Ask a Manager

I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives. And how can we kick off December other than with… 1. I feel insulted by my new job I’ve been at my new job for a month and today they had a potluck […]

I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives. 1. My former manager wants me to host a product party for her My former supervisor has been extremely helpful as a reference for me numerous times and I feel indebted to her […]

I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives. 1. My coworker screamed at me for calling my cat “my baby” I am a woman in my early thirties and my partner and I are childless by choice. We do, however, have […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Our manager wants to monitor our goals for our personal lives I recently started a new job where employees are expected to set regular goals and check in with managers about their progress. Although I find the task kind of annoying, I totally get why […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Interviewer wants an approval letter from my current job, saying they know I’m interviewing I’ve had a few interviews with a company, I like them, they like me, they want to make an offer. But my current employer uses their products (think software). Because of […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Am I the toxic complainer? I know venting/bitching to colleagues isn’t healthy, but it’s occurred to me that I do it more and more. Especially since we’ve been remote, and had a well-known chat and video call software installed, I now have chats open to […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Employee refuses to save her work and threatens to sue us when we tell her to We’re a mid-sized architectural firm that relies heavily on technology to complete our work. We have one employee who is extremely secretive and outright refuses to save her files […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Do I need to give more info about my family tragedies so I don’t look like a flake? I’m writing to ask for a calibration check. My extended family recently had a series of unrelated tragedies very close together. It’s enough drama that it would […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker takes too many smoke breaks I work in a small office of about 15 people. I’ve become friendly with a woman (Jill) who works in a different department than I do. Our kids are involved in the same extracurricular activities so we spend […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Coming to work with wet hair I’m a manager of a public-facing team at a large-ish company. I have a question over one of my team member’s appearance and would like your input on whether I’m being overly picky or should say something. “Jane” is […]