Ask a Manager

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

1. Employer set up LinkedIn accounts for everyone and won’t release control of them

A few years ago, my husband’s employer set every one of their employees up on LinkedIn. To my knowledge, the company never gave the employees their passwords.

My husband is unsatisfied at his job for too many reasons to name here and I’ve been encouraging him to give LinkedIn a try to reconnect with former colleagues and assist him in his job search. He asked the current office manager how to get access to his account, and she said she had no idea what happened to the information (she was not the person who set this up back in the day) for everyone’s logins and couldn’t help him. A former employee told my husband that he recently tried to get access back now that he has left and the company is refusing to assist him.

My suggestion was to try to sign in and get Linked In to reset the password and see where the email goes. His concern is that if it doesn’t come to his email account (or even if it does), it might be a red flag that he is job searching. If the employee set up the account, is it technically their property? Any thoughts on how to get around this roadblock?

I think he should try your suggestion of resetting the password and seeing where the email goes. If it goes to someone else and they ask him about it, he can say that he wants to flesh out the account because he’s been getting lots of connection requests from professional contacts and/or because he wants to join some of the professional groups at LinkedIn to build his industry knowledge.

But beyond that, he could also simply contact LinkedIn and explain the situation. I’d bet it violates their terms of service to set up accounts using other people’s identities and refuse to release control of them. (In fact, yes, I just checked. It violates their terms of service to “create a member profile for anyone other than yourself (a real person)” and to “use or attempt to use another’s account.”)

2. Can I report my friend for helping me lie on my resume?

I have been unemployed (or on extended maternity leave) for four years. I was restructured forcefully from my former position at 34 weeks pregnant. It was a difficult situation, but I am doing my best to put it behind me.

This is now my situation. I know it sounds insane. Approximately seven months ago, I had a best friend who changed my resume for me. She wrote it and put on it that I “worked” for her company. At the time, I was uncomfortable, but I was desperate for a job so I went with it. I didn’t have much luck with this resume, so after a conflict with her, I have elected to stop using it. She told me at the time if anyone found out that she would be fired. Is this true? I no longer use the resume, but due to some extremely poor decisions she has made, I feel like her boss should know what she’s up to.

Yes, she absolutely could (and should) be fired for doing that. She mis-used her position with her company and showed an astonishing lack of integrity.

But … hold on here. The two of you were co-conspirators in this fraud, and it was for your benefit. You’re at least equally to blame here — and probably more to blame because you’re the one who was trying to get a job by lying about your background.

It sounds like you’ve had a falling-out with her and want to get back at her for your own reasons. Doing that would make you a crappy person, and you don’t want to be the person who does something like this. You must resist the urge, no matter what she’s done to you.

3. How can I ask an old manager who I’m out of touch with to be a reference?

I left my previous job four years ago. Although I am friendly with one of my ex-colleagues, I have not kept in touch with the management team. How would I ask my ex-manager/ex-department head about being references on future job applications? I don’t know how to word this request.

(I can get references from my current employer, but the culture in my profession is to have references from your current and previous job.)

“Hi Jane, I hope you’re doing well! I’ve been (brief update on your life). I’m now starting to think about moving on from my role with (employer), and I was hoping I’d be able to use you as a reference for the work I did for you. I’m looking for jobs doing ____, and thought you’d be able to speak about my work in that area. Would it be okay to list you as a reference?”

You don’t need to fill in tons of social details first — just a brief, polite “here’s what’s going on with me, hope you’re well, and now down to the reason I’m writing.” There’s nothing rude about the fact that you’ve been out of touch or that you’re writing with a specific request. Requests to be a reference are totally normal, and they don’t require tons of social cushioning. Be friendly and straightforward about what you’re looking for.

4. Sales jobs when you have a bad product

I just started a new job a few months ago in advertising sales. I like the company and my bosses well enough and they have a huge network of advertising options for customers. There is one problem though; I hear on a daily basis from past customers of my company (who are now customers in my territory) that they were not happy with the results of their past advertising campaigns with us, that they didn’t get anything near their return on investment, and that there are many other advertising options out there that are cheaper and yield better results. So basically, I’m selling a bad product that is priced too high.

I want to do well in my new job but at the same time I feel bad when I close a sale because I know the customer probably isn’t going to get out of it what they are expecting. I also deal with some independent artists, musicians, and writers who just want to give visibility to their work and who have extremely small budgets. I know closing deals with them is also not going to yield the results that they want.

So I feel I am trapped between trying to bring in sales for the company who signs my paycheck, and a sort of moral obligation to those who want to purchase advertising with us that aren’t going to get what they paid for out of the advertising. What is your advice to someone who is a sales person, selling a bad/overpriced product?

Look for a job selling a different product. I know that’s more easily said than done, but not only can you not stand by what you’re selling, but you know that you’re selling it to people who really can’t afford a bad investment. You sound like you’re too ethical for this, and rightly so.

5. Can my company deduct sick time by the hour rather than the day?

I’m a salaried, exempt worker at a company based in Oregon. My company has a policy of requiring us to dock our sick/vacation time on an hourly basis. So if I take an hour or two for a doctor’s appointment, they deduct those hours from my sick time. This is company policy.

I thought if you are exempt, an employer can deduct sick/vacation time by the day only. I mentioned it casually to HR, asking them to clarify. They said if there is a company policy in place, they can deduct by the hour. Can this be right?

No law prevents employers from deducting sick or vacation time by the hour or requires them to only deduct it by the day. They can make it a one-to-one trade, or require to always be used in half-day increments, or hell, require it to be used in five-minute increments. So what your company is doing is indeed perfectly legal.

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

1. Employees don’t want to leave work to drive home in the snow

What do you do during a snow storm when some employees feel highways are not safe to travel on and do not want to leave work and yet some do? Is it an employer’s responsibility to provide a place of refuge in case an employee feels it is unsafe to travel the highways home?

If someone doesn’t feel safe leaving work because of road conditions, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t allow them to remain on your premises, unless there’s a security issue in doing that. What’s the alternative — turning them out into the streets and forcing them to drive in possibly unsafe conditions when they don’t want to? That’s not a good solution.

Let people stay if they want to, unless there’s a specific reason why that’s unworkable. (And if there really is a legitimate reason you can’t let them stay but they don’t want to drive, a really great employer will help them make other arrangements — whether it’s having someone with four-wheel drive help transport people, local hotels, or whatever.)

2. Can I ask to work from home for a few days if I can’t stop crying?

Is there any way to professionally ask to work from home for a few days in a row, without going too much into the reason why with my boss? My fiancée and I are in a bad place, talking about splitting up, and I can’t stop crying. It’s going to be very hard to sit at my desk at work (tried it yesterday and had to go out to my car for long periods, ended up leaving early to see a therapist).

My typical schedule is working from home one day a week, so it’s not unheard of on our team to be remote. But, I don’t want to disclose all of my personal details to my boss. I want to keep working as much as I can this week, and I have limited sick leave (which I’ll take if I can’t gracefully find a way to ask about working remotely this week). Any ideas?

If you’re comfortable with it, I think it’s reasonable to say, “I’m dealing with something difficult in my personal life right now and having some trouble acting like everything is fine. Would it be okay if I worked from home for the next few days?” (Ideally your boss will just say that she hopes everything is okay and won’t pry, but if she does ask what’s going on, it’s fine to say something vague like, “Just a difficult personal situation, but I’m trying to work it out.”)

If you can’t imagine saying that to your boss, I tend to think that the phrase “under the weather” covers situations like this one (you’re emotionally under the weather, after all). For instance, it would be reasonable to say something like, “I’m under the weather but want to keep being productive — would it be okay for me to work from home today and tomorrow?”

I hope things get better soon.

3. My office is having us compete for “perks” by working extra time

I work for an online state university that acts more like a private for-profit university in terms of “selling” registration. We have our busiest registration period coming up and as advisors/call center reps, our bosses want us to get hyped to work the busy, stressful month. To do this, our bosses have split us up into teams and are giving us tokens to redeem for work perks. These perks are normally denied to us advisors, but are university approved for everyone to use like teleworking and alternative working schedules. To earn these tokens, we have to go above and beyond our normal working requirements including being asked to work outside our normal hours without wage compensation, and giving up our lunch/breaks to better assist our students. As often asked, is the competition for perks legal for our management to ask of us?

We are are salaried, contracted, and exempt.

The idea of a competition to earn perks is legal in and of itself, even if it’s designed to get you to work extra shifts.

If you were non-exempt, some of what they’re asking you to do to compete would be illegal: Regardless of any perks that you might receive, your employer is required by law to pay non-exempt employees for all the time they’ve worked, including overtime. In that case, I’d recommend saying something like, “I don’t want us to get into trouble with the state department of labor, so I wanted to point out that state law does require us to pay people for all time worked, regardless of the competition.”

However, you say that you’re exempt, so this wouldn’t apply; as a exempt worker, you’re not required to be paid additional wages for additional work. That said, I wonder if you’re classified correctly; call center reps are normally non-exempt positions. It might be worth looking into the classification standards and seeing if you’re misclassified.

Speaking of perks…

4. Do I need to distribute perks evenly among my team?

My team of six was all in the office on New Year’s Eve, and my first instinct was to let everyone take off a few hours early in the spirit of the holiday. But I ended up not doing this, because I felt like only half of the team actually deserved it. I’ve been trying to deal with some performance issues on my team, mostly related to people not meeting deadlines. I am grateful to have some superstars on my team, who are rewarded privately with bigger merit increases, and excellent reviews, and I am working with the underperformers at to raise their level of work. We’re a very friendly/collegial team, but due to the nature of our work, it’s pretty much invisible (except to me) how each person’s performance stacks up against everyone else.

My options were to either give everyone a few hours off, give no one a few hours off, or single out a few people with a few hours off. They’re all non-exempt, so a few hours off really does mean getting paid to do nothing. All of these options felt wrong, but I ended up giving no one time off. Is there a fourth option that I’m missing? Or should perks like a few freebie hours be distributed regardless of performance?

I tend to think that sending people home early for a holiday should be a do-it-for-everyone thing, not something that you’re using to reward performance. That said, if you feel strongly that your lower performers needed to stay, I don’t think it’s crazy to discreetly say to the people you want to reward, “Hey, you’ve had a great year. Why don’t you head out early?” If someone else asks you why they didn’t get released early too, you can simply say, “We needed some coverage but not full coverage, and Jane and Fergus had finished everything I needed from them.”

More generally, no, perks don’t need to be distributed evenly regardless of performance. It often makes sense to treat people differently depending on how they perform. There are SOME perks, though, that are more of a group thing — for example, you wouldn’t want to invite only some people to a team dinner or other outing.

5. Is this company mishandling smoke breaks?

After 3 years, the company my husband works for here in Maine changed their smoking policy. Which was fine until they today. In Maine, they are required to give paid breaks, but the people were asked to now punch out to have their smoke off property. Again, this was tolerable. But after the first run, the company decided they did not want that many people punching out for a break. Remember, it was their rule. Now they are told that they cannot punch out to have a cigarettes until lunch. They have to wait 6 to 7 hours or were told they can quit their jobs if they didn’t agree. No e-cigs….no vapor products…nothing. They were told that “we gave you 17 months warning to quit smoking”

How is this legal by Maine standards? The folks are willing to bend but not to be told what to do like children.

In Maine, employers must give employees the opportunity to take an unpaid rest break of 30 consecutive minutes after six hours worked, if three or more people are on duty. No coffee, bathroom, or smoking breaks are required. So it sounds like the company is complying with the law, as long as they’re getting that break after six hours. If they’re pushing it back to seven, that would be a legal issue.