Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/should-you-put-fan-fiction-on-your-resume-can-i-avoid-my-boss-at-the-company-party-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34093

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

1. Should you put fan fiction on your resume?

I saw someone online saying that they write fan fiction at Ao3 and so on their resume they put “independent fiction writer” or “independent online publishing project” without explaining what they write or that it’s at Ao3. They say that if you’re asked about it in an interview, you can answer with, “I prefer to keep my personal creative work separate from my professional identity, but I’ve used it as a way to improve my writing, editing, and consistency over time.” This seems like a really bad idea to me, but is it?

Yes, it’s a bad idea. If you prefer to keep your personal creative work separate from your professional identity, then you shouldn’t put it on your resume! Anything on your resume is assumed to be fair game for interviewers to ask about, since by definition you’re offering it up as evidence of your qualifications — so if you then refuse to discuss it, it’s going to come across really badly.

Moreover, the fact that you’ve written things isn’t in itself a qualification; they need to see that it’s good writing, by seeing samples of it or at least by seeing that it was vetted and published by someone qualified to judge it.

So at an absolute minimum it won’t help you at all — because for all they know the writing doesn’t really exist, since you’re not willing to talk about it (thereby negating the point of including it in the first place) — but beyond that it likely to actively count against you by making you look shady or just … off.

2. My boss told me what I did was “unacceptable”

I work as a middle manager in a large corporation. A few weeks ago, I received a notification that an intern we were expecting wouldn’t be available for a few more weeks. I flagged it for my manager, received his approval, and approved as well. My manager is now on leave until the end of the year, and his manager has been the new go-to. During my weekly update, I included this request/approval, and it was not received well.

My grandboss told me it was unacceptable that I had not included details about this intern’s delay sooner. He asked to see the request itself and where my boss had provided approval. I sent those over right away and realized that when I sent the notice to my boss, I had sent the entire request but hadn’t been super clear about how long the delay would be. I said this to my grandboss and apologized.

I admit that I shut down after hearing him call my mistake unacceptable. Every explanation I had just seemed like an excuse, so I gave short answers. He insinuated that I had not read the email in full, because how else would I think this wasn’t a huge deal, and commented on how this proves what he’s been saying and that I needed leadership training. (This was news to me.)

I have no problem owning a mistake, and I understand that I am ultimately the one at fault. But I am at a loss on how I could have responded in this situation that would allow me to stand up for myself while also accepting the mistake. It seems as though he just wanted me to grovel. My boss had not flagged any performance issues with me, but I’m concerned this indicates that my work is seen as poor.

This is not the first time I have worked directly with my grandboss. Before this, I would have said we had a good working relationship. Any tips on how I could have handled this better? Do I approach him again? Do I bring this up when my manager returns?

How big a deal is it actually that an intern is starting a few weeks later than planned? Interns aren’t usually crucial to business operations, and a few weeks delay in anyone’s start date isn’t normally a disaster unless they need to immediately take on essential, time-sensitive work (which isn’t typically the case for interns). So first, do you even agree with your grandboss that this is a big deal? Would your boss agree, if she knew about it?

Does your boss’s boss have a history of overreacting to things? Or of being super controlling (and so his ire here might be more about not being kept in the loop on something relatively minor, rather than about the delay itself)? Because this sounds fundamentally like a weird reaction.

Separate from that, though, I’m not sure exactly what you shutting down and giving short answers looked like, but it’s possible that it came across differently than you’d want — such as uninvested, unconcerned, or even rude. Ideally you’d have said, “I didn’t think pushing out the start date by a few weeks would interfere with any projects, and since I thought Jane was looped in, I didn’t realize it was something I should flag for you earlier. I’ll handle anything like that differently going forward.” You could still say that now, but more important is probably talking with your boss when he returns, explaining what happened, and asking for his help in understanding where his boss was coming from, what that leadership training comment was about, and whether there are issues with how your grandboss sees your work more broadly (because his comments implied that, and that’s something you’ve got to dig into now).

3. My former boss is telling people I was fired for working 2 jobs — I wasn’t

I was heavily recruited to join a company earlier this year. Shortly after I started, I knew it was a mistake. My training was passed off to other (overworked) members of my team who had no time, the manager of my team was always unavailable for questions, and the whole environment was toxic and unstable. My one-on-one meetings with my boss were either canceled or only a few minutes long, with a “you’re doing fine!” I poured a ton of time and effort in to get up to speed quickly but, after only a few months, had an abrupt meeting put on my calendar with the manager and HR to let me know I wasn’t a good fit. Although unexpected, I was definitely not heartbroken to leave the chaos behind.

My issue is that I have remained friends with several of my colleagues who still work there, and one let me know that today in an all-hands meeting, that manager said I was let go because I was working two jobs at once, which absolutely was not true. That job took up so much time, there was no way I could have juggled two jobs even if I had wanted to. I’m puzzled as to why she would make up this lie, and why she would bring it up now to the entire team after I’ve been gone for six months. It’s really bothering me, but I’m thinking it’s not worth addressing with her. Thoughts?

It’s worth addressing; she’s spreading false information about you! It’s possible that it’s intentional, or maybe things are so chaotic there that she’s confusing you with someone else, or maybe she really thought that for some reason — who knows. But it’s reasonable to email her, cc’ing HR, and saying something like, “I’ve been alerted that you’re telling employees that I was fired for working two jobs at once, which is unequivocally not the case. I did my best while I was there and was disappointed when it didn’t work out, and I am requesting confirmation from the company that you are not misrepresenting the circumstances of my departure.” Alternately, skip the manager and just send it straight to HR.

You could also have a lawyer handle this for you, pointing out that lying about the facts of your firing is defamation, but I don’t know that it’s worth paying a lawyer to deal with it unless you also plan on using this company as a reference, which I’m guessing you don’t.

4. I don’t know if my office has anywhere private for me to pump

I work in a very small department of a large organization, and I’ll be going on maternity leave in January. I know that when I return, legally my job has to provide me with a space to pump that is available when I need it, private/not accessible to the public or coworkers, and not the bathroom. The big issue I’m seeing: there’s really no space that meets those requirements in our small, quirky, historical building. While some people have offices with doors that shut, those coworkers all work busy and unpredictable schedules with lots of virtual meetings, and I don’t think that booting a coworker out of their office would work other than in a pinch very occasionally. Our conference rooms all have glass doors, and we don’t even have a supply closet or break room I could use. I know that there is a chance my plans for pumping/breastfeeding don’t work out, but I am wondering if this is an issue I should raise now, or wait until the beginning of the year (but at least six weeks before my return date) when I have a better idea if this is an accommodation I’ll actually need?

I generally like to try and problem solve before bringing something to my boss, but right now my only options are to request that some not insignificant work be done in our building to create a space for me (very unlikely to happen due to budget constraints), request that they provide a room for me elsewhere on campus (okay but not appealing because I’d have to walk 5-10 minutes to another building each time I needed to pump), or request a work-from-home accommodation/hybrid schedule due to pumping (which I’d love and I’ll have childcare so that wouldn’t be a conflict, but I doubt would be granted even though my work could be done remotely and I’d be willing to come in a few hours a day). For what it’s worth, I do think our HR department is very reasonable on most things, but this is not an issue where I can think up a simple solution that will make everyone happy.

The simplest solution would be to make one of the conference rooms private by covering the glass in the door. It’s not on you to solve — it’s up to them to figure out how to meet their legal obligations — but it does make sense to ask about it now so they have time to come up with solutions. When you do, you can say, “I’m not sure what’s available as a private space, but one idea I had was to cover the glass on one of the conference rooms for privacy and use that.” (Also, if that is what they settle on, make sure there’s a system for ensuring it remains available to you; a covered glass window won’t matter if the room is in use when you need it.)

5. Can I avoid my boss at the company party?

Is it really necessary to spend time with your manager at a company’s casual party? The management has been horrible with me by giving me two people’s worth of work and then deducting my bonus because I couldn’t action it all on time.

I only want to say “hi, how are you?” and that’s it. But last year when I did that, he said people noticed and a big drama could be caused. Could there be any problems or HR-related issues for me if I avoid him? I cannot leave the job for at the moment.

Normally it would be absolutely fine and unremarkable to just pleasantly greet your manager at a party but not hang out talking to him, unless you’re doing something that makes it very obvious that you’re going out of your way to avoid him like ignoring him in a three-person conversation or otherwise pointedly snubbing him. If nothing like that happened, it’s extremely odd that he even noticed it, let alone that it caused drama!

That said, if he complained about it last year, then your life will probably be easier if you spend five minutes talking with him this year  before excusing yourself to get a drink and then just happening to find yourself in conversation with people who are not him for the rest of the party. HIs behavior is weird, but there’s no gain in standing on principle if a five-minute conversation will satisfy him.

The post should you put fan fiction on your resume, can I avoid my boss at the company party, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/should-you-put-fan-fiction-on-your-resume-can-i-avoid-my-boss-at-the-company-party-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34093

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/my-employee-chewed-out-local-officials-at-a-business-event.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34257

A reader writes:

Our local business group/Chamber of Commerce had a luncheon today to hand out awards to the business community. My business was nominated and picked for an award.

As I only have four employees, I closed the business for the afternoon and had them join me for the lunch and award ceremony. As the luncheon was finishing up, I left the room to go get my picture taken with the other award winners and then left. I had let my employees know they could leave at anytime and would see them tomorrow.

Shortly after I got back to my office, I received a text from a fellow friend/business owner, saying I had better check out the Chamber’s Facebook page. When I looked, to my horror there were multiple comments and pictures about a lady who had almost physically cornered our mayor and a state representative and was getting very vocal in her questions and her opinions to them about some political hot topics. It was “Teena,” who works for me!

I am beyond embarrassed. Luckily, she wasn’t wearing one of our company’s logo shirts, so just looking at the pictures you may not know who she works for, but I am sure word got around to who her employer is and I am worried her actions will hurt my business’ reputation in the community. I am not so naïve that I don’t realize some political talk goes on at this event (I myself had talked to others about an unpopular decision the city council had made about closing a parking lot for redevelopment and how that would affect business owners near the lot), but I didn’t get into a loud argument with anybody.

Is there anything I can or should do about this situation with her? Her actions were outside the office but were at a company event that she was getting paid to attend. Any suggestions for “damage control” if I get questioned about my employee’s actions or I lose an account(s) over what she did?

I’m all for people asking questions of their elected representatives, and there are certainly things happening that warrant being impassioned about those topics — but the time to get into it with legislators is not when you are being paid to attend an event on behalf of your employer. I suspect that distinction was completely lost on Teena, and it’s reasonable to have a conversation with her to explain it.

Sample wording: “You’re of course welcome to advocate for your political views and to lobby our legislators on any issues you’re concerned with, but when you are attending an event as part of your job, you are there as a representative of our business, and your actions reflect on us. You can bow out of attending those events in the future if you don’t want to be constrained in that way, but you cannot accost legislators at events you’re attending for work or in situations where you will be perceived as representing the company.”

As for damage control if it comes up with others, it depends on exactly what she was saying and how poorly it reflects on your company. If it was something wildly offensive to your average person, you have a different problem than if it was more mundane. For the latter you could simply say, “She misunderstood that she was attending as an employee, not a private citizen, and it won’t happen again.”

The post my employee chewed out local officials at a business event appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/11/my-employee-chewed-out-local-officials-at-a-business-event.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=34257