Ask a Manager

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “Several months ago I inherited a part-time employee we thought we would have to fire. She’d been with the company a few months and wasn’t picking up the basics, and working with me was the last chance. She is in a new field, and I realized quickly she was […]

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “I cannot believe it’s my turn to share Friday Good News! I’ve been a reader for a decade and I can credit a huge shift in my approach to my career to your advice. But I’ve had a lot of bad luck in my work life and earlier this […]

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “This week I took advantage of their line manager’s holiday to pop in on 1:1s for my skip-level junior team and catch up with them (something I don’t get to do often enough with 8 direct reports of my own and C-level strategy responsibilities) including one relatively new hire […]

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “After being fired for being ‘negative’ — i.e., not afraid to speak up about injustice, inequality, and unethical behavior — while I was in the middle of interviewing, I wrote to you because I wasn’t sure how to explain it to the companies I was interviewing with. It turned […]

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “I wanted to write a note to you to express my thanks to you and the wonderful community at Ask a Manager. Since I first stumbled upon your blog, probably around 4 or 5 years ago (when I was really starting to put some serious effort and thought into […]

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “After sending a question to you in May (which you didn’t publish, no worries), I realized that writing to an advice column might be a sign that it was time to look for a new job. I identified a large organization that I would like to work for that […]

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “I read your blog for about a year and realized just how toxic my workplace was; senior leadership cussed people out in meetings regularly, an overall lack of respect, being berated for not meeting super unclear expectations, etc. … I read up on your resume advice and cover letter […]

It’s your Friday good news! 1.  “I wanted to finally provide my own good news. I started my toxic job 6 years ago, it didn’t start out as toxic but slowly became more and more so. I knew from reading your blog it was time to leave when I found myself fantasizing about getting injured […]