March 2016

am I too quiet in interviews?

A reader writes: I’m an experienced senior personal assistant. I’ve worked in the public sector and for large financial institutions supporting directors. I’ve had a dozen interviews in the past two weeks, including second interviews, but no job yet. What I’m confused about is that when I get feedback, it’s so mixed! A couple of […]

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my manager is terrible at PowerPoint, having employees’ backs against racist clients, and more

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager is terrible at PowerPoint My manager creates PowerPoints that are very bad. Is this likely to hurt us in clients’ eyes, or am I nitpicking? The presentations are visually cluttered, filled with mismatched font pairings and cheesy stock photos, and spattered with inconsistent capitalization. […]

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how can I stop obsessing over a harsh email?

A reader writes: I am a staff member at a university. There is a large student event taking place in a few weeks, and I am tasked with sending reminder emails to students who haven’t properly submitted paperwork for the event. That list of students is generated by the office hosting the event, and I […]

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my coworker won’t stop asking me for help

A reader writes: I currently work with a coworker who is the same grade as me. I like my job and have been only in this department for 6 months. She has been doing this same position for at least 18 months. I am still trying to learn the work, as there is a lot to know. […]

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how to tell if an employee’s workload is too high

If you have an employee who tells you that her workload is too high or who can’t get through everything on her plate, in some cases you’ll know pretty quickly that she’s right; you’ll be able to see for yourself that the workload is indeed overwhelming. But in other cases, you might not feel quite […]

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