Ask a Manager

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

1. Colleague is dressing down on charity dress-down day but refusing to pay

I have a bit of an unusual situation. In my office, we’ve started having a “charity dress down day” at the end of every month. Each employee can donate £1 in order to dress down for the day, and a different department each month gets to choose which charity the donations go to. They usually organise games related to their charity as well to raise extra.

There is one guy who dresses down every single time, but refuses to donate the £1. He says that he was under the impression that the company would match all donations and as that hasn’t happened, he won’t donate till they do. The thing is, I send out the emails about these charity days and I remember that I told him it wouldn’t be matched the day before the first dress down day. So he knew in advance that it wouldn’t be matched and chose to dress down anyway – and has carried on doing so every month since.

Now other departments are getting more and more upset/angry about it every month that goes by. I have people coming up and asking whether this guy has donated. They feel like he’s getting away with something that no one else would be allowed to (which is true). His manager is a lovely guy but seems completely unable to force him to either stop dressing down, or start paying his £1.

What’s the solution here? Are people being too sensitive about a £1 donation, or should we push harder to make this be taken seriously by management? What can realistically be done even if they do look into it?

Someone in your company needs to decide how serious they are about this whole set-up. If they’re serious about it, then his manager needs to tell him, “Hey, what you’re doing isn’t cool and you need to either participate in the charity drive or quit dressing down.”

If you’re the person who’s organizing all this, or if you otherwise are in a role where you have standing to raise this, you should talk to his manager and point out that this guy is undermining the charity drives and needs to be talked to. Or you can talk to him directly yourself and say, “It’s fine that you don’t want to donate, but you’re continuing to dress down without donating, and it’s removing the incentive for other people to participate. If you don’t want to participate with a donation, can you please ignore the program entirely and stop dressing down on our dress-down days?”

For what it’s worth, I’m no fan of the whole concept, for the reasons here.

2. Should my cover letters extend sympathies to the company CEO, whose daughter just died?

I am working on a job application for a nonprofit organization of about 15 staff. The position reports to a vice president.

The organization has announced that among the victims of the train crash in Philadelphia was the daughter of the organization’s president and CEO. Would it be respectful or distasteful to mention that in the cover letter – i.e., “Please extend my sympathies to Ms. Jones” or something along those lines? Should I remain mute?

Do not mention it in your cover letter. It’s not the place for it, they’re not actually going to mention to the CEO that a job applicant she doesn’t know sends her sympathy, and it risks coming across as if you’re using her tragedy to create rapport (although I understand that’s not at all how you intend it).

Read an update to this letter here.

3. Is this hiring process fair?

There is currently a manager post open at my organisation which has been advertised externally and internally. Myself and several colleagues are applying for the role which will be a promotion. The interview process starts with an assessment day which I’m assuming will be group work on scenarios.

If you are successful at this stage you then move forward to the interview round. I have found out that one of my colleagues who is currently acting up as a temporary manager covering maternity leave has also applied but will skip the assessment round and go straight through to interview. The justification for this is that she is already operating at this level.

Is this fair? I feel it shows favouritism and am two minds whether to do something as I shouldn’t officially know this information.

Sure. If they’ve seen her actually doing the work that the assessment round is designed to assess, that’s far more useful in terms of evaluating her candidacy than even the best-designed assessment can ever be. Assessments are designed to see candidates in action; if they’ve already seen her doing that work, there’s no reason to spend her or their time making her jump through that hoop.

4. Do I have to give info to a skip tracer who’s looking for an employee?

This morning my voicemail had a message from someone claiming to be with “Verifax,” wanting to “confirm a payroll address.” I Googled the company and discovered they do skip tracing (locating people who can’t be easily tracked down). I assume they’re attempting to track down one of our current or former employees for debt collection.

If they call back, do I have to give them the employee’s address? What are my requirements and liabilities in this situation? I’m leery of giving out any kind of personal information about our employees; my preference would be to tell them nothing (how do I know they’re really legit, and not a crazy stalker ex?).

Nope, as far as I know, you have no legal obligation to assist them. If they had a court order, that would be different — but without one, as far as I know you’re free to say, “We don’t release personal information about employees so I’m unable to help you.”

5. My boss introduced me with a dramatically wrong title

I am currently employed as finance manager (which is the job I accepted), but during a major meeting I was introduced by my boss as an admin. Can a company change my job title so dramatically without informing me?

Sure, they can change your title. The bigger issue here isn’t whether or not they’re allowed to, but what’s actually going on. Is there any other reason to think that your role and title is so different from the one you accepted? Are you doing the work of a finance manager or of an admin? What’s your role been thus far?

Assuming that you’re doing the work you were hired to do, I’d say this to your boss: “I noticed you introduced me in the X meeting as an admin, and I wanted to make sure I’ve got my title right — we agreed on finance manager, right?”

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

1. Should I let a rejected candidate know that her references aren’t great?

We’re in the process of hiring summer interns for my project, and we’re at a loss over how to handle a request for feedback from an applicant we rejected. The person we rejected is about to graduate from college and one the references (an advisor on the student’s thesis) told us flat out we shouldn’t hire the candidate (and gave enough critical details that we thought this reference wasn’t just someone with a personal grudge against the applicant but had legitimate, specific criticisms). The second reference was much more glowing, but when pressed, admitted the candidate was a good person but “not a shining star.” That’s enough red flags for us so we rejected the candidate. Unsurprisingly, this candidate immediately requested feedback and was very disappointed in the outcome.

I know we’re not obligated to give a rejected candidate feedback, but part of me really wants to give this person the heads up a reference is so completely negative, especially since this is a young college student with limited experience. But the employer side of me is really grateful this reference helped us dodge a problem candidate. How would you handle this?

No, don’t do it! You’d be abusing the confidentiality of the reference process. Those references assumed they were talking to you in confidence and gave you their candid assessments in good faith, figuring that it would be helpful to you. It’s really up to them to decide whether to talk to the candidate about what kind of a reference they’re able to give; it’s not your place to “out” them. And after all, you want references to be candid with you, even when it doesn’t reflect well on the candidate. If people have to worry that their comments won’t be handled confidentially, you’re far less likely to get useful references in the future.

2. Bringing a portfolio to a dinner interview

Whenever I go to interviews, I bring along a leather portfolio with clean resumes and references in case I am asked for them on the spot. I am going on a second interview tomorrow evening at a restaurant of the employer’s choice. Given that space could be tight at the table and I don’t want to bring a bag of any kind, is it safe to leave the portfolio behind?

A portfolio might be tough to have with you (it would be hard to put it on the floor but not something you’ll want on the table), but I’d bring a bag or briefcase with you. You may not end up needing a copy of your resume or something to take notes with, but it’s more important that you have both of those things in case you do need them than it is to cater to tight spaces. And it’s unlikely that you wouldn’t be able to tuck a small briefcase or similar bag beneath your chair if there’s no other room for it.

3. I don’t want to give out my name when I answer the phone

For the first time in my 17-year career with the county, I am being asked to give out my name when I answer the phone. I really, really hate it – to me, it feels like an invasion of privacy. I’m not management, I’m not a department head. It really is irritating when people use my name back. I don’t know them, I don’t want them coming in asking for me – I’m the receptionist, for heaven’s sake. Can they make me give my name out?

Yes. It’s a pretty common way for businesses to like their phones answered. I don’t particularly understand why, but it’s their prerogative, and it’s going to seem like you’re making a mountain out of a molehill if you make a big deal about it.

If people come in asking for you, well, you’re the receptionist so you’re probably going to be the first person they talk to anyway, right?

4. Should I confront an employer who interviewed me even though they’d already hired someone else?

I just interviewed yesterday for a position, they seemed interested, and they said they also have a few more people to interview in the upcoming week. But when I got home, a colleague had told some friends that they got the job I just interviewed for earlier that morning. ​​

Is it unprofessional to confront them about that, or should I just wait it out until they let me know in a week like they said, even if I know it’s filled? I’m angry that professionals do that to anyone, it just doesn’t seem right.

Confront them? No, you shouldn’t confront them; that sounds awfully adversarial and isn’t warranted. It’s possible that they’re hiring for more than one slot for the job you spoke with them about. It’s possible that your friend’s friend didn’t accept the offer until after your interview. It’s possible that it was already a done deal, but they wanted to talk to you anyway because they know they have a similar slot opening up soon. Confronting them would be a good way to torpedo your chances of being hired by them in the future.

5. Required to donate time or money to a nonprofit

As part of our goals for our yearly raise, my employer is making us either donate our time or donate money to a nonprofit in the amount of at least $120. If we don’t do this, our raise will be impacted by not meeting our goals. Is this legal?

It is. They’re basically saying that some sort of community involvement is a requirement of the job. You can debate the wisdom of that, but it’s their prerogative.