does my staff resent me for being frequently out of the office? by Alison Green on March 11, 2024 A reader writes: I am the director of a small organization. Since we’re so small, I have day-to-day tasks along with more responsibilities such as board meetings, weekend and evening events, media relations, and external meetings. As we grow, I am finding more demands on my time, and I am often on the run, headed […] Read the full article →
I’m buying a business — how do I tell one employee (who’s currently my coworker) that I’m not keeping her on? by Alison Green on March 6, 2024 A reader writes: I am a healthcare provider buying a practice that I have worked at for the past three years. This will be an asset purchase, meaning legally all employees will be considered terminated by the previous business and re-hired by me (if I choose). There is one employee who has been there about […] Read the full article →
employee keeps trash-talking her own work by Alison Green on March 6, 2024 A reader writes: I’m working a large project with Hank, another manager who is my peer. We have divided our workload, and I am primarily supervising three of our staff, while Hank is supervising the remaining two. I have a friendly relationship with Samantha, one of the staff members who Hank supervises. She regularly complains […] Read the full article →
my employee makes up words and is impossible to understand by Alison Green on March 5, 2024 A reader writes: I have an employee in a technical role (my small team is all technical, including me) who seems to make up words and concepts when he’s talking about things. The results of this are an echo of the issues in the first letter in this previous post but in that case you, […] Read the full article →
my best employee is disappointed that I’m not dealing with a bad employee by Alison Green on March 4, 2024 A reader writes: I am a newish manager and dealing with a staff personality conflict I’d love some help with. About six months ago, I became the manager of a business I’ll call The Teapot Emporium (I’m trying to anonymize this so I’m going to use tea as a stand-in). The various staff members there […] Read the full article →
can I teach a very disorganized employee to be more independent? by Alison Green on February 28, 2024 A reader writes: I have a question about helping my employee get organized. She has two pivotal job duties which are closely tied but not directly linked — I could technically have two people doing each piece separately, but the volume as a small business doesn’t warrant that number of employees. Think the relationship between […] Read the full article →
my employee eavesdrops on me by Alison Green on February 21, 2024 A reader writes: At first I thought I was being paranoid, but on three separate occasions, I’ve wrapped up a closed door conversation others in our C-suite, only to discover my employee directly outside my door. Our office set-up is odd; we’re essentially one huge office that was cut into thirds–one side is her office […] Read the full article →
my employee is hassling coworkers about their clothes by Alison Green on February 19, 2024 A reader asks: I hired a new team member, “Jane,” six months ago. She’s competent and diligent, but now that she’s coming out of her shell, her rigidity around her idea of professional norms are alienating her team members as well as other people on staff: * She complains about women colleagues’ workwear for being […] Read the full article →
my former employee lied to get a new job — should I do anything? by Alison Green on February 14, 2024 A reader writes: Recently I became aware that a former employee of mine had landed a new job with a new employer. Kudos to him! But the job he got is well beyond his abilities and experience, by about 10 years. He jumped about three levels, to an equivalent level to mine. Curious, I checked […] Read the full article →
employee wants a higher raise than she earned by Alison Green on February 13, 2024 A reader writes: I have an employee whose yearly review I am working to wrap up. After the initial review, we usually discuss a raise, based on what was discussed in the review. We typically would expect a 2-5% raise for this person. I got an email from her requesting a 13.15% raise. I don’t […] Read the full article →