You're training new hires, flying out to meet clients, handling escalations, and you just finished a three-month certification on your own time. Your title hasn't changed. Your pay hasn't changed. And your manager keeps giving you vague answers about what growth even looks like.

That's the Reddit post at the center of this Between the Seasons episode. And every single person at the table has lived a version of it.

In this Reacting to Reddit at Work episode of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, hosts Pinaki Kathiari and Chris Lee are joined by producer Bree Bartos and Senior Account Manager Jen Samuel, who's back for round two with another round of stories that hit uncomfortably close to home.

The conversation covers scope creep, why managers avoid hard conversations, what it actually takes to advocate for yourself, rejection therapy, and the phantom laptop problem — the deeply relatable experience of going on vacation and not knowing what to do with your hands because you didn't bring your work computer for the first time in years.

In this episode, they discuss:

• Why managers avoid giving straight answers about raises and career growth

• The difference between complaining about workload and making a direct business case for yourself

• Pinaki's advice: ask for the no — and why rejection therapy is actually a skill worth building

• Jen on writing talking points for herself like she'd write them for someone else

• Chris on Never Split the Difference and what FBI hostage negotiation tactics have to do with your next performance review

• Why organizations are always caught by surprise when great people leave — and who that's really on

• Bree applied to 200+ jobs after her layoff. Local Wisdom was the only company where a human reached out.

• Jen's phantom laptop problem, and the boss who told her to leave it at home

If you've ever been asked to do more without being offered more in return, this one's going to feel very familiar.

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

What does it actually cost to be a team of one — not just in productivity, but in your mental health, your sense of self, and your ability to do the work you were hired to do?

Jen Samuel knows that cost intimately. With over 20 years in internal communications — starting at a young, people-centric airline and spending most of that time as the only person in the room doing her job — she's lived through the burnout, the scope creep, the "be strategic but also update the website" contradiction, and the quiet weight of feeling like no one really understands what you do or what it takes.

In this episode, Pinaki and Chris welcome Jen to Between the Seasons (and to the Local Wisdom team) for a conversation about what it's really like to work alone in a field that exists to connect everyone else. They talk about how being a team of one shapes your identity over time, why the busyness-as-virtue culture makes it so hard to step back, and what it means to finally land somewhere that lets you just be human.

Bree joins in too — and her perspective as a fellow recent Local Wisdom addition brings the conversation home.

In this episode, they discuss:

• What 20+ years as a team of one in internal comms actually looks like
• How burnout builds when there's no one to hand things off to — even at a funeral
• Chris on The Tyranny of Work and the idea that busyness has become morally virtuous
• Why internal comms teams of one are being asked to be strategic advisors and postmasters at the same time — and why that math doesn't work
• The moment Jen realized other communicators felt exactly the same way (and the community that changed everything)
• Bree on what it felt like to go from isolation to a team that actually checks in
• What good looks like — at Local Wisdom, at Gallagher, and everywhere in between
• Pinaki's call to action: if you're a team of one, find your people

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

Last week, Bree read a Reddit story about a young creative whose best friend went to their manager and used her private insecurities against her to try to take her job. Chris and Pinaki reacted in real time. Then Bree told them: that was my story.

This week, we pick up right where we left off. Now that Chris and Pinaki know it’s Bree’s own experience, the conversation shifts — from advice to something more honest. Bree fills in what the post left out: how close she and Amy really were, how the comparison and competition showed up in their friendship long before it showed up at work, and how the whole thing ended (spoiler: COVID and a merger did some heavy lifting).

But the real reason Bree wanted to share this story isn’t the betrayal. It’s what it left behind: a deep, persistent imposter syndrome that still surfaces even after a great annual review. If someone your best friend thought you weren’t good enough, how do you fully trust yourself again?

In this episode, they discuss:

• What the post left out — how close Bree and Amy actually were
• When a friendship starts draining more energy than it gives
• Why confrontation without curiosity often makes things worse
• The difference between someone doing something to you vs. for themselves
• How imposter syndrome takes root — and why it’s so hard to pull out
• What organizations miss when they only seek competence without passion
• Competition vs. collaboration: why pitting teammates against each other backfires
• Pinaki on love, creativity, and a quote from Fist of the North Star

It’s one of the most personal conversations we’ve had on Between the Seasons. And it’s a reminder that the messiest, most human experiences at work are often the ones that shape us the most.

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

In this Between the Seasons episode of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, hosts Chris Lee and Pinaki Kathiari are joined by producer Bree Bartos for a Reddit at Work reaction — or so they think.

The post: a young multimedia specialist lands her dream job, befriends a coworker named Amy, and then gets blindsided when Amy goes to their manager and says she doesn’t deserve the role. Years later, OP still carries the imposter syndrome. How do you move on from a betrayal like that? How do you trust your own abilities again?

Chris and Pinaki react in real time, unpacking the relationship dynamics, the role of managers in catching toxic team tension before it metastasizes, and why people rarely do things to you — they do things for themselves. The conversation gets personal, and then it gets really personal.

Because there’s a twist at the end.

In this episode, they discuss:

• Why creative roles carry more emotional weight — and how that creates unique vulnerabilities
• The danger of avoiding confrontation until it’s too late
• What managers should (and often don’t) do when team dynamics break down
• The difference between someone doing something to you vs. for themselves
• What it looks like when competition and friendship collide at work
• How imposter syndrome can outlast the person who planted it

This is Part 1 of 2. Tune in next week to hear the rest of the story — and find out how knowing the truth changes everything.

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

In this Between the Seasons episode, host Pinaki Kathiari and producer Bree Bartos are joined by Nazmul Islam — communications consultant and creator of History Meets Finance — to react in real time to a Reddit post that hits close to home.

The post: two coworkers-turned-best-friends started a podcast together. It began innocently enough, but after a rebrand, the content got raunchy — and then a coworker found it. Now they’re asking Reddit: how do you keep your podcast and your professional life separate? How do you promote something you have to keep secret?

The conversation goes deep fast. Nazmul shares his experience declaring his YouTube channel to a former employer and why transparency early is almost always better than damage control later. Bree reveals she spent two years streaming on Twitch in her “E-girl era” and told exactly no one at work. And Pinaki recalls a coworker who accidentally landed on the Yahoo homepage. Together, they work through the real factors: social media policies, conflict of interest, company culture, career risk, and what it actually means to be a whole person in a workplace that maybe only sees part of you.

Oh, and Bree finds the podcast mid-episode. The plot thickens.

In this episode, they discuss:

• When your creative life gets discovered by your workplace — now what?
• Why being upfront with your employer is almost always the smarter move
• How company type and industry shape what’s acceptable
• Social media policies, conflict of interest, and what you signed when you were hired
• Bree’s two-year Twitch era (and why she kept it secret until now)
• Faceless channels, pseudonyms, and other ways to protect your professional reputation
• When a passion project becomes a real business — and what that changes
• Nazmul’s take: check your analytics before you decide what to risk

It’s a candid, funny, and genuinely useful conversation for anyone who’s ever wondered how much of yourself you’re allowed to bring to work — and how much to keep for yourself.

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

📺 Check out History Meets Finance - YouTube
Nazmul Islam - LinkedIn

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

In this Between the Seasons episode, host Pinaki Kathiari and producer Bree Bartos welcome Nazmul Islam — communications consultant and creator of History Meets Finance — for a grounded conversation about what it really takes to make thoughtful, well-researched content.

Nazmul walks through how his research process has evolved over the years: from solo Googling, to hiring freelancers on Fiverr, to bringing on journalists for deep-dive research. He shares where AI tools like Claude and NotebookLM fit into his workflow now — and importantly, where they don’t replace human judgment.

The conversation also covers the challenge of staying consistent on a passion project when no one’s making you do it, what it’s like to look at history and finance side by side, and why media literacy and source transparency matter more than ever in a world saturated with AI-generated content.

In this episode, they discuss:

• How Nazmul built History Meets Finance from a weekend side project to 129K+ subscribers
• The role of external accountability in staying consistent on passion projects
• How the research process evolved from solo Googling to working with journalists
• Where AI (Claude, NotebookLM, ChatGPT) fits — and where it doesn’t
• Why entertainment is not the same as information
• The importance of source transparency and building trust with an audience
• Media literacy as a skill we all need to sharpen right now
• What “follow the money” reveals about how society actually works

It’s a practical, curious conversation for anyone who creates content, does research-heavy work, or is trying to figure out how to use AI without losing what makes their work worth trusting.

Check out History Meets Finance here.

Follow Nazmul on LinkedIn.

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

In this Between the Seasons episode, Pinaki Kathiari, Chris Lee, and producer Bree Bartos welcome back Chuck Gose and Kristin Hancock — co-founders of ICology — for part two of a conversation that had too much in it to fit into one episode.

They pick up right where they left off, exploring what it really takes to build and maintain community — and why it’s often inconvenient by design. The group digs into why some people say they want community but don’t actually follow through, the difference between self-care and isolation, and whether society is quietly retreating from the discomfort that connection requires.

Chuck makes a pointed case that saying no has been glamorized as a form of self-care and boundary-setting, while Kristin argues that confidence issues people carry into the workplace are personal development problems — not workplace problems. The conversation builds toward a deeper question: what happens to the next generation of workers who have never had to sit with rejection long enough to grow from it?

In this episode, they discuss:

• Why not everyone truly wants community — even when they say they do
• The price of community is inconvenience: what that means in practice
• How we’ve confused self-care with isolation
• Why saying no has been glamorized — and what we lose when yes disappears
• Confidence as a personal development issue, not a workplace fix
• Rejection as a career skill — and why avoiding it stunts growth
• What the next generation of workers might be missing by opting out of discomfort

It’s a candid, thought-provoking continuation that goes well beyond internal communications — into the messier, more human questions about connection, growth, and what it costs to show up.

If you’re attending Transform 2026 in Vegas, the EX Factor Summit is happening this month.
EX Factor Summit at Transform 2026: Register Here

Chuck Gose: LinkedIn

Kristin Hancock: LinkedIn

ICology: joinicology.com — use code ICLOVE for $50 off your first year

Frequency Podcast (Chuck Gose & Jenni Field): Listen Here

Friends of Indy Animals (Indianapolis): Learn More

Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Five years ago, Kristin Hancock sat in a hotel room in Chicago the night before the very first Camp

ICology convinced it was a failure. Twelve people had signed up. She’d wanted thirty.

That event turned out to be magic.

In this Between the Seasons episode, hosts Pinaki Kathiari and Chris Lee are joined by Chuck Gose

and Kristin Hancock, the co-founders of ICology, to mark five years of building what’s become one

of internal communications’ most genuinely human communities. Chuck started ICology as a podcast

back in 2015 looking for new voices in internal comms. Kristin built the community that surrounds it.

Together, they’ve created something that doesn’t look or feel like anything else in the profession.

The conversation covers the real story of building ICology — the individual outreach, the events

that nearly didn’t happen, the moment success looked exactly like failure, and why Chuck says you

should take it personally when people don’t show up (and why that’s actually good advice).

They also talk about what’s next: the EX Factor Summit, a new pre-conference mini-summit at

Transform 2026 in Las Vegas designed to bring internal communicators into the employee experience

conversation in a more hands-on, problem-solving way. And yes, Busta Rhymes is involved.

In this episode, they discuss:

• What Kristin and Chuck each brought to ICology — and why both were necessary

• Why building community is harder than it looks (and lonelier than you’d expect)

• The lesson from 12 people in a room that felt like failure until it didn’t

• Why Chuck says to take it personally when people don’t engage

• How individualism gets in the way of community — inside and outside of work

• Why internal comms needs to stop asking for a seat at the table and start building one

• What the EX Factor Summit is, and what attendees will walk away with

If you’re attending Transform 2026 in Vegas, the EX Factor Summit is happening this month.

Chuck Gose: LinkedIn

Kristin Hancock: LinkedIn

ICology: joinicology.com — use code ICLOVE for $50 off your first year

EX Factor Summit at Transform 2026: Register Here

Frequency Podcast (Chuck Gose & Jenni Field): Listen Here

Friends of Indy Animals (Indianapolis): Learn More

Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

If this episode made you think differently, laugh, or even yell out loud, we want to hear about it! Connect with us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to rate, review, and share – maybe with your work bestie… or even your boss if you're feeling bold.

We also bring these important conversations to conferences and private workshops, creating space for real, meaningful change. Take the first step at www.whydoesitfeelsowrong.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.