updates: the racist comment, the late-paying client, and more

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

Here are three updates from past letter-writers.

1. Employee made a racist comment to her office-mate

Thank you for answering my question! I already have an update.

Apparently when Anne and Leah’s manager took the issue to HR, they discussed a plan to address it instead of just not doing anything until the following week. (Manager took the issue to HR a couple of days after the incident, at the end of the day. And our HR person was about to be off for the rest of the week.)

This manager called Anne and Leah in for a meeting. Shortly after the meeting, Anne left and the manager informed us that Anne resigned. I don’t know any other details, but I do know that the tension in the office has been palpable this week due to this incident. And Leah’s entire demeanor has changed and she is visibly more relaxed.

And they already have interviews scheduled today for Anne’s replacement.

2. Freelance agency keeps paying me late, but they give me a lot of work (#5 at the link; first update)

I was the freelancer who parted ways with a particularly late-paying company. While working there, I had been friendly with a colleague, and had done some freelance work for them outside the agency, as well as help them eventually go freelance themselves. They went on to become a design director at another agency, and asked me to come and help them set up the design department and a newly acquired client. I loved the agency and people so much that I took a permanent role as a design lead a few months later, and now manage a small team of designers! I’m really happy because I feel supported and like I can bring skills like organising business structure and processes to the table (which I secretly LOVE). It’s been a great opportunity to step up to a leadership role and they’re providing us with management training too.

I guess the takeaway is that you never know when opportunities will present themselves, and how even a ‘bad’ situation can have silver linings!

3. Interviewer kept telling me he liked my smile (#2 at the link)

Seeing all the updates reminded me that I’m overdue to send in one for the interviewer who kept saying he liked my smile.

I waited about 36 hours and said that I needed to withdraw from the hiring process due to another great opportunity. I did not take the job. I have no regrets about not taking the job. I also don’t regret not making a stink about it–I don’t feel it was my responsibility to help him grow.

I’m doing great in my new job (got promoted as an internal candidate from where I was when I was applying and with it came a bunch more exciting duties – -I hire people now, and thanks to your blog I’m getting a reputation as a really good talent spotter).