Ask a Manager

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

1. Inheriting a longtime employee who isn’t doing his job

I’m a young manager who is having an issue with one of my employees. He has been with the company for 35 years and is over 65. His previous supervisor was a longtime friend of his and basically allowed to him to get away with not doing his job for years and years. Now, as they say, there’s a new sheriff in town and I am having a very hard time getting him to do his job functions.

There are a number of objective job functions that he simply avoids, but he does the primary job duty well. I’m not sure what to do. I was hoping he’d simply retire, but he advised that he doesn’t want to retire for at least another year. So now I am faced with disciplining someone who’s been poorly managed for years and who has been with the company even longer. I don’t even know how to go about having the initial conversation with him because HE thinks he’s performing the job well (due to the previous manager).

How key are the job functions that he doesn’t perform? If they’re relatively minor and if his value to the company is high enough because of the primary work that he does well, it might be reasonable to redefine his role so that the stuff he’s not doing is no longer part of it. That’s not crazy if he’s otherwise a high performer and the work allows for that kind of rejiggering — but only if he brings a ton of value; if he’s not, then you shouldn’t be rearranging things to accommodate that.

If that’s not the case, though, then you need to give him clear and direct feedback. Just be straightforward: “Bob, I’ve noticed that you’re not doing X and Y. They’re important parts of your role and I want to get them back on your radar. Can you make sure you’re doing them weekly (or whatever makes sense here)?” Then if you don’t see it happening, you revisit it: “We talked a couple of weeks ago about the need for you to do X and Y. It hasn’t happened. What’s going on?”

If he points out that he hasn’t been required to do this work in the past, you can say, “I can’t speak to what Jane needed when you were working with her, but what I need from this role is ___. Can you do that?” Then, if you’re still not seeing the work getting done, then you treat it like you would any other serious performance issue — meaning that you escalate the seriousness of the conversation and start imposing consequences. More here.

2. Can I apply for a different internal role less than a month after starting a new job?

Less than a month ago, I started a job that was a small step up from my last position. I’m currently an office assistant. I don’t want to come off snobbish but I am overqualifed for the position (it doesn’t require a degree, none of the previous employees in this position have had a degree, and I have a graduate degree in a field relevant to the work done in the office).

A colleague, with similar qualifications and education to me, may be leaving the office soon. This position would be the next logical step in my career path, something I wanted to move in to after I had put in a year plus at my current position. However, now that the opportunity looks like it may arise, I want to jump on it.

However, I think my supervisors would be hesitant to consider me as they have had trouble keeping my position staffed in the past. They’ve praised my work and they have said I fit in well with the office culture. I’m sure that they like me as a person and an employee, but I don’t think they would want to open my position again. Are there ways I can convince them otherwise?

I wouldn’t try to convince them. You can broach the topic once, lightly, but if they don’t bite, you shouldn’t pursue it — because you’ve only been in your current position for less than a month, and it won’t reflect well on you if you’re already pushing to get out of it. Broaching it lightly means saying something like, “I realize I just started, and I’m happy in my role, but I’d love to move into a position like Jane’s in the future. It’s absolutely fine if it doesn’t make sense for me to throw my hat in the ring for it since I’m new to my current role, but I did want to mention it and see what you think.” But that’s it — you can throw it out there, but you can’t do more than that without raising real questions about your commitment to your current role.

Also, be careful about considering yourself overqualified. Having a degree for a job that doesn’t require one (graduate or otherwise) doesn’t in and of itself make you overqualified. If you have education or experience doing A but you’re in a job doing B, your’e not overqualified. I’m assuming that your masters degree isn’t in office assistance, which means that you might be differently qualified, but you’re probably not overqualified. (To better illustrate this, I might be overqualified for a position writing captions because I’ve spent years writing more complicated pieces, but I wouldn’t be overqualified for a position in retail, because I have zero experience in retail work.) Here’s a good column from Suzanne Lucas about this.

3. Should I let my former employee’s new employer know that he was jailed for stealing $100,000?

In my previous organization, I had an employee who stole over $100,000 dollars and went to jail for it. He is now out if prison and I recently spotted him as a suggested connection on LinkedIn and saw that he’s been hired by a company where this should have been a red flag (a job where he’s in a position to control money). Obviously his profile says nothing about the theft/conviction, but it also outright lies about his responsibilities/accomplishments from when I was his manager.

Is there any way to legally reach out to this company to let them know the truth? Or even simply suggest they run a thorough background check? Or would I be setting myself up for a lawsuit?

Well, there’s no law against telling the truth, in references or in other situations … but there is a legal concept called tortious interference, which is a legal violation related to intentionally damaging someone’s business relationships. It’s possible that could come into play here, but I don’t know enough to say for sure.

I think it probably doesn’t matter though, because I’m going to advise against you doing this. It’s just not your responsibility. His new employer is responsible for doing whatever kind of background check they deem necessary, and they apparently didn’t (or did and were somehow convinced it didn’t matter). That’s their call, and the only people who will be harmed if they made the wrong call are them (as opposed to, say, someone working with children who had an abuse conviction in their background). I’d stay out of it.

4. My job takes my tips and uses them to fund group activities

I work at a front counter and my job is taking my credit card tip money. They use it to go out and do group activities with the money. Is this legal? Can they dictate what happens to the money? If not, what can I do? I live in Georgia and do not see were the law says this is legal and they have never asked me if they can have the money for activities.

No, they can’t do that. In most states, it’s legal for tips to go into a pool, when that pool is then divided among certain staff members (which can’t include the employer), but they then need to be paid out to you from that pool. They can’t confiscate them to fund activities. Contact your state department of labor for next steps.

5. Cover letters for text boxes

I’m in the process of looking for a new job, and am applying online for one in particular. I’ve uploaded my resume, but it also allows you to copy/paste text for a cover letter into a text box to be included. Would love to hear from you regarding how to approach that kind of cover letter – should it just be a few sentences? Will it even be reviewed? I’ve not done this before.

I’d just write a normal cover letter and paste it in there. If there’s a character limit in the box, you’ll obviously need to trim your letter down to meet that, but other than that, I’d treat it as you would any other cover letter. And yes, I’d assume it will indeed be reviewed if they’re giving you a place to put it.

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

1. My boss told me “sorry isn’t good enough anymore”

I have been at my job for about 14 months, and I was a temp here for six months before that. I feel like in the last few months, I have had a major screw-up like clockwork, once a month. Today my boss said, “Sorry isn’t good enough anymore. We don’t know what to do. We need something more from you.”

Last month, I came clean and admitted to them that I have been dealing with anxiety and ADHD issues that I am seeking treatment for (I know it was a huge risk divulging that information, but it was worth it). Today I sent an email to my bosses apologizing again and letting them know I am following a series of “checklists” to keep track of everything. I noted that when I do follow these, my work is considerably better.

I am at a loss as to what to do. How can I stop making screw-ups? How do I get out of my own way? How can I do damage control with my bosses?

Well, it sounds like you’ve figured out that checklist help dramatically — so use those religiously. Beyond that, it’s hard to give specific advice without knowing the nature of the work you’re doing and the nature of the mistakes. If they’re about attention to detail (which it sounds like might be the case), you can also try slowing down, double and triple checking your work, and finding more ways to incorporate checklists.

But I’d also take your boss’s statement as a sign that you don’t have a lot more rope here, or more time — so whatever you can figure out to do, make sure you’re really committing to it. (Sorry if that goes unsaid — something about your statement that when you use checklists, your work is much better made me worry that you’re not being as serious about them as you should be. If I’m wrong, ignore me and carry on.)

2. My manager told me to stop wearing see-through blouses

I’m a secretary in a office. I’ve been asked not to wear tight-fitting skirts and see-through blouses to work because you can see my bra and it’s distracting my coworkers.They are blouses you wear to the office; the fabric is silky polyester. To be honest, I like the feel and look of them against my skin and feel sexy wearing them, and my friends in another department wear them with no problem. Yes, my bra shows, but it’s nothing outrageous. Can one individual manager tell you this?

Yes.

It’s totally reasonable to tell you that you need to come to work dressed professionally and without your underwear showing. If another manager chooses not to enforce that with their team, that’s that person’s call — but your manager is absolutely entitled to set this standard and enforce it. And once that has happened, refusing to comply is a pretty big deal.

For what it’s worth, it’s generally better for your career if you strive to feel professional at work, not sexy.

3. I’m pregnant and being warned I can’t miss any events on a celebratory work trip

I am a UK-based business development manager for a German medical business. Every year in January, we go on a week’s conference, usually abroad, to celebrate the previous year’s hard work and success. For January’s conference, I will be 26 weeks pregnant. I had a call from my boss’s boss to say that if I felt I couldn’t travel, it would be fine for me to miss conference. However, if I chose to come, I would be expected to join in with all activities and missing anything would be “frowned upon.” She went on to explain that some of the activities involve evening entertainment away from our hotel, with no access to transport for me to return to the hotel early. There are likely to be 3-4 nights in a row with post-midnight finishes.

I said I felt that I would be too tired to attend all evening activities, to which she repeated that missing any of these would be “frowned upon” but “no one would blame me for choosing not to come to conference at all.” I effectively feel as though I have been uninvited from conference due to my pregnancy. Is this discriminatory?

I have no idea what the laws are in the UK since I’m in the U.S., but in the U.S., this would almost certainly be discriminatory, since it would be penalizing you for needing perfectly reasonable pregnancy-related accommodations. I’d talk to your direct manager about what happened and try to figure out what’s going on. And if your pregnancy discrimination laws are similar to the U.S.’s, I’d say something like, “I think we’re in danger of being on the wrong side of pregnancy discrimination laws here — I’m pretty sure the law doesn’t allow pregnant women to be penalized for needing reasonable accommodation for their pregnancies. I’d like to attend, but I want to make sure there won’t be negative repercussions — formal or informal — if I’m not able to go to all the events.”

4. My manager wouldn’t let me leave when my mother was threatening suicide

I got a call that my mom was about to jump off a balcony and kill herself. I told my manager and she wouldn’t let me leave. I walked out, and I got a doctor’s note for anxiety in the meantime. Isn’t her not letting me leave illegal? And also retaliation illegal?

No, it’s not illegal to tell you that you need to stay at work — incredibly callous in this situation, but not illegal.

But unless you have a pattern of unreliability at this job or have given your manager reason to doubt your word, I’d be seriously concerned about this manager’s judgment.

5. Is this an appropriate response to feedback after a job rejection?

I was called for a job interview and, according to me, it went well. But after couple of days I got a rejection email in which the hiring manager wrote that they are pursuing other candidates. I replied back by thanking the manager and asked for feedback. This is what I got back from the manager: “Thank you for following up with me and your request for feedback. We have performed multiple interviews for the management training program and only the candidates with the matching core competencies and career paths are selected to move forward in the process. I appreciated our interview but felt that there was limited front line customer service experience and your career goals are a bit more in line with what you studied in school, which is totally understandable. I do wish you all the best in your career search.”

Should I reply back to the manager? If yes, then what should I write? I was thinking about writing: “Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate the time you took out from your busy schedule to give me feedback about my interview. It is true that I do not have enough front line customer service experience and also I am looking for a career change. But I believe that I can learn these skills and gain experience from your management training program. I also believe that this program is the best and will help me in a smooth transition of a career change. I am really interested in working with your company. “

What do you think? Is this appropriate to write?

Nope. You asked for feedback so you could do better in the future, but your proposed response treats it as an opportunity to push back on their decision and get them to reconsider. That’s not really appropriate; this isn’t about debating their choice or changing their mind. Instead, just send a sincere thanks for her time and her insight.