Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Explaining a drastic appearance change we when return to work Like many, I (a mid-40’s woman) have been working from home since last March, so I have not seen my coworkers in person since then. In that time I had some very serious medical issues […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My pushy mother-in-law got a job at my company Over the summer, I took a job at a new company. Last week my mother-in-law called to announce that she had also gotten a new job … at the same company. We’ll be reporting to the […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My friend’s start-ups are struggling and I think it’s because he has no real work experience I have a friend who I’ll call Jake. Jake is a genuinely nice guy, motivated and could charm just about anyone. He has his own podcast, has co-founded several […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My hostile ex-friend is my new boss My ex-friend convinced me back in the beginning of 2020 to take a job in the same office as her where we would be peers. Unfortunately, we’ve had a falling out since then and are no longer friends, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss won’t do anything about a colleague’s terrible work, which I rely on I am the head of a subsection of my department and am responsible for supervising and delegating work to one other employee. Although I am responsible for whether or not he […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Board member brings a gun to meetings (but he’s a cop) One of the members of the board I report to is a police officer, and he comes to meetings in his full uniform, weapons included. He has also been called on to leave to […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Is my CEO stringing me along in her succession planning? I work for a small nonprofit (12 employees). Seven years ago, I was wooed to my current position of vice president by the CEO/president, with the explicit plan that I will take over and run […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker is copying my clothes and hair Imagine working in an office and having someone copying everything you wear. The person is my coworker who sits next to me. We are medical professionals seeing the same patients. She comes from a rural area and […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can I ask my employee to remove his pronouns from his email signature? My employee recently added pronouns to his signature line: (he/him). Can I ask him to remove this from his signature? It seems highly unprofessional, especially in our industry. Please don’t. It’s not […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss is bombarding us with daily sales pitches for an app One of my bosses has made a money management app available as a perk for employees — think a Dave Ramsey program. She sends us daily emails strongly encouraging us to “sign up […]