Category: Ask The Bent

We don’t have any remote employees yet and I’m a little lost trying to set expectations for the remote employee, as well as the rest of the team. Please help!

Do you think it’s true that the way we present ourselves can dictate a lot about others’ perceptions and therefore our ability to move up in an organization (especially when getting into leadership roles)? Or am I focusing on the wrong thing and being judgy and sexist?

Hiring managers are not afraid of people who quit their jobs. If they were, the only people they’d be able to hire would be 16. It’d be the same as only dating people who’ve never had a breakup before — only virgins and widows!

Can you talk me off this ledge?

When you’re a new manager, every single thing is hard at first. There’s the obvious hard stuff: how to hire, how to fire, how to “get results.” But also, when you get to the office in the morning and people are on their computers wearing headphones, do you go say hi? Or do you go straight to your desk? Do you make small talk in the bathroom? On the way home at night? This week, we offer serious answers some of these silly questions.

I’m not sure there are all-around “low producers,” but there are certainly people who don’t fit the job they have. That’s what this situation could be: You’ve spent the past seven months trying to get your sprinter to be an ultramarathoner — coaching someone with obvious talent to keep going and going and going.

Sometimes being the boss also means being a career counselor. This week, tools to help you and your team figure out what you want out of your job, plus what to say when the grass really is greener on the other side.

Managing expectations when the projects in the pipeline aren’t very sexy is tough. Keeping people engaged through the finale of their current project when the next one is sexy can be even tougher.