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 →
new manager keeps pushing hard for me to be his friend by Alison Green on March 22, 2023 A reader writes: I have a situation that is annoying me with a new manager at our sister company, George. He was hired with no notice into the role that I had been promised would be my career progression within the company. I have spent the last five months training him on the basics and […] Read the full article →
my mentor falsely accused someone of sexism on my behalf without my knowledge by Alison Green on March 21, 2023 A reader writes: I recently moved into a senior leadership role at my organization, which was a big jump for me. To help me get acclimated to the role, our CEO assigned me a mentor, Jane. She’s someone I’ve known and respected for a few years, although sometimes she strikes me as kind of a […] Read the full article →
office kitchen wars are back by Alison Green on March 20, 2023 With many companies bringing people back to the office at least part-time, office kitchens wars are back! Today at Slate, I wrote about workplace kitchen aggravations — the take-out food from months ago left rotting in the fridge, the politics of who gets stuck cleaning up after others (and who doesn’t), the brazen thefts of […] Read the full article →
my younger coworker keeps making ageist comments to me by Alison Green on March 20, 2023 A reader writes: I am an older worker doing very well in my executive position in a small think tank. Apart from the director and myself, the other staff are in their 20s and 30s. One staff member in particular continually makes both oblique and direct references to age. For example, she said one day […] Read the full article →
should I have told my coworker his outfit made it look like he was going to a job interview? by Alison Green on March 8, 2023 A reader writes: I ultimately decided to do nothing in this situation, but I’m curious to hear what you think. I have a coworker, let’s call him Keith, who is in his early to mid 20s and joined my company about six months ago. Keith is fresh out of college and very bright and eager. […] Read the full article →
I resent our new hires for setting better work-life boundaries than our company normally has by Alison Green on February 28, 2023 A reader writes: I am part of a team in a high-pressure industry at a company known for demanding a lot but paying very well in exchange for availability, etc. We purport to provide near-constant availability to our clients, but it’s unclear whether this near-constant availability expectation extends to individual employees for their teams (depends […] Read the full article →
my new coworker is putting fake mistakes in my work so she can tell our boss I’m bad at my job by Alison Green on February 27, 2023 A reader writes: I’ve been with my company for over 10 years at this point. It was my first job out of college and I have successfully worked myself up the ranks to the corporate offices. I’ve been immensely proud of my progress, up until recently. I transferred to a new team, which was presented […] Read the full article →
my boyfriend’s manager told me I could date someone better by Alison Green on February 21, 2023 A reader writes: My boyfriend, “Joe,” and I work in different divisions for the same company and for the last two years it’s been wonderful. That is … until two days ago when I was blindsided by my boyfriend’s new supervisor. Joe had the day off so he asked me to grab his phone charger […] Read the full article →