Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Should we really have “fun” out-of-office messages? At a company-sponsored women’s networking event last year, a speaker suggested that people should make their out-of-office messages more “fun” — i.e., include details about where you’re going, who you’re going with, fun facts about the location, etc. […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Potential job wants me to tell my current job I’m interviewing with them I had an initial phone interview today with one of current company’s vendors. This vendor provides the software that tracks all the manufacturing and inventory activities for the product we make. They […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Wearing revealing clothes to exercise around coworkers I’m a young woman at my first corporate job in a male-dominated field. I go to the gym across the street after work on most days; it’s not affiliated with the company. For comfort and convenience, I often […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Coworker wants to withhold PTO as punishment We have a series of educational seminars by coworkers every month. I am expected to attend 80% of these seminars, online or in person (preferred). Attendance is monitored through completion of an anonymous survey with a follow-up page […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker is taking credit for my work when she applies for jobs I work in a creative and highly competitive industry. I have a longstanding problem where a coworker, Bella, has been taking credit for my work, without actually producing any work of her […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I went over my (bad) manager’s head and she’s upset I work in a very specialized field of medical research, on a very small team. Shortly after I was hired, upper management filled the vacant role of my team’s manager with someone who has no […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Candidate’s mom keeps emailing to follow up on her behalf I’m in a position to hire older teens (usually just graduated high school) for a summer job. I have a question about how to handle an applicant’s mom. The child applied, but their mom keeps […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. When a job offer will require learning a new language and is 5,500 miles away My spouse was invited to apply for an academic professor job at a university 5,500 miles away (different continent and hemisphere!). He passed the first interview with the department he’d […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. We’re supposed to send compliments for Women’s History Month I wanted your take on this because for reasons I can’t entirely explain, it feels “icky” to me. We received an email today through our D&I committee about a new Praise function in Teams that the […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My boss edits emails before forwarding them to his wife My boss always forwards every convo in an email chain. However, when he forwards anything to his wife (who is the accountant), he deletes certain threads I have written. Specifically, one recent example was one […]