July 2021

weekend open thread – July 10-11, 2021

This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. Here are the rules for the weekend posts. Book recommendation of the week: Fly Away Home, by Jennifer Weiner. Sylvie has been a perfect politician’s wife for years but when her husband’s affair makes headlines, she and their grown […]

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it’s your Friday good news

It’s your Friday good news, with more accounts of success even in this weird time. 1. My husband had been applying for internal jobs at his company for over a year. He had a few interviews but they ended up going with other internal candidates. He had recently applied for several jobs that all went up […]

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open thread – July 9-10, 2021

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 (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to talk to other readers. * […]

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should I take my Etsy business off my resume?

A reader writes: Up until March of 2020, I worked as a supervisor in the food and beverage industry. I also continuously maintained an Etsy store, which I fell back on after my abrupt layoff. During the pandemic, people came online to shop in droves and I was the busiest I have ever been, but […]

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updates: the berating coworker, the higher salary, and more

It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager, where all month I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. Our staff aren’t underpaid but think they are I did use a lot of the techniques and scripts […]

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my coworker’s stress is stressing me out

A reader writes: I have a colleague, Belinda, who’s always stressed out. We’re all busy and juggling multiple priorities, but our workloads aren’t unreasonable or excessive. Most people just get on with it and steadily, calmly get their work done — whereas there’s always a sense of chaos around Belinda. She makes a much bigger […]

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