Someone on Reddit won't go to any happy hour where HR will be. Their reasoning: HR is there to protect the company, and they're snakes. Meanwhile, Lisa from HR just wants to make friends.

In this Reacting to Reddit at Work episode of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, host Bree Bartos and Lottie Bazley swap stories about the labels we put on people at work: friends, coworkers, and snakes. There's the HR happy hour standoff, a manager who repeated what was said in a one-on-one (she turns out to be the head of HR), a coworker who was corrected on their last day that they were never actually friends, and a round of first-day-at-work advice.

Along the way, Bree and Lottie share their own stories about pay transparency, chasing a promotion for four years, and why every department might benefit from its own internal comms person.

In this episode, they discuss:
• Whether HR is really out to get you, and poor Lisa
• Adjusting how you act around senior leaders at work events without avoiding them entirely
• What an internal comms person in every department could look like
• Lottie's lesson from training frontline engineers: why nobody watched the videos, and why podcasts in the van worked
• Getting told off for talking about pay, and what that usually means
• Four years of "next year" on a raise or promotion, and knowing when it's time to go
• Why you don't have to want to be a people manager
• The Venn diagram between coworkers and friends
• First-day tips: a notebook and pen, a desk sweater, and assessing the snack situation
• Lottie's story of the new hire, the free noodles, and the director

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Have a story or question about work you want to hear the hosts discuss on the podcast? Write in to our subreddit: r/humanatwork

Watch full video episodes on YouTube.

Connect with Us
Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Lottie Bazley - LinkedIn
Edited by Dave Casto - Linkedin

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

Taking PTO but still checking email. Bringing the work laptop on vacation, just in case. Sending a company-wide email on the way to a family funeral. It all sounds ridiculous out loud, and at some point it became normal.

In this episode of Bree Has Questions on Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, Bree Bartos and Pinaki Kathiari ask: why have we normalized burning ourselves out? The question started as "why does it feel so wrong to admit we're burned out," until Kelsey Buckholtz pointed out that we've normalized it in the name of hustle culture and grindset.

Joining them are Dr. Matt Zakreski, clinical psychologist, co-founder of the Neurodiversity Collective, and author of The Neurodiversity Playbook, on his third visit to the show, and Kelsey Buckholtz, Director of Communication Strategy at Local Wisdom and author of Strong, Calm, Confident You, a book about the cycle of pleasing, perfecting, and performing.

In this episode, they discuss:
• Getting burned out by something you love, and why it's harder to admit
• Dialectic thinking: loving your kids and finding them exhausting at the same time
• Why even good stress can lead to burnout
• Why everyone thinks they can multitask, and why nobody can
• Side hustles, passive income, and the pressure in our algorithms to keep grinding
• How employers can support people when raises aren't on the table
• Leaders who actually log off, and Local Wisdom's monthly round table kudos
• Imposter syndrome that forms in silence
• Why burnout gets treated like proof you're working hard
• Flow state: what happens when the challenge meets your skill level
• Spotting burnout before it turns physical
• Small things that help: boundaries, a real lunch break, and asking people what they actually expect

Connect with our guests:
Dr. Matt Zakreski - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmattzakreski/
Kelsey Buckholtz, https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseybuckholtz/

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Have a story or question about work you want to hear the hosts discuss on the podcast? Write in to our subreddit: r/humanatwork

Watch full video episodes on YouTube.

Connect with Us
Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Lottie Bazley - LinkedIn
Edited by Dave Casto - Linkedin

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

Bree usually brings the Reddit stories and watches everyone else react, and she got a little jealous. So Lottie Bazley brought stories of her own, and the two of them ran a bracket to crown the biggest work jerk.

In this Reacting to Reddit at Work episode of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, hosts Bree Bartos and Lottie Bazley trade four stories from Reddit's Am I the Jerk threads: a pregnant coworker who keeps eating OP's food, a manager who told her friend that her suspension was deserved, Goldfish George and his habit of snatching things out of people's hands, and a newly promoted manager who didn't show up to open the shop.

Along the way they get into managing a friend, why so many work problems are about food, the work version of you that the people at home rarely see, and spoon theory, with Bree explaining what it means and how she talks to her own manager about low-energy days.

In this episode, they discuss:
• A labeled tiramisu, a pregnant coworker, and "the baby really wanted tiramisu"
• Lottie's own stolen pudding story
• Why managing a friend muddies the water, and when to bring in a third party
• Goldfish George, the pen, and the bag of chips that split open in the break room
• Why people lose their manners around work food
• The work version of you, and Lottie's husband watching her host a town hall
• Why nobody tells the engagement person they're miserable
• Spoon theory, mental health days, and why you still need to send the text
• Crowning the biggest work jerk

---
Have a story or question about work you want to hear the hosts discuss on the podcast? Write in to our subreddit: r/humanatwork

Watch full video episodes on YouTube.

Connect with Us
Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Lottie Bazley - LinkedIn
Edited by Dave Casto - Linkedin

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

When Bree's first job out of college went through a merger, she was in her early 20s, running video and social, and wondering whether there would still be a job for her on the other side. Her boss at the time, Mike Kline, was at the leadership table while the deal came together, and he was the one asked to sell it to the membership.

In the first episode of Humans That Work, a new series where guests tell the story of a major moment in their career, Bree Bartos and Pinaki Kathiari sit down with Mike Kline, founder and CEO of ThinkLab, Bree's very first boss, and her very first podcast co-host. Together they revisit the merger of two rival associations in the protective coatings industry, one marketed to staff as a merger of equals, from both sides of the org chart.

Mike shares what it was like to sell a deal he wasn't a fan of, why he felt people from the smaller organization were scattered and set up to fail, and what he'd tell leaders before the next one. Bree gets honest about the pay gap she discovered at a conference and the burnout that followed. And Pinaki makes the case for being honest about the job question first, even when you can't answer it yet.

In this episode, they discuss:
• Why putting people in silos is a mistake, and Bree's first taste of job crafting
• Hearing about a merger at the leadership table compared to hearing it in an all-staff meeting
• Selling a merger to the membership when you aren't a fan of it yourself
• Why the merger started to feel like an acquisition, and being outvoted ten to two
• Pay gaps, public Form 990s, and what happens when people find out
• Why trust can't be built without honesty
• Acknowledging that everyone's first question is "what happens to my job?"
• Letting two cultures coexist instead of smashing them into one
• Mike's work at ThinkLab helping people learn to build with AI

Thank you to Mike Kline for joining us! Connect with Mike here: LinkedIn

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Have a story or question about work you want to hear the hosts discuss on the podcast? Write in to our subreddit: r/humanatwork

Watch full video episodes on YouTube.

Connect with Us
Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Lottie Bazley - LinkedIn
Edited by Dave Casto - Linkedin

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

A VP tells the IT team they have to come into the office on the Fourth of July because, in her words, it's just IT and they don't have lives. So the team lead asks if he can throw an office party to make up for it. She says go wild, and suggests he use the company card. Brisket, pizza, pies, and a bill over $6,000 later, the CEO is yelling at the VP and the company has a brand new expense policy.

In this Reacting to Reddit at Work episode of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, host Bree Bartos is joined by Pinaki Kathiari and Lottie Bazley to react to stories from r/MaliciousCompliance, a subreddit for people who follow the rules exactly as written and watch what happens. Bree reads a Hall of Fame post about that Fourth of July party, then a brand new one that was only hours old when she found it, about an IT guy who was asked to monitor employee productivity and wasn't told to leave management out.

Pinaki calls the first story benevolent compliance, Lottie explains why a rule with no reason attached makes people dig in, and Bree shares a quick tip for keeping your work and personal browsing separate. Two of the three hosts had never even heard the term malicious compliance before this recording.

In this episode, they discuss:
• What malicious compliance means, and why it feels like the work word for petty revenge
• A VP, an IT team, and a $6,000 Fourth of July party that changed a company's expense policy
• Why Pinaki thinks the first story is closer to benevolent compliance
• Why a rule with no reason behind it invites people to rebel
• A VP's job is to lead and grow people, so what if the first move is asking the team what they think?
• A founder who asked for browser history reports on everyone, and the list HR brought IT a few days later
• Why your browsing history and keystrokes can be tracked, and Bree's tip for a separate work browser profile
• The question to ask when a task makes no sense: what problem are we really trying to solve?
• Checking whether a thought you're having is a story you're telling yourself
• Whether internal communicators are guilty of malicious compliance too

The lesson everyone agrees on: be nice to IT. Pinaki also wants a part two on malicious compliance and petty revenge, so tell us if you do too.

Got a workplace story? Share it on our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/humanatwork/

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom
Lottie Bazley - LinkedIn
Edited by Dave Casto - LinkedIn

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

Welcome back for Season 4 of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to be Human at Work?! Bree's kicking off this season with a question: Why does it feel so wrong to post about ourselves online? To help answer that question, she's invited on two of her favorite content creators and social media experts: Yanni Pappas, Growth and Marketing Strategist at Workshop, and Sarah Whittle, founder of Unicorn Social.

Check out Sarah and Yanni:
Sarah Whittle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahwhittledigital/
Unicorn Social: https://www.unicorn-social.com/
Yanni Pappas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannipap/
Inside the Culture: Chili's | A sizzlin' comeback story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyqRnroMozg

In this episode, they discuss:
• Dululu is the solulu: being a little delusional to get out of your comfort zone
• Why Yanni switched from trying to sound smart to trying to sound like himself, and that's when people started listening
• You shouldn't use machines to find your human voice
• Embarrassment is a choice, and Yanni stopped choosing it
• Why 40% of LinkedIn posts being AI-generated is actually an opportunity for real voices
• Personal brand as a safety net in the age of layoffs, and Bree's own layoff story
• The difference between real networking and treating LinkedIn like a get-rich-quick scheme
• Read the room: when EGC helps a brand, and when it's a red flag about the company itself

Send in your work story or question: https://www.reddit.com/r/humanatwork/
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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

For this one, Bree kicked the boys out.

In this bonus episode of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, host Bree Bartos is joined by Jen Samuel, Senior Account and Strategic Communications Manager at Local Wisdom, and special guest Regine Nelson, principal consultant in employee experience and internal comms, author of The Comms and Culture Devotional, and founder of Rise and Rain, for a conversation Pinaki and Chris were intentionally not part of: why does it feel so wrong to be a woman at work?

The three of them get into hair and appearance at work, the ageism that cuts both ways (too young to be taken seriously, then suddenly too old), the emotional labor of deciding what to filter and what to share, getting diagnosed with ADHD and autism as adults, and why periods, perimenopause, and menopause are still treated as taboo subjects at work despite affecting most of the workforce at some point. The goal isn't to villainize anyone. It's to bring language to the stuff that usually gets filtered out.

In this episode, they discuss:
• Appearance at work: hair, makeup, and the exhausting expectation of explaining your own body
• The double-edged sword of looking young: reverse ageism early in a career, then ageism later
• To thine own self be true, then read the room and act accordingly
• Discernment as a skill everyone can practice, and why fool me once means never a second time
• Getting an ADHD or autism diagnosis as an adult woman, and how masking finally stops working
• Why periods, perimenopause, and menopause are still workplace taboo despite affecting most of the workforce
• Remote work as a quiet equalizer for hair appointments, sick kids, doctor's appointments, and bad days
• Maternity leave, flexibility, and the mental load that doesn't pause just because the job resumes
• Go to therapy. All of you. All the time.

🔗 Got a workplace story? Share it on our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/humanatwork/
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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

Big changes are coming to Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work? and this episode is where we tell you all about them.

In this wrap-up episode of Between the Seasons, Bree Bartos, Pinaki Kathiari, and Chris Lee sit down for one last conversation before Season 4. They talk through standout moments from work, both good and hard, get honest about the emotional labor of always being 'on,' and land on a genuinely moving conversation about change, risk, and why it's scary to let something you've built shift into something new.

Because that's exactly what's happening. Starting in Season 4, Bree steps in as host. The show keeps its two alternating formats, topic conversations and Reacting to Reddit at Work, but Bree brings her own format to the mix: Bree Has Questions, where she'll bring on guests with answers to the things she's been wondering about the workplace. Lottie Bazley joins as a regular co-host for Reddit at Work episodes. And a new bonus episode, recorded ahead of the season, tackles a question Pinaki and Chris were intentionally not part of: why does it feel so wrong to be a woman at work?

In this episode, they discuss:
• Standout moments from work: naming an emotional reaction in real time instead of suppressing it
• Toxic positivity and the pressure to always perform an 'on' version of yourself
• Why boundaries can't be an individual's job alone, the organization has to set the expectation too
• The coach model of management: telling people their role in the system, not how to do their job
• Why change feels nerve-wracking, and what it costs to keep things comfortable instead of better
• What's new in Season 4: Bree as host, Bree Has Questions, and Lottie Bazley joining as a regular co-host
• A preview of the bonus episode: why does it feel so wrong to be a woman at work, with guests Jen Samuel and Regine Nelson

Season 4 arrives in September. One more bonus episode drops before then. Thank you for three seasons of listening, and for however you decide to feel about a little change.

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.