Dear Madeleine, I manage a large team of accountants and other kinds of finance experts. We recently posted a job for a senior budget analyst. One of the applicants is a person who was in the finance department a couple of years back. I wasn’t his boss, but I wasn’t impressed with him then and…
Dear Madeleine, My long-time boss recently left and I finally got a chance to be a manager. But soon after I stepped into the role, upper management informed me I needed to cut at least three people from my team as part of a massive company restructure. I messaged my old boss and she told…
Dear Madeleine, I am a senior manager in a large government agency that has been decimated and paralyzed by our current administration. Don’t worry, I am not going to get political. But I do need help, because growth and opportunity have ground to a standstill in our organization and I have a whole team of…
Dear Madeleine, I manage a fairly large group in engineering. My team has a good reputation with the rest of the company and works well together. Except for one person. I have one direct report that I just don’t know what to do with. “K” has always been a little bit prickly and unpredictable, but…
Dear Madeleine, I have been working as a technical expert for about a decade. I have been headhunted away from where I was three times, with a substantial signing bonus and salary raise each time. I now make more than I ever thought I would—and I am still getting calls about twice a week. I…
Dear Madeleine, I am an experienced manager but I am in a situation that is stumping me. I have a large team, and we have a reputation for getting a lot done, very efficiently. One team member—L— has been with the team since before I took it over. She is in her early 40s, a…
Dear Madeleine, I am a sales leader in charge of half of the US and I have a counterpart who runs the other half. We have a good relationship. We support each other and share ideas and information. I recently figured out that our newish boss, the EVP of sales and marketing, is playing us…
Dear Madeleine, There is a person on my team—a peer of mine—who rubs me the wrong way. Frankly, I just can’t stand her. She is a know-it-all, she talks incessantly, and she’s way too loud. She is constantly on the phone (not really required for the job), cracking her gum and throwing out commentary on…
Dear Madeleine, I have a great job that I love. My problem is a colleague—let’s call him H—who is spreading rumors about me. When I first started, he was super friendly and I thought we would be friends. We went out for drinks after work a couple of times and he gossiped about people…
Dear Madeleine, I am a senior executive in a big global company. I am not an American, but it is an American company. With each rise I achieve in the ranks here, the more I realize just how not-American I am. Here’s my problem. I am a large person physically—I was an athlete in my…