Empowered Communication

TW: sexual harassment, gender discrimination.  In Episode 16, Meredith interviews a past client who works in marine research and shipping. They discuss what transformations have helped make a difference in navigating sexual harassment and other gender-discrimination at work and how to maintain integrity and self-respect in the midst of unfair treatment.  How Toxic Is Your Work Environment? Take th...

In Episode 15, Meredith drops a few thoughts about the holidays and one factor in communicating from an empowered place when we are triggered. Most of us have been taught that ego is arrogance, and we should avoid it. But, really ego is what defines our preferences and who we are. Holidays can be very triggering and bring out our sensitive points, but when we can manage and care for our egos (our...

In Episode 14, Meredith and Megan talk about how gaslighting and brainwashing show up in the workplace, and how they can impact a work environment. Gaslighting happens when we fail to acknowledge someone else's reality, and instead reassert our version of reality or what we want reality to be. Brainwashing happens when we use coercive strategies to pressure people to share a certain reality. B...

In Episode 13, Meredith and Megan feel attacked. Or at least they talk about the experience of feeling attacked at work. Meredith shares the concept of the emotional cage error, a thinking error that leads us to believe that if someone else acts abusively, it limits how we are allowed to feel or respond. When we feel defensive or attacked, and we act from that space, it can limit our responses and...

In Episode 12, Meredith and Megan explore expectations at work. We often come from family systems and educational systems that teach us to expect one thing from our lives, but then we enter a workplace that is very different than we expected. Sometimes, workplaces even advertise themselves as "happy families," and after we start working, we learn they are anything but happy. When we learn...

In Episode 11, Meredith and Megan discuss workplace hierarchies and who, ultimately, is responsible for the workplace culture, whether it is toxic or healthy. In many workplaces, there is a clear hierarchy, with chief officers over managers, over frontline workers. The expectation is that the person at the top of the hierarchy has more responsibility than the person who is paid the least. But, wha...

In Episode 10, Meredith and Megan go into their experiences of resolution and non-resolution related to past work experiences. Meredith breaks down the steps she has taken to make resolve past work experiences and the typical steps she sees related to reporting harassment and discrimination and how we have been taught to respond to those issues. Sometimes, employees seek closure and justice throug...

In Episode 9, Meredith and Megan talk about boundaries at work and navigating the experience of taking work home, not just physically but mentally. Have you ever had the experience of burning dinner or forgetting to eat because your brain is so distracted by something that happened at work? Just us? In this episode, we focus on the first pillar of Empowered Communication: Boundaries. But, not just...

In Episode 8, Meredith and Megan explore how we can hold abusers accountable at work. Often, when we talk about holding people accountable, it means that we want the other person or a group of people around us to agree with us about something that happened. Other times, people use the word accountability to mean punishment to the abuser or even creating safety for ourselves. In Empowered Communica...

In Episode 7, Meredith and Megan explore imposter syndrome at work. We typically label an experience as imposter syndrome when we are in a new situation, unsure of ourselves, and wondering if everyone is going to find out we don't belong. It is a feeling that we "sneaked in" to a position that is above our abilities. But, we typically don't use "imposter syndrome" with peop...

In Episode 6, Meredith and Megan talk about the experience of being a highly sensitive person and how valuable that can be, even if it is a toxic work environment. A toxic work environment is one where we are tolerating experiences we do not want to tolerate. Highly sensitive people have heightened perceptive abilities and have more pronounced experiences than others. This is only a problem when w...

In Episode 5, Meredith and Megan talk about holding bullies and abusers accountable at work and how we can respond if someone else has called us abusive or a bully. This episode dives into the third pillar of Empowered Communication: Accountability. Accountability is essentially the math, or the “accounting,” of the actions we’ve taken and the results they’ve gotten. The math is always neutral. Wh...

In Episode 4, Meredith and Megan talk about the power of negative feelings. You may have heard about the power of "positive" feelings, but "negative" or painful feelings are equally powerful and important. In this episode, we talk about the second pillar of Empowered Communication™, reprogramming hegemony, and Meredith shares the structure of her IMPACT Model™, a tool to help look...

In Episode 3, Meredith and Megan talk about the first pillar of Empowered Communication: Enforcing Boundaries. Personal boundaries, like property boundaries, are the line where I end and someone else begins. Boundary violations happen when someone's actions come into our space. When we enforce our boundaries, it is about taking action that makes us safe and rewards us, even while another perso...

In Episode 2, Meredith and Megan give an overview of the 4 most common types of toxic work environments and the 2 most common types of toxic workplace experiences. Each of those situations can create different pressures to tolerate experiences we do not want to tolerate or confusion about when it is okay to leave. We call the 4 most common types of toxic work environments the "big happy family...

In Episode 1, Meredith and Megan provide an introduction to the three pillars of Empowered Communication™: Enforcing Boundaries, Reprogramming Hegemony, and Accountability. This is a new, integrity-based model for handling power dynamics in the workplace. Meredith and Megan share their stories about why they care about this work. Early in Meredith's legal career, she got her dream job as a civ...