Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/dont-bring-problems-without-solutions-coworker-is-upset-that-i-got-the-promotion-he-wanted-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34240

It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…

1. Managers who don’t want to hear about problems without solutions

Why do managers tell employees to only bring them solutions, not problems?

I hear this a lot, and I’m not sure I get it. I understand that they don’t want people to complain to them about minor issues that could be solved with direct communication. However, I feel like if people take this advice literally, they won’t report actual problems.

Recently, my team had an issue where two employees were repeatedly shouting at each other in meetings. In this case, a manager did witness one of the incidents, so it was addressed without a peer needing to escalate. Presumably, if the manager wasn’t around to see it, they would still want to hear about it. It was pretty stressful for the rest of the team and impacted productivity. I don’t know how to make people stop shouting at each other. I don’t even really know why they were shouting at each other because the last thing I wanted to do is become personally involved in the conflict. Am I actually supposed to brainstorm possible solutions to things like this before I can tell my manager? If I can’t think of any, do I just ignore the problem?

Yeah, “don’t bring me problems, only solutions” is a good way for managers to ensure they don’t hear about problems they actually need to know about, or at least not until those problems have festered and grown worse. And in many cases, employees have neither the standing nor the resources to solve the problem at hand; it’s a manager’s job to do that.

It’s true that in some cases it makes sense to ask people to think about how to solve a problem rather than just dumping it on their manager’s lap, and it can be a way to help them develop skills and expertise, but it absolutely doesn’t apply across the board. Sometimes a problem will be above your pay grade, or could cause legal issues, or you simply don’t have the ability to solve it on your own.

2. I want to talk to a person, not ChatGPT

I have a very 2025 question. In my role, we’re the client of an agency that has two people working on our file. One of the two people is new to the workforce, and her responses are always straight from ChatGPT. I can tell she has plugged my emails in and copy-pasted an AI reply, which does not always make sense and always sounds robotic. Along with not really taking ownership of mistakes (and I think the AI use means she makes a lot of them) and responding in a very generic way, it is driving me nuts.

How do I handle this? I don’t find she properly reads my emails (missing information, getting times wrong, not responding to questions), and I have to wonder how much her use of AI is contributing to this issue. But obviously, I can’t prove it. The other person on our file is more senior, but not her manager. What do you think?

You’re the client; you have a ton of standing in this situation to push back! You could do that on three fronts: first and foremost, when the agency rep sends you something that doesn’t make sense or is overly generic, you should point out that it doesn’t make sense / doesn’t address what you were asking for. And if she’s not taking ownership of mistakes, you can push back on that, too — “I’m concerned that X happened; what’s the plan for making sure that doesn’t happen again?” Second, you could talk to the more senior person there and share your concerns (“I’ve been getting responses from Jane that don’t make sense and don’t include any nuance; my hunch is she’s using ChatGPT but I don’t know for sure — either way, we’re not getting what we need”). Third, you could talk to whoever is in charge of your contract with the agency and let them know you’re not getting what you need from the agency team.

You could do all or any of these — but you should definitely speak up, because they’re getting paid to provide you with a service that they’re currently doing badly.

3. My coworker is upset that I got the promotion he wanted

A coworker and I recently applied for the same position as a supervisor. We both have been filling in as interim supervisors and we both have been told we did well in that role. He admittedly has more experience than me in nearly every category and is much older than me. I’m 30 and he’s 50. I feel like I’ve been kinda being groomed for the position as the director has been letting me fill in more than my coworker, although he still does a good job. We weren’t close before this, but we were at least casually friendly.

I think he felt he was a a shoo-in for this position but he didn’t get it, I did, and he is pissed. It’s been a couple of months now and he doesn’t talk to anyone unless he absolutely has to. If I speak to him, he will reply but it’s very curt and he won’t give me eye contact. Normally he just finds an excuse to leave the room if I walk in. In his defense, he still does very good work, it hasn’t slipped at all and I’m not his direct supervisor, nor is the director who we interviewed with. The director did not follow up with him but I wish she would have. We were hoping that he would stay on to still fill in as needed, but he informed us that he felt that was a slap in the face and was not interested. We spoke to his manager, but her response was, “He’s doing fine with me and his work isn’t suffering” so basically deal with it. Is there anything I can do to maybe salvage how we were before?

Well, his manager really should talk to him. He doesn’t need to be chatty and gregarious with you, but it’s not okay to be curt either. Plus, she has someone on her team who’s clearly demoralized; that’s not something she should just ignore with, “Well, his work is still fine.”

But since she’s not going to intervene, there’s not a lot you can do. You should continue being warm, friendly, and professional, of course, but this sounds like something he’s going to need to work through on his own time.

(Also, there are managers messing up all over the place here! What’s up with the hiring manager for this position not talking to him about the decision? It sounds like there are some bad management role models around you right now, which is worth being aware of as you’re learning the job.)

4. Is our director recording us?

I work in a small office. Outside of the usual IT security, there is no known surveillance to monitor employee conduct or conversation. However, our executive director frequently makes comments about “hearing everything in the office,” whether they are there or not. We all think it’s a little strange, but what’s concerning is the inconsistency of how their door is left when they leave the office. Their office overlooks our cubicles and when they leave, sometimes the door is shut. Other times it is fully open, and at other times (particularly when they will be out of the office for an extended period of time) it is cracked about an inch. Thoughts?

I think you’re reading way too much into how their door is positioned. If they’ve told you they hear everything in the office and that seems to be true, even things they shouldn’t have been aware of, then you might be right that some kind of surveillance is going on, but I wouldn’t assume the door is a particular indicator of that.

You could also just ask outright what they mean the next time they mention hearing everything. (Who knows, maybe they just mean sound travels more than you realize and they hear conversations people don’t realize can be overheard.)

But for what it’s worth, if they are recording you without your knowledge, there might be legal issues with that. Employers are generally allowed to record employees but in most states need to inform them that they’re being monitored, so you should check your employee handbook or any written policies to see what might be in there.

The post “don’t bring problems without solutions,” coworker is upset that I got the promotion he wanted, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/dont-bring-problems-without-solutions-coworker-is-upset-that-i-got-the-promotion-he-wanted-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34240

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/what-questions-should-i-ask-in-an-internal-interview-with-people-i-already-work-with.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34179

A reader writes:

I’m fairly new to the workforce (~3 years) and, between a time-limited paid fellowship and moving cities for grad school, I’ve changed jobs a couple of times.

My current role is the first time I’ve been eligible to apply for a new role within my same organization, and while the job market makes me suspect that hordes of qualified people will be jumping on this posting, I’m optimistic about my chances. The organization would definitely prefer to hire internally if they can. I’ve already been cross-trained on some of the functions of this new role, and I know I can talk intelligently about my approach to the work in an interview.

But what do I do when they ask at the end of the interview if I have any questions for them? These are all people I work with on a weekly basis and, thanks to the cross-training, I have a decent sense of how this role’s supervisor manages and how the team works together. I already have a good handle on the organizational culture since I’ve been here over a year.

Coming up with questions for the ends of interviews is already something I struggle with, and I honestly have no idea what would be useful to find out as someone who already works here.

Think of this less as “questions I ask at an interview” — which I suspect is keeping you mired in more the more traditional questions you might ask when you’re an external candidate — and more as “questions I truly have when I think about what it would be like to be in this job long-term.”

Because I bet that you do have some questions, even though you know the team already! For example, wouldn’t it be useful to know things like:

• What do you expect to be the biggest challenges in this position in the next year / what have previous people in the role found to be the biggest challenges?

• What will be the most important things for the person in this job to accomplish in the next six months?

• How does the success of the person in this position get measured?

• What’s the difference between doing an okay job in this position and doing a really great job at it?

Plus, your familiarity with them means that you can ask deeper, more nuanced questions of your interviewers — which also reinforces to them that you might be more ready to take on the job than someone coming in completely new. For example:

• In the adjacent work I’ve been doing with you, I’ve seen that (aspect of work/culture/etc.) has been (fantastic/slightly challenging/especially interesting/etc.) because (reason). Can you tell me more about (what your experience has been like with that/how you’ve seen that play out on the team/how that’s likely to play out in the day-to-day work for this position)?

• I know you’ve been putting a lot of work into getting a new X ready to roll out. What’s the timeline looking like for that, and how is that likely to impact the work of this role?

• How have the changes to X been affecting this position / the team?

But beyond that, think about what you really want to know. When you think about doing the work every day and being on this specific team, what’s still unclear to you? What do you wish you knew? People sometimes feel stumped about what questions they should be asking in an interview because they get too into the mode of “what should I ask that will reflect well on me,” but generally if you really think about it, there’s lots of stuff you don’t know yet and might like to.

(Also, this isn’t what you’re asking about, but always with internal interviews, don’t assume your interviewer knows the details of your work or your accomplishments, even though they’ve worked with you. They might have forgotten, or never have known, or might even be prohibited from considering anything not specifically presented in your interview. Explain your work and skills the same way you would to an interviewer at another company.)

The post what questions should I ask in an internal interview with people I already work with? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/what-questions-should-i-ask-in-an-internal-interview-with-people-i-already-work-with.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34179

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/a-new-employee-has-gone-awol.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=33248

A reader writes:

My husband, Jim, is a managing attorney at a small firm that is entirely remote, with lawyers spread out across the region. He recently hired a mid-level attorney, Fergus, who is based in a different city and who reports directly to him.

Fergus started 10 days ago and to date appears to have done no work. Beginning on day one, he began telling Jim and other senior attorneys that he was having a “temporary personal crisis” and needed more time to finish the assignments he was given. He didn’t specify the nature of this crisis, and no one has felt comfortable probing and they have tried to be accommodating. But now deadlines are approaching and they have no sense of when or if Fergus will be able to turn around his assignments. He appears to have billed zero hours using the firm’s time-keeping system, but every time they have checked in with him, he emphasizes that the crisis is temporary, will be resolved soon, and says he can turn some things in the following day — implying that he’s been working on these matters. But he never turns in anything.

What do you advise they do at this point? It’s a small firm with no real HR and none of the managers have ever dealt with a situation like this before. For what it’s worth, there was one potential red flag during the interview process: Fergus had quit his last job of five years with no other job lined up. He said he quit because he couldn’t stand working there anymore. Jim decided to overlook this because he comes from a similar Big Law environment as Fergus, and he thought Fergus was a good fit for the firm’s needs.

I answer this question — and two others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

Other questions I’m answering there today include:

• Is my CEO stringing me along in her succession planning?
• Should I give feedback to an overly enthusiastic and unprofessional intern candidate?

The post a new employee has gone AWOL appeared first on Ask a Manager.

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