Toxic Tearoom
The tea is piping hot! Get ready to clutch your pearls! This is the podcast where you can bring your break room whispers to the world!
This is a safe space to share stories of bossholes and bitchiness, of toxicity and drama, all while understanding the underlying issues that feed these toxic environments. You will laugh. You will relate. You will understand- and you will survive. You are not alone!
Your hosts are two dynamic executives who take the issues seriously- but not themselves. Join them and a variety of top-tier guests as we discuss the brutality of these issues in an honest, raw, funny, and inclusive way.
Send your stories to
TheTeabag@ToxicTearoom.com. We promise to protect the innocent and will purposefully keep all stories anonymous.
Toxic Tearoom
S3E1- New Year, Same Bullsh*t
Bottles empty and resolutions made? Great! Your hosts ring in the New Year with a new season...and the same bullsh*t. Join Stella and Roberta as they discuss workplace trends for 2024.
Worker burnout? Check.
Relationship reset? Check.
Remote work over? Or is It? Check and check. It's confusing.
Lack of trust in leadership? Check.
Non-competes? Check.
...and more!
2024 Workplace Trends- My Perfect Resume
Anticipated Workplace Trends in 2024- The Lasalle Network
Workplace Trends to Watch in 2024- IMD
Top 10 Workplace Law Predictions for 2024- Fisher Phillips
6 Workplace Trends Leaders Should Look Out for in 2024- Gallup
Unleash Uncommon Results- Escatena
HireMyMom- Use code ToxicTearoom at checkout for 15% off job listings!
Workplace Psychological Safety Act- Learn more here- and start the movement in your state!
Self-Help is Here! Therapy Notebooks
Dress for the job you want with the income you have today! Italic offers premium clothing made in the same factories as those big label brands for lots less!
Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us! theteabag@toxictearoom.com
Thanks for listening to Toxic Tearoom! Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X and Patreon. Are you in a toxic workplace? Tell us about it at TheTeabag@ToxicTearoom.com. We promise anonymity, empathy, and a healthy dose of humor.
Read our full disclaimer online at www.toxictroom.com. Listeners are encouraged to vet any recommendations with certified professional personnel. The toxic tea room is for entertainment purposes only. The Toxic Tea Room podcast and its parent, that one, Booth Productions, LLC, are not responsible for any actions taken by individuals as a result of any content produced on this podcast, including statements from its hosts, guests, submissions, or content derived from publicly available sources. Listeners are reminded that our content should not be interpreted as targeting specific companies, organizations, or individuals. If we want to call you out, we will call you out. If we want to talk about you, yes, you, by name, then we will. Those passive aggressive games are for your boardroom, not the tea room. If anything sounds like something or someone, it could very well be that person. Or it could be that you recognize a situation that stems from the same systemic abuse that occurs in workplaces of all sizes, industries, and geographies. So you should not presume that we are discussing a specific person. Though you could also be right. We could very well be talking about you. Or maybe we aren't. Or maybe we are. Or maybe we haven't. But we will soon. Or maybe we will later. Or maybe we just want you to think that that flimsy nondisparagement clause will keep your names out of our mouths. Or maybe the taste of your names in our mouths makes us want to vomit. Who knows? In any case, gentle listeners, if you think you know, you might just actually know. If not, you can still learn. Save the drama for your mama. I'm Roberta.
>> Speaker B:And I'm Stella. welcome to the toxic tv.
>> Speaker A:yes.
>> Speaker B:Hello.
>> Speaker A:Season three.
>> Speaker B:Yes. Here we go.
>> Speaker A:That's amazing. Here we go. It's a new year. Thank God. Duh. It's a new year. 2023 was a trip, and not in a good way. Just all the bad things. There were some good things in 2023. We can't throw the entire year out. But, yeah, I'm excited that it's 2024. You.
>> Speaker B:I certainly am, too. I'm looking forward to better workplaces, better focus, and let's get out there and accomplish things right.
>> Speaker A:Get things done. Yes. So we resisted the urge to come up with an episode of resolutions, which I'm proud of us for resisting that urge, because I know everyone's talking about resolutions. most of our resolutions would candidly be wishes for what we'd like to see happen this year. Like, I can't resolve that. The Workplace Psychological Safety act passes. I want it to pass. I do believe it's going to pass. I do believe it's going to go nationwide, but I can't make that a resolution for myself. I tried thinking about, do I make a resolution about how many times I say, I mean, or, Except if I were to put a jar up here and say, I'm just going to put a penny every time I say, Or I mean, on this podcast, I could fund a lot of things, I think. So I will try my best to reduce my,
>> Speaker B:Me too.
>> Speaker A:I'm the queen of the,
>> Speaker B:Me too. And I.
>> Speaker A:That could be a shirt.
>> Speaker B:I often start a sentence, and then I pause and go somewhere else and then come back. What is your malfunction, anyway? But I will tell you, though, there are a lot of articles out about what the predictions are for 2024 as it pertains to the workplace. And I know we were reading some of them. The saddest thing I saw was that they took a poll of 1900 people, and apparently 85% believe they may lose their job in 2024, which, yeah. And 75% said they believe a recession is coming in 2024, which some could argue that we're already kind of in one.
>> Speaker A:yeah. And some could argue that we're not. I just said, I mean, God bless America. Put a dollar in the. I mean jar. So here's the thing. The challenge with that many people believing they could lose their jobs, I mean, that is a huge number. It is, right? Granted, it's a sample population, but it's still huge. Is the power dynamic then becomes very different, because it's no longer when everyone feels that way, or a great majority of people feel, I could lose my job, and I'm m not confident about the economy, and I could lose my job. You're more apt to tolerate toxic behaviors and abuse at the workplace because you don't want to lose your income. So I would predict, based on those numbers, if that's truly the sentiment, we're probably going to see an increase in even more toxicity in the workplace because you have to tolerate it.
>> Speaker B:Yeah. You can also argue that that fear creates toxicity, so people might start acting. And actually, we have actually seen this, Roberta, that people are trying to make a name for themselves in an organization, and so they nitpick at what everyone else is doing to kind of deflect from their own waste of space. I'm going to call it like that. that fear creates people to become toxic because it's a manifestation of their own fear. So it's not only tolerating, but it's actually becoming also, it could be.
>> Speaker A:I agree with you. See, there's a numb. I'm going to go quarter in the, jar dink. Quarter in the, jar dink. I think that you're onto something because when you are, I, mean, one of the words I just said, amin clink in the Amin jar. One of the things that we heard a lot about in 2023, it was a catchphrase, was impostor syndrome. Now, that's not new, but it was really prevalent in a lot of stories in 2023. If you suffer from impostor syndrome and you feel you don't deserve the job you have, but you're unfortunately in a management or, God forbid, a sea level position, then yes, that fear that you can't show because that vulnerability you feel, you just can't do it. So that's part of the problem. You are going to inflict that on those who report to you, on, those who work with you in different ways. You're not going to inflict it upwards. Upwards needs to see that you have got things under control. But if you suffer from impostor syndrome, then, yeah, you're going to be abusive. you may not be verbally abusive, but you're going to take advantage of those who work with you that are required to help you. because you have to still. I'm, in the jar. $0.25. I'm going broke. I'm going broke.
>> Speaker B:Let's start now.
>> Speaker A:I would challenge our listeners.
>> Speaker B:Sorry, I'm just kidding.
>> Speaker A:Our 2025 resolution. We should challenge our listeners to just count how many ums. And I means I do in an episode, and we'll see the first person that gives us one. Maybe we'll send you a mug. but I think you're onto something. I think the general fear is what we're really talking about. The fear that I may lose my job, the fear over the economy, the fear about my true capabilities. It does create negativity. It does create a culture where if fear is dominant in the culture, certainly to that degree, that's problematic. That is problematic. and in fact, the other thing that we're seeing trending for 2024, watch outs. This is from PR newswire. they had a great article on what they saw for workplace trends for 2024. One thing in particular stuck out at me. Tackling worker burnout.
>> Speaker B:Oh, yes.
>> Speaker A:Which again, about that too, right? Links to that whole, I'm afraid if I'm afraid I'm going to lose my job, then I've got to make double, triple sure that I'm keeping this job. I have to manage everything. I have to do everything. And they comment that, quote, worker burnout. Exasperated by disruptions in the global and domestic marketplace, back to that recession. Fear. Right. Shows no sign of abating in 2024 people. Managers are particularly susceptible, and employee tenure is anticipated to decrease unless organizations make substantial investments in employee retention and wellness initiatives.
>> Speaker B:Yeah.
>> Speaker A:The thing that comes to my mind is, you're one of these responsible employers. Say, who says? God, that's alarming. I don't want my workers to feel burnt out. I mean, we're all pushing hard. We're all trying to make things happen. It's a down market for our industry. We're all really doing what we got to do. I got to make an investment. I got to figure out some employee retention programs, some wellness initiatives. I'm going to get with my HR leader, and we got to figure this out. And you put all of this time and energy into it, and you think you've gotten ahead, you're going to beat that trend. If you're one of those employers listening right now, here's what you need to take seriously. All of those are good things to do. Those are proper initiatives to have. It only takes one toxic human being in your organization to undo everything you're trying to do, just one. And if that one person is a member of your leadership team, they are not only undoing everything you're trying to do, they're spreading that to the other leaders on your team, especially if that particular leader is a high performer. If you're willing to make excuses for someone's behavior because of their performance, your wellness initiatives don't mean anything at all.
>> Speaker B:Right?
>> Speaker A:It's a good time to take a look at what you have as a team, who you have on the team, what roles they play, and really evaluate what's important to you as a leader, especially as a, business owner or an executive, this is the year to evaluate what you want to be when you grow up as a company, not in terms of just your products or your performance, but what will your employees say about you?
>> Speaker B:Right? And if we could take it back to the burnout in that poll of 1940% thought burnout would be a bigger issue, 35% thought, it would be the same, and only 25% said it would get better. So that's the sentiment. However, on the flip side, 85% in general, through the stats I read, thought that employers would do more for mental health, and I guess some are implementing a mental health day. per month, one mental health day per month, which is different. but as it pertains to that burnout, I would think it's more important to focus as an employer on the mental health of your individuals and you know who the overworkers are, because in old school management, those are the people you pile more on. And so hopefully that will be looked at a little more seriously. and I did read on the same thread that a lot more technology is being placed, even AI technology, into HR functions. and so there was this whole thing on putting, I don't know.
>> Speaker A:We'Re now outsourcing HR to AI.
>> Speaker B:Well, maybe the artificial intelligence will help.
>> Speaker A:Oh, my God. Oh my God. But I'm trying to picture Chat GPT, and it's like, enter your HR question here. And it's just something that's on an intranet page and you're not talking to an HR professional at all. It's just Chat GPT saying, okay, so, no, you cannot take three days in a row off without asking your supervisor if you can. Thank you for checking in with chat HR. I don't know.
>> Speaker B:But speaking of AI, in various articles, for 2024, AI is becoming a big thing on the legal front. a lot of people are starting to talk about regulations around AI and how businesses use AI, on the workforce, front, I read that some people are very concerned about AI replacing jobs. And then on just a general sentiment towards AI, it is being looked at favorably to take away some of the administrative functions because it can do it quickly and efficiently, to improve an employee's, actual job. I said the.
>> Speaker A:But it's, it's my can say, you can take all the ums. I'm trying to curb it.
>> Speaker B:I've always tried to curb my ums anyway, but, yeah. So I think AI is going to be certainly interesting. I don't think it's Terminator.
>> Speaker A:Not yet. Not yet.
>> Speaker B:Or it's taking over.
>> Speaker A:I think about all of the roles that they used to have. I don't know if they still do because, it's been a minute since I left high school. Okay, let's just leave it at that. I'm a gen Xer, right? Yes, but I remember, God, it's starting to sound old. as I even start off, I.
>> Speaker B:Remember school in the 19 hundreds.
>> Speaker A:So did I.
>> Speaker B:That's what the gen Zers are calling us. Oh, you were in the 19 hundreds?
>> Speaker A:Yeah, I was born in the 19 hundreds. You humps. Yes, I was. I say humps with all the love in the world. God, there's $0.50 in the umjar already. So here's what I would tell you. When I was in high school, there was shop class that was for making things, and then there was shop class for automotive repair, and there was home ec, which was a lot of cooking, right? And all of that. And those have largely gone by the wayside. I don't remember those being electives that were even available for when my kids were in high school. And I think back, and I'm, like, that would be kind of handy to still have around, right? Because if AI is going to start doing a lot of the administrative work or even some of the programming or the solution designs, right? How does that help a, workforce and an entire generation of people who have no idea how to even read a map? I'm just going to say it, right, or write incursive. I'm just going to say it. So how does that help us do things, fix things? I've never looked down on any particular trade and I never will. And I'm thinking right now, those organizations, I don't care about AI, your plumbing breaks, you're still going to need me, right? You're still going to need policemen, you're still going to need firemen, you're still going to need mechanics, you're still going to need those folks. I think there might be a small, I'm going to predict there might be a small resurgence in some of those roles with the younger generation, because those roles aren't threatened by AI or anything. They're still good, respectable, well paying jobs that we are going to always need. AI is not going to be able to fix my car.
>> Speaker B:Well, my son's high school, a few years ago, well, at least five years ago, they started a new, format for graduation. You could do an honors diploma, you could do an academic diploma, or you could do, I forgot what the last one was called, but it had to do with if you didn't want to go to college and you wanted to go to a trade school instead. So I thought that was very cool, that they were encouraging that not every kid just wants to go into college. Some want to learn trades, and I think there should be more to that. But as far as shops, I think you had to go off site if you wanted to join an auto shop or those shop things. But my son did take some home ec where he cooked, and he loved it, actually, which I was like.
>> Speaker A:Hey, maybe a lot of guys love cooking. I know most chefs are men.
>> Speaker B:It's really cool.
>> Speaker A:They can cook all day. My husband does most of the cooking. Enjoy yourselves. I'm doing the baking, though. Yeah, I'm the baker. I make a good ficaccia. I make good artisan bread. I bake stuff. I like to bake baking. there's another quarter. Sorry, quarter in the, jar. There it went. So Gallup had something interesting. Says in 2024, employers and employees are heading for a relationship reset. Which I thought was very interestingly worded. This shift partly stems from changes in where and how people work. In 2019, 60% of remote capable employees spent their week working fully on site, whereas that figure has fallen to just 20% in 2023. But that's not the complete story, according to Gallup. quote, nearly five in ten us employees work fully on site in jobs that cannot be hybrid or remote. So half of America cannot go remote or hybrid. Well, nearly five and ten. So 50%.
>> Speaker B:50%. Wow.
>> Speaker A:Yeah. 50% of us employees work fully on site in jobs that can't be hybrid or remote. Which makes sense. Small business actually employs most of America. It's not the big corporations, it's small business, small to medium sized business. And if you think about hospitality and the restaurant industry and retail and the service industry, all of those things can't be remote.
>> Speaker B:Right?
>> Speaker A:So I buy it. I buy that. Nearly five. I buy the 50%. That makes perfect sense. And Gallup's research indicates that how employees are managed has about four times as much influence on employee engagement and well being as their work location.
>> Speaker B:Wow.
>> Speaker A:Essentially, it's the relationships workers have with their coworkers, managers, leaders, and organization that are significantly evolving. Many organizations are radically retooling the ways they do business, leaving many employees, including managers, stressed and disconnected.
>> Speaker B:Wow.
>> Speaker A:Being remote makes me have a lot less stress than being in the office personally.
>> Speaker B:Let's talk about that, because, there's things all over the board, in a lot of the articles I read that a lot of employees think there will be more remote job offerings, and yet I read in another place, let me see if I could pull that up. it's called IMD, where they say that ceos, 64% of ceos are predicting a full return to the office by 2026, according to a KPMG 2023 CEO outlook. And it's kind of disparaging or not. It's a disparity of ideation, in my opinion, because, many are focusing on flexibility above salary when it comes to job searches. because people like being at home. I feel like that's a big sentiment. They like the idea of remote work, if even hybrid. Even though we've talked about that, for ceos to take that stance, it's kind of baffling to me. And I just wonder why some people, like, in this article that we will post, they said it's like chocolate and broccoli, that even though kid wants to eat chocolate every day, they should have broccoli. And even though people want to be remote, they should go into work. And there is this sentiment that being at home creates loneliness. I could see that for the younger generations, actually, who have their social interaction, remotely in a lot of cases, because they're always gaming and whatnot. And when they're not in school, they're gaming and not going out and hanging out with other, buddies. But for Gen Xers, I'm sorry, I know me and you are like Roberta, but.
>> Speaker A:What'S the slogan, the informal slogan for a generation? Leave us alone. That's right. We're used to. Look, you didn't give a shit where we were when we were growing up. Why the fuck do you care where I work? exactly. I see it as an interesting thing right now because I don't understand the drive to the office, like the push to get everybody in the office. I do agree that there are some activities that make sense to do in person. Yes, I do agree. If you're doing planning, that's difficult in a Zoom setting, that it makes sense to bring together the team to do the planning, whether it's budgeting a project. I do agree. Come into the office, let's plan. We'll make a day of it. I agree that some functions cannot be remote. There are simply functions in organizations that you just can't do them unless you're there. And you have to have that. And that's fine. And that's the position, and that's understandable. What I don't understand is this drive for that level of control where you have people that are contributing skills based on thoughts and ideas and creativity, or even supporting your customers. To say that I can't support your customer with the same level of professionalism from my home than I would in a cubicle farm is ridiculous. That part disturbs me, because I do think there is a power dynamic at play where because of the economy right now, and because there is this sentiment that people don't want to lose their job and they're fearful that they will, that that will be leveraged to exercise control and add toxicity to an already toxic place. Not every workplace is toxic, so we should be clear about that. But this podcast isn't about, let's talk about work in general. It's to talk about toxic workplaces and things that contribute to them. And I agree with you. If there's this push to force people into the office, some, talent will just say no and leave and go work for a competitor and bring that talent to your competitor, they may just decide to start their own business. God forbid they start that business that competes with you. At the end of the day, I like working remotely because, a, I'm disciplined enough to do it. Not everyone's disciplined. I get that. And by the way, if you're not disciplined, you have no business working from home. Okay, I'm just going to call it out. If you cannot manage your time, manage your day, manage to a deadline, manage to a schedule as if you had someone over your shoulder. Without having someone over your shoulder, you have no business working remotely. You are the reason people think everyone should be back in the office. Okay? It's you. You're ruining it for everybody. Take one for the team, go into the damn office. But for most of us that are professionals, for the five out of ten that do have the capability to work remotely because of their job, I think it's senseless to exclude the economic benefit that these workers receive working from home. Look, price of gas, commute times. How about the fact that there is still Covid out there? What, is this thing they're calling out? White lung. What the hell? There's RSV.
>> Speaker B:RSV is back. Flu is, back.
>> Speaker A:And all of these things. I mean, when you think about. And again, I'm not saying that everybody gets to avoid it. We've already said 50% don't have a choice based on their roles. Right? But if we want to enable people to have the flexibility, and flexibility simply means not whether or not I work today or whether I'm going to watch Netflix and only go to a Zoom meeting. We're not talking about those workers again. You people should be in the office. But as you and I know, my day starts when I am, dressed and at my computer. My day ends when I'm done working, which is usually right when I can smell dinner being made by my lovely husband. Yes, because men like to cook. I don't understand why there's this push. And to say that working in the office is like eating broccoli. You may not like it, but it's good for you in what way do you get to decide what is good for me, right? I mean, whoever said that, thank you very much for having an opinion, right? You're entitled to it. I would tell you broccoli is exceptionally good for you, and I happen to like broccoli, so I'll eat it. I'll eat the broccoli from my home, from my house. I can eat my damn broccoli that I can literally stop working because it's like, say, 536 o'clock is usually when I'm done working and I walk the 10ft into my kitchen and I can start my dinner. I think it's abhorrent to ignore an entire population of our country, 50% of our workers, who have the capability of working remotely because of their jobs, and to say you shouldn't have the flexibility to see your have. You should commute to the office. And commuting is a thing like, people have been stuck in traffic. I'm from Chicago originally. Commuting takes your life away from you every single day. It is not about, I have a ten mile drive to work. When you live in a major metropolitan area, you don't measure it in miles, you measure it in time.
>> Speaker B:Right?
>> Speaker A:What time is it? Oh, you better leave now. If you don't leave right this second, you're going to be stuck in traffic for two and a half hours. Because it's true, there are things that you have to decide as an individual for a work life balance. But the great thing about working remotely is you don't have to decide. You have it automatically. And with all of the push for wellness initiatives and mental health, I'd encourage employers that want to bring everybody back to the office for some kumbaya every day. Really think about what that gets you. What are you looking to achieve? And is it worth losing some of your best talent? Because the economy is not going to have this little hiccup forever. And people have proven through the pandemic that they can, in fact, successfully work remotely. And if it was good enough for you when everybody was sick, it can be good enough when everyone's healthy to keep them healthy. But that's just my opinion. That's just me on my soapbox.
>> Speaker B:Well, speaking of working remotely in 2024.
>> Speaker A:Yeah.
>> Speaker B:I have to bring up a very good option for working from home, and that's hiremymom.com. And let's talk about the resolution. If you have resolutions to hire better or to be employed better, you can visit hiremymom.com. The people@hiremymom.com do an amazing job at vetting employers and helping prospect employees find the right fit, sometimes from the comfort of their own home.
>> Speaker A:That's beautiful. And by the way, they've been doing that since the 90s, right? So before the pandemic, right? Before remote work was a thing, before hybrid and quotes is a thing. They've been doing this for that long and quite successfully. We love those guys that hire my mom.
>> Speaker B:Have to be a mom and you.
>> Speaker A:Don'T have to be a mom. You can be a dad or a grandma or I'll be a mom someday. You can be a sister, you can be a brother. You don't need a label. We're not trying to label you. You can be what you want, but you got to be a human being. So you have to have that. That is a requirement because they're not looking to get gigs for pets, but that is a requirement. I am a big fan of the company. I call them basically matchmakers. If you're an employer and you want to find the best people for your team in the shortest amount of time and the least cost, especially when you look at the value of the time and getting the right candidate, and be a toxic free organization, that's the best company to go with. If you're an employee looking to have somebody help you with your resume, help set you up for success, learn other things because they have lots of course material online, beautiful stuff. Then work with them to get an employer that matches what you're looking for, too. They're great. And what did you say? That we got a discount, right? They get a 15% off discount at checkout.
>> Speaker B:Yeah.
>> Speaker A:If you reference toxictroom.com, and that's toxictea room. Come on, team. Yes, toxict room. Which is important because if we understand non compete agreements, most of our listeners, I'm sure, have either a, NDA standard, whatever. I'm not going to tell corporate secrets, and you shouldn't, by the way. Don't be that person. But non solicitation agreements are. You're basically, if you sign a non compete agreement, you are, I, if I leave here by my choice or yours, I will not work for a competitor. And the reason that, that needs some caution is you're limiting your own resources for your own income. My advice is don't sign them. If they say it's a condition of employment, negotiate it and say, okay, I've been in this industry for x amount of years. I'm not comfortable closing myself off for the industry for a period of two years. Should you let me go or if I choose to leave. So can we shorten the period or up your salary to make up for it? You are trading your skills for money. If they want you to close off your skills. If you leave or if they fire you, they owe you something for that privilege because that's your income. So to think about that in a professional sense, makes sense. Lower wage earners, literally hourly employees have been signing these things, which to me is ridiculous. Yes, it's ridiculous. so there's a proposed federal ban on non competes altogether. We've actually talked about a little bit of that non competes and antidisparagement clauses and non solicitation and non compete agreements. and that remains in administrative limbo through the first half of 2024 or so. But then we'll see more states impose minimum income requirements for employees who can be required to sign these restrictive covenants. We may even see the FTC follow that path when it comes to finalizing its non compete rule. So what that means is you can't just slap that on every single person that works at your company because it's not fair. If you have somebody that's making minimum wage and you tell them that they have to sign a non compete to work with you, what can you imagine McDonald's signing? Can't. If I leave here, I can't work at BK. Like what? That doesn't make sense. But if you go outside of that industry, I mean, there are plenty of industries. Let's look at supply, chain for an example industry you and I know really well. Let's say I am a coordinator, right? So a coordinator for those of you that are not in supply chain is a general term used for somebody that is going to figure out how to move something from a to b. So they have, a order. They're going to figure out, okay, this is going to go from Chicago, Illinois to Tampa, Florida, and I have to figure out how I'm going to get it there. And that's a coordinator. It's an important role. It's a critical role, but it is typically an entry level role in most supply chain organizations. They're going to invest a lot of time and training into you on, what supply chain is, what their systems are, what the best moves to make. But you're not optimizing the network, you're not negotiating the carrier agreements. You're basically the operator in that sense, right?
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:These people are being asked to sign non compete agreements at an average salary of between 50 and even at the highest end$70,000. Right. And 70 is really, high.
>> Speaker B:Some are lower.
>> Speaker A:Yeah, exactly. 35, 40. And what are you doing that's so proprietary that I can't be a coordinator doing the exact same functions for somebody else?
>> Speaker B:Right.
>> Speaker A:That to me is abusive and is using a fear tactic to keep people in place versus wanting employees to stay working for you because you're a good employer with good benefits, a good work environment, a great culture and incentives and all the yada, yada, yada, it's fear. And so I love seeing this, that the FTC may say, yeah, you can't really. Unless someone is making six figures, it's unreasonable to ask them to sign a non compete agreement. I think that's great.
>> Speaker B:I do too.
>> Speaker A:I also think at, ah, six figures, you shouldn't have to sign a non compete agreement. Look, if you don't want me to work for your competitor, don't treat me like shit. How about that? Let's try that. That's a simple law. Don't treat me like shit. Make me want to continue to work here. And I work here. If I have to leave because somebody else is offering me a lot more money, I'll honor your nondisclosure agreement because that's fair. Those are your secrets. That's your technology. I shouldn't have to take that with me to a competitor. You're damn right. But if someone's willing to pay me more money for the same skills that I brought to you in the first place, I don't want to have to restrict myself. And if it's a toxic work environment and you're going to hold me to that shit. Noonka nada. Nine. No.
>> Speaker B:Exactly.
>> Speaker A:No. There's two syllables in that word. N o no. Yeah.
>> Speaker B:I think that would be a good thing.
>> Speaker A:for sure, I agree. It's not sustainable to continue to put those levels of restrictions on everyone that works for you. Those used to be for senior, and I mean senior C suite level employees, senior vice presidents and up would sign those sorts of things, which I could almost, again, I'm really not supportive of it anyway, but I could almost get in line with that because that is a much different position in an organization heavy on the strategy. If you're going to do, that with me, I don't want you to work for my competitor. Could totally see it. Totally see it.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:But if you want to be sustainable in an environmental sense, you want to accelerate your 2024 sustainability goals, you want to do that with a solid partner that knows what they're doing.
>> Speaker B:Absolutely.
>> Speaker A:And that's escatena. That's Escatena. Escatena supports scope one, two and three goals with its network of reporting software, renewable energy and supply chain providers. And, Stella, if someone doesn't know what scope one, two, or three is when it comes to sustainability, they absolutely need to contact escatenna.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:Mandatory carbon emission reporting is headed our way, ladies and gentlemen. And escatena can ready your organization to thrive in a sustainable way. Learn more by visiting escatenna. Net. That's escatena. Net. Or send your inquiries to unleash@escatenna.net. Unleash uncommon results with escatena and no non compete required to work with them.
>> Speaker B:Yeah, I love those.
>> Speaker A:They're awesome.
>> Speaker B:They are.
>> Speaker A:They kick ass.
>> Speaker B:Speaking of sustainability, I did read in one of these articles that the European Union is going to put a lot of pressure in 2024 on holding companies accountable to knowing what their vendors and suppliers are doing, not only in, sustainability, but in ensuring that they don't have child labor, ensuring that they're legitimate. so if the European Union is, and we have heard of that, just recently, you and I, Roberta, that they're really cracking down on this sustainability of their suppliers. And so, yeah, people should definitely reach out to escatenna if you don't know enough about sustainability. And, that will definitely be something that a lot of organizations will probably prioritize in 2024 as well.
>> Speaker A:And candidly, from what we've learned, we know that us companies are behind the rest of the world on this initiative. Like, there's plenty of work in sustainability in european companies, in asian companies. not all asian countries. we know that there's pollution in some. We know the pollution problems with some.
>> Speaker B:Okay.
>> Speaker A:But the thing that saddens me is that it takes regulation for people to even track what it is that we're even emitting into the air we all breathe. Come on, squad. We all live here. We share the planet. Come on. It shouldn't have to take regulation for you to want to know, just how much am I putting out there in the atmosphere? Just how much? What's my carbon footprint look like? And can I just write a check for offsets? That doesn't stop how much you're putting in the atmosphere, right? So I'm hopeful that reporting it, and I know there are people listening, going, blah, blah, blah, tree hugger, blah, blah, blah. It's okay. Tree hugger, earth hugger, environment hugger. You've heard me make the joke. I'm not Elon Musk. Nor am I a relative of Elon Musk. Therefore, I have zero opportunity to live on Mars or any other possibly hospitable planet when we destroy the one that we are on now. Therefore, I'm doing my best for myself and my progeny to make Earth a hospitable, thriving planet for generations to come.
>> Speaker B:Yes. And one of the things about sustainability, before we leave that topic is you really should engage your employees on it. as we learned, sustainability has to do with the three P's, planet people, and. Oh, wow, I can't remember. Planet people. And what was. I can't remember. Profit, profit, profit. Yes. My bad. so, on that notion, and as far as eliminating toxicity, talking to your people about their ideas for sustainability, involve them? Yes. Because I do think a lot of, advanced sustainable companies do things for their employees where they help them with their ideas to recycling or forestation or whatever it is. But include your people. That is not toxic. To include them, to hear them out, to get them passionate about something other than your bottom line. That's a good idea.
>> Speaker A:And, you know, you gave a footnote on sustainability. I'm going to give the footnote to the footnote and loop us back to remote work. Watch this. Employees that work remotely are not contributing to carbon emissions in their vehicles. They are not, polluting the air. It makes a lot of sense. Remember in the pandemic when everybody was home, including China? And China is infamous for pollution, infamous for smog. I mean, infamous for it. Don't believe me? Google it. This is a known fact.
>> Speaker B:I know.
>> Speaker A:It's rough, right?
>> Speaker B:It is.
>> Speaker A:They were wearing masks before masks were cool and then not cool and then so. And that was not because they wanted to avoid viruses. It's just because they didn't want to breathe in that nastiness in their own atmosphere just to walk outside.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:And during the pandemic, when everyone stayed home, it cleared up. Just saying. I'm not saying everybody needs to become a hermit, but I am saying if you call yourself a green company and you are forcing employees who are successful in hybrid or remote work to come back to the office full time, because you may like chocolate all the time, but we're going to feed you some goddamn broccoli. And that's your idea of broccoli? Because it's good for you. How about real broccoli? Grows from the ground. The ground requires our environment to live. It would be nice if the broccoli that grows in the ground didn't have to deal with bullshit. Rain and pollution before I put it in my mouth to eat it and see if it's good for me. So if we're going to be true to ourselves and true to what we want to do for ourselves, our companies and our employees, I don't know, maybe with a shot of think outside the box and think about what's good for more than just your level of control over an organization. Again, not everyone's that guy, but we know plenty that are. And just think about it. I don't know, just ponder the thought. You don't have to agree with me. You can disagree with me. Post it on my blog. If you disagree with me, that's fine. I can handle it. I can handle disagreement.
>> Speaker B:Way to tie it all in, Roberta.
>> Speaker A:I did my best. I did my best, though.
>> Speaker B:so one last thing I wanted to bring up, is while there was such a high percent of employees thinking they would potentially lose their job, there was a very high percentage, and I think I briefly mentioned this before, that think employers are going to do much more for mental health this year and much more for engagement with their employees. I think that's good to hear. I don't know what it's based off of, per se. I know some companies have instituted a mental health day or a few a, ah, year. but I do wonder if that's, optimistic and not realistic. but obviously we know, like the workplace psychological Safety act is in Congress and at least there's more.
>> Speaker A:Yeah.
>> Speaker B:At the state level. And there are more conversations about, it definitely through many of these articles that we'll post in our blog. a lot of articles do mention, that's one of the concerns for 2024 that employers are going to look at in advancing their focus on giving employees mental health outlets, like even supporting counseling, and the such. So I do find that very interesting.
>> Speaker A:I find that interesting and also encouraging. Like I'd love if that was a true trend. And perhaps it's just today, maybe I'm just extra skeptical today.
>> Speaker B:Well, if you think about it, remember how the Silicon Valley bank went down and.
>> Speaker A:Oh yeah, do I do.
>> Speaker B:There's been general shortage of, capital investment in startups, or at least they're challenging a business model much more since, the market is down. They're challenging investments a lot or delaying them. And I'm no economist, but that's what I've heard this year. And I wonder if that has dwindled on because startups, a lot of startups fail because of how the employees are treated.
>> Speaker A:I would know nothing about that particular statement, Stella. I would know nothing about startups failing because they treat employees like shit. Yeah, like I said, I'm extra sarcastic today. Here's the thing, though. there was earlier, I don't know if it was this week or last week, because we're running so hard right now. You and I are both so incredibly busy right now. And it has nothing to do with the holidays either. That was just added. But we're so busy right now that all my days are running together. I don't even remember what day of the week it is sometimes. But there was know Jim Kramer on Mad money was interviewing Craig Jelenek, the CEO of.
>> Speaker B:Oh, okay.
>> Speaker A:And it was trending. I remember seeing Costco trending. And anyone who knows me knows that I love my Costco. And when I lived in Louisiana, oh, my God. when I lived in Louisiana for three years and there was no Costco where I lived, I was the saddest I've ever been. And when I moved and I said, there's two Costco's, like, I would tell all of my friends in Louisiana. I'm like, guess what? I get to choose between two Costco's. And they were like, oh, my God, it was like the weirdest flex. But it's such a great, not only is it a great store and it is my favorite, but it's also a great company. And that leads the question that Jim Kramer asked. I'm going to loosely quote it, because he said, you're the highest paying retailer in the world, and yet you're still, like, either the highest grossing, in terms of revenue, or ebit was high, and he was just flabbergasted by. Was one of those things you can. Absolutely. Folks can go out and Google or YouTube that interview, and you'll probably find. And the CEO just looks and says, because basically Jim Crim was like, how do you do, like, how can you possibly be the highest grossing, know, biggest profit of any retailer and still be the highest paying retailer? And he's like, how? How does that work? Like, his brain broke at the concept that you can do really well in business while still paying your people well. And the CEO just looked at him and says, we just believe everybody deserves to make a good living. And see, that's why I love Costco, because I believe in that. I believe in that they do pay higher than every other retailer. But when we still have that mindset out there of the only way you can make good profit is to pay people less. I don't agree with that. I think if you give your employees a good salary that they can survive upon and not have to scrimp and save, guess what? They do spend their money so they become good contributors to the economy, too. This makes economic sense.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:When you are an organization that is in the fortune ten, I'm not going to name names, despite my disclaimer. No, I'm doing it when you're Walmart, okay? And Walmart was a former client of mine. There's a lot of positives to Walmart. I'm not here to bash on Walmart, but hut when you have employees that are on government assistant programs, be it, wic, be it food, know, the equivalent of food stamps, be it rent assistance, whatever it is that the taxpayers have to support them so they can live and feed a, family and they work for you full time, that is your issue to solve. Not my issue to solve. As a taxpayer, when you are a fortune ten company making billions with a b, dollars of revenue and profit annually, that is not my problem to solve. If the only way you are making that kind of profit and revenue, well, revenue is different. But if the only way you're making that profit is by paying your employees so little that in order for them to survive, especially in today's economic markets or environment, rather with the inflation and the cost of living and the cost of housing, which has skyrocketed for both rental and purchasing, but the data shows salaries have not kept pace. Salaries are roughly where they were in the 90s in the. Everything else has skyrocketed. And if you're a corporation that claims to serve everybody because of, again, not trying to just pick on Walmart because McDonald's falls in the same boat, I'll name names. You guys can google this stuff for yourself. And your employees that wear your vests, have your emblem on their uniforms, call it McDonald's, call it Walmart, call it any one of those companies that are in the fortune. Sorry, at least you got better benefits there. But, if you are one of those companies that are in the boardroom looking at and congratulating yourself for record profit quarters and yada, yada, yada, and the taxpayer is supplementing that profit, the taxpayer is because we should. I know I'm ranting and I'm sorry. And it's not like I'm not a capitalist. I actually am a capitalist. But if you're a true capitalist, you should be paying your employees what they are worth to do the job you're asking them to do. You should not be counting on government programs to do anything. And these are sometimes the same organizations that contribute heavily to conservative. And again, not trying to make this political, but if you are contributing to conservative clauses because it allows, it benefits you in one way, but yet you rely on the social programs to make up the difference between what it costs to live out there versus what you choose to pay your employees. You're a hypocrite. And I said it. Drop two dimes at a bucket. Fuck it. And I said it.
>> Speaker B:Damn.
>> Speaker A:send your hate mail. Send your hate mail to. Send your hate mail to me. Tell me I'm right. Some of you are applauding. Some of you are like, she's a socialist. She's a communist. I am neither of those things. But I do believe that we live in a society, and I do believe in individual responsibility. And individual responsibility does not stop once you're in a courtroom and you want to make record numbers so that you can make your shareholders happy. And the way you do that is by cutting employees pay or starting them so low that they can't feed their families and entrapping them with cultures that are toxic. That is not capitalism. That is a feudal system that we left in England a long ass time ago. You want to be a capitalist? Be a capitalist. You earn the money. You make the money. You should be richly rewarded if you do the services you do and you make the money that you make. But when you make it on the backs of taxpayers, you're not a capitalist. You're an opportunist. Now go be a capitalist and be a good employer, because you know what? You know what? You know what, big w. I love you, man. Love you guys. I love you. You're good people. Costco is kicking your ass, and they're paying people a lot more money than you are, and that's just a fact. And you got to pay. Here's the thing. When you look at this, just as a quick diversion, right? I can't walk into a Costco and buy their shit. I have to pay for the privilege to shop there.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:And even though people pay, and it isn't just a couple of bucks, people pay for a membership so they can shop at Costco, and they are kicking everyone else's ass in retail while paying their employees the highest salary in the industry, period. Then you go ahead and explain to me how nickel and diming what your employees make is beneficial when there's a model that's proven to be the opposite. I am done. That is soapbox number what? Four today. What a day.
>> Speaker B:Today.
>> Speaker A:I think 2024 is. Get Roberta offer goddamn soapbox. But whatever. I got to speak truth to power, man.
>> Speaker B:Yeah. And since we're name dropping, I just want to say, let's go. This is a random sidebar. I was looking at the differences between Costco and Sam's club. and it turns out there's only a few things that are more cost effective at Sam's club than at Costco. And there's a lot of things that are more cost effective at Costco than Sam's club. Who would have thought. Just thought I'd drop that in as.
>> Speaker A:A free little tip. I mean, there's. How many? I mean, that I do there? Two. Okay. That's two more for the. I mean, jar.
>> Speaker B:Has to look out for their bottom line, right?
>> Speaker A:I agree.
>> Speaker B:But I think as individuals.
>> Speaker A:Exactly. And look, I'm not here to preach how people should be, but this is a podcast about toxic work environments. and when we start off by saying 85% of people in that poll feared they were going to lose their job.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:And we talked about how fear drives toxic behavior, contributes to a toxic work environment, and subjects people to abuse.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:Because if you know someone's with you and they're scared to leave, then you feel emboldened to do what the frick you want to do to that person. Yes. not everybody. Again, this is not about everybody. This is not the podcast that says, this is the let's cheer everybody on podcast. That's not what this is. You know what the title is of the show? This is the toxic tea room. We are talking about the bad things. We are not grouping good companies into that. We're talking about the bad companies, the bad behaviors, the bad individuals. We have to look at some of these organizations and say, is that bottom line truly your bottom line, or are we, the taxpayers, subsidizing that profit? Ah, yes, because I'm not here for it. They talk about cancel culture. How about this? Cancel your reliance on the taxpayer to feed your employees. Cancel that. And don't, operate in an environment of fear, regardless of where that is, whether it's an entry level position at a discount retailer or an entry level position at a fast food place or an entry level position anywhere. Don't abuse your employees. don't abuse your employees regardless of what position they're in. Don't be a better human being and take all of that stuff that you bring with you to church on Sunday, feeling that you're doing right by yourself. Bring that with you to the boardroom on Monday and use your moral compass to create what's right. Right for your business, right for your employees. I, for one, could not imagine an employee in a company I own wearing a shirt with my logo on it. Having to get rent support, having to get food stamps to eat while working for me is unconscionable. My mind can't even accept that that would be a possibility. And if I had 50 employees and a consultant came to me and said, you could be making x amount more margin because you're kind of overpaying, the industry pays this, you're paying x, I would say I don't give a shit about making more margin. I want my employees to have a decent salary and a decent life. They're representing me as an extension of my company. They represent us. What does it say about my company if I don't treat my employees well enough that while they work for me, I don't pay them enough that they can feed their families? I'm not talking about side gigs to get ahead. I'm not talking about somebody that wants to do extra because that's what they want. I'm not talking about somebody that chooses to Uber on the weekends or do Amazon flex for package deliveries because they have personal or financial goals. I'm not talking about that because people do what they want. But if I work for you full time, I should be able to feed my family. I should not have to rely on public assistance to live if I work for you.
>> Speaker B:Ah.
>> Speaker A:And I don't want anybody to ever work for me and have to rely on public assistance to live. M to me, that's shameful to me. That is disgusting to me. If you want to cancel somebody, cancel companies that do that, because guess what? You are paying for it. You are paying for it. You, as a taxpayer are paying for it twice. You walk into one of those establishments I mentioned, other than Costco, which is doing really well, and not relying on public assistance. You walk into one of these establishments, you are paying for the product, and you are paying for the employee that is ringing up that product. Unless you have to go to one of those self checkouts and you're paying for the employee to stand there and make sure you don't steal. You are paying for the people stocking the shelves. You are paying for it. Not just in what you're purchasing in your taxes, because those people live in the same area as you live. Your property taxes pay for that, too, because that government assistance comes from that. You're paying for it. I don't want to pay twice. I don't want to pay twice.
>> Speaker B:Yeah.
>> Speaker A:So I'm hoping that in 2024, there is some regulation, that not only we've talked about the workplace Psychological Safety act, that, is going to be passed at a state level, first in Massachusetts, and I'm manifesting it. I believe it will pass, and then it will spread nationally, and then it will become a federal standard. So get ready, everybody. But I do want to see some more corporate accountability for, again, capitalism done right. It's not capitalist to have somebody else pay for your profit.
>> Speaker B:Hey, you, reminded me that one of the other things I read along these lines, it's a little bit indirect, is that people believe that the employment process is going to take longer in 2024. That, the hiring process will take a lot longer. And that's because employers are going to do more to scrutinize who they're hiring. And that is interesting. And the other interesting part about it was that it completely flipped from 2023. At the beginning of 2023, in a similar poll, about 72% of people thought that the hiring process would take a shorter time. And then this year, they think 2024, it'll be a much longer hiring process. So I did find that very, curious. You should do good due diligence in hiring a potential candidate.
>> Speaker A:Agreed.
>> Speaker B:But at the same time, how long can you keep candidates waiting? Because they have to move on and get something else. So I'm sure there's a.
>> Speaker A:Those candidates are working with hire my mom. They're going to get placed somewhere, folks. Yes, they're going to get placed. Don't let those people off on the hook too long. They will get a job when they're working with hire my mom. So you better hurry up. Better make a decision. I do find that interesting, though. I think, there's another, if this works, where I can reduce my I means and ums by the end of this season, that will be impressive. That will be impressive. Self awareness is a thing, and if the Audience is wondering why we're focused on it, we listen to our podcast.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:Okay. We eat our own product.
>> Speaker B:Okay?
>> Speaker A:So we listen to it after. And there are times where we get to listen to it while it's in the edit process. Damn it. And there are times when. There are times. Here's the thing. You know what's fun? As many of the ums, and I mean that you hear me say, or Stella says, there's a lot more because our producer edits a lot of them out.
>> Speaker B:Lordy.
>> Speaker A:A lot of them out. So when you consider that we listen to it and there are things that can't be edited out, it's too close to something, or it can't be a clean break, yada, yada, yada. I don't know. I've had it explained to me 50 times. But when we are recording, we're in the moment, right? So we're not reading from a script, like, where I say, okay, so let's talk about, like, some of these podcasters. I'm not making fun or throwing shade. I'm just trying to show an illustration. Those of you that listen other podcasts, you'll have some to say. So today we're going to talk about the story of Anne Bates. Anne was a 52 year old mom of three. You've heard these, right? We are talking. We're having a conversation. And while we do have a structure for each episode, because we want to make sure we cover and include everything we want, it's a lot of. It's off the cuff. So sometimes our energy goes up and down, which affects the recording, which we get yelled at about all the time from our editor. can you guys, watch? Your energy is, like, all over the place. Volumes up, volumes down. If I crank Stella up, Roberta's booming. If I crank Roberta up, Stella, what is going on? Sometimes I can't hear. Okay, so sometimes that happens. Sometimes, we're in different locations, so sometimes I sound like, I share a lot on this show, but I haven't shared. I took chemotherapy, this year. No, I don't have cancer. No, I don't want to discuss a lot of the details about it. I'm feeling better now. Thank you for asking. But because I am immunocompromised at the moment, it does restrict where I go and what I do and if I'm feeling particularly unwell, but we have a recording schedule, then when you hear me sound like I'm in a cavern, I'm recording from the great room of my home, which I'm blessed to have high ceilings in that room, and it sounds like I'm in a cavern, could I go to a different room? Probably. Does it mean that I set up my entire studio in a minute? No. So all of these little things and quirks that you hear from our recordings from one episode to the next, is because we're recording realistically. This is us having an honest discussion about issues that occur today, that we've witnessed firsthand, that we bring on guests to discuss. It's not supposed to be slick and perfect. We're not slick and perfect. We are who we are.
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:The rawness you hear from us sometimes is because we're being genuine in the moment. And sometimes the recordings, the audio is not perfect. But I promise you, what you hear is a million times better than how it was actually recorded. Trust me, because I've heard the raw stuff. Sometimes I'm shaking my head and I'm like, do we just rerecord now? Let's just run with it. all of that to say the ums, thing is, for me, ums. And I mean, because I listen to the episode once it's finished. And sometimes I listen to them when I'm just like you guys, when I'm out in the car or I'm working and I have it on in my headsets and I'm beating myself up for, like, why do I keep saying, I mean, that's not necessary. It's not a comma. I literally said that to myself. I heard one of our episodes and I said, I mean, a lot, that episode. Why do I keep using that phrase? It's not a comma. It's not like it's Tuesday. I mean, of last week. That's just stupid. That's just stupid. It's almost like I have a tick. Like, I'd say,
>> Speaker B:I do that with them.
>> Speaker A:Yeah, and I say a lot. I would be the queen of except that it's also you. So, like, we're the co queens. Like, I can be Queen Elizabeth I, you can be Mary, queen of Scots. And we are sisters. But we both do the We can both share that we're both reigning at the same time on the, land, which is the silliest thing that came out of my mouth in recent history. That last sentence I just did was ridiculous. We'll see if it makes the final episode. If you guys are hearing this, it's because our producer also found that amusing. All of that to say that when you hear it repeatedly, you want to take a mental note because we're always self improving. And I thought, you know what, new year. My personal resolution is to use, a little less. To use. I mean, even more or less. More or lesser. Lesser. Even lesser than. I am an english major. Lesser than when I say So it's going to be fun things. You're going to hear me say it and I'm going to catch myself on it and I'm keeping myself honest. So if we need to start an actual jar because we're only figures of that. If we need to start an actual jar, let us know. Go to our website and give us a comment there. Go send us an email, let us know. And if you want us to start a jar for, and I means that we voluntarily put some money in it. What do you want to put? Nickel, quarter, Penny? What do you want to do? Nickel is good. We're going to put a nickel in the, and I mean jar every time we catch ourselves. We'll do a quarter every time you guys catch it and let us know about it. Just quote exactly where we didn't catch ourselves on it. We'll put a quarter in the jar. And at the end of this episode, let's see how much we get. And we'll donate somewhere. We'll make a donation. Okay, so, listeners, you get to play along in this game. Remember, your part in the game is if we say the U-M-M word or the phrase I-M-M-E-A-N. See, I didn't want to put money in the jar. Then we will put a nickel in the jar when we catch it. When we say, damn it, that counts as catching, right? Or up, put money in the jar. We caught ourselves. If you catch it and we didn't catch ourselves, send us a snippet, tell us exactly where it is. We'll put a quarter in the jar. And how about we put their names? At the end of the season, whoever catches us will put their name in for a drawing for some toxic tea room merch, a mug, a shirt, whatever we have available, and we send them that. How about that? Do you like that?
>> Speaker B:I do. I also like if we have the jar at the end of the year and someone can guess how much is in there.
>> Speaker A:Let's do it. We could put a picture of the jar on our blog. Yes. And at the end, do you want to do end of the season or end of the year?
>> Speaker B:Once a quarter.
>> Speaker A:Let's go. So at the end of the season, because the season is roughly a quarter, right? Roughly. At the end of each season, we will take a picture of the jar. You know what the jar is for? I'm not going to say it. Then I have to put money in the jar. Then, you guys can guess. We'll put a picture on our blog. We'll make you aware that it's there and you guys can guess and it won't be guessing on the blog. Don't do that. You'll give your answer to somebody. You'll send us an email with your guess, and the person who guesses it will send you the jar. There you go. And we're still going to make the donation. We will donate the amount that's in the jar to someone, to an appropriate agency, to benefit the world, and we will send you the jar.
>> Speaker B:How's that, guys? Send the merch, you mean.
>> Speaker A:Oh, are we not sending the jar? I know. We're going to send the merch to someone who. Okay, you know what? Here's what we're going to decide. I told you. We do this like real time. We will figure out the rules to the contest, and we will publish those on our blog, which you can enjoy at ww toxict.com. slash blog. Blog. Yes. Where else will we give updates, Stella?
>> Speaker B:Well, you can follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, m x. Twitter is x anyway.
>> Speaker A:Twitter is x?
>> Speaker B:Yes.
>> Speaker A:Isn't it funny that x's x is Twitter? Isn't that kind of funny?
>> Speaker B:That's weird.
>> Speaker A:Yeah.
>> Speaker B:But visit us on our website or our patreon page. You can subscribe. You can follow us on Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Google.
>> Speaker A:So, all sorts of things. finally. And I said, I didn't say I said, is still.
>> Speaker B:Okay.
>> Speaker A:Let's be clear. Don't split hairs on this team. Don't split hairs. If you are interested in sponsoring this podcast, we are also looking at applicants to sponsor the show. We have funded this entirely ourselves, which we are happy to continue to do because we feel that this is an important message to get out. And we will continue to do it. But every now and then, we get a casual. So, do you guys take sponsors? Sure. But we never really thought about what that would mean or what that would look like or what the contribution should be. So if you're interested in having those conversations, just send us an email at the teabag@toxictroom.com.
>> Speaker B:If you want to be a guest, or if you want to suggest a topic for us to talk about that has to do with workplace, we're here for it.
>> Speaker A:In fact, our next episode, our, very next episode, is on a topic suggested by a listener, which I can't wait for you guys to hear this one. This is going to be a goodie. It's about everybody's favorite time of year. What is everybody's favorite time of year? Some would say summer, some would say the holidays, which we just got done with weekends. But no, we're talking about performance appraisals. Oh, yes. Performance appraisals, likely most of you have already just experienced that you just got done with performance appraisal time. And we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about its impacts on employee culture, on the workplace, on how some people view performance appraisals. We're going to have a whole discussion about it. And that's our very next episode with a returning guest, by the way. And we are super excited. So we have a really exciting season planned with some great guests, some really good topics. We're always happy to hear you guys out. we're not going. Damn it. I caught the,
>> Speaker B:You caught it.
>> Speaker A:I was close, too, because I was mid sentence. That could have been a good one. Okay, saved us a quarter. Stella actually saved us. Still got to put a nickel in the jar. We are very excited about this season and what we're going to bring to everybody, and we'd like it to continue to be more interactive. I promise we're not going to talk about poop on back. I can't go back to that period just yet. we will in October. We'll do around two, maybe, before we depart. What do you think, Stella, about for 4 July? We talk about fireworks in the workplace. You ever been at a place where there's just a brawl? Not like, necessarily physical, though I have seen that happen before, but where all of a sudden there's tension, where there could be in a meeting, maybe you've got two people working next to each other in a cubicle farm, and then one day somebody snaps something like that, where all of a sudden there's fireworks and everybody stops working and peek up like groundhogs or something. Just peek their head up over to see what's happening. TikTok, and social media are filled with things that happen between customers and employees, unfortunately, which, by the way, if you're a customer, bad behavior. Just don't. Don't do that. It's horrible to see those things. You're just becoming devolving, as a society and as a people. But I do remember some pretty vivid workplace fireworks that have exchanged. So if you have any of those stories, start sending them in to get ready. because I think that might be a fun episode to do. A little different than Independence day. A little bit more of like, while you enjoy your hot dogs and hamburgers on the barbecue. Yes, you can listen to us reading about some scandalous stuff that happened in front of people.
>> Speaker B:Yes. And with that, yeah, I think we're calling it. But Thank you for. Oh, I just said thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. We really hope. Ah.
>> Speaker A:We really hope it's okay that this.
>> Speaker B:Year brings you prosperity, peace, a level up growth, and we're looking forward to spending the time with you, bringing more information about workplace happenings and hopefully combating toxicity one episode at a time. Thanks.
>> Speaker A:Well said, Stella. well said. Wishing everybody a happy, healthy, prosperous 2024. Make this your year. And for the 85% of you that are worried about losing your job, I'm going to close with this. Sometimes it's hard to leave that job you hate. But if you love yourself more than you hate that job, do what's right for you. Your mental health isn't subject to the wage. Don't let your salary scare you from doing what's best for you and your family. And keep looking, keep creating. Be fearless. And we're going to tell you how you all did on your performance appraisal next episode. Bye bye.
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