dealing with abusive patients, incompetent coworker needs too much help, and more by Alison Green on May 20, 2021 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Putting up a sign about abusive patients I am a long time manager of a multi-location health care group. Our staff can’t work from home because –you know— patients! With the exception of a few weeks in April of 2020, our staff worked throughout the […] Read the full article →
an expert on how to get what you need from your health insurance by Alison Green on May 19, 2021 An Ask a Manager reader who works in health insurance as a customer service trainer wrote to me and offered to give advice about navigating health insurance, saying, “Basically, I get paid to learn and teach how to beat the system as much as possible. I love my job as much as I hate this industry and […] Read the full article →
my employee injured his coworker in an office prank by Alison Green on May 19, 2021 A reader writes: I manage two employees, Roger and Niles, who are friends and in their 20s. This team is not an entry-level team; both employees have been promoted to be on this team, and they have both worked for the company for several years. Yesterday, as a prank, Roger placed a pair of scissors […] Read the full article →
my boss wants me to ask a rejected problematic job candidate to volunteer by Alison Green on May 19, 2021 A reader writes: I was wondering what your thoughts are asking a rejected job candidate to volunteer at our organization. It’s a complicated situation, because the candidate has been very involved here and has a good background, except for his condescending tone, tendency to ramble, overwhelming eagerness (to the point of it being uncomfortable), and […] Read the full article →
names that make a religious statement, HR keeps sending anxiety-provoking emails, and more by Alison Green on May 19, 2021 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Names that make a religious statement I was reading an article about unusual baby names and two of the names included were “Christ is the Lord” and “Jesus is our Savior.” If, when these kids grow up, they continue to go by their full first […] Read the full article →
am I the only one excited to return to the office? by Alison Green on May 18, 2021 A reader writes: On your blog, we’ve heard from people who’ve been working from home and are afraid to return to the office. We’ve also heard from people who’ve been going into work for all or most of the pandemic and find it hard to sympathize with those fears. But I’m wondering if there’s anyone […] Read the full article →
my nightmare former coworker is now a superstar by Alison Green on May 18, 2021 A reader writes: A few years ago, I managed a long-term project that my coworker, Jane, was working on. Jane was tricky to work with. In terms of technical skill, she did a few things exceptionally well but her overall performance was slightly below what I would have expected from somebody with her experience. But […] Read the full article →
my condescending coworker tries to take over my work and is a disruptive know-it-all by Alison Green on May 18, 2021 A reader writes: I work for a large company where employees very often contribute to community resources, either as part of their paid work or as volunteers. (Think open source software, but it’s not that.) Because this work is important to our business (and there are legal considerations), I work on the team that manages […] Read the full article →
my boss excludes me from social events, I’m leaving my job after promising not to, and more by Alison Green on May 18, 2021 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager excludes me from social events I have a manager who likes to keep things professional with her direct reports, but she takes it a little too far. She’s very cold and non-communicative in general (her general management skills are another issue) but the […] Read the full article →
some findings from 24,000 people’s salaries by Alison Green on May 17, 2021 The salary survey a few weeks ago got a huge response — 24,000+ people shared their salaries and other info, which is a lot of raw data to sift through. Reader Elisabeth Engl kindly took the raw data and analyzed some of the trends in it and here’s what she found. (She asked me to […] Read the full article →