A reader writes: I work at a large educational institution, and have a job that directly serves and faces students. I love my job! When I started, we had a part-time front office person who basically managed the office: ordered all the supplies, handled walk-in traffic, etc. We had an additional agreement with most of […]

A reader writes: I’m starting a new job in 12 days. I am leaving my current company of five years (half of my post-college career) on good terms, but it’s time to go somewhere I can grow, and frankly, make more money. My new job is a huge, national corporation, with hundreds of people in […]

It’s the year-end update episode of the podcast! On this week’s show, people who called into the show earlier this year come back to give updates about how their situations have turned out. We hear from the caller who didn’t have enough work to do, the person with too much work, the person who was […]

It’s the holiday episode of the podcast! This week’s show has questions from people about holidays at work, including a party Not Meant for vegetarians and a question about kissing balls (which I didn’t even know were a thing), as well as some really funny stories from people about ways that office holiday celebrations went […]

A reader writes: I wrote a rambling letter to your blog a while ago when I was incredibly stressed out and floundering at my new job. I managed to work myself out of that immediate deep hole, but I’m still struggling with being happy at work. While I feel like the malfunctions I’m dealing with […]

The approach that you use when you’re hiring adults doesn’t always work when you’re talking to teenagers who may have never worked a job before. For this week’s episode of the Ask a Manager podcast, I talked about hiring teenagers with the co-owner of summer camp who has interviewed tons of teens for jobs as […]

A reader writes: I supervise a small team of four at a software company. My team is amazing: reliable, fast, accurate, amiable, etc. I couldn’t ask for better people to manage, and I’m proud of the work we accomplish each day. That’s why I’m particularly embarrassed that I made a noticeable mistake at work today. […]

A reader writes: We just recently hired somebody new at my office. We were thrilled to onboard her — everyone was spread pretty thin, and the idea of having her was great. The reality does not match the ideal, as it turns out. She constantly leaves for smoke breaks (upwards of 20-30 minutes!) and if […]

A reader writes: I wanted to email you about an issue that has come up often in my career in regards doing the right thing. I am a late-20s male who has been working in a technical environment for the entirety of my career. I don’t know if it has just been the companies that […]