Having a healthy, mutually beneficial relationship with your boss doesn’t require accommodating their every quirk, demand, and weakness. There are respectful, constructive ways to meet in the middle, set boundaries, and help them achieve their goals while making your competence known. Amy G sits down with a woman who recently left retail for her first office job and a fintech executive with a marketing background to discuss managing-up practices that have helped them maintain positive, productive relationships with different bosses across their careers. Guests: Valerie is an operations manager at a law firm. She used to work in retail. Mita Mallick is the head of inclusion, equity, and impact at Carta, a fintech company. She used to work in marketing. She co-hosts the podcast Brown Table Talk. Resources: • HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across, by Harvard Business Review • “Setting the Record Straight on Managing Your Boss,” by Amy Gallo • “How to Give Your Boss Feedback,” by Amy Gallo • “Dealing with Your Incompetent Boss,” by Amy Gallo • “When Being Indispensable Backfires,” by Mita Mallick Sign up for the Women at Work newsletter. Email us: womenatwork@hbr.org

In this podcast, Mita Mallick, Head of Inclusion, Equity and Impact at Carta and host of the LinkedIn podcast Brown Table Talk, discusses breaking down stigma around mental health challenges at work. Topics covered include becoming a public figure, changing toxic workplace culture, anxiety around achievement, advantages of virtual meetings and remote work, debunking leadership and inclusion myths, the impact of toxic leaders, power dynamics, challenging workplace myths about women, and gender-based pay discrepancies.

Mita Mallick, Head of Inclusion at Carta, discusses gender bias in pay equity and the importance of inclusion in the workplace. She provides practical advice for HR leaders and shares inspiring stories of companies leading the way in diversity and equity.

Join an empowering LinkedIn Live session with Mita Mallick, a trailblazer in pay equity. Learn about negotiation challenges for women, unpacking societal biases, and gaining personalized advice on navigating salary negotiations and building a confident negotiation style from this interactive discussion.

Mita Mallick, head of inclusion, equity, and impact at the firm Carta, says gaslighting at the office is more common than many people realize. That's when a manager or coworker engages in behavior where one thing happens, and they try to convince the victim otherwise. Gaslighting can damage the victim’s well-being and performance as well as the company overall. She explains how to recognize the manipulative behavior, what to do about it in the moment, and how companies can respond. Mallick wrote the HBR.org article "How to Intervene When a Manager Is Gaslighting Their Employees."