the surprising agony of office coffee culture by Alison Green on March 25, 2024 You would think supplying employees with coffee would be a relatively straightforward task and yet … sometimes it’s anything but. At Slate today, I wrote about office coffee wars — from workplaces with intense bureaucratic in-fighting over coffee supplies, to meetings that get hijacked to debate coffee issues, to outrage when people bring in their […] Read the full article →
employee uses the bathroom stall with the door wide open by Alison Green on March 25, 2024 A reader writes: I have (what I think is) an outlandish question for you, but I promise it’s true. It comes from my coworker’s spouse. At her place of employment, they have found it difficult to retain anyone in the administrative assistant position. It sounds like there was a lot of turnover in that role, […] Read the full article →
my satellite team resents that we don’t get the perks offered at our headquarters by Alison Green on March 19, 2024 A reader writes: I manage a small team (less than 10) in a small city that is a three-hour drive from the company’s main site and headquarters, which is in a large urban area. Due to nature of our work, all my employees need to be on-site, but I try to be liberal with letting […] Read the full article →
how do people take months off from work to film a reality TV show? by Alison Green on March 13, 2024 A reader writes: I’m watching my country’s Big Brother, and I’ve noticed the employment ranges of the contestants tend to be either “gig economy” (bartender, delivery) which, to not denigrate how important those positions are, is less likely to come with the psychological attachment to the job as someone who’s worked up their career ladder […] Read the full article →
there’s nothing I can do about my nightmare workload … right? by Alison Green on March 13, 2024 A reader writes: I’m in a rough spot at work. When I started nearly two years ago, this was a six-person company: two owners and four staff. One staff member, who split a workload with me, moved away a few months later. They posted his position immediately, but nobody from the first wave of applicants […] Read the full article →
is it reasonable to leave without notice when my company lets employees go without notice? by Alison Green on March 12, 2024 A reader writes: I am a senior software engineer at a mid-sized company. My team became part of this company through an acquisition three years ago. Within the first year of the acquisition, our product managers (“Joey” and “Chandler”) were let go as a “business decision.” Joey and Chandler were subject matter experts who shared […] Read the full article →
how does unlimited PTO actually play out in companies that have it? by Alison Green on March 7, 2024 It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes: I’m currently in the running for a job that offers unlimited PTO. I am trying to find out if this company has a culture that actually allows people to use this “perk” (without abuse), or if people are afraid to take PTO for fear of […] Read the full article →
the special notepads, the staggered departures, and other stories of ridiculous policies at work by Alison Green on March 4, 2024 Last week I asked about ridiculous policies you’ve encountered at work. Here are 18 of the most ridiculous you shared. 1. The notepads I had a boss who insisted that only her notes could be on yellow legal pads (8.5 by 14), and her sales staff all had to take notes on white paper at […] Read the full article →
how should we handle a dog-phobic employee in a dog-friendly office? by Alison Green on March 4, 2024 A reader writes: We’ve recently moved into a new office space which is dog-friendly. This is great news for many of our employees, who are able to avoid costly sitters and walkers. However, one employee, Jane, is really dog-phobic. Today another colleague (Lucille) brought her dog in for the first time. I warned her that […] Read the full article →
it’s Leap Day! let’s discuss ridiculous workplace policies by Alison Green on February 29, 2024 It’s Leap Day and so in honor of the Leap Year employee who finally gets her birthday off this year, we must talk about bizarre, nonsensical policies your employers have had. Did they ban humor? Refuse to let you say “how are you?” to customers? Tell you that you couldn’t wear your wedding ring because […] Read the full article →