Ask a Manager

I’m a big fan of the writer Anne Helen Petersen, who wrote the excellent “Scandals of Classic Hollywood” series at the now-defunct Hairpin and a series of fascinating profiles and lately has been writing more and more about work. Her newest book, out this week, is Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. It […]

Here’s a very helpful Washington Post round-up about exactly how to safely vote in every state this year. This one from Slate is really good too. For each state, you can look up deadlines to request a ballot by mail, how to actually cast your vote this year, and more.

A reader writes: I hope you are willing to hear me out and offer some advice. Some background. I was molested as a child and worked as a prostitute at one time. That doesn’t excuse my behavior, but I feel I don’t have the best judgment. I moved to a very rural state to help […]

Some links. Please read. Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not To White Organizational Leaders, Silence is Violence: Here’s What You Should Do Now Ways Companies Can Act (a thread) 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice How to Support the Struggle Against Police Brutality

If you’ve ever worried you’re venting about your job too much, or secretly wished your friends or coworkers would vent a little less about theirs, you have a lot of company. People vent about their jobs! Sometimes a lot. And it often makes them feel better … until at some point it starts making them […]

A reader writes: I’m a mid-senior level employee at an imprint of one of the big 5 publishing houses. Publishing, as you may have noticed if you follow the news, is an increasingly controversy-prone industry; over the past couple of years, especially, it seems like there’s a new kerfuffle or scandal happening every week. Sometimes […]

With so many people working from home with animal coworkers, it’s obviously crucial that we see photos of your new colleagues. When I put out a call for pictures last week, I received more than 450 of them … so I posted half earlier this week and here’s part two. Click photos to enlarge. And […]

A reader writes: I am a manager deemed an “essential personnel” and have a lot of responsibility for other people. With crushingly short notice, I put together office sanitization routines, created and mandated a teleworking system for my entire group, created workflows that accommodate flexible schedules due to school closings and the like, solved logistic […]