August 2012

will it hurt me to stay in a job where my managers don’t like me?

A reader writes: I’ve come to accept that my supervisors (my manager and VP) and I mutually dislike one another on a personal level. Part of it is a function of differing pesonalities and different approaches to project management. But part of it is an entrenched dysfunctional culture at my department and organization and how […]

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update about the dinner the boss canceled as punishment

Remember the boss who invited employees to a dinner, then canceled it as “punishment” for not responding to 3 a.m. emails, then reinstated it? Here’s the update. (This is from the fiance of one of the employees, as was the original letter.) My fiance and I ended up not attending the dinner; the following week […]

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asking your interviewer to let you know if you didn’t get the job

A reader writes: During a recent interview, the interviewers were telling me about their expected timeline for making a decision, and I barely caught myself before saying something like, “Well, can you please let me know either way?” Do you think that it is appropriate to diplomatically say something like that in the course of […]

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terse answer Thursday: 6 short answers to 6 short questions

It’s terse answer Thursday — six short answers to six short questions. Here we go… 1. Resigning when I’m on company travel I currently work as a project manager for a construction company that does business around the southeastern U.S. Currently I’m working about 2.5 hours away from home and our home office and the […]

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employer is suddenly forcing me to work Saturdays

A reader writes: Last year, after my having worked in this company’s IT department for 12 years of almost completely free weekends, we were told to start a Saturday help desk coverage rotation between April and August. I very reluctantly agreed to be part of the rotation, even though I am not a help desk […]

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how to train a new hire

A reader writes: I’m transitioning out of my job and into a new one. My replacement will start a week from today, and I’ll have a full week week to train the new employee. My organization has not historically been good at training. When I started this job, my predecessor sat over my shoulder and […]

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my coworker refuses to answer questions I need to do my job

A reader writes: Yesterday, a colleague of mine refused to show me how to perform a task or even to allow me to observe her performing the task. She actually said, “I can’t show you this because I don’t know if you are supposed to have user-permissions to perform this task and I could get […]

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I’m bored and burned out at work

A reader writes: I’ve been at my job for two years, and I’m getting bored. The things I’m working on are repetitive, and I’m starting to get increasingly annoyed with day-to-day nuisances. I’m essentially having to restrain myself from biting my coworkers. About a year ago, my direct manager left, and was never replaced– instead, […]

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