how can I stay in touch with former coworkers? by Alison Green on October 30, 2024 A reader asks: I’ve been working for a while with a senior colleague who has been amazing — knowledgeable, supportive, and patient. He recently moved on from my organization. When he left, he told me to keep in touch. I’d love to keep in touch but have no idea what to say! I feel like […] Read the full article →
LinkedIn is sharing your data with AI — unless you tell it not to by Alison Green on September 25, 2024 LinkedIn has a new practice of sharing your personal data to train AI — unless you specifically opt out. That includes your profile, your posts, and your videos. Without announcing it, LinkedIn apparently added a new data privacy setting last week that covers this, and they turned it on for everyone. If you want to […] Read the full article →
conference schedules are too F’ing long by Alison Green on September 19, 2024 A reader writes: I’m attending a professional conference this week and it struck me that super long conference schedules are not something I’ve seen discussed on the blog. Here is an example: The conference I am attending has optional workout events starting at 6:30 in the morning. Breakfast starts at 8 and runs until 9, […] Read the full article →
can I ask coworkers why they didn’t hire my daughter? by Alison Green on September 16, 2024 A reader writes: My daughter applied for a job at the firm where I’m currently employed, in a department supervised by three very good friends of mine. I’ve known them all for over 20 years. I consider them great coworkers and friends. My neighbor also applied for the job. My neighbor has been out of […] Read the full article →
does posting sob stories on LinkedIn hurt your job search? by Alison Green on September 5, 2024 A reader writes: I work in a field that has been heavily affected by layoffs in the past year. I have been lucky and managed to maintain work, but many talented people I know have not been so lucky. My question is about whether posting depressing, sad posts on social media, especially LinkedIn, affects your […] Read the full article →
an industry colleague is lying to me about a dispute we had years ago by Alison Green on July 10, 2024 A reader writes: Six years ago, I was vice president of the board of a national advocacy body (Org A) that had a long-standing, mostly good, relationship with another national advocacy body (Org B). The two organizations had some commonalities but also quite well defined swim lanes. While I was VP for Org A, Elsa […] Read the full article →
I don’t want to help rude networkers by Alison Green on June 12, 2024 A reader writes: I’ve been in my industry for eight years now. From the outside, it’s a very cool area to work in (and mostly it is…) and it’s definitely more on the map as a career path than it was when I started. Lots of grads are very interested in a job like mine, […] Read the full article →
how do I turn down a persistent favor-asker? by Alison Green on March 12, 2024 A reader writes: About a year and a half ago, I agreed to have coffee with a company intern who was finishing up her internship and preparing to graduate. I did this as a favor to a colleague — this intern never did any work with my team or department and we never interacted prior […] Read the full article →
I referred a friend to a freelancer I work with and it went badly by Alison Green on November 8, 2023 A reader writes: A few years ago, I found a really excellent freelancer, Jane, to do some design work for the small firm I work at. She did such a great job and was so lovely to work with that we have continued to contract with her for various projects, and I’ve referred several colleagues […] Read the full article →
how to tell a pushy networker to back off by Alison Green on August 17, 2023 A reader writes: I’m increasingly finding myself in a place where newer professionals are asking to talk about getting started after school, or asking for advice. I always jump at the chance to help however I can and I’m universally flattered when anyone asks to meet with me. I’m struggling, however, with one person who […] Read the full article →