At Work

People | Places | At Work
Always Check the Bathrooms

Whenever I’ve found someone passed out in a bathroom as a bartender, it’s because they’ve well exceeded their personal limit with alcohol. I also can’t help but think it’s because there’s been too little of something else.

Jul 27, 2022
Places | At Work
Studying Nuclear Policy Without Being Engulfed By Fear

Like most people born just as the Cold War was ending, I learned about nuclear weapons in the past tense.

Jun 13, 2022
People | Places | At Work
What Home Staging Showed Me About Housing in America

Home staging is a privileged kind of precariousness.

Apr 26, 2021
Places | At Work
I Loved My Job as a Bookseller—Then Covid-19 Transformed It

Every time I tell a customer that we’re not open for browsing, I know I am reminding them of how Covid-19 has disrupted our rhythms and routines, robbed us of numerous small pleasures.

Sep 16, 2020
Places | At Work
Why We Need Hospitality—Before, During, and After the Pandemic

As someone with over ten years in the industry, I still make $4.95/hour—plus tips.

Apr 22, 2020
Places | At Work
By Us, for Us: Why WOC-Owned Bookstores Must Survive

When this pandemic is over, we hope to reopen our doors and offer comfort and sanctuary to our communities—as women of color so often have.

Apr 6, 2020
Places | At Work
At Sea with Scientists, I Learned What It Means to Be an Explorer

We think of explorers in terms of what they discovered—the Eureka moment, not the search. The search is imperfect and frustrating and owes you nothing.

Sep 11, 2019
Places | At Work
Leaving the Sisterhood of Women Writers

The more I wrote about women, the more distanced I felt from the figure I saw in the mirror.

Jun 26, 2019
Places | At Work
As a Teacher and Writer, It’s Not My Job to Manage the Feelings of Men

It’s not my job to absorb every feeling a man has. In my classroom, I am the one who decides whose feelings get airtime, and how they are shared.

May 20, 2019
Places | At Work
How My Parents, Who Loved Grapes, Lost Their Love of Winemaking

Others began to intrude in what had once been a mom-and-pop operation. The conversion from hobby to profession had been made.

Apr 25, 2019