I’m on trip. Listed below are some previous letters that I’m making new once more, fairly than leaving them to wilt within the archives.
1. My boss received drunk and was indignant 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 faculty final yr.
My boss and I went to a enterprise lunch and he drank lots. 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 had been within the car parking zone. I’ve epilepsy that makes me have seizures in my sleep. I’ve by no means had one after 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 superb if none of my household or buddies can drive me.
I refused regardless that 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 informed 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 suppose I ought to should 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 larger than my supervisor. Is it okay to go to HR with one thing like this or is it anticipated I must pay?
It’s best to completely go to HR about this! On no account ought to you need 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 just isn’t terribly uncommon, as I’ve discovered from practically 10 years of scripting this website, however two who’re loony in exactly the identical weird means is fairly stunning.
Anyway, sure, please discuss to HR and clarify that your boss received drunk at a enterprise lunch, tried to stress you to drive illegally regardless of your medical situation, and now could be attempting to drive 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 fearful of clowns. He’s in style within the workplace, and every so often certainly one 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 suppose is a humorous method by screaming or operating out of the constructing. Effectively, this month as a consequence of Halloween, they’ve been pranking him day by 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 believe 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 drive behind it. What ought to I do? I want assist in a rush.
Assuming he appears to be genuinely terrified and never in on the enjoyable, you must 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 suppose you’ll actually got down to deliberately terrify him whereas he’s attempting to work.”
You would additionally inform your coworker that you simply’ll assist him if he desires to put down the regulation along with your coworkers about by no means doing this once more or if he desires to talk to your boss or HR about it.
– 2018
3. My garments are too dressy for my new job
Within the final yr, I’ve began a unique job the place the overall apparel across the workplace is way 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 mix 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 apprehensive 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 principally simply want I had the flexibility 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 case you had been exhibiting up daily in a three-piece go well with whereas everybody else was in denims and button-downs, that might 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 sporting. It’s positively 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 might make it lots simpler to carry your outfits down in formality, and could possibly 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 Previous Navy or getting a couple of $7 shirts from thredUP, and if that’s the case I believe that’s your greatest guess. However different occasions, it means “I actually can not afford that $7 shirt,” during which case these options received’t give you the results you want and I’d simply costume down your present stuff to no matter extent you possibly can and don’t fear an excessive amount of about it. It’s very doubtless that you simply simply appear to be somebody who likes dressing a bit extra properly.
And if anybody ever feedback on you at all times being dressed up, it’s superb to say, “Yeah, my previous job was a lot dressier so I’m used to it, however I’m wanting ahead to purchasing some new stuff in some unspecified time in the future.”
– 2018
4. Ought to we are saying one thing a few 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 house to the subsequent individual in line. It’s form of a enjoyable factor and other people within the workplace joke/discuss when they’ll get their parking spot.
Just a few occasions lately, an worker who’s nowhere close to the highest of the record for a parking house has been parking within the CFO’s spot when they’re gone. Some individuals within the workplace have observed it and discover it unusual and annoying. There is no such thing as a official rule about that form of factor, however it looks as if 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 must always simply ignore, or ought to or not it’s addressed?
Once I began to reply this, my preliminary intuition was “let it go — if the house is free, why not let or not it’s used?” However then I spotted that it’s only one one that’s doing this. It is unfair that it is a identified system and one individual is circumventing it for their very own profit.
The best transfer right here isn’t to attempt to cease to it fully, however fairly to get the principles clarified. If that is allowed — if briefly vacant areas can be utilized on a first-come, first-served foundation — that must be introduced to everybody, so everybody can profit from it, fairly than simply this one individual. The system shouldn’t be “everybody follows the identical algorithm apart from one individual with the audacity to disregard them.”
– 2018
