Speaker 1: My colleagues, We'll stop commenting on everything I get at
Speaker 1: people and meeting? Why does my coworker keep taking credit
Speaker 1: for all my idea? Have any wisdom for me? Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Alison Green. Welcome to the Aska Manager podcast, where
Speaker 1: I answer questions from listeners about life at work, everything
Speaker 1: from what to say if you're allergic to your coworkers
Speaker 1: perfume to what to do if you drink too much
Speaker 1: at the company party. Let's get started. Taking a new
Speaker 1: job is always something of a gamble. Something can sound
Speaker 1: great in the interview process, but then once you start
Speaker 1: turn out not to be at all what you thought
Speaker 1: it was going to be, And sometimes it can be
Speaker 1: hard to sort through whether it's just a rocky transition
Speaker 1: and it'll get better, or whether it's the wrong fit.
Speaker 1: And if it is the wrong fit, it can be
Speaker 1: tough to know what to do about it, especially if
Speaker 1: you're trying to build a stable work history. That is
Speaker 1: the situation that my guest today finds herself in. Hi,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the show. All right, thanks for having me. So,
Speaker 1: you started a new job about a month or so ago,
Speaker 1: which came with a pay raise and a better title,
Speaker 1: and was supposed to be work that was more in
Speaker 1: line with your master's degree. The position that you took
Speaker 1: used to be held by one person, but it was
Speaker 1: split into two, so they hired you and one other
Speaker 1: person to do that work. But what you've been finding
Speaker 1: is that most of the work that you've been assigned
Speaker 1: was handled by an intern before you started, And it's
Speaker 1: not the work that you talked about during the hiring
Speaker 1: process and that you thought you were coming on board
Speaker 1: to do. And you're trying to figure out is this
Speaker 1: just growing pains from a new job or is this
Speaker 1: not the right fit? Am I getting that right? And
Speaker 1: is there anything else you want to add to that? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's about right. Uh, you kind of have
Speaker 1: the gist of it. Um yeah, there's the basic details
Speaker 1: now When you say that most of what you're doing
Speaker 1: now is work that used to be done by an intern.
Speaker 1: Was it the intern job that was split into two
Speaker 1: between you and your new coworker, or was it was
Speaker 1: the job that was split into a different higher level job.
Speaker 1: So the job that was went into two was a
Speaker 1: different higher level position. And Um, there in the sort
Speaker 1: of transition period between this other person leaving and the
Speaker 1: two of us coming on, there was an intern that
Speaker 1: sort of did the majority of the work, and when
Speaker 1: the other person was employed there at that point, they
Speaker 1: also had an intern that sort of helped with that
Speaker 1: work as well. And that work is sort of consuming
Speaker 1: my everyday work life now, so I can't really focus
Speaker 1: on the other responsibilities that were listed in the job
Speaker 1: description during the interview. And the person, the other person
Speaker 1: who is hired at the same time as you, from
Speaker 1: what you can see, are they doing the work that
Speaker 1: you thought you would be doing some responsibilities, yes, but
Speaker 1: not everything. There was one thing in particular, like one
Speaker 1: project in particular, um that I was really interested through
Speaker 1: the interview process, and I brought it up a lot
Speaker 1: as as having had experience in it from my previous position.
Speaker 1: They were really excited about it. But when I came on,
Speaker 1: it turned out that project was not in my wheelhouse
Speaker 1: at all. It was somebody else's responsibility. Now. And is
Speaker 1: that somebody else the other person who was hired or
Speaker 1: a completely different person, Yeah, that's the person that was hired, Okay.
Speaker 1: And the stuff that you have been doing, how far
Speaker 1: off is it from the work that you thought you
Speaker 1: were coming in to do? Is it pretty different. Um.
Speaker 1: So I would say that I had some idea that
Speaker 1: this would be part of the position. I just didn't
Speaker 1: realize that it would take up so much of my time. Um.
Speaker 1: I was coming into with an understanding that this might
Speaker 1: be maybe of my responsibilities, but it's really more like
Speaker 1: cent of my responsibilities right now. Has anyone acknowledged the
Speaker 1: situation to you, Like, has anyone said anything like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is just until you get ramped up, or someone
Speaker 1: was unexpectedly hit by a bus and out for a
Speaker 1: two months, so we're having you kind of pinch hit
Speaker 1: for them until they're back, or any other kind of
Speaker 1: acknowledgment that this is different than what you talked about
Speaker 1: during the hiring process. Yeah, I think. Um. Recently, my
Speaker 1: boss has sort of um come up to me and
Speaker 1: said in a few instances, like, I know that this
Speaker 1: is like a really big part of your time right now,
Speaker 1: and we're hoping to sort of transition that work in
Speaker 1: some way. There has been some talk of bringing on
Speaker 1: an intern again to sort of help with that work
Speaker 1: as well, But there has been some acknowledgment that this is,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of work. It's taking up a
Speaker 1: lot of your time. And we want you to do
Speaker 1: some some of those other responsibilities. Oh okay, so that's
Speaker 1: really promising actually that they see what's happening and they're
Speaker 1: not okay with it. And when you've had those conversations,
Speaker 1: has there have you gotten a sense of like is
Speaker 1: that like oh often some hypothetical distant future, or is
Speaker 1: that like within the next couple of weeks. You know,
Speaker 1: it's been really hard to tell. When I first wrote
Speaker 1: to you, this wasn't part of the conversation at all yet.
Speaker 1: It was just sort of appeared that, oh, this is
Speaker 1: what you're doing on these responsibilities. But as time has
Speaker 1: gone on, um, there have been sort of or glimmers
Speaker 1: of hope that this might be changing and this is
Speaker 1: not actually supposed to be the status quo. But it's
Speaker 1: hard to tell whether or not it's actually something that
Speaker 1: could happen, like, you know, like my responsibilities might change. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it is your sense that your boss let me
Speaker 1: ask about a different way. When you have talked to
Speaker 1: your boss about this, how have you handled that side
Speaker 1: of the conversation, Like have you tried to give the
Speaker 1: impression that you feel some urgency around getting this settled,
Speaker 1: or have you tried to be really accommodating. I've tried
Speaker 1: to be really accommodating, especially because it's my first month
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to make a good impression and um
Speaker 1: not trying to sort of make them feel like I'm
Speaker 1: burdened by a position that I just started. But I
Speaker 1: have expressed that it is a lot um and some
Speaker 1: some help would be really appreciated. And when did you
Speaker 1: and your boss last talk about it? How long has
Speaker 1: it been since that last conversation? Maybe about a we
Speaker 1: could go okay, So that's interesting. When I was thinking,
Speaker 1: when I first had your letter, before we talked today,
Speaker 1: and before I knew that there were sort of these
Speaker 1: glimmers of hope on the horizon, I was prepared to
Speaker 1: tell you, you know, there's a few different things that
Speaker 1: could be going on here. You know, since you're a
Speaker 1: month in, maybe they're easing you into the job just
Speaker 1: way too slowly. Because sometimes employers will do that because
Speaker 1: they think it's easier on the person. Sometimes they do
Speaker 1: it because they are being pulled in too many different
Speaker 1: directions and they haven't been able to carve out time
Speaker 1: to train you yet, or just start delegating work to
Speaker 1: you because delegating work to a brand new person actually
Speaker 1: takes some time in order to set them up to
Speaker 1: do it well, or that it could be that there
Speaker 1: actually wasn't enough work to split that job into two,
Speaker 1: and so they were filling up your time with this
Speaker 1: other work or worst case scenario. And I no longer
Speaker 1: think that it sounds like this, fortunately, But the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario I had in my head before we talked
Speaker 1: was that it could be that whoever hired you had
Speaker 1: done a really bad job of figuring out what your
Speaker 1: role would be and conveying it to you in an
Speaker 1: accurate way, or that it was accurate at the time,
Speaker 1: but something changed since then and no one had talked
Speaker 1: to you about it. Yeah, I think. Um. I think
Speaker 1: part of the issue as well is splitting the role
Speaker 1: into two sort of a new decision for your organization.
Speaker 1: And I think through the interview process they were still
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what work would be delegated to
Speaker 1: what person, and I think that process is still continuing
Speaker 1: now in some way, but they're still trying to decide
Speaker 1: what I'm supposed to be doing as opposed to what
Speaker 1: my colleague is doing. Well, I like that your boss
Speaker 1: has acknowledged it to you, and you're not just sort
Speaker 1: of doing this completely different job than you're hired for it.
Speaker 1: No one is talking about it. So it's good that
Speaker 1: it's been acknowledged. It's good that it sounds like at
Speaker 1: some point it's going to change. I would like it
Speaker 1: a lot better if they were giving you a clearer
Speaker 1: timeline so that you knew does that mean two more
Speaker 1: weeks of this or does this mean six months of it? Um?
Speaker 1: So I think that the thing to do might be
Speaker 1: to talk to your us and try to get a
Speaker 1: clear understanding of that. It also maybe like it's great
Speaker 1: to try to be accommodating when you're in a new job.
Speaker 1: That's totally understandable. You don't want to seem like you're
Speaker 1: difficult enough the bat. But it could be that your
Speaker 1: boss is thinking, oh, well, she's completely fine with this,
Speaker 1: so I can take my time and I can deal
Speaker 1: with other priorities, and when I get around to dealing
Speaker 1: with this, i'll deal with it. But if it is
Speaker 1: months away, then so be it. And so it might
Speaker 1: be that you need to be a little bit more
Speaker 1: upfront about where you are on all of this so
Speaker 1: that it doesn't set for six months, right, Okay, we'll
Speaker 1: pause here for a quick break and then we'll be
Speaker 1: right back. So I think, um, I mean, if you
Speaker 1: just talked to her about it a week ago, I
Speaker 1: might give it like another week just to see is
Speaker 1: there any movement on it? Does anyone bring it up again?
Speaker 1: If not, and it's a full two weeks since the
Speaker 1: two of you last talked about it, then it's co
Speaker 1: letely reasonable to talk to her and try to pin
Speaker 1: it down and to say, you know, hey, I know
Speaker 1: we talked about this being something that you're working and
Speaker 1: figuring out. Do you have a timeline in mind for
Speaker 1: when that's likely to happen, and then see what she says.
Speaker 1: But if she's at all vague, or if she says
Speaker 1: anything that makes you think, okay, this is not going
Speaker 1: to be taken care of in the next month, it's
Speaker 1: pretty reasonable at that point to say, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: I want to be transparent with you. I'm completely happy
Speaker 1: to help out in a pinch, glad to do it,
Speaker 1: but I want to be transparent that I accepted this
Speaker 1: job because I was really excited about the responsibilities that
Speaker 1: we talked about in the hiring process, and that is
Speaker 1: the stuff that I want to spend my time unprofessionally,
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that we can nail down a timeline
Speaker 1: for making that transition. Okay, great, I don't think we've
Speaker 1: had sort of a conversation about the exact responsibilities yet,
Speaker 1: so I think it might be actually really nice to
Speaker 1: sort of sit down and talk about how things are
Speaker 1: going and sort of my expectations and their expectations, and
Speaker 1: kind of come to understanding of what my responsiblity will
Speaker 1: entail in the future and if there are certain steps
Speaker 1: that are being taken to sort of alleviate the work
Speaker 1: that I didn't not just pay to be doing so
Speaker 1: much of. Yes. Absolutely, And it sounds like she does
Speaker 1: realize how much of your time that intern where it
Speaker 1: is taking up. But if you at all get the
Speaker 1: sense that she doesn't be really really clear about that,
Speaker 1: because if it's taking up eight percent of your time
Speaker 1: and she thinks it's taking up that's a huge difference.
Speaker 1: So try to put a numerical value on it if
Speaker 1: you can. If you're getting the sense that she does
Speaker 1: not realize, Okay, yeah, that's great. Do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about what to do if you can't seem to
Speaker 1: pin down a timeline and this is going on and on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be awesome. Okay, So let's say you have
Speaker 1: that conversation and she tells you like, oh, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: in progress and it should just be a few weeks,
Speaker 1: and then a few weeks go by and like there's
Speaker 1: just no sign of a change, and you maybe check
Speaker 1: in again and say that you're just trying to figure
Speaker 1: out where she's at with it and you're getting the
Speaker 1: sense it's not happening anytime soon, or when you talk
Speaker 1: to her initially she says, you know what, realistically, it's
Speaker 1: going to be six months before we actually bring out
Speaker 1: it in in turn to help with this work. If it
Speaker 1: is something like any of those scenarios, it really is
Speaker 1: okay to say again, you know, I think did you
Speaker 1: mention in your email to me that you you had
Speaker 1: two offers and you accepted this one and turned down
Speaker 1: another one. Yeah, that's right. So you could even say that,
Speaker 1: if you're comfortable with it, you could say, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to be really up front with you, I
Speaker 1: accepted this job and turned down at a different offer
Speaker 1: because I was so excited about the work that we
Speaker 1: talked about in the interview and it really is important
Speaker 1: to me to be sing my time on that, and
Speaker 1: I want to get a sense from you of how
Speaker 1: likely that really is in the next few months or
Speaker 1: whether it really is going to stay like it is
Speaker 1: right now, because you're trying to get her, You're you're
Speaker 1: trying to get her to d two things, to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, first of all, to be really th right,
Speaker 1: but also to sort of do the thinking that she
Speaker 1: should have done quite a while ago, frankly, or at
Speaker 1: least to do it in front of you, of of
Speaker 1: thinking through, okay, what actually needs to happen to take
Speaker 1: care of this and realistically when is that likely to
Speaker 1: be or is it likely to be. So you have
Speaker 1: that conversation, Let's say you continue to think, oh, this
Speaker 1: is not this is not changing anytime soon. I think
Speaker 1: at that point you would need to decide, knowing that
Speaker 1: it's going to be like this for a while, do
Speaker 1: you want to stay or not. And I know that
Speaker 1: you mentioned in your letter to me that you're concerned
Speaker 1: about leaving over this, and you're worried that it could
Speaker 1: be hard to find another job because your job searching
Speaker 1: for three months before this job came along. But I
Speaker 1: think you also said, this is one of three different
Speaker 1: jobs where you got to the final round and you
Speaker 1: got this offer and another offer, and that's actually pretty
Speaker 1: good for three months of job searching. Yeah, three months
Speaker 1: is not a terribly long search. It certainly feels like
Speaker 1: it when you're in the middle of it, but that
Speaker 1: relatively speaking, that's not a crazy long time to be searching,
Speaker 1: and you've got two offers out of it. So I
Speaker 1: would not take that at all as a sign that
Speaker 1: you're trapped where you are. Okay, great, that's yes, absolutely. Now,
Speaker 1: you also said you were worried that if you did
Speaker 1: decide to leave this job over this, that it would
Speaker 1: be bad for your resume because your your last job
Speaker 1: for two years and the one before that for a
Speaker 1: year and a half, and you really want to show
Speaker 1: longer term stays. Right, Yeah, that's right. So I think
Speaker 1: the thing to know here is that, actually, this is
Speaker 1: going to sound counterintuitive, but leaving this job pretty quickly
Speaker 1: would actually be fine because if you left it quickly enough,
Speaker 1: you could just leave it off your resume. Now, if
Speaker 1: you stay for a year and leave, like let's say
Speaker 1: you are patient and nothing changes and now you've been
Speaker 1: there a year, and you're like, oh crap, I really
Speaker 1: do have to leave over this. That is actually harder
Speaker 1: because you wouldn't generally leave a whole year off of
Speaker 1: your resume, But if you're just there for a few
Speaker 1: you can leave it off and it would be like
Speaker 1: it never happened. Okay. I guess my concern with that
Speaker 1: would be that my previous positions were I guess you
Speaker 1: could say there were more sort of customer service oriented
Speaker 1: or more assistant admen oriented, and I'm looking to take
Speaker 1: my career in a different direction, sort of um, higher
Speaker 1: level authority in some ways, and this is a position
Speaker 1: that gives me that I hope once we have these
Speaker 1: conversations with my boss um. And I guess my concern
Speaker 1: is if I leave quickly and I leave it off
Speaker 1: my resume, and I'm not really showing the sort of
Speaker 1: growth that this job might show. Yeah, I think you
Speaker 1: would sort of be. You'd be job searching from the
Speaker 1: same point that you were when your job searching a
Speaker 1: couple of months ago. The job started that led you
Speaker 1: to this job, and this that job started did get
Speaker 1: you a job that was supposed to at least have
Speaker 1: more of the responsibility that you're looking for So you
Speaker 1: would just be kind of a racing the last month
Speaker 1: or so and and just continuing the job started the
Speaker 1: you're already in. Now you might be are you worried that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you'd be doing it from a period from a
Speaker 1: point of unemployment, whereas last time you were job searching
Speaker 1: while you're already had a job. Yeah, that's why that
Speaker 1: would be part of a concern. So I think there's
Speaker 1: two different ways to handle that. You could put this
Speaker 1: job on your resume even though you've only been there
Speaker 1: a few months, which normally I don't recommend. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's when you've only been in a job a short time,
Speaker 1: you don't generally have the kind of accomplishments to list
Speaker 1: that would be a plus for your resume, and the
Speaker 1: short length will raise these questions about why are you
Speaker 1: looking to leave already? So in general I tell people
Speaker 1: who have already left a job after only a few
Speaker 1: months just leave it off entirely. But in your case,
Speaker 1: it might be if your job searching while you're still there,
Speaker 1: it might be that you put it on and that
Speaker 1: you're just very put it on your resume, and that
Speaker 1: you're very upfront about the fact that they had had
Speaker 1: they had had someone leave who had been doing a
Speaker 1: lot of this other sort of work and it ended
Speaker 1: up getting transferred over to you. And they've been really
Speaker 1: clear that they've been trying to change to that, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like there's a timeline for that, and
Speaker 1: so you're you're looking for something that's more like what
Speaker 1: you thought you were signing up for, and that happens,
Speaker 1: You're not going to be judged for that. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break and we'll be right back to
Speaker 1: talk about this some more. You know. The other thing
Speaker 1: is you set in your letter that you just got
Speaker 1: your masters, and a lot of people sort of reset
Speaker 1: their careers when they get a new degree. So if
Speaker 1: you wanted to just leave it off your resiman while
Speaker 1: you looked around, it also wouldn't be that weird that
Speaker 1: you might have a couple of months after graduating where
Speaker 1: you didn't have anything listed. I mean, frankly, even if
Speaker 1: that weren't the case, a gap of a couple of
Speaker 1: months is not really a big deal. But school having
Speaker 1: just finished school, that makes it even more normal. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought of it that way. Actually, Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you could say I was working with these customer service
Speaker 1: jobs while I was in school, But now that I
Speaker 1: have the degree, I'm looking for work doing X Y Z. Okay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: school is actual a super helpful reset in that way. Sometimes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I've been just so concerned about the potential
Speaker 1: gap that I haven't even been thinking about the school factor. Like,
Speaker 1: of course, people who have finished and graduated, they're going
Speaker 1: to be looking at their career field and that might
Speaker 1: take a little while to sort of break into it.
Speaker 1: But that's off my radar because I've been still nervous
Speaker 1: about the gaps. Yeah, and also, don't get too worried
Speaker 1: about the gap, because it's to the extent that it
Speaker 1: will be an issue at all, and it really might
Speaker 1: not be an issue at all. But to the extent
Speaker 1: that it is, it's only going to be an issue
Speaker 1: this job search because as soon as you get the
Speaker 1: next job, you stay there for a while. The next
Speaker 1: time your job searching, no one is going to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: what's this two month gap from a few years ago.
Speaker 1: Like that's when people talk about having gaps on your
Speaker 1: ASOMA being a problem, they're not talking about gaps of
Speaker 1: a few months. They're talking about like big solid gaps
Speaker 1: where like you're out of the workforce for a year
Speaker 1: or more and maybe you were in jail during that
Speaker 1: time or something like that. Okay, I see, And you know,
Speaker 1: maybe this won't be a problem at all, because once
Speaker 1: I have this conversation with my with my supervisor, you know,
Speaker 1: things might change. Yeah, I mean that's the hope, right.
Speaker 1: The hope is that you won't even have to deal
Speaker 1: with a job search because you will talk to your
Speaker 1: boss and it'll go well. But do have in the
Speaker 1: back of your head that if it doesn't, here's a
Speaker 1: different path that you could use and it would probably
Speaker 1: be completely fine. Okay, Yeah, that's that's a lot more
Speaker 1: positive than I expected. It's more positive than I expected
Speaker 1: actually before we talked, because I didn't have the information
Speaker 1: about the more recent conversations you've had with your boss.
Speaker 1: But those are really promising, and I think it really
Speaker 1: does sound like the immediate task for you now, after
Speaker 1: you give it, say another week, is to just have
Speaker 1: like be a little bit more forthright with your manager
Speaker 1: that you're feeling some urgency around this. Um you don't
Speaker 1: want to be so I mean, you want to be accommodating.
Speaker 1: Of course, you want to be a helpful person who's
Speaker 1: easy to work with, but you also want to advocate
Speaker 1: for yourself. And you took the job thinking it was
Speaker 1: going to be x and it's been why you're willing
Speaker 1: to help out, but not indefinitely. Yeah, and I will
Speaker 1: say that during the interview process, I did actually have
Speaker 1: a salary negotiation that went well, So that was also
Speaker 1: a first for me. Oh good, congratulations Steve for doing that.
Speaker 1: So did you get more than what they originally offered? Yes, excellent,
Speaker 1: I like hearing Matt. Yeah, I know. And I did
Speaker 1: use the toops that you had on your blog. Oh good,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad. What was the most useful to you?
Speaker 1: So the most useful to me was just giving a
Speaker 1: number and then not saying anything else. Just yeah, just
Speaker 1: shutting up, nobody explanation. I just gave a number. I
Speaker 1: was like, how about this, and they went back and
Speaker 1: it's just like, okay, that's how about this since thead
Speaker 1: and it was still higher than when you know, what
Speaker 1: was initially given. So that was good. Good, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you did it. And yeah, people, um, people get
Speaker 1: nervous and they start talking more and filling in the silence.
Speaker 1: And then they undercut themselves. So it's good for you
Speaker 1: if you're just saying it and think it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was great. Were you surprised at how easy it
Speaker 1: ended up being. I was absolutely surprised. I could not
Speaker 1: believe it. Almost. Yeah. People. I think people build it
Speaker 1: up in their head to be this like big conversation
Speaker 1: where you have to like build this whole case for
Speaker 1: raise and maybe you have to come in with some
Speaker 1: slide showing your worth, and it's so much easier than that,
Speaker 1: Like it can be like one sentence. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: exactly the expectation that I had before reading some of
Speaker 1: the tips that you've written about. But yeah, that's all
Speaker 1: it was. It was literally one sentence in an email
Speaker 1: and I just said thanks, and then they got back
Speaker 1: to me and it was fun. Yeah. I love hearing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah good. I'm glad other people are hearing that too,
Speaker 1: because the more that we can like demystify that process
Speaker 1: and get people more money, the better. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Well do you feel like you are set on the
Speaker 1: next steps? Is there anything else that would be helpful
Speaker 1: for us to talk about? Um? I think I feel
Speaker 1: pretty good about it. Um, I feel good about you know,
Speaker 1: checking in with my with my boss in a week
Speaker 1: and asking about next steps. Um, and if that doesn't
Speaker 1: work to being really transparent about what my needs are
Speaker 1: for the position and what my expectations are and things
Speaker 1: like that. So that feels really good. And then I
Speaker 1: also feel really positive that if it doesn't work out,
Speaker 1: I do have options going forward. Um, I don't feel
Speaker 1: like a potential gap well just you know, totally destroy
Speaker 1: my work history or something like that. Good. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think the thing about having gaps in your resume, it's
Speaker 1: like the message has gotten out there that sometimes gaps
Speaker 1: can be a problem, but it's been completely misinterpreted, and
Speaker 1: it's like scared the crap out of people about gaps
Speaker 1: that like no reasonable interviewer is actually going to care about.
Speaker 1: There needs to be some sort of like public service
Speaker 1: campaign explaining to people that a couple of months is
Speaker 1: not going to be a big deal. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Before we end today's show, I have an update from
Speaker 1: a previous guest. Do you remember the guest from a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago whose boss was a horrible jerk to her.
Speaker 1: One of the interesting things about the situation was that
Speaker 1: the boss only seemed to be being a jerk to
Speaker 1: the collar as far as she could see. The boss
Speaker 1: was pretty nice to everyone else. And one thing we
Speaker 1: talked about was that she could consider talking to her
Speaker 1: coworkers to see if she could get any insight into
Speaker 1: what might be going on. Well, she did that, and
Speaker 1: she set me an update about what she found out.
Speaker 1: Here is the email that she sent to me. I'm
Speaker 1: just going to read it. Hi, Alison, I wanted to
Speaker 1: give you an update on my boss. It turns out
Speaker 1: that everyone in my department hates her, but no one
Speaker 1: has directly come out and said it. My nice peer
Speaker 1: who was also managed by her, this guy on the
Speaker 1: sister team that used to be managed by her, and
Speaker 1: this lady on the sister team. She literally made the
Speaker 1: guy on the other team cry last year, and he
Speaker 1: contemplated quitting in his first month. Additionally, I found out
Speaker 1: that a guy who was in my role before me
Speaker 1: worked at my company for two years and then quit
Speaker 1: two months after she was hired. There are rumors that
Speaker 1: he filed an HR complaint against her. Literally, they all
Speaker 1: call her a snake. Devoid of any genuine kindness, who
Speaker 1: was only nice when her boss is around. What I
Speaker 1: thought was a friendship between my coworker and my boss
Speaker 1: is actually just self preservation on my co workers part.
Speaker 1: The worst thing is that they told me that it's
Speaker 1: only going to get worse, and they've been right. She
Speaker 1: is just getting weirder and weirder as time goes on.
Speaker 1: For example, in our one on one the other day,
Speaker 1: she made me tell her all the ways that I
Speaker 1: think she is deficient as a manager. Obviously I had
Speaker 1: to really water it down, so I'm looking at other
Speaker 1: options now. I must say it does feel good to
Speaker 1: know that I'm not alone, though my pure stressed that
Speaker 1: she does this to everyone. So there is an update,
Speaker 1: not a great one, but I'm sure it is a
Speaker 1: relief for the collar to know for sure that this
Speaker 1: boss is just a jerk and it's not something specific
Speaker 1: to her. That's our show for today. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: If you like to come on the show to talk
Speaker 1: through your own question, email it to podcast at ask
Speaker 1: a manager dot org, or you can leave a recording
Speaker 1: of your question by calling eight five five six work.
Speaker 1: That's eight five five four T six nine six seven five.
Speaker 1: You can get more Ask a Manager at ask a
Speaker 1: Manager dot org or in my book Ask a Manager
Speaker 1: how to navigate clueless colleagues, lunch stealing bosses, and the
Speaker 1: rest of your life at work. They Ask a Manager
Speaker 1: show is a partnership with How Stuff Works and is
Speaker 1: produced by Paul Deckett. If you liked what you heard,
Speaker 1: please take a minute to subscribe, rate, and review the
Speaker 1: show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play. I'm Alison
Speaker 1: Green and I'll be back next week with another one
Speaker 1: of your questions.