235 votes
Accepted

CEO tells employees what they should do next, bypassing company hierarchy

Can I or my supervisor do something to change this behavior? The CEO can pretty much do whatever they want, the smaller the company the more arbitrary they can be. My strategy to mitigate against ...
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 222k
190 votes
Accepted

Member of the board asks for admin access and wants non-compliant device on the network

What can I do? First, refer this person back to your security policy and procedures documentation. These topics should be covered clearly, and you can fall back on the documentation to support your ...
Neo's user avatar
  • 84.8k
115 votes

Dealing with people after a mishap spread by department head

If you cannot beat them, join them. Join in. Make jokes about it yourself. Next time someone mentions it, say something like: Oh by the way, anybody need the kettle today? I planned on trying ...
nvoigt's user avatar
  • 139k
87 votes
Accepted

As a new staff member, would it be appropriate to correct a senior member of staff's capitalization and spacing of a commercial product's name?

Would it be appropriate for myself, a new member of staff, to correct a senior member of staff's spelling in this particular situation? As a new employee, I would urge you not to do this, I would ...
Neo's user avatar
  • 84.8k
79 votes
Accepted

Blamed in front of coworkers for "skipping hierarchy"

I am just looking for advice, how should I address the current situation? I think you are making this a greater deal that in is. You did what you did, you were given feedback on not to do it again (...
DarkCygnus's user avatar
  • 83.2k
55 votes

Blamed in front of coworkers for "skipping hierarchy"

I would assume that your proposal was a good one, and your manager would have liked to give it to the CEO as his great idea. That is the only reasonable explanation for blaming you for a “mistake” in ...
gnasher729's user avatar
  • 169k
40 votes

Dealing with people after a mishap spread by department head

Own it. Decorate your cubicle with pictures of kettles. order some "kettle corn" and bring it into the office. Do a charity raffle with the prize being a kettle. Make this your own. People won't ...
Old_Lamplighter's user avatar
36 votes

CEO tells employees what they should do next, bypassing company hierarchy

I am wondering if this behavior is common for CEO's that have some technical background and have a development department and It is somewhat common for business leaders who have a technical ...
MealyPotatoes's user avatar
29 votes

Blamed in front of coworkers for "skipping hierarchy"

Your manager probably went too far, but there is an important lesson to be learned here. Managers don not like surprises in front of their management chain. They generally have access to more ...
cdkMoose's user avatar
  • 17.8k
23 votes

Why nobody wants to tell the boss he's made a mistake?

My project is a ticking time bomb. Im a developer on a project which is not going to meet its main deadline about 10 months from now. My boss thinks its on track and nobody wants to tell him ...
LetThemFail's user avatar
19 votes
Accepted

Why nobody wants to tell the boss he's made a mistake?

It all comes down to economics. There is an underlying element to all these things. The average employee has no real stake in the success or failure of a project in a typical company. They have a ...
Matthew Gaiser's user avatar
18 votes

Dealing with people after a mishap spread by department head

First, I hope you've intimated to the concerned department of the broken kettle. If she's not constantly bringing it up but its passed on like wildfire, just wait for it to die down. Every single ...
Anu7's user avatar
  • 351
18 votes

How can I know how much authority/decision making power etc I have as an employee?

As an employee in a company, how can I know which decisions/courses of action can be taken by myself and which ones need to be escalated or approved? You can work with your manager, to make sure ...
Joe Strazzere's user avatar
16 votes

As a new staff member, would it be appropriate to correct a senior member of staff's capitalization and spacing of a commercial product's name?

If you aren't actually involved in the document's editing process, then it's not your place. You could offer to become part of the process and proofread the remaining reports, then you would be taking ...
Dan C's user avatar
  • 525
15 votes

CEO tells employees what they should do next, bypassing company hierarchy

Can I or my supervisor do something to change this behavior? Yes, definitely. It is also very important. I'd try to explain the same from a personal experience: I can very much relate your situation ...
Dawny33's user avatar
  • 13.1k
15 votes

New hire goes over my head to ask for work, how do I elegantly explain to her that she needs to chill?

In a comment on the OP, you said: but having her go out of her way to ask for work when I told her there isn't any and making a fuss about it is. I think this is where part of your issue lies. Self ...
nightsurfer's user avatar
13 votes

Boss and Boss's Boss have differing philosophies on code, I'm caught in crossfire

Create coding standard guidelines and ask them to provide input and sign off on it. Expand and nuance the standard as you meet new issues in the same category. This wastes minimal time of your ...
Stian's user avatar
  • 6,066
12 votes

Is Singapore a power distant culture?

Tl’dr: I am a European who has worked for half of my adult life in Asia – in Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan and just short of ten years in Singapore – plus a few years for Asian companies in Europe. ...
Mawg says reinstate Monica's user avatar
12 votes

New hire goes over my head to ask for work, how do I elegantly explain to her that she needs to chill?

Asking an employee who wants to work to do nothing is not reasonable, especially for ambitious people. Your company seems dysfunctional in some critical ways, so in their shoes I would be considering ...
Matthew Gaiser's user avatar
9 votes

Member of the board asks for admin access and wants non-compliant device on the network

I'm one of the many network operators at a corporation. One of the board members asks every time, when in her opinion changes are too slow, admin access (credentials) so she can do it herself. What ...
bharal's user avatar
  • 16.4k
8 votes

As a new staff member, would it be appropriate to correct a senior member of staff's capitalization and spacing of a commercial product's name?

You can always ask "This is probably a stupid question, I see you refer to our software package as ARC GIS, but I have always seen it referred to as ArcGIS have I been referring to it wrong this whole ...
Sam's user avatar
  • 244
8 votes

How to raise red flags when you don't have much political capital yet?

If you have not already done so, I would speak with your PMs and ask them to assign dates to all of the project milestones ( not just the go-live date ). This way, any time an issue arises you will ...
sf02's user avatar
  • 79k
7 votes

Boss and Boss's Boss have differing philosophies on code, I'm caught in crossfire

You should request a meeting with both of them at the same time. Let them know that you like your job but there is a problem you need a solution for. Show them a specific instance of code that one ...
NotMe's user avatar
  • 23.4k
7 votes

CEO tells employees what they should do next, bypassing company hierarchy

This is a pretty common situation. You are not the first to be in it. It's also one that need not be frustrating, if you look at it the right way. I see this more of a problem between CEO and ...
Andy Lester's user avatar
  • 2,118
7 votes

Should I give feedback to my manager's boss?

Your company boss probably know something is up - or they likely would not approach you as they have. Present your feed back honestly, fair and objectively. Document with emails and examples. Way ...
Thorst's user avatar
  • 697
7 votes

Wrote a paper for work but my name was left off

Different companies have different policies for that, but normally your name (i.e. the name of the main author) gets included even though you are frequently expected to add the names of your ...
BigMadAndy's user avatar
  • 22.9k

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