S2E1: A New Season, New Stories and Shifting into Investigative Journalism

Guess what? We've been off the radar for a full two months and so much has unfolded in our lives! My daughter is now the social queen bee, I've made a comeback to school and my boyfriend is courageously stepping into a new life phase. We even chuckle at the podcasting rust we've acquired during this hiatus. Pull up a chair and join us as we trade personal stories of triumphs, trials and laughs over the past couple of months.

Here's something exciting - we are launching into season two of our podcast and shifting gears a bit. We've got big plans to tighten up our interviews, and even try our hand at some investigative journalism. Expect to hear us navigating the complex world of Twitter's X platform rebranding and the controversy circling Elon Musk. We’ll also be reflecting on the journey we've undertaken and discussing what lies ahead for us. Whether you're a podcast enthusiast or someone curious about the dynamic world of social media, this episode is sure to pique your interest.

Welcome to Season 2, where we embark on authentic and unfiltered conversations about life, relationships, society, and more. Our opinions are solely our own and don't represent professional advice. It's just our perspective, so form your conclusions. Heads up, this podcast may contain adult content and explicit language. Let's dive in!
 
Buzzsprout refer a friend! 
Grab a $20 off when you sign up!

 With SiteGround's Click-and-Install WordPress, we're leaving manual setup in the past. Our podcast is powered by the seamless one-click installation and WordPress Starter wizard. Choose from pro designs, add contact forms, online stores, portfolios – all automated, no tech stress. Say goodbye to mundane setups and hello to a stunning podcast platform. Dive into impactful discussions without the technical hassle. Launch your podcast website effortlessly.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2108585/subscribe 

Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/toxic_workplace_pod/

Transcript

Gina: 0:42

Hello.

Nicola: 0:44

It's so funny story, let's hear it. You realize these are recorded, right? Yeah, okay, you realize. On the last one, you showed me your boobs.

Gina: 0:59

I forgot, I don't care. I mean, I trust you. I know you're not going to like plaster it all over the Internet. You can't realize. I mean, it was just like the underside, the under boob. It wasn't terrible, it was the whole thing, girl, I don't even consider them mine because they're implants, girl, it was the whole. They're ginormous and they're stupid. And I'm getting them made smaller. Yeah, not a thing. Okay, so let's pretend this is the first time talking after we've been away from each other.

Nicola: 1:30

It kind of is how long have we been away from each other for now? Like.

Gina: 1:35

We had a couple, we had a couple of people, we had a couple of people, we had a couple of people. We had at least two months, two months it's too, much Two months, too much One one one.

Nicola: 1:53

So yes, I have to do like my.

Gina: 1:55

Because I haven't, we haven't really podcasted Like formally. We've had like one or two really quick ones, and then we were just like okay, gotta go. Bye, I'm gonna go and get a sad one with Dr Jody. No, I was like driving from Florida to New York. So it's been, it's been a ride. So I feel like I missed everything, Feel very out of the. The Nicola loop Out of the loop.

Nicola: 2:20

Yeah Well, how have you, how has your, how have you even I, am I having this?

Gina: 2:25

We're both dumb. We're out of practice.

Nicola: 2:30

How was your two months off?

Gina: 2:33

Well, I wasn't off from everything, obviously, just two months off from podcasting. So I drove. Obviously I drove here from I'm in New York. Still, I'm going back like the 12th. I'm starting the journey back. So it's up here in New York with my daughter and it's been nice, but like we're both really ready to come home, like we need our own house, our own things, you know stuff like that. So yeah, but she's grown so much like her vocabulary is so good and she's become like a social butterfly. So anytime we go to the pool, she's like I want to go say hi to my friends and they're like all new people, everyone's her friend. It's the cutest.

Nicola: 3:13

She's the opposite of me.

Gina: 3:15

I'm like. I'm like I don't like anyone. No new friends. And she's like everyone's my friend. That's adorable, though.

Nicola: 3:23

I know.

Gina: 3:24

So what did you? What have you been up to?

Nicola: 3:26

Well, I, I did not get a break from podcasting. I didn't get a break from podcasting because I just, I just didn't know, I just didn't know that, Because I, you didn't know of course I didn't, because we still had to have mini-sodes.

Gina: 3:38

Oh, I know.

Nicola: 3:41

I didn't even know that you were doing that until you were doing it, yeah.

Gina: 3:45

We, and then also we had episodes that we had.

Nicola: 3:47

Yeah.

Gina: 3:48

We had to do that. We had to do that. That's true. Yeah, also, I just want to like put a disclaimer on like one. Towards the end of our podcasting and season one, I became severely depressed to do with the podcast.

Nicola: 4:01

Nothing like that at all, it was just I made you depressed.

Gina: 4:04

No, you were probably like the one thing that kept me going. But so I don't even like. Part of the end of season one was a little bit of a blur, because I was just like, oh God, I'm still alive every day.

Nicola: 4:17

Yeah.

Gina: 4:18

Yeah, it was a rough, but anyway. So go back to you. What did you do besides not getting time off from the podcast?

Nicola: 4:25

I've gone back to school again, so I'm back at school now. I am crazy. I'm actually quite enjoying the papers at the moment, just not saying You're writing them on the right topic this time. Apparently barely Jesus Christ. Honestly, if I do not get an A for this, please just have me fired at this point, because no, this is my wheelhouse, like I'm doing health and safety papers. So I'm just like, please, if I don't, what is the point of my life?

Gina: 4:56

Listen. As one of my friends says, every day's a school day, so maybe Every day's a school day.

Nicola: 5:02

I've been spending a lot of time with my boyfriend, this is like the biggest thing ever. With my boyfriend. He's so cute.

Gina: 5:13

I'm so glad that you decided after that whole like disrupt New Zealand, wasn't it? Or that thing that you spoke at, yeah, that you were like I really just wanted to see him and I was like that's great. Oh, it is, it's good, it's good shirt. We're so cute. Are you guys in love and stuff? Yeah, ow. Meanwhile, I'm still dealing with my same old.

Nicola: 5:42

Yeah, it's OK, though you can do better than this. If I could do better, you could do better.

Gina: 5:47

No, no, he filed for divorce. Didn't I tell you that? Oh my god, I'm so excited. Oh my god, it's happening. I didn't tell you that it's happening. He filed. It's going to be finalized. Like you have to put it in the system, I don't know what they have to do, but it'll be finalized by end of this year.

Nicola: 6:06

Oh my god.

Gina: 6:07

Yeah.

Nicola: 6:09

This is huge.

Gina: 6:10

I know, oh my god, I know. And he asked me what kind of engagement ring I want and I said I mean I'm not saying it's going to happen, but this is where it is right now. And he apologized for being such a turd to me and my daughter and he's been kind of like making up for it ever since. So I haven't completely forgiven him and I haven't said one thing or the other, but let's just say it's now going in a direction that I can get behind. Before I could not get behind it. A little positive trajectory, there we go, so both of our love lives are getting a little bit better. Look, I'm not sad about this. No, maybe Card ZB was right.

Nicola: 6:57

Maybe Card ZB was right.

Gina: 6:59

OK, so you have a fabulous new BF and you guys are all in love and shit, and so what else happened?

Nicola: 7:05

Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. I have a fabulous team at work. I'm very lucky to be working in an industry that is just so compassionate, and it's OK, it's OK.

Gina: 7:25

Good, and you're not feeling stressed out previously.

Nicola: 7:30

I don't feel like I was anywhere near what last year was. I feel far less miserable. I'm feeling a lot more settled and a lot more grounded.

Gina: 7:44

You seem a lot more settled and grounded, so I'm glad to hear that.

Nicola: 7:49

But very curious to know more about what we are going to talk about for our now season two.

Gina: 7:57

So you want to go first, you want to make the announcement.

Nicola: 8:02

Which one is an announcement? Do you have an announcement? I've got barely an announcement.

Gina: 8:08

So well, I guess what we kind of piggybacking on what we already said at the end of season one, like we're surprised like we've gotten this far so quickly and we're so grateful and thankful for both negative and positive reviews. It doesn't matter, review us. Sometimes what you say, even if we make fun of you, is probably accurate. We just like to make fun at our own toxicity, because what can you do if not be self-reflective and laugh about shit? Right, exactly.

Nicola: 8:39

And we could take feedback on board.

Gina: 8:42

Yes, we might make fun of you at first, but then we'll be like no, that person was probably right, so anyway. So I think the biggest thing we're going to say is we're trying to be a little bit more concise with our interviews this year or this season, I should say so that we don't kind of get waylaid into too many side topics although I kind of feel like that's kind of what makes us us. So we're going to try to balance it better. Let's say, that right.

Nicola: 9:11

We're going to balance out the topics a little more. We do have some really cool interviews locked and loaded already that will be published for the first, I think, five weeks.

Gina: 9:24

Yes, so we already have our first couple episodes for season two ready to go, and Nicola had a really awesome idea and we're going to kind of run with it and I think that's more of the announcement. So why don't you tell everyone?

Nicola: 9:37

So we're going to do some investigative journalism, but we're going to be a little bit, please.

Gina: 9:45

We're going to use investigative journalism very loosely. It's such a loose, it's a broad term. Don't expect to come on here and find us being crime junkies or morbid or any of those true or date line. Everyone loves a good date line. Don't expect that from us. We're going to do our best Date line.

Nicola: 10:05

But we're going to try a couple of different things. We're going to try and kind of step out the box a little bit and we are actually going to research some toxic workplaces. So we've put some time in to kind of make a list of the places that we wanted to research and talk about. We've reached out to a couple of people to see if they'd be willing to come and talk to us about it. We've kind of contacted people in the industry we're kind of talking to. We've kind of got like a wide range of things that we want to talk to people about and we're going to just try different formats, I guess, and watch the space, because I'm going to say it's ever-evolving and we'll work it out as we go, like we did in this episode.

Gina: 10:46

Yes, it is, I mean in the first season. The first season was truly just a test run, because we were like we don't know what we're doing, let's just see what happens.

Nicola: 10:55

And as we keep saying.

Gina: 10:58

I'm like blown away that we consistently get and of course we are not at all in the top whatever podcasts of all time I mean Date Line and I think Crime Drunkie are the top two in America all every week.

Nicola: 11:12

Oh, for sure, For sure. But we hop in and out of those top numbers.

Gina: 11:16

I'm not saying that, I mean also just for two random girls who've never done a podcast before and don't know really what they're doing. One of us might know more than the other and I'm looking at you, Nicola, Like I can't believe where we are already. It's kind of fun, kind of cute.

Nicola: 11:34

I know her and we're still in the top 10%, which is good. That is good We've maintained.

Gina: 11:39

I also feel like not to take away from our work, but I also feel like everyone in their mother now has a podcast.

Nicola: 11:45

Oh, my god, for bloody sure. Like I saw just on LinkedIn this week, like three people I know have started a podcast and I'm like do you want to reach out, like do you want to talk to us about this, because ours doesn't seem to suck? Do you want to come and talk to us, happy to share what barely we know?

Gina: 12:03

Yes, the little small about we know, but we can share, like OK, just be consistent. I think that's probably our biggest tool in our two belt, is that we are consistent. We do what we say we're going to do, yeah, so better late than never, but we're consistent, wait. But what are their podcasts about?

Nicola: 12:32

Please. On my LinkedIn We've got one about toxic workplaces. I was like, oh, interesting, I'll keep an eye on you. No, totally different from us, though. It's three people talking and they don't interview a lot of people, they talk about businesses, et cetera which I thought was quite interesting but worth listening to. I think it's cool. And then a couple of safety ones. There was two brand new safety ones that I saw come out which I'm quite excited about and I might listen to those. I think the one was the Circus of Safety, or Safety Circus, and I was like, oh girlfriend, I am so listening to this. This is right up my true crime scene. Oh my god, talking about true crime, have you been listening to the new episodes of the Lady Venetians?

Gina: 13:24

I haven't, and I have to tell you so. The first season I was so excited Maybe my expectations were too high because I was expecting to be this, something so totally crazy, and it was just kind of more like the long game. It was more drawn out.

Nicola: 13:39

Now it's going back to crazy town.

Gina: 13:42

OK, because at the end I sort of lost interest and I was like OK so now we're in the passport entries and stuff.

Nicola: 13:50

Now we're in the coronial hearing, so now they're doing the live action replays of the court stuff.

Gina: 13:58

Oh, wow.

Nicola: 14:00

Oh.

Gina: 14:00

Maybe I have to listen to that one. Please.

Nicola: 14:03

You've got to get on board with that one. What else have we got? What else have we got lined up for season two? I'm just having a look at our guest list from season two.

Gina: 14:15

I know that we have some interesting startup people and business people right.

Nicola: 14:23

We also have and I think this is one that we're going to really enjoy sharing with people was the lady that had like 400 jobs in like.

Gina: 14:32

Oh, my god that was like her first, like right out of the gate, she was like so I've had 400 jobs in 32 years and we're like what we're like. Well, who's the common denominator there?

Nicola: 14:45

Lois' common denominator and I think we said that to her as well we were like ooh.

Gina: 14:51

Yeah, like at some point you have to understand. Like, maybe you bring like way back when we first started, you know, we were very clear that we added to the toxicity at our former workplace.

Nicola: 15:02

Oh, we're learning them.

Gina: 15:03

So it's like I think everyone has a little bit of you know, like I always say, like you're part in it, so maybe, maybe.

Nicola: 15:12

You know, what I have noticed, though, is I have now noticed like toxicity coming from others, because now I'm so hyper aware of toxicity in the workplace and at the moment in my workplace, I'm really, really, really, and I can't wait to use I can't wait to talk about this as a topic later in the season but I am like fixated on weaponized incompetence, like fixated on it, and I see it everywhere and it is so toxic and it is driving me mental. Where you send someone like a Word document and they're like I can't open the Word document, you do it for me, can you send it to me in PDF? It's like well then, you can't review it. Can you please open the link we've sent you so that you can review it? I don't know how to review it. Why is it all in?

Gina: 15:57

read it's like so how do you handle that? Will you be like, let's do a refresher on Word documents?

Nicola: 16:03

I have been doing that when I'm like yeah, that would be.

Gina: 16:07

my first thing was be like, okay, you don't know how to do it. Maybe this is a widespread problem. Now, everybody has to learn how to use.

Nicola: 16:13

Exactly when I'm like. Okay, no worries, I'm happy to send you a link to learn how to do it better. It should be a pretty standard practice. It's not rocket science over here, but here's a link Watch the video, and. But I'm like so fixated on it and I'm also hyper aware of not, like not perpetuating toxicity in the organization. Yeah, I've become so hyper aware of it, though, like it's everywhere now.

Gina: 16:36

Yeah. I mean I think that's like, that's what happens, right, Like you talk about it all the time and then you're like, like and you start spotting it easier.

Nicola: 16:45

You spotted it every way now.

Gina: 16:47

I mean, it is a rampant issue. You know, like stuff happens all the time and people, relationships with people, whether or not it's like familial or intimate or whatever, they're hard, because you know it's hard. So, okay, so we're going to have, like so we're doing some deep dives on toxic workplaces that a lot of you probably already know, but we kind of want to bring a different spin on it. Yeah, our spin like so, for instance, I'm going to be doing a little thing on we work, but we're going to be putting a special spin on it so that it's not just the retelling of the story which I think most people know, right. So what kind of give you a recap? And I think that's Nicholas intention to will give you a recap of what we already know and then kind of get a little bit further, talk to some people and see what they have to say, and then we'll go from there.

Nicola: 18:20

I know I, as we said earlier, like we're using the term investigative journalism.

Gina: 18:29

I think the biggest thing I investigate on a daily basis is how soon can I get to bed. That's what I investigate on a daily basis. If you want a full investigative journalistic report on that, then I'm your girl. Otherwise, don't have too high expectations, and then you'll be pleasantly surprised if we you know, you know what?

Nicola: 18:54

okay, hold on. You know toxic workplace that I have deleted off my app, like off my phone. So I woke up the other morning and my Twitter was a giant X and I was like, oh, no, oh, oh. It's the first time I have ever deactivated and deleted a social media account.

Gina: 19:20

I've never gotten behind Twitter slash X like I just didn't get it. I was like this is stupid.

Nicola: 19:26

I don't like.

Gina: 19:26

Facebook, but no pictures. But then there are pictures and then it's like Instagram, but with pictures, and then people are retweeting on like this is just reposting on Instagram, like they're all kind of the same version of themselves.

Nicola: 19:38

Okay, but think about this for a second right. Your company has gone through a rebrand right. How tricky is a rebrand? It's tricky. It's a small company for a multi mega, gigantic, multi million bajillion dollar company. And they swapped it over in what two weeks?

Gina: 20:01

Sounds that way. I mean, you probably would know better than me because I'm not a Twitter aficion. So now, so now, what are? Are they no longer tweets their X's? What are they? I'm so confused.

Nicola: 20:12

Well, they're definitely not tweets anymore.

Gina: 20:15

Well, I'm still going to follow up tweets. How much do you want to bet that everyone's going to still call it Twitter?

Nicola: 20:22

Well, this is exactly it, right. Like what is the meant? Like, what was the thinking behind this? Like, is it just so that you can slap your own image on something, but you're just creating, like, more and more toxicity as you go. Elon, come on, mate, and he's your people's from South. Africa. No, we're not claiming that one.

Gina: 20:44

I think it's too late.

Nicola: 20:46

No, not claiming him.

Gina: 20:49

That's what she needs as to she's like he's been American.

Nicola: 20:53

Americanized. Yeah, no, no, no, he's not our people, that's not our people.

Gina: 20:58

All right, well, anyway, yeah, I see what you're saying. Like I'm not. I was never like very into deep with X slash, twitter slash, whatever, so I don't. I never really used it. I mean, for a minute I did, and then I was like this doesn't make any sense to my logical brain, so I'm stopping doing it.

Nicola: 21:19

I'm just curious to know, like what's going on behind the scenes. Right, like that branding team would have been so straight is because you've got like an established brand that has is well known, and now this guy's like, oh jokes, swap it all out for a black.

Gina: 21:34

I remember one of the companies that my company worked with years ago and they did just a logo update. It took me forever to like the new logo. I was like this is so ugly. The first one was better like. So that's just like. I'm like that's not even a full rebrand. They kept the same name, everything. It was just the logo that change, and it took me like a good year and a half to get behind the new logo, Right.

Nicola: 21:59

So it's like. That's like me. Once they did that brand swap, like where I woke up and it was just a black X on my phone. I'm curious to know how many people deactivated their accounts.

Gina: 22:11

Oh, I think this would be a good Instagram poll.

Nicola: 22:17

I actually think this would be a good Instagram poll too. I think maybe when we introduce season two we can use that as a pop-up, I think, because, realistically, like you're losing brand loyalty, you're creating a toxic work environment, because you're forcing people into potentially doing long hours to create this vision that you have.

Gina: 22:40

I think we already knew that Twitter, before it became X was at my favorite word was problematic because we heard all those rumblings about Elon Musk saying like, if you're not doing this or that, you're going to get fired. That's remember. Like or I don't remember. There was a couple of other things, but again, I didn't pay too much attention to it because Twitter is not my jam.

Nicola: 23:03

Maybe we need to do an episode on Twitter.

Gina: 23:06

I think we might actually Now that we're just riff raffing about it. You never know.

Nicola: 23:12

I think it could be because it's a very I feel like it's a very hot button topic.

Gina: 23:17

It is, and it's because it's happening as we're recording Whereas we work, or Lula Rowe or whatever it's like. People have come before us. They've done the dirty work of the true investigative journalism. We're just going to be piggybacking on that because just want to let everyone know we're not investigative journalists, did we?

Nicola: 23:36

mention that. How fun would it be to be an investigative journalist, like what do they do on a day to day basis.

Gina: 23:44

I don't know. I think it would be a lot of work and I think, at the core of who I am, I'm too lazy.

Nicola: 23:51

I could do it because I'm tenacious like that.

Gina: 23:55

You are, and I'm tenacious and motivated in certain areas, but that's just again. I'm going to say it again, not my jam.

Nicola: 24:04

It's not your bread, it's not your butter and there's no jam. There's no jam being had by me. Wait, when you guys have your biscuits biscuits, so cute Do you guys put like cream and jam on your biscuits?

Gina: 24:20

So when you say biscuit, do you mean cookie or cracker?

Nicola: 24:23

No, I'm talking about like those scone things that you have.

Gina: 24:27

Oh, okay, yeah, it depends. Some of them are so delicious that they don't need anything, especially if you warm it, but some of them does need a little like moisture in there. So butter, jelly, jam, anything, anything goes.

Nicola: 24:44

I just find it fascinating. You call them biscuits. It's very weird.

Gina: 24:49

Well, a biscuit is actually like a flaky pastry in America. It's like a biscuit is almost like a dinner roll, but it's denser. Yeah, it's like a scone. Yeah, but a scone usually has like additional flavors, like cranberries walnuts.

Nicola: 25:08

No, that's a muffin.

Gina: 25:10

No, scones are harder and they're triangular. No ways Scones are like. Brown Muffins are totally different, like sometimes, like if you just get a muffin from Dunkin Donuts, you could just eat that shit straight because it's so moist.

Nicola: 25:23

Oh my God, I think I need to make you a scone so that you can have like a comparative.

Gina: 25:30

I don't. Scones are usually drier, and yeah, that's that, here they are. And then muffins are something different, and then cupcakes are something different.

Nicola: 25:40

Oh, cupcakes, we all know what.

Gina: 25:41

a cupcake is Okay, and then a biscuit is something totally, totally different, and then you have your regular, like dinner rolls, which are totally different.

Nicola: 25:49

So there's a lot of general. Look, I don't love a carb, like I don't naturally gravitate towards carbs.

Gina: 25:55

Are you insane? If I could if I didn't get fat, I would eat carbs all day, every day.

Nicola: 26:03

No, it's just not something I gravitate towards, but I do love a hot dinner roll.

Gina: 26:08

My God.

Nicola: 26:10

Like a little bit of a shot of the oven. One Oof. Have you ever had a king's roll?

Gina: 26:15

And you're just like a little bit of a roll and it's all yeasty or like a good sourdough, a good homemade bread. I think we just passed this on season one because our person from who had like what was the? Oh, it was still was homemade European bread and I was like that is the. Please give me that as a gift. I will eat the shit out of that.

Nicola: 26:36

I know it's like we will be like little Hansel and Gratial.

Gina: 26:41

Yeah, he could have Hansel and Gretel's, our asses to any big oven, with the promise of homemade, artisanal European bread like I've got, like a. If you're baking me a fresh bread, I am all up in that carb I mean, even if I knew you were like a serial killer, I'll be like I can take them. I'll just get the bread and run.

Nicola: 27:03

Oh my God. My mother once hit me with a stale low like a stale baguette. Stuck with me forever.

Gina: 27:09

Oh, I'm sure it's a lot harder than it probably yeah.

Nicola: 27:14

Needed to be Even a sourdough, so it's like really hard and that's like a piece of wood. Yep, we digress. So welcome to season two. Thanks for having us, thanks for coming back.

Gina: 27:27

Thanks for coming back and for allowing us to figure our shit out as we go.

Nicola: 27:31

Yeah, I feel like this is going to be our like strap line for the rest of eternity. Is we're just going to figure it out as we go? Yep, we sure are I love it All right, we'll see you next week for our very first episode.

Gina: 27:46

I'm going to see you tomorrow.

Nicola: 27:48

No, you dork Like for the season.

Gina: 27:52

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry my bad, we have other things we have other Tomorrow. Yeah, I'm aware, I'm actually going to see you tomorrow, but we're going to get from us next week.

Nicola: 28:06

Leave me alone.

Gina: 28:09

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back everybody. Let's hope that we're a little bit more buttoned up during the actual season than maybe. Like, what are you talking about Chocolate? Oh my god. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, nikola. Everyone else will see you later. We will see you next week.

Nicola: 28:29

Everyone else yeah Amazing.

Gina: 28:31

Okay, love you, bye.

Nicola: 28:33

Goodbye.