July 2014

how to get your boss to read your emails

If your boss is like most managers, she gets a ton of email and has very little time to respond to it. That doesn’t excuse non-responsiveness, of course, but it does mean that your chances of having your emails read and responded to go up significantly if you craft your messages the right way. Here are […]

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Holding people accountable isn’t always about formal action. Sometimes it’s just a direct conversation.

On a recent discussion of a manager who wanted to be cc’d on everything, commenter Jamie mentioned that when someone who works for her is having trouble getting responses from someone else and she knows that seeing her cc’d will move them to action, she’ll suggest cc’ing her … but then she follows up privately with […]

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my coworker keeps trying to goad me into political arguments

A reader writes: I’m a grad student interning for the summer at an apolitical government agency. In an effort to make conversation with one of the permanent staff members on my team, we got to talking about our respective collections (he collects coins, I collect political campaign buttons). I regret telling him this, however, because […]

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8 things your boss won’t tell you … but wishes you knew

Have you ever noticed that when people are promoted to management roles, their perspective on workplaces issues often changes? That’s because, as managers, they see things that they might not have been exposed to as employees — and as a result, they view workplace questions through a different lens than the one they used before. […]

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do employers really look down on drinking and partying?

A reader writes: I’m hoping you can settle a debate that a friend and I are having. I’m in grad school for a technology-related degree and am currently “cleaning up my act,” so to speak. I’ve recently deleted my Facebook account entirely, started a new Twitter account, made my Instagram private, and shut down some […]

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how to keep track of the work you’ve delegated

If you manage a busy team, you’re probably doing a lot of delegating – of big projects as well as small details. In an ideal world, you’d be able to rely on your team members to circle back to you on everything you delegate to them – but in reality, you need to have a […]

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is this company stringing me along?

A reader writes: I am in the midst of job hunting, and almost two months ago, I applied and interviewed for a specific position with a company I have a real interest in working with. I did not get that job as they said they needed someone with more experience for that niche role, but […]

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