January 25, 2015

"Every time I talk to someone about starting my career or being in my twenties everyone says, 'Your twenties are pretty terrible. I don't know if anyone's ever told you that before but your twenties are a hard time.'" - April Laissle

"What I've noticed in terms of getting your first job...is that no one wants to train people...they want someone else to have done that. They want the polished version, ready for work." - Ade Okeowo

22 minutes.

Ade Okeowo

For some the twenties are a fun, relatively carefree time (who are these people?), but for many women this decade is stressful. They're trying to work out how they fit into the workplace, whether they're even in the right career, and how to communicate with older colleagues. The world is far more competitive than it was 20-plus years ago when I started working. But that's not the only thing that's different about the old me and today's twenty-somethings.

I did this show because a listener in London, Ade Okeowo, asked me to. She and Broad Experience intern April Laissle are my two main guests. One is several years into a career, the other is on the cusp of hers. Each has plenty to say.April Laissle

December 17, 2014

“You take a normal body and you make it even more compact and that’s a sign of, quote, femininity, and it’s also a sign of low power.” - Marianne LaFrance

“Quite often I get pulled in for a kiss. And I’ve had one person tell me not to be so formal. I think...some men think a handshake is something you do with men, and kisses are something you do with women." - Elaine Moore

20 minutes.

Christine Lagarde and former Greek Prime Minister Lucas PapademosIn the summer I produced a show about communication at the office. But that show left out one glaring component of all this: body language. So today we tackle hunching, spread legs, eye contact, and kissing - by gender, and all in a business setting. I speak to Yale psychology professor Marianne LaFrance about how men and women play up their power, or lack of it, through non-verbal communication. And Financial Times journalist Elaine Moore talks about how she deals with unwanted male kisses at business meetings. 

November 18, 2014

"If you don't believe in yourself, if you don't believe you're worth what you're charging, other people won't - they'll smell that fear and they'll try to haggle you down." - Adrienne Graham

"There is an expectation in some ways that women are going to give, that we're going to be supportive. It's how we're raised, and the messages we get." - Kathy Caprino

19 minutes.

Women have a problem valuing themselves - both setting prices and believing they're truly worth something in the marketplace. A lot of us charge too little for our work. Sometimes we don't charge at all. Adrienne Graham

It's a complicated, multi-layered issue, and it's part of the reason women earn less than men. As someone who squirms whenever I have to talk about how much I'm worth, I knew I had to tackle the topic on the show. I talk to businesswomen Adrienne Graham, author of a viral Forbes post, No, You Can't Pick My Brain, It Costs Too Much, and Kathy Caprino, who's written extensively about women's relationship with money. If you too find it tough to name your price, tune in - both women have great insights into how we can get comfortable charging what we're worth, and working out what that is in the first place.