Ask a Manager

A reader writes: I work freelance in an industry which is notorious for bad work-life balance. I have another job alongside my freelance work to top up my income. It’s seasonal, over a busy summer period for an organization that’s related to my freelance work, and I work 10 hours a week. My role is […]

A reader writes: This starts with my wedding. To make a very long story short, my wedding dress alterations were a complete disaster. The seamstress produced such awful work that I had to have an emergency appointment with another shop to fix the dress, just days before my wedding. The new seamstress showed me how […]

A reader writes: The manager of my department has a habit of saying inappropriate things. It seems like she means them to be jokes, or perhaps it’s a misguided way of trying to connect with people. Regardless of her intentions, she has been making everyone increasingly uncomfortable as time goes on. Before she was a […]

A reader writes: I recently took a couple of weeks off work because of a work-stress-related mental breakdown, and came back today. Our project is a nightmare — toxic culture, inexperienced leadership, over-budget, understaffed. Brian, our project manager and my grandboss, is responsible for a lot of the problems. He also can’t manage the members […]

A reader writes: My manager is a hoarder, and our office space is odious. There is no trash can, because my manager treats the office as one giant trash can. She leaves leftover lunch and discarded wrappers all over, sometimes even on my desk. She uses the office as an extension of her own home: […]

A reader writes: I just started with a new organization three months ago. I was hired to lead a newly-formed team. In case it matters, I am the team leader but not the supervisor — there is a vacant supervisor position, and my boss has made it clear she would like me to fill that […]

A reader writes: I recently had an odd situation with the CEO of my company. I am a project manager working on a high-profile, time-sensitive project that was very important to the company. Although the company is a large multinational, I work out of the small satellite office, along with the CEO for North America, […]

A reader writes: I’ve worked for my C-Suite boss for almost five years. We are in a line of work where we attend a lot of lunches and dinners at nice restaurants, most often as guests of vendors and clients. While I generally enjoy the fine dining opportunities, I find my boss to be an […]