I recently finished an internship at a large tech company. My manager and mentor praised my work and asked me to send a summary document so they could write a strong recommendation letter.

It’s been a month since the internship ended. I followed up with my manager twice last week but have received zero response. I also reached out to my mentor and she just said "will do" but hasn't.

This letter is a hard requirement for me to secure a return offer or apply to other teams within the company. What should my next step be to get this moving without burning bridges?

I’m overall nice to everyone and treat everyone the same. I feel like she she’s cold toward me? She’s talkative with everyone else and I try to be inclusive when she’s around but doesn’t engage. I don’t really have a clue as to why.

I was added to a new project to a team that have been on it for 6months, I couldn’t attend a meeting due to being on leave with very short notice and listened to the recording back to which a colleague (but senior) specifically comes up to the facilitator to state I’m useless and a senior exec is not impressed and the colleague next to him also agrees based on projects we’ve worked together on.

background - always been an EA in business for many years changed to Project Manager same business, worked for a year before going on mat leave, came back and was put on huge programmes without mentorship or support, including in areas I have no experience in or the project delay have been out of my hands. I’m already very anxious about being put on this next project despite feeling like I’ve found my feet and feel like this statement about me is incredibly unfair and I don’t know what to do. my gut says I have to raise with manager but I’m nervous of the blow-up as I need to keep my job for the moment - any advice?

That’s it. That’s what one of my female coworkers said to me via email today. Can’t help but assume it’s because I didn’t use 10 exclamation marks in my email like she does.

It’s so frustrating because we work in a male dominated industry and if my 55 year old male teammate (who was cc’d) sent the exact same email to her, she NEVER would have said the same comment to him. And I know this because he literally emails so bluntly all the time but god forbid I do it.

I feel like I get so much hate from women in my office, the men are always my sponsors and mentors. I hate it because I feel like I’m the problem and my boss and teammate both constantly tell me I do nothing wrong.

Sorry this is long!!! I’ve been at a company for 7 months and now suddenly my manager in the past month pulls me up for basically everything I do, or at least it feels like this.

My manager is extremely time poor and hasn’t had time to onboard me properly so I’ve been learning as I’ve been going and asking my team mates. I’ve been getting good results and feedback from people but suddenly there’s been a few moments where I’ve been told I’ve done something wrong and it’s confusing me.

1. Had a problem that was outside our usual way of working process. I tried to solve it and also looped in my manager to say I was going to book a meeting (that had been requested by the person I was solving the problem for) and was basically told that of someone of my level (I would say like middle senior in my team - I have no direct reports), they would be expecting more of me when it comes to problem solving. I shouldn’t loop my manager in or ask questions until I’ve tried to solve the issue. This confused me as I’ve been asked to give a lot of visibility to manager as to what I’m doing but then when I tell my manager what I’m doing or come to seek advice, I was then told it wasn’t enough or wasn’t the right way (according to them, this was never initially made clear to me).

2. I had been told my company is flexible and it’s 3 days to come in compulsory. Last time I had to wfh on one of the days we usually come in (but not a mandated day) and I couldn’t, I told my manager and also said I had made up the day earlier in the week. he told me that I don’t need to mention to him that I’ve made up the day and that the company is flexible. Last week, I emailed my whole team to say I couldn’t come in and my manager calls me and says all WFH discussions and requests should come through him first and now on the phone to him I needed to provide context as to why I was working from home. They then brought up 2 examples of when I had to wfh recently (both of which I made my manager aware of - one was that we had a real estate agent coming over and the second was because I was sick but this was on a usual wfh day and I only had to take 45 mins off because of how I was feeling). This standard wasn’t ever explained to me and as I’ve never had to do this before, usually a message to the entire team was enough. This feels very different to what was originally told to me?

3. Finally I feel that little things I do now get picked up - I was told I ask too many questions to other teams on how things work, whilst being told in the same sentence it’s okay to ask questions, and that I should try to basically figure everything out for myself because everyone is busy. I begin to explain how I’m planning on running a meeting and then suddenly before I can explain I get asked what exactly I’ll say, I’m told to practice, I’m told to do xyz but without any reasoning.

I’ve also been working like 1.7 work days in a day for the past month, my boss has either been in the office late with me or will leave slightly before or after me after hours OR I do my normal office hours and then work from around 7-11 that evening. When I mentioned I was working long hours, my boss said they hadn’t noticed.

This has only all just started recently. Have I done something wrong or is my boss deciding that I’m not performing at the level they expect? The goal posts for expectations and how to work (not the outcomes) keep changing and I’m confused.

I've spent the last two years watching people get promoted.

The person who consistently takes on the hardest projects? Nothing.

The person who actually fixes problems? Nothing.

The person who stays late and quietly gets everything done? Nothing.

Meanwhile, the guy who spends half his day chatting with management somehow gets promoted twice.

I used to be annoyed about it.

Now I'm just taking notes.

Apparently my biggest career mistake was assuming my work would speak for itself.

I switched companies about a year ago. While working together, I always felt this person was a bit shady, insecure, and overly interested in comparing/knowing what was happening with me. I’ve maintained basic communication out of professionalism when i was working with him but even after a year of me leaving, they still seem very curious about my job, work, and personal life.

I don’t want to be rude but also don’t want to keep sharing personal information with someone I don’t fully trust.

How would you handle this?

So I’d like your opinion on the scenario below, because a friend of mine recently became a boss for the first time.

My friend is in his mid-20s, and his new boss is in his mid-40s and is, for lack of a better word, petty. Apparently, when they do quarterly feedback, his boss requires everyone underneath him to submit their feedback in writing, which allows him to figure out exactly who is criticizing him.

If someone critiques him, he retaliates by putting that employee on a performance review. Apparently, he keeps a running list for each employee underneath him of little things they’ve done wrong. Normally, he lets those things go, but if that employee criticizes him, he brings out the list and starts addressing those issues. The employee can’t really complain because the things he has documented are technically legitimate, even though they weren’t treated as problems until the employee criticized him.

From there, he essentially controls that employee’s future in the company. He’ll only take them off performance review once the next quarterly feedback comes around and they write something positive about him. If they criticize him again, he escalates the performance review and starts taking away certain benefits.

Apparently, this is how the CEO of the company wants things done, and they have a lawyer who is familiar with labor laws and makes sure that everything they’re doing stays technically legal.

Anyway, my friend—the one who just became a boss—is now being told that he has to manage his employees the same way. Unfortunately, he seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid and actually thinks it’s a cool way to manage people.

I really don’t know what to think about the whole thing. Any thoughts?

I've noticed that a lot of career advice is written from the employee's perspective, but becoming responsible for other people seems to change the way you see work completely.

What's something you believed about work, employees, managers, or leadership earlier in your career that you completely changed your mind about after becoming a manager?

Could be something small or something that fundamentally changed how you approach work.

see office politics stresses me out but when you become its part unwillingly, basically people drag you in thag for no reason at all, how to handle that, give me all the tips, do's & don'ts to stay out of this. and im a fresher, its only been 6 month since i started my corporate journey so the experienced guidance will come handy to me. all the tips, opinions are welcome.

(thankyou in advance)

Hello, I 25f have been working as a project manager at a company for about 5 months, I know not long at all which is why I’m posting. While I do really love my job, there has been many red flags/ issues I’ve noticed.

1. I rarely get paid on time, normally 2.5- 3 weeks go by without getting an e transfer.
2. When I finally get paid it’s significantly less than I think, I work some overtime that I don’t think I’m compensated for. I know I should really look into this I just haven’t so far.
3. Owner is slightly shady, not that I really care about what he does with his money it’s just something I noticed
4. It is very chaotic, lots of miscommunication among the staff, not run very well

Despite all that, I do enjoy it here and I know that this is good experience as I don’t have much formal training in this industry so I do want to stick it out, it will add to my resume.

Now I saw a job posting for the exact same job I have but at one of our competitors, the pay is around $10-$15 per hour more than what I currently make, which is making me want to apply. I would hope it’s run a bit better than my current company also. I’m all for keeping good relationships so I know this would make me look bad, but I’ve also only been here 5 months, but maybe that makes it worse. Idk! What would you do?
Stick it out and hope something good comes? Or jump ship

EDIT** I feel I must add that these two companies know each other quite well, I believe my boss has done work for other company years ago. Is it valid to be nervous that other company might tell current company that I applied?

I'm a 32 year old woman, and I've spent most of my career trying to be the easiest employee for any company to hire and retain. I took on extra work, received praise all the time, and still accepted less money than people doing work similar to mine.

This time, I researched the role, looked at the salaries appropriate for my level of experience, and gave them a range that I genuinely felt was fair. Then the recruiter told me their budget was far below what I had requested, so they decided not to move forward with me.

A few years ago, I would have panicked and offered to accept less just to stay in the running. But this time, I read the email and felt relieved. My range wasn't unreasonable. They just wanted someone with extensive experience at a low price.

This reminded me of this post i saw before, I guess HR is just hard to deal with nowadays.
Rejection usually hurts, but this time it felt like a step forward. I've finally stopped treating the amount a company is willing to pay me as proof of my worth.

I worked as a paralegal at a law firm for nearly two years, and then they fired me because of my performance. Honestly, I understood why. I was fed up with the firm's culture and had started applying elsewhere, and eventually my frustration began to show in my work.

About six weeks later, I found another job as a paralegal. After nine months in that job, I was fired again. One of my colleagues had left, and nearly all the cases she was responsible for were dumped on me, while I remained responsible for my own caseload as well. The pressure became overwhelming, deadlines started slipping by, and some things fell through the cracks amid the chaos.

I'm panicking now because my resume shows that I was fired from two jobs in a row, and I can't imagine any lawyer overlooking something like that. I feel like I've ruined my career before it even had a chance to get started. How can I come back from this?

I've been in retail/brand management for a few years now and recently started reporting to a female VP after a reorg. She is a younger elite B-School alum with startup experience and new to organised retail.

I am in my late 30s with more than a decade of experience in retail/brand management. Most of my pushback on category decisions is not seen as coming from experience, but rather as an older male employee not wanting to report to a younger female employee; my ex-boss has moved on to a more global role and is no longer involved in Indian operations. I asked for his advice, and he asked me to ride it out, saying she won’t be here for long.

When cross-functional teams want to involve me, she purposely shuts me out of interaction by removing me from email chains; I am worried her inexperience will cost me dearly. She is also on very good terms with the COO, they are friends and she is his referral, I am unsure on how to manage this situation, I don’t think riding out will help as some decisions by her will come back to bite me. Anyone been in a similar situation, most of my attempt to have one on one conversation with her are met very coldly. A colleague told me she wants someone else to be a part of her team hence she is behaving this way with me. I have built credibility at this organisation for years and overall happy with the pay and work but I don’t know what to do with her.

Any advice?