The Speak Good Podcast

Former New York Times Editor on His Bad Workplace Experience

May 29, 2022

47:52

As the former editor-in-chief of the lifestyle blog Lifehacker, Alan Henry was well aware of the power of actionable advice in helping others maximize their potential. Little did he know he’d need some of that same advice to knock down professional obstacles that he faced after becoming the editor of the Smarter Living section of The New York Times.

In this episode, Alan talks about his new book, Seen, Heard, and Paid: The New Work Rules for the Marginalized, in which he explores the struggles he faced at The Times as a person of color. Often overlooked and kept from interesting work and career-advancing opportunities, he developed a new set of work rules to allow people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ employees to have the same access to success, interesting work, and career opportunities as those with more privilege.

Now the senior editor at WIRED, Alan shares some of the new hacks he’s learned for career advancement and offers advice to managers on how to get the most out of all of your team members.

GUEST: Alan Henry, Editor, Journalist, and Author, Seen, Heard, and Paid: The New Work Rules for the Marginalized

In his own words, Alan Henry is a writer, editor, blogger, gamer, streamer, classy geek, recovering physicist, unapologetically Black, and severely opinionated. He’s also a journalist, editor, and author of the book Seen, Heard, and Paid: The New Work Rules for the Marginalized. He’s spent his career sharing the journalism that helps readers make readers embrace technology and use it to work and live better. He’s the former editor of the productivity and lifestyle blog Lifehacker and previously worked as the Smarter Living editor at The New York Times. He is the author of the newsletter “Productivity Without Privilege,” which was launched by his 2019 New York Times piece. He’s currently the senior editor at WIRED and based in New York City.