December 2016

updates: was I asked to a fake interview by someone who was lonely or looking for dates, coworkers are complaining about my hours, and more

Continuing our annual December “where are they now” series, here are four more updates from people who had their questions answered here this year. 1. Was I asked to a fake interview by someone who was lonely or looking for dates? You ran my letter back in July, about a bizarre interview I had in June […]

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should you ask resigning employees to leave immediately?

A reader writes: If an employee puts in their notice, should you always let them work through the end date they have given? I think it’s fairly common for an employee to be walked out if they are going to a direct competitor. However, what if the concern is that they will be a distraction […]

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update: I’m in charge of assigning work to my manager, but he won’t do it

Remember the letter-writer who was put in charge of assigning work to her manager, who wouldn’t do much of it? Her manager, “Frank,” was regularly missing deadlines and messing up projects. His own boss, “Rebecca,” declined to actually manage the situation and instead put the letter-writer in charge of assigning work to Frank and nudging him […]

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updates: coworker with anxiety keeps asking us to drive her home, my boss never returns my work on time, and more

Continuing our annual December “where are they now” series, here are four more updates from people who had their questions answered here this year. 1. Coworker with anxiety keeps asking us to drive her home and stay there with her I showed several coworkers the response to my question on here, and they all thought it […]

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I’m doing my boss’s job for him

A reader writes: To put it bluntly, I need some help figuring out how much of my boss’ job I should do for him. I work as one of two staff that run a particular program, within a larger department at a nonprofit. We also work with two administrative assistants who provide support to all […]

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update: is my employee lying about needing bereavement leave?

Remember the letter-writer wondering if her already untrustworthy employee was lying about leaving bereavement leave? Here’s the update. I really want to thank you and the comment section on this one. I kind of took a beating in the comments, but I think that it made me realize that I was failing at being an […]

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update: I said “EEOC” and things got weird

Remember the letter-writer who was invited to a dinner to discuss swapping jobs with a junior male colleague, told her boss it sounded like an EEOC complaint in the making, and then later was told she had damaged her relationships in the office as a result? Here’s the update. Well, I’m still in the Office of […]

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how to tell if you have a good boss

You might think it’s easy to tell whether you have a good boss or not. But I regularly hear people describe their managers as being great for reasons like “she’s laid-back” or “he always pitches in to help us when we’re on a deadline crunch” or “she helped me get into grad school.” Those things […]

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