July 2020

my new boss is an elder in a sexist church

A reader writes: My new boss is an elder in his church which has very old-fashioned beliefs about women. They believe that the role of women is to obey their husbands unquestioningly and more or less only speak when spoken to, at least when there is a man present. I don’t have a problem with […]

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my employee asked for a 170% raise

A reader writes: I am a new manager, and one of my reports has asked for a massive raise. He has good reasons for wanting a raise: his responsibilities have ended up being very different than what he was originally hired for, he’s been doing very well with them, and he’s definitely paid below market […]

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am I in the wrong about my employee’s COVID exposure?

A reader writes: My husband and I own a micro-business and have 1.5 post-Covid employees. Our full-time employee reported a possible exposure last week. He is considered essential so we reinforced precautions based on CDC recommendations for those who have unconfirmed exposure. The person he was exposed to was his girlfriend. The next day after […]

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my coworker screamed at me and HR hasn’t done anything

A reader writes: I’m writing about a situation from last year that in many ways is still unresolved, in the hopes that I can learn to navigate situations like this in the future. Last January, a woman in another unit and a different chain of command, Dolores, gave my unit a small piece of an ongoing […]

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should I tell future managers about my ADHD?

A reader writes: Growing up as a child, I constantly struggled to focus. In school I understood the work, but because I lacked focus and could not hold my attention in the classroom. Every parent-teacher meeting was the same: “Your son is so intelligent and can achieve so much, but he is so disruptive and […]

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a terrible employee asked me for a reference

A reader writes: I have received a reference request for one of our former employees. I had told this student that I was not hiring her back because she wasn’t reliable. She would cancel her shifts at the last minute, not making an effort to find a replacement. She wouldn’t do anything unless I told […]

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people who claim they can’t wear masks, coworker’s Disney vacation, and other questions about COVID-19 and work

My mailbox is overflowing with COVID-19 questions, so let’s tackle a bunch of them at once. 1. Patients who claim they can’t wear masks to their appointments I’ve seen a post circulating through social media stating that businesses cannot require customers to wear masks under the ADA. It says that if asked to wear a […]

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I’m my boss’s favorite, infertility at work, and more

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I’m my boss’s favorite and it’s awkward I have been at my job for two years and have a difficult, narcissist boss. However, he and I usually get along pretty well and he definitely realizes I am a valuable asset to our growing office. I […]

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