can I ask my boss to coach me on professionalism? by Alison Green on October 24, 2022 A reader writes: I’ve recently started a new job and in, reflecting on my work experience, I’ve realized that I’m not nearly as attuned to professional norms as I would like to be. Given my background, it’s not terribly surprising. My parents are musicians, and there were large parts of my childhood that we spent […] Read the full article →
my chatty employee is annoying his quieter coworker by Alison Green on October 19, 2022 A reader writes: I supervise a group of part-time workers doing what amounts to unskilled menial labor. One of the workers, Kent, is an older gentleman who has been doing this job for decades. He is known to be very chatty. Everyone kind of groans internally when they see him coming because they know they’re […] Read the full article →
all this talk about”quiet quitting” is absurd by Alison Green on October 17, 2022 At Slate today, I wrote about the terribly-named “quiet quitting” trend — how it mirrors a larger change in people’s relationship to work, and why a lot of workers are disgusted with the idea that they should do more than “quietly quit.” You can read it here. Read the full article →
should I use my maternity leave to set an example for other women? by Alison Green on October 12, 2022 A reader writes: I am pregnant and live in a state that lets me take maternity leave from 36 weeks pregnant to 18 weeks after the date I give birth. Not all of this is paid, but much of it is and I could take the rest unpaid or apply my banked PTO. approximately 10 […] Read the full article →
how to work with clients who can’t make up their minds by Alison Green on October 11, 2022 A reader writes: I work as a designer and recently have had clients who cannot make up their minds. I end up going in circles with designs. It feels like an endless game of whack-a-mole, they ask for X, I give them X, but now they really want Y, so I give them Y, but […] Read the full article →
my employee wants a demotion by Alison Green on October 10, 2022 A reader writes: My employee is a truly exceptional worker. Let’s say he’s a product builder, and about a year ago, he completed an advanced program in prototyping, which was great; we didn’t have a prototyper in the company, and it was a career path for him that offered some great possibilities. I went to […] Read the full article →
should I have more of a sense of humor at work? by Alison Green on October 6, 2022 A reader writes: As a leader myself, I’ve been watching how other leaders interact with each other at my organization. They can joke around with each other, tease each other, and just generally interact with each other in that kind of lighthearted way. I’ve never been good at casually joking with people, but it’s gotten […] Read the full article →
do you have to be paid if your office is closed because of a hurricane? by Alison Green on September 29, 2022 I’m getting a lot of questions because of Hurricane Ian about whether you have to be paid if your office closes because of the storm. Here’s a quick run-down. If you’re a non-exempt employee (eligible for overtime): If your office closes because of the storm and thus you don’t work on those days, your employer […] Read the full article →
my employee wastes too much time on bad ideas by Alison Green on September 27, 2022 A reader writes: I am a manager for a small but extremely busy office. I have one employee who is part-time and comes in only a few afternoons a week. She wastes a huge amount of time pontificating about every little detail about her job, always making suggestions of how things could be done better, […] Read the full article →
return-to office-incentives aren’t working … here’s what workers want by Alison Green on September 26, 2022 When millions of office employees started working from home in 2020, the plan for most was eventually to return to work, not stay remote forever. But two and a half years later, many really don’t want to go back to the office, and companies are struggling to figure out how to convince them to return, […] Read the full article →