my boss from before my gender transition is now my colleague by Alison Green on May 1, 2023 A reader writes: My first full-time office job was at an awful place. I was there for nearly three years before I was unceremoniously laid off, just a week before I was supposed to take on a new title and a raise. My boss, Marcy, handled it really poorly. It turned out that, although she […] Read the full article →
your coworkers are stealing from you by Alison Green on April 24, 2023 You’d like to think that you can trust the people you work with all day – that coworkers who know you by name, hear about your kids, and trade jokes with you before meetings wouldn’t brazenly steal items that clearly belong to you. But in reality – at least judging from my mail – it […] Read the full article →
my lying coworker claimed someone said I couldn’t eat at my desk by Alison Green on April 19, 2023 A reader writes: I have a very low-stakes question that I’ve been wondering about since I left my last job a few years ago. In my previous role, I shared a four-person office with two junior employees and one other senior employee. The other senior employee, Sam, had 20 years more experience than I did, […] Read the full article →
coworker says she hates me and refuses to have any contact … and my boss told me to fix it by Alison Green on April 18, 2023 A reader writes: My coworker, “Jane,” was promoted to the same level as me eight months ago. I had only spoken to Jane twice in her two years at the company prior to her promotion. About a month after moving into the role, Jane set up a meeting with me. In the meeting, she yelled […] Read the full article →
a vendor pushed religion at a work dinner by Alison Green on April 17, 2023 A reader writes: I’m still Monday morning quarterbacking my response to this one in my head, I’d love your opinion. This past week, a colleague (let’s call him Sam) and I traveled to visit a vendor out of state. The first night, the vender’s (super enthusiastic and talkative) head of sales, Bill, took the two […] Read the full article →
my coworkers keep asking about my assault by Alison Green on April 12, 2023 A reader writes: I’m an executive assistant at an accounting firm, which means that this time of year I’m averaging between 60-70 hours a week. By nature of spending that much time with them, I’m much closer with my coworkers than I have been at any other workplace. I was recently assaulted after a horrible […] Read the full article →
work is ruining one of my closest friendships by Alison Green on April 11, 2023 A reader writes: I started at my company five years ago, around the same time as another new hire, Jill. We were on different teams and our responsibilities didn’t overlap at all, but as two newbies around the same age and with similar interests, we quickly formed a bond. Over the years our friendship has […] Read the full article →
someone or something is deleting our work emails by Alison Green on April 10, 2023 A reader writes: My coworker, Jane, and I share a common Outlook mailbox and the emails get sorted out to each team member chronologically. Example: first email gets assigned to me, second email gets assigned to Jane, third email gets assigned to me, fourth email gets assigned to Jane. And so on. We can tell […] Read the full article →
my coworker is having serious memory issues by Alison Green on April 5, 2023 A reader writes: I work in a small office without a typical HR rep. “Mike,” our manager, oversees our company and unfortunately takes a head-in-the-sand approach to anything office drama related. Our concern is with our office manager, “Michelle,” who has been with our company for 15 years. She oversees our accounting and customer service […] Read the full article →
I bit my coworker by Alison Green on March 28, 2023 I’m off today, so here’s an older post from the archives. This was originally published in 2017. A reader writes: So I bit a coworker yesterday. Obviously, I’m mortified. I work in an incredibly dysfunctional office. The tone is set by our office manager. He’s in his fifties, has always worked in an office setting, […] Read the full article →