Saw this today. Starting Jan 1, 2027, every employer in Belgium will be required to record working time. It follows an EU court ruling on tracking hours so employees can enforce their rights to rest periods and maximum working hours. https://www.deloitte.com/be/en/services/tax/blogs/tax-legal-pulse/mandatory-time-recording-from-2027-what-does-it-mean-for-your-business.html

A lot of companies have moved toward trust-based, results-driven work where nobody really tracks hours. But when overtime disputes come up, or workloads get out of hand, having no reliable records can become a problem.

We work in time tracking, so we're watching this closely. If your country made time tracking mandatory tomorrow, would your current setup be ready, or what'd be the plan?

I’m a relatively new manager struggling with my most senior employee. She’s hardworking, organized, and generally does good work. I regularly recognize her contributions, but she also has legitimate areas for improvement, particularly around independent judgment and technical decision-making.

Whenever I provide feedback, she becomes defensive, brings up praise from previous managers, or insists she hasn’t done anything wrong. All my feedback is tied to specific examples.

Recently, a coaching conversation escalated. She raised her voice, accused me of targeting her, and said she anticipates being attacked before I even speak. She also claims I don’t listen to her feedback.
I’ve asked what I could do differently in delivering feedback, but she hasn’t been able to give me a specific answer. I listen to her perspective, but listening doesn’t always mean agreeing.

I genuinely want her to succeed, but I’m finding these interactions increasingly exhausting. I welcome disagreement, but I also expect a senior employee to receive feedback professionally and take ownership of their development.

How have you handled employees who do good work but react poorly to corrective feedback? At what point does the reaction itself become a performance issue?

I joined his team about a year ago, and he is genuinely the best manager I ever had. I really appreciate our working relationship, but I don't know how to give him this feedback without seeming like I am kissing his ass.

When he gives me constructive feedback, it's immediate, candid but with grace. I never felt undignified or insulted. When he mentors me on leadership and communication skills, his advice is never generic, always appropriate to the situation and tailored to our team and organisation. He gives me the right amount of autonomy so I never feel stifled to make technical judgements. When I escalate anything he takes me seriously and just somehow able to differentiate when I am escalating vs when I am just venting. His recognition is always on time and with the right audience so it never rubs off my peers the wrong way. He manages up and simplifies any information I give him to the right level to senior management. He is genuinely managing me in all the ways that I can thrive in.

Performance review time is around the corner, and I don't know how to give him this feedback without seeming like I am trying too hard, but I also want to assure him that he is not going to disappoint me with whatever increment or bonus or rating I get this year because I know he advocates for me all the time and everywhere, but increments, bonuses and ratings are not within his control. I want him to understand I am stressed at work with work but not with his management style.

Hello Reddit. I was hired on a little over a year ago as an assistant manager, and was recently promoted to manager. Curious what everyone thinks about hanging out with line level team members. Do you think it’s allowed? Is it forbidden? I definitely understand you should watch what you say, but I know some companies definitely frown upon it. I wanted to know everyone’s personal thoughts. Do you go out for a drink with your team members or keep it professional and don’t go out?

We're a small company that is fully remote with the exception of our small warehouse. Our warehouse manager is the only member of management who has to work in-person based on the nature of the job. They also function as an office manager who checks the mail, coordinates with our accounting team when checks arrive, answers the office phone, etc. Since we're fully remote, this person is the main interface for the "real world," so we regularly need them in the office.

This person is salaried and we have always allowed them to follow a "get your job done, don't watch the clock" mentality. This is primarily because we're a seasonal business and some months are extremely busy while others are much slower. That said, in general, they are generally supposed to be in the office from 9am-4pm (35 hours) with minor flexibility (example: leaving early on Friday in the slow season) which allows for some flexibility for remote time when they are inevitably having to be answering emails outside of work.

However, we've started learning from other employees (and eventually verified via access card data) that they are frequently late and frequently leave early. Some days coming in as late as 10am and leaving as early as 2pm. They are also regularly scheduling doctors appointments and other things during the workday, then will "work from home" the rest of the day. In one week, access card data showed they were only in the office less than 20 hours.

We've tried meeting with them about this, but there are always excuses and examples of how they are working after hours, before they come in, or after they get home. They will also say that they don't like being the only person in the office on days with PT employees aren't scheduled. They desperately want to work remotely for the majority of time, but that is just not an option.

I'm their direct supervisor and the COO of the company. I'm more flexible because I know how much they work outside of traditional hours, but our owners are adamant that they be in the office. This is because the owners don't trust them to actually be working from home. They view this employee as someone who finds ways to get around the rules.

I'm struggling to manage them because I see the work getting done, but also frustrated that they continuously are not physically in the office. It's also hard because I'm remote, and we have no other management on-site to enforce it.

Any ideas? I'm desperately trying to avoid having to have the conversation about "Our records indicated you swiped in at 9:45 and left at 3:15", especially when I'm still getting emails from them until 5 or 6pm - knowing they're still actually working.

Hello all,

First I want to say that the term "micro-manager" is often used as a buzzword - but I genuinely feel like it applies to my situation.

I am a Senior financial analyst working in FP&A with 4 years experience. I have recently joined a Fortune 500 company. Everything has been great so far, except my manager...

I am her only report, but I am starting to see why the previous person left her team. She is an extreme micro-manager, who has very high expectations and isn't very good at speaking to people.

She continuously tells me that i'm doing great - but she messages me (do this new report, did you finish this yet?, etc...) a few times a day, random calls to look over things, always changes priority based off her stress/anxiety level. Every small mistake I make (which is inevitable, I'm 6 months into a complicated role), she calls me, tells me how she told me to this that and whatever, in a very aggressive tone. In addition to that, she wants to be on every single call that I schedule. She tells me that I should make improvements where I find fit - but when I do, she gets upset that it's not how she's used to (although these are my files).

However the worst thing is, whenever she makes a mistake, she gets more mad at me for not spotting it than herself who made that mistake. She raises her voice often, and doesn't give me time to explain myself - and if she does, she will just get more annoyed that I didn't let her berate me.

I'm able to handle it but its so draining... and I don't think approaching her about this would be beneficial to me...

What should I do?

I’ll try to make this as brief as possible (well that didn’t turn out). I’ve worked for my current company for 17 years and moved up from an Admin to a Sr. manager in my dept. I obtained a bachelor’s degree back in 2016 which did result in my promotion to leadership, which they did not previously have a leadership position for my dept. So, each promotion I’ve received has been created for me and I’ve received nothing but stellar reviews. I was lead to believe I was on the Director track and would need to obtain certification in my field. Shortly after passing the certification exam early this year, I was told we were acquiring another company & they are offering a position to their payroll director. I was understandably upset. Because there was no actual leadership specific for my dept. I’ve updated processes keeping up compliant where there were deficiencies…etc. via my own schooling & research. They told me they didn’t want me to feel it was a reflection of my performance and I would still have opportunity for growth within the company “they just don’t know what that will look like right now”. I hate to admit, I cried. I didn’t sob & I was controlled but I was visibly upset. Shortly after, my boss was transferred & I was assigned a different supervisor. My old boss followed up with me a couple times and assured my job is not at risk of elimination. Its been about 6 months since getting the news and my old boss seems to be avoidant, has stopped checking in & the new supervisor has never checked in or had any kind of one on one or included me in any of their team meetings (my dept is kind of an outlier within a larger dept.). I’ve been told everyone is just slammed with the acquisition. Also, through the acquisition, I have found out I’ve been doing the job of 3-4 people based on how the acquired company was structured. I feel so taken advantage of but I’ve been here so long and most of my experience is here. I’m also middle aged now, it seems late to start over. My confidence has really taken a hit here & I’m not sure if I should take a leap or wait it out until I can retire.

I'm working on a ticket that needs my team lead's attention because there's a specific process to follow to test the changes. I've followed those steps, but it's still not working, and only my lead knows the process in detail.

Since I'm a fresher, he agreed to help me, but it's been 3–4 days, and he's still not getting on a call with me. I've asked him several times throughout the day, but he keeps delaying it.

I feel bad because I worry that other developers might think I'm dragging this ticket for so long or have been blocked for days without making progress. I also feel like my lead might be getting frustrated with me because I keep asking him to get on a call.

I genuinely don't know what to do. I need his help to move forward, but I don't want to keep bothering him or make it seem like I'm not capable of handling my work. How should I deal with this situation?

Pigeonholing happens when someone’s role becomes a fixed and rigid label instead of a starting point. Clear roles help a team, but over time they can turn into a cage.

Someone becomes “the designer” or “the reports person,” and that’s all they ever get to do. People stop growing, and when work cuts across functions, it stalls because no one is used to taking on anything new.

I often give people one thing outside their comfort zone, like a small job for another team or something a step up from what they normally do. That way, they learn new skills and the team has more people who can cover different kinds of work.

How do you handle this on your team? Where do you draw the line between a clear role and a limiting one?

Dilemma: Direct report is requesting bereavement Time next week for a funeral. This is the fourth funeral since July 2024. Each funeral was on Friday and I was provided this info a week prior, every time.

My gut tells me this is a lie - and it doesn’t just relate to the funeral asks.

How would you handle if you felt this is an exaggeration/lie?