Ask a Manager

Remember the letter-writer whose anti-vax employee was pressuring a coworker not to vaccinate her baby? Here’s the update. I really appreciated your advice and several of the thoughts from the commenters as well. I have weekly one-on-ones with each member of my team, so after reading your response, I used that next meeting with Cordelia […]

Remember the letter-writer whose doctor’s office constantly left them on hold while they needed to be working? Here’s the update. I wrote in a few months ago about struggling to schedule doctor’s appointments when I worked at a busy reception desk. Thanks very much to both you and the kind commenters who offered sympathy and […]

Remember the letter-writer whose coworker screamed at them and HR hadn’t done anything? Here’s the update. I wrote to you back in 2020 about an incident from 2019 where a coworker had a screaming tantrum. I very much appreciated your input, and that of your commentariat. Nothing much happened regarding HR and my yelling coworker, […]

Remember the letter-writer whose mother was pressuring her to babysit their brother in their office after school? Here’s the update — and some more advice from me. Thank you for answering my letter! It was too late to reply to the comments after work, but I’ll address some of them here: For those asking if […]

Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. How do I manage a “regular” job with a parallel career as a musician? I asked about career advice for musicians a long time ago, and I’ve waited a long time to have an update I felt like sending. Unfortunately, the last few years have just been […]

Remember the letter-writer whose new boss treated her like his assistant … which isn’t what she was hired for? Here’s the update. I did follow your advice and speak with HR. They listened to my concerns and to their credit they launched an “investigation.” I know that at some point they found my claims credible […]

Here are five updates from past letter-writers. 1. Is it weird to incorporate martial arts at my job? (first update) I’ve got one more update for you. You know how I mentioned contamination risks? We ended up having a contamination issue (unrelated to the question I asked) that took over a year to recover from. […]

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are five updates from past letter-writers. 1. Should I tell my boss I want his job? (#5 at the link) I did take your advice and tell […]

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are five updates from past letter-writers. 1. How do I reject a qualified former coworker? (#4 at the link) I have a brief update with a bit […]

Remember the letter-writer whose awful coworker’s employees wanted her to help them? Here’s the update. First, I decided to back down for a while. Soon after “the flop,” one of John’s better employees cut his losses, left a scathing exit interview, and took a job hundreds of miles away. An even more experienced employee — […]