Category: What’s Your Best Advice?

Previous Dilemma:
Do you sometimes let employees work from home?

By Meryl on Feb 03, 2011 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

My employees often request to work from home for various reasons, such as to be home for a delivery or to let a repair person in. Those employees slow to get over an illness will also ask to work at home. I understand that they don’t want to lose too many hours or use vacation time. How much time is reasonable? How do you manage flexible and work-from-home situations? Or do you not allow them?

— Manager

Current Dilemma:
How do you deal with too many applying for one position?

By admin on Jan 17, 2011 in What's Your Best Advice?

I know in this job market there are few jobs and too many candidates. However, I’m concerned that if we try to use an online job service to post jobs, we’ll get inundated with resumes from over- or under-qualified applicants. What’s an effective way to target the right potential employees? Or is an online job listings site our only and best option, and we’ll have to wade through mountains of irrelevant applications?
— Manager

Previous Dilemma:
How do you entice employees to stay?

By Meryl on Dec 29, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

Like most companies, mine has not given raises in a while. Yet unlike some companies, we have not cut salaries. I realize I’m lucky to have a talented pool of productive employees who work for me. Rather than wait for someone to leave for a higher paying job, I want to be proactive to keep my staff intact. Does the fact we can’t do raises doom us? Or are there other ways to retain employees?

Current Dilemma:
What are the best practices for tracking time?

By admin on Dec 13, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

We’re a busy professional services firm that needs to track billable and non-billable hours. Obviously, it’s not efficient for non-billable, salaried workers to enter data every few minutes. But it’s critical they keep accurate records of the time they work and the type of work they do. What are the best practices for tracking hours? Or should we leave employees to their own devices, even if they have to spend a lot of time recording hours?
— Department manager

Current Dilemma:
Do you sometimes let employees work from home?

By admin on Nov 12, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

— Manager

When the boss is away, one mouse plays

By Teri Doty on Oct 19, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

My employees have been complaining about a co-worker…

Current Dilemma:
How do you beg (oops) entice employees to stay?

By admin on Sep 30, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

Current Dilemma:
When the boss is away, one mouse plays

By admin on Sep 15, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

My employees have been complaining about a co-worker that takes long lunches whenever I am out of the office for a meeting or vacation. The employee doesn’t report the time in our time tracking system. I’ve talked to her about the situation, and she says she doesn’t do that.
Last time I was out of the office, it happened again. Several employees complained, and they’re frustrated. Obviously, this isn’t good for team morale. I’d love to stay in my office at all times, but I regularly do business with clients offsite. What is the best way to address this when I’m not there to see it happen? When it’s her word against mine, how can I ensure she is productive?
— Manager

Previous Dilemma:
Would you like some whine with that?

By Meryl on Sep 08, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

I have a coworker who complains to me about everything that happens to her at work. While I’m a good listener, her constant interruptions affect my work. I don’t think going to our manager is the right thing to do. And I’m hesitant to strain our relationship since we’re on the same team. What should I do? Should I tell her she’s complaining too much, ask her to stop because her interruptions disrupt my work or be supportive and let her vent?

— Michelle

Previous Dilemma:
Dealing with hungry co-workers while sticking with my diet

By Meryl on Aug 24, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

My coworkers sometimes push me to go to lunch even after I turn them down. I know I’m not the only one in this situation. How can I deal with this without revealing the details of my diet? Or do I need to suffer the embarrassment of going to the restaurant and only ordering no-calorie drinks?

— Susie

Current Dilemma:
Would you like some whine with that?

By admin on Aug 17, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

I have a coworker who complains …

Previous Dilemma:
Help! I’m getting ulcers from vacation requests

By Meryl on Aug 07, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

Current Dilemma:
Dealing with hungry coworkers while sticking with my diet

By admin on Aug 04, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

I’m on a diet and prefer to keep it to myself. It’s not my coworker’s business, and I don’t care to explain myself. I don’t want to go out to lunch because most restaurants do not have choices that fit with my type of diet. Plus, most of them don’t have nutritional information posted online to ensure I make the right choices.
My coworkers sometimes push me to go to lunch even after I turn them down. I know I’m not the only one in this situation. How can I deal with this without revealing the details of my diet? Or do I need to suffer the embarrassment of going to the restaurant and only ordering no-calorie drinks?
— Susie

Previous Issue’s Dilemma:
How can I keep my team motivated in a poor work environment?

By Meryl on Jun 24, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

My team is a mess. We’ve worked together for a few years, and it went fine until this past year. Somehow, the environment has turned into a lousy one. I don’t look forward to going to the office. As the manager, I try to challenge and motivate the team, but it’s not working. How can I turn things around? Should I have a team meeting to get each employee’s ideas on improving our situation, or should I just “lay down the law” on what I want things to be?

— Ted

Current Dilemma:
Help! I’m getting ulcers from vacation requests

By admin on Jun 10, 2010 in What's Your Best Advice?

Murphy’s Law is in full force along with the summer heat. Somehow, many employees on my team tend to request vacation on the same weeks. Last year, I struggled to decide who gets first dibs on popular vacation dates. The aftermath was nasty, and I don’t want to go through that again.
Yes, I want to my team to take its well-deserved time off. But how can I be fair without leaving the business shorthanded? Should I go by seniority, hold a drawing or what?

— Judy, Manager

Previous Dilemma:
Administrative vs. revenue-generating tasks

By Meryl on May 28, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

Not all companies are in position to buy software for specific tasks. And I bet people have some great ideas for minimizing admin work that go beyond buying software. What’s the best way to cut admin tasks? Or how do you balance administrative duties with revenue generating tasks?

Current Dilemma:
How can I keep my team motivated in a poor work environment?

By admin on May 27, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

My team is a mess. We’ve worked together for a few years, and it went fine until this past year. Somehow, the environment has turned into a lousy one. I don’t look forward to going to the office. As the manager, I try to challenge and motivate the team, but it’s not working. How can I turn things around? Should I have a team meeting to get each employee’s ideas on improving our situation or should I just “lay down the law” on what I want things to be.

Current Dilemma:
Administrative vs. revenue-generating tasks

By admin on May 05, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

We all have to do administrative tasks — entering hours worked, completing paperwork, generating reports and what have you. Obviously, we all want to spend the most time on revenue-generating tasks. Still, administrative tasks exist and seem to proliferate, even in a perfect world.
Not all companies are in position to buy software for specific tasks. And I bet people have some great ideas for minimizing admin work that go beyond buying software. What’s the best way to cut admin tasks? Or how do you balance administrative duties with revenue-generating tasks?
— John

Previous Dilemma:
How do we recover from losing a large customer?

By Meryl on Apr 06, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

A client called to tell me his company is dumping us for another services company. After I stopped reeling, I started feeling like a failure, angry and dejected. I’ve calmed down, but I wonder, should I have pushed the customer to stay with us? Or should I just learn from the experience?

— Customer loser

This Issue’s Dilemma: How do we recover from losing a large customer?

By admin on Mar 17, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

I work in a company where things move along at a nice, even pace. We make the most out of our resources and focus on keeping current customers happy. At least we did, until the day the worst happened. A client called to tell me his company is dumping us for another services company. After I stopped reeling, I started feeling like a failure, angry and dejected. I’ve calmed down, but I wonder, should I have pushed the customer to stay with us? Or should I just learn from the experience?

– Customer loser

Previous Dilemma: The price of social media

By Meryl on Mar 15, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

The buzz about social media marketing makes me think about the dilemma that social media poses to each and every business entity: What is the cost of participating versus the risk associated with not embracing social media marketing?

Previous Dilemma: Quit Using Business Cards?

By Meryl on Feb 24, 2010 in Featured, What's Your Best Advice?

Should I bother carding folks – to share contact information?