Ask a Manager

I’m off for a few days. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives. 1. My colleague is allergic to me because of my cats I’m a brand new manager in a public services environment. I have two cats, who are not particularly hairy, […]

I’m off this week. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives. 1. My coworker’s food restrictions mean that I’ll be the one restricted My company is based mainly in two cities. Every so often, we all meet up in one city or another […]

I’m off this week. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives. 1. Should I temporarily live in my boss’s spare bedroom? I’m in a bit of a housing bind, and dealing with some pretty serious anxiety to boot. I mentioned my anxiety issues […]

I’m off today. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives. 1. Giving extra time off to people who get married My friend got married this weekend, and she mentioned to me that her office gives her an extra week of PTO to use […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker was penalized for feedback from me, but I never said those things Recently, during my coworker Wendy’s performance review with her management team, she was denied a raise and demoted on paperwork to someone “still developing” instead of being listed as “meets/exceeds expectations.” […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Employee wants us to pay for an Uber when they have to work late A member of our team does not have a car and uses the bus for transportation. The role has occasional evening work (2-4 times a year), and the bus they take […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Trainer had religious messages on his presentation screen I attended a multi-day training a few months back where the trainer who was running the presentations had extreme religious images/quotes as his laptop background, so every time they were between presentations, the image was projected on […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker is angry that I advocated for myself when I was hired I work as a contractor at a company. I’m paid hourly and work a normal 40-hour work week. My coworker got curious about my contract and my schedule, and I was happy […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Everyone at my new job loves my high school bully I’m an actor and just started rehearsals for a play. A woman who bullied me terribly in high school is active in my city’s theater community. Luckily, I haven’t run into her as I was […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss won’t do anything about my lazy coworker I’ve worked for 14 years as an individual contributor on a team of six technologists. We split the day-to-day work evenly amongst ourselves, and are all used to having to take on a bit more if […]