Across The Bar Podcast

We recorded this one the morning after, and yes, Laura brought champagne. Voters sent a message on Tuesday, and this week we get into what it actually means for the people who still have to show up to work on Wednesday.Political strategist, lawyer, and author Maya Rupert (The Real Ones) joins us, along with her 18-year-old cat Cuomo, whose name has aged in interesting ways. Maya breaks down the administration’s plan to scale back protections under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and why a self-described “pronatalist” government would make it harder for pregnant women to keep their jobs. (Spoiler: it was never about the babies.) With Democrats taking both chambers, she walks through the tools Congress actually has now (oversight hearings, subpoenas, the power of the purse), and leaves the historic class of incoming “firsts” with advice worth taping to the wall: don’t let first become last.Peter shares what he’s hearing in his practice that hasn’t made the papers yet: career EEOC staff quietly turning up the heat on employers. Then Peter and Laura  trade theories on why Tuesday happened, and what it means for corporate leaders who got very comfortable with zero accountability.Plus: Canva shows how to do a layoff without torching morale, Anthropic’s IPO filing reveals it’s spending over $100K a month per employee, and a listener asks whether a weekend holiday party is ever okay. Peter and Laura do not agree. Laura does, however, have a genuinely great party-planning hack. Please listen to, subscribe and share this week's episode of the Across the Bar Podcast!

Microsoft offers 60,000 employees a buyout, and Weil Gotshal shuts down after more than 90 years. Peter and Laura get into what buyouts really pay, how a powerhouse law firm collapses, and the St. Louis company that has never laid anyone off. Also this week: Anthropic’s H-1B problem, Marissa Mayer’s AI startup Dazzle, Hollywood’s vanishing women executives, and why young chefs are skipping their dues. Plus Heroes & Zeros.

Peter spotted Midtown office workers waiting half an hour for frozen yogurt at 3 p.m. on a weekday, and he has thoughts. Laura thinks it might be the new dating scene. That’s just the warm-up.This week, a listening device allegedly found taped to a TV in an OpenAI conference room kicks off a conversation about how far corporate espionage has gone: foreign operatives landing remote jobs, honey traps in the park, and employees told not to wear company merch in public. Peter also confesses that a room full of lawyers at a conference had no screen protectors, so anyone could read their potentially privileged work.Then: McKinsey now makes first-round candidates interview with a bot pretending to be a client. Peter objects on two fronts. Plus the Princeton chemical engineering PhD with 2,300 interviews and no job, a Cambridge professor arguing we should abolish business school (Peter’s Duke classmates won’t love his take), and why law school should be two years.From there: ultra-wealthy households making the pool guy sign a 15-page NDA, and Peter’s advice for billionaires (hint: use an agency). With midterms two weeks out, a refresher on what employers can and can’t regulate when it comes to political speech, at work and outside it.Please like, share and subscribe to The Across the Bar Podcast!#work #workplace #nda #trump #billionaire #billionairelifestyle #frozenyogurt #spy #surveillance #ai #chatbot #jobinterview #jobinterviewtips #businessschool #lawschool #tuition #midterms #politics #freespeech #podcast #privacy

A McKinsey partner went on LinkedIn to announce that the “glass cliff” isn’t real. He kept his job and lost his leadership role. He’ll also have that post as his top Google result for the rest of his life. Peter and Laura explain why LinkedIn is the one platform where your hot takes come with your employer’s logo attached. They also suggest what he should have done, which was host the authors for an internal company event, not a public pile-on.Speaking of lunch: Ancestry’s CEO says the best leadership move is eating with your employees wherever they actually eat. That means the break room, not the executive dining room. We agree, mostly. Laura has a frequency note, and both hosts have NYC cafeteria stories, including some Gayle King salad-bar diplomacy.Then there’s Kimberly Guilfoyle, now the former ambassador to Greece, after Wall Street Journal reporting on wealthy businessmen allegedly covering her Amex bills, flights and a trip to Davos. The career lessons are not complicated. Don’t embarrass your boss. Don’t assume something is fine because everyone around you is doing it. And for the love of God, don’t put it in an email.Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is wearing a headset on the sideline and taking frantic notes on every play. Is she an engaged leader, a distraction, or a woman being held to a different standard? Peter and Laura disagree. Plus: evaluation apprehension, and Laura’s blood pressure.Some AI companies want to buy your company’s Slack history for training data. Peter walks through why that is a confidentiality nightmare for employers. It also hands employees a great counterargument the next time a company tries to enforce a non-compete. A listener asks whether her son should keep his fraternity leadership role on his résumé after the Cornell incident.Your weekly drink with a lawyer and a journalist.#slack #ai #mckinsey #trump #guilfoyle #work #careers #lunch #boss #managing #manager #employees #colts #nfl #oprah #gayleking #podcast

Remember when AI agents were supposed to take work off your plate? Journalist Laura Brounstein admits that she gives hers a performance review at least once a week (“we’ve talked about this, only use these sources”), while Attorney Peter Rahbar remains proudly agent-free and firmly on the cautious end of the spectrum. Together they get into why so many people who handed work to bots ended up promoted to full-time bot manager, why agents need as much feedback as Gen Z employees, and the new industry push to make AI agents identify themselves as bots. Peter’s takeaway tracks the 20-60-20 rule: the people who become best at directing and handling the results from AI, lawyers included, are the ones who’ll come out ahead.The episode opens with Tony Romo’s exit from CBS, and Peter explains what likely happened behind the scenes: a guaranteed contract, a very public DWI, a “for cause” clause, and a network in the middle of a merger that didn’t want the distraction. It’s a useful reminder that what you do off the clock can still cost you your job. From there, Peter and Laura take on companies announcing layoffs on earnings calls with no details about who or when, a move Wall Street loves and employees dread. Nike is the latest example. Laura has lived it from the inside at WeWork. Then it’s Citi cutting its analyst program to two years to keep Gen Z from defecting to private equity, hedge funds, and AI startups, right as Wall Street heads for record bonuses.Things get serious with a listener question about what to do if you’re sexually assaulted at work, why HR isn’t your advocate, and how to find the right lawyer. Your weekly drink with a lawyer and a journalist. Link in bio 🎧#AcrossTheBar #AIatWork #AIagents #FutureOfWork #WorkplaceLaw #EmploymentLaw #CareerAdvice #Layoffs #TonyRomo #Podcast #work #wallstreet #career #mamdani #finance #bots #ai #nfl #football #cbs