I’m on trip. Listed below are some previous letters that I’m making new once more, moderately than leaving them to wilt within the archives.
1. My boss acquired drunk and was offended that I couldn’t drive him again to the workplace
I’ve been working at my job (a Fortune 500 firm) for 9 months, after I graduated school final 12 months.
My boss and I went to a enterprise lunch and he drank rather a lot. He was upset that I couldn’t drive us again to the workplace as a result of I don’t have a driver’s license. He assumed I did. He didn’t inform me to drive till we have been within the car parking zone. I’ve epilepsy that makes me have seizures in my sleep. I’ve by no means had one once I an awake, however as a result of it’s nonetheless epilepsy, I’m not allowed to drive by regulation. I reside in a big metropolis with buses, cabs, and a subway, so I get alongside simply effective if none of my household or pals can drive me.
I refused though he insisted, and we needed to take a cab again to the workplace and my boss needed to take a cab again to get his firm automotive the subsequent day. As an alternative of expensing it, my boss and his boss need me to pay each cab fares. My boss stated I ought to have advised him I can’t drive. I work a desk job with no driving part and it was not talked about within the necessities for my job. The cab fares totaled over $100 and I don’t assume I ought to must pay as a result of my boss determined to get falling down drunk whereas he was on the clock. And even when I did have a license I wouldn’t have pushed an organization automotive with out permission from somebody increased than my supervisor. Is it okay to go to HR with one thing like this or is it anticipated I must pay?
You must completely go to HR about this! Not at all ought to it’s important to pay this.
What’s weirdest right here is that your boss’s boss is on board with attempting to get you to pay this. One loon is just not terribly uncommon, as I’ve realized from practically 10 years of penning this website, however two who’re loony in exactly the identical weird means is fairly shocking.
Anyway, sure, please speak to HR and clarify that your boss acquired drunk at a enterprise lunch, tried to strain you to drive illegally regardless of your medical situation, and now’s attempting to pressure you to pay his cab bills. Ask, too, that they deal with this in a means the place you’re shielded from retaliation by your boss.
Learn updates to this letter right here and right here.
– 2017
2. My workplace retains pranking my coworker who’s afraid of clowns
I’ve a coworker who’s petrified of clowns. He’s widespread within the workplace, and every so often one in every of my different coworkers thinks it’s humorous to alter his wallpaper on his laptop computer to a scary clown image or one thing of that nature. He’ll react in what the others assume is a humorous method by screaming or working out of the constructing. Effectively, this month as a consequence of Halloween, they’ve been pranking him every day and have even taken up a group to purchase a clown costume to put on later this month. I wish to inform him about it as a result of I feel it’s juvenile and pathetic, however I fear about repercussions from my boss as a result of she is in on it and a driving pressure behind it. What ought to I do? I would like assist in a rush.
Assuming he appears to be genuinely terrified and never in on the enjoyable, it is best to inform him as a result of it’s profoundly crappy to got down to terrify somebody. In case your boss confronts you about it, you possibly can say, “I assumed it was all a joke, since I didn’t assume you’d actually got down to deliberately terrify him whereas he’s attempting to work.”
You can additionally inform your coworker that you simply’ll help him if he needs to put down the regulation together with your coworkers about by no means doing this once more or if he needs to talk to your boss or HR about it.
– 2018
3. My garments are too dressy for my new job
Within the final 12 months, I’ve began a unique job the place the final apparel across the workplace is rather more enterprise informal than my earlier place. I don’t have some huge cash, however I had constructed up a small skilled wardrobe that I really feel is just too fancy for the tradition of my new office.
My wardrobe has a mixture of pencil skirts, go well with pants, blazers, and silk tops. Folks in my workplace put on extra darkish denim and button downs, or black pants with put collectively tops, however much less dressy than what I put on. Different clothes I personal is far too informal (i.e., shorts, sweats, and tank tops) or has holes or put on in it. I can’t actually afford to exchange issues at this level, however I’m fearful about being overdressed. I I really feel like I’m standing out in a means that makes me not slot in with the office tradition, however since I can’t afford to exchange it, I don’t know what to do.
I’m assuming it’s higher to err on the aspect of too fancy than too informal, however I largely simply want I had the power to finance a wardrobe that was in between. Since I don’t right now, what’s your suggestion? Ought to I say something about it? Or simply preserve being overdressed and hope it’s okay till I determine one thing out?
Effectively … in the event you have been displaying up daily in a three-piece go well with whereas everybody else was in denims and button-downs, that may be one factor. However a pencil skirt and a silk prime isn’t as a lot of a disparity with what it seems like others are carrying. It’s undoubtedly a notch or two extra formal, sure, however not weirdly so.
That stated, can you purchase a few cheap gadgets to decorate down the remainder of your wardrobe? A few cotton tops and one or two pairs of non-suit pants may make it rather a lot simpler to carry your outfits down in formality, and might be paired with the stuff you have already got. Generally “can’t afford to exchange it” means “I can’t afford to purchase very nice stuff” however doesn’t preclude a visit to Outdated Navy or getting a couple of $7 shirts from thredUP, and if that’s the case I feel that’s your finest wager. However different instances, it means “I actually can not afford that $7 shirt,” during which case these ideas received’t be just right for you and I’d simply gown down your present stuff to no matter extent you possibly can and don’t fear an excessive amount of about it. It’s very probably that you simply simply appear like somebody who likes dressing a bit extra properly.
And if anybody ever feedback on you at all times being dressed up, it’s effective to say, “Yeah, my outdated job was a lot dressier so I’m used to it, however I’m trying ahead to purchasing some new stuff in some unspecified time in the future.”
– 2018
4. Ought to we are saying one thing a couple of rogue parker?
I work at a small workplace that has a small parking storage. Parking spots within the storage are assigned primarily based on tenure with the corporate, so the individuals who have been right here the longest get a spot no matter their place. If somebody leaves the group, they assign the parking area to the subsequent individual in line. It’s sort of a enjoyable factor and folks within the workplace joke/discuss when they’ll get their parking spot.
A number of instances just lately, an worker who’s nowhere close to the highest of the listing for a parking area has been parking within the CFO’s spot when they’re gone. Some folks within the workplace have seen it and discover it unusual and annoying. There isn’t any official rule about that sort of factor, but it surely looks like a boundary crossed. It additionally appears too petty to carry as much as anybody, together with the individual doing the parking, so we really feel resigned to grumbling. Is that this one thing we should always simply ignore, or ought to it’s addressed?
After I began to reply this, my preliminary intuition was “let it go — if the area is free, why not let it’s used?” However then I spotted that it’s only one one that’s doing this. It is unfair that it is a recognized system and one individual is circumventing it for their very own profit.
The correct transfer right here isn’t to attempt to cease to it utterly, however moderately to get the foundations clarified. If that is allowed — if quickly vacant areas can be utilized on a first-come, first-served foundation — that ought to be introduced to everybody, so everybody can profit from it, moderately than simply this one individual. The system shouldn’t be “everybody follows the identical algorithm aside from one individual with the audacity to disregard them.”
– 2018