It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Staff selling multi-level marketing products at work I manage a team of seven for a small advertising agency. We’re located in a rural-ish area. Our HQ is in a major city about seven hours away. I got promoted to manager after our last manager retired. […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Have I been blacklisted from a company that seemed to like me earlier? I am a health care provider who applied to my dream job in May of last year. I made it very far in the process over the next few months– 4 interviews, […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Two coworkers are attacking people over grammar At my company, we have a couple of grammar fanatics who go out of their way to correct people even when they’re not in the conversation. Sometimes this will even occur during important one-on-one meetings on projects that […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My anxious employee goes into emotional spirals after even mildly negative feedback I’m a new manager and recently hired my first junior-level employee. I could tell she was sensitive during the interview, which was fine, but didn’t find out until she started working that she […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. I told a friend I’d help him, and now he’s bombarding me with urgent messages while I’m working A coworker of mine recently left my company to head up a nonprofit organization founded by his late father. The organization has very limited resources and is […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My bosses and coworkers have a secret group chat where they trash-talk me A few months ago, I started a new job in a very small office (only three employees, plus a few interns). I had some trouble acclimating because the environment was so different […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. We’re supposed to stay late “out of courtesy” to other coworkers I’ve been at my job six months. It’s in an industry I’ve been in for 18 years and where I’ve always worked hard, earned praise for my skills, and shown a cooperative spirit. I’ve […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. How do I tell my coworker not to bring his kids to work every week? I teach at a university and am not on the tenure track. I am in an office with nine other instructors and we only have the illusion of privacy that […]

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Can I take confiscate my coworkers’ screaming monkey toy? Today, as has happened multiple times in the last few months, some of my nearby coworkers in our relatively small satellite office decided to play catch with this “screaming monkey toy.” The noise it makes is […]

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My coworkers won’t help me cut expenses A few months ago we received an email from the Big Boss (head of our business unit) that we are entering a “cost cutting” exercise due to business needs and they need everyone to make efforts to ensure […]