Business | Bartleby

The return of The Economist’s agony uncle

Max Flannel is back to grapple with your workplace headaches

Two serious co-workers, one holding a laptop, positioned within a vast bowl of baba ghanoush, their expressions reflecting a focused and intense atmosphere in this unconventional setting.
Illustration: Paul Blow

Dear Max, I am a 23-year-old social-media marketer who has only recently been required to return to the office. I had been told that the office would be great for having watercooler conversations. My office doesn’t seem to have a watercooler. What should I do?

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Our agony uncle returns”

From the December 23rd 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Business

An eagle sweating in his bed with a sign showing a red downward arrow attached to the end of the bedframe

Germans are world champions of calling in sick

It’s easy and it pays well

The illustration shows a man and a woman standing on separate stacks of coins.

Knowing what your colleagues earn

The pros and cons of greater pay transparency



Donald Trump’s America will not become a tech oligarchy

Reasons not to panic about the tech-industrial complex

OpenAI’s latest model will change the economics of software

The more reasoning it does, the more computer power it uses

Donald Trump once tried to ban TikTok. Now can he save it?

To keep the app alive in America, he must persuade China to sell up