I worked remotely from a friend’s house — and my boss says I have to count it as vacation days by Alison Green on October 23, 2023 A reader writes: I work as a development director for a nonprofit for a specific region. I have been in my job for four years and have been very successful in my role. I have worked primarily from home because I write a lot of grants and reports, and my office doesn’t have private spaces […] Read the full article →
my coworkers complain I’m violating the dress code, but I’m not by Alison Green on October 18, 2023 A reader writes: I started a new role in a very corporate environment in December. At the time I was actually interviewing for a lower level position with Company X but the department managers who interviewed me apparently liked my skill set and interview performance enough to create an entirely new position just for me. […] Read the full article →
I had to quit a job because of aggressive nesting geese by Alison Green on October 17, 2023 A reader writes: I’m writing about a past situation that I still think about. I used to work in retail as a high school junior from August to March. I live in the midwest, where geese are pretty common in the spring. What was weird about this one though was that it decided to nest […] Read the full article →
when my boss wants me to do something I really don’t want to do, can I just … not? by Alison Green on October 17, 2023 A reader writes: I work as a political/administrative assistant and my boss is incredibly busy (as am I). She is an important political person who also oversees our organization, and her schedules change a lot. Very often I need to reschedule meetings, whole days, and whole weeks on her calendar because something extremely important comes […] Read the full article →
today is the weirdest day of the year for workers by Alison Green on October 16, 2023 Today is officially Boss’s Day, and sensible workplaces should pretend it doesn’t exist. At Slate today, I wrote about why this made-up holiday is downright offensive, shared some of the most ridiculous accounts I’ve heard from workers about how their offices handle it, and advised managers on how they can stop the practice in their […] Read the full article →
my boss says I should always be available on my days off by Alison Green on October 3, 2023 A reader writes: I’m a managing attorney working in-house in a large corporation. I manage an attorney and two paralegals currently, and expect my team to grow in the next two years. We have a policy that there always needs to be coverage when someone is on PTO. Generally, that’s not a problem. Recently though, […] Read the full article →
why don’t we do a better job of training managers? by Alison Green on September 26, 2023 Why don’t we do a better job of training managers? How effectively a team is managed has a huge impact on what results it achieves … so it’s bizarre that we routinely throw people into management roles without any training whatsoever or with training that’s woefully insufficient. At Slate today, I wrote about why it’s […] Read the full article →
my coworker pressures me to take his shifts at the last minute … because he knows I can’t afford to say no by Alison Green on September 21, 2023 A reader writes: When I was hired for my current job, it was for overnights, with the understanding that I would work three to four days per week. I was also trained on the evening shift. Since those training shifts, all my shifts have been overnights. I was also assured that I could move to […] Read the full article →
my coworkers are annoyed when I’m 2-3 minutes late to meetings by Alison Green on September 20, 2023 A reader writes: I am generally reliable and conscientious in my job, but sometimes I am slightly late to meetings. (Shock! Horror!) By slightly late, I mean two or three minutes. I work remotely, so these are all virtual calls, usually with video. Frequently, at about two minutes after the start time, a coworker will […] Read the full article →
all the men I work with go on an annual camping trip together, and women aren’t allowed by Alison Green on September 19, 2023 A reader writes: I work at a religiously-affiliated single-sex secondary school in the U.S. (all male). About 65% of our faculty is male, compared with the 35% of us who are female (myself included). For 40 years, each year after school lets out for the summer, the men who teach and work here organize an […] Read the full article →