my new boss scolded us about our private chat messages by Alison Green on November 14, 2022 A reader writes: I’m wondering how to address a doozy of an email my new boss sent yesterday, which has left my coworkers and me uncomfortable and a bit panicky. In this email to my whole department, she stated HR and senior leadership had informed her about a private chat group connected to our team […] Read the full article →
I work at Twitter … what do I do? by Alison Green on November 14, 2022 A reader writes: I work at Twitter and have been there for many years. As I’m sure you’ve seen, Twitter was just bought by Elon Musk and ever since the deal closed two weeks ago, the company has been literally falling apart. I was fortunate enough to survive the round of layoffs in his first […] Read the full article →
my boss wants to know what the private appointments on my calendar are by Alison Green on November 9, 2022 A reader writes: The norm at my org, like many, is to keep your calendar updated so that meetings can be scheduled without doing the “Are you available at X time?” dance. Because of this, I include non-work appointments on my calendar, and I typically mark them as “private.” In the past month, I’ve done […] Read the full article →
our boss gave a lecture about self-care to our very overworked team by Alison Green on November 2, 2022 A reader writes: I work on a small, fully remote team that’s currently in a hiring freeze and understaffed. We are all covering multiple people’s jobs and heavily overworked. We are regularly working late and through weekends, and in the past month alone we have had three employees resign with nothing lined up because they […] Read the full article →
my manager insists on unreasonable deadlines for my projects by Alison Green on November 1, 2022 A reader writes: My manager regularly hands me projects that have unreasonable deadlines. I’ve tried to push back or offer alternatives, but the conversations usually go like this: Manager: “We need to do an updated training for the Blue team. Can you do an overhaul of the materials and present it?” Me: “Sure. It will […] Read the full article →
my boss keeps commenting on my acne by Alison Green on October 27, 2022 A reader writes: I (30F) got a new supervisor in the last six months, who is also part of the C-suite. She is very talented, knowledgeable, and friendly. She has done a lot in terms of supporting and mentoring me, and I am really appreciative of her efforts. However, one issue with her is that […] Read the full article →
can I tell my boss I’m a bad fit for my job? by Alison Green on October 26, 2022 A reader writes: Since early 2021, I have been working as an administrative assistant in a fairly specific field (think a specialized field within a larger industry). I changed jobs in June of this year, as my previous role was only part-time and that wasn’t working out for me. There were some other culture issues […] Read the full article →
my mysterious boss disappears for hours and can’t be reached by Alison Green on October 26, 2022 A reader writes: I work on a small team. The nature of my job means that I often need to check in with other team members about my projects before moving forward. I also regularly need to contact my manager, Dave, to get info/data that only he is authorized to pull. Unfortunately, Dave is frequently […] Read the full article →
can I ask my boss to coach me on professionalism? by Alison Green on October 24, 2022 A reader writes: I’ve recently started a new job and in, reflecting on my work experience, I’ve realized that I’m not nearly as attuned to professional norms as I would like to be. Given my background, it’s not terribly surprising. My parents are musicians, and there were large parts of my childhood that we spent […] Read the full article →
how do I rebuild trust in my incompetent manager? by Alison Green on October 20, 2022 A reader writes: My manager was an amazing individual contributor, but a year in, it’s fairly obvious that management is not a good fit for her. She’s defensive, disorganized, thin-skinned, and quick to blame others. But I love the rest of my job, so I’ve made my peace with this trade-off and found ways to […] Read the full article →