I'm the president of a mid-sized company, and this spring we hired a new woman as an account executive. It became immediately apparent that this woman was a bit of a germaphobe. She uses tubs of hand sanitizer and avoids physical contact with other humans. This was all fine until...
Two years ago, I went into business with one of my oldest friends, opening an Internet sales company. Our first year went well, but business stalled our second year and my friend argued that we needed to bring in a consultant to help us gauge our status and develop new...
I'm a salesman for a software company. Last month, I was in need of a big end-of-the-month sale to meet a quota that would earn me a large bonus, so I called one of my regular customers and made my pitch. This customer happens to be a friend -- we...
A friend and former coworker, let's call her Sarah, recently saw on LinkedIn that my friend, we'll call her Tammy, works for a company she was applying to. Sarah has never met Tammy, and Sarah said that she wasn't 100 percent sure she was qualified for the job (she took...
This is not the sort of question you typically address in your column, but I think it features an ethical dilemma in the business of families: My brother-in-law is a doctor, and he makes a considerable amount of money. He is very generous with his fortune, but he has recently...
I have a question about micromanaging CEOs. How should competent staff react when the CEO wants to be informed about and involved in every detail of the company, to the point that everyone feels as though they have someone looking over their shoulder all day long waiting for something...
From the Headlines: Apple cuts $200 off the price of its 2-month-old iPhone, then tries to appease the outraged early customers by offering them a $100 store credit. Where's the line? Steve Jobs, Apple's viciously brilliant CEO, has a way with words. When his most zealous...
I'm a junior vice-president for a large Wall Street company, and every year one of the junior VP's is chosen to oversee the incoming class of recent college graduates. It's considered an honor to be chosen, and is described as a "promotion," but it's really just a side step with...
I'm the public relations director for a technology company, and we are about to announce an important breakthrough in our field that could have a huge impact on our company's future. The breakthrough has been attracting a lot of potential interest from the media, but we're in a bind because...
My work buddy and I love to quote lines from our favorite comedy shows and movies. It's kind of our thing. This past weekend, we went to see the movie "Superbad" and came back to the office on Monday dropping lines to each other when our paths crossed.Later that same...
I work in a publication department designing and expediting print materials. Recently, we hired someone new to take a high-pressure design position in our department. I don't know how this person got through the intense scrutiny of our hiring process but I overhear a lot of scrambling to cover up...
From the headlines: Adobe includes a button in its latest software that would make it easy for users to print PDF files at FedEx Kinkos, then removes it following pressure from the printing industry.The Adobe-FedEx Kinkos deal was a dream partnership... for FedEx Kinkos. Adobe did the right thing by...
A month or two ago a guy was hired and put into my little four-person cubicle area. He seems like a nice guy but he isn't involved in any of the projects I am so our contact is very limited/non-existent. Basically, I know his name. Since he...
The small company I co-founded a year ago is in financial distress. The rest of the founders and I have set a target among ourselves that if we don't break even within two months we will close down the company. The employees are aware of the company's poor sales but...
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...
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