The Workplace Stack Exchange
The Workplace Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
120
votes
8 answers

How do I give feedback when I know more about the topic than the presenter?

I believe I have specialized expertise in a specific area of technology. At work, I often have to sit through presentations given by others in the same area of technology that I have expertise on. The presentations are of two types: declarative…
Lone Learner
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120
votes
11 answers

How do I tell an executive that I am an engineer not an admin

I am a young female engineer fresh out of school. I am a few months into a new job at a company that is less than 100 employees. My company has very few women, most of which are on the admin team. One of the executives asked me to do some work that…
user79040
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119
votes
8 answers

Should I decline a gift from my boss (the new owner of the company)?

I work for a small office, the ownership of which just changed hands earlier this year. I requested a day off so that I could take my son to an amusement park. The new owner not only approved my request, but also came to work two days later with…
user75007
119
votes
12 answers

Is it okay to ask for respect from interviewer?

In a past interview for a company I had several one-on-one interviews with several different people. With one individual, the interviewer's phone rang and he answered the phone and talked to his wife for a couple of minutes. On another occasion…
Ronnie W
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119
votes
8 answers

Need to withdraw an application unless their HR changes their rules - how to do so?

I'm 3 months into the interview process for a pretty prestigious research lab. It'd be a great gig. The hiring manager has told me that my peer references were great and I'm by far the most qualified applicant, but their HR requires that they speak…
OpenOfficesAreGreat
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119
votes
15 answers

New coworker has strange workplace requirements - how should I deal with them?

A new coworker just started in our office, and on her first day she told us: No one can speak to her. Communication needs to be done over email only. No one can speak in the room we work in. There's 4 of us working in one big room, and every time…
user107417
119
votes
11 answers

Boss wants me to ignore a software API license

I am a software developer at a European company. My boss wants me to develop some software that consumes an external API and stores the received data in our own database. The policy of the external API clearly does not allow this but it would…
RolfZ
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119
votes
10 answers

Boss has banned cycling to work because he thinks it's unsafe

I cycle to work every day, it's my only method of transportation. Public transit doesn't serve the commute path and I don't own a car. A coworker was recently in a bike accident and was out for 2 days, and my manager reacted by getting upset that…
user106402
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119
votes
6 answers

How can I work in a chauvinistic male dominated environment where the women are no better?

I work in a small, competitive male dominated firm London, England. Of the around 35 staff members, there are only 4 women of which I am one. There is no 'sisterhood'.... in fact these women play into the guys' behaviour, e.g. sticking their asses…
Sally101
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118
votes
11 answers

I messed up at the company party, got too drunk, flirted inappropriately. How do I make this better?

This Friday we had a company party. Drinks were free, we were at a night club, and people were dancing in a circle. I saw a lady there who actually ranks reasonably high in the company who had been slightly flirty with me in the past (smiles broadly…
Guy Montag
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118
votes
13 answers

What would you say to bosses that think programming jobs are interchangeable?

I'm in this software company, and I've only experienced two managers so far, but both view programming jobs as not much different from laying bricks. They always emphasized we should take on each other's jobs at any time. As a result, our code has…
grn
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118
votes
13 answers

Is it unprofessional to read personal literature while traveling for business (outside normal business hours)?

I fly quite often for work. Some of these trips require up to 12 hours flight time. My salary is not on an hourly basis and I do not get overtime for the time spent travelling. I was recently flying with a colleague on a shorter flight(6 hours) and…
Ilythya
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118
votes
10 answers

A peer "gives" me tasks in public and makes it look like I work for him

Summary: I have a manager "Alan". "Bob" is not my manager but during meetings he often gives me tasks and talks about his participation in my work. I feel uncomfortable but my manager doesn't know what to do. I have a weekly meeting during which…
iwantmyphd
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118
votes
9 answers

Official warning by a manager for how I spend my vacations: escalate or ignore?

I have about 20 years of job experience and I’ve been working for my current company for 3 and half years. Throughout my career I've used this pattern for my vacations: the last working day before a vacation I come to the office with my suitcase…
Vacationer
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118
votes
8 answers

Did I overstep my boundaries by sharing my phone number and including my firm's name in e-mail signatures?

Today, out of the blue my supervisor came to me and asked me to talk in private. I noticed he had a sticky note on his hand, it was my new phone number I had written down and had pasted to the board of other new mobile numbers from employees. He…
Tuan Nguyen
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