I manage the CEO’s horrible nephew
Feb. 10th, 2026 05:29 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
askamanager_feedA reader writes:
I’m managing a difficult employee, “Felix.” Felix has been at my company for five years now. He also happens to be the CEO’s nephew.
His performance was never good, but it’s gotten steadily worse. His work frequently has mistakes, he is unreachable for large stretches of the day, and he pushes back on any feedback I give him. At one point, he yelled in my face when I pointed out a repeated problem with his work, saying that he “didn’t respect” my feedback.
I’ve documented these issues extensively. I’ve talked to HR repeatedly about putting him on a PIP or even terminating him outright. They say that Felix is unhappy and actively job-searching and that they will work with him to set an end date. Things came to a head at the end of last year, during Felix’s performance review. I gave him poor marks on attitude, work quality, and communication, and he once again yelled at me and told me that my review was unfair and said that the whole team thought I was a jerk. With my HR rep on the call. Who again told me that he was probably going to leave soon on his own.
What should I do now? Should I keep pushing to fire him? I’ve been trying to make it work, but I’m at the end of my rope.
I answer this question — and two others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.
Other questions I’m answering there today include:
- How can I make sure my team doesn’t organize a gift for me?
- Hiring a friend’s employee
The post I manage the CEO’s horrible nephew appeared first on Ask a Manager.
Authors Revealed!
Feb. 10th, 2026 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
littlefics posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
seasonsofdrabblesAuthors are now revealed, with 335 fics in the collection as of this post! Many thanks to all who participated in this round, especially our wonderful pinch hitters. <3
Reveals doesn't mean you should stop reading and commenting, so we hope you continue to enjoy this round's drabbles.
Reveals doesn't mean you should stop reading and commenting, so we hope you continue to enjoy this round's drabbles.
Historically Black colleges and universities do more than offer Black youths opportunity
Feb. 10th, 2026 12:50 pmphys_social_feedHistorically Black colleges and universities, often known as HBCUs, are well known for their deep roots in U.S. higher education and proven effectiveness at graduating Black students who go on to become professionally successful.
The seductive simplicity—and danger—of pop psychology's 'love languages'
Feb. 10th, 2026 12:46 pmphys_social_feedDo you know how you prefer to give and receive love? Do you need words of affirmation? Spending quality time? Acts of service? Gifts? Or physical touch?
Breeding a better cucumber: New genetic map reveals 171,892 structural variants
Feb. 10th, 2026 12:40 pmplants_animals_feedCucumber is an economically important crop worldwide, ranking as the third most-produced vegetable after tomatoes and onions. Yet breeding improved varieties—plants that are more resilient, produce better-shaped fruit, or are less prone to hollowness—remains an enormous challenge.
Sea lion camera reveals mother taking pup on educational foraging expedition in the wild
Feb. 10th, 2026 12:07 pmplants_animals_feedMost seals give birth to a pup around the same time each year, and wean them and send them on their way within 12 months in an annual cycle.
phys_social_feedGrowing up multiracial in the 1990s, Gabriel "Joey" Merrin regularly encountered demographic forms that forced an impossible choice: Pick one box. Deny the others. "That act of being forced to choose, to erase parts of myself from an official document, is at the core of this work," says Merrin, who is an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Human Development and Family Science.
Impulse and inhibition: The complex ways bilingual brains balance reason with emotion
Feb. 10th, 2026 12:14 pmphys_social_feedIf you're bilingual, moral choices can often feel more urgent and emotionally charged in one language yet distant and rational in another. This raises an intriguing question: does language merely shape how we express our thoughts, or can it also influence what we judge to be right or wrong?
i enjoy being a girl
Feb. 10th, 2026 05:29 pmpensnestI have acquired a rather splendid scarlet T-shirt which bears the following legend:
THINGS WE DID:
Built this city; shot the Sheriff
THINGS WE DIDN'T DO:
Start the fire; shoot the Deputy
THINGS WE WANT TO DO:
Break free; know what love is
THINGS WE WILL DO:
Rock you, Anything for love
THINGS WE WON'T DO:
That.
I should like to make a feminine version. Can you help? I want phrases sung by women, in whatever context. Any suggestions for any of the categories will be considered gratefully, and I will amend this post accordingly, though bear in mind that I am old-fashioned and may not recognise them all!
THINGS WE DID:
THINGS WE DIDN'T DO:
THINGS WE WANT TO DO:
Zig a zig Ah
be loved by you
THINGS WE WILL DO:
THINGS WE WON'T DO:
THINGS WE DID:
Built this city; shot the Sheriff
THINGS WE DIDN'T DO:
Start the fire; shoot the Deputy
THINGS WE WANT TO DO:
Break free; know what love is
THINGS WE WILL DO:
Rock you, Anything for love
THINGS WE WON'T DO:
That.
I should like to make a feminine version. Can you help? I want phrases sung by women, in whatever context. Any suggestions for any of the categories will be considered gratefully, and I will amend this post accordingly, though bear in mind that I am old-fashioned and may not recognise them all!
THINGS WE DID:
THINGS WE DIDN'T DO:
THINGS WE WANT TO DO:
Zig a zig Ah
be loved by you
THINGS WE WILL DO:
THINGS WE WON'T DO:
Disney_20in20 Closed!
Feb. 10th, 2026 09:21 amchocolatefrogs posting in disney_20in20Since no one has been participating. I'm going to close down Disney_20in20. Maybe one day I might bring it back if interest picks up. I just can't see myself keep trying and no one participating. Thanks for the memories and great icons you guys made over the rounds!
icanhascheezburger_feedRescued big cats can still have amazing, fulfilling lives, even when being released into the wild is not an option.
Releasing a rescued big cat back into the wild is always the goal. It's the thing that we hope for the most. We hope that the majestic creature we rescued will come out the other end stronger, healthier, and still weary enough of humans to be able to go back into the wild and thrive. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, these cats are too sick. Other times, they're too close to humans. And sometimes, they simply never learned how to live in the wild, so they can't.
We've seen it before - these situations where big cats can't be released on their own for fear of their safety. And what we have learned from these situations is that this does not mean that they cannot live happy, fulfilling lives. They just need to find new joys, a new purpose. We have seen a rescued bobcat who was dropped on its head as a kitten find out that his favorite toy is fennel and live his best life getting fennel as a gift from all his fans. We've seen lion born with a rare disorder befriend a dachshund, becoming so close to him that even when the lion was older, his caretakers decided that separating the two will do more harm than good. We have seen a bobcat become the best foster momma to other bobcats, finding new purpose in life in helping them get back into the wild.
The options are there, if only we look for them. And for the tiger in this video - one who was born in a zoo and grew up there, who could not be released into the wild simply because he never learned how to survive on his own - his joy was found in little things. Having space outside of a cage to run around, pools to jump into, friends to play with, toys to enjoy… that's all he needed. But his favorite thing to do, by far, is to chill in one of the pools, holding a giant red ball, and floating. The good life. He's found it, and he is making the very best out of each and every moment of it.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Full Dive
Feb. 10th, 2026 11:20 amsmbc_comics_feed
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
In the real life version, you just get extremely emotional ads for Fritos.
Today's News:
Study explores how women in public sector regulate their emotions at work
Feb. 10th, 2026 11:51 amphys_social_feedEveryone has had a bad day at work when they decided not to express what they were truly feeling. New research from the University of Kansas explores how women in the public service sector regulate their emotions in the workplace and if expressing or suppressing themselves affects their satisfaction and ability to be their genuine selves in their work.
Female scientists wait longer to have papers published in life and biomedical sciences
Feb. 10th, 2026 11:40 amphys_social_feedIf you are a woman working in biomedical and life sciences, you may have longer to wait for your academic paper to appear in print than a comparable paper authored by a man. According to research published in the journal PLOS Biology, female-authored biomedical and life science articles spend around 7.4% to 14.6% longer under review than male-authored articles.
AI-generated arguments are persuasive—even when labeled
Feb. 10th, 2026 11:40 amphys_social_feedLabeling content as AI-generated does not make it less persuasive than human-authored or unlabeled content, according to a study. Isabel O. Gallegos and colleagues conducted a survey experiment with 1,601 Americans to test whether authorship labels affect the persuasiveness of AI-generated messages about public policies. The work is published in PNAS Nexus.
News from the Resistance (Saint Paul edition)
Feb. 10th, 2026 10:21 amlydamorehouse
Image: A loon made of many eyes stabbing a fish labled ICE with the words: Gone ICE Fishing (by Fayrn Hughes)
No laser eyes, but, yes, loons STAB fish with their insanely sharp beaks. There is video. It is wild.
So, I know there is some concern about whether or not I should keep these posts public, but I would like to. I am very careful not to name names (especially after the whole Capclave misadventure), and, I guess, I would be surprised if ICE infiltrated Dreamwidth to track me (or any of the rest of you) down. Obviously, we would be vulnerable to a Google Alert, but I can't imagine what the Feds would search on. ICE in Minnesota is going to get a tremendous number of Google Alerts at the moment. I'm sorry if that cools anyone's enthusiasm to join the conversation. However, I do think it is worth keeping things open so that folks who might not otherwise see this news, will. And my Food Communists have actively been asking people to push out calls for monetary assistance on social media. So, like, going public is one of the ways we are fighting in this resistance.
Without further ado, here's what's been happening in my life.
Let's see. So, last Friday I was chatting with neighbors, as you do, when we were standing outside of our local mosque. A woman there asked if anyone would be willing to join a group that is trying to keep eyes on school pick-ups and drop-offs. I thought I might be able to help out, so I exchanged the proper Signal information, got on the right groups, and then attended an in-person meeting last Sunday. This group is not in my immediate neighborhood, so I travelled to a DIFFERENT Lutheran Church to sit with a bunch of folks and talk about what's going on. This was their usual neighborhood gathering and I was only there to get connected into the Rapid Response team. But, it was generally very fascinating.
Without going into technical details (and I really couldn't even if I wanted to because I am no one's idea of a tech head), I can say that there are neighborhoods in Saint Paul that are already planning for what happens if/when the government shuts down Signal or the Internet in order to stop our efforts to track them. Friends? We are living in the solar punk future and it gives me such hope, I can not even.
As it happens, however, the Rapid Response team did not meet until the very end when I needed to run off, but I happened to sit in a pew next to one of the "guys in the chair," (a volunteer dispatcher), who showed me all the how-tos before I had to run.
Monday was my first patrol and... it was a bit of a technical nightmare at first, but I got connected to the live call eventually... and, I am happy to report, all my students got off their buses safely. There was a tense moment when Saint Paul police happened to be doing parking enforcement at the same time. They aren't SUPPOSED to be aiding ICE, but I did let dispatch know of their presence and that everything seemed legit (and, in fact, was.) That was, as others have probably talked about when they go "commuting," both an extremely tense half hour of my life, and also an extremely boring half hour of my life.
My patrol does cut into the amount time I'm able to spend vounteering with the Food Communists, but Mason has been going with me and picking up my slack. I'm also not planning to do the patrol every day of school. I could? And they absolutely do need people at my particular corner, but, I don't think it would be good for my ability to endure.
I am trying to strike a balance to make sure I stay committed to the things that I started with, like the Food Communists. There are a lot of us in this fight? But there are still plenty of roles to be filled! When I filled out my volunteer shifts for the bus patrol, there were more blank spaces than filled.
I worry that people are getting exhausted. I worry that Americans have already moved on to the next thing.
I do believe many of us will keep up this fight no matter what. We were here before Renee Good was murdered and we'll be here long after the last of the news cameras moves on to the next horror.
TV Tuesday: A Good Thing?
Feb. 10th, 2026 10:45 amyourlibrarian posting in tv_talk
Given it’s the most watched (original) series ever on Netflix, Stranger Things was a must-view for many. It was also a show whose story was dragged out for so long that its characters aged into adulthood. Is it great when a favorite gets extended into many seasons? Or is the lure of a potential franchise something that ruins what was once enjoyable? Does the type of story being told matter?
icanhascheezburger_feedThere is no such thing as an "unwanted cat". There are simply cats out there who have not found the right humans for themselves yet.
It really is that simple. Classifying a cat as "unwanted" is ridiculous. We understand classifying a cat as one with behavioral issues or health issues - because it is something important for future adopters to know about, to prepare for. But to call a cat unwanted is simply silly. And wrong. We don't believe that such a thing exists. A cat that "no one wants" is a cat that who hasn't found the one who wants them yet. And that one exists. Because every cat has a furrever home waiting for them somewhere out there.
The cat in this story thought that he had already found his forever home. But that forever home got destroyed in a hurricane. And the people in that forever home - the people who he thought were his - betrayed him and abandoned him. They told the shelter that they don't want him anymore. For what reason? Just because. They abandoned their cat for no reason at all. Of couse he grew scared of humans. Of course he lost trust in us. But then something happened. A shiny, golden light appeared around one human - a calling, a sign, his true forever person. He saw her and knew.