Ask a Manager

A reader writes: Am I shooting myself in the foot by engaging politically in a public way on social media? And how should I weigh the pros and cons? Will a future employer even check for my social media, and if so, what will they think? Can I just temporarily disable my social media during […]

Just sharing this tweet from Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein about Elon Musk’s “deferred resignation” offer for federal government workers. (Don’t take it! It’s still a trap.) Also, if you remember the letter-writer who worked at Twitter when Elon Musk took over, that same person has sent in this note: I just wanted to thank […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Offering a job to multiple people and giving it to the first one who accepts Decades ago, in the early 2000s, my friend was offered an assistant professor position at a university. She was told that the same job was being offered to several other […]

Here are the posts that interested people the most in 2024, via two lists: the most viewed posts and the most commented on posts. Most viewed posts of 2024: 10. my company says we can’t wear underwire bras 9. my coworkers are engaged but one of them is cheating … with my boss 8. is […]

Here are my favorite posts of 2024, in no particular order: 1. how much can I pet my cat on video calls? Because this is asking the important question. 2. I spent a ton of time helping 2 employees who hate each other … now they’re dating Because people are so weird. 3. I think […]

All year long, I’ve made a weekly book recommendation when kicking off the weekend open thread. These aren’t work-related books; they’re just books I like, mostly fiction. Sometimes they’re books that I’m in the middle of reading, and other times they’re just long-standing favorites. Here’s the complete list of what I’ve recommended this year (maybe […]

A reader writes: This may be cheating as an “update” since I am not the original person who wrote in about AI attending meetings, but I still thought it might be interesting/useful to you and your readers! Today I was in a Zoom meeting: a regular small meeting to publish a paper. I noticed an […]