Ask a Manager

A reader writes: I have a new coworker who I mostly like. She is a little complainy and stubborn but she’s the newest person on my team and I think she is just still adjusting to our company. We are both young women and in our first jobs out of college. We sit next to […]

A reader writes: Is there a professionally acceptable way to push back when someone apologizes for causing problems at work? For example, this morning, my coworker slept through a meeting we had scheduled. Since I’m on the west coast (we’re a remote team) this meeting required me to wake up at 5 am. She messaged […]

A reader writes: I work at a small (fewer than 10 employees) firm as a mid-level associate. A few weeks ago, a close friend, Josie — who doesn’t work with me but lives in my city — showed me a photo of a woman while we were out to lunch and asked if she worked […]

A reader writes: I’ve been reading your site for a while, but I’ve not seen anything that will help me address this particular issue — when a coworker who’s your peer feels entitled to all your technical expertise, time, and other resources. Our department had about 20 of us PhD students start at the same […]

A reader writes: My coworker, “Minerva,” is okay most of the time. But she has unpredictable mood swings and has caused friction with virtually everyone in the team in the past three years. Last week she called me at 10 pm to scream at me for a “mistake” I made which occurred because she didn’t […]

A reader writes: My coworker “Sterling” has always been a hard partying guy, but recently he’s been drinking more and more, and it’s a problem. Several times a week he either comes to work smelling like alcohol or complains to anyone who will listen about how hung over he is. Sterling is in his mid-20’s, […]

A reader writes: I share my office with a woman I’ll call Katie. We generally get along, but she is an awful officemate. Despite having a desk phone with a headset, she inexplicably takes her conference calls on speakerphone. When I have nicely asked her to switch phones or quiet down, she first puts her hand […]

A reader writes: I work in an open-plan office. The guy who sits next to me, let’s call him Steve, is a senior member of my team, but not my supervisor. I’m a youngish woman and he’s a man about 10 years older who’s been with the company for much longer. Over the handful of […]

A reader writes: I am a teacher. This is going to be my 20th year. Last year, I was transferred to a different school in our district due to budget cuts and things being shifted around. I now share a classroom with another teacher. She has been in this school/in this room for four years, […]

A reader writes: I am a straight, married, mid-thirties male. I work in a small company with a super-casual dress code — shorts and flip flops are regular wear during the summers for a lot of people. I interact on a daily basis with a married female coworker who semi-regularly wears shirts that go beyond […]