Ask a Manager

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Coworker says fetuses are judging “mothers-to-be” for what they eat This morning, an older male coworker posted an article link on our department intranet. It was about fetuses showing reactions to taste on ultrasound exams, so it’s maybe very tangentially related to what we do […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss makes us discuss all our mistakes in a group I hate my boss. She has this policy that she believes works where she insists on discussing your mistakes on a video call with our team of nine. No member of our team finds […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworkers are sick of me having cancer I am living with Stage 4 breast cancer. I’m doing well and working full-time in an outpatient healthcare setting. We have a loose rotating schedule of taking various roles in the office during the week. Some weeks, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Our CEO attacked me in an all-staff email for scheduling a happy hour on Rosh Hashanah I work at a nonprofit in lower management. Two folks who report to me and I report to a VP who reports to the CEO. One of my reports […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Manager only invites senior employees to drinks I am one of the most junior employees at a pretty small firm. (I am not junior for my field, I’m quite seasoned, just one of the more junior on this particular team.) We are almost entirely remote, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss changes her instructions after I’ve already starting working on a project After having a few different managers in my current role, I now have a manager I love. I’ve been reporting to her for just over a year and it’s been great — […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can I teach my employee critical thinking? One of my direct reports, “Phoebe,” who is just out of school, has a great attitude about the work we do. However, she has zero ability to problem solve on her own. Every time something is not exactly […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker is high on pain pills I work in a lab. We have a chemical engineer on our team who is the only one who knows how to make our chemical solutions and fix certain machines. Dude’s brilliant and I like him as a […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Coworker is leaving early and clocking out from home, and I don’t want to be implicated I recently heard from a trusted coworker that our other coworker, Terry, has been leaving early very frequently and clocking out from home (we have the ability to clock […]