my employee didn’t give a coworker the message that his wife was in surgery, and now everyone hates him by Alison Green on September 6, 2017 A reader writes: I’m a shift manager in a manufacturing/shop environment. One of the workers on the other shift, “Percival,” was asked to fix an issue with the computer in the foreman’s office. Percival volunteers to do this and is always classified and paid accordingly, as per the collective agreement with his union. While he […] Read the full article →
my office doesn’t give us computers, my coworker gets paranoid when I talk to his staff, and more by Alison Green on September 6, 2017 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My office doesn’t give us computers — we have to use our own I recently started a new job, and so far, so good. I’m really happy and its a great career move, the work seems challenging in the best way, and I really like […] Read the full article →
how to tell someone “this is your job, not mine” by Alison Green on September 5, 2017 A reader writes: I’m an admin assistant at a Fortune 500 company. I assist a lot of people and teams, so I’m always busy with a full workload. Sometimes people try to foist work on me that isn’t part of my normal workload. When this happens, I will sometimes loop in my boss to clear […] Read the full article →
all the men in my office are taking weekly outings together by Alison Green on September 5, 2017 A reader writes: I work at a small law firm that is about 80% male, 20% female (I am a woman, and young). Normally this gender imbalance is only a mild bummer (but is something I have spoken out about in the past). However, this month, I found out that all of the men in […] Read the full article →
my coworker keeps asking his wife for input on our projects by Alison Green on September 5, 2017 A reader writes: I work in a sales organization in an industry that is fairly conservative and reputation-driven. I work in marketing and interface with sales staff quite often. There is a salesperson who is fairly new to our organization and industry who does a couple of odd and, I think, unprofessional things that I […] Read the full article →
I overheard my interviewers talking about me, coworker badgered me into telling her my salary, and more by Alison Green on September 5, 2017 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker badgered me into telling her my salary One of the things I am currently facing two weeks into my new job is the lack of distinction between being friendly and oversharing too much. The team has been working together for a very long […] Read the full article →
Labor Day open thread by Alison Green on September 4, 2017 It’s Labor Day and I don’t think many people are around and reading … but for people who are, if you want to have a really sparsely-attended open thread (work, non-work, whatever), please go for it in the comments here! Read the full article →
should I ask job interviewers to sign a confidentiality agreement? by Alison Green on September 4, 2017 A reader writes: I recently received a job offer for a job I was qualified for based on experience, but underqualified for on paper – I was lacking a certification. The odds were stacked against me, but your site helped me to develop an excellent cover letter and fine tune my interview skills. I credit […] Read the full article →
accepting an offer without negotiating, having employees drive me to work, and more by Alison Green on September 4, 2017 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Is it bad form to accept a job offer without negotiating? If you get a job offer and the salary is actually much more than you were expecting, do you negotiate? You always read that negotiating makes you a “stronger” candidate and that managers appreciate […] Read the full article →
weekend free-for-all – September 2-3, 2017 by Alison Green on September 2, 2017 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.) Book recommendation of the week: The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival, by Stanley N. Alpert. A fascinating story by a federal prosecutor of what happened after […] Read the full article →