Ask a Manager

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 […]

Here are three updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. Should I tell my employer I may have brought COVID-19 to work in January? (first update here) I missed the chance to respond in the comments when you published my original update, as I’d just started my new job that […]

Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. Am I allowed to have friends at work if I work in HR? (first update here) I’ve so been enjoying everyone’s updates and thought I’d send my own in. The last time I wrote to you, I had just started a new junior HR role at a larger […]

Remember the letter-writer who was angry that he’d gotten in trouble for re-sorting a coworker’s trash because the coworker wasn’t recycling? Here’s the update. Unfortunately not much has changed, other than the fact that I now have a lot more anxiety at the office since I no longer trust my coworkers and don’t know which one […]

Here are four updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. Banning trash cans unless we sign a pledge never to put food in them Not long after I wrote to you, the director of teapot studies (“Bill”) scheduled a one-on-one meeting with me. The meeting was held in his […]

Here are four updates from people who had their letters answered here in the past. 1. I get second and third interviews but no job offers, and my grandma says it’s because of my top knot (caller 4 in the podcast episode) Thank you for picking up my question about third round interviews, defeated and depleted […]

It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager, when I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. My boss mooches off me while I’m living paycheck to paycheck I wrote to you a few months ago about […]

Remember the letter from the person whose work history had been stolen by someone using her same name (#3 at the link)? Someone was using her references, claiming to be her. Here’s the update. A big thanks to all the readers in the comments. You guys came with such fantastic suggestions. I contacted a lawyer […]

Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. I bombed in an interview I asked for Thanks for publishing my letter. I appreciate your advice and all of the input from commenters. It helped me get a better understanding of how I had (and hadn’t) affected my goals, as well as the crisis of confidence […]

Remember the letter-writer whose boss was trying to bring her back into the religion he shared with her family? The first update was here, and here’s the latest: So, right before my letter was published I had one extremely uncomfortable interaction at an off-site office event with (former) Big Boss which crossed entirely new lines. I […]