updates: boss won’t give me a raise, dog barks during work calls, and more

It’s a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager and I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are four updates from past letter-writers.

1. My boss says I do great work but won’t give me a raise after 3 years

I am so grateful for all the feedback I received in my original letter — it was the type of validation I needed to justify making a change.

One commenter made the suggestion that I look internally for informal opportunities, which was advice I heeded in addition to looking for opportunities outside my current organization. I sent a cold email to a manager in a different department, that can be summed up as “I want to work with you — can we talk?”

And we did talk. Over the past ~six months we have been wading through the immense bureaucracy of our organization to create a position that meets his team’s needs while offering me a true opportunity for professional growth. This feels close to best-case scenario for me: a custom-fit role with a team that, put simply, is not “George.” A downside is that this whole arrangement is still in development, and details (including salary) remain TBD.

I’m still working for George in the interim but I have disclosed that I am looking for new opportunities (a decision I wrestled with for a long time — I ultimately thought it would be better to be upfront considering he would remain in my professional orbit if this new internal position works out). He seemed genuinely shocked by the news and told me he didn’t think this particular move was a good fit for me. Makes me feel even more strongly about my decision to move on :)

While I wish I was writing this from a brand new position with a confirmed pay bump, I’m trusting right now that my patience will (literally) pay off. I’m so grateful for everyone’s input on my original post to help me both see the need to make a change and to consider more untraditional strategies for career progression.

2. My dog barks during work calls (first update)

I wrote in about four years ago asking for advice in dealing with my dog barking during meetings.

I did take your advice and invested in noise cancelling headphones and microphone, which helped. I took on board what everyone said about muting myself until I needed to speak. This has been my default since I initially thought it was rude to do that as none of my coworkers did. We also started to return to the office soon after my question was published so thankfully my 1-1 meetings transitioned to the office rather than remotely.

My dog needed more time to settle as he had fairly recently been rescued before I started that role and was getting used to a lot. With training and enrichment activities, he was able to sit by my desk and didn’t feel the need to join in with the meetings. He is also getting to be a little old man now. My coworkers also stopped derailing the meetings to start chatting about my dog, he was a bit of a novelty while we were working remotely as with everyone else’s pets and children.

I have learned so much about the professional world and dog training over these past few years and I really love my job and company. I have achieved a promotion in my team which means I have been able to buy a house (with much thicker walls might I add). I still read your blog and use a lot of your advice for my new role which includes managing someone.

3. Should I tell companies I’m interviewing with that I might be suing the government? (#4 at the link)

I asked back in February whether I should tell potential employers that I might be suing the government. On the DOGE-busting front, unfortunately none of the big cases you’ve heard about in the news apply to our department, but my colleagues and I have a complaint in progress. We’re still litigating whether we should be allowed to pursue our complaint a group rather than each of us being required to file separate complaints. The likely outcome is that we’ll be “rehired” with back pay and benefits (so much for “government efficiency”!), immediately put on administrative leave, and then, soon after, be fired “properly.” We won’t be returning to the work we loved and were committed to, because our department has been shut down by DOGE and there is no chance it will be restarted while Trump is in office.

In better news, I started a new job at the beginning of April! I’m doing work I enjoy and am good at for a company full of good people who are making a positive difference in the world. It’s not the best-run company I’ve worked at, but it’s certainly not the worst, and as someone who spent most of his career at startups before (trying to) transition into government work, I can handle quite a bit of chaos.

Before being offered the new job, I’d done a number of increasingly prominent media appearances about the impact of what DOGE was doing. Those appearances culminated with requests to appear on two prominent national news shows. However, by that point I had a job offer, and my soon-to-be employer said that although the likelihood of blowback was low and those media appearances wouldn’t violate company policy, they would prefer I declined. I couldn’t afford to jeopardize the new job, so I read between the lines and turned down the appearances. I am still speaking out as the opportunity arises, albeit in less prominent forums.

I didn’t mention to any of the companies I was interviewing with that I might be pursuing legal action against the government, but there’s a twist: one of the people who saw me being vocal online and in the media is now my manager! Not only did he not consider my speaking out a negative, he was impressed that I was willing to when so many others were lying low trying to fly under the radar. While I was worried about my activism making it harder for me to find a new job (and maybe it did!), it actually helped me get the job I ended up in.

4. My coworker is upset that I didn’t tell her I’m pregnant

To recap, I spoke with the two woman who were gossiping about my pregnancy and said how inappropriate their conversation was and that I’m a very private person. They reacted by largely not talking with me throughout the remainder of my pregnancy, which ultimately was fine by me.

I had my baby a few days early, he’s now a healthy and happy almost-four-month old!

However, I later learned that the receptionist who told Roberta told people external to our organization I was in labor (!) despite me not informing her, so either she guessed or my supervisor told her. Either way, not great! Obviously the people she told were excited for me and wanted to get in touch so … she texted me multiple times while I was still in the hospital dealing with some serious postpartum complications. I told her to talk to our boss or literally anyone else and she disagreed!

The good news is my baby is amazing, laughs and smiles at me and fills me with joy every day.

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