is it okay to drink before a presentation? by Alison Green on January 22, 2020 A reader writes: Presentations are a small but regular part of my role, but I often get nervous and end up hurting my message by criticizing my slides, adding excess caveats to my points, and just general blunders from lacking confidence. Last time I presented, I discreetly took a few swigs of vodka a few […] Read the full article →
I’m burned out and overworked and my bosses keep piling more work on me by Alison Green on January 13, 2020 I had an exchange with someone on last week’s open thread that I want to reprint here (and expand on) since so many people struggle with this. A commenter wrote: I am beyond the point of burnout at my current job and don’t know what to do. I’ve worked 2.5 days since taking 2 weeks […] Read the full article →
how do I tell my boss if she doesn’t fill the empty position I’m covering, she’ll lose me too? by Alison Green on January 8, 2020 A reader writes: Seven months ago, I got promoted from an entry-level client-service position at a medical facility to my current position as a case manager for hospitalized patients. The way our office works is that each case manager works for between one and three departments, and the responsibilities vary pretty widely depending on which […] Read the full article →
is it bad that I Gchat my friends while I’m at work? by Alison Green on December 12, 2019 I wrote a piece for the New York Times about the new digital etiquette at work: Is it bad that you chat with friends on Gchat or Facebook throughout the workday? How do you follow up with coworkers who haven’t answered your emails? Can you avoid the phone at work? Is it okay to post on social […] Read the full article →
how much detail do you have to give when you call in sick? by Alison Green on December 10, 2019 A reader writes: My friends and I (all 25ish, fairly new to the working world) are divided on how to call in sick. Mainly, how much detail are you supposed to go into about what is wrong with you? (“I’m not feeling well”? “I have a cold”? “I was up all night with terrible diarrhea”?) […] Read the full article →
I’m not getting credit for my ideas … but my coworkers are by Alison Green on November 27, 2019 A reader writes: I’ll often share ideas with my coworkers, like “If we make teapots out of porcelain, we can sell them for a higher price at the same cost to produce.” Then one of my colleagues (all male) will say, “Yeah, and we can paint birds on them.” Then later, someone will be like, […] Read the full article →
the cc line is the most passive-aggressive email field by Alison Green on November 4, 2019 If you’ve ever opened an email at work and found a colleague has inexplicably cc’d your boss on a message to you about a minor concern, you likely know the irritation this tiny electronic bomb can cause: Does your coworker not trust you to resolve the issue without your boss’s scrutiny? Is the presence of […] Read the full article →
how to get better at using a coworker’s nonbinary pronouns by Alison Green on October 28, 2019 The question earlier this month about how to get better at using a coworker’s nonbinary pronouns (they/them) attracted hundreds of suggestions in the comments. I’ve compiled some of them here for easy reference (and to share with others if you’d like). While most of these suggestions are for nonbinary folks, some of them also apply […] Read the full article →
I’m so nervous at work that it’s holding me back by Alison Green on October 22, 2019 A reader writes: About six months ago, I started a new job that takes some different pieces of my background and combines them into a new role. I was pretty up-front in the interview process that my skills are self-taught and I hadn’t formally worked in this capacity yet. I want to do well in […] Read the full article →
will smoking hurt my promotion chances? by Alison Green on October 22, 2019 A reader writes: The further I advance in my career, the more I have noticed something: people at the higher levels are much less likely to smoke. I’m a smoker, and I have lots of desire to quit but am not quite there yet. When at lower levels of my career, I had lots of […] Read the full article →