Ask a Manager

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

1. Employer asks job candidates how much they spend on makeup, charity, and credit card bills

This question is for my sister. She recently went on an interview and thinks it went fairly well. They sent her some personality test type things and also a budget to fill out. When she told me about it, I thought it was an exercise in job skills because the job is accounting based. However, apparently, it is a personal budget that asks things like how much she spends on makeup, toiletries, how much she budgets for tithing and charity, as well as how much she has in credit card bills.

I don’t think it’s illegal to ask, but I do find it to be a huge violation of privacy. What would be the best way for her to push back and make it clear that she doesn’t want to share that information without giving up her chance at the job? It is a very small organization (she would be the third employee, including the boss).

Whoa, what? That’s not normal, and it’s not okay. Frankly, I’d take it as such a terribly revealing sign of dysfunction at the organization that I’d withdraw from the hiring process, but if for some reason she still thinks she might want to work there, I’d push back by saying, “Can you tell me more about what you’re looking for with this information?”

2. How long can I stay home with my kids before it affects my job search?

I just left my job of 2 years in a community college business office because my husband got another job out of state. We have two small children and have never made a move of this magnitude before so I’m choosing to spend some time at home while they adjust. I’m very ambitious and being a recent graduate (2012), I’m anxious to start my job search and get to work. I know the cardinal rule about not quitting a job without another, so how should I approach this? Will my decision to take some time off hurt my job hunt? How long is too long to go between jobs? If it’s any help at all, I have several strong references from my last employer.

There’s no precise formula, but in general, the longer you’re out, the harder it gets. A few months isn’t going to be a big deal, though, so if you’re talking about something short like that, I wouldn’t worry at all. This may help too.

3. Extending interview travel to fit in an interview with a different company

My family is moving across the country in a month for my career. My husband is in tech and looking for a new job. He’s had a lot of success scoring phone interviews, and has been asked to do some on site interviews as well. This is obviously great!

But scheduling has been somewhat of a nightmare because these are full-day interviews and it takes five hours to fly from point A to point B. What’s the protocol if he’s flying out on Sunday, has an interview Monday, and has a ticket to fly out on Tuesday, but would like to schedule a different on site interview for that week? Does he have to bite the bullet and take the ticket home only to fly back the next day? Or is there some way to gracefully reschedule his flight so that he can fit two or more interviews in during the same trip? His ticket is being paid for by the company interviewing him.

It’s totally reasonable for him to say to the company, “Would it be okay if I moved the return flight back a few days? I’ll cover the hotel for the extra nights, of course, but would like the chance to check out the area.”

4. When job postings are vague about the company

I’m on the job market for the first time in a while and I’ve noticed a weird trend of employers posting job advertisements without identifying themselves or their companies beyond a vague descriptor like “printing company” or “insurance broker.” It made writing cover letters and the research phase of interview prep difficult. What is the best way and time to ask “Who are you?”

Your cover letter is nearly always going to be more effective if it focuses on why you’d be awesome at the job; stuff about the company is secondary. So I wouldn’t get too throw off by that.

But certainly once you’re contacted for an interview, it’s absolutely reasonable to ask for the name of the company if you don’t already have it — and then if you’re not able to find info on your own from there, it’s reasonable to say something like, “I wasn’t able to find much about XZY Company online and I’d love to learn more. Do you have materials about the company you could share with me?”

5. Announcing a pregnancy at work

I am about 12 weeks pregnant with my first child and am trying to decide how to tell my coworkers. I have already had a conversation with my direct manager, which went really well. It’s getting harder to hide the pregnancy because I’m starting to show, so I want to go ahead and get it out in the open. We’re a small nonprofit with 14 employees located in 4 locations. It’s a very friendly environment, and I’m sure everyone will react favorably. However, I want to be sure that my announcement seems professional (especially since I want everyone to be clear that I’m still committed to doing a good job, etc).

We have a weekly staff meeting where everyone is in attendance. We usually give updates on our work at the end. Would it be appropriate for me to give an update on this, including when I will likely be out of the office, etc? If so, should I approach my manager’s managers first? I don’t want my executive director or deputy director to feel slighted that they’re finding out about something that affects next year’s work schedule at the same time as everyone else (but they are extremely hard to schedule time with and I also don’t want to schedule a needless meeting with them). What are your thoughts about the best way to proceed?

You’re stressing out about this too much. You’ve told your manager, and it’s fine to just tell everyone else at the same time; no need to be strategic about telling your manager’s managers first or anything like that. Mentioning it at your staff meeting is perfectly appropriate, and a very normal way to do this. And congratulations!

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

1. How can I get my boss to turn up the temperature on the office AC?

Six weeks ago, I asked my boss to try to keep the average A/C temp at 73 degrees. When I come into work at 8 a.m., it is blasting at 71. I have my own small office and I have to wear a jacket most of the day or have my own little heater unit on to be comfortable. My boss agreed it was a little cold, and said he would find a solution.

Three weeks ago, I asked for a follow-up and stated that it was still freezing cold and the A/C temp was still at 71 degrees. Today, I asked again for an update and he said, “It is still on my list.” Is it time to go above his head, or buy my own larger space heater and submit the receipt for reimbursement?

Eh, I think you may need to accept that it’s hard for many offices to get a temperature that everyone agrees on. And actually, OSHA recommends (but doesn’t require) 68-76 degrees, so your office is right in the range many consider reasonable. I wouldn’t go over your boss’s head on something like this, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with saying, “Hey, if I buy a small space heater for my office, could I submit it for reimbursement?” (I’d ask first though, rather than assuming it will be reimbursed.)

2. Is my boss hinting she wants to have an affair with me?

I have a female boss who is married and about 10 years older than me. I’m 24 and male. I am beginning to wonder if our work relationship is just work. She is very personable and a great networker but has chosen to network best with me and I would say communicated far more with me than any other staff. She will casually mention she needs to do something as her husband is out of town until such and such date. She suggests she hasn’t been out in a while (bar, club, etc.) and is my so-called date for a formal event. I’m not sure if I am reading too much into this or if I am accurate in assuming she is attracted to me and perhaps looking for an affair?

I don’t know if she’s attracted to you or looking for an affair (it’s possible that she just has terrible boundaries), but she’s certainly being inappropriate, at a minimum.

I’d recommend making your interactions as professional and work-related as you can, and see if that stops it. (I’m assuming you’d like it to stop. If I’m reading that wrong, then I strongly advise you against an affair with your boss, which has all kinds of potential to end terribly.)

3. What to do when an employee refuses to stop working unauthorized overtime

I’ve recently started trying to learn the ropes at my dad’s small business. He is getting older and works less and less. I have a full-time job, so the time I spend there is minimal, but enlightening.

He has an office manager who runs the day to day business. My father depends on her totally to run the office, dispatch employees, and handle all bookkeeping. She is paid hourly and he wants her to work 8 a.m – 5 p.m. with a one-hour lunch. He has communicated this to her, but she continues to skip lunch, punch in early and leave late, etc. I have read your column for a couple of years now and advised him he either must accept that she will work a flexible schedule or give her clear expectations and a warning for failure to comply and be ready to follow up with termination. Whatever his choice, being upset week after week because of her timesheet is a complete waste of efforts.

He has another idea. He wants to post a “no overtime” sign, and then not pay her when she punches in over 40 hours. I don’t think this is legal. Along the same lines, could he have her sign a policy that states that no overtime is allowed? He doesn’t want to make her salaried because that opens up the opposite problem, that she won’t be there the full 40 hours each week and there are phones to answer, etc. Thought I would pass it by you in case I’m missing something and I can show him your answer.

If an employee works more than 40 hours in a week, she must be paid overtime for that extra time — even if she’s been explicitly told that it’s prohibited, even if she’s signed an agreement acknowledging the prohibition, and even if there’s a “no overtime” sign posted. The law requires that people be paid for the time they work, period.

If your father wants to put a stop to the overtime, he needs to clearly tell the office manager that overtime is prohibited and put in places consequences for working it without approval. Those consequences could be anything from a serious and unpleasant conversation all the way up to firing. But if there are no consequences, she’s apparently going to continue to work the overtime anyway. So his choices are: (a) enforce consequences or (b) accept that he will need to pay her overtime. There are no other choices here.

(Also, just to be clear, converting her to salaried isn’t a solution. She’d still need to be paid overtime if she’s in a role that the government categorizes as non-exempt — regardless of whether she’s salaried.)

4. Will job-searching long-distance be easier if I’m looking for internships rather than full-time jobs?

I currently live in Wisconsin but would love to move to a new city for a new experience. I keep applying for jobs out of state, but very seldom hear back. I read on another site that when looking for jobs out of state to apply for an internship since recruiters might be more willing to hire someone from out of state for an internship than a full-time position. I’m currently 24 and will be 25 in March. Is this too old to be an intern? Will I be laughed at or tossed aside for being older?

Well, many internships are only offered to college students, but there are certainly ones that will consider other candidates. However, I wouldn’t apply for internships solely as a strategy to move — if you’re doing an internship, it should be because that’s what makes sense for you at this stage in your career.

As for the idea that it’s easier to get an internship as a non-local candidate … I’m pretty skeptical. It’s hard to get a job long-distance in general. It’s possible that employers will have fewer candidates for internships than for full-time jobs, which could up your chances, but as a general rule, there’s nothing about internships that makes long-distance searching easier. Instead, I’d follow the advice I wrote up here about searching long-distance.

5. I feel guilty about resigning

I’m 23 and I’m about to give my resignation letter to quit my student job, so as to do an internship abroad and gain experience in my field. But I feel very guilty about resigning, all the more since times are tough, and also I made a lot of friends, some of them even became my best friends, and I’m just wondering if I’m making the right decision. Is it normal to feel guilty like this?

Very, very normal.

And it’s also very normal to leave jobs — especially student jobs. In fact, you’re going to leave every job you have at some point; it’s part of having a job in the first place. It’s a normal part of business and work life, and you shouldn’t feel guilty, assuming that you didn’t intentionally mislead anyone about how long you’d stay, and that you give a reasonable amount of notice and assist in a smooth transition.

Go do your internship in your field with no guilt.