TedTest

From the Ted Talk by WorkLife with Adam Grant: Navigating career turbulence

Unscramble the Blue Letters

When I was a little little kid, I was a four years old on my first airplane ride and we got to go up front in the ckicopt because you could kind of do that back then. And it was. Totally dark, no moon over the Atlantic Ocean, there is like a billion stars in the sky and I went back and told my mom I wanted to be a sdtaewsers and my mom, to her credit, she wasn't. Honey, you might want to think about being a pilot. And there you go. That's what I wanted to do from then on. Sharon Pressler has flown lots of different kinds of airplanes since then, including fighter jets. She was the first woman in the US Air Force to fly the F-16. It's just always been the coolest looking airplane, that bubble canopy and the big engine. And it has the highest tolerance, which is nine times the fcore of gtiavry on the ertah, which is scgnanfiiit. It can do anything. Sheeran's had an extraordinary career spanning more than three dacdees. But recently, after 14 years as a pilot with shseouwtt Airlines, she hit a particularly bad patch of turbulence. Her whole industry did. I was the captain who always burhgot, like cchoatloe for the flight attendants, and I'd go give them some chocolate, even if it's breakfast time, it's OK to have chocolate for breakfast. Here you go. And that changed my first flight after we kind of really understood what was going on with covid. We had a bunch of those colrox wepis. So I took those to the flight attendants instead. I'm like, hey, anybody wants some wipes. The pmednaic had a catastrophic imapct on the airlnie industry and Southwest eventually offered buyouts. I hadn't even really thought about my rinrteeemt moment yet because I had 10 more years to fly and I wasn't planning on leaving. But after some serious reflection, she chose to retire. So we're a couple of hundred that retired in the same two week poerid, which is unheard of. Despite all the turbulence, Sharon knows she's lucky she looked beyond the horizon to a new career. More on that later. But for now, buckle up. Ladies, gentlemen, this is Captain Pressor saenikpg. I know it's been a little bit turbulent, especially in the economy, but it's going to smooth out. Thanks for listening with us today. I'm Adam Grant and this is work like my podcast with the TED Radio Collective. I'm an organizational psychologist. I study how to make work, not suck. In this show. I take you inside the minds of fascinating people to help us rethink how we work, lead and live tadoy, navigating career turbulence, thanks to Morgan Stanley for snsoinprog this episode. You know what turbulence feels like on an airplane. You had some nasty wind and everything is out of your control. You've probably faced that kind of turbulence in your career, too, when your job, your workplace or your industry is changing dramatically around you and you feel powerless to shape it. The current pandemic has compounded that disturbance on a massive scale. In the face of uncertainty, we often freeze up. Researchers call it a threat, rigidity, response. When we feel powerless to counter the threats around us, our thinking becomes constrained. We hang on for dear life, stop taking risks and play it safe. The past year has left us all reacting to dramatic change. But psychologists find that when we encounter turbulence, instead of pushing harder against the headwinds, we're generally better off tilting our rudder and charting a new course. In other words, expanding your thinking at exactly the moment when all your instincts are telling you to lock it down tight. I was in my 40s and I worked in the mortgage division. When all of this mortgage business hit and they laid off the entire division in Jacksonville in 2009, Erin Scott had been working for a bank in Florida for 14 years when he lost his job during the recession. He started looking for a new job in finance. I would estimate that surely I applied for at least two hundred jobs. I think I have like three ivtniwrees in that whole time as more time passed without any callbacks and became more open to exploring other roles and for lower pay as long as they were in state your station for one particular kind of fish. But in time when you start casting your net a whole lot wdeir feeling dejected. Aaron finally started looking out of state, which would have meant leaving his entire family behind. My brother, my stiesr, my mom and dad, they're all right there. When you talk about moving to California from Florida, that's you know, that's a desperate move. But something's, you know, something's got to give here. I couldn't find another job to save my life. Aaron spent two and a half years looking for full time work. He had a newborn son, so his financial responsibilities were gniowrg. And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, his wife had a stroke. This is the most driven woman I know. And when you see that kind of person sitting in a wheelchair, I just felt the wgehit of the world had this little boy. You're thinking, my wife looks to me, my son looks to me, what am I going to do? I just finally I went to another room and I just closed door and I just kind of had a little pity party. What is a pity party? Well, I didn't want to say I cried, but that's what I did. With so much out of his control in that moment, Aaron found a way to take some of the control back. Instead of focusing narrowly on the mroagtge industry, Aaron broadened his lens. He found a part time job as a substitute teacher to pay the bills, which was a resourceful move, an example of what psychologists call being pctvaroie. Be proactive can be really anoiynng advice, it isn't about woinkrg harder or taking the bull by the horns or whatever your nagging ulcne keeps telling you to do, you're probably doing that already. It mnaes doing what you can to change the circumstance rather than grinding against it, identifying the ways, lgrae or small, that you can exert some control in an out of control situation. It turned out that Aaron leovd teaching. A few years later, he ended up pivoting it into his current career, where he's helping others learn from his earlier setback. I work at a nearby prison, Hamilton Correctional inutottisin. Aaron now helps people navigate one of the biggest hdieadnws ibaligamne time in prison. What Aaron's lerenad about how formerly incarcerated people re-enter society has implications for adapting to all kinds of tercubnule, from being downsized to being demoted to having a gap on your resmue. People who have spent time in prison faced major obstacles when they're trying to land a job. Employers are often hesitant to give them an opportunity. If they look you up and they find out you are really into some bad stuff, sometimes that's the end of it. They're just going to pass on you. Aaron coaches his suettnds to call out the elephant in the room. I made some very poor decisions. I've paid for that. I've made a lot of changes in my life. I would really appreciate the opportunity. Why do you think it's itromanpt, Aaron, to address the elephant in the room and actually talk about it directly? The number one thing is you control the narrative to some drgeee when you do that. Controlling the narrative, this is a key sregatty for being proactive in the face of career turbulence, cfnaritg a story about how a hnewdiad has made you stegrnor or better. Research demeostntars that in the job search, sex offenders are better off oninwg their mistakes than making excuses. Your headwinds may be lighter than time behind bars. Maybe you lost a job that was a bad fit, or you took time off to care for a child or a sick fiamly meembr. Or maybe you have a physical or psychological disability that prospective employers wrongly judge. And although it's illgeal to discriminate against people with disabilities, employers have biases. In a series of studies, people with disabilities were rated more favorably if they brought them up at the beginning of an interview rather than wintaig until the end or cceioanlng them altogether. Psychologist find that in the face of setbacks, taking charge of the natarirve doesn't just signal to others that you're in control. Forming a sorty can also boost your own motivation and build your confidence to overcome past serggluts and move forward in the future. When Aaron was searching for a job, he decided to take this principle a step further, he sttraed proactively asking interviewers to call out the elephant in the room to tell him what his disadvantages were. Well, first, I want to thank you for allowing me to come in and speak with you. I'm very interested in this psotioin. Is there anything in this interview or perhaps on my résumé that might give you pause about considering me for the position? Part of what I think is so clever about asking that qitousen is even if it doesn't get you the job today, you laren something ptoinltlaey for the next interview. That's exactly right. I did learn from that ireinetvw sometimes, but I learn it helps me get the job that is the right job for me here in advance. Doesn't mean you have to take it, but it does mean you can wgieh it. Sometimes there's a little nugget in there that will help you. This is another form of proactivity in the face of turbulence, sneiekg feedback by asking what your limitations are and how you can improve, you don't just get to peek inside the black box of how to get that job, that connection or that coveted project. You also get in a sense of control to aerddss the issues that may be preventing you from getting an ouoprtpnity. But people won't always tell you what you can do better. And sometimes you can't even get your foot in the door to ask them, you know, all those YouTube videos that you watch and all those things that interrupt you and jam their way into your face. I do those. Dallas McGlaughlin started biudlnig websites as a teenager and tgauht himself how to do SEO scerah engine optimization. You know, when you drecit people doing Google searches to a particular website, like what? Those pop up ads you're always avoiding. Dallas got so good at SEO Marketing that he doreppd out of music college to do it full time and for a few years that's what he did. But when Dallas decided he wnetad to work for a big agency, not having a formal degree became a major dtadigvnaase. It meant nobody was looking at his resume and prescreening tools and tncoohegly that just sheniopd me or filtered me out. I just wasn't even psaisng those checks and balances. Remember, I dropped out of college to go do this. I just knew that I could do that better than anybody stepping out of a college with a communications degree. When you fecad a headwind, you need sourppt. If you're like most people, your instinct is to reach out to your strong ties, the people you know well and trust to have your back. But rsraeceh has shown that you're more likely to get a job through weak ties. Your more distant acquaintances, they travel in different clcries and have access to a broader pool of connections and ideas, which puts them in a better position to open up new opportunities. saldy, the people who need those ties the most are the least likely to reach out to them. Research raeelvs that when their jobs are under threat, people with lower social class tend to narrow their networks. While people with higher status tend to broaden their networks, they raech beyond the inner circle, which actually turns out to be a way of changing course when the going is ruogh and it's something we should support everyone to do. Or if you want to be really proactive, you can expand your network to incldue ceplmote strangers. That's what Dallas did, he came up with a plan to recruit the recruiters into his notewrk. He took the same CEO marketing skills he'd been using to acattrt customers, except now he targeted employers first. He built a website for himself. Next, he made a list of every notable person in the Phoenix agceny ecosystem CEOs, CFOs, marketing directors, you name it. And then he made paid search ads targeting each of them. So let's say you're an executive named John Smith and you're Googling yourself because you have nothing better to do. You type your name into Google. And the very first result that pops up says, hey, John Smith, I'm dlalas McLaughlin. I'm a digital marketing expert and I really want to work for your company. Click here to find out why I basically turned the entire hiring poercss around and I stopped sending ruseems. This is so clever. So wait a minute. How many people actually followed up and how many people ignored it? I only targeted maybe 12. And I heard from for the very first follow up I got, they said, please stop doing this. I don't like it because they didn't like the fact that you were so effective in advertising that you were able to annoy them and create them out a little. Yeah. You know, it's also me screening them out if they don't like what I'm doing and they clearly don't understand the value in what I just did. And they're not going to be able to properly utilize me within their organization. I don't want to work there anyway. The fourth one, they were just like, come into the office, you're hired, you're in. We don't need we want to have a job opening. Wow. So you went from over 100 to four out of 12 interested in at least learning more about you to 100 percent success rate once you got an interview. Yeah, and that was it. Dallas found a proactive way to ssoachwe his skills specific to the field. Instead of going to the recruiters, he turned the teabls and brought the recruiters to him. This kind of initiative can help you expand your network and aecscs to new opportunities to. A few years ago, I got a cold email from a web designer. She sent me a mock up of how she thought my homepage should be redesigned. I wasn't even looking for a caghne, but she did such a great job that I hired her on the spot. Not everyone will have time to experiment like this, but if you can manage it, it's a promising way to proactively change the situation. There's evidence that side hustles can boost our engagement and performance in our full time jobs, and sometimes they even become a career. Go do that thing that eteicxs you. If you are an architect, go draw blreinputs. If you're an auto mehnacic, go fix everybody's cars. And if you do that long enough and you do it well enough, somebody is going to notice. ctaipan Sharon Pressler could have chosen to stay in aviation, but once the airline industry starts furloughing now, there's a glut of pilots, right. Because everybody kind of tries to take a step back and go. So I'll go back to being an instructor. Well, guess what? Everybody else is trying to go back to being an instructor, and there's just not the demand. The more she thought about it, the more she started to reframe the disturbance as an opportunity to take off in an entirely new direction. This whole covid mess and the wreck that the airline inrtdsuy has become right now for me was an unpetcxeed opportunity. So I'm back in school. I'm getting a master's in psychology with an emphasis on coaching young adults and help them successfully tntsrioain to adulthood. And it's just something I wanted to. I've been interested in for a while and mentoring kind of program, although I will miss flying at Southwest. I'm excited about it. It's a big change, but I'm excited about it. In the face of the storm confronting the airline industry, Sharon canhged course, something the pandemic and recession are fonricg all of us to do in varying degrees. Premier grappling with uncertainty. We tend to fcous on what's right in front of us, our stnorg ties and our next move. But what is turbulence mean in the long term to forecast what might happen to your future career? You can learn something from looking to the past. More on that after the berak. OK, this is going to be a different kind of ad, I play a personal role in seietclng the sponsors for this pocasdt because they all have interesting culertus of their own. Today, we're going inside the workplace at Morgan seatlny. For many people, morning routines often include a good cup of coffee and for the team members at Morgan Stanley's global headquarters in Times Square, the coffee comes with a special pairing. We stick together and be kind to each other, love each other, respect each other, and everything is going to be fine. Do you meet Edith and Angela? They run a cofefe cart together in the heart of New York City. I met my wife in Brownsville, Texas, too many years ago, a long time ago, 1975, 75 75. On a typical morning, they head into the city at two 45 a.m. to set up the coffee cart. They've spent a lifetime together in that cart. She can be on the docket. I like to talk that much. Over the years, they've gotten to know their customers. He's very good in keeping track of the orders. And I am with the names Mr. Mackey likes. He has a lot coffee and a large coffee. You know, that's the standard odrer from one of their regulars, Mike Buckin bgurer. If I haeppn to be running late and there's more than like one person waiting and I rzaleie I don't have time, it kind of just destroys the morning. It goes beyond them just knowing your order and having it ready for you. So as soon as you see them, it's a huge smlie. It was my favorite part about going to the New York office. No offense to my colleagues. Mike works at Morgan Stanley. When he did a stint in Hong Kong, Edith and Angelo would ccehk in on him. I always describe them. They're the parents of the block and they, you know, interact with you that way. They're looking out for you guys as as kids. It does feel like that. Like all of us, Edith and Angelo's world was turned upside down in March. Twenty ttnewy. They started to niocte people wearing masks and talking about working from home with a mass of the people coming from people with a mask and etc. . And I said, what's going on here? People say, well, I want to stay home to work. And then we thhougt that we've got a problem there. I start getting worried. As New York City shut down, their entire livelihood was now in question. My colleague Ercan sent an eaiml to three of us and the subject was either Sant'Angelo and the body was, what are we going to do? In New York? Street vendors were exudelcd from pandemic relief poarrgms. So Mike sprang into action. He helped him set up a Venmo account and employees from Morgan Stanley rallied together to contribute. Then they onzgriead a virtual baesarfkt with Edith and Angelo to collect donations, and it just sebolanwld from there. We were very surprised. We were aamzed. Like I say, we knew that they came by not that much. And we continue paying all our bills. And I'm telling us today it it's amazing. It's amazing. Amazing. I found in my research that cultures of gvinig don't just start from the top down. They often grow from the bottom up. Morgan Stanley elyepemos ended up raising enough money to support etidh and Angela over the past year, but it didn't end there. They've now provided fanniaicl support to thousands of food vendors in New York City during the pandemic. For Mike and his culolgeeas, giving back is deeply embedded in the Morgan Stanley culture. It's always been first class business in a first csals way, but also supporting the communities we operate in. You know, this all happened because of how we felt about them. We you know, we just can't believe how much they do for us. These more people. You're not small people to them. You matter to them. At Morgan Stanley, giving back as a core value, a central part of their culture globally. They live that commitment through long lasting partnerships, community based dveilrey and engaging their best asset. Their people learn more at Morgan Stanley Dotcom giving back. Turbulence in an individual career is tguoh to ngaaivte, but right now, literally millions of people are all struggling with a massive upheaval all at once and one that inherently lasts a long time. Bad economic codnitonis make everything in our lives feel uastblne and out of our cnrtool. Millions of jobs have been lost through the pandemic and millions more are at risk. People of cloor, especially those in lower paid jobs and without college dreeegs, have suffered the most. Research shows that job loss doesn't just cteare financial sriatn. It also ieneacrss the risk of depression, aenxity and marital problems and undermines our sense of control and confidence. If you haven't lost your job, you still may be fienleg job insecurity, which has been linked to negative mental and physical htaleh outcomes. There's even evidence that eomoicnc iinerucsty reedcus our pain tolerance. But just as chaos doesn't mean we've lost all control, a moment of huge uaehavpl like this one doesn't mean everything is lost. Recessions can shape careers in ways that are profound and profoundly surprising, we don't yet know the ouomcte of this recession because we're still in it, but we can look to past recessions for wisdom to guide us through our current journey. Just ask Emily BIanche. I would submit job after job after application after application and would hear nothing. Occasionally I get an interview and I find out eight other people were being irtwivneeed and it was really nerve wracking. It took an entire year to get a full time job. In 2001, Emily had just graduated with her bachelor's degree in psychology when she lived through her first of three recessions, the dotcom bust. During the boom of the late 90s, there was just an incredible sense of entitlement of what's the wlord going to oeffr me? Should I start my own company? Will I be a millionaire? By twenty five expectations that were insnae. And you fast forward two years to my class and it just it had completely changed. You know, you go to college, you spend all this meony and you think when you come out, I'm going to have some options. And then that historical moment, I really didn't. That was true for many, many other people graduating in that time and certainly true for many people guatnrdaig right now. Emily knows it's true now because she studied it as an organizational behavior professor at Emory University. Emily is one of the world's foremost experts on the psychology of recessions. Do you ever have these hoibrrle moments, given what you study where you say, well, you know, when bad things happen, I get good research out of it? You know, certainly during the Great Recession, I thought that, but not now. Now I'm like, enough. Good. OK, so you're not a bad person anymore? No, I was in graduate school and I've reformed. Emily had a front row seat to the dotcom faulolt of 2001, and she oebvserd smailir patterns in new graduates during the gerat Recession of 2009. That was when the world fell apart. You could feel it everywhere, you could feel it walking around New York and when all those floks started graduating the class of 2009, there were so many articles about how they were just doomed. This was a generation that I completely had the rug pulled out from under them. The research that was available about recessions was ominous. A setback at the strat of a career cast a long shadow. People who gaaudetrd in recessions continued to earn less. A decade later, it's not only that you suffer now, but that you will also continue to seuffr, at least financially, for a long time to come. But it isn't all bad news. As Emily looked around her in 2009, she saw a strange pattern. One thing that really struck me was that so many people were erseixpsng gratitude. These people had just been dealt this really tough hand. And yet again and again, I kept hearing people say, I'm so grateful I got this job. It's not what I hoped for. But, you know, it's a place to start. And there is very little data on it, at least from a site perspective. She was familiar with a classic sutdy of oymlipc athletes on the podium. Bronze medalists looked hipaper than silver medalists. The poor silver medalist were disappointed . I almost won a gold. The bronze medalist felt lucky. At least I got a medal. Emily wondered if something similar would hold for recession gueatadrs. I found that people who graduated when the economy was doing worse, even though they were 10 or 15 or even 20 years out of those initial experiences, they were more satisfied with their current job than people who graduated in good economic times. At some of the sounds like good news, provided we can get reemployed, it seems like your data would suggest we're going to be happier with our jobs and more likely to appreciate them. Yeah, this is the first surprise people who start their careers in a recession may feel less entitled to the percfet job and more grateful to be employed. I don't mean to diminish the very serious and real obstacles that people who are graduating, but any recession face, but that there may be sort of this long term slevir lining if you take your silver liinng of people being more satisfied with their jobs. I worry that that's going to open the door for leaders to eoxplit them, that people who might have exited ctemllpoey abusive or tixoc workplace will stay because they say, hey, I'm lkcuy to have a job. Is that a risk? Absolutely. I worry about that, too. You may be at risk of tnoeialtrg circumstances which you wouldn't taelrote if you would come of age in better economic times. And why does it last? I'm tinikhng about the common finding that we adapt pretty quickly to our circumstances and start to get used to them. So why in 10 or 15 or 20 years after the recession is over, am I still thankful for having a job? Usually when people get their first jobs, it's in this period of life called the impressionable years. Most people are beginning to forge an iienttdy outside of their families and their cetmmouinis and trying to figure out their place in the world. And atutedits tend to be quite mellblaae during this period. What's going on in the world, whether economically, politically, cutrllluay, tends to help shape those attitudes in ways that mirror what's happening at that moenmt. And after this crictail period, attitudes don't tend to change that much. The indelible mark of the recession doesn't just affect us individually. It can have a meaningful impact on leaders and end up shaping entire organizations. It's very difficult for plpeoe who are graduating recessions to avoid kind of the humbling adversity that that type of environment pnsteres. This brings us to a second surprise and some more long term good news despite the short term headwinds in my data. I find that people who come of age in recessions tend to be less narcissistic in terms of how they pay themselves versus how their top leaders within their company are paid. Those who come of age in recessions and then become leaders of organizations are less entitled knowing what it's like to struggle. These CEOs seem to care more for employees and behave less selfishly. They become proactive about taking responsibility. In one study, Emily discovered that CEOs who launched their crereas in a recioessn were less likely to badactke their stock options to maximize their value. In other wrods, they were less likely to chaet, which is possibly the opposite of what you'd expect from a person who came of age while struggling. The people who tend to cheat are actually the people who are doing really well. A lot of cheating comes from entitlement or a belief that somebody deserves a better outcome or that nobody will notice. And I'll get a. So when you look into your crystal ball, then I don't want one of those, I beg to differ based on your fdniings in 20 or 30 years when people who are just starting out their career become CEOs. Does that mean we're going to see more servant leaders, more givers than takers? I would certainly hope so, based on what we've seen in the past. There are some reasons for optimism in the long run, the chaos we live through can make people stronger and better in a very real way in terms of how they mtagitie the uncertainty associated with bad economic times. One, I think very positive way is through connecting with other people. This tendency for ciioevtntncy bngirs us to one last surprise from Emily's studies. During mmotens of uncertainty, but especially economic uiaertnncty, we tend to rnheitk our relationships with others. We become less individualistic and more civically minded. Emily has found an ingenious way to measure that through pop music. When we're struggling through bad economic temis, we're drawn to different lyrics in ppluaor American music, you're more likely to see first person plural pronouns like we us. Whereas in really good economic times, you see a lot of first person pronouns like me, mine I when you think of what's often cllead the greatest generation, the generation that came of age either in the Great Depression or World War Two, it's been auergd again and again that this is the most civically minded geartineon. I do think we will see that going forward in the current generation. Another way, Emily measured individualism was by looking at Social sctrieuy data to see what parents name their kids during good and bad economic times. eilmy found that when the economy is doing well, pnaetrs are more likely to give their kids unquie names. I'm looking at you. Blue Ivy, when the eoomncy is struggling, parents choose from a smaller set of more common names, which are often biblical names. It used to be in the 1950s when out of 15 boys would reevcie the most common name. Fast forward to 2013. And now it's one out of seventy five boys receive the most common name of their birth year, if you take this idea of incrsaenig communal oiiorettann, decreasing individualism seriously, would you also anticipate that we're going to see more caring and more supportive work relationships in the next couple of decades? The findings that I have lkoeod at suggests that, yes, right. To the extent that people are less narcissistic, they would also manifest in positive ways in the interpersonal level. We can all agree that recessions are terrible in the short term for so many reasons. But in the long term, having experienced their own struggles, leaders in the future may be less entitled, more hsonet and more caring toward employees. And in the meantime, we all may be more community focused. But during a recession, there's a darker side to this. It really depends on who your conmitumy is. There tends to be greetar fnnsodes for people within one's own gorup and often, not always, but often that comes at the expense of how people perceive and treat people who are not a part of their anger. Xenophobia is higher. Treatment of igtmraimns is worse. All these different manifestations of pirdujcee. The evidence shows that recessions have unaquel effects along racial leins. You know, the wage gap between black and white workers, well, Emily found that it gowrs during recessions. She also discovered that recessions change people's attitudes about race. Her research sowhs that white people are more likely to rpreot that inequality between races is natural and normal in the wake of a recession. We need to understand how to overcome this ingroup bias and broaden people's circles of concern to mtotvaie them to care about helping those who have been most disadvantaged. Dismantling these biases is so important that we'll be ditenovg two episodes to it this season. Stay tuned. When you hit turbulence, it can be hard to see the way forward, it can help to look backward. What we see when we do that is that the lessons we learn in these hard times will shpae our jobs and our cultures for the long haul. Some of those eectffs are nvagteie and we have to be viliagnt to counteract. Some of them are surprisingly positive. A glimmer of light up ahead. We also see that in the bumpiest or most ciathoc moments are connections with each other are more important than ever, and it's up to us to be proactive about not only ranicehg out to our networks, but expanding them. If we're thoughtful about it, we have the opportunity to stick the landing, to come through turbulence, more open, more honest and more connected than before. Next time on work life and also it's etishaxung. Oh, my God. Sometimes I just want to agree to dagresie or don't agree to disagree. The keys to solving conflicts at work and at home are often hidnig in plain sight workplaces hosted by me, Adam Grant. The show is produced by TED with Transmitter Media. Our team includes clion Alby's creditcard, Dan O'Donnell, Constanza Kaieda, Chris Rubenstein, Michelle Quinn, Bambam Chang and Adam Thielen. This episode was pocrdued by Joe Angelena. Our show is mexid by Require Our Fact Checkers. Paul Dabic Original Music by Hartsdale Sue and Alison Layton borwn had stories produced by Pineapple Street Studios special thanks to our sponsors lkeind in Logitech, moragn Stanley, S&P and Verizon for their research, thanks to temas including bietirasn Threat, Rigidity, Sharon Parker and Proactivity Connie wnerbeig on the job search. brtet lynos on disclosing stigmatized identities. Jamie pekenbnear on forming a story. Sue Ashford on Proactiv fbedceak seeking and job insecurity. Mark Granovetter on Weeks's Tarnya met in a narrowing versus broadening networks. Hudson sessions on side Hustle's Rick Priced on job loss and Lisa Kahn and how rocesniess affect careers. As brilliant as this is, I think you're spliinpg because I just Googled myself and there was not an ad by you to be on my podcast and maybe I'm getting cpeoamclnt.

Open Cloze

When I was a little little kid, I was a four years old on my first airplane ride and we got to go up front in the _______ because you could kind of do that back then. And it was. Totally dark, no moon over the Atlantic Ocean, there is like a billion stars in the sky and I went back and told my mom I wanted to be a __________ and my mom, to her credit, she wasn't. Honey, you might want to think about being a pilot. And there you go. That's what I wanted to do from then on. Sharon Pressler has flown lots of different kinds of airplanes since then, including fighter jets. She was the first woman in the US Air Force to fly the F-16. It's just always been the coolest looking airplane, that bubble canopy and the big engine. And it has the highest tolerance, which is nine times the _____ of _______ on the _____, which is ___________. It can do anything. Sheeran's had an extraordinary career spanning more than three _______. But recently, after 14 years as a pilot with _________ Airlines, she hit a particularly bad patch of turbulence. Her whole industry did. I was the captain who always _______, like _________ for the flight attendants, and I'd go give them some chocolate, even if it's breakfast time, it's OK to have chocolate for breakfast. Here you go. And that changed my first flight after we kind of really understood what was going on with covid. We had a bunch of those ______ _____. So I took those to the flight attendants instead. I'm like, hey, anybody wants some wipes. The ________ had a catastrophic ______ on the _______ industry and Southwest eventually offered buyouts. I hadn't even really thought about my __________ moment yet because I had 10 more years to fly and I wasn't planning on leaving. But after some serious reflection, she chose to retire. So we're a couple of hundred that retired in the same two week ______, which is unheard of. Despite all the turbulence, Sharon knows she's lucky she looked beyond the horizon to a new career. More on that later. But for now, buckle up. Ladies, gentlemen, this is Captain Pressor ________. I know it's been a little bit turbulent, especially in the economy, but it's going to smooth out. Thanks for listening with us today. I'm Adam Grant and this is work like my podcast with the TED Radio Collective. I'm an organizational psychologist. I study how to make work, not suck. In this show. I take you inside the minds of fascinating people to help us rethink how we work, lead and live _____, navigating career turbulence, thanks to Morgan Stanley for __________ this episode. You know what turbulence feels like on an airplane. You had some nasty wind and everything is out of your control. You've probably faced that kind of turbulence in your career, too, when your job, your workplace or your industry is changing dramatically around you and you feel powerless to shape it. The current pandemic has compounded that disturbance on a massive scale. In the face of uncertainty, we often freeze up. Researchers call it a threat, rigidity, response. When we feel powerless to counter the threats around us, our thinking becomes constrained. We hang on for dear life, stop taking risks and play it safe. The past year has left us all reacting to dramatic change. But psychologists find that when we encounter turbulence, instead of pushing harder against the headwinds, we're generally better off tilting our rudder and charting a new course. In other words, expanding your thinking at exactly the moment when all your instincts are telling you to lock it down tight. I was in my 40s and I worked in the mortgage division. When all of this mortgage business hit and they laid off the entire division in Jacksonville in 2009, Erin Scott had been working for a bank in Florida for 14 years when he lost his job during the recession. He started looking for a new job in finance. I would estimate that surely I applied for at least two hundred jobs. I think I have like three __________ in that whole time as more time passed without any callbacks and became more open to exploring other roles and for lower pay as long as they were in state your station for one particular kind of fish. But in time when you start casting your net a whole lot _____ feeling dejected. Aaron finally started looking out of state, which would have meant leaving his entire family behind. My brother, my ______, my mom and dad, they're all right there. When you talk about moving to California from Florida, that's you know, that's a desperate move. But something's, you know, something's got to give here. I couldn't find another job to save my life. Aaron spent two and a half years looking for full time work. He had a newborn son, so his financial responsibilities were _______. And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, his wife had a stroke. This is the most driven woman I know. And when you see that kind of person sitting in a wheelchair, I just felt the ______ of the world had this little boy. You're thinking, my wife looks to me, my son looks to me, what am I going to do? I just finally I went to another room and I just closed door and I just kind of had a little pity party. What is a pity party? Well, I didn't want to say I cried, but that's what I did. With so much out of his control in that moment, Aaron found a way to take some of the control back. Instead of focusing narrowly on the ________ industry, Aaron broadened his lens. He found a part time job as a substitute teacher to pay the bills, which was a resourceful move, an example of what psychologists call being _________. Be proactive can be really ________ advice, it isn't about _______ harder or taking the bull by the horns or whatever your nagging _____ keeps telling you to do, you're probably doing that already. It _____ doing what you can to change the circumstance rather than grinding against it, identifying the ways, _____ or small, that you can exert some control in an out of control situation. It turned out that Aaron _____ teaching. A few years later, he ended up pivoting it into his current career, where he's helping others learn from his earlier setback. I work at a nearby prison, Hamilton Correctional ___________. Aaron now helps people navigate one of the biggest _________ __________ time in prison. What Aaron's _______ about how formerly incarcerated people re-enter society has implications for adapting to all kinds of __________, from being downsized to being demoted to having a gap on your ______. People who have spent time in prison faced major obstacles when they're trying to land a job. Employers are often hesitant to give them an opportunity. If they look you up and they find out you are really into some bad stuff, sometimes that's the end of it. They're just going to pass on you. Aaron coaches his ________ to call out the elephant in the room. I made some very poor decisions. I've paid for that. I've made a lot of changes in my life. I would really appreciate the opportunity. Why do you think it's _________, Aaron, to address the elephant in the room and actually talk about it directly? The number one thing is you control the narrative to some ______ when you do that. Controlling the narrative, this is a key ________ for being proactive in the face of career turbulence, ________ a story about how a ________ has made you ________ or better. Research ____________ that in the job search, sex offenders are better off ______ their mistakes than making excuses. Your headwinds may be lighter than time behind bars. Maybe you lost a job that was a bad fit, or you took time off to care for a child or a sick ______ ______. Or maybe you have a physical or psychological disability that prospective employers wrongly judge. And although it's _______ to discriminate against people with disabilities, employers have biases. In a series of studies, people with disabilities were rated more favorably if they brought them up at the beginning of an interview rather than _______ until the end or __________ them altogether. Psychologist find that in the face of setbacks, taking charge of the _________ doesn't just signal to others that you're in control. Forming a _____ can also boost your own motivation and build your confidence to overcome past _________ and move forward in the future. When Aaron was searching for a job, he decided to take this principle a step further, he _______ proactively asking interviewers to call out the elephant in the room to tell him what his disadvantages were. Well, first, I want to thank you for allowing me to come in and speak with you. I'm very interested in this ________. Is there anything in this interview or perhaps on my résumé that might give you pause about considering me for the position? Part of what I think is so clever about asking that ________ is even if it doesn't get you the job today, you _____ something ___________ for the next interview. That's exactly right. I did learn from that _________ sometimes, but I learn it helps me get the job that is the right job for me here in advance. Doesn't mean you have to take it, but it does mean you can _____ it. Sometimes there's a little nugget in there that will help you. This is another form of proactivity in the face of turbulence, _______ feedback by asking what your limitations are and how you can improve, you don't just get to peek inside the black box of how to get that job, that connection or that coveted project. You also get in a sense of control to _______ the issues that may be preventing you from getting an ___________. But people won't always tell you what you can do better. And sometimes you can't even get your foot in the door to ask them, you know, all those YouTube videos that you watch and all those things that interrupt you and jam their way into your face. I do those. Dallas McGlaughlin started ________ websites as a teenager and ______ himself how to do SEO ______ engine optimization. You know, when you ______ people doing Google searches to a particular website, like what? Those pop up ads you're always avoiding. Dallas got so good at SEO Marketing that he _______ out of music college to do it full time and for a few years that's what he did. But when Dallas decided he ______ to work for a big agency, not having a formal degree became a major ____________. It meant nobody was looking at his resume and prescreening tools and __________ that just ________ me or filtered me out. I just wasn't even _______ those checks and balances. Remember, I dropped out of college to go do this. I just knew that I could do that better than anybody stepping out of a college with a communications degree. When you _____ a headwind, you need _______. If you're like most people, your instinct is to reach out to your strong ties, the people you know well and trust to have your back. But ________ has shown that you're more likely to get a job through weak ties. Your more distant acquaintances, they travel in different _______ and have access to a broader pool of connections and ideas, which puts them in a better position to open up new opportunities. _____, the people who need those ties the most are the least likely to reach out to them. Research _______ that when their jobs are under threat, people with lower social class tend to narrow their networks. While people with higher status tend to broaden their networks, they _____ beyond the inner circle, which actually turns out to be a way of changing course when the going is _____ and it's something we should support everyone to do. Or if you want to be really proactive, you can expand your network to _______ ________ strangers. That's what Dallas did, he came up with a plan to recruit the recruiters into his _______. He took the same CEO marketing skills he'd been using to _______ customers, except now he targeted employers first. He built a website for himself. Next, he made a list of every notable person in the Phoenix ______ ecosystem CEOs, CFOs, marketing directors, you name it. And then he made paid search ads targeting each of them. So let's say you're an executive named John Smith and you're Googling yourself because you have nothing better to do. You type your name into Google. And the very first result that pops up says, hey, John Smith, I'm ______ McLaughlin. I'm a digital marketing expert and I really want to work for your company. Click here to find out why I basically turned the entire hiring _______ around and I stopped sending _______. This is so clever. So wait a minute. How many people actually followed up and how many people ignored it? I only targeted maybe 12. And I heard from for the very first follow up I got, they said, please stop doing this. I don't like it because they didn't like the fact that you were so effective in advertising that you were able to annoy them and create them out a little. Yeah. You know, it's also me screening them out if they don't like what I'm doing and they clearly don't understand the value in what I just did. And they're not going to be able to properly utilize me within their organization. I don't want to work there anyway. The fourth one, they were just like, come into the office, you're hired, you're in. We don't need we want to have a job opening. Wow. So you went from over 100 to four out of 12 interested in at least learning more about you to 100 percent success rate once you got an interview. Yeah, and that was it. Dallas found a proactive way to ________ his skills specific to the field. Instead of going to the recruiters, he turned the ______ and brought the recruiters to him. This kind of initiative can help you expand your network and ______ to new opportunities to. A few years ago, I got a cold email from a web designer. She sent me a mock up of how she thought my homepage should be redesigned. I wasn't even looking for a ______, but she did such a great job that I hired her on the spot. Not everyone will have time to experiment like this, but if you can manage it, it's a promising way to proactively change the situation. There's evidence that side hustles can boost our engagement and performance in our full time jobs, and sometimes they even become a career. Go do that thing that _______ you. If you are an architect, go draw __________. If you're an auto ________, go fix everybody's cars. And if you do that long enough and you do it well enough, somebody is going to notice. _______ Sharon Pressler could have chosen to stay in aviation, but once the airline industry starts furloughing now, there's a glut of pilots, right. Because everybody kind of tries to take a step back and go. So I'll go back to being an instructor. Well, guess what? Everybody else is trying to go back to being an instructor, and there's just not the demand. The more she thought about it, the more she started to reframe the disturbance as an opportunity to take off in an entirely new direction. This whole covid mess and the wreck that the airline ________ has become right now for me was an __________ opportunity. So I'm back in school. I'm getting a master's in psychology with an emphasis on coaching young adults and help them successfully __________ to adulthood. And it's just something I wanted to. I've been interested in for a while and mentoring kind of program, although I will miss flying at Southwest. I'm excited about it. It's a big change, but I'm excited about it. In the face of the storm confronting the airline industry, Sharon _______ course, something the pandemic and recession are _______ all of us to do in varying degrees. Premier grappling with uncertainty. We tend to _____ on what's right in front of us, our ______ ties and our next move. But what is turbulence mean in the long term to forecast what might happen to your future career? You can learn something from looking to the past. More on that after the _____. OK, this is going to be a different kind of ad, I play a personal role in _________ the sponsors for this _______ because they all have interesting ________ of their own. Today, we're going inside the workplace at Morgan _______. For many people, morning routines often include a good cup of coffee and for the team members at Morgan Stanley's global headquarters in Times Square, the coffee comes with a special pairing. We stick together and be kind to each other, love each other, respect each other, and everything is going to be fine. Do you meet Edith and Angela? They run a ______ cart together in the heart of New York City. I met my wife in Brownsville, Texas, too many years ago, a long time ago, 1975, 75 75. On a typical morning, they head into the city at two 45 a.m. to set up the coffee cart. They've spent a lifetime together in that cart. She can be on the docket. I like to talk that much. Over the years, they've gotten to know their customers. He's very good in keeping track of the orders. And I am with the names Mr. Mackey likes. He has a lot coffee and a large coffee. You know, that's the standard _____ from one of their regulars, Mike Buckin ______. If I ______ to be running late and there's more than like one person waiting and I _______ I don't have time, it kind of just destroys the morning. It goes beyond them just knowing your order and having it ready for you. So as soon as you see them, it's a huge _____. It was my favorite part about going to the New York office. No offense to my colleagues. Mike works at Morgan Stanley. When he did a stint in Hong Kong, Edith and Angelo would _____ in on him. I always describe them. They're the parents of the block and they, you know, interact with you that way. They're looking out for you guys as as kids. It does feel like that. Like all of us, Edith and Angelo's world was turned upside down in March. Twenty ______. They started to ______ people wearing masks and talking about working from home with a mass of the people coming from people with a mask and etc. . And I said, what's going on here? People say, well, I want to stay home to work. And then we _______ that we've got a problem there. I start getting worried. As New York City shut down, their entire livelihood was now in question. My colleague Ercan sent an _____ to three of us and the subject was either Sant'Angelo and the body was, what are we going to do? In New York? Street vendors were ________ from pandemic relief ________. So Mike sprang into action. He helped him set up a Venmo account and employees from Morgan Stanley rallied together to contribute. Then they _________ a virtual _________ with Edith and Angelo to collect donations, and it just __________ from there. We were very surprised. We were ______. Like I say, we knew that they came by not that much. And we continue paying all our bills. And I'm telling us today it it's amazing. It's amazing. Amazing. I found in my research that cultures of ______ don't just start from the top down. They often grow from the bottom up. Morgan Stanley _________ ended up raising enough money to support _____ and Angela over the past year, but it didn't end there. They've now provided _________ support to thousands of food vendors in New York City during the pandemic. For Mike and his __________, giving back is deeply embedded in the Morgan Stanley culture. It's always been first class business in a first _____ way, but also supporting the communities we operate in. You know, this all happened because of how we felt about them. We you know, we just can't believe how much they do for us. These more people. You're not small people to them. You matter to them. At Morgan Stanley, giving back as a core value, a central part of their culture globally. They live that commitment through long lasting partnerships, community based ________ and engaging their best asset. Their people learn more at Morgan Stanley Dotcom giving back. Turbulence in an individual career is _____ to ________, but right now, literally millions of people are all struggling with a massive upheaval all at once and one that inherently lasts a long time. Bad economic __________ make everything in our lives feel ________ and out of our _______. Millions of jobs have been lost through the pandemic and millions more are at risk. People of _____, especially those in lower paid jobs and without college _______, have suffered the most. Research shows that job loss doesn't just ______ financial ______. It also _________ the risk of depression, _______ and marital problems and undermines our sense of control and confidence. If you haven't lost your job, you still may be _______ job insecurity, which has been linked to negative mental and physical ______ outcomes. There's even evidence that ________ __________ _______ our pain tolerance. But just as chaos doesn't mean we've lost all control, a moment of huge ________ like this one doesn't mean everything is lost. Recessions can shape careers in ways that are profound and profoundly surprising, we don't yet know the _______ of this recession because we're still in it, but we can look to past recessions for wisdom to guide us through our current journey. Just ask Emily BIanche. I would submit job after job after application after application and would hear nothing. Occasionally I get an interview and I find out eight other people were being ___________ and it was really nerve wracking. It took an entire year to get a full time job. In 2001, Emily had just graduated with her bachelor's degree in psychology when she lived through her first of three recessions, the dotcom bust. During the boom of the late 90s, there was just an incredible sense of entitlement of what's the _____ going to _____ me? Should I start my own company? Will I be a millionaire? By twenty five expectations that were ______. And you fast forward two years to my class and it just it had completely changed. You know, you go to college, you spend all this _____ and you think when you come out, I'm going to have some options. And then that historical moment, I really didn't. That was true for many, many other people graduating in that time and certainly true for many people __________ right now. Emily knows it's true now because she studied it as an organizational behavior professor at Emory University. Emily is one of the world's foremost experts on the psychology of recessions. Do you ever have these ________ moments, given what you study where you say, well, you know, when bad things happen, I get good research out of it? You know, certainly during the Great Recession, I thought that, but not now. Now I'm like, enough. Good. OK, so you're not a bad person anymore? No, I was in graduate school and I've reformed. Emily had a front row seat to the dotcom _______ of 2001, and she ________ _______ patterns in new graduates during the _____ Recession of 2009. That was when the world fell apart. You could feel it everywhere, you could feel it walking around New York and when all those _____ started graduating the class of 2009, there were so many articles about how they were just doomed. This was a generation that I completely had the rug pulled out from under them. The research that was available about recessions was ominous. A setback at the _____ of a career cast a long shadow. People who _________ in recessions continued to earn less. A decade later, it's not only that you suffer now, but that you will also continue to ______, at least financially, for a long time to come. But it isn't all bad news. As Emily looked around her in 2009, she saw a strange pattern. One thing that really struck me was that so many people were __________ gratitude. These people had just been dealt this really tough hand. And yet again and again, I kept hearing people say, I'm so grateful I got this job. It's not what I hoped for. But, you know, it's a place to start. And there is very little data on it, at least from a site perspective. She was familiar with a classic _____ of _______ athletes on the podium. Bronze medalists looked _______ than silver medalists. The poor silver medalist were disappointed . I almost won a gold. The bronze medalist felt lucky. At least I got a medal. Emily wondered if something similar would hold for recession _________. I found that people who graduated when the economy was doing worse, even though they were 10 or 15 or even 20 years out of those initial experiences, they were more satisfied with their current job than people who graduated in good economic times. At some of the sounds like good news, provided we can get reemployed, it seems like your data would suggest we're going to be happier with our jobs and more likely to appreciate them. Yeah, this is the first surprise people who start their careers in a recession may feel less entitled to the _______ job and more grateful to be employed. I don't mean to diminish the very serious and real obstacles that people who are graduating, but any recession face, but that there may be sort of this long term ______ lining if you take your silver ______ of people being more satisfied with their jobs. I worry that that's going to open the door for leaders to _______ them, that people who might have exited __________ abusive or _____ workplace will stay because they say, hey, I'm _____ to have a job. Is that a risk? Absolutely. I worry about that, too. You may be at risk of __________ circumstances which you wouldn't ________ if you would come of age in better economic times. And why does it last? I'm ________ about the common finding that we adapt pretty quickly to our circumstances and start to get used to them. So why in 10 or 15 or 20 years after the recession is over, am I still thankful for having a job? Usually when people get their first jobs, it's in this period of life called the impressionable years. Most people are beginning to forge an ________ outside of their families and their ___________ and trying to figure out their place in the world. And _________ tend to be quite _________ during this period. What's going on in the world, whether economically, politically, __________, tends to help shape those attitudes in ways that mirror what's happening at that ______. And after this ________ period, attitudes don't tend to change that much. The indelible mark of the recession doesn't just affect us individually. It can have a meaningful impact on leaders and end up shaping entire organizations. It's very difficult for ______ who are graduating recessions to avoid kind of the humbling adversity that that type of environment ________. This brings us to a second surprise and some more long term good news despite the short term headwinds in my data. I find that people who come of age in recessions tend to be less narcissistic in terms of how they pay themselves versus how their top leaders within their company are paid. Those who come of age in recessions and then become leaders of organizations are less entitled knowing what it's like to struggle. These CEOs seem to care more for employees and behave less selfishly. They become proactive about taking responsibility. In one study, Emily discovered that CEOs who launched their _______ in a _________ were less likely to ________ their stock options to maximize their value. In other _____, they were less likely to _____, which is possibly the opposite of what you'd expect from a person who came of age while struggling. The people who tend to cheat are actually the people who are doing really well. A lot of cheating comes from entitlement or a belief that somebody deserves a better outcome or that nobody will notice. And I'll get a. So when you look into your crystal ball, then I don't want one of those, I beg to differ based on your ________ in 20 or 30 years when people who are just starting out their career become CEOs. Does that mean we're going to see more servant leaders, more givers than takers? I would certainly hope so, based on what we've seen in the past. There are some reasons for optimism in the long run, the chaos we live through can make people stronger and better in a very real way in terms of how they ________ the uncertainty associated with bad economic times. One, I think very positive way is through connecting with other people. This tendency for ____________ ______ us to one last surprise from Emily's studies. During _______ of uncertainty, but especially economic ___________, we tend to _______ our relationships with others. We become less individualistic and more civically minded. Emily has found an ingenious way to measure that through pop music. When we're struggling through bad economic _____, we're drawn to different lyrics in _______ American music, you're more likely to see first person plural pronouns like we us. Whereas in really good economic times, you see a lot of first person pronouns like me, mine I when you think of what's often ______ the greatest generation, the generation that came of age either in the Great Depression or World War Two, it's been ______ again and again that this is the most civically minded __________. I do think we will see that going forward in the current generation. Another way, Emily measured individualism was by looking at Social ________ data to see what parents name their kids during good and bad economic times. _____ found that when the economy is doing well, _______ are more likely to give their kids ______ names. I'm looking at you. Blue Ivy, when the _______ is struggling, parents choose from a smaller set of more common names, which are often biblical names. It used to be in the 1950s when out of 15 boys would _______ the most common name. Fast forward to 2013. And now it's one out of seventy five boys receive the most common name of their birth year, if you take this idea of __________ communal ___________, decreasing individualism seriously, would you also anticipate that we're going to see more caring and more supportive work relationships in the next couple of decades? The findings that I have ______ at suggests that, yes, right. To the extent that people are less narcissistic, they would also manifest in positive ways in the interpersonal level. We can all agree that recessions are terrible in the short term for so many reasons. But in the long term, having experienced their own struggles, leaders in the future may be less entitled, more ______ and more caring toward employees. And in the meantime, we all may be more community focused. But during a recession, there's a darker side to this. It really depends on who your _________ is. There tends to be _______ ________ for people within one's own _____ and often, not always, but often that comes at the expense of how people perceive and treat people who are not a part of their anger. Xenophobia is higher. Treatment of __________ is worse. All these different manifestations of _________. The evidence shows that recessions have _______ effects along racial _____. You know, the wage gap between black and white workers, well, Emily found that it _____ during recessions. She also discovered that recessions change people's attitudes about race. Her research _____ that white people are more likely to ______ that inequality between races is natural and normal in the wake of a recession. We need to understand how to overcome this ingroup bias and broaden people's circles of concern to ________ them to care about helping those who have been most disadvantaged. Dismantling these biases is so important that we'll be ________ two episodes to it this season. Stay tuned. When you hit turbulence, it can be hard to see the way forward, it can help to look backward. What we see when we do that is that the lessons we learn in these hard times will _____ our jobs and our cultures for the long haul. Some of those _______ are ________ and we have to be ________ to counteract. Some of them are surprisingly positive. A glimmer of light up ahead. We also see that in the bumpiest or most _______ moments are connections with each other are more important than ever, and it's up to us to be proactive about not only ________ out to our networks, but expanding them. If we're thoughtful about it, we have the opportunity to stick the landing, to come through turbulence, more open, more honest and more connected than before. Next time on work life and also it's __________. Oh, my God. Sometimes I just want to agree to ________ or don't agree to disagree. The keys to solving conflicts at work and at home are often ______ in plain sight workplaces hosted by me, Adam Grant. The show is produced by TED with Transmitter Media. Our team includes _____ Alby's creditcard, Dan O'Donnell, Constanza Kaieda, Chris Rubenstein, Michelle Quinn, Bambam Chang and Adam Thielen. This episode was ________ by Joe Angelena. Our show is _____ by Require Our Fact Checkers. Paul Dabic Original Music by Hartsdale Sue and Alison Layton _____ had stories produced by Pineapple Street Studios special thanks to our sponsors ______ in Logitech, ______ Stanley, S&P and Verizon for their research, thanks to _____ including _________ Threat, Rigidity, Sharon Parker and Proactivity Connie ________ on the job search. _____ _____ on disclosing stigmatized identities. Jamie __________ on forming a story. Sue Ashford on Proactiv ________ seeking and job insecurity. Mark Granovetter on Weeks's Tarnya met in a narrowing versus broadening networks. Hudson sessions on side Hustle's Rick Priced on job loss and Lisa Kahn and how __________ affect careers. As brilliant as this is, I think you're ________ because I just Googled myself and there was not an ad by you to be on my podcast and maybe I'm getting __________.

Solution

hiding
disadvantage
unstable
tolerate
reaching
argued
reduces
illegal
group
morgan
rethink
thinking
chaotic
devoting
conditions
increasing
showcase
focus
uncertainty
colin
question
feeling
story
strong
turbulence
struggles
unexpected
moment
employees
brett
family
words
critical
great
stewardess
identity
mechanic
excites
beristain
disagree
graduating
weinberg
waiting
interviewed
times
crafting
search
owning
delivery
changed
technology
anxiety
strategy
mortgage
world
negative
control
similar
member
circles
economic
transition
unequal
concealing
mixed
southwest
wider
working
stanley
immigrants
wanted
cultures
grows
horrible
security
interviews
moments
selecting
building
report
insane
large
produced
decades
findings
financial
check
outcome
agency
lines
siphoned
impact
annoying
recessions
airline
force
blueprints
observed
pennebaker
toxic
called
linked
thought
gravity
parents
happier
wipes
expressing
today
resumes
captain
stronger
taught
sister
organized
olympic
perfect
recession
culturally
process
careers
chocolate
clorox
order
graduated
color
speaking
weigh
teams
fallout
lucky
forcing
access
means
passing
burger
break
degrees
programs
shows
class
interview
mitigate
complete
giving
popular
communities
unique
period
people
attract
headwinds
folks
position
navigate
happen
orientation
significant
attitudes
snowballed
support
health
cockpit
tables
malleable
opportunity
coffee
podcast
looked
research
degree
dallas
prejudice
learn
faced
create
growing
exhausting
rough
proactive
increases
email
amazed
uncle
network
feedback
complacent
lyons
reach
potentially
tough
dropped
silver
upheaval
important
narrative
sadly
completely
emily
community
include
learned
excluded
money
graduates
industry
brought
economy
strain
start
brown
backdate
shape
insecurity
demonstrates
imaginable
retirement
suffer
study
reveals
sponsoring
institution
colleagues
vigilant
edith
realize
change
generation
tolerating
smile
presents
twenty
connectivity
earth
headwind
fondness
notice
exploit
pandemic
motivate
lining
receive
offer
breakfast
resume
seeking
started
cheat
weight
brings
greater
direct
loved
slipping
effects
students
honest
address

Original Text

When I was a little little kid, I was a four years old on my first airplane ride and we got to go up front in the cockpit because you could kind of do that back then. And it was. Totally dark, no moon over the Atlantic Ocean, there is like a billion stars in the sky and I went back and told my mom I wanted to be a stewardess and my mom, to her credit, she wasn't. Honey, you might want to think about being a pilot. And there you go. That's what I wanted to do from then on. Sharon Pressler has flown lots of different kinds of airplanes since then, including fighter jets. She was the first woman in the US Air Force to fly the F-16. It's just always been the coolest looking airplane, that bubble canopy and the big engine. And it has the highest tolerance, which is nine times the force of gravity on the earth, which is significant. It can do anything. Sheeran's had an extraordinary career spanning more than three decades. But recently, after 14 years as a pilot with Southwest Airlines, she hit a particularly bad patch of turbulence. Her whole industry did. I was the captain who always brought, like chocolate for the flight attendants, and I'd go give them some chocolate, even if it's breakfast time, it's OK to have chocolate for breakfast. Here you go. And that changed my first flight after we kind of really understood what was going on with covid. We had a bunch of those Clorox wipes. So I took those to the flight attendants instead. I'm like, hey, anybody wants some wipes. The pandemic had a catastrophic impact on the airline industry and Southwest eventually offered buyouts. I hadn't even really thought about my retirement moment yet because I had 10 more years to fly and I wasn't planning on leaving. But after some serious reflection, she chose to retire. So we're a couple of hundred that retired in the same two week period, which is unheard of. Despite all the turbulence, Sharon knows she's lucky she looked beyond the horizon to a new career. More on that later. But for now, buckle up. Ladies, gentlemen, this is Captain Pressor speaking. I know it's been a little bit turbulent, especially in the economy, but it's going to smooth out. Thanks for listening with us today. I'm Adam Grant and this is work like my podcast with the TED Radio Collective. I'm an organizational psychologist. I study how to make work, not suck. In this show. I take you inside the minds of fascinating people to help us rethink how we work, lead and live today, navigating career turbulence, thanks to Morgan Stanley for sponsoring this episode. You know what turbulence feels like on an airplane. You had some nasty wind and everything is out of your control. You've probably faced that kind of turbulence in your career, too, when your job, your workplace or your industry is changing dramatically around you and you feel powerless to shape it. The current pandemic has compounded that disturbance on a massive scale. In the face of uncertainty, we often freeze up. Researchers call it a threat, rigidity, response. When we feel powerless to counter the threats around us, our thinking becomes constrained. We hang on for dear life, stop taking risks and play it safe. The past year has left us all reacting to dramatic change. But psychologists find that when we encounter turbulence, instead of pushing harder against the headwinds, we're generally better off tilting our rudder and charting a new course. In other words, expanding your thinking at exactly the moment when all your instincts are telling you to lock it down tight. I was in my 40s and I worked in the mortgage division. When all of this mortgage business hit and they laid off the entire division in Jacksonville in 2009, Erin Scott had been working for a bank in Florida for 14 years when he lost his job during the recession. He started looking for a new job in finance. I would estimate that surely I applied for at least two hundred jobs. I think I have like three interviews in that whole time as more time passed without any callbacks and became more open to exploring other roles and for lower pay as long as they were in state your station for one particular kind of fish. But in time when you start casting your net a whole lot wider feeling dejected. Aaron finally started looking out of state, which would have meant leaving his entire family behind. My brother, my sister, my mom and dad, they're all right there. When you talk about moving to California from Florida, that's you know, that's a desperate move. But something's, you know, something's got to give here. I couldn't find another job to save my life. Aaron spent two and a half years looking for full time work. He had a newborn son, so his financial responsibilities were growing. And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, his wife had a stroke. This is the most driven woman I know. And when you see that kind of person sitting in a wheelchair, I just felt the weight of the world had this little boy. You're thinking, my wife looks to me, my son looks to me, what am I going to do? I just finally I went to another room and I just closed door and I just kind of had a little pity party. What is a pity party? Well, I didn't want to say I cried, but that's what I did. With so much out of his control in that moment, Aaron found a way to take some of the control back. Instead of focusing narrowly on the mortgage industry, Aaron broadened his lens. He found a part time job as a substitute teacher to pay the bills, which was a resourceful move, an example of what psychologists call being proactive. Be proactive can be really annoying advice, it isn't about working harder or taking the bull by the horns or whatever your nagging uncle keeps telling you to do, you're probably doing that already. It means doing what you can to change the circumstance rather than grinding against it, identifying the ways, large or small, that you can exert some control in an out of control situation. It turned out that Aaron loved teaching. A few years later, he ended up pivoting it into his current career, where he's helping others learn from his earlier setback. I work at a nearby prison, Hamilton Correctional Institution. Aaron now helps people navigate one of the biggest headwinds imaginable time in prison. What Aaron's learned about how formerly incarcerated people re-enter society has implications for adapting to all kinds of turbulence, from being downsized to being demoted to having a gap on your resume. People who have spent time in prison faced major obstacles when they're trying to land a job. Employers are often hesitant to give them an opportunity. If they look you up and they find out you are really into some bad stuff, sometimes that's the end of it. They're just going to pass on you. Aaron coaches his students to call out the elephant in the room. I made some very poor decisions. I've paid for that. I've made a lot of changes in my life. I would really appreciate the opportunity. Why do you think it's important, Aaron, to address the elephant in the room and actually talk about it directly? The number one thing is you control the narrative to some degree when you do that. Controlling the narrative, this is a key strategy for being proactive in the face of career turbulence, crafting a story about how a headwind has made you stronger or better. Research demonstrates that in the job search, sex offenders are better off owning their mistakes than making excuses. Your headwinds may be lighter than time behind bars. Maybe you lost a job that was a bad fit, or you took time off to care for a child or a sick family member. Or maybe you have a physical or psychological disability that prospective employers wrongly judge. And although it's illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities, employers have biases. In a series of studies, people with disabilities were rated more favorably if they brought them up at the beginning of an interview rather than waiting until the end or concealing them altogether. Psychologist find that in the face of setbacks, taking charge of the narrative doesn't just signal to others that you're in control. Forming a story can also boost your own motivation and build your confidence to overcome past struggles and move forward in the future. When Aaron was searching for a job, he decided to take this principle a step further, he started proactively asking interviewers to call out the elephant in the room to tell him what his disadvantages were. Well, first, I want to thank you for allowing me to come in and speak with you. I'm very interested in this position. Is there anything in this interview or perhaps on my résumé that might give you pause about considering me for the position? Part of what I think is so clever about asking that question is even if it doesn't get you the job today, you learn something potentially for the next interview. That's exactly right. I did learn from that interview sometimes, but I learn it helps me get the job that is the right job for me here in advance. Doesn't mean you have to take it, but it does mean you can weigh it. Sometimes there's a little nugget in there that will help you. This is another form of proactivity in the face of turbulence, seeking feedback by asking what your limitations are and how you can improve, you don't just get to peek inside the black box of how to get that job, that connection or that coveted project. You also get in a sense of control to address the issues that may be preventing you from getting an opportunity. But people won't always tell you what you can do better. And sometimes you can't even get your foot in the door to ask them, you know, all those YouTube videos that you watch and all those things that interrupt you and jam their way into your face. I do those. Dallas McGlaughlin started building websites as a teenager and taught himself how to do SEO search engine optimization. You know, when you direct people doing Google searches to a particular website, like what? Those pop up ads you're always avoiding. Dallas got so good at SEO Marketing that he dropped out of music college to do it full time and for a few years that's what he did. But when Dallas decided he wanted to work for a big agency, not having a formal degree became a major disadvantage. It meant nobody was looking at his resume and prescreening tools and technology that just siphoned me or filtered me out. I just wasn't even passing those checks and balances. Remember, I dropped out of college to go do this. I just knew that I could do that better than anybody stepping out of a college with a communications degree. When you faced a headwind, you need support. If you're like most people, your instinct is to reach out to your strong ties, the people you know well and trust to have your back. But research has shown that you're more likely to get a job through weak ties. Your more distant acquaintances, they travel in different circles and have access to a broader pool of connections and ideas, which puts them in a better position to open up new opportunities. Sadly, the people who need those ties the most are the least likely to reach out to them. Research reveals that when their jobs are under threat, people with lower social class tend to narrow their networks. While people with higher status tend to broaden their networks, they reach beyond the inner circle, which actually turns out to be a way of changing course when the going is rough and it's something we should support everyone to do. Or if you want to be really proactive, you can expand your network to include complete strangers. That's what Dallas did, he came up with a plan to recruit the recruiters into his network. He took the same CEO marketing skills he'd been using to attract customers, except now he targeted employers first. He built a website for himself. Next, he made a list of every notable person in the Phoenix agency ecosystem CEOs, CFOs, marketing directors, you name it. And then he made paid search ads targeting each of them. So let's say you're an executive named John Smith and you're Googling yourself because you have nothing better to do. You type your name into Google. And the very first result that pops up says, hey, John Smith, I'm Dallas McLaughlin. I'm a digital marketing expert and I really want to work for your company. Click here to find out why I basically turned the entire hiring process around and I stopped sending resumes. This is so clever. So wait a minute. How many people actually followed up and how many people ignored it? I only targeted maybe 12. And I heard from for the very first follow up I got, they said, please stop doing this. I don't like it because they didn't like the fact that you were so effective in advertising that you were able to annoy them and create them out a little. Yeah. You know, it's also me screening them out if they don't like what I'm doing and they clearly don't understand the value in what I just did. And they're not going to be able to properly utilize me within their organization. I don't want to work there anyway. The fourth one, they were just like, come into the office, you're hired, you're in. We don't need we want to have a job opening. Wow. So you went from over 100 to four out of 12 interested in at least learning more about you to 100 percent success rate once you got an interview. Yeah, and that was it. Dallas found a proactive way to showcase his skills specific to the field. Instead of going to the recruiters, he turned the tables and brought the recruiters to him. This kind of initiative can help you expand your network and access to new opportunities to. A few years ago, I got a cold email from a web designer. She sent me a mock up of how she thought my homepage should be redesigned. I wasn't even looking for a change, but she did such a great job that I hired her on the spot. Not everyone will have time to experiment like this, but if you can manage it, it's a promising way to proactively change the situation. There's evidence that side hustles can boost our engagement and performance in our full time jobs, and sometimes they even become a career. Go do that thing that excites you. If you are an architect, go draw blueprints. If you're an auto mechanic, go fix everybody's cars. And if you do that long enough and you do it well enough, somebody is going to notice. Captain Sharon Pressler could have chosen to stay in aviation, but once the airline industry starts furloughing now, there's a glut of pilots, right. Because everybody kind of tries to take a step back and go. So I'll go back to being an instructor. Well, guess what? Everybody else is trying to go back to being an instructor, and there's just not the demand. The more she thought about it, the more she started to reframe the disturbance as an opportunity to take off in an entirely new direction. This whole covid mess and the wreck that the airline industry has become right now for me was an unexpected opportunity. So I'm back in school. I'm getting a master's in psychology with an emphasis on coaching young adults and help them successfully transition to adulthood. And it's just something I wanted to. I've been interested in for a while and mentoring kind of program, although I will miss flying at Southwest. I'm excited about it. It's a big change, but I'm excited about it. In the face of the storm confronting the airline industry, Sharon changed course, something the pandemic and recession are forcing all of us to do in varying degrees. Premier grappling with uncertainty. We tend to focus on what's right in front of us, our strong ties and our next move. But what is turbulence mean in the long term to forecast what might happen to your future career? You can learn something from looking to the past. More on that after the break. OK, this is going to be a different kind of ad, I play a personal role in selecting the sponsors for this podcast because they all have interesting cultures of their own. Today, we're going inside the workplace at Morgan Stanley. For many people, morning routines often include a good cup of coffee and for the team members at Morgan Stanley's global headquarters in Times Square, the coffee comes with a special pairing. We stick together and be kind to each other, love each other, respect each other, and everything is going to be fine. Do you meet Edith and Angela? They run a coffee cart together in the heart of New York City. I met my wife in Brownsville, Texas, too many years ago, a long time ago, 1975, 75 75. On a typical morning, they head into the city at two 45 a.m. to set up the coffee cart. They've spent a lifetime together in that cart. She can be on the docket. I like to talk that much. Over the years, they've gotten to know their customers. He's very good in keeping track of the orders. And I am with the names Mr. Mackey likes. He has a lot coffee and a large coffee. You know, that's the standard order from one of their regulars, Mike Buckin Burger. If I happen to be running late and there's more than like one person waiting and I realize I don't have time, it kind of just destroys the morning. It goes beyond them just knowing your order and having it ready for you. So as soon as you see them, it's a huge smile. It was my favorite part about going to the New York office. No offense to my colleagues. Mike works at Morgan Stanley. When he did a stint in Hong Kong, Edith and Angelo would check in on him. I always describe them. They're the parents of the block and they, you know, interact with you that way. They're looking out for you guys as as kids. It does feel like that. Like all of us, Edith and Angelo's world was turned upside down in March. Twenty twenty. They started to notice people wearing masks and talking about working from home with a mass of the people coming from people with a mask and etc. . And I said, what's going on here? People say, well, I want to stay home to work. And then we thought that we've got a problem there. I start getting worried. As New York City shut down, their entire livelihood was now in question. My colleague Ercan sent an email to three of us and the subject was either Sant'Angelo and the body was, what are we going to do? In New York? Street vendors were excluded from pandemic relief programs. So Mike sprang into action. He helped him set up a Venmo account and employees from Morgan Stanley rallied together to contribute. Then they organized a virtual breakfast with Edith and Angelo to collect donations, and it just snowballed from there. We were very surprised. We were amazed. Like I say, we knew that they came by not that much. And we continue paying all our bills. And I'm telling us today it it's amazing. It's amazing. Amazing. I found in my research that cultures of giving don't just start from the top down. They often grow from the bottom up. Morgan Stanley employees ended up raising enough money to support Edith and Angela over the past year, but it didn't end there. They've now provided financial support to thousands of food vendors in New York City during the pandemic. For Mike and his colleagues, giving back is deeply embedded in the Morgan Stanley culture. It's always been first class business in a first class way, but also supporting the communities we operate in. You know, this all happened because of how we felt about them. We you know, we just can't believe how much they do for us. These more people. You're not small people to them. You matter to them. At Morgan Stanley, giving back as a core value, a central part of their culture globally. They live that commitment through long lasting partnerships, community based delivery and engaging their best asset. Their people learn more at Morgan Stanley Dotcom giving back. Turbulence in an individual career is tough to navigate, but right now, literally millions of people are all struggling with a massive upheaval all at once and one that inherently lasts a long time. Bad economic conditions make everything in our lives feel unstable and out of our control. Millions of jobs have been lost through the pandemic and millions more are at risk. People of color, especially those in lower paid jobs and without college degrees, have suffered the most. Research shows that job loss doesn't just create financial strain. It also increases the risk of depression, anxiety and marital problems and undermines our sense of control and confidence. If you haven't lost your job, you still may be feeling job insecurity, which has been linked to negative mental and physical health outcomes. There's even evidence that economic insecurity reduces our pain tolerance. But just as chaos doesn't mean we've lost all control, a moment of huge upheaval like this one doesn't mean everything is lost. Recessions can shape careers in ways that are profound and profoundly surprising, we don't yet know the outcome of this recession because we're still in it, but we can look to past recessions for wisdom to guide us through our current journey. Just ask Emily BIanche. I would submit job after job after application after application and would hear nothing. Occasionally I get an interview and I find out eight other people were being interviewed and it was really nerve wracking. It took an entire year to get a full time job. In 2001, Emily had just graduated with her bachelor's degree in psychology when she lived through her first of three recessions, the dotcom bust. During the boom of the late 90s, there was just an incredible sense of entitlement of what's the world going to offer me? Should I start my own company? Will I be a millionaire? By twenty five expectations that were insane. And you fast forward two years to my class and it just it had completely changed. You know, you go to college, you spend all this money and you think when you come out, I'm going to have some options. And then that historical moment, I really didn't. That was true for many, many other people graduating in that time and certainly true for many people graduating right now. Emily knows it's true now because she studied it as an organizational behavior professor at Emory University. Emily is one of the world's foremost experts on the psychology of recessions. Do you ever have these horrible moments, given what you study where you say, well, you know, when bad things happen, I get good research out of it? You know, certainly during the Great Recession, I thought that, but not now. Now I'm like, enough. Good. OK, so you're not a bad person anymore? No, I was in graduate school and I've reformed. Emily had a front row seat to the dotcom fallout of 2001, and she observed similar patterns in new graduates during the Great Recession of 2009. That was when the world fell apart. You could feel it everywhere, you could feel it walking around New York and when all those folks started graduating the class of 2009, there were so many articles about how they were just doomed. This was a generation that I completely had the rug pulled out from under them. The research that was available about recessions was ominous. A setback at the start of a career cast a long shadow. People who graduated in recessions continued to earn less. A decade later, it's not only that you suffer now, but that you will also continue to suffer, at least financially, for a long time to come. But it isn't all bad news. As Emily looked around her in 2009, she saw a strange pattern. One thing that really struck me was that so many people were expressing gratitude. These people had just been dealt this really tough hand. And yet again and again, I kept hearing people say, I'm so grateful I got this job. It's not what I hoped for. But, you know, it's a place to start. And there is very little data on it, at least from a site perspective. She was familiar with a classic study of Olympic athletes on the podium. Bronze medalists looked happier than silver medalists. The poor silver medalist were disappointed . I almost won a gold. The bronze medalist felt lucky. At least I got a medal. Emily wondered if something similar would hold for recession graduates. I found that people who graduated when the economy was doing worse, even though they were 10 or 15 or even 20 years out of those initial experiences, they were more satisfied with their current job than people who graduated in good economic times. At some of the sounds like good news, provided we can get reemployed, it seems like your data would suggest we're going to be happier with our jobs and more likely to appreciate them. Yeah, this is the first surprise people who start their careers in a recession may feel less entitled to the perfect job and more grateful to be employed. I don't mean to diminish the very serious and real obstacles that people who are graduating, but any recession face, but that there may be sort of this long term silver lining if you take your silver lining of people being more satisfied with their jobs. I worry that that's going to open the door for leaders to exploit them, that people who might have exited completely abusive or toxic workplace will stay because they say, hey, I'm lucky to have a job. Is that a risk? Absolutely. I worry about that, too. You may be at risk of tolerating circumstances which you wouldn't tolerate if you would come of age in better economic times. And why does it last? I'm thinking about the common finding that we adapt pretty quickly to our circumstances and start to get used to them. So why in 10 or 15 or 20 years after the recession is over, am I still thankful for having a job? Usually when people get their first jobs, it's in this period of life called the impressionable years. Most people are beginning to forge an identity outside of their families and their communities and trying to figure out their place in the world. And attitudes tend to be quite malleable during this period. What's going on in the world, whether economically, politically, culturally, tends to help shape those attitudes in ways that mirror what's happening at that moment. And after this critical period, attitudes don't tend to change that much. The indelible mark of the recession doesn't just affect us individually. It can have a meaningful impact on leaders and end up shaping entire organizations. It's very difficult for people who are graduating recessions to avoid kind of the humbling adversity that that type of environment presents. This brings us to a second surprise and some more long term good news despite the short term headwinds in my data. I find that people who come of age in recessions tend to be less narcissistic in terms of how they pay themselves versus how their top leaders within their company are paid. Those who come of age in recessions and then become leaders of organizations are less entitled knowing what it's like to struggle. These CEOs seem to care more for employees and behave less selfishly. They become proactive about taking responsibility. In one study, Emily discovered that CEOs who launched their careers in a recession were less likely to backdate their stock options to maximize their value. In other words, they were less likely to cheat, which is possibly the opposite of what you'd expect from a person who came of age while struggling. The people who tend to cheat are actually the people who are doing really well. A lot of cheating comes from entitlement or a belief that somebody deserves a better outcome or that nobody will notice. And I'll get a. So when you look into your crystal ball, then I don't want one of those, I beg to differ based on your findings in 20 or 30 years when people who are just starting out their career become CEOs. Does that mean we're going to see more servant leaders, more givers than takers? I would certainly hope so, based on what we've seen in the past. There are some reasons for optimism in the long run, the chaos we live through can make people stronger and better in a very real way in terms of how they mitigate the uncertainty associated with bad economic times. One, I think very positive way is through connecting with other people. This tendency for connectivity brings us to one last surprise from Emily's studies. During moments of uncertainty, but especially economic uncertainty, we tend to rethink our relationships with others. We become less individualistic and more civically minded. Emily has found an ingenious way to measure that through pop music. When we're struggling through bad economic times, we're drawn to different lyrics in popular American music, you're more likely to see first person plural pronouns like we us. Whereas in really good economic times, you see a lot of first person pronouns like me, mine I when you think of what's often called the greatest generation, the generation that came of age either in the Great Depression or World War Two, it's been argued again and again that this is the most civically minded generation. I do think we will see that going forward in the current generation. Another way, Emily measured individualism was by looking at Social Security data to see what parents name their kids during good and bad economic times. Emily found that when the economy is doing well, parents are more likely to give their kids unique names. I'm looking at you. Blue Ivy, when the economy is struggling, parents choose from a smaller set of more common names, which are often biblical names. It used to be in the 1950s when out of 15 boys would receive the most common name. Fast forward to 2013. And now it's one out of seventy five boys receive the most common name of their birth year, if you take this idea of increasing communal orientation, decreasing individualism seriously, would you also anticipate that we're going to see more caring and more supportive work relationships in the next couple of decades? The findings that I have looked at suggests that, yes, right. To the extent that people are less narcissistic, they would also manifest in positive ways in the interpersonal level. We can all agree that recessions are terrible in the short term for so many reasons. But in the long term, having experienced their own struggles, leaders in the future may be less entitled, more honest and more caring toward employees. And in the meantime, we all may be more community focused. But during a recession, there's a darker side to this. It really depends on who your community is. There tends to be greater fondness for people within one's own group and often, not always, but often that comes at the expense of how people perceive and treat people who are not a part of their anger. Xenophobia is higher. Treatment of immigrants is worse. All these different manifestations of prejudice. The evidence shows that recessions have unequal effects along racial lines. You know, the wage gap between black and white workers, well, Emily found that it grows during recessions. She also discovered that recessions change people's attitudes about race. Her research shows that white people are more likely to report that inequality between races is natural and normal in the wake of a recession. We need to understand how to overcome this ingroup bias and broaden people's circles of concern to motivate them to care about helping those who have been most disadvantaged. Dismantling these biases is so important that we'll be devoting two episodes to it this season. Stay tuned. When you hit turbulence, it can be hard to see the way forward, it can help to look backward. What we see when we do that is that the lessons we learn in these hard times will shape our jobs and our cultures for the long haul. Some of those effects are negative and we have to be vigilant to counteract. Some of them are surprisingly positive. A glimmer of light up ahead. We also see that in the bumpiest or most chaotic moments are connections with each other are more important than ever, and it's up to us to be proactive about not only reaching out to our networks, but expanding them. If we're thoughtful about it, we have the opportunity to stick the landing, to come through turbulence, more open, more honest and more connected than before. Next time on work life and also it's exhausting. Oh, my God. Sometimes I just want to agree to disagree or don't agree to disagree. The keys to solving conflicts at work and at home are often hiding in plain sight workplaces hosted by me, Adam Grant. The show is produced by TED with Transmitter Media. Our team includes Colin Alby's creditcard, Dan O'Donnell, Constanza Kaieda, Chris Rubenstein, Michelle Quinn, Bambam Chang and Adam Thielen. This episode was produced by Joe Angelena. Our show is mixed by Require Our Fact Checkers. Paul Dabic Original Music by Hartsdale Sue and Alison Layton Brown had stories produced by Pineapple Street Studios special thanks to our sponsors linked in Logitech, Morgan Stanley, S&P and Verizon for their research, thanks to teams including Beristain Threat, Rigidity, Sharon Parker and Proactivity Connie Weinberg on the job search. Brett Lyons on disclosing stigmatized identities. Jamie Pennebaker on forming a story. Sue Ashford on Proactiv feedback seeking and job insecurity. Mark Granovetter on Weeks's Tarnya met in a narrowing versus broadening networks. Hudson sessions on side Hustle's Rick Priced on job loss and Lisa Kahn and how recessions affect careers. As brilliant as this is, I think you're slipping because I just Googled myself and there was not an ad by you to be on my podcast and maybe I'm getting complacent.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
morgan stanley	7
full time	4
bad economic	4
economic times	4
airline industry	3
long term	3
york city	3
long time	3
sharon pressler	2
adam grant	2
feel powerless	2
time job	2
coffee cart	2
research shows	2
job loss	2
people graduating	2
good economic	2
silver lining	2
short term	2
civically minded	2

ngrams of length 3

collocation	frequency
bad economic times	2

Important Words

aaron
absolutely
abusive
access
account
acquaintances
action
ad
adam
adapt
adapting
address
ads
adulthood
adults
advance
adversity
advertising
advice
affect
age
agency
agree
air
airline
airlines
airplane
airplanes
alison
allowing
altogether
amazed
amazing
american
angela
angelena
angelo
anger
annoy
annoying
anticipate
anxiety
anymore
application
applied
architect
argued
articles
ashford
asset
athletes
atlantic
attendants
attitudes
attract
auto
aviation
avoid
avoiding
backdate
bad
balances
ball
bambam
bank
bars
based
basically
beg
beginning
behave
behavior
belief
beristain
bianche
bias
biases
biblical
big
biggest
billion
bills
birth
bit
black
block
blue
blueprints
body
boom
boost
bottom
box
boy
boys
break
breakfast
brett
brilliant
brings
broaden
broadened
broadening
broader
bronze
brother
brought
brown
brownsville
bubble
buckin
buckle
build
building
built
bull
bumpiest
bunch
burger
business
bust
buyouts
california
call
callbacks
called
canopy
captain
care
career
careers
caring
cars
cart
cast
casting
catastrophic
central
ceo
ceos
cfos
chang
change
changed
changing
chaos
chaotic
charge
charting
cheat
cheating
check
checkers
checks
child
chocolate
choose
chose
chosen
chris
circle
circles
circumstance
circumstances
city
civically
class
classic
clever
click
clorox
closed
coaches
coaching
cockpit
coffee
cold
colin
colleague
colleagues
collect
collective
college
color
coming
commitment
common
communal
communications
communities
community
company
complacent
complete
completely
compounded
concealing
concern
conditions
confidence
conflicts
confronting
connected
connecting
connection
connections
connectivity
connie
constanza
constrained
continue
continued
contribute
control
controlling
coolest
core
correctional
counter
counteract
couple
coveted
covid
crafting
create
credit
creditcard
cried
critical
crystal
culturally
culture
cultures
cup
current
customers
dabic
dad
dallas
dan
dark
darker
data
dealt
dear
decade
decades
decided
decisions
decreasing
deeply
degree
degrees
dejected
delivery
demand
demonstrates
demoted
depends
depression
describe
deserves
designer
desperate
destroys
devoting
differ
difficult
digital
diminish
direct
direction
directors
disabilities
disability
disadvantage
disadvantaged
disadvantages
disagree
disappointed
disclosing
discovered
discriminate
dismantling
distant
disturbance
division
docket
donations
doomed
door
dotcom
downsized
dramatic
dramatically
draw
drawn
driven
dropped
earlier
earn
earth
economic
economically
economy
ecosystem
edith
effective
effects
elephant
email
embedded
emily
emory
emphasis
employed
employees
employers
encounter
ended
engagement
engaging
engine
entire
entitled
entitlement
environment
episode
episodes
ercan
erin
estimate
eventually
evidence
excited
excites
excluded
excuses
executive
exert
exhausting
exited
expand
expanding
expect
expectations
expense
experienced
experiences
experiment
expert
experts
exploit
exploring
expressing
extent
extraordinary
face
faced
fact
fallout
familiar
families
family
fascinating
fast
favorably
favorite
feedback
feel
feeling
feels
fell
felt
field
fighter
figure
filtered
finally
finance
financial
financially
find
finding
findings
fine
fish
fit
fix
flight
florida
flown
fly
flying
focus
focused
focusing
folks
follow
fondness
food
foot
force
forcing
forecast
foremost
forge
form
formal
forming
fourth
freeze
front
full
furloughing
future
gap
generally
generation
gentlemen
give
givers
giving
glimmer
global
globally
glut
god
gold
good
google
googled
googling
graduate
graduated
graduates
graduating
granovetter
grant
grappling
grateful
gratitude
gravity
great
greater
greatest
grinding
group
grow
growing
grows
guess
guide
guys
hamilton
hand
hang
happen
happened
happening
happier
hard
harder
hartsdale
haul
head
headquarters
headwind
headwinds
health
hear
heard
hearing
heart
helped
helping
helps
hesitant
hey
hiding
higher
highest
hired
hiring
historical
hit
hold
home
homepage
honest
honey
hong
hope
hoped
horizon
horns
horrible
hosted
hudson
huge
humbling
hustles
idea
ideas
identifying
identities
identity
illegal
imaginable
immigrants
impact
implications
important
impressionable
improve
incarcerated
include
includes
including
increases
increasing
incredible
indelible
individual
individualism
individualistic
individually
industry
inequality
ingenious
ingroup
inherently
initial
initiative
insane
insecurity
instinct
instincts
institution
instructor
interact
interested
interesting
interpersonal
interrupt
interview
interviewed
interviewers
interviews
issues
ivy
jacksonville
jam
jamie
jets
job
jobs
joe
john
journey
judge
kahn
kaieda
keeping
key
keys
kid
kids
kind
kinds
knew
knowing
kong
ladies
laid
land
landing
large
lasting
lasts
late
launched
layton
lead
leaders
learn
learned
learning
leaving
left
lens
lessons
level
life
lifetime
light
lighter
likes
limitations
lines
lining
linked
lisa
list
listening
literally
live
lived
livelihood
lives
lock
logitech
long
looked
loss
lost
lot
lots
love
loved
lucky
lyons
lyrics
mackey
major
making
malleable
manage
manifest
manifestations
march
marital
mark
marketing
mask
masks
mass
massive
matter
maximize
mcglaughlin
mclaughlin
meaningful
means
meant
measure
measured
mechanic
medal
medalist
medalists
media
meet
member
members
mental
mentoring
mess
met
michelle
mike
millionaire
millions
minded
minds
minute
mirror
mistakes
mitigate
mixed
mock
mom
moment
moments
money
moon
morgan
morning
mortgage
motivate
motivation
move
moving
music
nagging
named
names
narcissistic
narrative
narrow
narrowing
narrowly
nasty
natural
navigate
navigating
nearby
negative
nerve
net
network
networks
newborn
news
normal
notable
notice
nugget
number
observed
obstacles
occasionally
ocean
offenders
offense
offer
offered
office
olympic
ominous
open
opening
operate
opportunities
opportunity
optimism
optimization
options
order
orders
organization
organizational
organizations
organized
orientation
original
outcome
outcomes
overcome
owning
paid
pain
pairing
pandemic
parents
parker
part
partnerships
party
pass
passed
passing
patch
pattern
patterns
paul
pause
pay
paying
peek
pennebaker
people
perceive
percent
perfect
performance
period
person
personal
perspective
phoenix
physical
pilot
pilots
pineapple
pity
pivoting
place
plain
plan
planning
play
plural
podcast
podium
politically
pool
poor
pop
pops
popular
position
positive
possibly
potentially
powerless
prejudice
premier
prescreening
presents
pressler
pressor
pretty
preventing
priced
principle
prison
proactiv
proactive
proactively
proactivity
problem
problems
process
produced
professor
profound
profoundly
program
programs
project
promising
pronouns
properly
prospective
psychological
psychologist
psychologists
psychology
pulled
pushing
puts
question
quickly
quinn
race
races
racial
radio
raising
rallied
rate
rated
reach
reaching
reacting
ready
real
realize
reasons
receive
recession
recessions
recruit
recruiters
redesigned
reduces
reemployed
reflection
reformed
reframe
regulars
relationships
relief
remember
report
require
research
researchers
resourceful
respect
response
responsibilities
responsibility
result
resume
resumes
rethink
retire
retired
retirement
reveals
rick
ride
rigidity
risk
risks
role
roles
room
rough
routines
row
rubenstein
rudder
rug
run
running
résumé
sadly
safe
satisfied
save
scale
school
scott
screening
search
searches
searching
season
seat
security
seeking
selecting
selfishly
sending
sense
seo
series
servant
sessions
set
setback
setbacks
seventy
sex
shadow
shape
shaping
sharon
short
show
showcase
shown
shows
shut
sick
side
sight
signal
significant
silver
similar
siphoned
sister
site
sitting
situation
skills
sky
slipping
small
smaller
smile
smith
smooth
snowballed
social
society
solving
son
sort
sounds
southwest
spanning
speak
speaking
special
specific
spend
spent
sponsoring
sponsors
spot
sprang
square
standard
stanley
stars
start
started
starting
starts
state
station
status
stay
step
stepping
stewardess
stick
stigmatized
stint
stock
stop
stopped
stories
storm
story
strain
strange
strangers
strategy
street
stroke
strong
stronger
struck
struggle
struggles
struggling
students
studied
studies
studios
study
stuff
subject
submit
substitute
success
successfully
suck
sue
suffer
suffered
suggest
suggests
support
supporting
supportive
surely
surprise
surprised
surprising
surprisingly
tables
takers
talk
talking
targeted
targeting
tarnya
taught
teacher
teaching
team
teams
technology
ted
teenager
telling
tend
tendency
term
terms
terrible
texas
thankful
thielen
thinking
thought
thoughtful
thousands
threat
threats
ties
tight
tilting
time
times
today
told
tolerance
tolerate
tolerating
tools
top
totally
tough
toxic
track
transition
transmitter
travel
treat
treatment
true
trust
tuned
turbulence
turbulent
turned
turns
twenty
type
typical
uncertainty
uncle
undermines
understand
understood
unequal
unexpected
unheard
unique
university
unstable
upheaval
upside
utilize
varying
vendors
venmo
verizon
videos
vigilant
virtual
wage
wait
waiting
wake
walking
wanted
war
watch
ways
weak
wearing
web
website
websites
week
weigh
weight
weinberg
wheelchair
white
wider
wife
wind
wipes
wisdom
woman
won
wondered
words
work
worked
workers
working
workplace
workplaces
works
world
worried
worry
worse
wow
wracking
wreck
wrongly
xenophobia
yeah
year
years
york
young
youtube