my boss refuses to give me a job description and told me to stop asking for one by Alison Green on November 12, 2014 A reader writes: I’ve been without a job description for more than two years now. I sent the following email to my boss at the beginning of the week: “I was hoping to check in on the job description – I know you’ve been slammed and I don’t want to be a nudge. But I’m […] Read the full article →
my manager wants me to marry a stranger, exit interviews in toxic workplaces, and more by Alison Green on November 12, 2014 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager wants me to marry a stranger for immigration purposes My manager from another country has asked me to marry some guy from their country. It would be sexless and just to get their green card to work here. Is this illegal? Yes, that’s […] Read the full article →
my coworker uses a yoga ball as a chair by Alison Green on November 11, 2014 A reader writes: I recently started a new position and share an office with a few people who are also in my unit. My coworkers are pretty cool people. However, one coworker uses a huge yoga ball as a chair because she has back issues. While I am sympathetic to this, the yoga ball squeaks […] Read the full article →
how to do a great job on a stretch assignment by Alison Green on November 11, 2014 What do you do when you’re assigned a project that feels like a real stretch and where you don’t have experience? If you’ve been handed a new responsibility and are nervous about your ability to deliver, here are four steps to help you tackle it without a crisis of confidence or a major disaster. 1. Don’t […] Read the full article →
my employee won’t copy me on his email, manager purposely gives negative references, and more by Alison Green on November 11, 2014 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My employee won’t copy me on his emails One of my subordinate is trying to sideline me by not copying me on his emails. Should I send out an email to all departments, asking them to copy me when sending emails to my subordinates? If […] Read the full article →
why can’t I keep this position filled? by Alison Green on November 10, 2014 A reader writes: I have recently been through a string of people I’ve hired (three in a row) who have abandoned their job: no call no show, within the first two to three weeks. I know one left for a higher paying position. The other two did not have other jobs lined up that I […] Read the full article →
my job wants me to deal with shotguns, guard dogs, mud holes, and dark woods by Alison Green on November 10, 2014 A reader writes: A few weeks every year, the staff at my large organization are sent out for fieldwork. We go door-to-door encouraging people to vote in elections or join our organization. Unfortunately, what we’re doing is unsafe. For the past two weeks, we’ve been driving through the woods down dirt roads looking for specific […] Read the full article →
Want a better intranet? Try Igloo. by Alison Green on November 10, 2014 And now a break to talk about a sponsor… I wrote recently about Igloo, a really cool product for corporate intranets – and the exact opposite of the stale, clunky intranet interfaces you’re probably used to. Not too long ago, I received the following email from a reader (shared here with permission): “I regularly read […] Read the full article →
my manager’s girlfriend just joined our team, my boss doesn’t understand what I do, and more by Alison Green on November 10, 2014 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager’s girlfriend just joined our team Three weeks ago, my direct manager’s girlfriend joined my team from another team in the company. It felt like a really bad idea at the time and my worries have started to come true. We’re working in a […] Read the full article →
Sunday free-for-all – November 9, 2014 by Alison Green on November 9, 2014 It’s the weekend free-for-all. This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. (This one is truly non-work only; if you have a work question, you can email it to me or post it in the work-related open thread on Fridays.) Have at it. Read the full article →