Questions tagged [communication]

Questions about addressing difficult or complicated communication issues in the workplace. Communication in the workplace may take place in many forms (email, phone, face-to-face, IM) and between a variety of parties (coworkers, managers, reports, clients).

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17 votes
11 answers
11k views

Giving constructive criticism to my boss' boss

I work at a bank in the United States. Every month we have a two hour department meeting and the head of Loan Operations talks first and gives a run down of the past few weeks activities. What bothers ...
DiligentWorker25's user avatar
-2 votes
4 answers
758 views

Shall I consider a text response to an email as official one for leave request?

I sent my boss an email regarding personal issues I was having inside and outside of work, and I stated I wanted to use personal time off I had accumulated. Within the email, I also stated I would ...
Mdessier 's user avatar
26 votes
4 answers
8k views

How do I tell my work I don't want to do the project that I've been put on?

I've been a structural engineer for a few years. My tasks are usually design calcs/reports which are office or remote based, i.e. I am NOT a site engineer. I have recently been placed on a project ...
Zaritz's user avatar
  • 385
19 votes
10 answers
11k views

How can a cybersecurity team mitigate internal customer complaints that real time user training is too intrusive?

I manage a team in the cybersecurity division where I work. My team is responsible for owning several security tools used to protect company digital assets (Data loss protection suite - DLP, advanced ...
Anthony's user avatar
  • 19.6k
2 votes
3 answers
1k views

New employee In a small office environment exposed to huge culture issues

I have just finished my first week with what I see as a great company that is poised for tremendous growth. Currently there are only 4 full time employees, including myself, within the office and ...
Roque's user avatar
  • 31
-6 votes
2 answers
424 views

How to assist the improvement of company quality by stopping some very low qualities practiced by coworker

This is regarding a problem occured in a work place where a majority of workers are doing gossiping, backbiting and undermining, kind of they have adapted it like a cultural thing. So, for short, they ...
Mary's user avatar
  • 7
8 votes
4 answers
2k views

What strategies can I employ to leverage a co-worker leaving (which increases my value) into a better position/salary for myself?

I'm one of only two people currently in a particular position in my company. We are the only people in the company with the skillset to fill this position. The position is an important one - I won't ...
AdamLazaruso's user avatar
20 votes
10 answers
10k views

In my department everyone CC's everyone else with the reason for their absence. How to avoid this?

I recently started a new job. I work in the IT department. There are no shared calendars and no ticket management system. It is very common for people to CC the entire department as opposed to sending ...
Maximothe1's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
537 views

I felt like I don't have any future

I am already 32 years old. I worked as a cashier for 3 yrs, 10 yrs ago. After I gave birth, I decided to stay at home to focus with my child. I am single parent by the way. Fortunately, I found an ...
Nobita's user avatar
  • 31
22 votes
9 answers
11k views

Coworker keeps telling me where to sit. How can I handle this?

I recently started a new job. My coworker who sometimes works from home asked me which desk I sit at when he is not there. I told him at the same desk I normally do. He told me that needs to change, ...
ClanLatin's user avatar
  • 229
-3 votes
1 answer
301 views

Can the impressions created through what you say, be used to safeguard yourself from manipulation at workplace?

I am writing this to get help on identifying some behaviours of people at workplace and develop my skills. I am a bit introverted and recently I came across a work place with a lot of toxic co-workers ...
Mary's user avatar
  • 7
7 votes
3 answers
985 views

Cooperation utterly failing on two-person project

Maybe this is the wrong group, idk if it should go in software engineering or what, but I think it's more of a management problem. I'm working on a project with one other programmer, a contractor ...
needabeer's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
926 views

In a new job when is it good to ask questions about the company and its systems vs mind my own business?

In some of my past jobs I had gotten the feedback that I asked too many questions. Or that I asked them in the wrong way. To be clear I only got this feedback occasionally. I have since taken ...
Maximothe1's user avatar
1 vote
6 answers
1k views

Handling a Refactoring Project with Limited Access to Source Code

I apologize if this isn't the correct place to ask this question, but I'm hoping to get some insight from the community on a problem I'm facing. I recently finished an interview with a company as a ...
Saud Alghamdi's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
333 views

Need a work reference letter from current employer

I need to get a work reference letter on a business letterhead that states my duties and responsibilities for my role in my current job. This reference letter is for immigration purposes and I fear ...
ProspectiveMigrant's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
1k views

How to mitigate loss of key members of team and unfair burden for other team members due to HR imposed conflict of interest solution

I am manager in the cybersecurity division of my employer managing a technical team of security engineers / analysts. I have been with my company for close to 10 years and am well respected. Recently ...
Anthony's user avatar
  • 19.6k
-2 votes
2 answers
537 views

My manager has stoped responding to my messages and email suddenly and im on maternity leave due to return soon

I'm currently at the last 3 weeks of a 6 month maternity leave. My boss always responded to my texts but suddenly has stopped responding. Could there be a problem?
Anonymous's user avatar
26 votes
6 answers
7k views

Should I be scheduling these meetings/writing the agendas?

I'm a Product Manager for a proprietary software. In that role I participate in the "longterm planning" team comprised of our lead Developer, the CTO and myself. I'm the only woman in our 20 ...
SNSAD's user avatar
  • 653
2 votes
2 answers
932 views

How to say goodbye to a coworker who leaves the company?

First of all some background: I took a job last year in a new country. One of the only two people in the team when I arrived who is still here will leave the team in a few weeks. I'm really grateful ...
Trichter's user avatar
  • 131
19 votes
4 answers
10k views

Manager not telling me in advance where I'll be working

I started a new job about a month ago. I'm in the IT department of a medium sized company. They have two offices that are relatively close together. When I accepted the job I understood that I would ...
Maximothe1's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

Should I tell my manager I did not like her tone and demeanor when she told me I did something wrong?

I work in the US in loan servicing in a bank in the corporate office. I am one year new to the industry and about 6 months new to my role. Several of my tasks are transactional. Yesterday, my Manager ...
DiligentWorker25's user avatar
-1 votes
3 answers
497 views

Not being reduced the workload

There are around 10 people in my team. We are tech workers and everybody is responsible for their tech area. No two people are responsible for the same area. We work with clients. There are 2 big ...
user4494989's user avatar
37 votes
8 answers
15k views

Brought on to failing project and might lose job

I work as a backend software developer for a tech company. This company has a multi-million dollar project that is at least three years underway. The project is supposed to go live this year, and they ...
Groger's user avatar
  • 925
29 votes
11 answers
19k views

Departing colleague attacked me in farewell email, what can I do?

We have just been through a round of redundancies at the company I work for. One colleague, who I had argued with frequently, took what I believe to be voluntary redundancy. I have been told by a ...
DWGKNZ's user avatar
  • 1,346
-4 votes
3 answers
241 views

Discover all possible stakeholders in a pile of (legacy) systems

I have been assigned a team that seems to have been "abandoned" in the following sense: Hadn't had a direct manager for a long time and has been getting more and more responsibilities of ...
smith's user avatar
  • 2,208
-5 votes
1 answer
185 views

RE: Internal Transfer Issue / Difficult Boss - Can HR take back a transfer that was supposedly in place?

When I started at this job, I was not given proper training and orientation as promised. Although, I may know and have skills for the position I am in, I know that I still need to learn how they do ...
DrewSkyy21's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
546 views

I plan on taking legal action against the CEO, what should I do at the workplace in the meantime? [closed]

I believe the CEO at my company has acted in a highly unethical and possibly illegal manner. I directly confronted the CEO about it and he continued to lie and deflect. I am contacting a lawyer about ...
bonkers's user avatar
-4 votes
3 answers
427 views

Differentiate between an excuse and genuine justification?

I have two questions: 1: How do I formulate my statement so that I am as CLEAR as possible that I am making a justification and not an excuse. 2: What is a proper response to when someone says "...
Konrad's user avatar
  • 13
0 votes
1 answer
821 views

If I'm on an interview panel and another interviewer makes a mistake, should I correct them?

Suppose myself and 2 others are interviewing someone for a job. One of the other interviewers says: Given the Earth is flat, how do you propose to launch this satellite? I know that a) what they ...
user438383's user avatar
9 votes
6 answers
1k views

How should I manage a significantly more experienced technical employee?

For my job for the foreseeable future I will be managing someone else. They are about thirty years older than me, quite experienced technically, and will be doing technical tasks at my direction, and ...
Nepene Nep's user avatar
  • 1,379
33 votes
13 answers
10k views

How to inform a co-worker about a lacking technical skill without sounding condescending

I work in tech and have a co-worker who does not know how to correctly use asynchronous programming. He's otherwise a fine developer, but this is getting on my nerves a bit because he keeps writing ...
Guiomar Raissa's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
397 views

How should I (or should I at all) disambiguate organizations with very similar names?

I used to work for a mid-sized tech R&D company in Japan. I wont reveal their name, but let's pretend they are called Apple株式会社. This would translate to Apple Inc. or Apple Co. in English. ...
toady_two's user avatar
  • 1,559
1 vote
2 answers
609 views

Conveying to manager about bereavement affected work

Over the weekend I was supposed to give an important last piece of work that was on me, but while working I got news of my dad's sister passing away and I couldn't believe it. It impacted daily life ...
localhost's user avatar
  • 405
-5 votes
1 answer
744 views

Stamping feet to get my attention?

I've noticed a pattern about people who work in my office building: when they want to come into my office and talk with me, they'll first "stamp" both feet when they arrive at my door frame (...
Sittin Hawk's user avatar
1 vote
5 answers
2k views

Do I need to apologise when I was expected to do something that wasn’t instructed to me?

My job requires me to do physical assessments which will be used by practitioners to conduct a review during consultations. The normal practice would be that assessments done on the first day, a ...
Feeder's user avatar
  • 29
0 votes
2 answers
627 views

Professionalism: I addressed that a significant part of project issues where due to poor communication culture, but still got evaluated negatively

I would like to briefly point out that this can only reflect my view of the problem. However, since the basic problem here is poor communication culture, I am also aware that my view of the problem ...
MrTony's user avatar
  • 1,534
6 votes
8 answers
4k views

Should I acknowledge Pride Month to my colleagues on team who are LGBTQ?

June in the United States is informally acknowledged as Pride Month as a sign of support for members of the LGBTQ community. I support civil equality for LGBTQ community. Two members of my team are ...
Anthony's user avatar
  • 19.6k
7 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to handle a situation where someone asks me to delegate tasks to them and then insists on me micromanaging them through the task?

I recently had a situation where a coworker wanted to help me with a project. They asked me to delegate tasks to them, which I did. However, every time I delegate something to them, they'll come back ...
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
11k views

Using an offer from another firm in my yearly review

I am working at a firm, firm A, in Germany. In about a month, I will have the yearly review of my performance at my current firm. The review is together with my direct report. I am up for promotion ...
warnbergg's user avatar
  • 379
-1 votes
3 answers
2k views

Boss keeps restricting my work

TL;DR bold text is the important bits. I work at a small company (<20 people) and I've noticed what appears to be a gradual worsening of favor with my boss. I do programming work primarily now but ...
tageta72's user avatar
  • 117
-1 votes
1 answer
683 views

Having trouble adjusting to new manager's communication style. Thinking of quitting

I have been working a part time job for several years. From the feedback I have been getting, I have been doing it well. Recently I got a new manager. The former manager was really great. I found that ...
myusernameis123's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

As the Big Boss does not trust the PM or myself and the project may be in jeopardy, how can we improve the situation?

TL;DR: The Department Director doesn't trust/believe myself or the Program Manager and is actively demeaning (though possibly out of ignorance rather than true malice), and this is putting the project ...
Lost'n'Confused's user avatar
-4 votes
4 answers
515 views

Can I give manager feedback about the way he phrases it when giving instructions?

I know this is minor but noticed phrase it awkwardly when giving instructions or tasks. When receiving directions I prefer it to be phrased in the most direct way. For example: "reply to the ...
myusernameis123's user avatar
23 votes
7 answers
12k views

How to make sure everybody does all the "other" things?

I am the owner/ceo of a small company (30 employees) in a high-tech market (warehouse automation). Besides the work, people need to do all kinds of "other" things. Think of, for example: ...
Bart Friederichs's user avatar
-5 votes
5 answers
312 views

Is this a good leadership strategy?

So I am relative new in my career, and I just secured a long-term internship with a small company. I have 2 leaders, lets call them X (the guy) and Y (the woman) The guy rarely chit-chats-- he seems ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
653 views

How to talk to manager to assign a task to someone else

I am working on a task at a software company for two weeks. Now I realize that one of the team members who guide me is too slow or confusing. I am unable to make much progress after a certain amount ...
nicku's user avatar
  • 135
23 votes
13 answers
10k views

Can the word "girl" be derogatory when used to address a well known colleague?

I have worked in the cybersecurity division of my employer in the United States for about 9 years with last 4 years, in a management role. I have a female colleague whom I know well , and is also in a ...
Anthony's user avatar
  • 19.6k
-4 votes
1 answer
524 views

Unequal pay for web and app developers with the same experience - How should I approach my boss?

I recently got a great opportunity to work at an American company that sponsors visas. I am currently a web front-end developer, and there are two other developers on the team. One is an iOS developer,...
Uhney's user avatar
  • 103
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are soft skills training adapted to neurodivergent people?

Neurodivergent people (TSA, ADHD, etc.) typically have trouble with social interactions. Soft skills (for tech people for examples) are mostly all about communication. How to pass idea properly How ...
JayZ's user avatar
  • 6,031
17 votes
5 answers
5k views

Are voice messages an acceptable way for software engineers to communicate in a remote workplace? [closed]

Imagine you work in a remote-first software engineering company, where written messages via Slack are the only established way of asynchronous communication. You find that a newcomer often uses in-...
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