I manage a team of traders at a Wall Street firm, and one of my star employees recently came to me to confess he was in serious financial trouble because of gambling debt and asked if he might get a large advance on his salary to get him out of...
From the headlines: Martha Stewart's neighbors protest her attempt to copyright the name of their town for use on a line of products.So the residents of Katonah, NY -- a posh enclave originally named for a Native American tribal chief -- don't want Martha Stewart to turn their town into...
I am a professional variety performer - I do a lot of children's parties and street shows at festivals - and another performer has been stealing some of my original material and using it in his show. When I went to my manager to complain and talk about a possible...
From the headlines: Whole Foods chief accused of anonymously bashing a rival company on Internet chat board.John Mackey, who co-founded natural foods giant Whole Foods in 1980 and has served as its CEO ever since, is under the gun for posting some pretty slanderous stuff about his chief rival on...
I'm a research scientist for a biotechnology company, and my colleagues and I are about to publish a research paper that we've been working on for several years. The problem is that our CEO, a former scientist who is now purely a businessman, has attached his name to the paper...
I'm a salesman, and my travel and client expenses are pretty steep. Luckily, my company has always been very good about reimbursing me every two weeks.Recently, the woman who handles our expense accounts left the company, and we have been told that company policy requires her replacement to go through...
My boss is a golf fanatic. During the warmer months, he'll sneak out of work early once or twice a week and take a bunch of the guys from the office with him to the local linksBecause I don't golf, I never get asked to go with them. Yet I...
I'm the president of a 200-person company in a small town, and we've been having some racial tensions in our office because of an insensitive email -- featuring a racial joke -- that an employee forwarded to others. That employee has been dismissed, and to help prevent future problems I...
In an effort to be more "green," my company recently began charging employees to park in the company lot as a way to encourage more employees to carpool and use public transportation.I am very environmentally conscious. I drive a hybrid vehicle, and I applaud any effort to reduce carbon emissions....
I joined a firm this winter as the vice-president in charge of recruitment, and part of my job is to screen and select the summer interns. We received hundreds of candidates, including five who are the children of current employees. As I was in the process of selecting the...
I'm the boss of a company that does computer sales, and we installed Instant Messaging on our sales associates' computers a few months back as a tool for them to communicate with their clients. Recently, my senior manager approached me and asked that we ban IM because he felt that...
My boss is a big, fat donor to the Republican party, and he recently sent out a memo saying employees would be encouraged to attend a big, fat party he's throwing for a candidate. For him, encouraged is a gentle attempt at a word. He only deals in required.I don't...
Im the owner of a mid-sized company, and were experiencing some hard financial times. To survive, we need to downsize. I put a team in charge of coming up with a plan, and they recently presented me with their recommendations.Job cuts are inevitable, but the team presented an option where...
Im the senior vice president in charge of the regional office for a large company. About a year ago, some kids from the neighborhood came into the office and asked if they could ride their BMX bikes on an abandoned stretch of dirt behind the building. I admired the fact...
Our boss assistant is in charge of tracking everyones hours, sick time and vacation days. Yet its clear to everyone in the office that she abuses that power. If our boss isnt in the office, neither is she. And she always seems to be on "vacation."This infuriates everyone, yet this...
Our office has a long tradition of encouraging charity and philanthropy, but it feels as though its getting out of hand. Almost every day, someone sends out an email or comes by with a pledge sheet asking for money for a charity walk of their childs school fundraiser. Recently, a...
Two of my colleagues recently approached me and told me they were starting their own firm and wanted me to join them. I thought about it for a night, realized I liked my current employment, and respectfully declined. When I told them the news, they said that they would expect...
Im sending three of my employees to Japan for a series of tightly scheduled meetings, and theyve asked to extend their trip for two days, with pay, to do some site-seeing. Im not in the business of paying people to be tourists, but I understand that Im asking a lot...
I have somebody in my own team who keeps spreading rumors about the other colleagues. She targets the employees with good track records and good reputations. Say someone is very good at their work and gets an appreciation from our boss, then this lady will start spreading rumors about them....
My buddy and I used to call our boss "The Tyrant" because he was so unnecessarily ruthless. We were very happy when he left for another job and my buddy was promoted to succeed him. But now my buddy has turned into an equally vicious ruler -- some of...
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