Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Coworker saw embarrassing content on my phone I work in a small department library at a university, and came in to catch up on some work while the office was closed over the holidays. The office was totally empty, but there was one other person, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager over-uses “like” My manager frequently uses the verbal filler “like” during meetings with clients. I’m strongly against policing people’s use of language, but I’m afraid he could be making my team look unprofessional. We’re government contractors, so while our team generally skews young […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can we ask an employee to use a less ethnic-sounding name? Am I allowed to ask an employee to go by a shortened nickname instead of their ethnic name. We are hiring an employee with a very ethnic name. Can we ask her to shorten […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My boss keeps inviting my predecessor to our holiday parties My manager has invited the previous employee who held my position to the last two holiday parties. Now they are invited to this year’s party as well. There are no other outside people invited; it’s […]

It’s three answers to three questions. Here we go… 1. Are my boots too loud for work? I work in an open-floorplan office that has cement floors. My favorite shoes are boots, usually with a low heel. If you see me in the office, you can count on me wearing these boots. Because of the […]

It’s three answers to three questions. Here we go… 1. My employee might give me drugs for Christmas I’m a manager of a the warehouse team at our company and earlier today a member of the sales team who reports to me and who I have a good rapport with asked me if I smoke […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My mom says I’m not getting hired because of my weight Frankly put: my mom thinks I’m too fat, and she says that’s why I’m not getting offered jobs even after advancing through a few rounds of interviews. I’ve been job searching for a couple […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. The event I volunteered for wants too much of my time I was asked to volunteer at a gala for an organization that has nothing to do with my day-to-day work or employer, by a slightly senior coworker who is involved with the organization. I, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My boss says no one is allowed to get pregnant I work in a very tight-knit office of about 15 people, and most of us are women in our 20’s and 30’s. We all work hard and have duties split up fairly, though none of […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworker is wearing jewelry that signifies a dominant/submissive relationship I recently realized that one of my coworkers wears D/s jewelry every day. (Funny enough, I wouldn’t have recognized it had I not been a devout reader of your blog and read the letter from […]