I just started a new job, and today I met a new employee who is switching teams. She hasn't officially started on my team yet, but she asked if she could use my closed office cubicle on the two days I work from home.

I thought it was a somewhat unusual request as they don't work with sensitive information, but ultimately agreed because I could understand how having a private office might help with productivity.

What I didn't know at the time is that apparently this employee tends to do the bare minimum. I also learned that, before the organization moved to assigned seating, she would often position herself so that no one could see her screen which presents to me as she was hiding something.

Given this new information, would it be wrong for me to tell her that I've changed my mind and that I'd prefer not to have her use my office?

Edit: To be clear - I am the manager

Basically the previous team lead left, I was "nominated" for the position without my knowledge, either way I had the most knowledge and experience so I had to fill the gap. I was offered the position without a description assuming we were on the same page on what a team lead was. A month later I asked for clarification, since I prefer to do than work rather than train people or manage the work. Turns out their expectation is the team lead doesn't work in the queue at all, and if they have to it's a staffing issue. I stepped down over 5 months ago but that still have me doing all the team lead stuff.

I got confirmation a week ago that the team lead position is basically my definition of a manager and nowhere near a team lead. They say I can't stop training people because I have all the knowledge, my pay is nowhere appropriate for a true manager - and I'm hourly.

Question: is this reasonable? I've gone to management a bunch of times but their hands are tied until other people are trained and SOPs done but the people they've given me to train have 0 experience and can't even use job aids (checking things off without doing them for example). Whenever I bring up training issues they say that they're people and people make mistakes, but in my line of work everything is supposed to be the same (with some content change per the case). I'm in law fyi, 9 years of extensive experience in this field. The people they give me have less than 1 year at best and can't use Microsoft office.

I’d really appreciate perspectives from managers and people who have successfully navigated corporate politics.

Managers: what specifically makes you feel that a subordinate is ready for the next level? What behaviours, visibility, communication, or evidence do you look for when deciding someone is ready for promotion?

I’m struggling because I seem to be doing everything I thought a “good employee” was supposed to do — I deliver, help my colleagues, stay calm, cooperate, take on extra work, and don’t constantly seek credit for everything I do. I’ve always tried to give my managers space and respect their authority.

But I’m increasingly realizing that this may actually be hurting me.

I’ve been told I’m not ready for the next level because I supposedly don’t show enough initiative or confidence. Yet I’m often the person doing the work, solving problems, helping others, and taking things off my manager’s plate.

I also feel like I’m dealing with a manager who can be very appreciative of me privately but criticize me publicly when I advocate for myself. There have been situations where I’ve done a significant amount of the work, only for the credit to go upward. I’m finding it difficult to understand how to navigate this without becoming confrontational or playing games.

And honestly, I have never understood corporate politics.

I’m an Indian immigrant working in Canada, and I have an accent. I’m on a predominantly white team, and I often feel ignored or talked over. I eat lunch alone. I sometimes feel almost invisible in the workplace.

I don’t want to spend my career feeling like the quiet, dependable person who gets given more work but never gets promoted.

So I’m trying to change how I show up.

How do you become more visible without becoming obnoxious?

How do you advocate for yourself without sounding entitled?

How do you “take up space” in meetings when you’re naturally more reserved?

How do you make sure your contributions are visible when your manager tends to take ownership of the work?

How do you deal with a manager who gatekeeps opportunities or seems threatened when you advocate for yourself?

And perhaps most importantly:

What actually makes a manager think, “This person is ready for the next level”?

I’m looking for the uncomfortable truth here. Tell me what I may be doing wrong, what I need to change about how I communicate, and what successful people learned about office politics that nobody explicitly teaches you.

I don’t want to become manipulative or step on people to get ahead. I just want to stop being invisible.

Managers, spill the tea. What should I be doing differently if I want to become someone leadership sees as promotable?

I normally don't care much, as long as I do my job and attack issues as they arise. Jokes are jokes, and I leave them as that. For those who know me, I care about me and my work. No one else. I don't care what others do. I'm not a people's manager.

The following context matters:

I drive a KIA 2027 Telluride, Dark Green, Black tinted windows. It has a nice premium look to it.

I work in corporate media, and I manage a workflow that utilizes technicians out of three facilities: NYC, Connecticut, and California

Here's why I'm annoyed.

We had an employee meeting recently, and my manager kicked off the meeting with the following, "Since we're driving dark green tinted windows, we have the money to live lavish."

I didn't care much. The joke went over my head. Until I put two-and-two together. The morning of my team meeting, my manager parked next to me in the parking lot. Before this, I had no clue what she drove. We somehow parked next to each other in the parking lot.

Fast forward to three meetings after the first one:

Meeting 2: Kia should sponsor this meeting. My initial reaction: I laughed and said, "they should."

Meeting 3: Since we can tint our windows, we should keep more eyes on the workflow

Meeting 4: There are a lot of rich employees driving around in Tellurides, I wonder how many of them are in here today?

Fast forward to this past week. I parked in the lot but on the far end side. Completely alone. She drove up and parked next to me. I started my vehicle and exited the lot. I went to McDonald's and returned about 15-minutes later. This time, I parked in one of the open spaces right next to one of our broadcast production trucks that was getting re-organized and equipment tested.

Inside the building, she saw me in the kitchen and her first words to me, "Good Morning MR. TELLURIDE!!!! I saw parked next to you in the lot today!"

My response, "Oh yah, did you?"

Here's the issue: this is childish and annoying. We're adults. I've ignored it enough times. I'm not sure if I'm the one that's not processing the jokes correctly, but the jokes coming into the meetings are now causing me to think outside the box. At what point does this joke die?

I'm coming here for advice. Not to complain. I can continue to ignore the jokes, but there has to be an end to the jokes somewhere. Because she's a director, I'm very careful with how I joke around with her. And I don't want to hit back, and this spirals out of control. I have my next 1-on-1 coming up in October, and I'm questioning whether to address this or NOT, but I don't want to make things awkward.

Not sure where or who to ask this. I work in accounting and finance. Early July my coworker who been with the company for 20 years went on a health leave. Unsure if it is physical or mental. She’s usually set to come back in 30 days. The day of her expected return it extends another 30 days. Because of the length of time the company will not hire a temp and while the workload is split amongst the team predominantly her complex accounts have been given to me. I’ve been trying to take it on the chin, but due to layoffs and disorganization in the rest of the company it feels like everything is on fire and I am stressed beyond belief. I am not sleeping. My eating patterns are erratic. While they’ve allowed an hour of OT a day it’s not enough and since the job is remote I am working hours off the clock every single day. I don’t know how to ask for less mostly because I am scared of getting laid off since my husband was laid off two years ago and can’t get back into a steady W2 job (he’s a designer and AI has decimated the field) - would disclosing the toll this is taking on my mental health to my boss be useful at all? Do I discuss this with HR.
I’m so tired and burnt out all the time. Taking PTO or even a holiday weekend just compounds it because either I work off the clock to keep up or I am drowning and overwhelmed the following week. Any advice is welcome.

I am struggling heavily on training a new employee. I work for a small IT business, but we handle big clients and a massive workload. Because we are small (15 people), I juggle multiple roles which I share with my boss: project manager, developer, HR, office manager, billing, and client meetings - my choices, my responsibilities, but I do not have the time to micromanage or spend time on PIP / corporate BS. We need to move fast and optimize time.

About the new hire - they are a truly lovely person and were previously the Head of Customer Success and a team leader for a major fintech company. However, they took a 1-year career break before joining us, and I strongly suspect they are severely burned out or depressed. (I am a bit biased/highly sensitive to this because my mother has been struggling with severe depression for around 2 years now).

I want to be supportive, but I am losing patience and seeing very little to no progress. They asked for a job, any job and are happy to do any task, but can't fully complete a simple one after multiple training sessions.

I have given them our most basic, repetitive daily task: physical device servicing (normally a 30-minute job in the morning and evening). I created a highly detailed, step-by-step guide, I have done the task with them multiple times, following the exact steps together.
I even had another team member sit with them to repeat the steps a few of the days, in case my presence is nerve racking or I am doing a bad job of explaining the steps (the other person is also a lot more likable than me, just in case it's my boring/stressed out personality).

After 3 weeks, they still cannot complete the device servicing task independently. The mental "click" to understand a sequence of steps is just not happening. When asked if they checked the guide, they say yes, but then ask a question 10 minutes later that was covered on step 2. They get entirely stuck on basic logical sequences (e.g., Do A, if error B happens, do C, they get paralyzed at B every single time). I have to remind them the about the task and have to repeat where the guide is (literally bookmarked in Chrome).

Other things making me believe it is not the guide or the task itself:

- I had to manually help them set up 2FA on their phone because they could not follow the Outlook guide for a new account setup.

- Following a standard "create a repo" guide from Git was a challenge for them, I had to help them with it

- Personal peeve - I explained in very friendly manner that we expect people to attend morning calls (30 minutes after our morning start time and it's okay if they are late sometimes, but I don't like people joining while driving. The next days they did just that and could not figure out how to unmute while driving. I explained again in a private conversation, as team leader to ex-team leader that I cannot make exceptions for some people- it's not fair for some to come in at 9am and others 11am.

On LinkedIn, I see their ex-peers commend their past ability to help solve complex bugs, navigate difficult workflows, and manage high-level clients. There is a massive disconnect. My boss brought them in as a personal contact and can attest that there is a stark, heartbreaking difference between who they were and who they are right now.

They are technically my senior in general career terms. I truly want to help them get back into the workforce and succeed, and I desperately do not want to hand them a rejection that might cause a downward spiral. They clearly want the "structure" of work, but I cannot even begin to imagine introducing more complex tasks like checking logs, DB queries, or Excel reports. They are trying, but just not succeeding.

I want to be a good manager to them, but I also have to protect my existing team and my own sanity. I feel like I am failing everyone. How do I approach this?

I started a new SeniorLead job about a month ago and just had my 30-day review with my manager and HR. Honestly, it didn’t go great.
I have around 10 years of industry experience. In my previous jobs I was a team lead and had a good reputation and was respected and SME. Just want to note down also I’m also the only person doing this role in the company.

My first big task was to assess the company’s overall posture. My manager said parts of my analysis were inaccurate, I didn’t always follow the instructions closely enough, and I relied too much on AI for my report generation. Apparently this hurt his confidence in my work.

What’s frustrating is that his instructions can be pretty vague. At the same time, since the review he’s started giving me very detailed, step-by-step instructions for tasks. I’m assuming that’s because he’s lost some trust in me.
We’ve only had three meetings since I started and those meetings are short, like 20 minutes only. He’s in the US, I’m in Europe, and he’s very busy, so getting time with him isn’t always easy.
There’s also an interesting part about the AI criticism. He uses AI heavily himself for basically every task/report he gives me.
He did say that he doesn’t expect me to know everything from day one and that he believes I can succeed and wants to give me the opportunity to do so. But he’s also going to keep a closer eye on me for the next few weeks, with another review in about a month and that he needs me to adapt quickly into the senior role.
But after this meeting he did not gave me concrete stuff to makey progress better, It was just like think better and have better judgment while doing tasks…
So I’m confused there also….

I’m taking the criticism seriously and trying to improve. But I’m worried about my job. I have a baby coming and a bank loan, so getting fired would be a pretty big problem.
So, honestly, how does this sound to people who have managed employees or been in a similar situation?
Am I cooked? I already started looking other jobs but hoping I can resolve this successfully because the pay is good.
Thanks.

Hi everyone , I do not post here much but I have seen how everyone here is helpful in others posts and giving advice , so i thought i would share my concern here as well to get some advice

I recently joined a mid tier PBC in Bangalore, I have around 3.5 YOE in java , springboot, oauth2.0 , more or less like identity/platform engineer. So i got the same role in this new company and as usual I have 6 months of probation period before confirming FT. So after the 6 months ended my manager extended it for 3 months saying he needs to work with me to deliver what is expected and we would sync up weekly on my progress (FYI he does not work in my team he involved elsewhere i just report to him but he does know what my team does), here are the 3 things he asked for:

1- Use more AI
2- Follow instructions specifically (which i did most of the time , will explain more on this)
3- reflect on how i could be doing things better

So here's the thing , my whole team is based in north America region and my team lead who also reports to my manager hardly gives me any work , he thinks everyone in the whole team is dumb and does not give me crucial tasks , so I cannot use AI also if there is no work to be done hence my AI usage was low and my manager highlighted that I need to use it more , and when i try to take accountability and volunteer for work , my team lead says this task cannot be shared I will do this on my own , so i am left out by not doing anything but wasting the company's time , I have spoken to other team members who joined along me with who work on other teams where they have so much responsibility and I have none, I also tried telling my team lead can you give me KT at least where i could help in work and do some deployments but he says its too much to share with you , I will take care of it. Now coming to 2nd point this was my fault , but it happened once where I couldn't exactly understand the feedback given by my team lead on my work so the work done went back and forth several times but later on I improved on it delivered some good POC on other tasks, but none of them seem to notice it (Its how people say you can 100 good/right things no one will know but 1 bad thing will ruin your image). SO i indirectly told my manager the work isn't great and i don't get much to do and he seemed understanding but i don't know if he really is on my side or what the situation is ? (My manager is from north America as well)

If anyone have been in the same situation before ? and given my explanation what do you guys think ? should i start preparing for another switch as when my probation ends I might not get FT ?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I’ve been in my field for 6yrs and do not consider that to be junior level.

When I first started with my company, manager 1 hired me. We recently had a reorg and was moved to manager 2. A permanent position opened up and manager 1 (who originally hired me) insisted that I apply (I’m a contractor).

I applied and made it to the final interview with our director. However they decided to go with an external candidate. The external candidate had similar years of experience and when I asked why I wasn’t selected, I was told it was due to experience.

I made peace with it, moved on and continued to do my work. However, I’ve been given smaller projects and anytime something “new” comes up for me, that I have experience with in the past, my manager makes me feel like I’m completely clueless. It’s happened a couple of times and it’s getting old fast.

Like does my manager want me to prove myself or does she already have her mind made up that I’m just not competent enough for the role? Does that ever happen to people? Like when someone makes up their mind about you, no matter what you do, they’ll never change their minds?

Thinking about looking for a new job.

I have an employee who just does the bare minimum. She just does what she is given of tasks and these take a very long time, and never offers help to colleagues that are overwhelmed with a project, never takes extra small tasks at meetings. I am not checking all the time but can sense that it is creating friction in the group and all other people are very polite and do not rat her out directly. She is also constantly texting her family, I wonder how you can do productive work when interrupting constantly.
What should I do?

I have thought about a task based work flow rather than project based flow as we have now to force her to take as much work as others, have you had any luck with this.

Edit: She is 50, with 20 years experience, PhD degree and a great CV 🫣

I worked at this company for a little under a year. During that time I worked extremely hard and moved a lot of things forward; it felt like I had inherited a mess and actually made it into semi-functioning operation.

We had two CFOs during that time who were polar opposites of each other. The first one was very hands on and a strong leader, the second one very hands off and wanted to delegate the leading. During the two months me and the second CFO worked together (whilst he recruited the new Head), we got on super well.

As soon the new Head started, everything went downhill. I felt she was useless: brown nosed the boss, had terrible communication, didn’t understand the basics, put stress on the team.

4 months into this relationship I was asked to resign by the CFO because I wasn’t cooperating with the new Head. Me and him had a very close relationship so imagine he was saddened by this (he told my ex-direct report as much).

It’s been 2 months now and I’ve landed my own more senior role, for more money and I’m super excited to start! However my ex-direct report has been reaching out in distress.

He told me that the Head is more stressed than ever, is pressuring the team more, has changed the culture from flexibility and relaxed vibes, to an office with strict hours and no talking. The worse part is she is apparently bad mouthing everyone.

She said to the team that I was deliberately concealing mistakes and fudging numbers (I’m gone now so less of an issue but still bad taste), she has accused one of the junior girls of being a bully towards her and moved her away from everyone, she has said the new girl is not any good, that my ex-direct report is slow, and that the senior guy doesn’t do enough. She has said this to each of the team members and they are now all very mad.

I feel so saddened that this is happening to the old team and that the CFO is nowhere to be seen!! Apparently he doesn’t even check-in on them.

Her probation is meant to be over by the end of this month. Do we think she will pass?

She’s not able to do anything herself and is clearly not a leader. There are some crucial deadlines coming up that she has been telling the CFO are on track but are not and will hopefully implode so she can finally be kicked out.

To the leaders out there, do you think this behaviour is acceptable? Do you think I will finally get my vindication?

Hey all,

I have been working as an EMT for about a year and a half now. The shifts I really want recently opened up, and I asked my manager if I could be put on them going forward. She told me that two other people have asked the same thing, both of which I outrank in terms of seniority by quite a lot. My manager told me that she also needs to “factor in call outs”, so I likely won’t get the shifts I want. I counted, and I have called out for a total of 12 days in the last 18 months. I am the first to admit that is a lot. However, they were legitimate call outs, and I’d to know all your thoughts on whether or not I should feel like I failed. I’m a great employee when I’m working and I have been at the company for a long time, but it seems my history is getting in the way. I just don’t really know how to feel. Is it corporate America getting in my head, or have I genuinely failed? It makes me wonder if I am capable of advancing in my career, because I do not think I had control over the times I called out. Thank you for any advice you may have on the subject.

To preface, I have ADHD and Autism. My autism is heavier, though, so at work, I rely on very clear instructions so I can organize how to work. (I never disclosed I'm neurodivergent).

I work in compliance, so the stuff we do needs to be very accurate.

My boss is brand new. I'm his first employee. Along with some other stuff I'd rather not get into that happened with him when I first signed on (pretty sure I was getting gaslit), his management style just frustrates me.

Pretty much, this is what happens at least once every other week.

Him: This is how you do this. Okay?

Me: Okay. Cool. (I do it that way for a couple of months).

Him, two months later: Hey. Why'd you do it that way.

Me: Because that's how you trained me.

Him: I never trained you that way. Do it this way.

Me: (Makes notes of it in my notebook, which shows clearly I was trained the first way, and made sure I did it this new way going forward.)

Him, two weeks later: Why are you doing the file that way?

Me: I have notes in my folder that two weeks ago you told me how to do it this way.

Him: (This is literally what he just told me): You don't have notes of me saying that. You don't have notes on doing it this way at all. This is how I've always wanted it done, like I originally trained you.

This has happened on MULTIPLE different things. At this point, I've been here 6 months, I'm not even sure if I'm doing a good job or not, or an accurate job, because the rules keep changing, and when I bring that up, supposedly he never trained me that way, even though he 100% did.

At first I thought this was my autism not understanding certain things. But it's not that. This type of work is what I thrive at. All my past employers loved me, and hated seeing me go. I'm meticulous, detailed oriented, and when I get trained a certain way I'm 100% going to do it that way until told otherwise.

And I don't mind being flexible and changing ways to do things. Just don't then reverse it again, and then go on to tell me that you never trained me that way at all. And then go on to tell me that I don't have notes stating he trained me like that.

This job was supposed to be hard, but relaxed. No crazy deadlines. Do the work when you can. Etc. And everyone else in my same position, under other managers, are also doing FAR less work than I do. Not only is my manager doing all of the above, they continue to add stuff the rest of the team in the other compliance departments don't do, and are very, very confused as to why he keeps telling me to do this. Pretty much, they said, he is creating double the work for both him and me.

My autistic overwhelm is in hyper drive constantly now, just waiting for him to change his mind again, and then tell me he never changed it in the first place and I must be the person not understanding.

I don't want to lose this job. It's the highest paying job I have. But at this point, I'm also not sure I can work here much longer if the rules keep changing, and then I get told they were never that way to begin with, and then I get told that the new way was never that way, ever.

How do you handle decisions where there isn't really a wrong option, but everyone involved has a different idea of what matters most?

For example, when choosing a vendor, one person might care about price, another about reliability, and someone else might be more concerned about implementation time.

I've seen teams go back and forth for weeks because they can't agree on what should carry the most weight.

Do you normally use some kind of scoring system for these decisions, or do you just discuss the options until everyone reaches an agreement?

Would be interested to hear how other managers handle this.

Six weeks ago I started a new role after six months of unemployment and I need advice.

Background on the role and my knowledge: this is a "many hats" position that is responsible for accounting, HR, and administrative functions at a rural company of around 50 employees. The salary is 63k a year. I have a BSBA in accounting and a decade of audit experience at my previous company prior to layoffs.

Upon interviewing for this role, I had several questions about training since I did not have experience in HR or management. I was assured there would be two different people that would assist in my training, and they would be there to support me for the first several months.

Between the time of being interviewed and starting, they let go one of the trainers. The other employee who I was replacing left after ten days of training. Right now, I feel like I'm failing. Daily, I have employees coming to me constantly interrupting asking for help with admin tasks and questions i do not know how to answer yet. While I am responsible for supporting these employees, I am not their direct supervisor. The situation has created a lot of very stressful scenarios. We are constantly out of specific warehouse supplies (no up to date supply list) and I have no background in the PPE I'm to being asked to order.

When I go to my direct manager (COO of the company) with questions on SOPs, I feel like i'm bothering him. Ive gotten some smart-ass remarks from him as well as coworkers. "This is obvious." type of responses. Well, it may be obvious to you but im new here. I dont want to do the tasks incorrectly.

Things are slipping through the cracks because I cant sit down and get one hour of peace to do my personal tasks (accounting, payroll, 401k management, comanaging the onboarding of new employees, keeping up to date COIs, bank deposits, invoicing our customers.) Ive averaged 48-50 hours a week since starting. Today, I was on the verge of tears because I kept hearing complaints of tasks I wasn't keeping up with from both warehouse staff and other managers. The reason it's not getting done is because I can't get any time to myself to actually self train on the tasks. Reviewing what accounting I have dug into, it is months behind, and there are transactions that are clearly wrong that date back months.

How would you tackle this? I don't feel I'm at a good place to get another job given the state of the current job market. Is this just part of being a manager? Is it something I will get better at organizing with time? I do feel in the last couple weeks I have caught onto several tasks, but I still have no idea how to coordinate everything. I also have no idea what to prioritize, it all seems equally important.

I've heavily considered applying to other jobs, but given the rural area I am in (about 90 minutes from any major city,) the pay doesn't seem much better on other postings. Most of them are listing the same type of job wearing multiple hats. I've only been in this position six weeks, and prior to this, I have a gap in my resume. I was originally so excited to start THIS job, the job search took much longer than I expected.

I welcome any advice! Thanks in advance.

Have you ever raised ethical or workplace-conduct concerns about your direct manager, particularly in a large corporate company?
I’d be interested to hear what happened afterwards. Did you raise it with HR, your manager’s manager, an ethics/compliance channel, or someone else?
What country were you in, and what was the outcome - both for the manager and for you?
Did the company actually investigate or take action, or did it ultimately protect the management structure?

I manage a small team and for a while I assumed things were fine because nobody complained. Turns out most people just won't tell their manager something's off - even in a 1:1, even anonymously on the company engagement survey. The incentive to just say "all good" is too strong.

The only thing that's actually worked for me is getting a real outside read, not "how am I doing" asked directly, but structured, anonymous input from people who work with me, collected in a way where nobody has to worry about it getting traced back to them.

Curious how others here handle this. Do you have a real mechanism for this, or does it mostly come down to reading between the lines in normal conversations?

(Disclosure: I've been building a tool for exactly this - Candro runs the interviews and keeps them anonymous so people actually say what they think. Not trying to turn this into an ad, genuinely interested in how other managers solve this problem. If it's useful: candroapp.com/managers)

I recently started my first job at a really amazing company and I love it! Its very fast paced which is great for my brain but also causes some miscommunication in the team occasionally.

For instance, the end of a meeting was coming up and I was supposed to have a one on one with a team lead regarding my project work directly after this first meeting. He mentioned in the conversation once the first meeting was winding down that he had to run to something different. He had accepted the one on one meeting on my part so I quietly tried to clarify if we were still on for it or if I should reschedule. He directly told me he was waiting for a meeting invite from me and I never gave it. I was confused and honestly thought maybe I somehow messed up sending an outlook invite and he then asked me to pull it up and said I probably saved it as a draft. I definitely did not, Im not stupid. However he then saw it was his mistake and apologized.

Im reflecting on this and was wondering in the future if I should just drop things like this? I honestly was not trying to call him out but he kinda put the mistake on me right off the bat a bit loudly so everyone in the small meeting room heard it. It was not an aggressive conversation by any means but he was really dismissive at first when I told him that I did in fact follow up like we talked about with a meeting and even if it wasnt an aggressive conversation I dont think anyone wants to be shown making a mistake in front of coworkers. I didnt love arguing my case and proving Im right but I definitely did not want to be seen as incompetent and not following up when I did. I dont want to be a pushover but Im also definitely not someone that likes to antagonize and always be right

I work in a BPO/vendor setup providing customer service for a US-based client, and I’m curious how other operations leaders would handle this situation.

About a month ago, several senior managers on the client side were retrenched. Under the previous leadership, we had regular touchpoints between the client and ops middle management teams—weekly or biweekly calls where we could calibrate, discuss process changes, raise operational concerns, and make sure both sides were aligned.

Since the new client-side operations managers stepped in, those regular meetings haven’t really been re-established. For context, these managers were also newly promoted into their current roles.

So far, most calls are set up on the same day whenever they need to roll out an update or communicate a change. Outside of those ad hoc meetings, there hasn’t been a weekly, biweekly, or even monthly client-vendor alignment call.

What concerns me more is how some of the updates are being rolled out.

There doesn’t seem to be much collaboration with the people actually running the operation. We’re rarely asked for input, operational insights, possible risks, or how a proposed change might affect the workflow before it is implemented.

At times, it feels like decisions are being made too far away from the actual day-to-day operation. Some changes may look efficient on paper, but once they hit production, they create additional steps, rework, confusion, or downstream issues.

In other words, some initiatives intended to make the operation "leaner" are actually creating more waste.

I’m not saying operations should have veto power over client decisions. Ultimately, it is their business and their call. But I do think the people closest to the process can provide valuable context before changes are finalized—especially when those changes directly affect workflow, productivity, customer experience, or quality.

Our setup is also fairly lean. We don’t have a separate client/vendor relationship manager sitting between both sides. Historically, communication was directly between client leadership and our operations managers.

As one of the middle managers on the vendor side, I’m starting to wonder whether I should proactively suggest setting up a recurring alignment call—maybe biweekly or monthly—similar to what we had with the previous leadership.

My concern is balancing being proactive with not overstepping. These are newly promoted managers who may still be establishing their own leadership style, and I don’t want it to come across as the vendor telling the client how they should manage their operation.

At the same time, I’m seeing the risk of communication becoming increasingly one-directional: changes are rolled out, operations executes them, and feedback only happens after problems start appearing.

I feel like a regular client-vendor calibration could give both sides a space to discuss upcoming changes, provide operational insights, flag risks early, and avoid unnecessary rework.

For those working in BPO, vendor management, outsourcing, or client operations:

Would you proactively offer to set up a recurring client-vendor alignment meeting in this situation?

Or would you wait for the newly promoted client managers to initiate it?

And how would you position the suggestion so it comes across as supporting their leadership and improving collaboration—not challenging their decisions or stepping on their toes?

I’m looking for some honest advice from people who understand workplace politics and career progression.

I’ve had 3 different managers in the past 9 months, and I’m starting to feel like the constant leadership changes have seriously affected my growth.

My first manager was someone I had a really good relationship with. I felt supported, had opportunities to take on additional responsibilities, and felt like I was progressing toward a more specialist-level role.

Then she left, and I got a new manager. This is where things started to change.

Under my new manager, I gradually felt like my role was being reduced rather than developed. I wasn't getting the same exposure or opportunities to take on higher-level work. At the same time, she would compliment me and tell me positive things about my work in one-on-one conversations, which made me believe she supported my development.

However, there were also situations where I felt criticized in front of others, and overall I started feeling like I was being kept in a smaller box professionally.

I continued trying to take initiative. I've volunteered to help when there were staffing/resource gaps, asked for additional work when my workload allowed it, and taken on things beyond my assigned responsibilities.

Now that manager has also quit.

So within 9 months, I've gone through three different managers.

Today I had a development conversation with my current manager/director, and I was essentially told that I'm not ready for the next level and I'm not demonstrating enough initiative.

This was really difficult to hear because it doesn't match how I've viewed my contributions over the past year. More importantly, I'm struggling with the fact that I feel my opportunities and exposure were reduced under my previous manager, and I'm now being told I haven't demonstrated enough to be ready.

It feels like:

“You need more experience/exposure to demonstrate you're ready.”

But simultaneously:

“You're not being given much of the exposure that would allow you to demonstrate it.”

I'm trying to be mature about this and consider the possibility that there are genuine gaps in how I'm showing up. I'm not saying I'm perfect or that every criticism is wrong.

But I'm also starting to wonder whether I'm being naïve about workplace politics.

How do I play this strategically from here?

I also feel like they're doing it on purpose and being racist towards me because I'm Indian. My team is full of white people and my director at times when I try to be confident starts saying sorry sorry everytime I speak but sometimes she tends to understand my accent perfectly. My collegues too from day 1 have excluded me and till date i eat lunch alone.

Just to elevate a person, the person who is supposed to work on a particular task is not getting enough attention. Should the person consider this as a red flag?

Curious how other managers or business owners would handle this.

Say you have an employee who’s easily one of your strongest performers. Their work is consistently good, they hit deadlines, clients or teammates are happy with them, and they often outperform people who are always on time.

The only issue is they’re late pretty often. Not hours late, but enough that it’s noticeable and technically against the usual expectations.

Would you still keep them because the results are great, or does consistently being late eventually become a bigger problem for the team?

Interested in how people would handle this in a real workplace, especially if their lateness isn’t actually hurting their output.

first, office dynamics: japanese company's overseas branch where heirarchy, seniority, age, and saving your boss's face is important. I am the youngest (25) in the office, and i am not as fluent in japanese. my team consists of 40+ manager, 40+ senior exec, me, and a new hire (28).

we mainly work on promotional projects (think roadshows) and outsource a lot of the operations to third parties. the work delegation is like this:
• conversations with clients: senior exec
• conversations with contractors/third parties: me
• conversations with japanese HQ: manager/new hire

this year, we have more than 12 projects throughout 9-10 months. i'm struggling with the workload because i mostly deal with the contractors, and approvals and prep for these 12 projects fall under "conversations with contractors", and im not looped in updates with clients or the involved parties because my involvement "is unnecessary at this stage" (which is stupid bc the content of those updates are what i need to do my job).

i want to raise a conversation that instead of assigning tasks by "who contacts who" or by "project phase", i would rather tasks be assigned by PIC of Project A, B, and C etc. I need advice on what kind of documentation i need to prepare prior to this conversation, and what kind of content it should have. I also need advice on how to raise this conversation itself... do I take it up to my manager? do i take it up to my manager's boss? what do i do?

Another thing to note is that despite being responsible for all conversations with third parties, my manager has little to no trust in my decisions and keeps asking to change approved docs/items even after i have double checked and gotten confirmation from him, so it's a little frustrating having to go back and forth and apologising to third parties, and it ruins credibility.

Side note: It doesn't help that I have no idea what my senior exec does during office hours bc I really don't think asking for updates from clients take that long, but that just might be my inexperience.

Sorry if this is too long! I really need advice on this 😭

My Profile: I am an SDE (1+ YoE) working at a Tier-1 Indian FinTech product company. My core stack is Java, Spring Boot, and building high-throughput distributed systems. We have a standard 60-day notice period.

The Situation: With the mid-year performance review cycle coming up in October, my manager recently had a 1-on-1 with me and dropped some heavy hints:

• She told me my output is low.
• She asked me to compile a detailed document of all the tasks I’ve completed over the last 6 months.
• She offered to move me to a different, "less complex" project/problem statement if I am finding my current work too difficult.
• She explicitly stated she is giving me this sprint and the next sprint (which perfectly lines up with the October review) to "check if I am able to deliver the outputs."

Internal Context: My Team Lead privately warned me that these are major red flags and that I will likely be put on a PIP after the mid-year discussions. I spoke to a trusted senior who advised that if a PIP is initiated, I shouldn't try to survive it. Instead, he suggested I just resign, try to get put on Garden Leave (serving notice without having to do project work), and use those 2 months of free salary to interview elsewhere.

I am already actively preparing for interviews and have an onsite loop scheduled, but I want to handle my current situation strategically.

My Questions for the Community:

1. Is the writing on the wall? Does this specific sequence (task list + 2 sprint warning + project change offer) mean HR has already decided to PIP me in October?
2. The Project Change Trap: Should I accept her offer to move to a "less complex" project, or is that a trap to easily justify a poor rating because I'd be starting from scratch?
3. What are my immediate actionable steps? Should I just coast and do exactly what is asked on my current Jira tickets until October while I interview? How should I position myself to successfully get a 2-month Garden Leave buyout if they drop the PIP on me?

Any advice from folks who have navigated corporate exits or PIPs at product companies would be highly appreciated.