September 2012

should I do free work for the exposure?

A reader writes: In my spare time, I am a youth event planner. Today, I was contacted by a large event company who found me through a mutual business connection and asked me if I would do an unpaid 20- to 30-minute nationwide podcast explaining how to plan a weekend youth event, so that other […]

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should I stay in touch while I’m on maternity leave?

A reader writes: I manage a team of 7, and I have worked hard the past 6 months to prepare for my 12 weeks of maternity leave. I feel like I’m leaving everyone in good hands and will a well-thought-out plan. My question is, should I keep in contact while I’m on maternity leave? Or […]

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what to do after your job interview

So you’ve had a job interview and you’re waiting to hear back from the employer. What do you do now? Do you just sit and wait, or should you be doing anything in the interim? The answer is a little bit of both. These seven steps will help keep your candidacy strong, while also keeping you […]

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I’m worried my boss is discriminating against my coworker

A reader writes: I have a colleague, who I’ll call Zach, who’s really good at his job and has a lot of knowledge about his specialized area, and currently he’s the only person we have working in that area. He’s not a native English speaker but his English is good, although he has a medium-strong […]

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know your rights, and pronounce your name

Two miscellaneous things… 1. If you’re interested in workplace rights, you need this book Employment lawyer Donna Ballman — who you may recall has been nice enough to answer questions about employment law here from time to time — has just published a new book — Stand Up For Yourself Without Getting Fired. * I […]

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manager is fudging her hours in our payroll system

A reader writes: Our assistant department manager takes care of submitting our payroll to HR. Our organization uses ADP and allows us to either punch in or clock in on the computer by entering what time we arrived and left and lets us edit categories like no lunch. The problem is that there’s no oversight […]

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do people have to say hi in the hallways at work?

A reader writes: For several months, I’ve been supervising an awesome temp who we’re finally able to hire to our project (yay!). Though I have a manager title, our project is so small that this is my first time supervising someone. Out of the blue today, a coworker (not someone above me in the office […]

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tiny answer Tuesday — 7 short answers to 7 short questions

It’s tiny answer Tuesday — seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go… 1. What to say when you receive a job offer When I was told I would receive a prospective employer’s hiring decision on a particular date, I realized I was totally unprepared to reply, whether it was an offer or […]

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