my employee is overwhelmingly emotionally needy by Alison Green on May 12, 2021 A reader writes: I am a department head for a medium-sized nonprofit. I have eight direct reports and I report directly to the CEO. I am at my wit’s end with one of my reports who needs constant validation to the point of obsession and disruption of my own ability to work and direct my […] Read the full article →
did I make a mistake by reprimanding my direct report’s employee? by Alison Green on May 5, 2021 A reader writes: I’m in a senior management position at my workplace and I supervise a handful of managers. One of these managers (Sarah) is currently dealing with a challenging employee (Ava). Ava has started having lengthy, loud personal conversations in the open office area, which is a problem. Sarah has addressed this with Ava […] Read the full article →
how to recover after yelling at an employee by Alison Green on May 3, 2021 A reader writes: One of my employees has been performing pretty poorly for a while. I’ve met with him and given him feedback, but it hasn’t worked. This afternoon we were scheduled to meet again, where I was planning to draw a harder line. Then he sent me a really rude, sarcastic, inappropriate email this […] Read the full article →
I’m about to be the manager of an employee who made my child cry by Alison Green on May 3, 2021 A reader writes: I am about to take over in a management position for a nonprofit of which I am currently a client. The organization involves rendering a service to my children, so naturally, I hear a lot about the employees from my teenage daughter. Recently, my child asked an employee of the organization a […] Read the full article →
how do I respond to employees asking if they should be worried about an upcoming bad-news meeting? by Alison Green on April 28, 2021 A reader writes: I recently had to schedule a meeting in which I had to tell my team some bad news, that their contracts would be ending in a few months (a decision that was out of my hands but still mine to announce). I tried not to send the meeting invitation too far in […] Read the full article →
my employees won the lottery and quit, but now they want their jobs back by Alison Green on April 26, 2021 A reader writes: I’m a divisional manager. I manage several smaller teams and report to the manager of our entire department. Several years ago (before I worked here), one of the teams won the lottery as a group. The entire team played except for Mary. Mary was invited to play but chose not to. After […] Read the full article →
my new hire is too attractive for me to manage her by Alison Green on April 26, 2021 A reader writes: I feel like a bad manager for even asking this question, but I find one of the new hires assigned to me to be amazingly attractive. I would never act on it, or do or say anything unprofessional, but I find it unbelievably distracting. When I look at the coaching and 1:1 […] Read the full article →
my employee is paranoid — can I help or is it not my business? by Alison Green on April 19, 2021 A reader writes: I lead a small team of four: two assistants who I supervise, and one colleague at my level but who doesn’t have supervisory duties. Because we’re a small team that likes one another, our meetings usually end with personal chatter—nothing boundary-crossing, just normal friendly updates. One assistant, Georgia, has a bit of […] Read the full article →
how can I protect my team from last-minute rushes? by Alison Green on April 19, 2021 A reader writes: I’m a new manager who heads up a team of 12 employees, and I’m having an issue with the other groups that we work with. The other groups have developed a habit of not including my team on work to be performed, then dropping it on us and demanding it be done […] Read the full article →
have I destroyed boundaries with my team during Covid? by Alison Green on April 15, 2021 A reader writes: I’ve been a manager for four years, all at the same location and mostly with the same reports (three people). I’m a pretty private person and didn’t love a previous job that tried to force out-of-work friendships on staff. As a manager I’ve always been a friendly-but-not-friends type, they’re lovely people and […] Read the full article →