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 →
I’m afraid I’m going to get fired — and I’ve had this same bad feedback before by Alison Green on October 1, 2019 A reader writes: I’m an office manager and I have a problem that’s hard to define: I was told by both my current boss (I’ve been in this job for about two months) and a previous boss that I don’t “think one step ahead” and don’t look at possible solutions before asking questions. I had […] Read the full article →
my boss has 10,000 unread emails by Alison Green on September 11, 2019 A reader writes: Is it ever normal to have 10,000+ unread emails in your professional inbox? Yesterday I inadvertently saw that my boss had 10,965 unread emails. She is a general counsel of a medium-sized company and does not seem to be overloaded with work. The majority of her team (around six people) are very […] Read the full article →
how can I recover from being the office grump? by Alison Green on August 26, 2019 A reader writes: I’m in my first year in my job. I’m an open book, so people know when I’m happy and when I’m not. Naturally when I’m upset or angry at work, people can tell. I have been really stressed and haven’t been nice at my office lately recently. Basically I’ve been grumpy. Is […] Read the full article →
why the littlest things at work can be so maddening by Alison Green on August 19, 2019 Judging by the mail I get at here, a lot of us feel quite strongly about relatively minor things at work. Some pet peeves make perfect sense, like being annoyed with people who leave food splattered inside the microwave or thinking dark thoughts about that guy who takes all his calls on speaker phone. But […] Read the full article →