can I fix how my boss treats people? by Alison Green on June 4, 2019 A reader writes: I work for a small nonprofit membership organization and am supervised directly by the executive director. The ED meets with funders to advocate for our members, builds partnerships with other organizations to provide services to our clients, and is generally the “face” of the organization. The problem is, he’s kind of a […] Read the full article →
how to answer “tell me about yourself” in a job interview by Alison Green on June 4, 2019 One of the interview questions that most intimidates job seekers is one that most interviewers assume will be easy: “Tell me about yourself.” It sounds straightforward — but as every job seeker knows, it’s not that simple. What do they want to know? Are they looking for a complete history of you? Do they want […] Read the full article →
I’m in trouble for re-sorting a coworker’s trash — and I’m enraged by Alison Green on June 4, 2019 A reader writes: I’ve worked at a medium sized tech company as a software engineer for the past two years now. Our city has an ordinance requiring all businesses to compost and recycle. I fully support this ordinance, as I’m a staunch environmentalist and care deeply about the future of our planet, for my sake […] Read the full article →
my boss doesn’t focus during our meetings, I matched with my interviewer on a dating app, and more by Alison Green on June 4, 2019 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss doesn’t focus during our meetings My boss considers himself a master multitasker. In reality, he’s pretty terrible at it. Like most of us, he’s not actually able to split his attention between two or three different tasks at any one time and this […] Read the full article →
why do people get stuck in “reply all” hell on email lists? by Alison Green on June 3, 2019 A reader writes: Can we get a definitive ruling on the etiquette when someone accidentally emails an incorrect distribution list in a large office? Today I went to lunch for 40 minutes and came back to 239 emails — someone emailed the wrong distribution list for a request (I heard there were over 1,000 people […] Read the full article →
my boss emailed us a racist meme by Alison Green on June 3, 2019 A reader writes: I work at a branch office of a nonprofit (roughly 150 employees over 10 states). Today, my branch manager (vice president in the overall institution) sent an offensive and racist political meme to all employees at our site. I was shocked and disgusted, as were many of my front-line colleagues. My immediate […] Read the full article →
I don’t want to help horrible networkers by Alison Green on June 3, 2019 A reader writes: I’ve been in my industry for eight years now. From the outside, it’s a very cool area to work in (and mostly it is…) and it’s definitely more on the map as a career path than it was when I started. Lots of grads are very interested in a job like mine, […] Read the full article →
coworker complains about my tattoos, sabotaged by another hotel’s manager, and more by Alison Green on June 3, 2019 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker won’t stop complaining about my tattoos I started a new job in December; Carol started in February. We work for a small company, with six of us in production. We’re not customer-facing in any way. Carol was fine with me until the weather […] Read the full article →
weekend free-for-all – June 1-2, 2019 by Alison Green on June 1, 2019 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 Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai, about a group of friends during the early stages of the AIDS crisis. I loved it so much. The […] Read the full article →