Fun and work in the same sentence? For most of us, that’s a “does not compute” moment… and that’s exactly why this conversation matters.

Workplace culture expert Bree Groff (author of Today Was Fun: A Book About Work. Seriously.) breaks down why we’ve been trained to treat joy like it’s “unprofessional,” why busyness is murdering brilliance, and how to start building workplaces (and workdays) that are actually fit for human life.

In this episode, we get into:

Why “hard” doesn’t automatically mean “valuable” (and why we need to stop romanticizing suffering)

The two toxic extremes:

“Work is called work for a reason” (aka: misery cosplay)

“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day” (aka: burnout bait)

Bree’s “third way”: work can be a nice way to spend our time on the planet—not a daily punishment

Why people don’t buy your work because you suffered—they buy it because it creates value (pain is optional)

The “infinite workday” problem: nonstop meetings, constant interruptions, and zero space to think

Why brilliance requires spaciousness: “do nothing” time, thinking time, walking time, shower-epiphany time

How conformity kills creativity (and why “professionalism” can be a creativity straightjacket)

The case against delayed gratification when it turns into: “I’ll live later” (spoiler: later is not guaranteed)

Wrap-up: Work doesn’t have to be miserable to be meaningful—and if your job demands your whole life in exchange for a paycheck, that’s not ambition… that’s a bad deal wearing a blazer.

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Connect with Bree:

Website: https://www.breegroff.com/home 

Book: https://www.breegroff.com/book 

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