Ask a Manager

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

1. Will I be judged on the kinds of questions I ask at an interview, or on asking no questions at all?

At the end of interviews, we are asked if there are any questions. How much weight is placed on the kind of questions asked or saying “I have no questions”?

Lots of weight. The types of questions you ask can reveal all sorts of things about you — what motivates you, what you are and aren’t most interested in, what kind of judgment you have, whether you’re enthusiastic about the work, whether you’re realistic about the work, and plenty more.

Here are some questions you should never ask, and here are some questions to get you started on what you might want to ask.

And really, why wouldn’t you want to ask questions? You’re considering spending 40+ hours a week at this job; aren’t you hungry for all the information about it you can get?

2. Should I give feedback to a pushy, problematic job candidate who keeps applying?

I’m the funnel for graduate assistant applicants for my school. All applicants go through me because I assist faculty members in the hiring process, it gives HR a single contact, and it saves the faculty members from being bombarded by emails. I simply forward applicants as I receive them.

One of our students knows that I operate in this capacity and that I employ graduate assistants myself. “Jane” has come to me 3-4 times, asking me if I could pass along her resume, if I know of any openings, or if my own positions are filled. The problem is that this student has a reputation for being incredibly unreliable, needy, and divisive. She’s never been hired by my department, but word got to me from others she’s worked for in the university, and when she’s helped us out with events in a student capacity, it hasn’t been pretty. In short, I’m not inclined to pass her resume to anyone without serious disclaimers, and I’ll never hire her myself. My question is whether I should explain any of this to her, or if I should continue to nod and smile and give generic responses?

It sounds like your role in the hiring process isn’t one where you’re doing any screening or making decisions on who does and doesn’t move forward, so I think your best bet is to just continue doing that and not try to give her feedback.

If you did have a more involved role in hiring decisions, though, I’d still probably say not to say anything in this particular case. It’s tough to give give feedback that’s just about reputation rather than problems you’ve seen first-hand. Since she HAS helped you out with events, you could talk about that though — “I’ll be honest, when you helped on Events A and B, I had some concerns about X and Y. To consider you for a job here, I’d want to see real evidence of change and growth in those areas.”

3. My bonus was much smaller than coworkers in different roles from mine

I work part-time (filing, reception, phones, extra projects) for a financial advisory office and received a year-end bonus of $750. I’m pleased with the bonus, but I discovered – quite inadvertently, honestly – that there were other bonuses paid to full-time colleagues ranging between $10,000 and $24,500. They are not doing the same type of work as me. My work is basic receptionist/filing/phones/special projects – it’s part-time, about 30 hrs a week. The others in my firm are 5 financial advisors and my office manager. It isn’t that I would have expected anywhere near those dollars in a bonus – after all, I am only part-time, my work is nowhere near the same level as the officers/advisors. But I think I’m feeling a little insulted and I don’t know if I should be. I mean, I believe my feelings are valid – but are they appropriate to the circumstances?

I hate to appear ungrateful, but am I wrong to feel a little bugged by the huge difference in bonuses?

It’s very normal for people who work in finance to make large bonuses, and very normal for someone who’s doing part-time admin work to make a much smaller bonus. So I’d stick with your initial assessment (when you were happy with the amount you got) and not compare the amount to people who are in very different roles, with very different pay norms.

4. How are degrees in “general studies” perceived?

I lucked into a great career: internet marketing. I joined this industry when it was new and no college courses were offered in this field. Fast forward 20 years and I’m ready to move to the next step in my career. But a larger percentage of companies have online applications and require a bachelor’s degree. The cheapest, fastest path to a bachelor’s is finishing a degree in general studies (B.S.G.) online at my old university. How much weight would a B.S.G. carry in the workforce?

It’s … seen as kind of a bullshit degree. It’ll let you answer “yes” to the question of whether you graduated from college, but it won’t be particularly impressive to rigorous employers who are looking for evidence of strong critical thinking skills.

On the other hand, you’re doing the degree as kind of a perfunctory check-off-the-box measure at this stage in your career; it’s not like you’re doing it to get rigorous academic training to prepare you for a career, and that’s going to be clear to employers since you already have a career.

And that’s why the whole thing is silly. 20 years into your career, you have enough of a track record to show far more than a degree ever shows. At the start of a career, when you have little to no experience, degrees can be a shorthand that tells employers that you have at least some basic education and the wherewithal to stick with something for a few years. But employers don’t need that shorthand with more experienced candidates since they have their actual track record of work to look at. And you shouldn’t need to go through the time and expense of going back to school just to check off a box.

But if you do, I’d go for a more specific degree if you can.

5. Can my employer decide not to pay me for this month because of financial hardship?

As an exempt employee (director level) in a California nonprofit, is it legal for the CEO to tell me two weeks before payday that we are not getting any salary for the month of January? Our organization gets paid once a month on the last day of the month, and today I was told that due to financial hardship no director will receive a salary for January. Furthermore, this is not a salary deferral, it is a forfeiture of salary.

Nope, it’s not legal. They’re required to pay you your agreed-upon salary for any work you’ve done. Moreover, they’re required to pay it within a certain amount of time or penalties accrue. In California, wages earned between the 1st and 15th days of the month must be paid no later than the 26th day of that same month, and wages earned between the 16th and last day of the month must be paid by the 10th day of the following month. There’s no option to just not pay earned wages.

I’d say this to them: “I realize finances are very tight right now, but not paying people would violate federal and state law, and will trigger financial penalties at the state level. We could get in a lot of trouble with the state department of labor if we don’t pay people.”

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

1. My boss was about to promote me, and then he got fired

My boss has promised me a promotion throughout the last seven months. He emailed the proposal to me that he gave to HR. While he was figuring out details, they ended up terminating him. He is the dean of the school. Every day I have worked for the last seven months, all I have heard is “when you get promoted into the new position…” And now he is gone! I’m not sure if I should bother going to HR or not. They have known about his plan to promote me into the new position. Am I SOL?

It’s totally reasonable to talk to HR — or your boss’s boss — about what this means for your planned promotion. I’d say something like this: “Percival had put together a plan to promote me to ___, and I know he’d been discussing a formal proposal with HR. While I realize that things may be up in the air right now, I wonder if you can tell me what’s likely to happen with that. Is it something that will still move forward?”

You might hear that they want to wait to hire a replacement for your boss first, or you might hear that they’re moving forward with it regardless, or you might hear that everything is in the air right now and they just don’t know. But it’s very reasonable to ask.

2. I’m not sure if I can afford my coworker’s fancy retirement dinner

I have a colleague who just retired, and a dinner has been planned for the group of us to go out with him and his wife. The dinner is at a fancy seafood place near his home (our group is spread out in our state, so driving more me will be 90 minutes each way). While I don’t eat seafood at all, there are a couple things on the menu that I will eat so that’s not so much the issue. I am one the most junior of the group in terms of age (I’m 34; there is one other who is 33 and everyone else is fairly older), and the most junior in terms of position even though I have been at this position for 11 years. I earn the least of the group (everyone else earns at least twice of what I do, which is $35k). My meal alone will probably cost no less than $75, which is WAY more than I would ever spend on myself, but it’s a retirement thing, so whatever.

However, it hasn’t been made clear who is paying, whether I’m paying for myself (I’m expecting this), or whether or not we’ll be asked to contribute for my retiring colleague and his wife? I hope that the latter isn’t the case because if it is, then I think it’s more than I’m comfortable spending. What would be normal in this situation? And if we’re expected to chip in, what should I say without offending anyone, that I can’t afford to help?

You could talk to the person organizing it and ask something like, “Is the company is covering our meals, or we should be planning to pay for ourselves? And maybe plan to chip in to cover Percival and Clementine too?” If the answer is that yes, everyone will be covering your retiring coworker and his wife, you could then say, “I’m hesitating a little because I’m on a tight budget. I’d like to go but may not be able to cover more than my meal.” I think there’s value in being explicit about this even if it’s a little uncomfortable, because whoever organizes this stuff should hear that it’s not a comfortable price point for at least some participants.

But also, any chance you can just not go? Driving three hours total and spending more than you’d like to spend on a meal you don’t particularly want to eat doesn’t sound ideal. Have you considered just having a conflict that prevents you from going, and instead giving your retiring colleague a card telling him how much you’ve enjoyed working with him?

3. My boss jokes about people getting fired or laid off

My boss regularly makes jokes about job security, people getting fired, layoffs, wage cuts, etc. We’ll be looking at a new copier, for example, and he’ll say, “We’ll be cutting your salaries back to make this purchase!” I’m not insecure about my job, but office morale is consistently low due to poor management. These jokes are abrasive and unwelcome and no one is laughing. This morning I told him that I really don’t like it when he makes those jokes. He said that it was because I’m insecure and don’t have a good sense of humor. Not the case! I just think it’s inappropriate for an employer to make light of topics that his employees likely don’t find funny – like getting fired, laid off, or having their livelihoods shrunk to pay for a new copier. Am I crazy? Missing the joke?

Yep, it’s dumb and inappropriate, but you’ve said your piece and he disagrees, so I would assume those jokes are going to continue and just ignore them. Sounds like you’ve got bigger issues with the management there anyway.

4. I was rejected because I wasn’t going to be available when a company was scheduling final interviews

It’s my dream to work in Company X, and I’ve heard that it’s nearly impossible to get in without interning there first. When I submitted my application for an internship around September, I informed the firm beforehand that I would be overseas for a week on holiday in December. I specifically highlighted it clearly in my cover letter and also emphasized this fact to my interviewer.

I made it all the way to the final round – and yes, as Murphy would have it, they called me exactly when I was overseas. Naturally I was extremely upset, and told them I would be happy to do online interviews, but it was a group round and I had to be physically present. Thus, I was automatically dropped out of the running.

I understand that companies don’t have much time to read through cover letters, so is there a way to prevent this from reoccurring? In the meantime, I don’t want to give up on Company X. Is there something I could do to salvage the situation?

It’s not that they’re not reading your cover letter; it’s that weeks later, they’re not retaining information about specific dates you’ll be away. There’s not really much you can do about that when it happens, other than reminding them when your time away is getting near (“I want to remind you that I’ll be out of the country for a week starting on the 15th; if that will conflict with steps in the hiring process, I’d be glad to try to arrange something right before I leave or right before I get back”). But if they have interviews scheduled during specific days and don’t have flexibility on that, it’s just sort of bad luck.

In this case, its sounds like they weren’t willing to be flexible (which could be because they’re overly rigid, or because they had they had legitimate scheduling constraints, or because they weren’t sufficiently excited about you as a candidate to alter their schedule — it’s hard to know from the outside), and there’s not really anything you can do about that, unfortunately.

5. Asking a business contact about jobs in their organization

I like my work, but the environment around here is pretty toxic these days. I sincerely doubt the company will last the year. We’ve lost all our senior employees as it is.

Ive been job hunting but my education and skillset isnt really suitable to most jobs in the industry I’m in. My ideal is to work for the department of the government who I work closely with in the course of my duties and whose responsibilities I am sure I’m qualified for. It’s very hard to get hired by government here without help on the inside though.

I do have a very positive working relationship with several file managers there, one in particular who is my go-to person for advice and answers and the occasional friendly chat. Would it be appropriate to ask her about job openings or passing along a resume for me, and if so, how would I word that request?

Yes, as long as it’s the sort of relationship where you wouldn’t worry about her mentioning it to your current employer. I’d say something like this: “I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do when I move on from this role, and I’d actually really love to work with your office. I’d love to pick your brain about it at some point or even send in a resume if you think that might make sense.”

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

1. Is it demeaning to refer to “my team” or “my assistant”?

I’m a relatively new manager supervising a team of 20. Over the holidays, a cousin told me that one should never refer to people you supervise as “my team” or “my #1 salesman” (using the possessive). He said that you should only use a possessive vertically upward, such as “my boss” or “my company VP.” I’d never want to make my team (see, there I did it) uncomfortable, but also never imagined that this might be an issue. Can you weigh in?

Your cousin is overthinking things. It’s totally normal to refer to “my team,” “my staff,” “my assistant,” and so forth, just like you’d say “my company,” “my friend,” or “my kid.” It’s a way of expressing the relationship, not ownership or possession. How does your cousin refer to people who work for him — “the salesperson on my team”? That’s unnecessarily convoluted.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with taking the opportunity to say “we” instead of “my team” or “our salesperson” instead of “my salesperson” when you have the option. But not every sentence lends itself to that, and it’s fine if it doesn’t. What matters far more than any of this is how you treat people and how effectively you manage — do that well and no one will worry about this stuff; screw it up and your team is far more likely to bristle at wording choices.

2. Asking about whether I’d have to work with the rude person who interviewed me

I recently had an interview where I found out that I am one of two final candidates. In the interviews I have had with Jane, who would be my direct manager, I really enjoyed our conversations and thought that she seemed like an excellent manager. However, my last interview was with Lisa, the head of the department, who was incredibly rude, dismissive, and confrontational. In debriefing with a friend/colleague who has worked with Lisa, my impression of her was confirmed – she is really difficult to work with. If I am offered the job, is there a tactful way to ask how much contact I would actually have with Lisa (or how much her abrasive personality affects the entire department) before making my decision?

I’d say something like this to Jane: “I really enjoyed getting the chance to talk with both you and Lisa. Can you give me a sense of how my role interacts with Lisa? How closely would we be working together, if at all?” Your tone here matters — it should be neutral, not have an undercurrent of “I really don’t want to work with Lisa.” Jane will probably be able to figure out why you’re asking, but you’ll come across as much more professional if you handle it neutrally.

But also, regardless of Jane’s answer, give real thought to whether you want to take a job that ultimately reports up to someone you describe as” incredibly rude, dismissive, and confrontational.” Even if you don’t have regular interaction with her, those characteristics tend to really impact a team’s culture and how they operate.

3. Do I have to invite my coworkers to my wedding?

In September, I started a new job. The managers that hired me were very vocal about how happy they were to have me on board, and they believed in me from the start. Also, the people at my new job are very kind-however, no one really hangs out or communicates outside of work.

I recently became engaged over the holidays, and many people at work have been really sweet about it. I received cards and gifts, which I did not expect at all. The thing is, I’m not sure if I should invite them to my wedding. I wasn’t planning to, because I’m still kind of new (although my wedding is next January, so I’m sure I’ll get to know my co-workers better over the next year) and also as I said, no one really hangs out outside of work. I just don’t want to obligate them. Also, I am not sure if I should mix work with my personal life. It is also one of those things where I wouldn’t know where to draw the line…..like I could invite the three other people only in my department, but then I’m not sure if I have to invite my manager, too? I also am concerned that they now expect an invitation, considering they gave me gifts and cards. I was very surprised and touched over these gestures, because the people at my last job didn’t do things like that.

You don’t need to invite coworkers; it’s not expected, at least in most offices. The fact that your coworkers have already given you cards and gifts doesn’t change that; it’s very, very normal for coworkers to do that (and even potentially throw a shower!) and still not expect to be invited. If anyone asks, it’s fine to just say, “Oh, we’re keeping it small.” But polite people won’t ask or be upset that they’re not invited.

4. LinkedIn when you’re taking time out of the workforce to raise kids

I have just left the workforce to stay home with my children full-time. I have a 3-year-old and one due in a few weeks. I will return to work at some point, though I don’t know when. (I have some close contacts and a mentor in my professional network and I plan to keep my professional memberships current). What is the best way to update my status on LinkedIn to reflect this?

I wouldn’t. There’s no reason that your LinkedIn profile needs to explain that you’re taking time away. It can continue the way it always is, just without indicating a current job. Any other alternative just calls attention to the fact that you’re taking time out, without any real reason to need to highlight that. (And it’s not that you need to hide that, of course; it’s just that I don’t see any particular benefit from highlighting it.)

5. When family members of the owner are treated differently

My husband, who is a manager, is a salaried employee. His assistant manager is the wife of one of the owners of the business and is also a salaried employee. She is not an owner. Both are supposedly full-time employees. My husband is required to keep track of how many days off per year he uses – down to the hour. If he exceeds his allowed days off during the year, he is required to deduct an hourly wage from his pay for the days missed until the end of the year. The same is not the case for the assistant manager. She rarely works a full week, taking 2-3 hours off each day, not showing up whenever she wants, takes months off from work to travel, etc. and always gets her full wages. The owner states that it is a perk of being an owner, but she’s not an owner. She’s an employee. What can, if anything, he do about this inconsistency?

Probably nothing. It’s not unusual for family businesses to treat family employees differently than non-family employees. It’s often part of the package with family businesses, and it’s really up to the owner if he wants to hold his wife to a different standard. Your husband might find that too frustrating to want to deal with it (and I wouldn’t blame him), but then the solution would be to find a job somewhere else; it’s unlikely that the owner is going to be persuaded to manage his wife differently.