am I sabotaging my former intern’s job prospects? by Alison Green on April 8, 2024 A reader writes: A while back, I supervised an intern for the first time. She produced good results and was eager to learn, but she worked slowly, needed a lot of coaching, had little initiative, and there were complaints about finding her asleep or on personal calls. However, because we were close in age and […] Read the full article →
my father keeps responding to my employee’s Facebook posts by Alison Green on April 3, 2024 A reader writes: My father keeps responding to my employee’s political posts on Facebook. My father is very conservative and my employee is very liberal, so you can guess that their opinions go together like oil and water. I feel that it is inappropriate for my father to be interacting with someone I supervise, and […] Read the full article →
my employee is too buddy-buddy with me by Alison Green on April 2, 2024 A reader writes: I manage a team of 10 in a hybrid (mostly virtual) environment; we’re part of a larger team that we interact with on a daily basis. I have very good, friendly relationships with everyone on the broader team, but I do try to keep it more professional with my direct reports (still […] Read the full article →
I sent a text about my problem employee to the wrong person by Alison Green on March 26, 2024 A reader writes: I find myself in a pickle and am a nervous wreck. I have been a manager for two years and it has not been easy. The manager before me was stepping down and badmouthed me during a staff meeting she held with the employees prior to my arrival. It was hell when […] Read the full article →
does my staff resent me for being frequently out of the office? by Alison Green on March 11, 2024 A reader writes: I am the director of a small organization. Since we’re so small, I have day-to-day tasks along with more responsibilities such as board meetings, weekend and evening events, media relations, and external meetings. As we grow, I am finding more demands on my time, and I am often on the run, headed […] Read the full article →
I’m buying a business — how do I tell one employee (who’s currently my coworker) that I’m not keeping her on? by Alison Green on March 6, 2024 A reader writes: I am a healthcare provider buying a practice that I have worked at for the past three years. This will be an asset purchase, meaning legally all employees will be considered terminated by the previous business and re-hired by me (if I choose). There is one employee who has been there about […] Read the full article →
employee keeps trash-talking her own work by Alison Green on March 6, 2024 A reader writes: I’m working a large project with Hank, another manager who is my peer. We have divided our workload, and I am primarily supervising three of our staff, while Hank is supervising the remaining two. I have a friendly relationship with Samantha, one of the staff members who Hank supervises. She regularly complains […] Read the full article →
my employee makes up words and is impossible to understand by Alison Green on March 5, 2024 A reader writes: I have an employee in a technical role (my small team is all technical, including me) who seems to make up words and concepts when he’s talking about things. The results of this are an echo of the issues in the first letter in this previous post but in that case you, […] Read the full article →
my best employee is disappointed that I’m not dealing with a bad employee by Alison Green on March 4, 2024 A reader writes: I am a newish manager and dealing with a staff personality conflict I’d love some help with. About six months ago, I became the manager of a business I’ll call The Teapot Emporium (I’m trying to anonymize this so I’m going to use tea as a stand-in). The various staff members there […] Read the full article →
can I teach a very disorganized employee to be more independent? by Alison Green on February 28, 2024 A reader writes: I have a question about helping my employee get organized. She has two pivotal job duties which are closely tied but not directly linked — I could technically have two people doing each piece separately, but the volume as a small business doesn’t warrant that number of employees. Think the relationship between […] Read the full article →