Ask a Manager

It’s four answers to four questions. Well, three questions and one story. Here we go… 1. My employee keeps venting to me about his divorce I manage a team of 20. I have two supervisors on my team and one is going through a divorce. He (male, 55) calls me (female, 33) constantly wanting to […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My predecessor keeps taking over the event that’s supposed to honor my work I’m in year 2 of being a support clerk with my city’s planning office. Every year we celebrate the huge numbers of applications we’ve processed. The very extroverted person who held the […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I’m nervous about having to write up an employee I am a new-ish manager (just under a year), something I never saw myself doing in a field I sort of fell into. In general, it’s going well, but I find myself getting quite anxious when […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Owner won’t do anything about our terrible employee I am late in my career and several years ago I was lucky enough to have found the best job I have ever had, at a very successful, very small niche company (8-10 employees). My boss (Jerry, […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My employee forgets half of what I ask him to do I have an employee who’s a direct report (my first) with a couple of quirks, but none that causes more issues than this: he just doesn’t listen. I’ll list off five or six things […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Should I leave my job with great benefits but a problem boss? I need some help figuring out if I should stay in my current accounting job, or if I should start job searching. I work for a pretty small business, about 80 people across […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can I ask my employees for proof that she asked other employees to take her shift? I am a shift manager at a fast food restaurant. I have a question that my manager seems to be avoiding. Today an employee (Emily) texted me that she […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I got in trouble for overstepping at work It’s been 18 years since my last job. I was a stay-at-home mother of five, but I was also stuck in a seriously abusive relationship; he prevented me from doing anything. After finally escaping him in 2019, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My employee is missing the mark with our dress code My direct report has been very open about being on the autism spectrum and having some learning disabilities. I’ve been working with him closely to provide regular feedback and coaching on a few performance issues. […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. Candidate asked for feedback on his interview — after I’d hired him I interviewed someone today (two interview rounds). I decided to offer him the job a few hours later and he verbally accepted on the phone. He then called me back right away with […]