On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, the team delves into a mash-up of Ruinous Empathy and Manipulative Insincerity. Ruinous Empathy—being “nice” but ultimately unhelpful and unkind—is rampant among new managers, including this new manager who wrote to us asking for advice about how to...

Kim, Amy and Jason discuss how to make work less like junior high by implementing something Fred Kofman — Kim’s coach at Google — calls clean escalation. Clean escalation dictates managers not allow people to talk about one another to them behind each other’s backs and not engage in office...

Kim, Jason and Amy discuss another upsetting trend in the workplace — the “oops, just kidding!” job offer. The team emphasizes the importance of remembering that the people you are hiring are real human beings with loved ones, bills and responsibilities. You’re not trying them on like a pair of...