Featured Session: Why Work Feels So Unfair and How Hard Conversations Help
Summary
Let's be honest: many managers would rather eat glass than tell you why you really didn't get the promotion, assignment, raise, or bonus. But their avoidance is creating a bigger problem - when leaders dodge difficult conversations, they create a vacuum where perceptions of unfairness flourish. Workplace expert Amy Gallo reveals how the inability (or unwillingness) to have hard conversations is eroding trust in organizations. You'll learn what transparency really looks like, how to demand the feedback you deserve, and why meritocracy is impossible without managers who can handle the heat.
- Format: Featured Session
- Category: Featured Session
- Event Type: panel
- Presented By: n/a
Contributors
- Amy Gallo
Raw Event JSON
Large nested arrays are compacted for page readability. Full payload remains in dataset files.
Open JSON payload
{
"id": "PP1149255",
"track": "Workplace",
"focus_area": null,
"category": "Featured Session",
"event_id": "PP1149255",
"event_type": "panel",
"format": "Featured Session",
"genre": null,
"subgenre": null,
"name": "Featured Session: Why Work Feels So Unfair and How Hard Conversations Help",
"presented_by": null,
"publish_at": "2025-12-09T10:50:00.000-06:00",
"reservable": true,
"reservable_id": "PP1149255",
"reserved": false,
"message": null,
"image": {
"alt_text": "Featured Session: Why Work Feels So Unfair and How Hard Conversations Help",
"credit": null,
"url": "https://images.sxsw.com/W0pgAlPNANuhVpNFcSKwKHJjeVk=/950x633/images.sxsw.com/187/bab00565-5418-4281-86f0-f06c66d5f465/pp1149255"
},
"credentials": [
{
"name": "Music Badge",
"type": "music"
},
{
"name": "Platinum Badge",
"type": "platinum"
},
{
"name": "Innovation Badge",
"type": "innovation"
},
{
"name": "Film & TV Badge",
"type": "filmtv"
}
],
"contributors": [
{
"id": 1929,
"company": "Harvard Business Review",
"credential_types": [
"filmtv",
"innovation",
"music"
],
"entity_id": 5084,
"name": "Amy Gallo",
"speaker_types": [
"Speaker"
],
"title": "Author",
"image": {
"alt_text": "Amy Gallo",
"credit": " Stephanie Alvarez Ewens",
"url": "https://images.sxsw.com/MdHbDPGpbrWmFyoJImuVAlg2Qmw=/0x0:2918x2918/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/66c4a96a-39dc-26e1-2b46-abfc6e6e65f0/pcid-836524"
},
"speaker_type": "Speaker",
"details": "Amy Gallo is a workplace expert who frequently writes and speaks about gender, interpersonal dynamics, difficult conversations, feedback, and effective communication. She works with individuals, teams, and organizations around the world to help them collaborate, improve how they communicate, and transform their organizational culture to support dissent and debate. \r\rGallo is the best-selling author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) and the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, a how-to book about handling conflict professionally and productively. Getting Along was a finalist for the Next Big Idea Club, long-listed for several nonfiction book prizes, named a Book of the Month by the Financial Times, and has been translated into 12 languages.\r\rShe has written hundreds of articles, including an advice column called “Getting Along,” for Harvard Business Review, where she is a contributing editor. Her writing has been collected in numerous books on a range of topics from feedback to emotional intelligence to managing others. \r\rFrom 2019 to 2025, Amy co-hosted HBR's popular Women at Work podcast, examining the struggles and successes of women in the workplace.\r\rGallo is a sought-after global speaker, who has delivered keynotes and workshops at hundreds of companies and conferences, including SXSW (5x Featured Speaker), Sâo Paulo Innovation Week, WOBI (World Business Forum), the World Economic Forum, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Microsoft, Fidelity, Procter & Gamble, Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, Rio Tinto, Singapore Management University, AmCham Finland & Sweden, and The European House/Ambrosetti. In 2019, she delivered a talk at TEDxBroadway about the positive benefits of conflict.\r\rHer writing and thinking has garnered several awards. She is on the 2023 Thinkers50 Radar List, was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Talent award, and was named a LinkedIn Top Voice in Gender Equity. The Harvard Business Review Guide video series, which Gallo stars in, was honored by the Webby Awards in 2023, and the five-episode Women at Work podcast series based on her book won the 2023 Digiday Media Award for Best Podcast. \r\rGallo is frequently sought out by media outlets for her perspective on workplace dynamics, conflict, and difficult conversations. Her advice has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Fast Company, Marketplace, Bloomberg Business, and NPR. She has been a guest on numerous podcasts and radio shows including 10% Percent Happier, HBR’s Ideacast, Hello Monday, WNYC, the BBC, and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). \r\rShe has guest lectured at Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, and is a graduate of both Brown and Yale University. She currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband, daughter, and their dog, Emmet.",
"links": {
"audible": "Https://Audible.com/Sxsw/"
},
"type": "person"
}
],
"venue": {
"accessible": false,
"age_policy": null,
"floor": null,
"id": "V2027",
"indoor_outdoor": null,
"mixhalo_url": "https://translate.mixhalo.rocks/?venue_id=430&partner=true",
"name": "Salon 1-4",
"parent_id": "V0403",
"parent_venue_name": "JW Marriott",
"venue_entry_info": null,
"formats": null,
"location": {
"address": "110 E 2nd St.",
"lat_lon": [
30.2645713,
-97.743198
],
"city": "Austin",
"postal_code": "78701",
"state": "TX",
"name": "JW Marriott"
},
"root": {
"id": "V0403",
"name": "JW Marriott",
"mixhalo_url": null
},
"events": "[omitted 5 venue events]"
},
"description": "Let's be honest: many managers would rather eat glass than tell you why you really didn't get the promotion, assignment, raise, or bonus. But their avoidance is creating a bigger problem - when leaders dodge difficult conversations, they create a vacuum where perceptions of unfairness flourish. Workplace expert Amy Gallo reveals how the inability (or unwillingness) to have hard conversations is eroding trust in organizations. You'll learn what transparency really looks like, how to demand the feedback you deserve, and why meritocracy is impossible without managers who can handle the heat.",
"experience_level": "Intermediate",
"presentation_url": null,
"audio_url": null,
"accessibility": [
"Open captioned",
"Closed captioned"
],
"accessible_venue": false,
"add_bcl_url": false,
"add_slido": true,
"after_midnight": null,
"age_policy": null,
"american_sign_language": false,
"apple_url": null,
"audio_description": false,
"caption_url": null,
"captioned_qa": false,
"closed_captioned": true,
"cpe_credit": false,
"event_status": "none",
"has_subtitles": false,
"hash_tags": [],
"high_sensory_experience": false,
"live": false,
"long_description": "Let's be honest: many managers would rather eat glass than tell you why you really didn't get the promotion, assignment, raise, or bonus. But their avoidance is creating a bigger problem - when leaders dodge difficult conversations, they create a vacuum where perceptions of unfairness flourish. Workplace expert Amy Gallo reveals how the inability (or unwillingness) to have hard conversations is eroding trust in organizations. You'll learn what transparency really looks like, how to demand the feedback you deserve, and why meritocracy is impossible without managers who can handle the heat.",
"meeting_url": null,
"meeting_url_live": false,
"mentorly_url": null,
"mobile_audio_url": null,
"open_captioned": true,
"playlist_tag": null,
"rebroadcast": false,
"recommended_ids": [],
"search_conversions": {
"amy": 1,
"nft": 1,
"keynote": 2,
"ruchika": 1,
"amy gallo": 5,
"uncompete": 1,
"bene brown": 1,
"convergence": 1,
"latino cool": 1,
"tom a smith": 1,
"matthew prince": 1,
"jamie lee curtis": 1
},
"short_program": false,
"slido_url": "https://app.sli.do/event/1bH37SyrsYKBaD41yhMbJK",
"sort": "FEATURED SESSION: WHY WORK FEELS SO UNFAIR AND HOW HARD CONVERSATIONS HELP",
"source": "Official",
"squad_up_url": null,
"stream_embed": null,
"stream_id": null,
"stream_url": null,
"strobe_warning": false,
"subdiscipline": null,
"summit": null,
"summit_display_name": null,
"tags": [
{
"id": 1109,
"name": "Leadership",
"created_at": "2016-11-28T15:52:02.425-06:00",
"updated_at": "2022-02-14T12:07:44.721-06:00",
"sort": "LEADERSHIP",
"alpha": "L"
},
{
"id": 2111,
"name": "Career",
"created_at": "2020-01-17T14:49:05.718-06:00",
"updated_at": "2022-02-14T12:07:52.748-06:00",
"sort": "CAREER",
"alpha": "C"
}
],
"talent_attending": null,
"title_only": false,
"track_display_name": "Workplace track sponsored by University of Cincinnati",
"trailer_id": null,
"trailer_url": null,
"video_on_demand": null,
"vimeo_id": null,
"vod": false,
"xr_project_type": null,
"youtube_id": null,
"related_events": [
{
"id": "PP1150737",
"event_id": "PP1150737",
"type": "event",
"name": "Amy Gallo Book Signing",
"publish_at": "2026-02-23T16:24:00-06:00",
"date": "2026-03-14",
"start_time": "2026-03-14T16:15:00-05:00",
"end_time": "2026-03-14T16:35:00-05:00",
"category": "Book Signing",
"event_type": "panel",
"venue": {
"id": "V1060",
"name": "Level 6 Foyer"
},
"thumbnail_url": "https://images.sxsw.com/8CZ9Z8YREd5JQjWoYHc1tkBbwgU=/0x0:2918x2918/950x950/images.sxsw.com/48/66c4a96a-39dc-26e1-2b46-abfc6e6e65f0/pcid-836524",
"credentials": [
{
"name": "Platinum Badge",
"type": "platinum"
},
{
"name": "Innovation Badge",
"type": "innovation"
},
{
"name": "Film & TV Badge",
"type": "filmtv"
},
{
"name": "Music Badge",
"type": "music"
}
]
},
{
"id": "PP1162419",
"event_id": "PP1162419",
"type": "event",
"name": "UNCOMPETE: Choosing Collaboration Over Competition",
"publish_at": "2025-11-03T16:30:00-06:00",
"date": "2026-03-17",
"start_time": "2026-03-17T11:30:00-05:00",
"end_time": "2026-03-17T12:30:00-05:00",
"category": "Fireside Chat",
"event_type": "panel",
"venue": {
"id": "V0373",
"name": "Salon B"
},
"image_url": "https://images.sxsw.com/KGO6wbaf7Lod_ED4Vd8FOvu1-7Y=/950x633/images.sxsw.com/187/455a5924-7053-dbf6-85fe-664f0812b287/pp1162419",
"thumbnail_url": "https://images.sxsw.com/1OoYLq5__MMzM1Bvi_mBziJ7CRg=/950x950/images.sxsw.com/188/f2c52f8d-c5c1-4273-a0f1-5932a2740629/pp1162419",
"credentials": [
{
"name": "Platinum Badge",
"type": "platinum"
},
{
"name": "Innovation Badge",
"type": "innovation"
}
]
}
],
"related_sales_client": null
}