Dear Madeleine, I am a professional office manager. I happily managed a medical practice for many years until I was let go when it was acquired by a large national entity. I recently went for an interview to manage a new practice after having several promising interviews. I arrived early for the interview and was…
Dear Madeleine, I read your last blog with interest. My boss and I have worked together for four years and, generally speaking, I have done well with her. She shows appreciation for my work and has been warm and supportive of my career aspirations. However, there are moments when something she does or says puts…
Dear Madeleine, I took some business and leadership courses in college and graduated with a degree in accounting. Last spring I got a job in the finance department of a mid-sized manufacturing company. I like the work and I am learning practical stuff. What surprises me most is just how bad the management is. Not…
Dear Madeleine, It’s the new year. All my friends and colleagues are talking about New Year’s resolutions. I got nothin’. I am plugging away at my work goals, but they don’t change much. I like my job. I am good at it. I am not gunning for a promotion. I go to the gym and…
Dear Madeleine, About six months ago, I went above and beyond to help out a new colleague. He had misread a deadline and needed to scramble to get a bunch of time-sensitive work done over a long weekend. I willingly jumped in to help him, finding documents, getting permission to give him access to materials,…
Dear Madeleine, My boss is just awful. He is the son of a friend of the owner, and the owner has no idea how he treats people. Although he comes from a company in our industry, where he was the operations manager, he really doesn’t understand how different things are here. I love my job.…
Dear Madeleine, I have been working for a company for a few years now. They moved to an Unlimited PTO policy just as I joined. It was heavily promoted in the recruiting stage. Things went fine the first couple of years. I took the typical PTO breaks—December holiday time, a couple of days in the…
Dear Madeleine, There is a woman on my team who is driving me crazy. I am on the young side and she is nearing the end of her career, but I don’t think it is just about generational differences. In fact, she drives everyone crazy. She always thinks she knows best and assumes I know…
Dear Madeleine, This isn’t really a work problem, it is a life problem caused by success at work. I am the CEO of a respected company and have been successful beyond my wildest dreams. I was the first in my family to go to college, let alone get an advanced degree. I am incredibly persistent…
Dear Madeleine, I manage a team in a large company that recently went to an Unlimited PTO policy. I am glad, because tracking and trying to get people to take their PTO was a pain. So far, it has worked pretty well. The policy is that people need to request holiday time in advance, mainly…