How's Work?

Esther's Office Hours
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How's Work?

This season on How's Work?, iconic couples therapist Esther Perel focuses on the hard conversations we're afraid to have in our jobs: Colleagues navigating the new etiquette of a work from home workforce. Newsrooms whose journalists feel that covering breaking news has broken them. A doctor who wants to walk away from his profession, during a pandemic. And lobbyists whose fight for racial equality ends up dividing them. Esther Perel brings a new perspective to the invisible forces that shape workplace dynamics, connections, and conflict through one-time therapy sessions with coworkers, cofounders, and colleagues—listen and learn as you hear your own workplace dilemmas play out in the lives of others.

Episodes

  1. MAY 28 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    If I Just Quit, What Will People Say?

    He’s a doctor, she works for the government. Her job is one thing on paper, and another thing in secret. He wants to leave his job, but doesn’t know how. When their busy careers come crashing to a halt because of the pandemic, they face a new reality at home. Who gets to be the one to leave a job during uncertain times? And can they rely on their 19 year marriage for stability and support? This episode was originally released on July 6, 2021.

    52 min

  2. 12/10/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Separated at Home But Still Together at Work

    Husband and wife who are co-owners of a winery and restaurant. He loves the colleage that she is at work, but he likes less the wife she is at home. As their marriage ends, they wonder if the future of their business depends on the future of their marriage.

    47 min

  3. 12/09/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    The Boss, The Client, and the Hairdresser

    They’ve been hairdressers for many years in a job that feels like a cross between salesperson and therapist. They vie for new clients and commissions while absorbing the anxieties, frustrations, and burdens of their regulars. How they each handle this balance is a study in contrasts.

    49 min

  4. 12/08/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Stuck in a Job, for Years

    She’s been unhappy at her job for more than 20 years and doesn't know how to leave. Her sister, a successful entrepreneur, wants to help, but this only makes her feel less-than. Family tensions and resentments, both at home and at the office, keep her frozen in place. Esther walks the sisters through an exit plan.

    55 min

  5. 12/07/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    From Bartender to Business Partner

    She owns a successful restaurant. He was her bar manager for six years. Now they’re going into business together as co-owners of a taqueria. They turn to Esther for guidance on how to transition from employer-employee to partners in a new venture. But they walk away with a deeper understanding of the ways their different cultural backgrounds and previous working relationships influence their partnership.

    49 min

  6. 12/06/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    You're Inching Me Out

    They were mates in university before co-founding a successful communications company. They still work together from different coasts, but they barely speak. One wants to move on; the other is grasping for his former friend. Neither can find the words to talk about it.

    52 min

  7. 12/05/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Laid Off and Starting Over

    A year ago they were suddenly let go from their jobs as leaders of a creative team. Now they're starting a new company together. But to build over the scar tissue and begin again, they must first let go of the painful ending that came before.

    48 min

  8. 12/04/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Not Many Men Work For Their Moms

    She started a real estate company 30 years ago. Her son, who calls himself a Mama’s Boy, recently joined the business. They think their close mother-son relationship hurts the brand. With Esther’s help, they start to explore the many gender and familial biases at play...both in the office and around the family dinner table.

    50 min

  9. 12/03/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Sex Work: An Unofficial Resume

    Friends and fellow dancers at a strip club: one brings years of experience, the other a youthful energy that turns angry at times. They’re here to talk about boundaries that are crossed, educating “civilians" about their work, family acceptance, and how they'll transition from the sex work industry into professional careers. Can sex work be a bullet point on a resume?

    45 min

  10. 12/02/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    The Break-Up

    They flew fighter jets together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then they co-founded a successful business. Now, for the first time in their adult lives, they’re ready to part ways professionally, but they don’t know what their lives would look like without their "brother of choice." Side-by-side on Esther's couch, they talk about letting go of the fierce loyalty bonds forged in the cockpit.

    50 min

  11. 12/01/2024 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Prologue: What Couples Therapy Teaches Us About Work

    In this prologue, Esther Perel introduces us to the idea of the “relational dowry.” Each of us has a relationship resume that is cultivated at home - in our families, our communities, and our romantic lives - that influences the way we interact with our colleagues at work. Here we meet a few of the people Esther will invite into her office over the course of the series: coworkers, cofounders, bosses and employees, and family members who work together.

    20 min
  • 11 Episodes

Shows with Subscription Benefits

  • Every Monday morning step into the office of iconic psychotherapist Esther Perel and listen in as real people in search of insight bare the raw, intimate, and profound details of their stories. From breakups and open relationships to workplace conflicts and fractures in the family, it’s a place to hear our own stories reflected in the lives of others. So…where should we begin? Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

    • 4.7 (14063)
    • SOCIETY & CULTURE
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Ratings & Reviews

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out of 5
4 Ratings

About

This season on How's Work?, iconic couples therapist Esther Perel focuses on the hard conversations we're afraid to have in our jobs: Colleagues navigating the new etiquette of a work from home workforce. Newsrooms whose journalists feel that covering breaking news has broken them. A doctor who wants to walk away from his profession, during a pandemic. And lobbyists whose fight for racial equality ends up dividing them. Esther Perel brings a new perspective to the invisible forces that shape workplace dynamics, connections, and conflict through one-time therapy sessions with coworkers, cofounders, and colleagues—listen and learn as you hear your own workplace dilemmas play out in the lives of others.

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