my boss commented on my work with a puke emoji, coworker is upset I’m pregnant, and more by Alison Green on September 21, 2020 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss commented on my work with a puke emoji I work in a PR agency and we are planning a webinar for our most important client. These recent weeks have been kind of a nightmare, because everyone is working remotely for the first time […] Read the full article →
weekend open thread – September 19-20, 2020 by Alison Green on September 19, 2020 This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. Here are the rules for the weekend posts. Book recommendation of the week: The Two-Family House, by Lynda Cohen Loigman. Two very different brothers, their wives, and children share a two-family house in the 1940s and 50s, and the sisters-in-law, […] Read the full article →
it’s your Friday good news by Alison Green on September 18, 2020 It’s your Friday good news, with more accounts of success even in this weird time. 1. I’ve been working my first real full time job after college for the last year, and during quarantine I decided I had had enough. With the free time from being furloughed, my husband suggested that I apply for jobs […] Read the full article →
open thread – September 18-19, 2020 by Alison Green on September 18, 2020 It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on anything work-related that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to talk to other readers. * […] Read the full article →
not feeling the Hogwarts spirit, who pays for coffee, and more by Alison Green on September 18, 2020 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I don’t want to work at a Hogwarts event I work in a public library, and every year we do a Hogwarts-related event. Since the author has revealed herself as a transphobic bigot, I am not comfortable participating this year, not least because I’m genderqueer […] Read the full article →
should I avoid softening my emails with qualifying language? by Alison Green on September 17, 2020 A reader writes: I am curious about your thoughts on using qualifiers (“I think,” “I believe,” “it seems to me,” etc.) in work emails. I’m a woman in my mid-20s working in grants administration at a nonprofit. I often catch myself writing sentences like “I think the next steps here are…” rather than “The next […] Read the full article →
my employee disagrees with his performance evaluation by Alison Green on September 17, 2020 A reader writes: I am in the process of doing an annual evaluation for one of my employees, I’ll call him Carl, who has been with the company for about a year. We did a six-month evaluation at the end of his probationary period and it did not go well. Even though I felt I […] Read the full article →
I get emotional when customers yell at me by Alison Green on September 17, 2020 It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes: I recently got promoted to assistant manager at an apartment complex and I feel pretty confident that I can do the job well. However, I know that whenever we have residents call in with complaints or we have people coming in and yelling, the calls […] Read the full article →
correcting your boss’s grammar, coaching a peer, and more by Alison Green on September 17, 2020 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Correcting my boss’s grammar One of my pet peeves is grammar errors because in a past life, I taught English composition for many years. The problem is that my supervisor asks me to give feedback on documents she’s put together. Nearly all have had grammar […] Read the full article →
how do I quit when my boss won’t speak to me? by Alison Green on September 16, 2020 A reader writes: Let me preface this by saying, I love my job and I adore my coworkers. My boss and I go back a while; I’ve been their right-hand man for almost a decade. I have worked hard to earn the trust and respect of the folks I work with. We’re definitely one of […] Read the full article →