I’m off for Memorial Day, so here’s an older post from the archives. This was originally published in 2016. Don’t miss the update, which is also linked below! A reader writes: We have a fridge at work. Up to this point, nothing I had in it was stolen (I am quite new, and others have […]
Read the full article →It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can an employer steal your work when you apply for a job? This question is purely hypothetical. My interest was piqued by a story I read from fashion watchdog group Diet Prada (the story has gone viral). As the story goes, a woman was applying […]
Read the full article →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: Mary Jane, by Jessica Anya Blau. Fourteen-year-old Mary Jane, who has strict parents with strict ideas about values, gets a summer job nannying for a psychiatrist […]
Read the full article →It’s your Friday good news, with more accounts of success even in this weird time. 1. I just graduated from college and I was so worried about trying to find my first job post graduation in these strange times. I spent most of the school year crafting cover letters for positions that never so much […]
Read the full article →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. * […]
Read the full article →It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Asking for compensation to cover a lost perk I work as a staff member at a school, which is categorized as a nonprofit and my colleagues and I are paid nonprofit-level salaries. One of our perks is that breakfast and lunch are available to us […]
Read the full article →A reader writes: Is it normal for a hiring manager to ask, somewhat insistently, how a candidate has been supporting herself financially during a period of unemployment? If it’s not normal, which is my suspicion, what could possibly be behind this? I work in a niche field and was laid off last year in a […]
Read the full article →Remember the letter-writer last year whose company was planning to cut their pay retroactively? (First update here.) Here’s the latest. I wrote you last year about my company laying off a lot of people and then retroactively reducing pay, and then did a follow-up in late July when they laid off even more and did […]
Read the full article →It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes: Could you talk about how the change to work-from-home has changed dress code (formal or informal) in the short-term, and if you think that some of that will continue on after offices reopen? For example, I notice that even when people are on Zoom calls […]
Read the full article →It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My former student is now a famous athlete — should I use him as a reference? I am a high school teacher. Several years ago when I was a newish teacher, I had a mentor type relationship with a student. He was a phenomenal young […]
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