51Ask a Manager
Meeting Related Topics
political talk at work is negatively impacting you, how to spend less time in meetings, and more
Ask a Manager
SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
Over at the Fast Track by QuickBase today, I take a look at several big work-related stories in the news right now: how political talk at work is negatively impacting you, how to spend less time in meetings, and more. You may also like: how to deal with a coworker in a small office who forces loud political rants on me what you need to know about talking politics at work my coworker has an offensive bobble-head doll on his desk political talk at work is negatively impacting you, how to spend less time in meetings, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
making new hires sing a song at a staff meeting
Ask a Manager
FEBRUARY 24, 2016
On his second week, the owner insisted that all new hires have to get up in front of everyone and sing a song during their weekly meeting. You may also like: my office is forcing us to do karaoke for “fun” my employee delivered a status update … in song should my resume say that I don’t want kids, who owns my artwork, and more making new hires sing a song at a staff meeting was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: My husband worked at a marketing firm last summer after 18 months of unemployment and learning website design.
is it true that 80% of job openings are never advertised, last-minute meetings, and more
Ask a Manager
MARCH 27, 2016
My manager schedules lots of last-minute meetings with no warning. My supervisor has a habit of telling me about meetings last minute, and they are often several hours long. suppose the other small issue is that while my new supervisor is a super nice guy, he can be socially awkward and get gruff once in a blue moon (he will immediately apologize for those instances when he does get gruff), so I am afraid to tell him I cannot handle these last second meetings. Now my supervisor is right next to my office and my day is getting flooded with meetings that lack value.
how can I get my team to have real discussions at our meetings, instead of just delivering updates?
Ask a Manager
MAY 24, 2016
also do my homework as a manager and have monthly meetings with the whole department where each team explains what they are working with, problems they have if they need some help, etc. The issue I face is that during these meetings, no discussions arise. Do you have suggestions for how to get a quite large team of people to openly discuss ideas, challenge each other, and all in all get a better synergy between everyone? I’d bet money that your team hates those meetings. Meetings that consist mainly or solely of round-robin information delivery are incredibly boring.
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I got into a fight with my husband’s coworker over their affair, stressed out over a volunteer group at work, and more
Ask a Manager
OCTOBER 10, 2016
Teammate tells me one of the committees needs a skill I have and that the committee leader will meet with me to discuss it. So I meet with Committee Leader and they describe the committee’s objectives. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. I got into a fight with my husband’s coworker over their affair. My husband works at a restaurant, I caught that he was having an affair with one of his coworkers. I saw the all their text messages and confirmed some of it from their friends. confronted my husband. Can my husband be terminated because of that? It’s been a week.
we have to talk about an “inspiring thing” at weekly meetings
Ask a Manager
SEPTEMBER 21, 2016
A reader writes: It’s possible that I’m just being a stick in the mud here, but recently my team got a new manager at work and ever since she’s been kind of on and on about “inspiration” and bringing “inspiring things” to meetings. To me, these meetings should be about what tasks we have and what needs to be tackled with big projects, not what shiny thing inspired us on the internet. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I’m not sure that any of us care, and it turns into us each talking for several minutes about whatever it is.
loose cannons, interviews from the toilet, and other stories of ridiculous job candidates
Ask a Manager
AUGUST 2, 2016
He would be working out of state (where he lived) so spent the day with being shown various parts of the company, meeting with the local sales team, etc. At the end of the day, he was to meet with three of the owners and the COO for the more formal part of the interview process. As he was waiting in the front office to be called into the meeting, the woman behind the front desk asked how his day had gone so far…small talk. She was waiting for the meeting to start and was looking for a pen or something at the front desk. The winner of them all. Loose cannon. hiring
I offended people at a staff meeting by saying my staff works the hardest, recruiter told me to wear jeans to an interview, and more
Ask a Manager
AUGUST 4, 2016
offended people at a staff meeting by saying my staff works the hardest. At a recent staff meeting, I said in a light way, “My staff are the hardest working staff here!” Of course, the other managers could have immediately said the same thing about their staff, but a couple of managers were absent and the others, including the director, did not speak up or to join in with compliments. Obviously, I will never try and praise my staff in staff meetings anymore since people are highly sensitive. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. So that was a misfire.
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board member keeps bringing her kids to meetings, unofficial salary offers, and more
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JUNE 25, 2015
Board member keeps bringing her kids to meetings. I am working with a group of parents who are organizing a charter school. As the board president, I never bring my son to board meetings, as I need to focus on the agenda. One other board member, who is also a friend, frequently brings her children to board meetings. They are 6 and 7 years old and are frequently loud and disruptive during these meetings. Today she told me that she will be bringing her kids to the orientation meeting. It will be a long and intensive meeting. Here we go…. 1. short answer
we’re not allowed to bring coffee to work, my coworker is faking his expertise, and more
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OCTOBER 30, 2016
Our meetings never end on time. Something that has always been a little frustrating about my office but has started getting worse: 90% of our meetings go over the scheduled time, sometimes significantly (30 minutes or more). If I actually have another meeting OR there aren’t higher-level people there, I’ll excuse myself at the stated end time, but often those are the people who are causing the meeting to run long. ” What can someone who isn’t at the top-level or leading the meetings do about this increasingly time-sucking work culture?
the new overtime pay rules are here — if you earn less than $47,476, read this
Ask a Manager
MAY 18, 2016
The salary and compensation levels will be updated every three years, to meet the 40th percentile of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census region (currently the South). If you’re pretty close to the $47,476 threshold and/or you work significant amounts of overtime, your employer may raise your salary to meet it in order to keep you exempt. The new overtime rules that we’ve been talking about here for the last month were finally released by the Department of Labor today. This is no longer speculation; these rules are now final and will go into effect on December 1.
my husband emailed my boss about our decision for me to resign
Ask a Manager
OCTOBER 10, 2016
From one professional to another, I ask for your understanding that Jane can no longer continue to meet the needs of ABC’s work schedule.” ” The nurse manager expressed during my exit meeting that she and the nursing director were “concerned” about the email from my husband and sent it to H.R. I had sent her an additional email in my own words after my husband had sent his. It’s Columbus Day and I could use a break, so here’s an old post from 2012 that I’m making new again. felt like an RN number rather than a respected individual. Oh dear.
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pregnant bartender, lunchtime meetings, and more
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APRIL 13, 2016
Weekly meetings scheduled during lunch. Our employer has decided to call weekly lunch meetings and these usually take up our entire hour break. We’re told we can bring our lunches to the meeting but they never actually provide lunch for us. I’m one who never brings lunch to work because I enjoy getting out of the office everyday. All that aside, if you and your coworkers hate these lunch meetings, speak up. pregnant bartender, lunchtime meetings, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager. At the time, I said okay.
a member of our professional group is making people feel excluded
Ask a Manager
JANUARY 19, 2016
A reader writes: I belong to a group of mid- to upper-level professionals that meets several times a year for networking and a presentation (usually by one of the members) on a topic of interest in our field. Organizational duties rotate every couple of years; I’m currently in charge of organizing the meetings. One of our members often arranges for a dinner out at a restaurant after our meetings, only inviting some people and often choosing an expensive restaurant. There are usually 10-20 people at these gatherings. hate that! How can I approach this with him?
how can I get out of our awful Staff Appreciation Day?
Ask a Manager
AUGUST 12, 2016
If you really can’t bear the thought of that, you do have the option of saying that you’ve got too many upcoming proposal deadlines to be able to spare the time away, and that since all of your staff will be away anyway, you’re going to stay behind at the office in order to meet those deadlines. You may also like: my office is going overboard on team-building activities my team bikes to off-site meetings, and I’m dreading it my team’s holiday parties are rather feeble how can I get out of our awful Staff Appreciation Day? wouldn’t, and I’d be looking for a way out too.
I was fired for taking initiative (and undermining my manager)
Ask a Manager
APRIL 11, 2016
” In order to preempt another hissy fit from her, and once I assessed the gravity of what she’d done, I went into the meeting with Betty, but pulled Veronica into the conference room as well. Betty was very quiet during this meeting. You even said she shouldn’t meddle “in things that don’t concern her,” when your entire job is her concern. * To make matters worse, you describe yourself as being angry and forceful in the meeting where you asserted all this. A reader writes: Last summer, I decided to re-enter the workforce after five years of raising my kids.
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is it impostor syndrome or a bad fit, managing is stressful, and more
Ask a Manager
OCTOBER 22, 2015
This is different than my weekly meeting with my manager – we’re mostly project oriented. You could meet periodically to talk (in confidence) about common managerial challenges (either free-flowing, or with a specific topic each time, like giving feedback, or having tough conversations, or hiring, or so forth). It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. submitted an expense report late and now can’t get reimbursed for thousands of dollars. have made two trips for the company and paid for them out of pocket, about $2500 each time. Uh, like eight months.
an employer asked me the lowest salary I’d accept, rejected me, and then refused to keep talking
Ask a Manager
OCTOBER 19, 2016
When you gave that number, you might have genuinely felt that it was the lowest you’d go … until you found out that they wouldn’t meet it, at which point you realized you might be willing to entertain a lower offer anyway. A reader writes: This is a puzzler for me: I recently had a third party recruiter get me in touch again with the hiring manager of a position I had applied and interviewed for but got passed over for earlier this year. I was excited for the second chance since this was my dream company, albeit this time it was gonna be contract to start. Probably not. salary
my job offer was pulled after I said the insurance wouldn’t meet my needs
Ask a Manager
MAY 11, 2015
responded to the HR person to thank them for all their help and let them know the insurance would not meet my needs. I had called the manager two days in a row and left messages. I had had no call back for several days so I called again. saying she’d received my email to HR and thought I wasn’t interested. I was very confused, given that at no point did I say I didn’t want the job; I simply said the insurance did not meet my needs. ” The letter-writer responded: I thanked them and then said the insurance wouldn’t meet my needs. Thoughts?
I have an awful summer intern, and I can’t fire him
Ask a Manager
JUNE 20, 2016
He also chewed with his mouth open during a lunch meeting that we attended yesterday, which was pretty embarrassing, although, in my opinion, I think it reflected poorly on him and not us as a firm. also have decided not to bring him to important lunch meetings any longer, because of his bad table manners. A reader writes: I’m reaching out to request advice on an intern problem. As background, I’m a young-looking woman with a professional degree who works in the charitable arm of a prestigious, for-profit teapot firm. My third is the problem. Repeatedly.
my dad says I shouldn’t have asked for time to think over a job offer
Ask a Manager
MARCH 1, 2016
From what I have read on your site, what I did does not seem egregious, but it has become pretty obvious that everybody hiring has their own rules and expectations and as a job seeker it seems like a losing battle trying to meet all of them. A reader writes: Recently I had a second interview with a company where I met with the other owner and learned a lot of new information, including salary and schedule. At the end of the interview, I was offered the position and I said I would like a day to think it over and talk about it with my family. Ignore your dad.
no, group work in school is not “just like in the real work world”
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JULY 25, 2016
coworker wants to push a bad idea at a meeting I lead my employees keep going over my head to my boss … and she doesn’t direct them back to me no, group work in school is not “just like in the real work world” was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I’m starting a business graduate program now and all of the administrators are practically giddy proclaiming, “There’s going to be a lot of group work! Can you recommend any resources for how to do effective, professional group work among peers? Anyway. students workplace practices
update: my boyfriend has my old job and there’s tons of drama
Ask a Manager
DECEMBER 21, 2015
Pat ran the meeting, and the few board members there are of the “don’t rock the boat” variety that have let Pat get away with controlling everything for years. Remember the letter-writer whose boyfriend had her old job and was being treated badly by a board member? Here’s the update. The museum’s operating season ended one week after you posted your response to my question about what to do about Pat. Pat requested an “employee review” between herself, a handful of other board members, and my boyfriend for this past Monday. updates
how can I avoid talking about my wedding at work, asking employers to speed up their hiring process, and more
Ask a Manager
JULY 17, 2016
” It’s not like I’m wearing suits, but it does seem funny sitting in on meetings with my boss who always has on faded jeans and flannels. I’m also worried about coming off as too feminine which I worry about in a male-dominated field (tech). We have so many meetings and use email for most communication, so we all know what is going on and if we need to use the alternate parking plan. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. Can I ask employers to interview me faster because of my money situation? Is this appropriate? It’s great!
I was promoted without warning in an all-staff meeting, how to explain a firing when interviewing, and more
Ask a Manager
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
Here we go…. 1. I was promoted without warning in an all-staff meeting. I’ve been promoted twice in the past 8 months. The first time it was pretty standard fare — I was promoted in a meeting with my manager and his manager, I negotiated for a raise (probably not as hard as I should have, but some) and moved on. Then I, along with another colleague, was promoted a few days ago with no warning at all, in an all-staff meeting. It’s five answers to five questions. Any advice? What did you have in mind for the position?” So get rid of that counselor.
why do so many companies never respond to job candidates?
Ask a Manager
MAY 4, 2016
My most recent experience was with a company that flew me, at great expense, out to their HQ on the opposite coast for a round of in-person meetings with company executives after three earlier phone interviews. A reader writes: I am amazed at the number of times companies have stopped communicating during the interview process without explanation. In this era of email, I don’t understand why a brief note isn’t sent to let a candidate know they are no longer under consideration. immediately sent thank-you notes to everyone I had met, yet received no responses. job searching
my manager said the wrong number when giving me a raise, director sent around a photo of my messy desk, and more
Ask a Manager
OCTOBER 17, 2016
She calls a meeting with me and insists I must have misheard. She tells me all her notes for this meeting specifically mentioned the 3%, not 6%. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My manager said the wrong number when giving me a raise. I’m not even sure where to begin on this one. recently had my one-year evaluation with my manager. To thank me for my good work, my manager said I would receive a raise and it would go into effect in the next pay cycle. This new salary amount gave me a 6% increase so I was very happy. ”). ” episode. ” 4.
how can I ask my coworkers to stop talking about politics, interview shoes when it’s snowy, and more
Ask a Manager
JANUARY 19, 2016
My managers and coworkers have taken to discussing politics while we are in meetings, usually towards the end or while we’re waiting for other parties to enter a conference call. If makes me uncomfortable to hear them praise this person, but I’m not able to walk out of a meeting to avoid it. Any chance we can ban political talk until the election is over?”. “We have people with lots of different political viewpoints here — in the interest of keeping things pleasant, can we avoid politics while we’re in meetings?”. It’s five answers to five questions.
I walked in on employees having sex — and I think there’s a sex club in my office
Ask a Manager
APRIL 22, 2015
That same day, after my team had left, I was wrapping up and putting a meeting agenda on each of their desks for our meeting the next day. Perhaps this is some weird mating call between members to let them know they want to get some “points” with the other person, and if they quack back, they meet up somewhere to “score.” A reader writes: I am the manager of a customer service team of about 10-12 members. We have a great team and great working relationships. They all do great work and we have established a great team culture. have no idea what to do.
is 8-6 the new 9-5?
Ask a Manager
OCTOBER 8, 2015
almost always ate lunch at my desk while working on something or during a “working lunch” meeting (which is different from a “lunch and learn”; these were mandatory weekly meetings where normal business was conducted). A reader writes: I wanted to get a perspective from you and your readers on whether you think a majority of businesses and industries are now expecting longer workdays from their employees. Colloquially, “the 9 to 5″ has been a phrase to discribe full-time jobs conducted during normal business hours. For some people. hours a week.
I’m meeting my interviewer at a coffee shop — how does this work?
Ask a Manager
FEBRUARY 16, 2015
Is there some kind of standard protocol for meeting unknown people professionally in a public setting? The fact that the meeting is in a coffee shop doesn’t change that. What other tips do people have for coffee shop interviews? I’m meeting my interviewer at a coffee shop — how does this work? A reader writes: I have what I think is going to be an amazing opportunity with a just starting up private school. I am super excited about the potential for this position. have been to many standard interviews, both at offices and at schools. know the drill for those.
my coworker is a rude, inconsiderate bully — but am I being too sensitive?
Ask a Manager
OCTOBER 4, 2016
In the last few months, it’s become incredibly apparent that she blatantly has no respect or regard for my time (even with meetings she’s initiated, she’s 15-20 minutes late and subsequently annoyed we only have a fraction of the required time). ” There are times when I’m met with even more of an attitude when I need to jump onto another call (“oh my god, fine, who are you meeting with?”), A reader writes: Six months ago, I started a new position after leaving a very toxic work environment. Any advice? That sounds silly when I write it.
coworkers think I left a bad Glassdoor review, negative feedback in an open office, and more
Ask a Manager
NOVEMBER 1, 2016
Ideally, the way this should work is that people have regular one-on-one meeting with their manager, and those meetings take place in a conference room or another private area. (It’s pretty essential that managers have private work space because the nature of the job means having lots of conversations that shouldn’t be overheard, but if that’s not happening, then they at least should be making regular use of conference rooms.) It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My coworkers think I left a bad Glassdoor review, but I didn’t. want to leave here on good terms.
my boss treats me like I’m incompetent, firing a difficult long-time employee, and more
Ask a Manager
SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
Part of what I do involves training other employees, and she will crash meetings uninvited. Even for meetings she’s invited to, she stands right next to me and repeats everything I say. Say something like this: “Jane, I’ve noticed that you’ll often attend the training meetings I do with others and go over the topics that I’m covering with people, and also that you’ll often follow up with people after I’ve answered their questions. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My boss praises me but treats me like I’m incompetent. During reviews, all praise.
is my sick coworker really on vacation, increasing my freelance rates, and more
Ask a Manager
AUGUST 11, 2016
Since I am the only other employee who does the same kind of work he does, I have been pulling 60-hour work weeks, working on weekends and neglecting everything else outside of my work schedule. I had a one-week long vacation planned for this week that I had to skip completely to meet these deadlines. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. I’ve been covering for my sick coworker, but he’s been posting about vacations on social media. One of the employees at the firm I currently work for has been supposedly been “sick” with strep throat/mono for three months now.
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