228 Insecure Overachievers: How Jobs Exploit Our Trauma

Nichole read a Captain Awkward post this week that had her reeling so we’re here to talk about it: how elite professions target “insecure overachievers” because they work hard and blame themselves for everything. Sigh.

In This Episode

News

* Twitter May Have Just Doomed Humanity by Trolling an Artificial Intelligence Bot (Vice)* Alabama House passes bill that would make abortion a felony (CNN)* Alabama’s anti-abortion law isn’t alone. Here are all the states pushing to restrict access (CNN)

Joke in the Middle

I heard the post office…

Activism Inspiration

Listener Malene writes:

In January I wrote you with a piece of news from the Netherlands where the catering at the Ministry of Education had gone plant-based as standard – with meat as an add on. Anyway, as I was very inspired about your talk about different kinds of advocacy may fit different types of people, I figured that as a lobbyist I could make a bigger difference by pitching the idea to a leader of one of our parties, than wielding a sign at a demonstration. 

So I did.

Since

this is an election year here in Denmark the parties are a bit cautious about

promoting messages like vegan/animal rights which may make them unpopular with

the mainstream (eg. Taking meat away) – but I am proud to say that the idea did

not die and the “plant based as standard” concept is now proposed policy on

municipal level in the city of Copenhagen (who serves up 70.000 meals a day)

and if it goes uncontested will become policy going forward this fall. 

Here is the article (in Politiken – a major Danish daily newspaper) about the project that you can google translate, if you are interested to read about it.

https://politiken.dk/forbrugogliv/forbrug/art7164688/K%C3%B8benhavnske-borgmestre-vil-sende-k%C3%B8det-ud-p%C3%A5-sidelinjen-for-klimaets-skyld

Main Topic

In the endless ways capitalism exploits us, this week Nichole stumbles into an advice column with a wild question that leads to an excerpt from a Harvard Business Review article that blew her whole entire mind. You gotta hear it (or read it) to believe it.

Captain Awkward advice question: #1198: “How do I deal with work burnout and make my partner* happy?” (*My partner = my boss, who is *a* partner in the law firm where I work)

Harvard Business Review article: If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?