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 →
my boss and my employee won’t stop asking me to spend the night at their houses by Alison Green on February 12, 2024 A reader writes: I am a mid-level manager at a medium-sized company. I have worked here for four years now, and this problem has been happening since I started. About six months after I started, my boss invited me to a Halloween party at her house. I felt like I should go because she is […] Read the full article →
what are the ethics around asking an employee not to talk about her raise? by Alison Green on February 8, 2024 A reader writes: I have an employee, we’ll call her Mariah, who worked at our company in a different department for over a year before she applied for an opening in my department. She was stellar in her original role, so I was thrilled to take her. When the transfer was final and she showed […] Read the full article →
I ramble nervously when I give employees feedback by Alison Green on February 7, 2024 A reader writes: Whenever I have to give any challenging feedback to someone I supervise, I tend to ramble on and repeat myself. I want to be sure that I am clear and direct, but then I worry that I was too harsh so I soften things a little. Then I want to give examples […] Read the full article →
my employee meets deadlines … but is much slower than the rest of us by Alison Green on February 6, 2024 A reader writes: I started managing my first direct report a year ago, let’s call her Sondra, and am pleased to say that thanks to my devoted reading of your blog, Sondra recently shared with boss that I did not seem like a first-time manager. There is one issue that I have been wrestling with […] Read the full article →
an employee is out to get my star performer, and no one else cares by Alison Green on February 6, 2024 A reader writes: I manage Tina, who is a genius. She’s fresh from school but has already saved our department tens of thousands. We acquired a few failed companies and Tina dove in, learned all their systems, and automated the pulling of data in a week. This saved us hundreds of hours in training and […] Read the full article →
my employee helped a fired coworker get a new job … and lied to me about it by Alison Green on February 5, 2024 A reader writes: I own a small business and a year ago hired an employee on a work visa, “Meg.” While at my company, she met another employee, “Belinda,” who I ended up firing a few months later due to numerous problems. Knowing that they remained friends, I did not discuss with Meg my reasons […] Read the full article →
my employee faked an email by Alison Green on January 24, 2024 A reader writes: My employee lied and said she cc’d the payroll department on an email about another employee, but payroll didn’t see it in their inbox. When I followed up with her about this, she forwarded the email to payroll “again,” but in fact just typed in “payroll@mycompany.com” in the cc section of the […] Read the full article →
my employee complains he’s overwhelmed while golfing mid-day by Alison Green on January 22, 2024 A reader writes: My employee, “Jim,” has been in the workforce for about 2.5 years and with my company for 1.5 years. After working with him closely for that time, I’d rate his work ethic as 5/10 (it’s not a concern, but he’s not impressing). However, he seems to believe that his work ethic and […] Read the full article →
an employee keeps complaining about her boss, who I manage by Alison Green on January 22, 2024 A reader writes: I have an employee who I’m having a hard time understanding how to manage. I manage Jessica, who manages Cynthia. Cynthia is very meticulous and holds people to incredibly high standards. This sometimes makes her difficult to work with, as she gets upset when others don’t work in the same manner as […] Read the full article →