Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. I got chastised for taking initiative

I work as a staff member for the executive office of a membership organization which has a council made up of members. A council member emailed me recently asking me if Task X was possible to do relatively easily and quickly. I thought it was strange that he was emailing me directly rather than going through the usual channels of the executive office, but I politely told him I would look into it. As it turns out, complying with his wish was not a big deal. It was an easy fix which took 10 minutes. So I executed Task X and sent the link of the work to three people — my boss, the relevant department head, and our technology VP — for review prior to me making the result public. I told them this was an easy fix that will solve a problem that our members have found to be troublesome.

The response of our technology VP — an email to me copying my boss — was that I breached protocol by creating and publishing the solution prior to consulting with the department head and without first looping in my boss. I immediately replied, apologizing if I overstepped my boundaries. But I said the solution is only visible to four people: me, the VP, my boss, and the department head. I haven’t made it public knowledge. I wouldn’t knowingly make things visible to the public unless I had the OK and green light from them. No response after that.

I am a bit puzzled by the VP’s response. I solved a sticky problem. And I did it with minimal cost in time, manpower and money. Yet I got admonished for it. What might be going on in the VP’s mind with this type of response?

It’s hard to say without knowing the specifics, but I can think of lots of things that I wouldn’t want an employee doing without checking with me first, even if it seemed like a good idea on the face, because I might have background or context that they didn’t know about and which would make it not in fact a good idea. I wouldn’t look at this as being chastised for taking initiative, but rather as finding out that you should loop others in before making changes in this category of stuff (and possibly other categories too — it could be a good opportunity to get aligned with your boss about what you can proceed with on your own and when you should check with someone else).

Read an update to this letter here.

2. I know my coworker secretly plans to quit after her maternity leave

A close friend coworker of mine is due with her second baby in July. We have a temp coming in to transition her work during her leave from June to October. She confided in me over lunch that 3 weeks after she comes back to work, she is resigning and moving across the country. This plan is elaborate and already in the works.

I think taking months of maternity leave pay and benefits, knowing you are going to quit shortly thereafter (within 2 months), is robbery and a truly bad thing to do. I am on very good terms with our head of HR and talent. I feel bad keeping this secret. I know the temp coming in (former employee who saw grass isn’t always greener) and strongly assume that she will want the full-time gig if presented to her after the current employee’s departure.

I assume I should keep my mouth shut, because it isn’t my secret to share and the mom may change her mind (unlikely but of course, possible). What do you think?

I agree that it’s a crappy thing to do (less so if it’s a large organization that can easily absorb the burden, and more so if it’s a small organization that will be more impacted), but the law does allow it. (Well, sort of; if an employee gives unequivocal notice that she won’t be returning to work at the end of the leave, the employer’s FMLA obligations do end.) To be clear, I don’t have a problem with people doing this if they’re not totally sure of their plans and think they might actually end up going back or want to keep that option open; my objection is only to situations like this one where it’s a certain plan and she’s misleading people.

As for whether you should tell HR: If you’re in a management role, you have more of an obligation to share what you know, but if you’re not, I’d figure that she was talking to you as a friend and you should keep her confidence accordingly.

3. Inconsistent tattoo policy

I work for a premium cosmetics brand that had a policy concerning visible tattoos when I joined the company that stated all tattoos must be covered except small tattoos on the wrist. There has never been any official change to dress code regarding tattoos, but my colleagues in other cities in the UK do not and have never been asked to cover up their tattoos, despite working for the brand longer than I have, including some who have full sleeve tattoos. I understand being tattooed is not a protected characteristic and that I chose to get them, but my question regards the inconsistency. If my colleague in London does not have to cover up, then why does someone in Glasgow or Manchester have to cover up? Is this a fairness/equality issue?

This is the kind of thing that’s up to individual managers. Sometimes it comes down to personal preference (perhaps annoying, but allowed and not uncommon) and sometimes it comes down to legitimately feeling that something that will fly in London won’t fly somewhere else (possibly wrongly, but still allowed and not uncommon).

4. Working and freelancing for the same company

I am working part-time for a company that was, until recently, paying me to write as a freelancer on the side. They processed my freelance pay through my paycheck, which was generous, I thought. They listed it separately from my hourly rate, and took out taxes and paid on my behalf and all, so I guess that means I was not really a freelancer. Still. I enjoyed the extra cash and the work.

One day I was in a meeting, and was told, because of a mysterious tax law that nobody could name, employees are no longer permitted to “freelance” because of tax liability. I was not the only person affected by this new rule, and three months later, the rule is still not being consistently enforced.

The sudden change was really hard on my finances, and I have expressed my dissatisfaction with the new rule and its arrival without warning to my immediate supervisor. Recently, they asked us to re-sign the employee manual policy, and I brought it up again with my supervisor. I asked if the no freelancing rule should go into the manual.

Is it illegal for my employer to pay me on the side for additional work that I am happy to do? And do you have any ideas about how to approach the subject with my boss–the person above my supervisor?

It would be legally shaky if they’d actually been paying you for that side work as a contractor — meaning that weren’t taking out payroll taxes for that part of your pay. But they were — they were paying you as an employee for all of the work you were doing, and there’s nothing illegal about that. They were basically saying “we’ll pay you $X to do your main job, plus $Y to do this additional work.” That’s common and legal and not shady at all. It’s not all that different than getting a bonus in your check for taking on extra work that’s not part of your regular job. In fact, it’s exactly like that.

It sounds like your manager heard — correctly — that employees shouldn’t also be contractors for the same company, but didn’t realize that that refers solely to how you’re paid. If the company is taking payroll taxes out of your check for all your work, they’re not treating you like a contractor and the government won’t care, despite what they’re calling it. Try pointing out to your boss that the laws he’s thinking of apply to people being paid as contractors, which you were not.

5. Am I obligated to stay if I accept an offer from the company acquiring my employer?

I have worked for years for a company that has recently been bought, and I have a severance document that specifies my last day. I’ve been working on my job search (and your book has completely saved my sanity), but it is not complete. Recently I’ve learned that New Big Boss is very interested in keeping me on, but I don’t feel good about the culture at the acquiring company. This is not a good fit for me and I intend to keep searching. My question is about what to do if New Big Boss does contact me about staying. Is this like getting a job offer from a whole new company, where you should not accept if you know you’re not interested in staying? Or does this qualify as staying at the job I already have until I find a new one? It seems I am on the verge of a cardinal job sin on either side if I don’t correctly understand this situation.

I’d say it depends on exactly what’s being offered. If it’s “hey, we’d like you to stay in your current job after all,” then I think you can accept without any special obligation to stay for a long time; they’d essentially just be canceling your layoff. But if it’s more “we’d like to offer you a different role,” then yeah, I think you’d want to plan on staying for a while if you accept it. If it’s the latter — or if you just don’t want to accept regardless — one option would be to just say, “I really appreciate that, but I’m in the process of talking with other companies and think I’m going to keep pursuing those.”

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. My employee stops to listen to every conversation around her

I am the team leader of our medical office and have 4 employees who report to me. I have one employee who listens to every conversation that I have with our medical providers and answers questions addressed to me. We are in a common area, and I have stopped at times to ask her if she needed me for something, as she blatantly turns around to listen to conversations that she is not a part of. She freezes at her computer if someone is on the phone and she wants to hear the conversation. Initially, I thought she was interested in learning more about the office and answers to questions that she might have herself. Now, I am convinced that she is just nosy and feels like she needs to prove she knows all the answers even when she is not asked. I am running out of patience!

Have you directly asked her to stop?

I’d say this: “Jane, I’ve noticed that you often stop what you’re doing to listen to conversations others are having. Working in an open environment like this, it’s really important to let others have private conversations. Plus, stopping to listen will hurt your productivity — and if you end up answering questions that were actually addressed to someone else, it can make all of us less productive, because you might or might not have full context that’s needed for the answer. Going forward, can you make more of a point of not letting the conversations happening around you distract you?”

2. My coworkers are pressuring me to apply for a promotion but I don’t want to

The number 2 person in my office announced her retirement recently, and ever since then, I’ve received a lot of pressure from my peers to apply for the job. The problem is that I don’t want that job, and I have very different career aspirations.

I am one of the most tenured people in my office. Several other tenured employees have told me that I should apply for the job anyway, simply because I currently hold a senior level position. These people say that I need to apply for the job to show the higher ups my ambition, my willingness to do what needs to be done, and my commitment to the organization. I feel that I do all of those things in my current positions. I don’t want to apply because I have no interest in the position, and I don’t want to waste the interviewer’s time. I feel like I would leave a really bad impression with HQ if I am selected for the job and declined the offer. Do my coworkers have a point?

What? No. You’re absolutely right that if you apply for the job, your company will assume you want it and will accept it if offered. Applying for appearance’s sake would be inconsiderate of their time and bad for your own career. Don’t listen to your coworkers.

If you’re approached by the job by someone above you, it’s fine to say, “Thanks so much for checking with me. I did give it some thought, but I don’t think I’d like to pursue it right now. I’m really happy doing (current work).”

3. Should I give my interviewer my business card from my current job?

I am looking for a new job while still employed. If I go to an interview, do I give my interviewer(s) a business card from current company? They should be able to contact me from the information on my resume, so I was thinking probably not.

Nope! In this context, a business card from your company would come across strangely, like you’re representing them (which you’re definitely not doing while interviewing for another job) or using their resources while interviewing. I know it’s kind of strange because it’s fine to use company-issued business cards in other situations where you’re not representing your company (like socially), but don’t do it in a job interview.

And really, there’s no need for a card anyway; they already have all of your information from your resume.

4. Who should I give my resignation to?

I’ve been on maternity leave for the past year (I’m in Quebec; a year-long maternity leave is standard). When I was working there, I had an excellent relationship with my boss, who was let go right after I went on maternity leave. The entire department was restructured, new people were hired, etc. I haven’t actually spoken to anyone from there in the past 6 months of my maternity leave.

I’m now going back to work, and have accepted a new job that I’m really happy with – a place I’ve worked before offered me a similar salary for 15 hours a week less, doing work I’m excited about doing with people I enjoy working with. However, I need to let my old job know that I won’t be returning.

Normally, I’d call/email/go see my old boss, but he’s no longer there, I have no idea who is there in his stead, and I have no idea who would even be considered my boss. The only contact I’ve had with the company in the past few months has been HR. Given the circumstances, is sending an email to HR letting them know I won’t be returning completely out of line? I’d like to leave on good terms and I don’t want them to think badly of resigning via email to HR, but since I haven’t been in for a year, there’s nothing to transition and I don’t even know who I’d contact.

In this circumstance, it’s fine to contact HR. You can even note that normally you’d be talking to your boss first, but she’s left and you haven’t yet had any contact with the new person.

Alternately, it would also be fine to contact the new boss too. Either way works.

5. Can we delay payroll if someone isn’t turning in their hours on time?

I am currently working as an office manager for a small handyman company. Part of my duties include collecting employee time cards and reporting hours to the third party vendor that processes our payroll. One employee in generally late with his time card, thus putting the rest of payroll on hold until he submits his. Do you know what the legal issues are around this? If an employee does not submit their time cards by stated deadlines, can we go ahead and process payroll? I know legally an employer has to pay all time worked, but what about the employees that now have their payroll on hold because of one worker who is always late?

And yes, I know this is a larger issue with accountability, and I have been pushing our boss to address that, but in the meantime, I don’t really know what to do about this payroll issue.

Your state almost certainly has a law that requires employees to be paid within X days of performing the work. To find out the law in your state, google your state name and “payroll laws.” You have to adhere to that timeline even if no one is reporting their hours on time. Your employer can, of course, discipline and even fire people who don’t report their hours on time, if that’s how they want to handle it, but they’re still obligated to pay everyone within that state-mandated timeline.

Of course, that may leave you wondering how you can know how much to pay an hourly employee if he isn’t reporting his hours on time — and that’s a question for your company’s management to figure out, because his laxness doesn’t relieve them of their legal responsibility.

Read an update to this letter here.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Listing a medical marijuana collective as an employer

I am a Los Angeles resident and am employed as a manager at a large medical marijuana collective. I began as a budtender in 2011 and three promotions later, I am managing a facility with over $3.5 million in sales annually. However, my partner has just accepted a great position in Oklahoma City and I am preparing to move out there and begin a job search.

While what I do is legal under the laws of the state of California, it is illegal under federal law and would also be illegal for me to do the same thing in Oklahoma.

Do I include this job on my resume; or will I be better off with a 5-year employment gap?

List it. It’s legitimate employment, and either way it’s better than a 5-year gap (which would also have to come with lying when asked what you were doing during those five years).

Will it turn some people off? Sure. But plenty of others will be fine with it and find it interesting.

Also, add a note next to the employer’s name that says “(operating legally under California state law).” If you can include in your accomplishments anything like “ensured that facility complied with all applicable state laws” or anything else that emphasizes the state-legal nature of what you were doing, that will help too.

2. Coworker won’t stop talking about medical issues

I have a coworker who has a habit and practice of complaining about her medical issues. She shares very detailed private medical issues not only about herself, but about her child. She shares with not only coworkers, but our customers who come into our office to use our facility.

I have complained to my supervisor, who is not an HR professional. In addition, I have advised her that her sharing makes me feel uncomfortable. However, she continues to share with other coworkers in a setting in which I can hear.

If this was a sexual harassment or complaint against ethnicity, would my complain be taken more seriously? I am not sure how to proceed. Should I just suck it up and try not to listen to these conversations?

It would indeed be taken more seriously, because those things are illegal while sharing one’s own medical information is not.

If you’ve asked the coworker herself to stop and she won’t, and if your manager doesn’t care, there’s not really much you can do here. You can call it out every time you hear it, I suppose (“Jane, I’d prefer not to talk about medical issues”), and that might get her to at least tone it down around you, but ultimately this is pretty much the same as a coworker who talks non-stop about Cross-Fit or baking or wedding planning any other personal topic: annoying, but not something you can unilaterally stop.

3. Coworkers are acting like it’s a big deal that I’m using our educational assistance benefit

I work at Teapot College in a student services type role. Before I started working here, I was enrolled in a Master’s degree program, but when I saw the job description at TC, I thought it fit my skills and experience so well that I decided to apply for it, even though I originally had my heart set on going to grad school (I’m interested in getting a higher degree because I’d eventually like to become a college professor). When I was interviewing for my position, I mentioned my desire to pursue a Master’s Degree, and was assured that TC encourages its employees to advance their education, and that in fact, they offer an Educational Assistance program for employees that will pay 70% of the degree (assuming it falls within certain parameters). This program was explained to me as a benefit of the job, and was one of the main reasons I decided to accept the position. I have an email from the hiring manager that explains all my benefits (such as vacation time, insurance, etc), and the educational assistance is listed as one of them. I also made it very clear in my interview that I was planning to take advantage of this program while employed at TC.

Recently, I got accepted into a graduate program that fits all the parameters of the EA program, and also is very closely related to my current position. I applied for educational assistance, and it was granted to me, but after quite a lengthy debate amongst the higher-ups at the college. It seems that this approval was discussed quite at length between many different people at the college, because I have since had several people (including my boss, my boss’s boss, and people who don’t even know me very well) say things to me like, “You should be so grateful that TC is helping pay for your education. They don’t usually do things like that for support staff,” or “You’re so lucky that your application got approved, because you haven’t been here nearly as long as so-and-so.”

While I am happy that I was approved for the funding, these kind of comments are starting to rub me the wrong way, because it was never mentioned to me in my interview process that only a select few “special” employees are granted this assistance, or that seniority has anything to do with whether or not I would receive this benefit. (Also, I wouldn’t consider myself support staff, since I have a salaried position with very specific skill requirements, but that’s beside the point). In my opinion, this was something that was offered to me as part of my salary and it is not an added “bonus” or “gift,” but it seems that is how others are perceiving it. As I said before, I did get approved, so perhaps I should just let this issue pass and not worry about the comments, but part of me is concerned that it may factor into a future raise, which I think would be unfair, but perhaps I am seeing this the wrong way. Do you suggest I talk to somebody about this, or just let it go?

To anyone making comments about it to you from here on out: “Actually, it was an explicit part of my offer and one of the main draws to me.”

To your boss: “Can you clear something up for me? I had thought from our conversations during the hiring process that educational assistance was a standard part of the benefits package here. It was a real draw to me, and I recall being up-front during my interview that I would want to take advantage of it. But you and others have commented to me that I’m especially lucky to have gotten it approved. Did I misunderstand?”

4. Three of us weren’t invited to a lunch with the rest of our team

There are 10 people in my team with 4 contractors, including me. Yesterday my team went to lunch with a few people who had come from Japan. Three of the contractors, including me, were not invited. One of us had worked with these Japanese colleagues also. We three felt excluded and did not understand on what basis they did it. People who did not work on the project went and one contractor was included. I was very hurt and want to ask our manager. Should I even bother to ask or just move on?

It’s possible that there were good reasons for who went and who didn’t go. It’s also possible that it was just an oversight, or that no one was specifically in charge of inviting people and it happened more spontaneously.

I probably wouldn’t ask why you weren’t included — that feels like making a bigger deal of it than is warranted — but it’s certainly reasonable to say something like, “If you think of it, I’d love to attend lunches like that in the future!”

Also, I’d pay attention to how you’re treated generally. If you generally feel like you’re included in the things that you should be included in, that’s an additional point in favor of not worrying too much about this. If you’re not, I might think about why you feel that way more broadly and whether there’s anything you should be addressing there.

5. What’s the right get-well-soon gesture for our manager?

Our manager is having a major surgery (unexpected, I think) and will be out for all of June starting next week. We would like to do something nice for her, but I’m not sure logistically of the norms around this kind of thing.

We were thinking of a card signed by all of us and maybe some cupcakes given before she leaves (she regularly brings cupcakes/treats for us and takes us out to lunch etc.). Is that okay? If so, what kind of card is usually used in this situation – “get well soon”?

I know you said generally gifts don’t flow upward, so I was just wondering if there’s something we can do other than just covering our workload and ensuring a smooth transition in the office.

That proposal sounds really nice, and perfectly appropriate — it won’t cost people anything and the cupcakes are clearly in line with her way of expressing appreciation since she provides them for others. And yes, a “get well soon” card is the category I’d go with.