makers ever think about that.
Speaker 1: I don't know, think about it, think about getting an editor.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they have editors, but they probably do. I
Speaker 1: don't have the time or the patients. There's always like
Speaker 1: a scene or two that could be cut. Movies too long.
Speaker 1: That's my happy take, and this has been our happy
Speaker 1: bag take Marathon happy bag takes. Well, since it's the
Speaker 1: last time you'll be hearing from us for a while,
Speaker 1: we really just want to thank our listeners so so much.
Speaker 1: You guys have been so engaged and have made doing
Speaker 1: this even more fun and valuable than it already would
Speaker 1: have been. Um, we hope you had fun, enjoyed what
Speaker 1: you heard, and learned a couple of things along the way,
Speaker 1: and you can still be in touch with us. I'm
Speaker 1: still on Twitter at RSI Greenfield. I will continue you
Speaker 1: writing about all the issues we talked about on this
Speaker 1: show every week. I'm still on Twitter at Francesca today
Speaker 1: and you'll probably be hearing some cool new stuff from
Speaker 1: one or both of us again down the line, So
Speaker 1: keep us in your feeds, and if you come up
Speaker 1: with a half big take, we still want to hear it.
Speaker 1: This is kind of our life's work. Half big takes
Speaker 1: are the thing we're probably proudest of um and we
Speaker 1: want to keep sharing them with you, so don't be shy.
Speaker 1: And a super special thanks to our producers Liz Smith
Speaker 1: and Magnus Hendrickson and that A Podcasts you Francisca Levi
Speaker 1: Yeah whatever, but mostly Liz and Magnus who really made
Speaker 1: the show what it is. And that's all for now.
Speaker 1: Bye bye, happy baked takes, that do it, happyage takes,
Speaker 1: This is it? Nope, that sounded very convincing. Great, all right,