159
If this is a case of the company accommodating a disability, neither you nor the company should be "required" to obey the employee's specific requests.
According to the NY laws (i.e. the New York State Human Rights Law, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans With Disabilities Act), employers are expected to provide "reasonable accommodation" ...
126
From your description of his behaviour and other actions, it seems the most likely result of any attempt to put your boss/founder "in his place" is that you will be fired - no matter how diplomatically you go about it.
Brush up your resume and go find a better job where you won't be getting cut off at the knees.
120
First, one thing no answer has pointed out yet is that you lied to John. This is a serious matter. No team can properly function when team members lie to their boss or their peers.
Actually, that may be hindering the team's productivity right now. John doesn't know that Mike didn't have knowledge about the task you were doing. What if Mike has been doing ...
91
as working in the dark is straining my eyes and I'm not comfortable being closed up in the room.
If something at workplace impacts your health or wellness, you must escalate to your manager, right away.
She needs the lights to be off and the door to be closed and locked
This is recipe for disaster if one day she were to make an accusation against any/...
72
You are promised your old job back, so there’s no risk.
Since you are in London, the appropriate answer to the question “when will this be done” if it’s none of his business is “none of your ****ing business”. If you had said your original answer, the proper reply would have been “bugger off”.
If you don’t like being rude, start with payback. When you ...
60
While probably not what you want to hear, when one has a unique aversive objection to something that is a widespread social norm within an industry and cannot realistically be argued to be harmful, the best solution may be trying to mitigate the sensitivity, rather than to change other's behavior.
Of course what is considered a norm and what is offensive is ...
58
Your company seems like, what I call, a generator. It's there to generate cost (more costs, less taxes) and generate hireable employees. Like a HR department combined with boot camp.
Your own manager seems to be aware of this and just wants to get paid, as he realizes that he doesn't have to create anything because that is not the purpose of the company.
...
53
Your colleague will continue like this so long as you let him.
If he really has no authority over you, there is nothing wrong with pointing that out once he crosses the line. After all, if he isn't your boss, there is nothing wrong with a little quote-unquote 'insubordination':
HIM: "Why are you doing it that way?"
YOU: "Because it works."
HIM: "When are ...
49
Academic style citations in internal company documents are unheard of in any organisation I've ever worked at (startups, government departments, enterprise level companies).
Links to other useful documents would be normal, but in my opinion there's nothing to handle here - your colleague is not preparing an academic paper, so there's no expectation that ...
44
You should say, "No, this is the way we work, here."
You should get your manager and HR involved IMMEDIATELY.
41
The simplest way is just don't answer his calls when you're on leave. If something really important comes up he can email.
I don't answer calls from anyone whose number I don't recognise or don't want to talk to.
37
As someone with a disability, who has needed accommodations...I have never gone to coworkers on my first day (or any day) and just cranked out a list of my requirements with a do it or else attitude. I see others have mentioned HR and supervisors, and frankly it would be her responsibility to have discussed with managers/HR her required accommodations and ...
32
Buy her favourite coffee / tea[1], take it to her at her desk and apologize directly and quickly (ideally today, but no later than tomorrow). Don't take right before lunch or hometime.
"Hey listen, I'm really sorry when I said 'hair/face comment'. That was really insensitive of me and I didn't mean to upset you". Resist the urge to add compliments, as they'...
27
As gnasher729 said at the end of his post: "this is a great opportunity to practice standing up for yourself."
The simplest thing you can do when he comes to you with "bossy" questions is ask him why he needs to know - not in a defensive way, but rather in a concerned way. This way you pass the burden of justification over to him. Since there's no reason he ...
26
"How do you put him in his place?"
You have this the wrong way round, its his company, he pays you.
If all the others are correct and your company is a unloved child, then the best thing to do is ask the boss how he wants you to run it. You seem to be doing a good job of finding good employees for his favourite company, ask him what else he expects from ...
25
First up you have my sympathies bullying is unpleasant to experience whether it is at work, school or anywhere!
Talk to my manager about the bully
This is the most appropriate course of action IMO - the bully's actions are affecting your work performance and this is literally part of the job of a manger is to stop this sort of thing happening. That said ...
23
You can say, without blaming Mike, that you sought help from Mike and implemented what you understood his instructions to be to the best of your ability. Say what you thought Mike's instructions were. Say you are not sure whether
You misinterpreted Mike's instructions.
You understood Mike's instructions correctly, but implemented them incorrectly.
You ...
22
While I think a reasonable answer is "Stand up for yourself and tell the guy he isn't your boss and to stop acting like he is," I suspect any answers suggesting that you suddenly become a bold and assertive person are not practical.
Another good way to deal with him is to always, always, always answer his questions with a question. Never give him a ...
21
Talk to your manager and ask if these are accommodations that you need to adhere to. Explain the difficulty her demands are making on you: eye strain, inability to discuss problems with your co-worker. Ask your manager how they would like you to deal with this.
You don't have to do things that cause you pain and slow down your work, unless it comes from ...
18
I think you are ignoring a really large part of your professional growth over the last five years.
You were bought on to a struggling team, and were able to get all except one of your team to the point where they are now able to lead successful projects.
You may not be a top notch developer any more, but it sounds like you've been getting some excellent ...
16
I have one customer in Australia. I don’t mind if they make demands at 1am - because they don’t have my private phone number, so I will see what they want at 9am when I arrive at the office.
If they call you on your private phone, you tell them it is your private phone. If they tell you what they want, you tell them this is your private phone, you are not ...
16
He's the boss, this seems ok for a startup if he has two companies.
He's bolstering one at the expense of the other. To me it looks like you're in the throwaway company. Lots of legitimate reasons he might have for doing this. A surprising amount of startups are just funding mines and throwaways. More and more all the time.
You're not the boss, so it's not ...
15
Your task, your mistake
You needed help and asked Mike who genuinely provided what he thought what was best for a task assigned to you. A good question you might ask yourself : what good can come out of blaming Mike?
In my opinion, badmouthing Mike to your boss might only give a poor image of yourself.
As you said yourself, John 'hasn't the best tact or ...
15
Sharing a locked room is a showstopper
This is a person: whose mental stability and reliability is unestablished; who has difficulty resolving personal differences in drama-free ways (and perhaps even a penchant for drama); and who also seems manipulative, and who seems unconcerned for your situation, i.e. Sociopathy. I'll grant you this is a "glass half ...
15
Bullying is very tricky thing to deal with, but it can be dealt with.
It may not feel this way at the moment, but you have a quite a bit of control over the situation and the bully can only affect you to the extend that you give him the power to do so.
In almost all cases, the most effective way to deal with bullying is to address the specific behavior ...
15
They have explicitly stated that they are looking for someone with your skillset.
Managers don't always need technical experience - and you have already asked for clarification of the role.
There's no guarantee that this will work out well, but there never is! Check out the glassdoor review for this company, and if you're comfortable with them - go for it!...
14
In the workplace, you want the best documentation possible, and it doesn’t matter one bit where the information comes from. You will be held responsible for correct contents, that’s it. If you stole a co-worker’s work, that would be a problem, but apart from that any source is fine.
Copyright infringement is a problem if caught, but plagiarism just isn’t.
...
14
It really reeks of marijuana every day at work and I'm concerned about the health consequences it might have
It's important to differentiate between the smoke and the natural smell of the plant.
The smoke is the one that has the "high" effect, and also the one that contains the chemicals known to produce such high (CBD, THC, whatever else it has).
Now, ...
14
Calling you on the day of your uncle's funeral was egregious, whether he knew of it or not. As such, it can be used to drive the point home.
You don’t say if you have already discussed his calling on your off-days or not. In either case, now is the time for a serious conversation.
Something like:
I don't work on my off-days, so, obviously the status of ...
13
interaction between us still feels awkward
That's because it IS awkward, she complained to management about what seems to you to be an innocuous remark with no malicious intent.
How can I improve this situation?
There's nothing to be improved. Just a lesson to be learnt and an insight into her personality, don't make any remarks on her appearance. ...
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