The Bent Archive

scroll to discover more back to top

Write Better Emails: Before and After!

Earlier this week, a reader forwarded us an email he’d received with this note: “Got a confusing email. Can you help me figure out what’s going on here?” Can we ever!

Should I quit?

’m a director for a super small company that has some super big accounts, and it’s still run like a small mom-and-pop company. As in: no processes, few resources to help me do my job easier, too many cooks in the kitchen, no accountability, no alignment across the org.

I hate how anxious I feel over feedback

How can stop feeling like I’m signing myself up to sit in the dunk tank every month?

How long will it take?

The ability to perceive time — in other words: know how long something takes — is one of those very basic Boss Skills that you’re just supposed to “know how to do.” The same way you’re supposed to just “know how to budget for retirement.” Folks, this is a learned skill.

I don’t like my coworker (and they don’t like me)

I admire your impulse to try to make this relationship better — although I think you have a long road ahead of you.

Help! I’m dreading my weekly 1-on-1

I am a manager and an extrovert, but honestly have really struggled with being a people manager through the events of 2020.

Cool Boss Move: The Email Moratorium

It’s so freeing when we discover that an unchangeable fact — my email inbox is always open and the system is always functioning — is just a thing we all agreed to believe in.

I want to move and also keep my job

When do I ask (tell?) my boss about this? How honest should I be about my plans? If they say yes to my move, do I owe it to them to stick with the job for any amount of time? What happens if the answer is no?

Three strategies for speaking up

If you do any prep before speaking up, I recommend working on some sentence starters that will diffuse confrontation — not overdo the argument.

Reader mailbag

My boss is late. I’m sad I didn’t get laid off. Should I apply? One of my reports is pregnant. How do I not fuck this up?

Load More