Have been part of a 10+ pax team for 3+ years or so and everyone pretty much joined one after another with a few months apart. Now that our manager is leaving, my big boss told me they would be promoting me so that I can manage half the team (the other half they will find someone else to do it).

How to transition from being basically friends with each other to now, a manager where I’ve to be giving them performance appraisals etc?

She's mentioned she likes Legos and puzzles before, and while out at Miniso I saw a small flower building block puzzle (it's not Lego, Miniso's own brand) and it was only $6.99. It's very small, it's almost something like a tchotchke.

I've seen "don't gift up" but it's been a bit of a challenging year for me and she's been very understanding/supportive and I just wanted to show a little bit of appreciation, if only through a small inexpensive gift. I don't want to gift it if it'll be weird though. What do you think?

I VALUE work life balance and I always make sure my people are compensated when we work them past their 8 hours a day. However, for me, I often work a little past my hours because it's still a net positive. For example, lets say a customer wants to meet but its on a national holiday - I see getting on that call as a net positive because that 30 min to 1 hr call on a holiday will have me HOURS of headache in the future - especially if there's multiple weeks time difference when we could meet again.

When I wasn't a manager I did this kind of thing frequently when on vacation and during holidays not because I LOVE the job but because objectively I felt this was the best use of my time and saved me headaches down the road. However, as I manager, I find that when I do this now a lot more people are on meetings on our end. Even though I tell them to enjoy their vacations and time off they come anyway. I can't help but feel they they think they have to do this too and I feel that will drive down morale and build contempt.

To be clear, I don't request OT or comp time for myself, but I request that for my people when they chime in. However, objectively I don't feel like all of them provide value on the meeting, their inclusion is educational. I'm thinking about telling the group that OT/Comp time won't be given for these instances - but then the few crazy people who think like me would feel like they are being punished. I feel like providing comp/OT for some and not others could convey that I don't value their contribution (which is true for some people, but would hurt moral).

How do I handle this Problem?

i prefer to hear from people who have managed a team, i feel those that havent dont that dont understand the dynamics involved in keeping them and upper management happy

I keep flagging future issues and proposing simple solutions to avoid them. I’m constantly told “that’s not a priority” or “that’s unlikely to happen” by the rest of leadership. And like I have a crystal ball (or just years of experience in my field) my predictions come true and create issues that then require more expensive or time consuming solutions.

A few times I’ve heard “why didn’t anyone have a plan for this?” And I’ve tried to say I did in x meeting and it wasn’t a priority at the time.

It falls on me to drop everything and solve these issues when they arise. I feel like by now they should take my advice when I make these “predictions” but still not happening. And then they act like no one knew it could happen.

Is there an effective way to communicate this without being called negative (as sometimes I get this feedback when pointing out issues). I want basically a script that says

Yes I expected this outcome and that is why I initially proposed doing x in preparation, which is less expensive and more efficient then solving it now this way.

I feel like reminding people I foresaw this outcome is the key to drilling in that I know what I’m talking about and should have autonomy to take preventative measures.

Am I the only one who’s been struggling with Zoom fatigue? Back-to-back video calls used to leave me completely drained, and the thought of staying camera-ready all day was just exhausting.

Then I found this AI tool that changed everything. It creates a clone that lip-syncs to my voice in real time, so I can stay camera-off and treat meetings like phone calls.

I've been using this for a week now and it's been a total game-changer. I feel less tired, more focused, and even have the energy to hit the gym after work.

If you’re feeling the same way, this might be worth checking out getpickle.ai.

Happy holidays! Thank you for all you do.

Here's hoping you all get to spend some time disconnected, stuffing your face, and opening presents that are so horrible you start looking forward to going back to work!

Looking for different view points or resources when it comes to doing a leadership gap analysis with the specific aim to create a long term development plan for identified successors. Have included all the specific requirements for the organisation but would be interesting to hear from the community what are the skills that should be assessed for middle to junior management levels?

I’ve noticed that in my small business, strong personalities—especially those with challenging traits—tend to dominate the company culture. This can negatively affect other employees, with their behaviors and mindsets slowly mirroring the most outspoken or forceful team members.

The result? Good employees adapt to these less desirable traits and then I have to manage those negative traits and sometimes let them go because it gets worse. As a small business, this impact is magnified 100x. I want my business to be about employees roles and responsibilities, kpi’s and positive culture. Yet most of my time is dealing with employees personalities and it’s affect on company culture and it’s underlining performance.

Example, staff take their smoking breaks in morning and afternoon like normal. A certain senior employee started taking longer breaks and adding a sneaky extra one in the morning and now other employees have started to follow suit.

Has anyone else faced this challenge? How do you ensure a positive and balanced workplace culture without letting dominant personalities take over?

Custom QR code generator

I’m looking to create custom QR codes for my brand—ones that include our colors and logo without losing scannability. I’ve seen that tools like ViralQR allow for this level of customization. Has anyone used branded QR codes before? Did they perform well, or do simpler, black-and-white codes still work better?

Our branch manager is transferring to another branch. I am currently 2IC and interested in applying for his role. I have spoken with him about it however I got the impression I likely wouldn’t get the job due to lack of experience. I’m still going to pursue it however not sure if I reach out directly to his manager/hiring manager or if I just submit an application the standard method.

Thoughts on either approach?

I've been reading the posts on this community for a while and I've somehow found ways to articulate problems I face myself but I didn't know I was facing. Other times, learning from other managers' experiences, I was able to protect my team from experiencing something similar.

I've seen problems in the areas of useless meetings, establishing psychological safety, feedback communication. What are some other things that you face as a manager managing your team that you may or may not know has been costing you money or hindering the performance of your team or in general - inhibiting growth/performance?

I (28f) am a new manager, approx 6 months into the role, in a highly masculinized tech industry. I am the youngest and only female among the 3 managers in my branch. My colleagues are in their 40-50s.

We (the managers) and CTO have weekly planning meetings. Latelly a senior engineer of another branch has joined these meetings to give support and technical advice. He has repeatedly mocked my way of talking, laughing and voice. I feel like he is just being unprofessional and disrespectful, but other people present do not seem to acknowledge this. Should I just confront him next time? Is there any way to make him stop or notice without direct confrontation?

Examples:

• Mimic my way of laughing. If I say something and add a nervous giggle at the end of the sentence he would mimic my laugh. This happened twice.
• In an online meeting he would make a colleague repeat all I said because he could not hear me properly. Other people online could hear me without problems. I was the only one he could not hear.

Looking for book recommendations for a first time manager who is well into their career.

For additional context, I’m starting a new job and will be managing a team for the first time. The team is very small, one direct report and two contractors. I will likely be hiring a second full time direct report in 2nd quarter 2025. I’m well into my career with almost 12 years of experience in my field, just never had the opportunity to manage a team.

The general manager at a retail company I just got fired from is..extremely manipulative. Very nice to associates but will treat her assistant managers in a way that talks down to them, and occasionally will do so in front of customers. She is great with business but downright awful with people and will play you like a puppet, sucks up to her district manager to seem like wonderful cheery person and then will be someone unrecognizable to those she does not really like. So nice when she is asking you of something when it is in her or the businesses benefit. Over the length of a year and a half of her employment she had terminated 3 out of 5 assistant managers the fourth one had put in her two weeks. Only one has stayed. I’ve read so much about and now experienced this..is this how a good amount of companies in the US are? HR was also absolutely not help either, and is only there for the company not for the people.

I cannot believe how inhumane corporate America is. Along with that being said, life is so depressing for so many middle Class Americans just trying to make it through life, we are all just slaves to a system rigged to keep us down financially. All the way starting in grade schools which was created to create sheep, indoctrinating people to not think for themselves by the Rockafellers.

My previous manager was recently let go after being here for about 18 months. As a their direct report I don't have most of the details but my peers and myself (shift managers) spent those 18 months frustrated that they never couldn't grasp certain basic functions of the business and had blatant double standards.

Long story short, at least three of us have applied for this promotion. Both of my peers are more than qualified however, due to what I can only describe as politics, aren't getting interviews while I am. All three of us started around 4.5 years ago. Two of us as technicians and the third in their current position.

While I still need to successfully interview for the position, assuming I get it this would be the first time I've ever had someone report to me that I used to be subordinate to.

Does this sub have any advise for how to best support my current peers afterwards?

I have a team of 6 and every week we do a team meeting where the objective is for each person to discuss priorities for the week, any roadblocks, questions, and we document action items. Pretty standard team status meeting.

Problem is, 3 of these people will show up and rarely say a word. I try to get info from them and each time it’s “I’m good” or “I don’t have any updates” and I’m thinking ok so you’re working on nothing this week?

Every week it’s the same 3 people who come in well prepared with questions, discussing project statuses etc and those 3 have noticed the others who do not contribute to the meeting. They have all said things to me about how they never speak up. So, any constructive advice on how to encourage more participation?

Looking for some insight as a new manager. As a member of the team i knew every aspect of the job, how to work hard, how to organise projects, how to slack off and make it seem like i work. But i always made my deadlines, made the best work compared to all others (>30 people) and i had time to relax.

Now i became manager. I find myself giving detailed instructions on how to work - we do have many new members in the team - but i also fear this might make some older employees not able to become self sufficient and expect everything from me or their team-leaders.

Our company culture is clear. Hire competent people, guide them, allow them to offer their insight and help them grow. With that knowledge the team also grows, managers doing that also grow. Seems like a good culture to have and i enjoy it. Managers do not expect me to work 8 hours without raising my head from the pc but they dk expect me to be professional and keep my deadlines assigned and agreed with my teamleaders.

So, now on this new position i am to be trained (not sure how yet, probably some seminars) on managing people. How do i shift from the role of project manager to the one of manager and leader?

Just left my old job as an analyst for a director position at a different organization where I am essentially doing the same type of analysis work as I was at my last organization, but now I am responsible for managing two analysts. I am fairly young and they are older. Not only that, but they know a lot more about the organization than I do. Admittedly, it has been kind of an awkward situation. I am there boss, yet they are training me on the position, showing me how certain procedures are executed, etc. I am used to someone of a higher authority giving the training, not the other way around, but that is a digression.

What I am really concerned about is why none of these analysts who have been here much longer than I have and are much more knowledgeable about the organization seem to have not ever aimed to direct the department themselves. It seems like either of them would be suited, but they both have expressed outwardly that they have no interest in directing and would rather be analysts, like there is some negative aspect to the director position that they would rather not deal with. One of them even used to be a director of a team of analysts of her own, but retired from that to take on an analyst role at this organization, and apparently there was a time in the past before I arrived where she was the only analyst in the department for a while because of a high turnover rate, and so for all intents and purposes, she was the director of the department at that time, although without the title and pay raise that comes with it. Yet, still she has remained keen on remaining an analyst....

What am I missing?

I have just started this position not too long ago, and so I am still in a kind of grace period, but idk man, What am I not seeing here? Both of my analysts have been keen to tell me that I am not an analysts and that I should forward any data requests to them. I understand that there are higher level responsibilities that I am responsible for now that include communicating with other departments, outreach, planning, drafting initiatives, going to executive meetings, strategizing, etc. that go beyond the data analysis part of my role, but I mean....idk man, this has me a little concerned that I might have a bit of a blind spot to some type of impending danger that hasn't happened yet.

Of course the job has been stressful just because it is new and I have still been settling in, but now that the dust has settled and I'm thinking about it more, I'm wondering if I am sitting in the calm before some kind of storm here. What am I about to deal with as a director that they are perfectly content with a lower salary not to have to deal with? Right now, I can't see anything that's so horrible about my position or that could be so terrible. I just gotta be little bit more schmoozy and do a little leadership, right? Be a little bit more professional and not cuss too loud in public, yeah? Acting like I know what I am doing until I figure it out later shouldn't be so hard, right? What would seem so terrible to them about my job? Is there something going on here that I might not be getting? Getting kinda worried about a potential blindsiding, here.

Looking for anyone's thoughts on this before a potential realty sets in.

Hello.

I had been promoted to manager recently and as a subordinate, I know most of my team hates the micromanaging that our old manager does. What are the best tips to avoid this? Thank you.

I'm having trouble knowing how to support an employee who is uneasy with computers. Admittedly, this issue has gone on almost 5 years now. As some backstory, her job was entirely on paper until 2019. Our company transitioned to a different billing software, and that made her job entirely electronic. I was her peer at the time, with the same job, and saw that there were some growing pains as the department learned the new system. But ultimately it's enabled us to get so much more work done, and every other employee has thrived on it.

I became her manager about 2 years ago, and have held monthly 1:1s where we discuss her performance. I've tried everything I can think of to help her. I've sat next to her to observe her process and tweaked her workflow to be as streamlined as possible. I've had other employees do her tasks to see if the expectations are unreasonable, and they've all surpassed her output. One thing that she's mentioned is that she has ADHD and anxiety, and I've seen for myself that she gets distracted pretty easily. She appears very careful when clicking on things, but sometimes double clicks when she doesn't need to and opens a new window by accident. I've tried to work with her on this, but it doesn't seem to get through to her. She seems anxious and uncomfortable. She is in her early 50's, but I don't know that it's an age thing.

Her inability to keep up with the work coming in has caused me to offer OT to other employees to help with her work, and she knows this. I know that this isn't fair or sustainable. I have given her verbal warnings on her performance, and it DOES cause positive change for a week or two, but she'll slip back into old habits. And during that 2 week period, she doesn't leave her desk and looks miserable and stressed out. I feel like a failure as a boss for letting her underperform while holding other employees to the usual standards. Has anyone else had an employee like this?

Hey managers! New manager here seeking advice about an employee we hired 2.5 months ago. Is this a case of my inexperience causing issues, or did we hire someone who may have embellished their experience?

TLDR: Hired a digital marketing specialist with supposedly 10+ years experience. Despite clear documentation, verbal training, and light workload (4hrs/day vs team's 7hrs), he consistently: takes 5x longer on basic tasks, makes repeated mistakes, ignores feedback, and sometimes falsely claims work is complete.

I manage a small digital marketing team. We hired this person based on an impressive resume showing 10+ years of experience, but his performance has been concerning from the start.

During onboarding, he had 10 hours per client for self-study: reviewing our internal database, checking previous work, and preparing questions. He marked everything complete, including "questions prepared," but submitted nothing. When prompted, he spent two more hours to produce five questions - all already answered in the database he claimed to have reviewed. His response to this feedback was simply "sure, noted, then I have no other questions."

During his second week, we assigned him an email marketing campaign. The task was simply to update text in an existing template to match current promotions. He spent 6 hours but left the old dates unchanged, despite correct dates being provided in the task. He then attempted to send the unapproved campaign directly to the client, bypassing QA - even though the approval process was clearly documented in the task and covered in verbal training.

His response to feedback is always "sure, noted," but he repeats the same mistakes. He consistently goes 500% over budgeted time for tasks, claiming each time that "next time will be faster" - but it never is. When asked about specific roadblocks, he doesn't respond.

In our recent 1:1, he complained about an overwhelming workload, despite having only 4 daily hours of work compared to the team's 7. When I asked for more information, he claimed the number of tasks was overwhelming, stating "everything is very easy, but I'm making mistakes due to the sheer amount of tasks." Most of these tasks are simple audits - checking images and links - with generous time allowances (and no more than 4 hrs a day total as outlined above). When he submits these "completed" audits, I consistently find the same errors he claimed to have fixed.

Recently, I requested a report with eblast links. He submitted it without links twice, only including them after my third request. When asked about the delay, he claimed our task management system "removes links" - which is false. Even if true, someone with 10+ years of experience should have either reported the technical issue or found an alternative way to share links, rather than repeatedly submitting incomplete work.

Any advice here?

My husband works as a patient service manager and referred me to his hospital for a barista position under a different retail team. The decision was approved by all the relevant managers and directors since we work in completely separate departments. I’ve now been working there for three weeks.

Recently, I heard that a coworker named T reported to HR, claiming I only got the position because I’m my husband’s wife. She applied for this role before but turned it down due to the low hourly pay.

I suspect her complaint stems from an incident where I reported her to my manager for rushing into my coffee shop to make her own drink without permission. My manager praised my work, but T has been written up multiple times and is now on a final warning. She might be trying to get back at me out of jealousy or revenge.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can protect myself in case this escalates? I’d like your advice.

I kind of feel like I’ve been given the Penske file. My interview was almost like George’s, where the boss liked that he “didn’t have to explain everything” to me. Yada, yada, yada, I get the job and the ambiguity is off the charts. I feel like the right thing to do is ask for guidance, but part of me goes back to the interview and that the only reason I’m there is because I don’t need guidance. I’m sure I’m perilously close to confusing fiction with reality, but how would you react if an employee hired solely for their high tolerance for ambiguity reached out said “this is too ambiguous?”

I have been in contact with the manager of a company for about a week, and she asked me to come in tomorrow for a 'casual interview'. (calling her 'Jane Smith' for the sake of this post). Besides surface level research on the company it seemed legit and even advertised on multiple job sites. I decided to look up who the person I'm supposed to be meeting tomorrow. Next to her name, contact details, the same email she used with me etc. was this picture, saying "Jane Smith, HR Manager"

"Jane Smith"

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like Naomi Scott, the actress. Either she looks strikingly like her or this is some AI constructed image using her likeness.

Should I go tomorrow to see if she truly is the person in the photo or to just forget the interview?

I am a new manager to a team of 10 in the US. Tech support level 1.

I’m am paired with a senior manager for our offshore team of 20.

He has a ton of experience and has implemented a point system to keep track of his employees duties. Every time they do an activity and track their time they say what the activity is. We pull reports and give points depending on what they did. He uses this point tally for promotions and raises. He also uses it to keep track of their work and make sure it’s equitable on the team. He also uses it to track what we do and how we can make adjustments based on that at a business level.

My team was managed a lot more chill, but now he wants me to implement it.

I’m torn. It feels very, “Tell me everything you are doing every moment of your day” which feels like micromanaging.

However, I see the benefits. My manager never did this, and to be honest, I slacked off a bit, because I could. But I also slacked because I felt overworked and would take breaks when I could. I also hated tracking my time because I’d often have to bounce from one problem to the next and would forget to track it.

I want my employees to be able to chill when they can, as long as they’re getting their work done. But this system feels like “you have to work every hour of your day without relaxing.”

What’s the middle ground here? Or is this just what it’s like to be a good manager?

So I work as a manager for a tech company (phone support)

My manger asked me to have a seek and discovery conversation for a peers direct report. Concerning their break usage I discovered work avoidance It was about 25% of their scheduled time in behaviors that would be considered avoidance.

Now I am terming the advisor and writing up my findings for my manager to have for their seek and discovery conversation with my peer

I discovered wide spread avoidance on the entire team. Outbound calls calling voice mail. Toggling from available to AcW. Taking more time for offline activities that don’t look bad until you look at the entire month. Extra 20 minutes of offline and training per event. I’m getting kudos for discovering it and saving the company money however people are losing their jobs at Xmas

I’m a supervisor, so mid-level. At a management meeting our director authorized telework, my heart soared. What an amazing opportunity to help our staff and improve morale. The managers one level higher than me make the schedules and decided not to implement this and to keep it quiet. The issue is partly that it will involve changing the schedule, though we do that regularly in order to offer more services and of course to accommodate leave, building closures, trainings and conferences. The main issue seems to be, at least at my building, a telework bias. The idea that “I didn’t have the option to telework when I was starting out, neither should they” and “I don’t think anyone should be able to telework” and unspoken but perhaps fear that staff won’t do the work they’re supposed to at home. Our director addressed it a bit and said go in good faith, if a problem arises with one person’s work, address it. We were not told to keep this secret from staff or anything along those lines, these management meetings are usually to inform us of policies and procedures that we’re trusted to implement. Have you been able to combat telework bias? Would you want to offer this to your staff knowing it could be positively life-changing for some of them? Would you try to dig in on this or let it go?

I am on a journey to (hopefully) become a better leader to my team, through by a training course, reflection and just looking at managers around me. One of my peers is exhibiting bully behaviour towards one of their team members. They jump like a bull on a red flag to every mistake the team member makes, and complains to me in a gossipy style afterwards that the team member gives them the cold treatment. The manager starts acting as if they are the victim. How would yous go about helping the manager understand their behaviour is not helpful in the whole situation?

Hey guys

So I got this job offer that I'm not sure I'm 100% qualified to do (lol). I'm keen for the role but, in essence, I'll be replacing someone more senior (who is moving overseas). My salary offer was also higher than what I anticipated.

I've been honest during my interview and my CV is honest too but I'm still a little unnerved about whether there is a mismatch in expectations. E.g. some of the things I've listed on my CV, I've only done once or twice, with little guidance at that. And yes, sure, my quality of work is considered good at the current place I'm working at - but I'm currently working at a smaller firm where expectations are no doubt a bit lower.

The people who interviewed me (who I will be reporting to) said they are looking to see who walks in the door but, basically, I'm at the low end in terms of experience of who they are looking for.

With that said, is there anything I can do to manage my incoming manager's expectations? If you were the manager, and someone had been honest that they are more inexperienced compared to the departing employee, will you be more patient with them? How long is the grace window for picking things up?

I’ve been a manager (actually, a senior IC with a couple of reports to assist my work) in a software engineering org for 3 years.

Out of my 3 current reports, I know the general personal / marital circumstances for 2 of them, as they either explicitly explained to me during their introduction or they share enough details during the course of regular work (e.g. the fact that they need to pick their daughter up from kindergarten etc) that I have a very good general idea. For one of my reports (incidentally, the one I’ve had for 3 years), however, I don’t know anything about their personal life. He did not volunteer this info to me and I’ve never asked.

He does great work and his personal life (or lack of) definitely does not impact his work in any negative way. He has recently shared some aspirations about the next steps in his career, which will probably require leaving my team in 1-2 years, as we do not work with the technology he’d like to explore. I would like to guide / mentor him effectively, and he explicitly said at our latest 1-1 that he valued my feedback and mentorship since he respected me both as a person and as a senior professional.

I believe that I could give more concrete advice had I known at least the basic of his personal circumstances. Should I broach this question somehow? If yes, how to do it in a way that’s not awkward?

For context, he is ca. 40 years old, switched to IT though a bootcamp from a previous 10+-year-long career in finance, where he ultimately was a team supervisor. At my current company he is junior sw eng, to be promoted to medior. I’m 36M, working in the field for 15+ years, currently on Sr Manager level, soon to be Director.