Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

Sociologist explains how the workplace can uphold racist practices

Overt racism in the workplace is illegal, but that doesn’t mean work is equitable.
Professor Adia Harvey Wingfield discusses how the gray areas of work can harm people of color.
Courtesy Harvey Wingfield

Has "unusually high call volume" become the norm for customer service?

Jul 27, 2023
Service lines were swamped early in the pandemic, and many overseas call centers shut down. Companies want you to go online instead.
“Please remember there’s another human being on the other end of that phone,” said one customer service representative.
Richard Pohle/WPA Pool via Getty Images

People really hate the way we talk at work

Feb 27, 2020
Office-speak can be both annoying and convenient, said The Atlantic's Olga Khazan.
A London office building in 2013.
Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Are narcissistic CEOs bad for business?

Oct 15, 2018
Chief executives high on the narcissism scale may interview well, but flail long term.
ThoroughlyReviewed/Visual Hunt

We're taking a lot of work home with us, a RAND study finds

Aug 14, 2017
More than half of those surveyed use personal time to meet employers' demands.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

For companies, bad reputations come at a cost

Jul 21, 2017
Most people don’t want to work at companies with bad reputations — unless they get a big paycheck.
It would take more than a 50 percent pay bump for people to go work at a company with a bad reputation.
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

Do open-space offices really make us more productive?

Jun 19, 2017
In the world of open-space offices, we need to change how we talk about productivity.
The new Apple Park campus in Santa Clara Valley comes with a great view, but will it lead to more collaboration and productivity?
Courtesy of Apple

Amazon's company culture: innovative or punishing?

Oct 19, 2015
Retailer is known for hard-working employees and 'unreasonably high' standards.