manager uses employees’ photos for AI-generated images, should an employer help if you’re burned out, and more

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Manager uses employees’ photos for AI-generated images

Recently, my partner’s boss fed employees’ headshots (from LinkedIn) into an AI model to generate “personas” of them (for example, an IT specialist might be the “Tech Wizard” and the AI image would be their face on a character dressed in wizard robes) and then hung them on their desks. She did this without their knowledge, much less their consent.

My partner felt their privacy was violated and is unhappy about it. However, they didn’t approach their boss because they thought she would get upset, and they didn’t want to manage her emotions or be accused of not being a “team player” (they said these would be likely reactions; she has often called out people for not being “team players” for not wanting to participate in non-work antics like this).

Now she just told the team to all wear a certain color next week to take photos. She won’t divulge what it’s about, but my partner expects she is cooking up something to feed into an AI model again (and the color request could be to make a “green screen” easier). How can they push back on this? This definitely seems to fall under vague “team-building” and “office ‘fun,'” not an actual business need or job function. My partner has very little online presence aside from a stagnant LinkedIn profile and is concerned for their privacy, as well as the waste of water/resources for such a silly use of AI.

Yeah, if she’s uploading their photos to AI, it’s very possible that those photos may be stored and used to train AI models, be shared or sold, be used in advertising, and get used in other ways they didn’t consent to, including being used to create new images (even things like including their faces in violent or explicit imagery) or being used in deepfakes.

Your partner and his coworkers should tell their boss that they’re not comfortable having their images uploaded to AI, period, and tell her not to use their images again without their explicit consent. They don’t need to dance around it; they can ask right now what the matching shirts thing is about and can forthrightly say, “We don’t want our photos uploaded to AI at all because of privacy concerns.”

2. Is it fair to expect an employer will help when an employee is burned out?

I recently left a job of six years where the company had become extremely toxic due to a pattern of behavior by the senior leadership team (purposely understaffing, belittling, pressing employees not to take their entitled leave, etc.). My mental health took a major hit from the pressure leadership put me through once I stopped going above and beyond for them.

I told my manager that I was burnt out, shared the steps I was taking to try to mitigate it, and asked for her help by pointing out some specific instances where her actions contributed to it, like IM’ing me critical feedback sporadically throughout the day rather than discussing issues face to face. Unfortunately, she did very little to improve the situation and ultimately put me on a PIP. One of the examples she included in the PIP was that I “blamed performance issues on personal problems,” seemingly in reference to our conversation about my burnout.

I found the wording and lack of help leading up to the PIP very dismissive on her part. To me, someone saying they’re burned out should be a call to action for a manager, but evidently not everyone sees it that way. All this leads me to wonder how much responsibility, if any, is reasonable for employers to accept for their employees’ burnout?

P.S. I resigned the next day and regret nothing.

An employer that purposely understaffs, belittles employees, and pressures people not to take any time off is not an employer that you can realistically expect will change their ways when someone says they’re burned out. By definition, they’re an employer that won’t care about that.

A healthy, functional employer will care! That doesn’t mean that they will always pull back on workload, but at a minimum a manager who hears that an employee is burned out should talk with them about what’s contributing to it and try to brainstorm solutions. There are times when a manager might not be able to make significant changes (like if the workload, culture, or nature of the job isn’t inherently unreasonable, just a bad match — or even if it is unreasonable, but the manager doesn’t have the power to change it and the influence to get someone else to change it). But even then, it should be a supportive, compassionate conversation, like the manager being up-front that XYZ can’t change but being empathetic about the person’s struggles with it and encouraging them to prioritize their health and think realistically about whether the role still makes sense for them and supporting them if they decide it doesn’t.

In other words, it doesn’t always follow that if someone is burned out, the employer must make changes on their end — but at a minimum they should reflect on how they might be contributing to it, try to find changes that will help, and be honest, kind, and supportive if they can’t. It sounds like your manager failed on all those fronts.

3. Avoiding the word “assume” in business correspondence

I am in the midst of ongoing correspondence involving a claim with a company we do business with. They have asked me to send “supporting documentation” (their claim form), which I filled out and sent back as a scanned document. I received confirmation via a “do not reply” email account from the company that the paperwork was received.

A week later, I received an email from their case representative that they are still waiting for the paperwork and saying the claim may be denied if they do not receive the claim form “in a timely matter.” This company has been very difficult to work with in resolving an issue that should be relatively simple to fix.

I was going to respond back, in part, “I would assume you have received the paperwork due to an email confirmation I received on 2/9/2026 that paperwork was received.”

In college I had a professor who told us never, never, ever use the word “assume” in business correspondence. She said it condescending and may make an “ass out of you and me.” That has stuck with me. Any idea for another word to use in this context other than “assume”?

There’s nothing wrong with the word “assume” in business correspondence. Sometimes it’s the best word for what you need. Your professor had a weird hang-up; don’t let it become yours.

That said, in this specific situation, it would be clearer to say: “CompanyName sent me an email confirmation on 2/9/26 stating that you did receive the paperwork, which I had submitted on 2/8/26. I’m forwarding that confirmation below. I am also attaching the paperwork again here.” That doesn’t get into what you did or didn’t assume; it just clearly states the facts and attempts to move the situation forward.

4. The person who replaced me rejected my training and now is struggling

I took on a new role six months ago in a different division. The transition coincided with a busy period, and the new hire who replaced me never accepted my offers to train her on crucial aspects of the role, including the responsibilities of the team they were supposed to manage. I had asked once or twice but dropped the matter to let them find their footing.

A few months later, the new manager is failing to perform due to the lack of training they received. The team continues to seek my guidance. I try to avoid involvement as much as possible to prevent any conflicts.

I’ve heard that the new manager is attributing this to an old issue that predates her tenure. This makes me feel defensive. Short of sending a CYA email when no one asked, is there a professional way to rectify this situation? Who is responsible for the handover and onboarding process for internal transfers? I want to act responsibly and maintain positive relationships with the former team.

Talk to your old boss — not to blame the new person who replaced you but to share what you’re seeing and offer some support of the new hire if your old boss wants it. The basic framing would be: “I had offered a few times to train Jane on XYZ and she didn’t take me up on it — which is of course her prerogative and she should run the team the way she wants to. However, the X team keeps coming to me for guidance on those things and my sense is that it may be because Jane doesn’t have a nuanced understanding of them yet. I’m trying to avoid being involved since I don’t want to undermine her. But I’m also hearing she’s attributing a lot of the issues to (Old Issue), which I’m not sure is correct, so I wanted to give you a heads-up about what I’m seeing and ask if there’s anything you want me to do to help support her. If not, I’ll leave it alone.”

Obviously you’ve been in a new job for six months now and so the answer can’t be “yes, invest hours of remedial training with Jane” although it would be reasonable to agree to have a meeting or two if that would help. More importantly, though, this is a way to bring the situation to your old boss’s attention and set the record straight about what you think is going on.

5. Asking for a raise: a success story

I recently asked for a raise and got it, and wanted to share in case this is helpful for your readers.

I’ve been in my position about two years with a state government. I created a one-page document that divided my work into a few major categories (work products, presentations, performance review from last year, and additional contributions) and filled in bullet points for each. I have heard my boss in the past emphasize the importance of our office being well-rounded, so I tried to lay out all the ways I’ve contributed, both explicitly as a part of my role and outside the traditional job description when I’ve picked up small tasks no one else wanted to do. I also wanted to create an easy-to-read overview of my contributions to better position my supervisor to advocate for me based on what she saw made the most sense given her specific vantage point with those above her. At the bottom of the document, I listed similar roles/titles within our agency and their salaries alongside my title and salary. Because we’re government, all salaries are public online.

I asked for a brief meeting with my supervisor and brought copies for her and me and opened the conversation by stating that I’d like to see if there’s room for my compensation to be adjusted based on my performance. When she saw the bottom with the salaries listed, she immediately said, “What? You shouldn’t be making less than Similar Role!” The discrepancy between our salaries was about $10k.

I didn’t ask for a specific number but left it in my boss’s hands to determine. She later asked for an electronic copy of the one-pager, as she had given hers to our HR department when she went to talk to them. About two weeks later, I was called in for a meeting and told that my new salary would be a wee bit more than the similar role she identified initially. Thanks for the helpful resources provided on your site!

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