A reader writes: I wanted to run a scenario by you that happened to a friend of mine the other day. He told me that one of his direct reports had asked him for a reference for a part-time weekend gig to make some extra money. He said that this staff member was a high […]

I get a ton of letters from people who are really unhappy about something their boss is asking of them, but don’t feel they can push back because they’re internalized the idea that you’re never supposed to say no to your boss — that they’d look like a prima donna or difficult, or not a team player. […]

A reader writes: I’ve been at my current job for about 6 months. I absolutely love it here. One of the reasons I came to work here it because my boss is one of the most respected names in my field of work. However, I’m only the second person he’s ever directly managed and it […]

A reader writes: I have a very strange and awkward predicament at my job. I have recently been asked to be able to send emails on behalf of my boss, and what that means is I now have access to his email account. Today I logged in to send an email correspondence and one of […]

Last year, I did a couple of episodes of the Ask a Manager podcast that were all about tone — what kind of tone to use in tricky conversations at work, and getting your tone right when you’re a manager. Those are some of the most popular episodes of the show, and I’ve had requests […]

A reader writes: I have worked in the same office for over a year and a half and I am baffled at how much my coworkers share. I have worked at several offices before and had very open discussions but nothing on this level. To give you a snapshot, my office is open concept. The […]

A reader writes: I have to sit with a coworker twice a month shut in an office by ourselves for several hours — and all she does is complain and groan about life and process all of her problems. I’d especially love your advice on ways to say “Hey, you’re so negative that I actually […]

A reader writes: I work in an office. There are about five other individuals in my division that report to the same manager. This manager is several years younger than me (I’m in my mid-30s), and he is about 20 years younger than my colleagues. My colleagues have, and continue to, question his authority due […]

A reader writes: Long story short, I finished grad school about two years ago and started a company with a colleague. It has evolved into something much bigger and better than either of us anticipated. We now have three full time staff – another statistician (like us), a software developer, and an office/operations manager. We also have some part-time […]

A reader writes: I’ve been reading your blog and listening to your podcast for a while. There are a number of times you describe certain things as coming off as “chilly” in some of your answers. It clicked for me while reading your response to the letter writer who didn’t want to interact with small […]