Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Will future employers care that I’ve been venting on Twitter? I’m upset that companies have laid off vulnerable staff, like part-timers, interns, temps, and contract workers, and I’m venting a bit on Twitter about how unreasonable that is. Will this be seen as unprofessional or […]

It’s six answers to six questions. Here we go… 1. We’re laid off but being “strongly encouraged” to attend work webinars I’ve spent three years in sales for a major luxury brand. Stores are individually franchised. Our firm has 70 or so employees. As this COVID crisis emerged, our firm was quite slow to react. […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Is it weird to vape on a Zoom call? I am one of the many students whose classes have all been moved online for the remainder of the semester, but I am in grad school, so many of my colleagues (including me) worked for a […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager is having an affair, and it’s affecting my workload I work in a small company without HR, in a department of only three people — our manager, my colleague, and me. While my manager and colleague have always been closer, it’s never really […]

It’s five answers to five questions and a sixth thing. Here we go… 1. My coworker is in quarantine with pay — and doing deliveries on the side The place I work at still needs to be open despite the pandemic. The work cannot be done from home. Our managers are doing what they can […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I’ve been accused of abusing sick leave when I have coronavirus symptoms I work as a lab tech for a hospital that employees tens of thousands of people and I’m essential and cannot work from home. I experienced shortness of breath a while back so […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I was hired as the expert but no one will listen to me I was recently (two months ago) hired into a brand new position for a nonprofit that requires me to be the “subject matter expert” for a shared application. While I did not […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I’m pregnant by my new manager and don’t want higher-ups to know I’m still fairly early in a pregnancy that is with a fellow coworker who became my boss right at the point I found out I was pregnant. We have a perfectly normal working […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. What if our employee abuses the new paid sick leave law? I’m curious on if there are concerns about employer protections for employees who potentially may abuse the new paid sick leave for coronavirus sickness. For example, I have a hypochondriac employee who frequently calls […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Should I tell my employer I may have brought COVID-19 to work in January? I’m hoping you can help me with an ethical dilemma I am having. Back in mid-January, I took a trip to Northern Italy, where I caught a weird little respiratory virus. […]