Is there anything more annoying than coworkers who interrupt you? Research has shown that women get interrupted more than men. Author and Professor Chris Karpowitz talks to Francesca and Rebecca about how that affects the kinds of conversations and decisions that happen at companies, and what can be done about it.

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A big part of our work lives takes place not in the office, but instead stuck in traffic or on a crowded train en route to and from our jobs. The average American spends 25 minutes getting to work, up from 21.7 minutes in 1980—and people living in major metropolitan areas have it much worse. We are spending a lot of time shuttling between work and home. These increasingly long rides to work are stressful, frustrating and bad for our health and the economy. Is there a way to make commuting tolerable again? Rebecca and Francesca talk to Richard Florida, an urban studies theorist and author of The New Urban Crisis about how traveling to our jobs got this bad and the piecemeal initiatives that are attempting to make our commutes to work a teeny bit better.

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Among a certain set of companies competing for talent, there’s been a perks arms race. Health benefits and vacation days aren’t enough to sweeten a good salary anymore. Companies now offer to pay off student debt, subsidize egg-freezing services and provide cash stipends for employees to go on vacation. Francesca and Rebecca talk about the state of cushy workplaces and whether anything can compensate for a job you just don’t like. Jason Fried, chief executive officer and co-founder of Chicago-based software company Basecamp joins us to discuss all the things he’s done to keep employees happy (and keep them from departing for the coasts) and what is—and isn’t—working.

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Each week on Game Plan, Francesca and Rebecca share their half-baked takes, a segment where they talk about their not super well thought out ideas and opinions on work and work related activities.  In the spirit of the summer slack off, this week Francesca and Rebecca outsourced that task to their colleagues to present the very first half-baked take marathon. In it, they talk about important office topics like office footwear, the case for coffee in the afternoon, and an innovative idea to make open offices more habitable.

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Venture capitalist Keith Rabois set off a Silicon Valley firestorm earlier this month about what it takes to succeed. When another tech investor wrote on Twitter that working on the weekends and burning out isn’t cool—and doesn’t work—Rabois fired back. “Totally false,” he said, suggesting that dogged dedication (usually measured by long hours) was the only way to reach the top. Lots of people objected to his assessment. Francesca and Rebecca speak with one of Keith's critics, startup founder and engineer Sara Mauskopf, about why she thinks flexible hours and a healthy work-life balance can actually make your product better. Then we check in with Keith to see whether he has revised his opinion.

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So, you want to move to Canada? Or New Zealand, or Australia or another English-speaking, culturally adjacent country to the U.S. that doesn’t have our current president. After every election, Americans threaten to get out of dodge—and 2016 was no different. Rebecca and Francesca talk about the realities of starting over in another country and what it takes to actually pick up and move your life to a new place. They talk to author Suketu Mehta, who grew up in India and came to America when his family immigrated to New York in the 1970s. In a recent piece for the New York Times, Mehta urged more Americans to consider the expat life, arguing that it’s not just a fantasy of the elite.

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Letting employees occasionally work from home makes them happy, can save companies money and there's research to suggest it could help close the gender pay gap. But some companies, like IBM, say remote work encourages habits that hurt collaboration, innovation and productivity. Last month the company told hundreds of thousands of employees they had to report to headquarters. So what's the future of work? Guest Christopher Mims, a technology columnist and a 10-year veteran of working from home, explains why he believes companies can't curb the trend of working from a distance.

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Fake it 'til you make it! That's the career advice many of us get upon first entering the workforce. Since you're a newbie, and won't understand lots of parts of your job, just pretend — and one day, all of a sudden, you'll be a bona fide expert. It's not bad advice, and research has even found that it works. But what happens when you still feel as if you're faking it, long after you've actually made it? Francesca and Rebecca discuss the phenomenon known as imposter syndrome. Many competent (often female) professionals go through their entire careers with the sneaking suspicion that they'll be revealed as frauds — even when they're more than qualified. Is there a way to combat this haunting feeling? Dr. Suzanne Koven, a primary care physician at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, explains how she recently got over her own imposter syndrome and helps Francesca and Rebecca deal with their own inner work demons.

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Student debt doesn't only affect students and recent grads. It’s a burden that can follow people through their working life and influence every financial and career decision they make. It’s easy to feel panicked by doom-and-gloom news, so to separate worries from reality, Francesca and Becca talk with Bloomberg's Shahien Nasiripour, who covers student debt and education policy.

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Workers used to leave their opinions and feelings at home. No talking at work about politics, religion or other personal stuff was the rule. Not anymore! Companies ask us to bring our whole selves to the office. But for those of us averse to sharing with our coworkers, the current political climate and social media have made it impossible to resist. These days, many of us talk to coworkers about Trump, our personal lives or something we just spotted on Facebook. But is putting it all out there necessarily a good thing? This week on Game Plan, Rebecca and Francesca discuss whether we need to revisit what's acceptable to say at work and how to say it. If we're going to talk about sensitive, divisive and uncomfortable topics at work, we need better rules and etiquette. To help us, we turn to Ijeoma Oluo, the author of “So You Want to Talk About Race." She provides practical tips for having productive conversations at work about a topic both political and personal: race.

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