This week on Under NDA, we’re stepping away from corporate chaos and into one of the most mysterious, disciplined industries in the world: ballet.

Former professional dancer Sarah joins us to pull back the curtain on the hidden culture of ballet, from obedience and perfectionism to the power dynamics, pressure, and quiet resilience behind the stage lights.

It’s a world built on beauty and precision, but also control and fear. Sarah shares what it’s really like to grow up in that system, why she finally walked away, and how she’s now reshaping the art form for the next generation.

A rare, candid look inside an art form that few truly understand, and the start of our two-part exploration into the secrets of ballet.

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In this episode of UnderNDA, we dive into a deep conversation about a major cultural shift sweeping Silicon Valley. Our guest, Jules, a seasoned revenue leader who has taken companies from IPO to bankruptcy and back again, joins us to unpack the rise of “hard-tech hustle culture.”

Fueled by AI’s gold-rush energy, a new expectation has emerged: no booze, no sleep, no fun. Just relentless grind. We explore why founders are embracing this mindset, how it compares to the dot-com era, why camaraderie is disappearing, and what this means for leadership, creativity, burnout, and the loneliness epidemic.

Jules shares firsthand stories from gaming, startups, and big tech, from sleeping under desks to MIT recruits who literally never left the building. She weighs in on whether a company can truly scale when it sacrifices balance, humanity, and diversity of leadership styles.

This is a candid, surprising look at what’s happening behind the scenes in the Bay Area, and what leaders should be thinking about before demanding 996-style dedication from their teams (working at minimum 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week).

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Season 2 kicks off with a bang, and a new workplace trend to dissect: job hugging. It’s that move where someone becomes the single gatekeeper for… well, everything. Access. Approvals. Vendors. Progress itself. All in the name of staying “indispensable.”

In Episode 1, we walk through a real story of a friendly-but-friction-creating bottleneck, and what happened when he finally took a vacation. (Spoiler: the world kept turning… and faster.)

Join us as we unpack the psychology behind job hugging, why it’s rising, and how great leaders can spot and solve it before work grinds to a crawl. Season 2 is here, and we're starting with a choke point. Let's go.

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If you thought your awkward Zoom moment was bad… buckle up.

In this episode of Under NDA, hosts Dorian and Woody are joined by guest Linda, a longtime employee benefits consultant, to share two unforgettable stories from the remote work era.

First up: a marketing team member dials into a Zoom call from what sounded suspiciously like a waterpark. When asked about it? Denial. Next: a senior account manager joins an all-hands meeting shirtless after a post run cool down, unaware his camera’s on and dozens of coworkers are watching. Whoops.

We explore the rise of video call mishaps, remote work culture, and the bigger questions behind accountability, honesty, and leadership in the age of working from anywhere.

🎙️ If you’ve ever been on mute, off mute, or just off your game, this one’s for you.

👉 Subscribe, share, and send your anonymous workplace story to underndapodcast.com.

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In this episode of Under NDA, guest Nicole joins us to unpack two classic corporate trainwrecks:

Story 1: “Bonuses for Who?”
A consulting firm calls an all-hands to celebrate record-breaking performance—then tells employees there won’t be any bonuses. The message? Leadership is thriving… you’re just lucky to have a job.

Story 2: “Failing Upward”
Meet Brad: a manager with zero EQ, vague feedback, and a knack for taking credit for other people’s work. Naturally, he gets promoted—and his team breathes a collective sigh of relief.

We dig into performative leadership, the myth of meritocracy, and how companies keep getting management so, so wrong.

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Workplace comedy meets corporate horror—again. In Part 2, Under NDA serves up two more head shaking tales of control obsessed leadership and morale in free fall. Former tech exec turned Code TV (https://codetv.dev) creator Jason joins the mic to discuss workplace control run amok.

Stories in this episode:

1. “Why I Left the Startup” – A product manager promised “zero red tape” arrives in a Notion jungle of templates, mandatory rewrites, and Slack policing, right down to bug ticket titles.
2. “The Priorities Were the Problem” – An engineering manager celebrates a freshly agreed roadmap until execs change course 48 hours later (and again the next week, and the next…). ICs scramble, weekends vaporize, and Jason’s blood pressure hits new highs.

Along the way we unpack leadership FOMO, template tyranny, and why great managers know when to back off and let teams cook.

Make sure to also listen to Episode 3 – “Control Issues Everywhere” (Part 1).

Have a corporate horror story of your own? Submit it (anonymously) at UnderNDApodcast.com.

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Workplace comedy meets corporate horror. In “Control Issues Everywhere, Part 1,” Under NDA dishes up two jaw dropping tales of bad boss behavior, toxic management fails, and HR nightmares.

Stories in this episode:

1. “Consistently Unreasonable” – Meet the manager who decided that 5:30 a.m. (!) was the perfect time for a mandatory, cameras on weekly meeting…for a totally local team with zero emergencies. (Spoiler: the whole thing goes off the rails, and the cameras do, too.)
   
   
   
2. “The Manager Who Faked a Data Breach” – Think phishing drills are harmless? Try a newbie boss who impersonates the CEO, dangles a $100 carrot, and then publicly shames the click-happy victims on a leaderboard.

Sprinkled between the stories: spicy takes on grind culture, quiet-quitting survival tips, and the kind of unfiltered banter that’ll make your next Zoom call feel tame.

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A wise woman once said- “no career has ever been made at a corporate event, but many a career has been lost…”

So what happens when a brand-new hire dazzles and then detonates before Day 1 even arrives? And how do you handle an HR crusade that suddenly outlaws every hug, even though it’s part of company culture?

This week, game-industry insider Andrew K. joins us to discuss these “too much, too soon” scenarios. We tease out where the line between healthy enthusiasm and instant career suicide really lies, and Andrew shares the playbook he’d use as a manager:

• spotting the red flags before an off-site implodes,
• salvaging culture without swinging the policy hammer, and
• coaching teams to read the room, without killing the vibe.

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