December 2016

open thread – December 2-3, 2016

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 […]

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employee’s emotional outbursts might be hormone-related, coworker marks most of her emails as “highly important,” and more

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I think my employee’s emotional outbursts might be hormone-related I manage a business with eight employees, which includes one supervisor, Diane, who oversees the daily operations of most of the remaining staff. One of those staff members, Kristine, is a very good employee; however, she […]

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update: employee keeps asking coworkers for food and money

Remember the letter-writer whose employee kept asking for food and money from her coworkers? Here’s the update. I wish I could say it has gotten better, but every few months I get complaints. What sucks about this for her is that she is a great performer otherwise. It is not a food scarcity issue because […]

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don’t send anonymous notes at work

From time to time, I hear someone suggest sending an anonymous note to a coworker, a manager, or HR in order to let someone know about a problem without having to deal with the awkwardness of having a conversation about whatever the issue is — from “you smell” to “my manager is a jerk” to […]

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how to manage a project when you don’t have formal authority

In some ways, project management can be harder than people management, because when you don’t have formal authority over the people tasked to your project, you have to find other ways of getting things done and keeping people accountable. So how do you manage a project successfully when you can’t fall back on “because I […]

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can I resign via text message?

A reader writes: Is it acceptable to send a text to your employer you are quitting and will not be returning to work? No. You should generally resign in a face-to-face conversation. If that’s not possible (because you work in different locations, or one of you is traveling or otherwise away from work, or whatever […]

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