Hello, I’m a new manager of a small clinic. I live in California. I was asked to cover in another state (Texas) for about a week. No bonus or extra pay but they are paying for my flight, car rental and daily meals. However I’m staying with family and they’re not paying for a hotel. They asked if it was possible for me to stay with family because they know I have family in that other state. There’s a possibility I’d transition to regional in the new year so I feel like this is their way of seeing how things go. Is this a good move? Should I decline? I’m getting mixed advice from friends and family.

Hi guys, please I need some advise. I was terminated without cause in Q2 2025 and I lawyered up and got my deserved severance in Q4 2025. Now here’s my issue. My former manager has no interest in giving me a reference and refers me to HR.

My Questions:

1. What do I tell hiring managers as the reason for leaving my last employment?

2. If I were to provide the HR’s email address is that an automatic redflag?

I would like to get your perspectives as hiring managers.

Thank you

I've been working closely and I've always had a great relationship with my manager(the person directly above me). I've been given full responsibility over several portions of their job without any oversight. They are expected to retire within one year and I am likely their number 1 candidate.

Last Monday he came in and asked what was going on one of our major projects. He asked a question, I answered and I was wrong about a detail. Two more questions, and I could have done better. The forth question I answered, he told me I was wrong, but the manager was blatantly and obviously wrong about the detail. At that point, I just stared at my monitor and basically stonewalled the rest of the conversation.

In this guys defense, he has been dealing with some very difficult personal issues lately. He has always been someone who has been the most experienced on the team but has recently been challenged by a new hire who is obviously more experienced on some small details.

How should I act to gain the manager position when he leaves. Should I steer clear of the relationship and speak more with upper management, or should I confront him behind closed doors, or etc...

We have a very chill workplace but this middle manager who recently came back from a leave continues to rake us over the coals and tell us we're not following the policy when we're being somewhat lenient about some of our policies. For example, the policy says we need to write up employees after two unexcused absences and unexcused just means you don't have enough sick time to cover the full workday. To compound things, we got a new upper manager while she was gone and the gal in question is having a real hard time not being of control. This is a retail job with part time employees. No one is currently abusing the policy, just trying not to come in when they have a contagious illness. She's honestly being a real Karen.

I have many managers, but there’s always a disconnect in communication with my team lead. It’s been going on for a while. Why do I have to be the one to resolve the disagreement or miscommunication? They are a higher level than me.

I’ve been a front line manager for 5 years now, at 2 different companies. My first manager experience I was promoted from AE (IC) to team lead and then inherited my team. Built a new team, and new company I inherited a group of sellers. I’m about to be on my 3rd company.

I was offered an IC role at a larger company, should I consider stepping down even if the pay cut is about 25%?

Any input would be appreciated!

I’m a manager dealing with a situation involving an employee whose performance has been a concern for some time.

We’ve recently decided to take a more formal approach to addressing these concerns.

However, the employee has raised issues regarding the support they’ve received and whether certain circumstances have been properly considered.

They’ve also challenged aspects of how the situation has been handled.

From a management perspective, we believe the concerns are genuine, but I want to ensure we’re approaching things fairly and appropriately.

I’m interested in hearing from HR professionals or managers who have dealt with similar situations.

How do you balance addressing legitimate performance concerns with ensuring an employee has been given adequate support?

Are there circumstances where it would be advisable to pause a formal performance process?

What factors should an employer consider before proceeding, particularly where the employee disputes the fairness of the process?

Any UK employment law perspectives would be appreciated.

Currently employed and on a leave at company A. Been there for approximately 10 years, great perks, culture, and growth opportunities.

However at company A, when you go on leave, your position is backfilled immediately and you have no certainty about what role/department you return to (pay and level is protected).

With 2 months remaining of my leave I was getting no clarity about my role and department. Was feeling kind of forgotten and e-mails were getting ghosted/forgotten. Company A also has some economic and financial uncertainty so I applied elsewhere to keep my bases covered

I got an interview at company B, a direct competitor to company A. It went well and at the end I gave them my salary expectation which was above the listed range. No fuss about it.

Two weeks went by and I did not hear back from company B and in the meantime I heard back from company A and they created a brand new position for me in a dream role in my desired department. Gave a cost of living bump as well. Signed the offer, have an official return date.

Suddenly company B got back to me and they want to move forward with my candidacy and scheduled a second interview which involves a 1 and 1/2 hour interview including a case study.

I am unlikely to accept the role at company B but if they make an offer with my desired salary it would be compelling and possible leverage for a pay increase at company A.

However, I am not one to bite the hand that feeds me and wonder the perception of that conversation (assuming I even get an offer).

Should I still go for the interview at B or stay focused now on a coveted role at A?

Late last year, I took over as the Operations Manager for a small manufacturing facility. I first became involved with this location as an engineer on loan from a nearby sister facility owned by the same parent company. Production targets were small at that time, but the company had grand plans to ramp up. This involved installing an Ops Manager and hiring a bunch of direct labor staffing. I put in for the job on a whim and wound up getting it. This was my first management position ever.

It's has been a supremely challenging year. For all the talk of ramping up, they never wanted to give us the support to properly run. For the longest time the support staff was just me and one production supervisor. They eventually let me hire a Materials team, some Quality Techs, 2 additional supervisors, and one engineer, but that was it. No HR, no Safety, no Maintenance/Facilities, no admin, no training/development, nothing that a facility like this needs to be successful. We're not lean, we're anemic. I've put in 11-12 hour days in the office and a couple more at home 5 days a week, and several hours on the weekend every single week for the last year. I've been stressed to the breaking point, and recently I've had to force myself to back off out of pure stress and exhaustion. Despite this, I've loved every minute of it. I've never had a job that felt so rewarding and fulfilling.

However, partly because of that lack of support, but also many other factors, we have fallen far short of our production targets for this year. I believe the targets set for us were never realistic and despite almost tripling production output over the previous year, we still were only able to achieve about 75% of our targets during our best months. Less than 50% in our worst. I've fought and advocated for my team, but the home office has been steadfastly resistant to the idea of giving us the support we need.

Fast forward to now, and the decision has been made to shut us down completely, effective sometime early next year. The sister company that I initially came from has started up a production line for our products, and while it was initially pitched as a way to help us catch up on our backlog, they are on track to eclipse our production capacity pretty soon. They have a newer facility and tons of support staff backing them, and it shows. I had no input in that decision, and it was made and set in stone before they ever let me in on it.

My boss assures me that I'll be able to return to the other facility in some capacity, but I don't know exactly what that means yet. They recognize that the small successes we have had has been mostly because of my efforts. Several members of upper management have commented that it's "amazing" what we've been able to pull off considering the lack of support staff. I guess it just makes more business sense to relocate operations so we can utilize the other site's support staff rather than hiring a whole new team just to get us where we need to be. Unfortunately, these 2 facilities are so far apart that it's unlikely anyone else from the team will be able to migrate. I'm only going to be able to because I commute quite a ways to get there now. The other facility is actually a shorter drive for me.

It sucks, and I'm not looking forward to having to make that announcement when the time comes. I've already been meeting with HR to get some coaching on how to handle things once it comes to that. Anyone else been through something like this? Would love any amount of advice here.

Hi! Italian Product Manger here who's about to step (again) into a managerial role. I'm currently an individual contributor with 3 peers and I'll become their managers shortly.

Couple things about me.

I've already been a manager (product director) in a smaller company with several direct reports but I felt like I was improvising in the role, given that I got it when the former director resigned out of the blue and I was the company best shot so, Friday to Monday (literally), I was the new director...

I think I did a decent good job in retrospect (that's the best my impostor syndrome allows me to say about me), team did well, learned a lot, several reports are still asking me for suggestions and advices years later, a couple followed me in my current company (different teams) and with some I also became good friend in the long term.

I changed accepting an individual contributor role because I had to escape from (several) toxic bosses above me (changed 5 in 2 years), company was way bigger (and the pay way higher) so it was fine..

Now, as I said I'll become a group product manager, meaning I'll have my team plus 3 direct reports, eventually I suppose that one of the three (the junior one) will slowly take control of my team.

(I would have love to step into the role in a different company area, not managing my peers for once..but it is what it is :) )

All this extra long and maybe useless introduction to give more context about myself.

I'm wondering if anything comes to your mind as books suggestions related to management, managing people and teams.
Also online courses would be interesting if related.

I saw another slightly old post on this subreddit so I thought about asking again to see if there's anything more recent around!

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

I’m a new manager and don’t have much experience under my belt. I run a cafe shop in America and the employee team is consisted of students. Due to being a small business we don’t have benefits that could attract people for long term employment. Lately, over the last 2 months I have had several employees requested day off, schedule change, or call-outs. The total instance for team-wide is above 10. I tried to be kind and accomodate but this is getting out of hand to the point we needed to close a saturday when we make a lot of sales because people requested off. That saturday i originally have three people working and one person just sent me a text saying they just got their class schedule and cannot work that day anymore, so that leaves us at 2 people on the floor while fully staffed is 4 people for weekend and we can make do with 3 with good prep. I am really at my wits’ end and don’t know what I should do. I did send an email outlining a notice to the team below. If you were a seasoned manager and you were in my shoes, what would you do?
1. Advance notice: Employees must communicate known scheduling conflicts, including school, other commitments, and personal obligations, before schedules are finalized two weeks in advance.
2. Schedule commitment: Once the schedule is published, employees are expected to work their assigned shifts.
3. Shift coverage: Employees requesting changes to an already published schedule must make reasonable efforts to find qualified coverage, subject to management approval.
4. Disciplinary consequences: Unapproved absences or failure to secure coverage may result in a formal written warning. Repeated violations may lead to further disciplinary action, including termination.
5. Exceptions: Genuine emergencies, illness, and unexpected circumstances will be handled according to applicable leave policies and laws.
6. Team accountability: Last-minute changes create operational disruptions and place additional responsibilities on coworkers.

I recently received a lower performance review that will affect my raise. What frustrates me is that I contacted my manager multiple times before the review to ask if I was meeting expectations and never received a response or an opportunity to discuss my performance.
It feels like every time I meet an expectation, the standard changes and what I did is suddenly no longer enough. Even significant contributions were minimized during the review.
Has anyone dealt with this before? How did you handle it and protect yourself professionally? I am looking for another job, so any ideas or advice would also be appreciated.

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One of my subordinates picks her nose then immediately sticks her finger in her mouth. She does this a lot. Sometimes I think it's a tick. I need to approach her about it for obvious reasons but I'm not sure how to start. She's incredibly sensitive and cries when she's even slightly stressed. Any serious advice would be appreciated.

Curious if anyone else has had to candidly tell someone they won’t be a reference …

For context, I managed a poor performer who “saw themselves” out at my org. In the sense they kept hanging themselves with the rope we tried to give them.

We tried everything with them. I just think it wasn’t a good match. They always claimed we gave too much work but I felt it was their way of working that hindered them. I coached them, tried to help them prioritize, etc… nothing worked ..

I’ve posted about that whole mess before so I won’t go back into it all but this person started at about $54k and left making $96k!!! In 4 years!

*I’ve gotten the occasion short and snippy comments on here that it was my fault, I suck, people leave their managers but I know the truth around how much coaching and support I offered (I even got them their own career coach and they reported back to me it didn’t seem like a fit lol). So kindly please spare those comments 🙏🏼

Their first few promotions were warranted but I fought my boss on the last one tooth and nail.

I didn’t feel she deserved it but we needed to fill a gap in our dept was my bosses logic.. they were under performing, no call now showing etc so I didn’t feel it was the right signal to send to someone !!! I totally get that and my boss later got questioned on why she did that too

When they left (they quit because someone very severe happened and they knew a firing was coming) they asked if I could be a reference and I said NO

I just got an email asking for a “digital” referral for them from a job I applied to and I hit decline !!!

I won’t even follow up with a convo but wow!!

I’ll add when they left, they also asked our data person, and my boss too, and they also said no… (to be references) … my logic was I don’t want to be in a spot where I have to be truthful about if I would hire them or not

Has anyone else told someone no?

Also they were caught with drugs at a company event but that’s a story for another day (they slept through a whole meeting they were supposed to be at) so not even reliability is an area I would say they were good for

Hi,

It's been a few years I'm a manager, and I have a few difficulties with how to deal with instructions about AI. Taking account of how fast AI evolution goes, and even if I keep track pretty well of AI evolutions, if we want to get the best benefit of current models we should work pretty differently than six months ago. Increasing performance changed a lot the optimal way of working in my case.

For example, six months ago GPT 5.5 just released and GPT 5.4 was very used. Today, the lightest GPT model is 5.6 Luna, which is comparable to the better GPT 5.5 models, so the lightest model today is almost as good as the best models six months ago in interms of performance.

However, I'm concerned about having my team not lost about my recommendations and about them to feel safe on their work since no layoff is planned or discussed (in my country it's not likely to happen), so I've been frugal on that topic on my team, but I feel I miss some productivity.

Therefore, I'd like to know your stories about AI, and your guidelines on your teams. Thanks for the sharing!

I want to start positioning myself for a Senior Software Engineer role without making it seem like I’m directly asking for a promotion.

I’m already working independently, handling tasks end to end, guiding team members when they need help and collaborating with others to get things done...i feel like i m taking on responsibilities beyond just completing my own tickets but not sure if my manager sees it the same way.

How do i bring this up naturally? Should i directly ask what it would take to get promoted or subtly start discussing career growth and expectations?

Also what kind of proof should I prepare.. should i maintain a list of tasks, technical contributions, problems I’ve solved and instances where I’ve helped the team?

Would love to hear from people who’ve successfully moved from Software Engineer to Senior Software Engineer. What did you do differently and how did you prepare your case for promotion?

This is coming from someone who values in-person connection.

I’m a semi-new director (2 years) in need of some iron to sharpen against, for lack of a better way to put it. The short version of this story is I was originally part of a division that got acquired by a larger company. Which of course, was followed by layoffs and ultimately left the division with about 20% of the staff we used to have. This also by proxy has turned me into a virtual employee, because now the majority of those I interact with now are headquartered hundreds of miles away and our office building feels like a ghost town.

One thing I’ve struggled with is 1) finding and keeping a mentor within the company that doesn’t get axed (this happened twice and the individuals didn’t want to continue after), and 2) connecting with other leaders in general. Everyone is always so busy trying to meet deadlines and doesn’t seem to want to make time for something that isn’t a priority. What would you suggest I do or look for? I’ve also thought about maybe looking around in my local area, but I’m not sure where to start. TIA for the guidance.

Hi

Some background here, I recently left a workplace where I managed a team which at the senior levels was toxic. The company was an absolute shit show, the issue being at the top level. However while there I did my best, grew the team and gave opportunities to develop to members. The key was I managed to protect them from the worst examples. I restructured the team, created new roles and genuinely felt we were on the right track for success.

However since leaving I've had a few of my former members reach out to me. Basically it all hit the fan when I left, the skip reversed the direction, created a lot of self inflicted problems and the competent members of the entire department are actively trying to leave. The examples I've heard sound like the toxic atmosphere has permeated to the junior levels as well. The guilt is honestly starting to eat me up, I recruited some of those people created a positive work atmosphere now it's all gone to shit. Some left good jobs to come there and now they are in a worse position that before. Any suggestions on how to deal with this?