why do so many parents give terrible work advice to their kids? by Alison Green on May 29, 2018 It’s undoubtedly true that some parents, somewhere, give their adult children excellent guidance on jobs and work life. But based on the letters I get at Ask a Manager, I can say with confidence that many, many parents are steering their kids oddly astray when it comes to navigating work life. Sometimes this takes the […] Read the full article →
how to convince my boss I need an assistant, mozzarella mayhem, and more by Alison Green on May 29, 2018 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. How can I convince my boss I need an assistant? I work as the sole communications person at a very small nonprofit startup that has recently grown in both size and scope of work. Our CEO is very focused on the work of the organization […] Read the full article →
how to take feedback gracefully, without getting defensive by Alison Green on May 28, 2018 I’m off for Memorial Day, so here’s an older post from the archives. This was originally published in 2007 (and was one of the very first posts here!). If your manager takes the time to give you feedback, looking petulant and defensive and perhaps even outright pissed off is not a useful response. It’s not that you just […] Read the full article →
questioning an employee about how sick they really are, a sugar-stealing coworker, and more by Alison Green on May 28, 2018 It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Questioning an employee about how sick they really are My coworker, Sansa, is a rockstar employee. Tenured, dependable, top performer — the kind of employee you wish you could clone! She has no attendance issues, no performance issues, no history of abusing flex-time. Her work […] Read the full article →
weekend free-for-all – May 26-27, 2018 by Alison Green on May 26, 2018 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: My Ex-Life, by Stephen McCauley. Two former spouses, one gay and one straight, reconnect decades later when both of their new lives […] Read the full article →
Ask a Manager in the media by Alison Green on May 25, 2018 Here’s a round-up of Ask a Manager in the media recently… * An interview on the BBC’s Business Matters * An interview with Gretchen Rubin about happiness * Some answers for Girls Night In about self-care at work * An interview with the New York Post about embracing fear at work * Five questions with […] Read the full article →
open thread – May 25-26, 2018 by Alison Green on May 25, 2018 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 →
can I ask my company to pay for a cat sitter when I travel, my coworker calls me “honey bunny,” and more by Alison Green on May 25, 2018 It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Can I ask my company to pay for a cat sitter when I travel? I have a job which requires me to travel for work a few times a year. When I started it was more like once a year, and now it’s, say, two […] Read the full article →
update: my mother is a destructive force in my professional life by Alison Green on May 24, 2018 Remember the letter-writer a few years ago whose mother was contacting companies on social media to tell them to hire her daughter, despite our letter-writer asking her to stop? The first update is here, about how the mom was financially controlling the letter-writer on top of everything else, and here’s a new update. I was thinking […] Read the full article →
updates: the website delusions of grandeur, the pushy gym trainer, and more by Alison Green on May 24, 2018 Here are four updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. My boss has delusions of grandeur about our website — do I have to burst his bubble? I sat down with my boss today and taking into consideration many of your reader’s comments I suggested moving primarily to Twitter […] Read the full article →