Category: Manners

COVID-19 Update & Questions #1258 (How do I help my friends?) and #1259: (Social-distancing for extroverts)

~ JenniferP ~ 283 Comments

Hello, readers, thanks for your emails, your support, and your questions in this time of global pandemic. How's everybody doing? (Yes, I know the first iteration misspelled COVID as Corvid, I ❤ ravens and crows and have been doing it all week, what can I say). Personal update: Mr. Awkward and I are both virus-free … Continue reading COVID-19 Update & Questions #1258 (How do I help my friends?) and #1259: (Social-distancing for extroverts)

#1257:”How do I navigate the transition between romantic relationship and friendship with someone who’s really (platonically) important to me?”

~ JenniferP ~ 100 Comments

Dear Captain, I had a friend I first met about 15 years ago. We got on amazingly well: mutual friends called us “one mind in two bodies” because our personalities were so similar. We understood each other almost perfectly and could talk and laugh for hours about things nobody else quite got. We then had … Continue reading #1257:”How do I navigate the transition between romantic relationship and friendship with someone who’s really (platonically) important to me?”

#1255: “I’ve been conscripted! As an unwilling beta reader of somebody’s very personal fan fiction!”

~ JenniferP

Dear Captain Awkward: Well, not exactly. First, some background: I (she/her) am a member of a Face Book group for fan-fiction readers and writers. I’m a longtime writer of both original work and fan works, so I like to leave comments when people post questions about plotting, characterization, etc. Trouble is, I commented on one … Continue reading #1255: “I’ve been conscripted! As an unwilling beta reader of somebody’s very personal fan fiction!”

#1254: “Does my micromanaging business partner / friend need to get a life, or have we mixed too much business with friend dynamics?”

~ JenniferP

Hi Captain! I (she/her/hers) am a business partner with Partner (also she/her/hers). We have been running a small business for a few years now. We had one employee who just retired, and we finally hired someone part time. We are equal owners in the company. We went to grad school together and I thought we … Continue reading #1254: “Does my micromanaging business partner / friend need to get a life, or have we mixed too much business with friend dynamics?”

Ask A Manager & Captain Awkward Answer Questions: Part 2 of 2

~ JenniferP ~ 58 Comments

Here is the second post in this week’s collaboration between Jennifer P. from CaptainAwkward.com and Alison Green from Ask A Manager. Previously On: "Is it disloyal to leave a company who cut my pay and postponed my promotion?" (Nope! Cutting everyone's pay is like the part in the horror movie where the house says "get … Continue reading Ask A Manager & Captain Awkward Answer Questions: Part 2 of 2

#1247 “I went no-contact with my mother and it’s turned her into a bogeyman”: Anxiety, Anticlimax, and the Aftermath of Estrangement.

~ JenniferP ~ 197 Comments

I've gotten a bunch of letters about family weirdness and estrangement and boundaries (weird, almost like there was a series of events in the last month that forced a lot of family togetherness, can't think would have caused all these old wounds to re-open at the same time? 😉 ) and I'm going to put … Continue reading #1247 “I went no-contact with my mother and it’s turned her into a bogeyman”: Anxiety, Anticlimax, and the Aftermath of Estrangement.

#1238: “Scripts for when a friend’s art scares you.”

~ JenniferP

Hi Captain, Low-stakes question here. I (she/her) have an old, dear friend (she/her) who has recently taken up a new art form. From my limited experience, it seems like she's really good at it! But the subject matter hits on a relatively common phobia I have - let's say she paints enormous, detailed portraits of … Continue reading #1238: “Scripts for when a friend’s art scares you.”