How To Deal With Bullies In the Workplace
He’s smug and arrogant. He’s bullied you for three months. Before you, he bullied a string of talented employees, all of whom had the good sense to quit before he…
How To Manage Rumors In The Workplace
Question: I’m the Director of Operations for our company. When we downsized, I absorbed HR duties. This morning, I received an anonymous email asking me to question the promotions received…
My addiction made me a terrible employee. I’m in recovery – but how can I find a new job with such poor references?
Q: I'm a recovering addict who moved to Alaska three years ago for a dream job, but didn't leave my problem drinking behind. I blew deadlines, behaved inappropriately at work…
How to recover when an office confrontation turns into the showdown at the O.K. Corral
Q: I'm a mid-level manager in a large company and supervise an overbearing woman whose special circumstances give her immunity from discipline. When she doesn't get her way, she goes…
I’m totally being played by my ambitious, overbearing assistant – and I can’t fire her
Q: I work in a large corporation. Because senior management takes a top-down approach to all personnel decisions, I lack hiring or firing control over the individual assigned as my…
When a new supervisor clashes with long-term employees, whose side to take?
Q: When we hired "Laura" as the new supervisor for our customer service department, we thought we'd picked the perfect person. Laura had nine years of supervisory experience, but had…
The sales manager who doesn’t play fair
Q: When I promoted "Alex" to sales manager, I knew there would be tension. Our best sales agents are ambitious and competitive and Alex has bruised a couple of the…
A personal life disaster created a work disaster. What’s your comeback plan?
Q: Two days after I started a new job, my husband left me and I fell apart. I arrived late at work, cried during the work day and took personal…
Everyone is fine with music at work except for one older employee. Could he come at us for age discrimination?
Q: We've gotten a complaint from one of our warehouse workers. "Steve" is older and works with a group of 20-somethings. They play loud rap music 10 hours a day.…
You can be personally liable for what happens in your workplace
It comes as a surprise to most managers when a plaintiff names them personally as a co-defendant in a lawsuit against the manager’s company. The ugly truth? Personal tort actions…