boss edits emails before forwarding them to his wife, manager wants to pull an offer over traffic tickets, and more by Alison Green on March 15, 2024 It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My boss edits emails before forwarding them to his wife My boss always forwards every convo in an email chain. However, when he forwards anything to his wife (who is the accountant), he deletes certain threads I have written. Specifically, one recent example was one […] Read the full article →
my coworker is working alone overnight despite explicit instructions not to by Alison Green on March 14, 2024 A reader writes: I work in a small research lab (less than 10 people total, including our CEO) as a scientist. I’m in charge of OSHA compliance and ensuring that we’re following local and federal safety standards. We work with hazardous materials, including biohazardous materials, compressed gasses, and chemicals. One of my coworkers, who I […] Read the full article →
update: my boss keeps asking me to do things that aggravate our community partners by Alison Green on March 14, 2024 Remember the letter-writer whose boss kept asking them to do things that aggravated their community partners? Here’s the update. I wanted to wait to offer my update after I was settled in my new job. As you and the commenters predicted, this was a bad situation. Fergus was a bully, but one thing I realized […] Read the full article →
what’s the most Machiavellian thing you’ve seen or done at work? by Alison Green on March 14, 2024 A few years back, we talked about Machiavellian things we’ve seen done at work — self-serving schemes or manipulation that you watched being carried out (or carried out yourself!). The stories were amazing, including someone who pretended to be Canadian for months in order to get a day off for Canadian Thanksgiving, someone who submitted […] Read the full article →
is it patronizing to say I’m proud of my team, asking for help from a candidate we rejected, and more by Alison Green on March 14, 2024 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Is it patronizing to say I’m proud of my team? I’m a manager of a small team of 10 and recently they had a very visible win for the larger company. At a department meeting, I said I was very proud to be their manager […] Read the full article →
how do people take months off from work to film a reality TV show? by Alison Green on March 13, 2024 A reader writes: I’m watching my country’s Big Brother, and I’ve noticed the employment ranges of the contestants tend to be either “gig economy” (bartender, delivery) which, to not denigrate how important those positions are, is less likely to come with the psychological attachment to the job as someone who’s worked up their career ladder […] Read the full article →
updates: parking lot gate wars, the employer that wanted more notice, and more by Alison Green on March 13, 2024 Here are four updates from past letter-writers. 1. My company is issuing new work-from-home standards because we should have the hang of it by now (previous updates:1, 2, 3) I have a happy update for you! I ended up needing to pause my job hunt as I ended up having surgery and being out on […] Read the full article →
there’s nothing I can do about my nightmare workload … right? by Alison Green on March 13, 2024 A reader writes: I’m in a rough spot at work. When I started nearly two years ago, this was a six-person company: two owners and four staff. One staff member, who split a workload with me, moved away a few months later. They posted his position immediately, but nobody from the first wave of applicants […] Read the full article →
am I a hypocrite for dating a customer, coworker sends political texts outside of work, and more by Alison Green on March 13, 2024 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Am I a hypocrite for dating a customer? “Meg,” the owner/manager of the independent coffee shop I work at, is giving me a hard time because I’m dating a man who asked me out during my shift. Months ago, we went through a big thing […] Read the full article →
is it reasonable to leave without notice when my company lets employees go without notice? by Alison Green on March 12, 2024 A reader writes: I am a senior software engineer at a mid-sized company. My team became part of this company through an acquisition three years ago. Within the first year of the acquisition, our product managers (“Joey” and “Chandler”) were let go as a “business decision.” Joey and Chandler were subject matter experts who shared […] Read the full article →