my employees prefer remote work but I don’t, feeling emotional about resigning, and more by Alison Green on June 24, 2021 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I manage a team that prefers remote work — but I prefer working in-person My work is looking at returning to physical space in the fall and they are giving us a lot of leeway for remote/hybrid work (yay!). It does bring up an issue […] Read the full article →
update: a client sent me a thank-you check as a way to avoid paying my boss by Alison Green on June 23, 2021 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. Remember the letter-writer whose client sent her a thank-you check as a way to avoid paying her boss (first update here, second update here, and third […] Read the full article →
my new employee keeps complaining about missing her kids by Alison Green on June 23, 2021 A reader writes: I have a staff member who I hired recently, and she’s been out of the workforce for five or so years while she was a stay-at-home parent. I have been conscious of the adjustment for her being back in an office, and overall she’s been quite enthusiastic about working again. The problem […] Read the full article →
my office wants my pronouns — but I’m still figuring it out by Alison Green on June 23, 2021 A reader writes: I’m a queer person working in a mid-sized, politically progressive organization. Recently our management team has been attempting to shift norms around pronouns at work. Our chief HR executive sent an email encouraging everyone to add pronouns to their Slack profiles and email signatures. Managers have begun asking new hires to state […] Read the full article →
managing an abusive manager, coworkers keep talking about my new luxury car, and more by Alison Green on June 23, 2021 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I manage a manager who uses abusive language to employees I have a manager who reports to me, but I recently realized he uses abusive language with his direct reports. His reports fear that if their manager knows they have reported this to me, it […] Read the full article →
update: really aggressive spam callers are giving me anxiety attacks by Alison Green on June 22, 2021 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. Remember the letter-writer who was getting such abusive spam callers at work that she was having anxiety attacks? Here’s the update. Unfortunately the calls did not […] Read the full article →
I hate working from home by Alison Green on June 22, 2021 A reader writes: I hate working from home. I live and work in a big city and I live in a small one-bedroom apartment. My office has always had a work-from-home policy, but during the pandemic we’ve been working at home 100%. Many of my coworkers have embraced it, in some cases leaving the city […] Read the full article →
my new office has a no-humor policy by Alison Green on June 22, 2021 A reader writes: I’m an analyst at a small (25 employee) firm. I applied here mostly because of the great reputation this place has for putting out good work in my industry, and started this job about three weeks ago. It’s my second job after grad school, so I have a little experience under my […] Read the full article →
we’re asked to share our bra and underwear sizes with the team, crawling at work, and more by Alison Green on June 22, 2021 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. We’re asked to share our bra and underwear sizes with the whole team I work in a clothing-related company where the entire team often receives clothing from our clients that’s sometimes optional and sometimes required. It’s all kinds of clothing — sometimes a t-shirt, but […] Read the full article →
updates: the scream-yawns, the condescending coworker, and more by Alison Green on June 21, 2021 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 four updates from past letter-writers. 1. My coworker scream-yawns (#2 at the link) I am pleased to say that I have found the funny […] Read the full article →