my boss knows I’m job-hunting, bad advice for rejected candidates, and more

by Alison Green on May 24, 2013

It’s fast answer Friday — seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go…

1. My employer found out that I posted my resume on a job board

Yesterday my manager told me that our head of HR had received an alert that I updated my resume on Monster.com. It’s true, I did, I’ve been looking around at jobs for over a year now and before this person was my manager I had vented to her about work and mentioned looking for a new job probably more than once in the last year. We’ve had many layoffs, workloads are crazy here, so she said obviously she understands but reiterated that she values me here, etc. The Director above my manager was also alerted by HR about this and she has a tendency to be pretty moody and hard to deal with if you do something to upset her. What do I say if she brings it up to me too? I don’t want to lie and say it was a mistake and that I’m not looking because I am. But I’m also not taking a new job any time soon, I just like to keep my eyes open which I think a lot of people at my company are doing. How should I respond if the director mentions this to me?

“I very much want to stay here, but with the recent layoffs, it seemed irresponsible not to ensure my resume was out there. But I hope to remain here for the long-term.”

2. I used to work at a grocery store, and now I’m applying to their corporate offices

I worked for a major grocery chain when I was in high school, and am now applying for a job at one of their corporate offices years later. This position wouldn’t have much to do with the stores, so my experience as a teen isn’t really relevant, but I’m wondering if there’s a way to spin it into an asset or anecdote in my application.

Yes! Definitely mention it. It’s not going to get you the job on its own, but it’s the kind of things that can grab their attention and provide fodder for conversation in your interview. I’d say something like, “I loved working at ABC as a cashier during high school, and would be thrilled to return now in a different capacity.”

3. I can’t access my email address, and I’m job-hunting

A few weeks ago, I lost access to the email address on my resume, and it now no longer exists (as in, when you send an email to it, it bounces back). I have applied to several jobs in which I cannot change the email address on file as I applied via email to the job (rather than through a login/password site). I have not heard back from the company, and the job is still listed on the website. Do you suggest I send a follow up email, saying I lost access to the email address on file and here is my new email address? Or do you suggest I move on, as my phone number will suffice if HR chooses to reach out to me?

Yes, send a follow-up email — just two sentences to explain the situation and give the correct address. Some employers will append it to your application, and other won’t, but you won’t lose anything by trying with them all.

4. My boss is giving rejected job applicants questionable advice

At my current position, we are hiring a new member of staff. When someone comes in for a face-to-face interview, we always give them really detailed feedback — whether they get the job or not. With one rejected applicant, my manager told her that she should call up the receptionist for the company she is applying for, and ask them to give them information about all of the different departments and what they do so that she is better prepared for the interview. I think this is odd and I think they should find other ways to get the information rather than calling a receptionist. How do you feel about this?

Yes, it’s terrible advice. At many organizations, that would get the person kicked out of the running.

Your manager should stop giving applicants feedback, because if this is representative of her advice, she’s harming them, not helping them.

5. How can I tell my manager I want a more positive work environment?

I’ve been at my new job for almost 6 months, and from day one it has been a negative environment. It seems like everyone is unhappy, openly disrespectful and at the beginning the way I was learning people’s names was through hearing negative things said about them. I expressed my surprise and disappointment about this within in the first two weeks of being there to the executive when I was asked directly about this. So I’ve been very upfront about this and have maintained an almost Pollyanna optimistic demeanor for 6 months now.

However, after 6 months, I am feeling extremely worn down and broken-spirited over my job, and the negativity is really crossing my professional boundaries. We work in an organization that helps people and is a worthy cause that I want to be passionate about, but the work environment is eclipsing the cause. I already scheduled a meeting with my direct supervisor to talk about it, but as a manager how would you like to be approached about this? I don’t want to give ultimatums about this needing to change or I’ll leave, but that is in fact something I’m strongly considering. I’d like a commitment from him to shut down overtly negative conversations and foster a more positive, respectful environment. What are some viable solutions I can come to the table with?

Well, if this is the culture there, this is the culture there. I agree with you that it sounds awful, but if it’s this entrenched, one person objecting to it isn’t likely to change much. You can certainly discuss your concerns with your manager, and it’s good for the organization’s management to hear this kind of feedback, but I think it’s pretty unlikely that one person complaining — and a new person, at that — is going to convince your manager to commit to shutting this stuff down.

6. Should interviewers ask to see candidates’ performance evaluations?

What are your thoughts on interviewers asking candidates to share past performance reviews? Creepy and intrusive, reasonable, or borderline? This happened in my current search and I could have sworn you’d addressed it before, but I’m not seeing it in the archives!

I think I’ve addressed offering past evaluations as a candidate (fine to do), but not asking for them as an employer. I don’t think it’s a reasonable request in most cases; some companies consider them confidential documents, some don’t do them at all, or at least not in writing, and some — many — do such a terrible job of them that they’re not going to be useful, at least not without a ton of context. The only time where I’d consider asking for it is if I couldn’t contact the candidate’s most recent employer for some reason (if they’d died or otherwise become unreachable), and then I wouldn’t require it, only suggest it as a possible way for the candidate to better flesh out my understanding of her work history.

7. Can I refuse to leave my shift early?

I’m a cashier at a local grocery store, and lately my managers have been cutting my shifts short. I am only a part-time worker, meaning my weekly paycheck is about 65 bucks. This week, 3 hours have been cut from my check as a result of being dismissed an hour early each day. This takes a significant amount from my check and isn’t even enough for the week’s worth of gas.

One day, I mentioned something to a coworker about it to see if I was the only one and take concern. She agreed that I shouldn’t be relieved that early when most cashiers work their full shift. She mentioned something about refusing to end my shift until the scheduled time was fulfilled. I have talked to a few of the managers about getting more hours, but nothing has been done yet. So my question is, do I have the right to refuse leaving early? And is there anything else you recommend?

No, you can’t. You can talk to your manager and express your strong preference to work your full shift, but if it’s their prerogative to send you home early if they want to. It’s also your prerogative to look for another job if you’re not getting enough hours at this one.

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{ 68 comments }

{ 68 comments… read them below }

  1. Jessa*

    #1, no matter what job I was working I always kept my resume up to date, just so I had all the information in one easy place to find. And I would re-upload to anywhere I had it so that I knew that everyplace had the same resume. You can also say that if you want to. That you always keep it updated and that you don’t want steen million copies of it out there, where you have no idea of who has what copy.

    1. Anonymous*

      One of the benefits of LinkedIn – an updated LinkedIn profile is normal and doesn’t scream “job hunting” like a resume on Monster (although I suppose it might raise a few eyebrows if you suddenly started connecting with a bunch of recruiters)

    2. 22dncr*

      Always keep it updated everywhere because you could be laid off tomorrow – speaks someone who has been laid off 12 times and counting! I’m always looking.

    3. Elizabeth West*

      I do the same. Layoffs have made me leery–it’s better just to keep it updated, although I don’t post it anywhere unless I’m actually looking.

  2. Al Lo*

    #7 — Interesting. When I worked in food services, it was always the employee’s prerogative to choose whether to stay until the scheduled end of the shift or leave early. As a shift supervisor, I was always encouraged to cut labour when possible, but the person I was asking could always choose to decline the offer to leave.

    (This was pretty standard policy across the 5 different locations that I worked at in 2 countries, so while it may not have been a legal issue, it was a pretty standard company policy. This was also at Starbucks, which, for all its faults, is pretty well-known for treating employees quite decently for a retail job.)

    The main exception to this that I can remember was when I first started working there, our manager would schedule us for a longer closing shift than necessary (an hour past close, rather than half an hour), and we were often finished within 15-20 minutes. For him, it kept his labour consistently under target; for most of us, it was nice to get out early. I was right on the cusp of benefits eligibility (20 hours/week at), and those extra 45 minutes a few nights a week were key for me. Technically, I could have insisted that we all stay and do something productive until our scheduled exit time, but that would have meant convincing my two other closing co-workers that they should also stay late.

    In that case, I asked my manager to, when possible, start my shift a half-hour earlier, so that I was at least staying on the right side of the benefits line.

    1. fposte*

      It would be nice if every place with shift work had this policy. Unfortunately, the law doesn’t require that they do. Therefore all #7 would get by refusing to go home is fired.

    2. Anonymous*

      I work in a McDonalds and we can refuse to go home early if asked. I am not sure if this is company policy or just our store though.

      If the shift manager wants to send people home early to keep labour down, they will try and send home the people who would be finishing the most soon anyway. There is usually someone who wants to go or doesn’t mind leaving early, so it works out that those who wish to stay are able to.

      Usually we don’t get sent home more than about an hour before our scheduled end time (most of us have 8 or 9 hour days unless we’re under 18).

    3. Malissa*

      When I worked retail and we were overstaffed they asked for volunteers first. Mostly because they never knew who really wanted to be home anyway. Always worked out great. Those people who didn’t absolutely need the money would always leave and let those who really needed the hours stay.

      1. Kimberlee, Esq.*

        I agree with this and similar comments above. There’s usually *someone* on a shift that is interested in going home early, so I’d often take volunteers.

        The exception, of course, is when there is a big ability disparity between people. I’d usually make the offer to leave early to the least effective team member first (since if I’m going to risk being shorthanded, I’m not doing it with a crappy crew). So my question to OP is… are you good at your job? I suspect this is a move to encourage you to quit by not giving you enough hours.

        1. Jamie*

          Maybe fast food is different than retail, but I do not understand their scheduling. My daughter works in a fast food place and whatever schedule they put out she is almost always asked to stay and work late. If she’s scheduled to get off at 4:00 odds are she won’t get off until at least 6:30.

          She doesn’t mind but I know you used to manage in that industry – is it that common for the schedules to change so much? They are great with accommodating her days for school but she’s usually on every single day except for the two she has classes…even if she’s not originally scheduled they will call and her to come in for emergency coverage. She’s gone an entire month without a day off – and shifts are anywhere from 3.5 to 9 hours.

          I can’t tell if the constant changing is due to the nature of the business or if it’s disorganized scheduling. Because some complain they don’t get enough hours – and some like my daughter usually work their days off. Not that it matters, it’s her deal to fight and she won’t because she likes the money…but I was curious.

        2. Lindsay J*

          This is exactly how I would usually handle it. I’d start with the least effective team member (and/or the one scheduled to go home soonest if they were all of relatively equal levels of ability) and ask if they wanted to go home early, and then move up the line. Usually somebody would volunteer, which was ideal because otherwise sometimes you can wind up with two angry workers – the one you made go home that wanted to stay, and the one who was thinking “gee, I really need to get that project done at home. Why didn’t I get to leave early?”

          If there were no volunteers, then I would pick.

          I wonder how they expect supervisors and managers to keep labor costs in line at the stores where people can refuse to be sent home?

          I also agree that this could be a tactic to get the OP to quit. Or, even as not as harsh as that, a sign that they do not value her as an employee very much.

        3. Anonymous*

          That is also punishing your best employees. I worked at one place that did this and it was so demoralizing.

  3. Anon*

    #1 I’m curious how anyone at your job would get an “alert” that you posted your resume on Monster. When we hear through the grapevine that someone is looking for a new job, we might try to find out why by speaking to the supervisor, especially if we consider that person a good employee, but we’d never hold it against the employee. It happens, people move on for many reasons.

    1. Andie*

      I am curious about that as well. I suspect that if HR is looking for candidates with experience in that field that the persons resume might be sent automatically because they match the company. Which makes sense because the person already works there. The HR could have just received an automated “you might be interested in this person” email and it happened to be an employee.

    2. Riki*

      Same here. The OP says that HR received an update that their resume was updated on Monster, not posted. Perhaps OP applied for this job via Monster, so, HR already has a track on it and receives any activity updates? Or is it standard practice for HR to seek out current-employees profiles’ on job boards??

    3. Plynn*

      Last week I received a fax (snicker) at my office that read:

      To: [Company name]
      Re: Staff Resignation

      A current employee on May 14, 2013 posted their resume to the online job market with [company name] named as their current employer.

      This is being viewed by recruiters, competitors and other employers. Being the last to know that they are unhappy does not allow you to find the source of their dissatisfaction and retain them. [more garbage I don’t feel like typing]

      ——

      So, there are companies out there that monitor job sites, look for any resumes that list a current employer and then try to contact that employer to let them know. Bizarre.

      1. fposte*

        I’m not really getting what went on in the fax. I could understand, even if it made me eyeroll, somebody who made it their peculiar business to report possibly straying employees to employers, but the “Being the last to know that they are unhappy does not allow you to find the source of their dissatisfaction and retain them”? What does that mean? Was this somebody who hoped to hire them telling the company not to counteroffer? It sounds absolutely crazy. If the worker wants to stay, of course you can retain them.

        1. Plynn*

          The fax came from a company called StaffStay. It’s a sales technique for them – they alert you that someone has posted a resume and then try to sell you … I’m actually not sure what they are selling. Supposedly ‘HR solutions’ to help you retain staff, but I think their real business is charging for these alerts.

          The fax came with a code and on the site there is a huge banner saying “SEE WHICH EMPLOYEE NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION” – you enter the code and out pops the name. So, I can almost guarantee this is how #1’s employers found out about her updated resume

          2. fposte*

            Ah, okay, I misread the relevant sentence as being a statement of fact about the situation rather than statement about why you should know now (a company so upstanding didn’t write clearly? What are the odds!).

          3. Mike C.*

            So they make money by getting employees in trouble for looking for other jobs? I hope their safely evacuated offices burn to the ground in a self contained fire.

            That’s just evil.

            1. Jamie*

              That is the most carefully controlled and reasoned “fire” response I’ve ever seen.

              Your safety and QC background is showing. :)

        2. ThursdaysGeek*

          No, I think it’s more of a “why oh why was I the last one to know…our love’s over now and I was the last one to know” sort of thing. If you talk to your manager when you first start getting dissatisfied, they can resolve it and keep you from becoming so unhappy that you start looking elsewhere.

          However, it’s worded in more of a passive agressive sort of way, where they’re watching you and know when you’re unhappy enough to leave, and now you’re a lowlife for not making it better and staying.

  4. LisaLyn*

    #5 – Yeah, that stinks. I have been there and sadly, I don’t know that there is a lot that can be done. The way I’ve handled it is to first of all, not get involved with the negative comments about others and just focus on the work or whatever it is that I do like about the job. After you don’t go down the negative path with people, most will stop trying to complain to you and sometimes that’s enough.

    But I do agree with AAM that while you can provide the feedback to the higher ups, I wouldn’t count on them changing (or even being able to change) things if it’s that engrained.

  5. Sarah*

    #5 – I am in a similar situation, but it’s been about one year of a toxic environment. We had new staff come on and my director (of a staff of 8) does not know how to merge the old and new staff. She will often mention how terrible the organization was before because they were not doing this or that. I’m sure this does not make the old staff feel good and has created tension. I’ve asked her not to do this because of the staff tension and offered a different way of phrasing it, setting the expectations going forward. However, she is at the root of most of these issues – talking bad about employees in front of other employees, putting up with a lot of bad behavior (even an employee yelling at her and storming off 3 times!). I don’t think anything will ever change because I don’t think she has the willpower to change. It’s really hard to respect her any more so I’ve started looking for other jobs. Good management is something I need and it’s definitely not possible at this job.

  6. BeenThere*

    #5 You aren’t in a position to change the culture. That can only be done through the top, down. True, you can have a limited positive experience by affecting the team members you interact with. People make a choice to be bitter or better, to borrow a horrible cliché. Look for successes and focus on those. If they are coming as rare as they do, write them down and review whenever you are feeling down about things. Use positive reinforcement – high 5s, team building, happy donut day – you can give all you can to affect the culture but it comes down to others receiving that and choosing to NOT be negative. Realize that change this big also comes over time.

  7. fposte*

    #5: ” I’d like a commitment from him to shut down overtly negative conversations and foster a more positive, respectful environment.”

    It sounds like you’re not clear on how significant a misstep this would be. You can in some circumstances ask your manager to commit to something between the two of you–a promised promotion, maybe. It’s outside of Appropriate World to request your manager commit to fixing other people for you and create the kind of workplace you like. Even if what was happening were illegal, you just report it, and if it’s not resolved you report it elsewhere.

    This place is a bad fit for you, and if you ask this it will become an even worse one. You need to look for another job. If you have a history of long-term jobs aside from this you can leave right away when you find something. If you don’t, you’ll be better off if you can hang on for a year (though start your search earlier); additionally, it’s possible if that’s the case that your inexperience is coloring your view of the situation. Also think about what you might have asked or checked out beforehand that would have revealed the incompatibility before you took the job.

    1. Legal Eagle*

      This is precisely what I thought. You can’t demand that your manager change the entire workplace environment.

      In the future OP #5, investigate the environment and culture more carefully. It sounds like you’d want an upbeat, positive place. When you’re interviewing next time, watch how the employees interact with each other and how everyone seems.

      1. Christine*

        I was actually going to ask how exactly the OP can check for this for future job opportunities. Culture seems to be the most difficult to tease out during interviews; sure, you can ask appropriate questions, but I’ve also read that you can covertly check by looking around and seeing how everyone interacts, which is hard for me because if I look around while being led to where the interview will be, I won’t see that sneaky wall that has a habit of getting in my way. lol.

        1. Malissa*

          Talk with the receptionist when you arrive for your interview. Ask your interviewers why they like working for the company. Engage in more back and forth during the interview with follow up questions.

            1. Lindsay J*

              Yes. I would take Glassdoor with a grain of salt because like any other online reviews you are bound to get more negatives than positives.

              However, when I pull up previous workplaces the bad ones have much lower scores than the good ones do. You can also tell that the poor reviews at the good workplaces skew much more to the “They actually expected me to work at work, can you believe that?” than the, “This place has systemic issues from the top down that won’t be remedied until the entire executive staff leaves. Nobody has gotten a raise in 5 years, management is disrespectful, and firings happen at random with no warning” that the bad ones have.

    3. Sarah*

      I think there are ways to suggest that it makes you uncomfortable or is hurting team morale, and that maybe there is a way to make this better. Offering solutions is a possbility, but asking for promises isn’t.

  8. Chinook*

    #7, it might be worth it to check to see if your state has a min. hours you must be paid for if you show up for a shift. Up here in Alberta, if we show up for a scheduled shift, we have to be paid for a minimum of 3 hours even if we are sent home early. This atleast pays you for the effort of showing up.

    2. Lindsay J*

      Some unions may have this rule as well. At one of my previous workplaces it was two hours.

  9. Flynn*

    #1 That just reminded me of how awesome my manager is. I have a job interview next week, and their response when I asked for that afternoon off was “Awesome, that sounds like a fantastic opportunity, that won’t be a problem, good luck” (they did then say they’d really miss me when I’m gone, or it could have been a backhanded sort of compliment! :D )

  10. T-riffic*

    #7, if you work with a different manager on different days, they may not realize that you are the only one getting your shift cut short. Alison’s right that you can’t refuse, but you can at least speak up and see if some one else’s shift gets cut for a change. Good managers try to make stuff like this as equal as possible.

  11. WFBP*

    Is anyone else getting a huge Crystal Light Blog Her ad covering up the left half of this post? I can’t get it to go away, and can’t read the actual column.

    2. Ask a Manager* Post author

      When this happens, if you can email me a screenshot, I can have my ad network fix it. I can alert them without a screenshot, but it’s much easier to get it fixed if I have one.

    3. Elizabeth West*

      It happened to me at work (IE) but I have Firefox and ad blockers at home, so I don’t see it there.

  12. Justin*

    Negative work environment…just leave. I was in a similar situation and it ground me down into depression and anxiety. I was eventually fired (my fault, but the environment contributed big time) and I wish I had tried to find something else while I was still employed.

    1. Justin*

      And by “leave” I mean “try to find a new job soon”. You have six months under your belt, that’s a reasonable time for a change.

      1. Ask a Manager* Post author

        While I agree the OP should be looking for a new job, six months isn’t generally a reasonable time to leave. As fposte said above, she can get away with it if she has a stable history of longer-term stays at other jobs. If she doesn’t, then a year minimum. Minimum — even that’s short.

        1. Justin*

          You can still look and interview, a new employer might be OK with your shorter term if they like you and want to hire you.

          1. Ask a Manager* Post author

            The problem is that having a resume with multiple short-term stays will hurt you in future job hunts, even if you find an employer now who doesn’t care.

            1. Justin*

              Yeah, I get that, but if you are in a really negative work environment, you should look for a new job.

              1. Ask a Manager* Post author

                It’s the statement that “You have six months under your belt, that’s a reasonable time for a change” that I took issue with.

                1. Justin*

                  Fine, but I wanted to point out to the LW that they had been there long enough to decide that the environment really was the issue and not some temporary or isolated issue. If they had been there a week or a month I would not advocate that. I think you’re assuming that I think it’s OK to just pack up and leave a job anytime you don’t like something about it, which I don’t.

                2. fposte*

                  But I also think you’re missing AAM’s point, which is that even if it’s a correct assessment, leaving after six months can really hurt her in the future.

                3. Justin*

                  I hear that, but I’d still start looking. Maybe don’t accept another offer until the 1 year mark. If the problem is really the environment and not the LW, they will likely thrive in another job that has a better environment/culture and put in enough time to make up for the previous short tenure.

  13. Ellie H.*

    Re. #7, I was in a union at a retail store I worked at for a long time, and we had very specific rules (from the union) about when you could be dismissed early, how much notice there had to be if you were, the circumstances in which you had to get paid for the hours you were originally scheduled for anyway, etc. You don’t say you’re in a union, so I imagine you’re not, but in case you are, they might have rules about this.

    1. Anon*

      I’ve heard similar stories. Actually, I’ve heard of several stores that will do this or just give you a ridiculous low number of hours when they are overstaffed, need to cut costs, or just don’t like someone to force people to quit as opposed to having to lay off or fire them and potentially have to deal with unemployment claims (valid or not) later. One of the union stores in my hometown is notorious for this because it is more difficult to rid of someone with the union rules, so they found a loophole where they can just schedule someone for like 4 hours a week until they leave on their own.

  14. Mike C.*

    Re #1 I would be so tempted to say, “You’re surprised that I updated my resume after all of these layoffs? Do you hire stupid people?”

    OP, I had way more luck with Craig’s List and Indeed.com. Monster just seemed like a black hole where I wondered if half the jobs weren’t just staffing agencies trying to build databases.

    Best of luck with your search!

    1. Jamie*

      My experience is the same – way more luck with indeed and Craig’s List – but I would never go through career builder or monster again. All I got was a bunch of agencies calling me for jobs that weren’t even tangentially related to what I did at the time.

      Seeing the other side of it – career builder last I used it on the employer side cost a ridiculous amount of money to join as an employer. So companies that aren’t constantly filling slots, but still have great opportunities will pass for something like indeed or Craig’s where you can control the costs.

      1. Mike C.*

        Yeah, Monster kept sending my jobs for line cooks and bartenders because I had experience working in food safety. I don’t even have a food handler’s permit.

        1. Rana*

          Ha. That sounds familiar. There’s something about my work and educational history that confuses whatever algorithms those sorts of sites use to generate job recommendations. LinkedIn at least gets the fields right, though they consistently offer me openings that are far ahead of my in-field experience levels (it’s all senior-level stuff, for someone who has lots of related out-of-field experience, but very little in-field). Glassdoor and Monster, though? Hilariously inaccurate.

      2. Anonymous*

        Agreed. I’ve had better luck with CL and Indeed myself. Monster and Careerbuilder seem old hat. Just in case, I do keep my updated resumes on both sites because I’m not necessarily against recruiters contacting me about contract work.

    2. Esra*

      OP, definitely take your resume off of sites like Monster and Workopolis. You aren’t the user there, you’re the product.

      LinkedIn has a decent jobs section, and if there are any niche sites for your industry, that’s how I got my current job.

  15. blue dog*

    #7 – Why don’t you look around the store and see what extra needs to be done (i.e., clean the back room, reorganize the stock room, clean up the loading dock, whatever). Then you could approach your manager and say, “I know you have been cutting me loose when it gets slow around here. But I do really want to work. I was thinking if it slowed down, rather than sending me home early, we could use that opportunity to do some of the stuff that we have been putting off, like cleaning up the loading dock. What do you think?” It shows initiative and your boss might appreciate it.

  16. Garrett*

    Number 4 is crazy. I can’t imagine any receptionist would be happy (or even have the time) to be cold-called by a stranger and asked about every department in the company. Terrible advice and I hope the OP can put a stop to it.

  17. #5*

    Hi I’m #5,

    I was trying to keep my email short but some context: I’m a senior level researcher and was head hunted into this job because of my population specific experience. I do have a very long positive work history that will not be hurt terribly if I leave before a year is up. All that is why I don’t feel like its naive or unreasonable to point out to my manager that the culture is not working for me. They do actively want me to stay and the negative culture is widely acknowledged by management. They are attempting to change that culture but it is continuing to impact turn over of staff with the most highly desirable skill sets. The other pertinent fact is that the person who hired me was fired the Friday before I started on a Monday so things changed significantly after I accepted the offer.

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Doesn’t really change the answer though. You can’t insist they change the culture — changing a culture is a massive undertaking, and it’s pretty unlikely they’re going to do it because of one person.

  18. #6*

    I wrote in with #6, and I’m glad to hear it’s not a common or reasonable request, because it really seemed odd to me! Since I was asked, I did send one to the “org dev” rep who wanted to see it; my reviews have been very good, and I couldn’t come up with a reason not to that didn’t make me sound like I was hiding something. But it’s really mostly a project-based assessment, so what you said about context is completely true – I can’t see what good it will do, but at least it won’t be harmful.

  19. #4*

    OP for number 4 here!

    I did actually tell my manager that it was a bad idea. It’s not really the function of the receptionist and I don’t think it a reasonable request. I told her that I felt very strongly about it but she sent the feedback anyway.
    The most annoying thing is that she didn’t include one of the main point we made after interviewing him (I was in the interview). It was that his personality didn’t come out at all! He didn’t smile or anything so it was very hard to work out if he would have fit into our close-knit team. She thought that it was mean to say but I saw no problem with writing “we didn’t feel that your personality showed during the interview. It’s important for us that we see this to work out how you would fit with our team”. I mean, I’m pretty sure other employers are looking for that rather than robotic answers.

    Anyway, she’s very stuck in her ways so I don’t think I can change her mind about this – not for lack of trying!

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