It’s Not Just Strategy: Emotional Labor and the Need for Community in Comms with Gabrielle Ferree, Founder at Off the Record

About this episode

Gabrielle Ferree discusses the importance of emotional labor and community for communications professionals in a post-COVID world.

Send us a text What happens when comms pros finally take their own advice—and build platforms for themselves? In this episode of Under Embargo, we sit down with Gabrielle Ferree—former VP of Global Comms at Bumble, Slack, and Salesforce—who's stepping off the corporate ladder to launch Off the Record, a new coaching and community space for comms professionals who are tired of doing it all in isolation. We dig into: — Emotional labor and why it never shows up in your promotion packet — Post-COVID loneliness, leadership, and the death of swivel chair moments — Why being "just a manager" is actually the most important job in the room — The myth of the comms unicorn (spoiler: she doesn't need to be a media machine and a therapist) — Building your own playbook when no one's done this job before Whether you're a rising comms star or a battle-scarred VP, this conversation will hit. If you've ever juggled AI, crises, and emotional triage before your second coffee—this one's for you.

People in this episode

Host: Under Embargo Team

Guest: Gabrielle Ferree

Topics covered

• emotional labor
• community in communications
• leadership
• post-COVID loneliness
• comms professionals
• managerial roles
• building playbooks

Keywords

• emotional labor
• community
• communications
• leadership
• manager
• coaching
• isolation
• comms unicorn

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Off the Record, Bumble, Slack, Salesforce

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