When budgets are tight, many managers believe an easier route to savings is to cut training and teambuilding services justifying other expenses in their stead. Few will question such a decision, which sends the message that these activities are an “extra” rather than a staple. This becomes a group outlook leaving the manager more “comfortable” in the short term to make such decisions without the challenge attached to other items. While the… Read More
Q: Several months ago one of my former employees, who’d left our agency, returned as my immediate supervisor. It’s been hell ever since. Before his return, I had been respected and allowed to function semi-autonomously. I’d myself been a supervisor, overseeing one employee until he left and management decided to shift the duties he’d handled to another department. I received excellent performance evaluations for my accomplishments. My former employee rules commander style… Read More
Q. I’m back in the job market and three questions interviewers ask always throw me for a loop. What do interviewers expect when they ask “tell me about your weaknesses,” “tell me about yourself” and “do you have any questions”? Are there any perfect responses? A. When interviewers ask applicants “what are your weaknesses?” they want to know whether or not you have a deal-breaker weakness and whether you’re honest enough to… Read More
You’ve met the predatory customer. He or she makes work life difficult for others because his money, power or simply his status as a customer enable him to do so. Do businesses have a responsibility to protect their customers from other customers that sexually harass them? What can an employer do if their business survival depends on contracts from a larger business when the individual who controls the purse strings for those… Read More
“How the hell could he have been so stupid?” the manager asked when he called. “What burns me is this spring he asked me if he could skip the annual anti-harassment training because he’d been through it five years in a row. So explain to me why I have credible complaints from three different women alleging this man on my senior team sexually harassed each of them?” The manager didn’t like it… Read More