<ul class="summary-list"><li>Brooke Schofield's journey from aspiring actress to influencer began when she befriended Tana Mongeau.</li><li>Her collaboration with Mongeau on the "Cancelled" podcast has led to a nationwide tour.</li></ul>Brooke Schofield always wanted to be famous — and now she is."Well, I wanted to act," she told Business Insider of her motive for leaving Arizona for LA in 2019."There was no reason I thought I should be successful in that, but I was like, I'm obviously going to be an actress."From a young age, she envisioned herself as a Hannah Montana-type figure and dreamed of making it big."Can't sing, can't dance, I dunno what I was thinking," she said.Schofield's career didn't exactly pan out that way. She landed parts in a couple of movies, but for three years, her main income came from working at a restaurant.But Schofield's fortunes changed when she made friends with the influencer Tana Mongeau, which led to an influx of followers of her own, a hit podcast, and a nationwide sell-out tour.Schofield is one of the internet's up-and-coming voices, with 840,000 TikTok followers and 167,000 subscribers on YouTube.She's known for her takes on pop culture, her notable hat collection, and her willingness to call out the people who wrong her.Schofield spoke with BI about where it all began and how she balances transparency with her audience and knowing when to hold back.<div type="image" title="Brooke Schofield and Tana Mongeau on their &quot;Cancelled&quot; tour." height="484" width="645" msid="108651501" hostid="261" sizebytes="54708"></div><h2>Making the most of a 'nepotism situation'</h2>Schofield felt the pressure of the grind early on."What's hard about living in LA is, to afford it, you have to work almost constantly," she said. "So it's really hard for people who are trying to break into really anything. When do you have the time, you're working?"But her friendship <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tana-mongeau-mental-health-jake-paul-and-her-explosive-career-2020-2">with Mongeau</a>, an internet superstar who has been making content on YouTube since 2015, would change everything.Schofield said at the start, it was a "nepotism situation" where she was gaining followers simply for being Mongeau's friend and appearing in some of her videos."At first, it was annoying because I wasn't really doing anything," she said. "Why would anyone care about this?"But Schofield's confidence grew once her podcast with Mongeau, "Cancelled," launched in July 2021 and showcased her comic timing, fashion sense, and life stories.Episodes are posted to YouTube on a page converted from Mongeau's old vlog channel, which has over 2 million subscribers. Early episodes were helped along by guests like YouTubers Trisha Paytas and Jeff Wittek, and weekly installments now regularly amass 1-2 million views.Schofield and Mongeau are also now taking their show on a US tour, which ends on June 2 in Oakland, California.While speaking with BI, Schofield was in a hotel room in San Antonio.The experience so far had been "surreal" and exhausting, she said, but "amazing." Stepping out for the first show, she felt "petrified.""When you actually show up and walk out, you're like, holy, wow, I cannot believe that many people are here," she said. "I didn't realize people loved it so much."<div type="image" title="Brooke Schofield" height="484" width="645" msid="108651505" hostid="261" sizebytes="40112"></div>Schofield said she's a person who struggles with negative feedback but sometimes seeks it out anyway."It used to be a guilty pleasure for me to look up what people were saying about us," she said.Reddit is a particular target, she said, because "there's no positivity" on there."You go on there just to see what people hate about you," she said. "It feels like reading a group chat about yourself, you know what I mean? But I had to get over that real quick into this tour because it was making me so anxious and I could not handle it."Mongeau is a good person to speak to when the negativity gets Schofield down, she said, because she's been embroiled in countless controversies of her own, from TanaCon — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-tanacon-cancelled-2018-6">an ill-fated convention</a> to rival VidCon in 2018 — to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tana-mongeau-interview-racism-apology-videos-being-a-role-model-2020-10">allegations that she mistreated her friends</a>. For the most part, over the years, she's taken accountability and shaken off the negativity."She's gotten hate for so many things and she's just really good at not taking it in," Schofield said. "But at the same time, she tells me, you can't place a lot of value in the good opinions. As much as you want to be happy that people like what we're doing, you can't place any of your worth in that because that's how you get affected by the bad stuff."<h2>Staying grounded in the public eye</h2>"Cancelled" went on tour in 2023 too, but got a poor reception. Attendees said the show was disorganized, started late, and didn't live up to the ticket price.Schofield said she and Mongeau "struggled" with their first tour because they were "fighting a lot." Going into business with your best friend is always "a rocky situation," she said."Traveling with a friend in general or spending that amount of time with anyone, a boyfriend, a best friend, anything, you're going to butt heads," she said. "Half the fights were just because we were so overworked and overwhelmed and stressed out and stuff."Last time, they were handling "a lot of things we probably shouldn't have been handling," Schofield said, because they had a much lower budget."It was very, very overwhelming, and we'd take it out on each other," she said. "This time, we've got literally the best team ever, so it's just fun. We get to show up and do the fun part, and it's pretty much cut the fights completely."Schofield and Mongeau have an open dialogue during their podcast, talking about everything from the day's news to their sex lives.But this can backfire, especially as podcasts are fodder for news coverage.For example, Schofield recently announced she had a brief relationship with Matt Rife, a comedian who reached massive success on TikTok and released a Netflix special last year.She accused him of cheating on her with multiple other women and even brought some of them out on a recent leg of the "Cancelled" tour. (Rife did not return a request for comment from BI). Several news outlets picked up the story and, she says, mischaracterized what she said."No it's the way I absolutely never said that at all whatsoever," she <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/BroookeAmber/status/1735371131186758097?">posted on X</a>, linking to <a target="_blank" href="https://pagesix.com/2023/12/13/celebrity-news/brooke-schofield-claims-matt-rife-cheated-on-her-with-20-women/">a Page Six article</a> claiming she said Rife cheated on her with "20 women.""The amount of news articles that came out of that that were just so misinformed and just complete reaches, it just really upset me," Schofield said."You shouldn't be allowed to be a journalist without researching what you're talking about. I think that should be illegal."For the most part, though, Schofield manages to stay grounded. She still keeps in touch with a lot of the friends that she grew up with and is learning to realize when she has to physically step away from her phone for her own mental wellbeing. "Social media is not real life," she said."I've been there where I get so into it and so involved with all the internet stuff that I'm all of a sudden this shell of a person," she said. "I'm like, oh my God, get off your phone and go pet a dog or something."

Brooke Schofield's star is rising with the 'Cancelled' podcast — and it's teaching her to deal with hate and scrutiny

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Some employers are exploring uncoventional setups, like the four-day workweek, to combat burnout.</li><li>Yet what most employees want is flexibility. Having that can help them reduce stress at work.</li></ul>It looks like the holy grail for any job: four days' work for five days' pay.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/4-day-workweek-companies-workers-implementing-2023-10">four-day workweek</a> is the latest buzzy example of how some employers hope to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/work-life-balance-job-satisfaction-burnout-great-resignation-office-return-2023-4">combat worker burnout</a>. Other methods include <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/return-to-office-instagram-post-rto-wfh-work-2023-11">pretty offices</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paid-sabbaticals-leave-company-productivity-employee-retention-wellbeing-loyalty-2023-1">paid sabbaticals</a>, and one of the biggest legacies of the pandemic: remote work.Yet what's needed most, workplace experts told Business Insider, is greater flexibility — and a more thoughtful definition of what that means for each company or industry. Employers and their workers have to let go of the tendency to fear change, and instead, radically rethink how we work, experts said.Flexibility might apply to where people work, when they do it, what processes or tools they use, and even whom they work with, experts said. Essentially, it's about choice."It's about giving people more control over their workweeks so that they can balance the things that are important at work and personally," Ryan Anderson, the VP of global research and insights at MillerKnoll, told BI.<h2>Letting workers pick their schedules</h2>Offering flexibility in the workplace isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Nurses, for example, generally aren't asking to work from home, Will Howard, director of HR research &amp; advisory services at McLean, a research firm, told BI. Yet it's common in nursing to trade shifts, he noted.Other variations involve setting "core hours," when everyone must be working, Howard said, but then allowing workers to choose the other hours that are convenient for them. In other cases, it might involve letting workers pick their own schedules or offering summer hours, he said.Unconventional setups can be conventional in some jobs, Howard said. The work patterns of pilots or those who toil away on oil rigs can vary widely. Bosses who look for unique work setups can find examples that could serve as models, he said. "There are people who have been doing six months on six months off," Howard said. "These types of flexibility exist elsewhere."Adding elasticity into work often comes down to the person or the organization. "The hardest part for leaders or managers to embrace is that it's going to look different for everyone to some degree, because everyone's definition of balance is going to look different," Kristen Lipton, a managing director at Gallup, told BI.That balance might be difficult to achieve, in part because <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/leaders-dont-trust-remote-employees-are-productive-microsoft-study-2022-9">bosses don't always trust their workers</a>. And not all workers <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/overemployed-workers-secret-two-multiple-jobs-salaries-tech-tips-2023-11">have faith in their employers</a> either.There are also limits to what can ultimately be offered, according to Steven Rogelberg, an organizational psychologist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "We want to be flexible, but we need to be reasonable. And both parties need to be reasonable," he told BI.Rogelberg said it's not outlandish for an employer to require people to show up to an office two or three days a week. "Someone's paying you to do a job. Like you're not entitled to say, 'Yeah, I want everything. I can work any way I want,'" he said. "It's just not realistic. There's a coming together that needs to happen."<h2>Helping managers "unstick" how work gets done</h2>Managers play a key role in helping foster flexibility by asking workers what flexibility means to them, Lipton said. Because workers have different talents and varying needs, a different approach might be needed depending on the person, she said."Understanding the role of the manager is so difficult, because you're trying to balance the expectations that are coming down from the organization about some of these policies," she said, referring to flexibility.One of the most effective ways for injecting flexibility into a workplace is by establishing change at a team level, Anderson said. Employers might uncover new ways to combat burnout by giving team leaders the power to "unstick" themselves from the way work has long been done at an organization.<h2>Radical flexibility</h2>It's no surprise that increased say over their workdays is something employees want: More than 80% want some autonomy on where they work, according to a <a target="_blank" href="https://futureforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Future-Forum-Pulse-Report-Winter-2022-2023.pdf">Future Forum study</a> released in early 2023. But what more workers — 93% of them — seek is schedule flexibility.That means going beyond some form of remote work. For employers that are struggling to keep workers happy — or to attract them at all — being flexible means rethinking how roles are set up, Emily Rose McRae, senior director analyst at the research firm Gartner, told BI. A shortage of workers in many industries means employers offer what she calls "radical flexibility.""What if, instead, employees gave you what their availability was?" McRae said, adding that bosses might work with employees to agree on a minimum number of hours needed.Being willing to do things differently is often good for business, McRae said. Gartner research found that when employers go big on flexibility — and don't limit it to when and where people work — the share of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/the-secret-to-productive-employees-a-radical-shift-in-work-flexibility">employees who are "high performers</a>" jumps by 40%.New approaches can also help pull in workers. That's something that's been difficult for many employers since the economy began its rebound from the pandemic.Employers that say they can't offer remote work or other forms of flexibility are often the ones struggling to draw workers, McRae said. She said employers that are willing to reconsider how work gets done at their organization can "massively increase" their talent pool, hang onto workers longer, and get better results from their teams because people's lives are better balanced.Anderson also sees giving workers more options as a wise move for employers: "The smart approach is to support choice, and then provide great choices," he said.Do you have something to share about what you're seeing in your workplace? Insider would like to hear from you. Email our workplace team from a nonwork device at thegrind@businessinsider.com with your story or to ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers. Or <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insider-guide-to-securely-sharing-whistleblower-information-about-powerful-institutions-2021-10">check out Business Insider's source guide</a> for tips on sharing information securely.

Making your job suck less means upending the workplace as we know it

<ul class="summary-list"><li>India's government called off "Cow Hug Day" that was meant to replace the Valentine's Day holiday.</li><li>The government said Valentine's Day goes against traditional Indian values.</li></ul>A campaign encouraging Indian citizens to "hug a cow" instead of celebrating the 'western' Valentine's Day was called off on Friday after the announcement was <a href="https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1623360956133777408?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ridiculed online</a>. In a <a href="https://www.awbi.in/awbi-pdf/Circulars/Cow%20Hug%20Day1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on Wednesday, the Animal Welfare Board of India declared February 14 should be "Cow Hug Day," saying that "hugging cows will bring emotional richness and increase individual and collective happiness." The cow is <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/holy-cow-hinduisms-sacred-animal/1811/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worshiped as holy</a> in the Hindu tradition, the majority religion in the country. Replacing Valentine's Day with a new holiday would help counteract the "dazzle of western civilization" that has made Indian "physical culture and heritage almost forgotten," the statement said. This appeal, however, is widely thought to be a transparent push to promote the government's Hindu nationalist values. Many on social media <a href="https://twitter.com/AmarDeepSinghD/status/1623639010592665602">mocked the unusual statement</a> as seeming like a <a href="https://twitter.com/sumanthraman/status/1623331676805017600">spoof or parody</a>. By Friday — while the board was not explicit in their reasoning — the government quickly U-turned, <a href="https://www.awbi.in/awbi-pdf/Circulars/Withdrawal%20of%20appeal%20of%20Cow%20Hug%20Day.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">withdrawing the appeal</a> for "Cow Hug Day."The board did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst, told the Associated Press "Cow Hug Day" was "absolutely crazy, defying logic.""The decision to withdraw the government appeal was to prevent the politics of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) from being ridiculed in the face of severe criticism from all quarters," he said.While Valentine's Day has become increasingly popular in the country in recent years, Hindu nationalists see the holiday as encouraging "corrupt" morals. Hannah Ellis-Petersen reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/09/india-urges-citizens-to-hug-a-cow-on-valentines-day" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in The Guardian</a> that as the prevalence of celebrating Valentine's Day increases in India so does anti-Valentine's rhetoric which is often "targeted at women, alleging that the holiday encourages female promiscuity and vulgar behavior." Far-right Hindu groups have vandalized card stores selling Valentine's day gifts, burned Valentine's flowers, and chased and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/indian-govt-withdraws-appeal-hug-cows-valentines-day-97031006#:~:text=The%20Animal%20Welfare%20Board%20had,goes%20against%20traditional%20Indian%20values." target="_blank" rel="noopener">targeted couples holding hands</a> on the holiday. There has also been a recent emergence of so-called <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/19/india-vigilante-cow-protection-groups-attack-minorities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"cow vigilante" groups </a>made up of Hindu nationalists who <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/india-politics-religion-cows/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threaten and assault Muslim farmers</a> in the country who own cattle. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP party came to power in India in 2014, they have "legitimized discrimination against religious minorities and enabled violent Hindu nationalism," <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/19/india-government-policies-actions-target-minorities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to </a>Human Rights Watch.Hindus make up about 80% of the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/9/indian-govt-says-hug-cows-on-valentines-day-twitter-cracks-up">country's nearly 1.4 billion people</a>. Muslims make up 14% of the demographic, while the remaining 6% of the population is made up of mostly Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains.

Indian government cancels 'Cow Hug Day' anti-Valentine's celebration after it was widely mocked

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Millions of Muslims are currently observing <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-ramadan-transformed-my-mental-health-islam-muslim-anxiety-depression-2020-5">Ramadan</a>, a holy month during which observers fast from dawn to dusk.</li><li>To support your Muslim colleagues, don't be afraid to ask them questions to learn more. </li></ul>With the holy month of <keyword id="49461" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="ramadan" source="Orion">Ramadan</keyword> underway, <a href="https://www.insider.com/things-to-avoid-saying-to-a-fasting-coworker-during-ramadan-2019-5">millions of Muslims around the world</a> will spend daylight hours abstaining from eating and drinking (yes, even water).The exact date that Ramadan begins <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/17/as-ramadan-approaches-the-moon-spotting-arguments-begin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">depends on the interpretation</a> of whether one follows the Islamic calendar or visibly sees the new moon. So in 2023, Ramadan began on either Wednesday, April 22 or Thursday, April 23 and will end after 30 days. The month is one of the five requirements or "pillars" of Islam, and Muslims observing Ramadan use the month to better focus on praying, reading the Quran, and becoming closer to their faith.For many Muslims, Ramadan means abstaining from food and drink while at work. So, how can non-Muslim colleagues be supportive, while also not accidentally making a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microaggression-unconscious-bias-at-work-2018-6">micro-aggression</a> toward someone who is observing Ramadan?Here's some poignant, personal advice from Reem Nasr, a Muslim woman in her 20s who has observed Ramadan while working in a corporate office, as well as from Ibrahim Hooper, the communications director at advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic Relations:<h2>1. Don't be afraid to ask questions.</h2>Many non-Muslims might not know a whole lot about Ramadan, Hooper says. He said some people mistakenly believe Muslims go the whole 30 days without eating, when in reality they eat when the sun's not up.You might be embarrassed by the lack of knowledge, but most Muslims welcome questions from colleagues and friends. Being open about Ramadan can also help employees plan their meetings during the morning, when fasting Muslims have more energy."By and large, it's a period of time people look forward to every year despite the self-deprivation," Hooper added.<div type="image" title="dates bread" height="3526" width="4701" msid="98954548" hostid="261" sizebytes="810572"></div><h2>2. While it's not necessary, managers can privately ask their direct reports if they would like any special accommodations.</h2>Muslims don't expect any extra accommodation, but "it really feels nice and good to be recognized when people try to do something extra for you," said Nasr.At one office where Nasr worked, a boss privately asked her if she needed any special accommodations while observing Ramadan. Nasr asked to be able to leave on time, at 5 pm, rather than staying late, which she habitually did. The gesture made her feel appreciated and recognized. For those working remotely, it might even make giving your employee flexible work hours easier, Hooper said. Fasting Muslims lose energy as the day goes on, so employers could establish earlier work hours during Ramadan.<h2>3. Wishing a coworker "Happy Ramadan" isn't offensive or inaccurate.</h2>Most Muslims use the Arabic phrase "Ramadan Mubarak," which translates to "have a blessed Ramadan" or "happy Ramadan, to greet each other. The English translation "Happy Ramadan" works just fine.You can also say "Ramadan Kareem," which means "have a generous Ramadan," according to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/05/when-ramadan-2019-muslim-month/1110697001/">USA Today</a>. Some Muslims also call Ramadan "Ramzan," the Persian version of the word.<div type="image" title="Ramadan Iftar" height="1335" width="2000" msid="75306357" hostid="261"></div><h2>4. If you notice a coworker isn't fasting, try not to publicly ask why.</h2>Muslim women <a href="https://raleighmasjid.org/imam/fiqh-ramadan.html">don't fast when they are on their periods</a> — and since menstrual cycles don't make for the best office chatter, you might not want to publicly point out when a woman isn't fasting.Plus, there are many other reasons why Muslims don't fast, like during illness or travel. If you notice a coworker who normally fasts but is abstaining, it's best not to nudge them unless they bring it up themselves.<h2>5. Don't apologize for eating or drinking in front of a colleague observing Ramadan.</h2>While you may think you're being considerate by not eating in front of your coworker, you could be doing more harm than good. "It gets awkward when people apologize when they eat or drink around me. The whole point of the month is for me to do something for myself. It's supposed to be challenging, and it's supposed to be hard. I don't need anyone to feel guilty or awkward," Nasr said. <h2>6. Don't make jokes about your colleague not having coffee or eating lunch.</h2><div type="image" title="Ramadan, Iftar" height="1333" width="2000" msid="75306359" hostid="261"></div>This one goes without saying, but even small quips can be very offensive. "Be sensitive," Nasr said.This story was originally published in April 2019.

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