my boyfriend has my old job and there’s tons of drama by Alison Green on October 26, 2015 A reader writes: My boyfriend has the same exact position I used to hold in a job I had five years ago at a small museum. This museum is so small that it only has one full-time seasonal employee, overseen by a board of 10+ people — all of whom also volunteer at our museum, […] Read the full article →
employee wants to retract his resignation, stolen break room supplies, and more by Alison Green on October 26, 2015 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Employee wants to retract his resignation — but we don’t want him to We have an employee who resigned by email two weeks ago. He sent the email to our office manager, the head of HR, one of the VP’s, and the president of the […] Read the full article →
weekend free-for-all – October 24-25, 2015 by Alison Green on October 24, 2015 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 no work and no school. If you have a work question, you can email it to me or post it in the work-related open thread on Fridays.) Book Recommendation of the Week: Nickel […] Read the full article →
new coworker won’t stop texting me, I sent a sloppily formatted application email, and more by Alison Green on October 24, 2015 It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My new coworker won’t stop texting me I recently started a new job, and one of my coworkers, an older man, asked to exchange numbers. I thought nothing of it, as I have exchanged numbers with coworkers in the past. Things instantly got uncomfortable, though. […] Read the full article →
3 updates from letter-writers by Alison Green on October 23, 2015 Here are three updates from recent letter-writers: 1. My employee keeps giving me instructions After having read all the comments (which were very useful, by the way), I came to realize more about why my employee has been acting this way. In short, she had been on her own for a few months while I was […] Read the full article →
open thread – October 23, 2015 by Alison Green on October 23, 2015 It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on anything work-related that you want to talk about. If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to talk to other readers. * If you submitted […] Read the full article →
is it impostor syndrome or a bad fit, managing is stressful, and more by Alison Green on October 23, 2015 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I submitted an expense report late and now can’t get reimbursed for thousands of dollars I work for a big company that you’ve heard of — we bounce in and out of the Fortune 500 depending on various market conditions. I seldom travel for work […] Read the full article →
my coworkers overheard me on an emotional personal call by Alison Green on October 22, 2015 A reader writes: I work in a direct care field and am attaining a graduate degree in the same field. My employer is helping me with internship hours, and classes are held at the work site. Getting started with this grad program plus work has been stressful enough, and some of my colleagues are really […] Read the full article →
when an employee pushes for a promotion but isn’t ready by Alison Green on October 22, 2015 When you have a staff member who’s pushing harder for promotion – or even just for bigger projects or responsibilities – and you’re convinced they’re not ready, how can you manage the situation without demotivating them? The risk here, of course, is that people in this situation can end up disengaging from their work, or […] Read the full article →
dealing with customers who are upset about a high shipping fee on their order by Alison Green on October 22, 2015 This is slightly different than the questions I usually tackle here, in that it’s much more about customer service, but I thought it was interesting. A reader writes: I have been searching all over the internet for an answer to a customer service challenge that I’m running into, and all I find are generic responses. […] Read the full article →