Author: Bill Gorden

A question to Ask the Workplace Doctor about a manager purposely assigning an unfavorable schedule:

My new manager saw how much I earn and is punishing me for it. He has changed my schedule and that is very unfavorable for me, what can I do?

Signed–Punished

Dear Punished:

Managers have a great latitude to determine employees’ schedules. Their reasons for changes might include performance, supplies, equipment, sales and personnel needs/desires. Do you have evidence that your new manager is changing you to an unfavorable because he thinks you are paid too much or too little? Might you think this is based on discrimination against your race, national origin, sex, religion, age, or another reason? 

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A question to Ask the Workplace Doctors about dating a coworker:

I’m a young college student who isn’t very lucky when it comes to love. I got over my fears and ask out my co-worker. I have very strong feelings for her and decided to take the gamble of dating a co-worker. I sat down at the restaurant on my day off and she was my waitress. I gave her my contact information, a generous tip that I plan on never mentioning to her and asked her out to a local musical. She smiled and said ‘maybe’ since that’s the week of her mom’s birthday.

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I’ve always loved coffee because I believe it makes people happy and brings people together. So when I started working at a coffee shop last year, it was a perfect match for me. I’ve had many weird or fun experiences since being there but one stood out to me because it felt so special.

A regular at the coffee shop came in one day, I had just started and didn’t know who she was. My coworker, and friend, whispered to me that the lady’s husband had very recently passed away and that she is moving to Florida to be closer to her family. I could already tell that this woman was sad without saying anything. We exchanged words and I took her order as I normally would but then came time for her to pay.

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This is not a workplace question. I was working for a doctor where I was the only one doing the work while the other lady just played on the computer or her phone. I finally had enough and left. That might not have been right but the doctor was not going to do anything about it.

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A question submitted to Ask the Workplace Doctors about a workplace family matter:

I have been an Assistant Manager at a local car wash for about 6 months. Before, I was a regular line employee. It is a very high volume car wash with a lot of top dollar luxury vehicles. We wash anywhere from 25-90 cars an hour, so it is very important to trust your employees and give them the proper instruction. We must keep the same quality from car to car. I have never really had a problem with employees after being promoted except for 1 particular employee, my sister.

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Because I am a high school student and do not have a job yet, I chose a hobby of mine. Something that I picked up this past year has been filmography. Creating short videos of things both big and small, and then posting it on YouTube. The way this connects to other people, is obviously when they choose to watch a video I’ve made. Another is when they like, comment, share, or subscribe to my channel. When they respond positively,

I know that I am doing something right, be it, I’m inspiring them, or bringing them a smile. If they respond negatively, I know that the negative reactions come from one of two things: 1) I did something wrong, whether it is moral, political, etc. or 2) the reactor has a different opinion than my own. Another, I suppose, could just be the reaction of a spam/ troll account on YouTube…I enjoy this hobby and it allows me to express my creativity while also connecting with others. 

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There have definitely been multiple times when I was at work and felt good afterwards based on actions that were taken. But one that stood out to me was when I was working at Target, and it had just started to pick up, meaning more people were coming in to shop at the store. Typically, we only have one cashier scheduled, but everyone on the floor is cashier trained, so if they need help they ask for additional cashiers to come to the front lanes. So it started to get busy and I responded to back up, but once my line is clear I would go back to what I was doing. I responded a few times to back up because no one else was, and I knew I wasn’t the only one on the floor. After my third time responding to backup, someone went over to the walkie and said someone else needed to respond so I could get done what I needed to. This felt good to me because they noticed that I was the only one responding to backup.

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