AMY BERNSTEIN: All right, Amy G., where are you recording now?
AMY GALLO: I am tucked in a corner in my daughter’s bedroom on the second floor of our house. The rest of my family is sequestered to the first floor so they don’t interrupt me. How about you?
AMY BERNSTEIN: Well, I started in my closet, but I actually moved to my office here at home. And of course we’re recording from home because, you know, pandemic.
AMY GALLO: Yeah.
AMY BERNSTEIN: And we’re all working from home ,and we’re podcasting from home, and wow—what a change.
AMY GALLO: What a change. And I have to say, I miss our studio right now so much. It would be so nice to be there with you.
AMY BERNSTEIN: Yeah, I would love that too. I miss seeing your face. I miss our office. I miss seeing everyone. Don’t you?
AMY GALLO: I do. I really do. I really do. How are you holding up?
AMY BERNSTEIN: I’m fine. You know, I really am fine. The inconveniences are minor, and I feel like one of the lucky ones. How about you?
AMY GALLO: Same. I mean, I feel like for me, I work, I work from home quite a bit, so it’s not a huge change. I mean, the biggest change for me is that everyone else in my family is home. And so, you know, my sort of quiet, peaceful home office has now sort of become, you know, a place where people come for IT support and ask about lunch, when lunch is going to be. You know, it’s different, even though it’s somewhat the same. But I feel lucky to have a job I can do from home. I feel lucky to have a job right now.
AMY BERNSTEIN: Yeah. So. Am, Let me ask, what, what are you hoping that we accomplish with this season?
AMY GALLO: Well, this season feels unique in many ways, but at the same time I’m hoping for the same thing that we’ve, you know, felt in the past seasons, which is a feeling of connection.
AMY BERNSTEIN: Yeah, totally. I, you know, this podcast has always been a real two-way street where, you know, I feel like I learn as much from our listeners as I do from our experts and, and I really hope that we continue to feed whatever needs our listeners are having right now. And we recognize that those are evolving. We’re feeling the same kinds of anxieties and fears and, and bewilderment. So, this is an opportunity for us to keep on helping each other, I think.
AMY GALLO: Yeah, for sure. We’re still developing episodes around persistent issues that women deal with at work. You know, we have episodes in progress on self-promotion, on how to deal with menopause symptoms at work, how to strategically express our emotions. And later in the season, actually we’re going to be doing an episode dedicated to responding to your questions, anything related to women at work. And we’re going to give you advice on those questions. So please start sending those in. Our email address, as always, is womenatwork@hbr.org.
AMY BERNSTEIN: We’ll be returning with Season Five starting on April 13, and we’ll drop new episodes every Monday through the spring.
AMY GALLO: I’m so looking forward to it.
AMY BERNSTEIN: Me too.