employee keeps trash-talking her own work by Alison Green on March 6, 2024 A reader writes: I’m working a large project with Hank, another manager who is my peer. We have divided our workload, and I am primarily supervising three of our staff, while Hank is supervising the remaining two. I have a friendly relationship with Samantha, one of the staff members who Hank supervises. She regularly complains […] Read the full article →
my employee makes up words and is impossible to understand by Alison Green on March 5, 2024 A reader writes: I have an employee in a technical role (my small team is all technical, including me) who seems to make up words and concepts when he’s talking about things. The results of this are an echo of the issues in the first letter in this previous post but in that case you, […] Read the full article →
my best employee is disappointed that I’m not dealing with a bad employee by Alison Green on March 4, 2024 A reader writes: I am a newish manager and dealing with a staff personality conflict I’d love some help with. About six months ago, I became the manager of a business I’ll call The Teapot Emporium (I’m trying to anonymize this so I’m going to use tea as a stand-in). The various staff members there […] Read the full article →
can I teach a very disorganized employee to be more independent? by Alison Green on February 28, 2024 A reader writes: I have a question about helping my employee get organized. She has two pivotal job duties which are closely tied but not directly linked — I could technically have two people doing each piece separately, but the volume as a small business doesn’t warrant that number of employees. Think the relationship between […] Read the full article →
my employee eavesdrops on me by Alison Green on February 21, 2024 A reader writes: At first I thought I was being paranoid, but on three separate occasions, I’ve wrapped up a closed door conversation others in our C-suite, only to discover my employee directly outside my door. Our office set-up is odd; we’re essentially one huge office that was cut into thirds–one side is her office […] Read the full article →
my employee is hassling coworkers about their clothes by Alison Green on February 19, 2024 A reader asks: I hired a new team member, “Jane,” six months ago. She’s competent and diligent, but now that she’s coming out of her shell, her rigidity around her idea of professional norms are alienating her team members as well as other people on staff: * She complains about women colleagues’ workwear for being […] Read the full article →
my former employee lied to get a new job — should I do anything? by Alison Green on February 14, 2024 A reader writes: Recently I became aware that a former employee of mine had landed a new job with a new employer. Kudos to him! But the job he got is well beyond his abilities and experience, by about 10 years. He jumped about three levels, to an equivalent level to mine. Curious, I checked […] Read the full article →
employee wants a higher raise than she earned by Alison Green on February 13, 2024 A reader writes: I have an employee whose yearly review I am working to wrap up. After the initial review, we usually discuss a raise, based on what was discussed in the review. We typically would expect a 2-5% raise for this person. I got an email from her requesting a 13.15% raise. I don’t […] Read the full article →
is it normal to cancel days off for a resigning employee? by Alison Green on February 13, 2024 A reader writes: I am a new manager, though I’ve led individual contributors on project-based work for a large part of my career. My direct manager, “Sam,” said something puzzling to me last week and I’ve been chewing on it all weekend. One of my direct reports, “Drew,” put in their two-week notice on Monday. […] Read the full article →
my assistant keeps arguing with me by Alison Green on February 12, 2024 A reader writes: I’m a new manager. My assistant was close with the previous manager who I took over from, and it’s been a bit of a challenge creating a good relationship with her. Any time I make a decision for our team, she constantly asks why and she quite often says, “That’s not how […] Read the full article →