Ask a Manager
WEBToday’s “ask the readers” is for my mom: let’s talk about times when someone righted someone’s else wrong (a favorite pastime of my mother).Maybe a colleague stood up to the office bully on behalf of a more junior colleague, or a new manager flagged a pay gap and got it fixed, or any other time a brave person said, “This isn’t right, and I’m going to fix it.”
8 workplace rights you might not know you have — Ask a Manager
WEBMike * October 29, 2012 at 12:32 pm. The inability to use comp time (even at time and a half) instead of overtime has been a major pain at my current job. I’m a programmer and system admin but non-exempt so things like maintenance and the off hour revelation have been problematic.
ending an email with “please advise” - Ask a Manager
WEBApr 13, 2015 — A reader writes: I’ve been working in an administrative role for the past two years and have found your blog very helpful. There are a lot of things that I wish someone would have told me about at the very beginning – especially email etiquette.
how to list the dates of your current job on your resume
WEBAsk a Manager * January 4, 2013 at 1:41 pm. I actually prefer that — it makes it a lot easier to tell how long you were really there. If something just says 2011-2012, I have no idea if that means Dec. 2011 – Feb. 2012 or if it’s actually closer to the full two years.
how to write the perfect out-of-office message — Ask a Manager
WEBEmily K * June 25, 2019 at 3:03 pm. In my email client I can set up a different message for internal vs external contact. On the internal one I list my cell number but on the external one I do say, “If this is an emergency you can reach me by cell,” without giving the number out.
how do I recover from a huge, fireable mistake at work?
WEBBRR * November 6, 2014 at 11:09 am. In addition to everything above, if you’re anything like me when I make a mistake I need to make sure to not dwell too much on it. If I keep thinking about it and replaying it over and over and analyze my future work a million times the number of mistakes I make tends to snowball.
here’s a real-life example of a fantastic cover letter
WEBApr 9, 2019 — I often get asked for examples of good cover letters, and a reader recently sent me a great one that I want to share. This is a fantastic example of how someone without a ton of work experience (she’s still a student!) can make a compelling case for why they’d be a good hire.
how to negotiate salary after a job offer - Ask a Manager
WEBSyfygeek * March 19, 2019 at 1:22 pm. I had an interview last July- I had used Alison’s examples of how to write a cover letter, and got called to set up an interview. During the interview, I was told the job was listed at X per year, but it needed to be adjusted up to X + 3K to match similar positions in the company.
how can you convince your employer to hire additional staff?
WEBNov 26, 2013 — Ann Furthermore * November 28, 2013 at 1:07 am. Even then, I don’t think that some companies would care. I’ve actually heard people at my company at the director level and above say that everyone should be happy to just have a job, and that there are plenty of people out there who would be willing to take anyone’s place.
About - Ask a Manager
WEBWhen I started this blog, I was the chief of staff for a successful nonprofit, where I was responsible for hiring, firing, promoting, managing, all of