Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. How to tell a pushy networker to back off I’m a relatively new professional in my field and I’m increasingly finding myself in a place where even newer professionals are asking to talk about getting started after school, or asking for advice. As someone who […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Employee’s boyfriend keeps making her late for work I manage an employee, who does good work. She is dating a colleague in another division. This is fine in principle as our company has no policy on dating coworkers and they work in different departments. Over […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworkers are joking that I’m pregnant when I’m not The company I work for is really small and we tune into the same local radio station every day. The station has a tiny listener base and our song requests have become so frequent that […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My team is reorganizing and I’m going to report to a peer My manager called me the other to tell he was making some changes, and I may not like them. But he doesn’t want me to see this as a demotion. He is going […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Employee keeps challenging my expertise I’m a new manager at a small advertising start-up that has a very open and transparent culture. I actively encourage my team to challenge and disagree with me, but I’m having issues with one of them doing so in a […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. We ask all job candidates to give us PowerPoint presentations I work at a small (around 50 people now) start-up in the industrial biotech sphere. The way my company conducts interviews is that a candidate is asked to give a 30-40 minute PowerPoint presentation, regardless […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Everyone got laid off except for me I work for a small business (3-5 employees) and I had known the company was having some financial trouble for some time. Everyone in my office got laid off except for me. I was offered a small raise […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can I use a heating pad for cramps at work? I am the only woman working full-time at a small company (we have one other woman on staff who, after a successful internship, was hired part-time). For what it’s worth, my boss is very conservative […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss thinks our new hire shouldn’t be using a disabled parking pass I am an office manager and just hired a new staff member. She has a handicap card hanging from her rear view mirror and has parked in the handicap spot. She does […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I’m supposed to coach a negative employee I work for a company with multiple business units. Our unit is successful and healthy, with a lot of collaboration and employees who stay for years and grow their experience. Another unit is having a lot of problems […]