Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My employee gives me constant unnecessary status updates One of my employees tells me about everything she’s working on. For example, she is planning a community-wide event and she spent a day making phone calls to community partners. After each call, she came and gave […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker is pushing me to hire her daughter I am the hiring manager for an entry-level position. The daughter of the front desk manager applied for the position. Her resume was great, but her cover letter had two words misspelled, including in the organization […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Colleagues keep asking when I’ll have kids I work at a nonprofit that serves the needs of children. I am in different classrooms all the time and work with kids who have significant trauma. I love my job and the kids I work with tremendously. […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. There’s a rumor I had a physical fight with a staff member, but I didn’t I just found out from one of my staff, Fergus, that two of his coworkers, Betty and Veronica, told him when he was hired a year ago that I had […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. How to tell my friend I don’t want to hire her I was recently made manager of a small tourist shop. The shop is open six months out of the year and my job is to hire/fire, order supplies, and keep the place up and […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker doesn’t follow her own fragrance ban I have a coworker who’s sensitive to smells. It’s so bad that our entire office is under a strict “no heavy perfume or scented lotions” rule. The person who’s “sensitive” is so sensitive that she claims to get […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Should resigning managers share info about team members with their replacements? I’m preparing to leave my job (by choice), and am training my newly-hired replacement at the moment. This position supervises several folks, and one of them in particular is … quirky. He is compassionate, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss said I could work from anywhere — but keeps telling me to come into the office I started a new job about six months ago. The company is based in City A, and I live far away (multi-hour flight, different time zone far) […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. How much can my dog bark at work before it’s a problem? I work at a very laid-back tech startup that not only allows, but encourages employees to bring their dogs in everyday. However, my own dog (Waffles) is very fearful and reactive towards most […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Interviewer asked me how much I wanted the job on a scale of 1-10 I recently had an interview with an organization I had been excited about. At the end of the interview — after I asked my questions and before I left — the […]