Ask a Manager

Here are four updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. Family noise when working from home due to quarantine (#4 at the link) I wrote in a few months ago about an upcoming vacation my family was planning and how to make it work if his employer insisted on […]

Here are four updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. Should I rent from my boss to escape Covid? (#2 at the link) I didn’t end up renting from my boss. I stayed with family out of town during our several months of WFH, but would have been unable […]

Remember last week’s letter about the job candidate’s husband who suspiciously photographed her interviewer ahead of their meeting? Here’s an update from the letter-writer, along with more details about what happened. Thank you for a well-reasoned response! And thank you everyone else for your insightful input as well. I admit that I left a lot […]

Here are three updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. I was late my first week — and now I need to call out sick When I called my boss to explain the situation, she was completely understanding. It probably helped my case though that I was still hacking, coughing, […]

Remember the letter-writer in April whose company was planning to cut their pay retroactively? Here’s the update. Thank you again for answering my question. The feedback from you and the commenters was both helpful and insightful! As expected, layoffs happened the day before you published my letter. We lost almost a quarter of our workforce, […]

Here are three updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. My coworker is giving a colleague underwear in our Secret Santa I wrote to you in November about my colleague (let’s call him Andy) who thought it was a good idea to give underwear as a present for Secret […]

Remember the letter-writer whose client sent her a large thank-you check as a way of avoiding paying her boss, with whom he was embroiled in much drama? The first update was here, and here’s the latest: I wasn’t originally going to update again on this, but things went bananas, so I figured you’d like to […]

Here are three updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. My manager named Joseph Stalin employee of the month I followed your advice, and mentioned without going higher than her that I thought the email was insensitive, and that I’d prefer to be excluded from similar emails should they […]

Here are three updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. I have a crush on my boss and he’s being standoffish Shelter-in-place was really good for an introvert like me. I made a whole bunch of progress on my writing, did my regular home strength-training workouts, became an active […]

Here are three updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. How do you deal with having to fire someone? Nearly a decade ago, you answered my letter about feeling guilty when I had to fire someone for the first time. When I wrote, I’d only been a manager for three […]