"No billionaire can pull off theft in broad daylight without the help of everyday professional class workers who choose to stay silent or act out of outright complicity."

IN THIS EPISODE We like to think that modern organizations are deeply objective, metrics-driven spaces. But what happens when objective data rubs up against the financial and personal goals of senior leadership? Let's say it plainly: the evidence typically loses.

In this summer bonus episode, Aparna Rae goes completely solo to unpack how data has been weaponized as an employer risk-management apparatus rather than a tool to protect people. Drawing from shocking insider stories—including a healthcare CHRO who cherry-picked engagement data to safeguard executive bonuses and a retailer that outright denied a warehouse team’s tactical request for winter gloves—Aparna challenges us to look closely at the middle tier of everyday professionals who make brazen extraction possible.

We're also looking closely at the education sector, exposing the multi-million dollar EdTech fraud schemes birthed directly by the Forbes "30 Under 30" pipeline, the pseudo-science behind corporate stack ranking, and the fine print that completely dismantles McKinsey’s most famous diversity case studies.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH When data flatters power a little too neatly, do you have the structural courage to double-click and ask where it came from?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU * The "30 Under 30" to Indictment Pipeline: The collapsing infrastructure of companies like All Here proves that the Venn diagram of founders committing massive investor fraud and the people celebrated on elite tech lists is practically a complete circle.

• McKinsey’s Replicability Crisis: Independent scientific researchers proved that the famous studies linking diversity to financial performance got the arrow backward. Strong corporate profitability allows companies to invest in diversity, not the other way around. We should invest in equity because humans deserve a dignified way of making a living—not because it pads a spreadsheet.

• The Cost of Truth-Telling: Highlighting Sarah Wynn-Williams’ groundbreaking memoir, Careless People, and the lengths to which tech oligarchs will go to legally silence corporate whistleblowers.

• The File vs. The Floor: Filing a business license is not evidence of income. Real data fidelity requires precise, continuous accurate representation.

RESOURCES MENTIONED * Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

• Green & Hand Research on the replication failure of McKinsey's diversity metrics

• Season 1, Episode 6 with Dr. Nicole DeKay on the psychological harm of stack ranking

CONNECT WITH US Our digital space: aparnarae.com

Send this episode to a data lover or people analytics professional in your circle: [email protected]

"The room isn’t empty because we stopped wanting to learn. It’s empty because we’ve made it harder to feed the hunger."

IN THIS EPISODE

Have you noticed that your interest in webinars, certificates, and professional cohorts has completely plummeted over the last couple of years?

You are not alone.

Sign-ups are down, virtual attendance is dropping, and the energy in professional learning spaces feels hollow.

In this special summer mini-episode, Aparna Rae digs into the data behind our collective white-collar exhaustion to share a working theory: We broke Maslow’s hierarchy.

Aparna breaks down the steep "cognitive tax" of job precarity, the quiet slashing of corporate training budgets, and the very real reason why your tolerance for generic upskilling webinars has completely cratered.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH

When organizations demand that workers "bootstrap" their own professional development during a historic decline in high-skill jobs, who actually has the cognitive margin to show up?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

• Survival Mode is Cognitively Expensive: When you are calculating immediate bills or navigating layoff anxiety, your brain naturally prioritizes food, shelter, and caregiving over an abstract AI literacy course.

• The "Bullshit Meter": If a team has been cut in half while responsibilities double, workers have zero patience left for panel presentations.

• Learning Outside the W2 J-O-B: White professionals are rejecting hollow corporate upskilling, but they are deeply hungry for real, tangible skills 0 art, cooking, knitting, gardening, and connecting with nature.

CONNECT WITH US

Our digital home: circleback.club; aparnarae.com

Share how you’re experiencing learning and bandwidth in your own life: [email protected]

"Dignity isn't a perk. It's not a leadership style. It is the foundation for safety, collective action, and honest work."

IN THIS EPISODE In our Season 1 finale, Aparna and Lars lay down the ultimate baseline for what it actually means to be human in modern work structures. For months, we have built a meticulous structural, historical, and embodied case for why contemporary white-collar systems make us feel so profoundly small. In this episode, we bring it all home to a single, non-negotiable word: Dignity.

Featuring real, unfiltered field recordings from grassroots organizers, tech coalition members, and national culture changemakers, we break away from corporate compliance theaterto analyze how our current economic environments treat human value as a conditional commodity rather than an inherent truth. From backhanded managerial compliments to the paralyzing trap of professional code-switching, this final conversation unmasks how late-stage capitalism intentionally decommissions human agency - and map out exactly how we can start reclaiming it person-to-person.

THE QUESTION WE'RE LEAVING YOU WITH THIS SEASON What choices would you make, and what would you build entirely differently, if human dignity were your absolute, non-negotiable starting point at work?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU INTO THE SUMMER - Dignity Cannot Be Earned: Stop outsourcing your self-worth to corporate performance ratings or manager validations; dignity belongs to you simply because you exist.

• Exhaustion is Structural Extraction: When you feel physical wrongness but force your body to override it for the sake of "business as usual," you are actively participating in your own behavioral extraction.
• Bring It Into the Room: Dignity is highly contagious when it is somatically and intentionally lived out; when you hold onto your own self-respect, you force the system to react to your truth.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• What It Takes to Heal by Prentis Hemphill - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726173/what-it-takes-to-heal-by-prentis-hemphill/
• The Politics of Trauma by Staci Haines - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608550/the-politics-of-trauma-by-staci-haines/
• Inside Organizer School — Founded by Jaz Brisack - https://www.insideorganizerschool.com/
• Tech Workers Coalition - https://techworkerscoalition.org/

CONNECT WITH US Our digital home: https://www.circleback.club/

Drop your career survival stories directly into our inbox [email protected]

Thank you for walking with us through Season 1. Stay subscribed for exclusive between-season drops, and get ready for Season 2.

IN THIS EPISODE

"The institution isn't failing in spite of us. It's failing because we keep it going the way it is."

In this deeply personal and reflective solo episode, Aparna and Lars hold up a mirror to the white-collar workforce. Diving into the works of sociologist Musa al-Gharbi (We Have Never Been Woke) and cultural theorist Catherine Liu (Virtue Hoarders), they break down two uncomfortable frameworks: Symbolic Capitalism and the Professional Managerial Class (PMC).

If you deal in symbols, ideas, and knowledge from the neck up, you are likely part of this class. But here lies the contradiction: while white-collar progressives fiercely perform moral goodness, they are often deeply allergic to the structural economic changes that would actually cost them their material safety. From language policing to the commodification of trauma culture, Aparna and Lars unpack the distractions we use to avoid real class solidarity.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH

What are you avoiding, and who are you protecting with that avoidance?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

Track Your Discomfort: Notice when you over-index on righteousness or jargon. Ask yourself: is your reaction serving a collective movement, or just your own moral ego?

Build Consciousness, Not Just Literacy: Move past performative "diversity literacy" and build deep race and class consciousness by understanding how systemic policies actively protect wealth hoarding.

Start Outside If You Can't Inside: If labor organizing doesn't feel feasible at your desk job yet, plug into local mutual aid networks where real resource redistribution is happening.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• We Have Never Been Woke by Musa al-Gharbi - https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691232607/we-have-never-been-woke?srsltid=AfmBOopC3RgPK_NEmfD8MN2pH-bmnP0A9kkKv5_NTJXMRU7_G1MX-9lW

• Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the PMC by Catherine Liu - https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517912253/virtue-hoarders/

• Jason Hickel's research on economic democracy and degrowth - https://jasonhickel.substack.com/

• Get on the Job and Organize by Jaz Brisack - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Get-on-the-Job-and-Organize/Jaz-Brisack/9781668080801

CONNECT WITH US

Visit us at https://www.circleback.club/

Aparna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aparnarae; aparnarae.com

Lars on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lars-gallien; https://www.larsgallien.com/

We’ve all seen the emails that start with "Now more than ever, we need to talk about wellness." But whose problem is it really?

IN THIS EPISODE

Lars and Aparna are joined by Hebba Youssef, Chief People Officer at Workweek and founder of the "I Hate It Here" newsletter. We’re digging into the $60 billion workplace wellness industry to ask: Are meditation apps and sound baths actually helping, or are they just cheap bandaid solutions that allow companies to avoid fixing structural problems? Hebba shares her raw experience navigating grief and EAPs, the dark side of workplace "weight loss challenges," and why "burnout" is often just a corporate rebrand for workplace depression.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH

Why are wellness programs being used more by managers and not individual contributors? And is it a "benefit" if doesn't change how people experience work?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

• The "CPO of the People" Standard: Why tiered benefits (where executives get better care than hourly or salaried workers) are a moral system set up to fail.
• Destigmatize the Calendar: Follow the lead of founders who put therapy sessions publicly on their calendars to signal that taking care of yourself is part of the job.
• Exhaustion is Data: Reframe your burnout. If the system is making you sick, the problem isn't your "lack of resilience"—it’s a lack of reciprocity.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• I Hate It Here — Hebba Youssef’s HR newsletter - https://hateithere.co/
• Maintenance Phase — A podcast exploring the flaws in the wellness industry - https://www.maintenancephase.com/
• Minda Harts — Author of The Memo, discussed regarding trust in the workplace - https://www.mindaharts.com/

CONNECT WITH US

Visit us at https://www.circleback.club/

Aparna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aparnarae; aparnarae.com

Lars on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lars-gallien; https://www.larsgallien.com/

Corporate professionalism is often a tool used to isolate us from our coworkers and the world. It’s time to bridge the gap.

IN THIS EPISODE

Aparna and Lars are joined by tech veteran Glenn Block and organizer Abdo Mohamed to dismantle the insistent "professionalism" that prevents us from building meaningful solidarity. We explore the concept of Cross-Class Solidarity - the radical idea that whether you make $60k or $600k, we have more in common with each other than with the corporate structures that stifle our humanity. Abdo shares his experience being fired by Microsoft after organizing a vigil for Gaza, and Glenn discusses the "awakening" that happens when white-collar workers realize their technology is being used to facilitate global harm. This episode is an invitation to stop "keeping the peace" and start building power across the factory floor and the tech campus.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH

When the system is designed to isolate you to keep you compliant, what small move can you make today to reconnect with the collective?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

• Politicize Your Labor: Understand that your daily tasks - whether coding or data entry - are connected to larger global systems of extraction or empowerment.
• Talk to "Everyone" as a Coworker: Break the hierarchy by building relationships with culinary staff, data center workers, and contractors; we all work for the same machine.
• Reject Purity Politics: Don’t let the fear of not doing "everything" stop you from doing "something." Any small action is better than doomscrolling in isolation.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• No Azure for Apartheid — A campaign demanding ethical cloud and AI contracts - https://noazureforapartheid.com/
• Tech for Palestine — A community of tech workers organizing for liberation - https://techforpalestine.org/
• Empire of AI by Karen Hao — A book exploring the colonial roots of modern AI - https://bookshop.org/p/books/empire-of-ai-dreams-and-nightmares-in-sam-altman-s-openai-karen-hao/de10c251433f34d2?ean=9780593657522&next=t&next=t&prhc=PRHEFFDF5A7F1
• CODE-CWA & EWOC — Resources for labor organizing and worker training https://code-cwa.org/ | https://workerorganizing.org/

CONNECT WITH US

Circle Back Club: http://circleback.club/

Aparna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aparnarae

Lars on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lars-gallien

Email us: pod@circleback.club

The Myth of Self-Advocacy: Beyond the Girl Boss Industrial Complex

We did everything the playbook told us to do—the salary negotiations, the networking, the "leaning in." Why are we still hitting a wall?

IN THIS EPISODE Aparna and Lars are joined by technologist and community builder Hala Saleh to dismantle the myth of self-advocacy. We look back at the era of the "Girl Boss" and the "Queen Bee" to ask: Is individual advancement enough when the system itself is designed to exhaust us? Hala introduces us to mutual aid at work as a survival strategy, moving from "advocating for myself" to "building for each other." From "ghost" job postings to the hierarchy of reciprocity, this episode is a roadmap for those ready to trade professional isolation for collective power.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH When the system is designed to exhaust you individually, what does it mean to win together?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

• Identify the Reciprocity Gap: Burnout often stems from a lack of reciprocity - where you give 150% and receive only "pennies" in return.
• Hire Your Friends: If you have the power to make spending decisions, use that resource to provide work for those in your community who need it.
• Speak the Name: Commit to speaking someone’s name in a room where they deserve to be acknowledged, recommended, or promoted.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Ya Hala — Hala’s community space built around connection and care - https://www.yahalaseattle.com/
• Entitled by Kate Manne — A look at gender dynamics and the pressure on women to "give" without receiving - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608442/entitled-by-kate-manne/
• Tech for Palestine & UpScrolled — Examples of alternative platforms built on collective care - https://techforpalestine.org/ | https://upscrolled.com/en/

CONNECT WITH US

Visit us at https://www.circleback.club/

Hala: https://www.linkedin.com/in/halasaleh/; https://halasaleh.substack.com/

Aparna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aparnarae; aparnarae.com

Lars on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lars-gallien; https://www.larsgallien.com/

We’ve been taught to treat our bodies as mere vehicles that carry our brains to the next meeting, but our soma is actually our most reliable intelligence system.

IN THIS EPISODE Aparna and Lars are joined by master somatic coach Giulio Brunini to discuss the profound consequences of overriding our physical signals for the sake of corporate performance. We dive into why "restless toes" and autoimmune flares are often the body’s way of writing a diary of our stress before our minds even recognize the burnout. Giulio shares his transition from the high-pressure world of global advertising to somatic coaching, explaining how leaders can unlearn the "numbing" that got them promoted and instead develop the inner stability needed to lead with presence. This is a slower, intentional conversation about recovering our humanity in a world that asks us to muscle through everything.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH What is your body trying to tell you that your mind isn't yet willing to hear?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

• The One-Minute Breath Count: Set a timer for one minute and count how many normal inhales and exhales you take. Knowing your "number" makes meditation feel accessible even during a busy workday.
• Notice the "Inconvenience": Pay attention to the physical sensations that arise when you are avoiding a difficult conversation; embodiment often surfaces the truths that are inconvenient for the ego but necessary for growth.
• The Laptop Pause: Before you open your laptop in the morning, take three intentional breaths and notice one sensation in your body—no fixing, just saying hello.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Giulio Brunini — Master Somatic Coach specializing in embodied leadership - https://www.giuliobrunini.com/about-giulio-brunini
• The Strozzi Institute — An institute for somatics and leadership. - https://strozziinstitute.org/
• Dr. Gabor Maté — Researcher and author discussed regarding the link between stress and autoimmune disorders - https://drgabormate.com/

CONNECT WITH US

Visit us at https://www.circleback.club/

Aparna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aparnarae; aparnarae.com

Lars on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-gallien; https://www.larsgallien.com/

Want to bring this conversation into your organization? Aparna and Lars speak at HR conferences, Fortune 1000 ERGs, and philanthropic foundations. [email protected]

We’ve rebranded workplace depression as "burnout" and personal failure, but the data shows the harm is actually by design.

IN THIS EPISODE

Aparna and Lars are joined by organizational psychologist Dr. Nicole DeKay to go where most U.S. workplace conversations are afraid to go: Psychosocial Hazards. While countries like Australia and New Zealand legally regulate things like "intrusive surveillance," "overload," and "poor change management," the U.S. remains a global outlier in worker neglect. We break down the "Vitality Curve" - a Jack Welch-era relic that forces managers to fire 10% of their team regardless of performance - and why PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) have become a gaslighting tool to document layoffs. This isn’t about needing more "grit" or a better gratitude journal; it’s about naming the systemic conditions that cause measurable physical and psychological harm.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH

If the U.S. is one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, why do we have fewer legal protections against workplace trauma than almost any of our global peers?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

• Identify the Hazard: Review the 17 global psychosocial hazards (like low job control or high emotional labor) and identify which one is currently triggering your body’s stress response.
• Question the PIP: If you or a colleague are put on a PIP out of nowhere, recognize it for what it often is—a liability-driven documentation tool—and prioritize your exit strategy over your "performance."
• Break the Isolation: Talk to one trusted coworker about a specific work condition that feels untenable; breaking the "hyper-isolation" of the U.S. workplace is the first step toward collective power.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Labor Rights Index — WageIndicator Foundation - https://wageindicator.org/work/labour-law/index/
• Humanalysts — Dr. Nicole DeKay’s platform for democratizing employee data - https://www.humanalysts.com/
• The Vitality Curve — The controversial "rank and yank" management practice popularized by GE - https://www.business.com/articles/the-end-of-rank-and-yank-management-practices-revisited/

CONNECT WITH US

Visit us at https://www.circleback.club/

Nicole on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolejdekay/

Aparna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aparnarae; aparnarae.com

Lars on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-gallien; http://larsgallien.com/

Want to bring this conversation into your organization? Aparna and Lars speak at HR conferences, Fortune 1000 ERGs, and philanthropic foundations. [email protected]

We’re all exhausted trying to meet a standard of perfection that wasn't even designed for human beings.

IN THIS EPISODE

Aparna and Lars are joined by organizational consultant Valarie Williams to dismantle the "Ideal Worker" myth. A set of persistent corporate beliefs that the perfect employee has no life, no caregiving responsibilities, and zero physical or mental health needs. We dive into the "Anxious Achiever" phenomenon, the rise of zero-employee startup goals in Silicon Valley, and why the tech industry treats 2-hour shuttle commutes as on-the-job time. This conversation goes beyond work-life balance to interrogate of how capitalism is modeling the "ideal" after a robot and what happens to our humanity when we try to compete with an algorithm.

THE QUESTION WE'RE SITTING WITH

If the "Ideal Worker" is increasingly modeled after a robot, what parts of your humanity are you being asked to delete to stay competitive?

TAKE THIS WITH YOU

• Audit the Ideal: This week, ask a trusted coworker: "Who do you think is the 'ideal worker' in this department, and does that person actually look like anyone we know in real life?"
• Identify Your "Enough": Reflect on your own "personal alignment" - be honest about the transaction of work so you can stop letting the company define your entire identity.
• Take the Heels Off: Identify one "uncomfortable shoe" in your work life - a performative habit or a rigid norm - and consciously choose to swap it for something that actually fits your needs.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• The Anxious Achiever — Maura Aarons-Mele https://hbr.org/2023/03/how-high-achievers-overcome-their-anxiety
• "Joan Acker" — Sociologist whose 1990 work defined the gendered "Ideal Worker" norm https://gendersociety.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/remembering-joan-acker/
• Targeted Universalism — A policy framework for designing strategies to help specific marginalized groups reach a universal goal https://belonging.berkeley.edu/targeted-universalism
• "Good Employee Attributes Key Traits" - https://www.leadershipiq.com/blogs/leadershipiq/good-employee-attributes-key-traits-and-characteristics-of-a-great-employee
• "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations”, Joan Acker http://gas.sagepub.com/content/4/2/139.short
• Melania Trump & Robot video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-NjEku-zE4
• The Guardian - Gen Z males twice as likely as baby boomers to believe wives should obey husbands - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/05/gen-z-men-baby-boomers-wives-should-obey-husbands?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
• Organizational culture and the individuals' discretionary behaviors at work: a cross-cultural analysis https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10291069/#s6

CONNECT WITH US

Visit us at https://www.circleback.club/

Valerie Williams on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamsvalerie1/

Aparna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aparnarae; aparnarae.com

Lars on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-gallien; https://www.larsgallien.com/

Want to bring this conversation into your organization? Aparna and Lars speak at HR conferences, Fortune 1000 ERGs, and philanthropic foundations. [email protected]

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