Quick note before we start, this episode originally came out in December 2019

before the coronavirus pandemic.

Work looks different for so many of us now, but whether you're working from home or showing up to work with a mask,

we still think this episode is useful.

Enjoy.

This is NPR's LifeKit.

I'm Megan Cain. I'm LifeKit's managing producer.

Now, the last place most people want to be emotional is at work, but it happens, right?

Crying in the bathroom, loving that snide-com, it's slipping a meeting.

But it's not just those big emotions that show up.

Emotions happen when a deadline gets moved, or when we don't get invited to that big meeting,

they happen when your boss sends a cryptic email saying,

see me ASAP, or when a lazy coworker gets credit for a project they barely contributed to yet again.

Now, the workplace used to be more of a 9-5 clock-in, clock-out situation.

But these days, the boundaries between work and home are blurry.

We bring more of our personal selves into work, and we bring more of work home.

And so when we're bringing more of our personal selves to work,

emotions come with us, that's just a part of being human.

That's Molly West-Duffie.

She's co-author of the book, No Hard Feelings, the secret power of embracing emotions of work.

She wrote it with her friend Liz Fosseline, who notes that just because we're talking emotions,

the book is definitely not an invitation to become a feelings fire hose.

...