Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My daughter has lost two jobs in one year My 44-year-old daughter has been fired from two different employment agencies in the last 12 months. The first time, the company did not give a reason. The second time, the company said budget cuts were the […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. A manager thanked my husband for letting me work with them A department I work with organized a social dinner at a restaurant after work one evening. People brought their families and so I brought my husband. A manager I work with came by, so […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I suspect my colleague was drinking before our morning meeting I held a meeting late morning on Friday with my colleague, “Janet.” During our meeting, her behavior seemed fine, if even a little more level than her normal frenetic energy. During the meeting, we pulled […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. An employee we fired keeps making “inspirational” posts about it on LinkedIn About four months ago, I had to fire an employee due to performance issues. She was a generally nice person, but unfortunately fell short of expectations so we had to let her go. […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker took a video call from the bathroom I was on a call with a vendor recently with about three people from each organization. Most people had their cameras off, and after the meeting topics were covered, I began to ask some follow-up questions […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I’m frustrated with my daughter’s new job Our daughter is struggling. Her job has asked her not to come in for the rest of the month as they are “giving her time to work on herself.” She is a new employee of a brand new […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My coworkers are feuding over a text, a lack of condolences, and some coffee We have two colleagues in our office, Pam and Sarah, who do not get along. Sarah’s mom passed away recently, and she sent a text message to our people in the […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Is my employee’s conference presentation taking credit for my work? My question is one part reaction check, one part management advice. I run a small marketing team that didn’t exist at this company before I created it five years ago. I had some adjacent experience […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I manage someone who’s bored and grumpy at work I work on a small team and manage one person, A. The nature of A’s work can often be quite monotonous and she knew this might be the case when she joined. A is the type […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I reported a manager, who’s now trashing me whenever my name comes up I need a gut check here. This has been really bothering me but I’m not sure it’s really a big deal or if I just need to be more resilient. I previously […]