This American Life

208: Office Politics

01 Mar 2026

Audio

Description

Stories of high drama from America's workplaces — surprising, emotional places full of the greed, jealousy, and ambition of real politics. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.Prologue: We hear three stories of how conflicts are resolved in offices. Two of those stories come from sociologist Calvin Morrill, who studied the executive suites at a number of large companies in his book The Executive Way: Conflict Management in Corporations. The last story comes from host Ira Glass, who talks about how he ended up punching his own boss in the stomach in front of all his co-workers. (12 minutes)Act One: Starlee Kine with the story of a company in turmoil. A young employee gets in a jam and discovers that in times of trouble, when all else has failed, companies in her industry turn to one woman in a suburban home in Long Island, who solves their corporate problems while the TV plays in the background. (12 minutes)Act Two: David Rakoff discusses the world of birthdays and other holidays, as they're celebrated on the job... and what happens when you call yourself an editorial assistant but the editor you're assisting calls you a secretary. He read this story before a live audience at Town Hall in New York City, during a This American Life live show. (15 minutes)Act Three: Julie Snyder explains the office politics of street vendors on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street in New York City. With her is sociologist Mitch Duneier, who spent years working with the vendors and writing about them for his book Sidewalk. (14 minutes)Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.orgThis American Life privacy policy.Learn more about sponsor message choices.

Transcription

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.

0 upvotes

🗳️ Sign in to Upvote

Popular episodes get transcribed faster

Other episodes from This American Life

Transcribed and ready to explore now

881: I Want What I Want

22 Feb 2026

This American Life

605: Kid Logic

15 Feb 2026

This American Life

879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar

18 Jan 2026

This American Life

The Americans Outside My Window

12 Jan 2026

This American Life

878: New Lore Drop

11 Jan 2026

This American Life

861: Group Chat

01 Jun 2025

This American Life

View all episodes from This American Life

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.

Report any issue

This American Life

208: Office Politics

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other episodes from This American Life

881: I Want What I Want

605: Kid Logic

879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar

The Americans Outside My Window

878: New Lore Drop

861: Group Chat

Sign in to Audioscrape

Share this moment