Ask a Manager

Here are five more reader updates. The subject line for each links back to the person’s original post.

1. The reader who was allergic to her office

I’m sorry that the resolution to my story is not the most exciting, but here it is: I ended up not saying anything about it to my boss, but a few weeks after sending my letter, my desk was moved anyway (overcrowded office, tons of musical desks going on). I’m no longer directly under a vent, and with the move my allergies seem to have mostly gone away!

I’m still coughing an sneezing, but now that can be attributed to the colds that keep getting passed around and around the office rather than allergies, and easily combated with dayquil :)

2. The reader wondering about giving a company feedback when resigning

I wrote to you in November about a position where they decided to skip the exit interview. Your suggestion was (in essence) to evaluate my relationship with the company before I acted. Well, I did, and I found that I really didn’t have any good ways of approaching the topic. I didn’t feel listened to as an employee, I doubted that I would be listened to after leaving, so I left things as they were. It is a shame, my understanding is that things have gotten markedly worse there (another co-worker left a week after I did, and we were the only ones who really knew our current technology backwards and forwards, I believe another two are in the final interview stages), but, as I said, I did not feel listened to while there…

3. The reader thinking of warning her boss about a slacker kiss-ass

Well, with no HR or management to buffer the kiss-ass tendencies of this guy, and with his exposure to the higher-ups far more transparent with less staff there, he dropped a few important balls and ended up making some pretty terrible impressions at a key event and some board meetings, after which he was demoted to just being back office. He is not allowed to work as a rep at agency events, and the ED keeps a mile distance from him from what I have heard.

Anyway, to all the commentators who thought I had a case of sour grapes, I was a part of the committee that decided to keep him on, and eliminated my own position, and I truly loved where I worked and needed some assurance that, as the HR rep, it my was or wasn’t my place to let them know what they were in for. Anyway, I went with my better instinct and chose to maintain my professional integrity by not saying more than I already had. After all, I had done my best as an employee there to get his managers to manage him, and it had not worked, why try when I did not have as much of a vested interest anymore?

4. The agnostic teacher applying for a job at a Catholic school (#3 at the link)

I applied for the job, but like many of the other jobs I applied for, I did not land an interview. Teaching has been a competitive field in my area the last few years, and I am just starting out, so most employers were looking for someone with more experience.

5. The reader whose boss’s boss never talked to her

I really appreciated your advice. It helped put things in perspective for me.

Due to my really unpleasant boss and money concerns, I found another job about a month after I sent you that letter. It’s by far the best job I’ve ever had – I have a decent salary, a great boss, and actual opportunities for promotion. Huzzah!

You asked for juicy details: The business was a non-profit, so I’d started there as a volunteer while I was between jobs. I was hired without there ever being a formal job posting or salary range. After I gave notice, my former boss reposted my job opening – with a minimum salary 15% higher than what I’d been making. I called him on it. He tried to phrase it as ‘I’m looking for someone with more qualifications than you had when you started here’, but my normally aggressive manager couldn’t look me in the eye while saying it. I had been in desperate need of work, and he took advantage of that to pay me less than I was worth. (I’m confident that this was not just my perception, as after a year of working there I had a relatively easy time getting interviews for jobs with equivalent skills and more money.) The money to give me a decent salary had been there in the IT budget all along, he’d just been playing me and blaming his boss for it. I’m so glad I’m out of there!