Ask a Manager

A reader writes: I work in the tree care industry at a company where the hierarchy is the owner and manager (“Will”), his assistant on the field providing estimates, then me, the owner’s secretary, then the tree workers (who have their own hierarchy). I work in the office by myself taking calls from clients for […]

I’m looking for questions to feature on a new Ask a Manager podcast. If you have a question that you’d like to discuss with me on the podcast — meaning we’d be able to have some back and forth as opposed to the straight Q&A of the format here — please send it to me […]

In the comments on last week’s post about working from home with pets, demands were made for a post with photos of pets taking over people’s workspaces. I sent out a call for them, and you delivered, with a ton of photos readers submitted of their pets in their workspaces — mostly home offices, but […]

A reader writes: I work as a junior lab technician in a hospital. After a management reshuffle in 2016, one of our three mid-level technician posts were empty, and external recruitment was unsuccessful. In 2017, my boss created a temporary feeder post. His intention was for one of the two junior technicians, me or my […]

Ask a Manager’s traffic continued to increase this year, with 31 million visits and 70 million page views. Thanks for your part in that! Here are the posts that interested people the most this year, via two lists: the most commented on posts and the most viewed posts. Until last year, historically the “most viewed” list […]

Here are my favorite posts of 2017, in no particular order: 1. Update: I manage someone who was terribly harmed by my family — what do I do? Because this was handled with incredible care and compassion. 2. What’s the deal with advice columns? Because it’s a subject I’m fascinated by. 3. My coworker came […]

All year long, I’ve made a weekly book recommendation when kicking off the weekend open thread. These aren’t work-related books; they’re just books I love and think everyone else should read. Sometimes they’re books that I’m in the middle of reading, and other times they’re just long-standing favorites. Here’s the complete list of what I’ve […]