family, friends & significant others

When your family, spouse, or partner intersects with your job or work, things can go badly. Here’s advice to navigate it well.

is it bad to be alone with coworkers of the opposite sex?

A reader writes: I work in an STEM industry that is probably 75% male and I’m the only woman in my company (seven full-time employees and one temp employee) . I graduated in spring 2021 and this is the first salaried job with benefits I’ve held since graduation (I’ve been at this company since last […]

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dealing with domestic abuse in the workplace

This is a reprint of a post from 2012. Someone recently suggested reprinting it annually and I think it’s a good idea. In a post about what to do if an employee is being abused at home, commenter Marie left the following comment, which I thought was so powerful that I wanted to post it here […]

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should I let my parents help me network?

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes: My question is about networking and family. My parents and I are in the same field, and I definitely was helped from the very beginning of my career by their experience and connections. Now that I’m finishing graduate school however, I feel that I want […]

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my wife’s complaints about work are overwhelming me

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes: My wife and I have a generally happy household, except for after work times: I think of this as the Airing of Grievances hour. And let me be clear in saying that it is my wife who does the complaining. She is pleasant with her […]

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my coworker/friend keeps coming to work drunk

A reader writes: I have a friend (let’s call her Becky) I have known since we were in middle school, who is now my coworker. In college, it became pretty apparent that she was developing a drinking problem, which has only got worse as she’s gotten older. Because I’ve been around her so many times […]

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