Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Coworker sees herself as a mother figure I’ve been working in my current company for about three years, and that whole time I’ve worked closely with someone else in my very small department (four people at present), Catelyn. Catelyn is some 20 years older than […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss is pressuring me to microblade my eyebrows My boss has been pressuring me and the other two employees in our division to get our eyebrows microbladed by her friend. She comments on our eyebrows. She tells us it would be the best thing […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Working at a Christmas party with nothing to wear I recently started my first job two months ago at a recruitment company that has a lot of international clients and I am the only native English speaker in the company. Despite the fact I am […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss wants me to hire her friend I am the hiring manager for a position I’m trying to fill. My boss is pressuring me to hire her friend from her previous employer. She has strong credentials, but she lives seven hours away from the […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My former employee lied to get a new job — should I do anything? Recently I became aware that a former direct report of mine had landed a new job with a new employer. Kudos to him! But the job he got is well beyond […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. The employee I just promoted to manager wants to step down I promoted one of my employees to manage her department after I moved up to a divisional role about 10 weeks ago. (I’m still her direct supervisor.) This is her first management job and […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Coworkers say “I love you” I’ve noticed lately that newer hires are saying “I love you” to each other as official farewells (as in replacing “goodbye”) even for minor things like leaving meetings. The first time it happened, I thought it was a one-off between […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker asked why he wasn’t invited to my wedding I got married recently, and it was wonderful. The next Monday, one of my coworkers texted me asking why he (Matt) and his girlfriend (Lisa) were not invited to the wedding, when two of my […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My new employee said he won’t help a coworker Today I had my first 1:1 with a new employee. At the time he was hired, we were filling two roles, one at mid level and one at entry level, and they both started last week. […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss wants me to “share my location” with her constantly I’ve decided to hunker down in my current toxic job for now. My boss is old enough to be my mother, which I mention because she likes to “mother” the younger people of our […]