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Toot or Boot
Booting Tired Workplaces
Toot or Boot brings you unfiltered conversations about work — straight from HR insiders who aren’t afraid to tell the truth. With a rotating crew of progressive HR leaders, we break down the latest news and trends to show what’s really happening and why it matters for your job. Whether you’re in HR or just trying to survive your 9-to-5, expect real talk, practical advice, and the occasional laugh to get you through the chaos of modern work. To find out more, check out tootorboot.com
The chaos inside modern hiring systems
Hiring has never felt more confusing — for candidates, recruiters, or the HR teams stuck in the middle. Between ATS myths, bad advice on TikTok, the Mobley v. Workday lawsuit, and a flood of AI-powered recruiting tools no one fully understands, it’s no surprise people are frustrated and misinformed....
The High Cost of Being “Nice” at Work
We’ve been taught that “nice” is the goal at work — be pleasant, be agreeable, don’t rock the boat. But what if niceness is actually keeping us stuck, silencing truth-tellers, and protecting the status quo? In this episode of Toot or Boot, Stacey Nordwall sits down with author and communications str...
What authenticity at work really means
Work shouldn’t be the worst part of your week — but for too many people, it still is. In this episode of Toot or Boot, Stacey Nordwall talks with Madison Butler — author of Let Them See You — about what it really means to show up as yourself at work, even when systems weren’t built for you. Together...
The employees are not OK
Between layoffs, burnout, political chaos, AI anxiety, and the cost of living crisis, it’s no wonder employees aren’t okay. But if “not okay” has become the new normal, how do we lead, work, and stay human in the middle of it? In this episode of Toot or Boot, Stacey Nordwall is joined by Kat Kibben ...
The CEOs are not OK
Something strange is happening in the C-suite — and employees are the ones feeling it. In this fiery and funny episode of Toot or Boot, Stacey Nordwall is joined by Jessica Winder and Kim Rohrer to unpack a record-breaking trend: more CEOs have stepped down in 2025 than any year in recent history. T...
What in the H-1B is going on?
When politics and policy collide with people’s livelihoods, HR leaders are often the ones left cleaning up the mess. In this episode, Stacey sits down with fractional HR leaders Anessa Fike and Morgan Williams to unpack the chaos surrounding recent presidential proclamations on H-1B visas, the newly...
When Black Women Get Pushed Out of Work
Black women are being pushed out of the U.S. workforce at alarming rates—and it’s not by choice. In this powerful episode of Toot or Boot, host Stacey Nordwall sits down with workplace equity expert T. Tara Turk-Haynes and communications leader and career strategist Cassandra Babilya to unpack how f...
Moderna merges HR and IT, the price of office politics, and is sustainable scaling achievable?
In this episode, we explore three critical workplace strategy topics: how effective leaders can minimize office politics through transparency, accountability, and encouraging diverse viewpoints—strategies that seem obvious yet many workplaces still struggle to implement; Moderna's innovative approac...
The cost of DEI rollbacks, the new employer-employee relationship , and the human cost of content moderation
This episode dives into why some CEOs are paying the price for walking back DEI, how the employer-employee relationship has fundamentally shifted, and the horrifying conditions faced by Meta’s outsourced content moderators. From strategic miscalculations to moral failures, we examine what these stor...
A hard job market for new college grads, the cost of declining employee wellbeing, a bold child care policy
In this episode, we explore Cake’s Body’s bold $36K childcare stipend, why the job market is suddenly so brutal for college grads, and what the WEF’s new report reveals about the steep decline in employee well-being. We break down what these headlines signal about where workplaces are headed—and wha...