A reader writes: I’m a young woman in my first post-college position, working for a public institution known for being quirky. My desk is in a large shared office with seven other fairly low-key coworkers, including my boss. I recently acquired a fidget toy and to my surprise found fiddling with it really helps with […]
Read the full article →Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. I’ve been on probation for three years (#4 at the link) I’m the person who emailed you last year about my supervisor keeping me on probation for over three years and I wondered if I should tell him it was my mental health issues that were causing […]
Read the full article →One of my favorite types of office drama is drama over really small things — like the 18-month coffee debate or people who get really territorial about office supplies. Some of what we’ve heard about the latter over the years: “I have to order three different kinds of paper towels because people prefer certain ones […]
Read the full article →It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Candidate lied about the dates of a job I know you say that you can leave short jobs off resumes. But I have an applicant who left a short job off their employment application and changed the dates on their prior position to hide that […]
Read the full article →A reader writes: I work for a large local government agency. We have about 400 employees in our department, and I manage a team of 25 people. I recently found out that two of my employees, Mark and Ashley, are (1) married to each other and (2) expecting a baby. I had known they were […]
Read the full article →A reader writes: I manage an employee who is a hard worker and great with our patrons. She is also a single mom, so I worked with her to create a customized schedule that would accommodate her parental responsibilities. However, she has interpreted my initial flexibility as flex scheduling and now she comes and goes […]
Read the full article →Today Michelle Silverthorn, founder and CEO of Inclusion Nation, returns to Ask A Manager! Michelle is the author of the best-selling book Authentic Diversity: How to Change the Workplace for Good (read an excerpt here) and talked with us earlier this year about the work she does to help build more equitable companies. Now she’s back to take […]
Read the full article →It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can my company require me to have child care while I’m working from home? I work for a very small, fully remote (as in, remote even not during a pandemic) startup. There are maybe three dozen employees, tops. Today we had a company meeting and […]
Read the full article →A reader writes: This happened to me a couple years ago now, but I still occasionally think back on it (and cringe) and still don’t really know what I should have done! I know I didn’t handle it well, or really at all, when it happened. This was my first real job after college and […]
Read the full article →A reader writes: I have a friend who started a new job recently. She had been laid off during Covid when her company had to eliminate about half of its staff. Given what she had told me about how she acted at work – routinely leaving early without making up the hours elsewhere, refusing to […]
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