my coworker/friend is abusing work-from-home privileges by Alison Green on March 30, 2020 A reader writes: My company started everyone on work from home recently due to COVID-19. I have two close work friends and we still chat regularly online. All of us take little breaks for non-work activities (switching laundry over, grabbing a snack) but I have tried to make sure I walk away from my computer […] Read the full article →
let’s see your animal coworkers by Alison Green on March 26, 2020 With so much stressful content lately, we need more animal photos. Since so many people are working at home right now, we need to see photos of your animal colleagues — your cat on your keyboard, your dog in your desk chair, your ferret on a conference call. Submit your pets-working-at-home photos to pets@askamanager.org and […] Read the full article →
I saw my coworkers’ chat conversation insulting our boss – who is also my father by Alison Green on March 24, 2020 A reader writes: I recently started working full-time at the company run by my father. It has around 20 employees, and I took over a position from someone who left to pursue work in another field. In taking over his duties, my company email account was merged with his. He had turned off his email […] Read the full article →
I think my coworker is lying about having a sick kid by Alison Green on March 23, 2020 A reader writes: If you were our boss, would you want to know this or I should I ignore it? I have a coworker who has a sick kid. He frequently needs to take time off. My other coworkers and my boss and I are always understanding. We have done his work when he is […] Read the full article →
did I overreact to my argument with a coworker? by Alison Green on March 19, 2020 A reader writes: I have a question about a situation I encountered in my previous job. I am a software engineer. Like many tech companies, my previous office made heavy use of Slack, including several automated notifications, aka bots (for example, if an error showed up in the logs, we might get a notification from […] Read the full article →
my coworkers have a crush on my boss … and are taking it out on me by Alison Green on March 18, 2020 A reader writes: I’m the executive assistant for a small company. I’m the direct support for the VP of human resources, “Dave,” who is very charismatic and likable and a generally nice guy. He’s also very good looking. However, he’s very professional with great business boundaries. I enjoy working with him. Two managers in particular, […] Read the full article →
why do highly qualified people stay at dysfunctional companies? by Alison Green on March 17, 2020 A reader writes: What motivation do good, highly qualified managers have to stay at a company where there’s lots of strife and politics? Nearly a year ago, my large, multinational company hired an Evil VP. He’s located in the new headquarters in the U.S. while our office of 50 people is in a different country. […] Read the full article →
I exposed myself at work because my coworkers didn’t believe I had cancer by Alison Green on March 11, 2020 A reader writes: I made a huge mistake and I am trying the best way to dig myself out of this mess. In 2018, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had surgery to remove that cancer and one breast in early 2019. My recovery went smoother than expected and I ended up just needing […] Read the full article →
my coworker had an affair with my wife by Alison Green on March 10, 2020 A reader writes: A few months ago, I found out my wife was having an affair with one of my teammates. I reported the incident to my boss, who then reported it to their boss. I was allowed to work from home for a week following the reporting to allow time for the teammate to […] Read the full article →
my coworkers won’t stop telling me about their ideas for my work by Alison Green on March 9, 2020 A reader writes: I’m a teen librarian. I work directly with kids in grades 6 through 12. This lends towards a fascination with my job. It’s sort of specialized, as far as library services go, as teens are a bit odd. My coworkers keep having ideas of how I can interact with the teens who […] Read the full article →