Lifestyle

Should I crack down on my office’s March Madness betting?

I am shocked at how openly everyone is wagering in the office on their March Madness brackets. As a manager, can’t I be held responsible for allowing this illegal activity to occur?

You sound like an overly aggressive self-important mall cop. Chill out. Unless you’re sitting in the corner smoking Marlboros and taking wagers — skimming a little off the top, and running numbers on the side — then take your cue from President Obama, who took time out of his tit-for-tat with Putin to fill out a bracket. Now, if you can’t run a meeting during the day because everyone is gathered around their desktops or televisions cheering on their Cinderella underdog, that’s a different matter. Having gone to NYU — where hitting the backboard on foul shots was an achievement — I can’t say I totally get the hoops hysteria. But if the work is getting done and the wagers are nominal, then let it go.

My boss has written me up several times about my lateness. I have a long commute, and on any given day the length of time it takes to get to the office can vary by as much as 45 minutes. Someone else on-staff routinely comes in later than me every day, and she isn’t reprimanded. Is that fair?

This might come as a surprise, but an employer can have different arrangements for different people. Obviously rules affecting the treatment of employees — with respect to providing a workplace free of discrimination — must apply equally to everyone. But your boss permitting different work schedules isn’t protected unless he’s making decisions and differences for discriminatory reasons, which is highly unlikely. The difficulty of your commute does not have to be forgiven by your employer — and it isn’t your employer’s problem. The fact that someone else on the staff has a different schedule may be due to completely different circumstances. You can solve this by leaving early enough every day to accommodate the unpredictability of your commute — or by getting a job closer to home. If you’re an outstanding employee, your employer may also consider allowing you to have a flexible work schedule — but that is at your manager’s discretion.