The Office

Getting Proper Credit

Dear DW, What do I do when someone takes credit for my work? Signed, Plagiarized in Paradise Dear Plagiarized, The best response depends on who the person is and how often it has happened. According to Janet Scarborough Civitelli, PhD, a workplace psychologist at VocationVillage.com, if the person is your boss, take...

Oops! Did I Just Push Send?

Dear DW, Can you give me some guidelines about e-mail etiquette at work? What types of things should I avoid saying? Signed, Careful Communicator Dear Careful Communicator, E-mail etiquette expert Judith Kallos (www.businessemailetiquette.com) says if there’s one cardinal rule to follow when composing an e-mail, it’s this: Ask yourself, “Would...

Can My Blog Get Me Fired?

Dear DW: Like many people out there, I have a blog in which I write about things like my hobbies, favorite movies, political views, friends, and family—basically, my life. But a lot of my life takes place at work. So what is considered acceptable to...

Am I self-segregating?

Dear DW, Only one other Bengali woman works for my company, and we’d like to get together socially. But we wonder if we’d be viewed as separating ourselves. How can we connect without seeming to self-segregate? Signed, Socially (Self-)Conscious Dear Socially (Self-)Conscious, You might want to approach this by thinking about two types of socializing: private and public. In your private socializing, you should feel free to get together with whomever you wish and not worry about what the “neighbors” think. This is your own time, and you deserve to be with the people you gravitate toward. If that means communing with your Bengali compatriot, it shouldn’t be a problem. So do as many dinners, barbecues, parties, evenings out, shopping trips, and the like as you want.