Ask a Manager

Remember the letter-writer who was dealing with a problematic member of a board games group? The first update was here, and here’s the final installment. I am the letter writer who runs a board games group and used Alison’s excellent advice about communication to deal with a problematic member of the games group and the […]

Remember the letter-writer who lied to their boss and said they attended a meeting when they really hadn’t (#4 at the link)? Here’s the update. Thanks so much for publishing my question, and for your commenters’ advice along with your own. I do have an update on this, although ultimately the meeting didn’t matter as […]

Remember the letter-writer who managed a star performer who was being targeted by a coworker and no one else in the company’s leadership cared? Here’s the update. First, the best news! Tina earned a huge promotion to a different department a couple of weeks after you published my letter. She’s now an AVP for retail […]

Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. We got a complaint call about a new hire before she started Thanks so much for the reassurance that we’ve done our due diligence on the ED hire. Our board president and I had a Zoom call with the new ED and let them know of the […]

Remember the letter-writer whose boss kept asking them to do things that aggravated their community partners? Here’s the update. I wanted to wait to offer my update after I was settled in my new job. As you and the commenters predicted, this was a bad situation. Fergus was a bully, but one thing I realized […]

Here are four updates from past letter-writers. 1. My company is issuing new work-from-home standards because we should have the hang of it by now (previous updates:1, 2, 3) I have a happy update for you! I ended up needing to pause my job hunt as I ended up having surgery and being out on […]

Here are four updates from past letter-writers. 1. Is it reasonable for our office to go so fragrance-free that we have to change every product we use at home? On the basis of your advice, I did raise the issue with my immediate supervisor, who felt that the guidance was clearly advisory rather than mandatory, […]

Remember the letter-writer trying to recover professionally after an internet hate campaign against her? Earlier updates are here, and here’s the latest. So much has happened since then (I can’t believe it’s been eight years!) both in the industry and professionally. After I left my former company, I took some time working for other companies […]

Remember the letter-writer wondering if they could offer to pay a coworker’s vet bill (#2 at the link)? Here’s the update. I reached out to my coworker the evening that the letter was published. I texted him and made the offer to cover the testing for a diagnosis, up to a certain amount of money, […]

Remember the letter-writer whose boss was abusive and blamed it on PMDD? Here’s the update. I have an update for my boss who was blaming her abusive behavior on PMDD. It ended how I was starting to suspect it would. After your response, my husband and I started working on moving our kids onto his […]