Performance Tracking and Feedback

A reader writes: After being laid off, I was aggressively applying to everything even remotely in my industry. I landed an interview with a company I recognized and a role I was fully qualified for. In order to move forward in the process, however, they said I needed to “complete an AI screening.” What? I was expecting a phone call with the hiring manager as a first step, but this is the future I guess. So I went with it. Well, it was — perhaps predictably — absolutely awful. Not only did the AI ask me confusing, irrelevant questions about hyper specific bullet points on my resume, but it frequently interrupted my responses and even lost connection three times, forcing …

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. I’m drowning at work because of a family situation — how do I talk about it? My father passed away this past summer from pancreatic cancer. The complications of his illness had slowly escalated throughout the year prior, and I needed to take increasing amounts of time off work to fly to my parents’ home across the country. I work for an extremely small nonprofit and am in a director role. My work is project-based and I report to the board. No one keeps track of how much I’m working and when; they only care if the projects are done on time and well. The summer is our “off” season, and it’s when I usually get the bulk …

A reader writes: Something happened to me 15 years ago that I continue to wonder about. When I was a senior in college, I was applying to internships in my field (comms/PR if it matters) in Washington, D.C., with the help of my academic advisor. One in-person interview at one of the big legacy PR firms went really well. When my academic advisor followed up about it, they said the company thought I was a fantastic candidate and they’d absolutely love to hire me, except for one thing: they thought the shirt I was wearing was inappropriate for an interview setting and, particularly, that it had sequins on it. Ultimately, I did not get the fellowship because of it. I found…

A reader writes: My manager let me know today that my work group is getting interns this summer, and the plan that makes the most sense is for me to be a peer mentor. I’m fine with this, and I’m kind of excited about it, but I have never supervised or officially mentored or been nominally in charge of helping interns work! Do you have any advice or suggestions on how to approach this role and do it well? Here’s a round-up of a bunch of past advice about working with interns. general advice how to survive your summer interns how to get the most out of your summer interns how much guidance should interns need? how to be an awesome mentor reader advice on managing in…

A reader writes: I’m a former attorney from a government office, and I’ve been curious how you’d view something that was framed as positive but felt … off. Each spring, our office held a “Wellness Week” intended to promote work/life balance. We were divided into teams, and each day included a different “wellness challenge” to be completed during the workday. These ranged from things like a scavenger hunt outside, guided meditation sessions, or reading an article about wellness, to more involved activities like donating to charity. During this week, I often had to forgo my actual wellness activities to participate in the one-size-fits-all “wellness” challenges so as not …

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. How can we convince employees to care about showing up to work? Part of my job involves working with seasonal employees who are hired in the summer to work as 1-1 aides to kids with disabilities. We have a persistent problem of staff suddenly calling out or announcing late arrivals/early departures. In some ways I’m sympathetic — this is just their summer gig, we aren’t able to pay the rate I wish we could, and life can be complicated. In other ways, I’m not. The impact of suddenly disappearing on these kids seems so self-evident I feel ridiculous explaining it. The shifts are 9-3, so there is time at the end of the d…

This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. Here are the rules for the weekend posts. Book recommendation of the week: The Fox Wife, by Yangsze Choo. A Chinese detective story in which the grieving mother hunting her daughter’s killer happens to be a fox who can turn into a woman. Slow-paced, beautifully written, and a bit heart-breaking. (Amazon, Bookshop) I earn a commission if you use those links.  The post weekend open thread – April 18-19, 2026 appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on any work-related questions that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to take your questions to other readers. * If you submitted a question to me recently, please do not repost it here, as it may be in my queue to answer. The post open thread – April 17, 2026 appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. My senior employee is a terrible communicator My employee, “Jordan,” has been in a senior role for 15 years. Their job involves communication and coordination across many different teams and with customers; understanding and being understood is one of the most important competencies. Jordan’s communication skills are lacking. I have highlighted this as an area for improvement every year I have been their manager (nearly five years) and in annual goals and performance reviews, as did their previous manager. Jordan has attended trainings and I have provided job aids and feedback, but there has been little improvement. I…

A reader writes: About a year ago, I got prescribed a CPAP machine. Very important for, you know, supplying oxygen to my brain while I sleep, but one doozy of an adjustment period. It took me about a month to adjust to wearing it at night, and during that month I lowkey felt like I was dying. I was getting very little sleep, and that in small bursts. I was exhausted all the time, and exhaustion made me stupid and slow. I work in a compliance-related role. My job involves assessing regulatory liability for my employer and potential misconduct by licensed employees. If I find against an employee, it’s the kind of thing that could follow them for the rest of their career, …

A reader writes: One of my employees has asked for a massive raise. He has good reasons for wanting a raise: his responsibilities have ended up being very different than what he was originally hired for, he’s been doing very well with them, and he’s definitely paid below market for what he’s ended up doing. We hired him at $15/hour for an entry-level position with no hard requirements, and based on some quick market research, I’d say the work he’s doing now is closer to a $20-$25 range, so I’m actually in favor of giving him a pretty substantial increase. The trouble is that he’s asked for an increase to $40/hour, and he’s only been here for four months. That’s more tha…

Next Wednesday is Administrative Professionals Day, so let’s talk about the weirdest or most ridiculous requests you’ve ever seen made of assistants. To start us off, here are a few that have been shared here in the past: • “In my first job out of college, my boss asked me to dry his shoes, which got wet in the rain. He plunked them down on my desk and said he needed them dry for a meeting in 15 minutes. I’m still not sure what he expected me to do because at a certain point, only time can dry things. The hard -unabsorbent paper towels from the bathroom weren’t going to cut it. I was a receptionist but in no way a personal assistant.” • “I once had an office-assistant…

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I’m allergic to my coworker’s perfume, and HR says I have to manage it on my own I work hybrid and am required to be in office a couple days a week. I’m also allergic to certain scents and perfumes. Things like vanilla and citrus don’t bother me, but strong floral scents cause my sinuses to swell up, culminating in a migraine. It’s not pleasant, so I try my best to avoid anything that triggers it. Unfortunately, nobody seems to take scent allergies seriously or know they exist at all. My colleague, Linda, wears a perfume so strong that I can smell where she’s been 10 minutes after she’s been there. There’s an entire q…

A reader writes: I have a tendency to have frequent UTI’s. They’re easily treated and not dangerous, but they make my life annoying for 1-2 days before the meds kick in. I am not in pain but I might really, really need to visit the bathroom on a very short notice and very often, at worst every 15 minutes or so. At best, I’m fine an hour after I take the first pill. There’s no way to know beforehand which way it’ll go. I’m looking for advice on dealing with the problems this causes in my work; healthwise, I am fine and am working with my doctor to prevent the UTI’s as much as possible. But it’s a feature my body has had for ~25 years, so “not having them” isn’t a super r…

A reader writes: I’m hoping for some guidance on dealing with an employee who is convinced she isn’t advancing because she’s a woman, but it’s truly due to her putting in barely adequate effort and believing that advancement comes from checking off boxes and “time served.” We’re in a creative niche industry that’s fairly evenly split between men and women, although the larger industry that we’re a part of is still very male-dominated. Our company is a small privately owned company (under 50 people), roughly evenly split, with women at all levels, including in leadership. I’m a woman in the top level of our company and am involved in deciding who is ready to be promoted…

A reader writes: I work for a medium-sized, family-owned business. We all work from home. Some of us live in the same metro area but we’re not friends. We have an office culture of sensitivity and compassion when someone is going through a difficult time. For the last few months, every staff meeting somehow functions as an open mike for stories about horrific things that have befallen us, going back to the 1970s. I can’t give examples without needing a wall of trigger warnings. All are totally unrelated to the work we are there to discuss. We often end up with two or three people needing breaks to gather themselves, or being unable to pay attention when we do get to wor…

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager has been freezing me out since I talked to HR about her Last May, I finished my masters and in September landed a job in my field and specialty. The first few months were great with my boss, Claire. She was super nice, let me know everything that was going on in the department, I got along with my other coworker in my department, and I finally felt like I had found my job and people. I even told Claire I had a disability that I put on my application. She was very understanding and supportive. Then in January, things changed. Claire accused me of trying to do her job anytime I suggested something and said I …

Last month we talked about times when you said the exact wrong thing at work, and here are 20 (!) of my favorite stories you shared. There are also many not included below but which you’ll be seeing in Mortification Week later this year. 1. The insult I once worked as an editor and I told an author that if they tried a certain method to make a certain change to their paper, it “might be worth a shit.” Shot. I meant shot. And I did not catch it before hitting send. 2. The inexplicable sneer I had a phone screening for a job many years ago. There was a particular way of doing a standard task that I used more as a freelancer than in my current job because my boss at my j…

A reader writes: My company has a habit of recruiting and hiring a replacement for fired employees before the person has actually been fired. The replacement doesn’t start work until after the original employee is gone, but the company is recruiting and interviewing before they’ve told the person they will be out of a job (and the person has no idea the company is actively interviewing for their spot). I suppose that this is … practical? But it feels so slimy! They’ve done this secret recruitment, not advertising the position in their normal ways so no one sees that it’s open and figures out what’s happening. It also prevents anyone internally from applying for these po…

A reader writes: I work at a feminist tech company. Our app is focused on sex and intimacy. We’re a very small team, primarily remote, but every month we have an in-person get-together and workshop. The issue is with the CEO of the company, who also oversees all the engineers. I’m not an engineer and I don’t report to him, but I am in a director role and the nature of my job does mean that I have to talk to him a lot. For the most part, I respect this man professionally. I think he leads the engineers well, and he takes my advice seriously when it’s about something I’m clearly the expert in. However, he’s a chronic over-sharer, discusses things that make me uncomfortabl…

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My coworkers’ approach to group work is driving me mad At my workplace, we’re regularly required to give short presentations on how our work is coming along. As we work in teams, the teams need to present together. It seems like every time I come up against the same dynamic, and it’s driving me up a tree: For example, Fergus and I need to do a 5-10 minute presentation on sales in a certain district. We have to make a PowerPoint and a summarizing document to be shared with everyone. We split up the work so that we’re each handling one half of both the PowerPoint and the document, and set up a check-in meeting a few day…

A reader writes: There have a been a few questions recently that are along the lines of “How do I explain that (insert reason here) is why I want to leave my job?” I am curious what interviewers are getting out of asking this question. People leave for a multitude of reasons or no reason at all, and are going to put the best spin possible on the answer if they are asked. How does what someone states as their reason for leaving translate to helpful information for hiring? Because sometimes the answer gives really helpful information. Not always, but enough of the time to make it worth inquiring. For example, if a candidate says they’re leaving their job because it invo…

A reader writes: I need help in assessing the pros and cons of going to work for someone with no experience managing employees. I have over 10 years of experience leading teams or managing programs in IT and am looking at senior mid-level roles. I’m currently in the process of interviewing for a role that seems very promising and checks off almost all my boxes. Yet in the process of learning about the hiring manager, I discovered that this person is a recent graduate (less than five years ago) who was rapidly promoted into a role that now sees them managing people. I would be the first person they hire and manage. This is concerning to me, as I’m afraid that someone wi…

A reader writes: For the last five years, I’ve worked at a nonprofit with around 80 employees. Up until about six months ago, I was full-time and the two primary roles I had during that time were in middle management. Now I’m part-time (10 hours/week), not in any management/leadership position, and in a different department. Our organization serves victims of power-based interpersonal violence, so there are several practices/policies in place to try to maintain client and staff safety. One is that our building is at a confidential location and staff have fobs to get in. It’s common to hold the door for a coworker to get inside or let a coworker in if they forgot their f…

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My manager and coworker are fighting and I’m stuck in the middle My manager, Rose, is not good at her job. She routinely forgets things, does a terrible job advocating for the department, plays favorites, and isn’t proactive at solving problems. My coworker, Donna, is also not good at her job, but in a personal sense. She’s horrifically burnt out but isn’t taking steps to address it, holds grudges over slights that happened 5+ years ago, and goes from 0 to 100 in her moods. Adding fuel to the fire, Rose is conflict-averse, Donna is conflict-prone. As I’m the newest person in the office without the 10 years of beef thes…