my boss spends too much personal money on us by Alison Green on September 18, 2019 A reader writes: I work at a nonprofit institution, and my coworkers and I are paid far below market value for our skills. My manager Sam knows this and has advocated for us, but our industry and salary bands being what they are, this is unlikely to change anytime soon. In light of these facts […] Read the full article →
my boss’s angry husband calls multiple times a day for her by Alison Green on September 18, 2019 A reader writes: I work in a customer service type role where I routinely deal with people face-to-face and also answer queries on the telephone, and I am required to be considerate about taking calls if I have customers waiting in line to talk to me. The working environment can be very busy but it’s […] Read the full article →
I’m my boss’s favorite — and it sucks by Alison Green on September 17, 2019 A reader writes: I’ve had my current position at a small nonprofit for about nine months. My coworker, Liz, and I have the same boss, but she has a slightly higher-level position than me and has reported to our boss a few years more than I have. Neither of us like our boss very much, […] Read the full article →
my boss has 10,000 unread emails by Alison Green on September 11, 2019 A reader writes: Is it ever normal to have 10,000+ unread emails in your professional inbox? Yesterday I inadvertently saw that my boss had 10,965 unread emails. She is a general counsel of a medium-sized company and does not seem to be overloaded with work. The majority of her team (around six people) are very […] Read the full article →
my boss wants me to take on a new task – and I don’t want to! by Alison Green on September 3, 2019 A reader writes: I started a new job about four months ago in my field, but in an entirely new role. I have been in customer-facing tech support for the past six years, and was extremely excited to have my first non-customer facing role. Now I do mostly technical writing and lots of project-based content […] Read the full article →
my boss has ideas all the time — and I don’t know which ones she’s serious about by Alison Green on September 3, 2019 A reader writes: I have a problem with my boss. She is really good at the substance of what we are doing but has a random approach to management. She is very much an Ideas All The Time person; I am her unofficial deputy and I manage a lot of our department’s planning and all […] Read the full article →
my boss gave me critical feedback without any specifics by Alison Green on August 21, 2019 A reader writes: I was having a difficult conversation with my boss regarding career development when she interjected that someone on another team that I work with, she couldn’t say who, said that I “wasn’t working with enough urgency.” I asked for clarification or a specific example of a project I did not complete on […] Read the full article →
our boss cross-examines us over minor mistakes by Alison Green on August 21, 2019 A reader writes: I was wondering if you had any advice for dealing with a boss who really digs in whenever a mistake is made. It’s not enough to acknowledge responsibility and to promise you won’t make the same mistake again; he wants to know “why” you made the mistake in the first place. Fortunately, […] Read the full article →
my boss lectured me about arriving on time – when I’m working a ton of hours by Alison Green on August 13, 2019 A reader writes: I need help to decide if what has happened at work is going to be my hill to die on (or resign on). I started on at a new company about eight months ago. I originally was excited, as it was a bump in title and responsibilities and would put me more on […] Read the full article →
how can I get my boss to talk to me in person instead of over chat? by Alison Green on July 18, 2019 A reader writes: I work in a small office that has had a pretty liberal remote work and flex hours policy for years, and about one-third of our employees live out of state and are thus permanently remote. Due to this, a lot of communication between employees has historically taken place over the office chat […] Read the full article →