open thread – November 7, 2014 by Alison Green on November 7, 2014 It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on anything work-related that you want to talk about. If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to talk to other readers. * If you submitted a question to me recently, please don’t repost it here, as it may be in the to-be-answered queue :) You may also like:our new phones have fewer speed dial buttons and everyone is freaking outhow do I interrupt my boss in person when I need something?I walked in on the company owner having sex in his office { 963 comments }
I lied to quit my job, how many microwaves should an office kitchen have, and more by Alison Green on November 7, 2014 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I lied to quit my job and don’t know what to tell my former coworkers now I lied to quit my old job. There were so many little things I hated about it every day, but it was a small office (7 employees and me) and they were all extremely nice. I struggle with disappointing people and telling really nice people that I just do not want to work there anymore was too hard at the time. I couldn’t come up with a solid reason to quit, so I lied and said that I was leaving town to follow my boyfriend. In reality, there was about a 15% chance of that happening, and it was more that I had become depressed and felt that I really needed a change in a lot of areas of my life. Fast forward a few months; I am still in the same city, and have broken up with that boyfriend. They gave me a chance as a new graduate, and I worked there for almost two years. It was an excellent job, and they were all extremely supportive of “the move” and offered to be references, etc. I felt bad throughout the whole thing, but now that I want to apply for more jobs in the same city, I am at a loss. Do I confess that it didn’t work out and I never moved? Do I write them off as a reference because I lied about leaving town and obviously the new jobs I am applying for are in the same town? How do I handle this? Well, first, there is nothing “not nice” about quitting a job that isn’t right for you. Nice people support you in making decisions that are right for you and your career, and reasonable people know that people leave jobs all the time and it’s rarely personal. Leaving a job is a normal part of having a job, and you shouldn’t feel weird or guilty about it. As for what to do now, I’d just tell them that the move ended up not working out. That’s probably all you need to do. If they offer you a job again, you can simply say, “Thank you so much — I so appreciate that, but I think I’m going to use this as an opportunity to try to (find work doing X/move into field Y/find a shorter commute/whatever else fits here).” 2. Should I be put off by being invited to interview less than 15 minutes after I applied? I read with interest a response on your site to a reader’s question about a quick interview invitation. I just got one today which was less than 15 minutes (!) from the time I submitted via Indeed. Also, I couldn’t find the HR contact on LinkedIn, despite the company being, to the best of my knowledge, legit. If someone is in HR and NOT on LinkedIn, to me that’s exceedingly odd. Am I correct in being put off? I’m increasingly desperate for work as a new-ish grad but I have to have standards too. Eh, it’s a little odd but not conclusive. Plenty of employers don’t use LinkedIn for recruiting, so I wouldn’t worry to much that you can’t find the HR person on LinkedIn. (Or maybe they do use it for recruiting, but this particular person isn’t involved in that piece of the process, who knows.) Inviting you for an interview 15 minutes after you applied is pretty damn fast, but who knows, maybe they were in the process of selecting candidates for interview slots and received your application right in the middle of that. It’s certainly weird speed, but in many cases it only takes a minute or two to decide someone’s worth talking to further. You just don’t really know. Talk to them and get more information before you write them off. The stuff you should have standards about are things like culture, salary, benefits, management style, and work — not stuff like this. (And realistically, if you’re “increasingly desperate for work,” you might need to compromise even on those. I hope you don’t have to, of course, but if you’re feeling nitpicky about whether someone is or isn’t on LinkedIn, there’s a danger that your expectations aren’t quite calibrated correctly.) 3. My coworker keeps assigning me small tasks she could easily do herself I have a coworker (she’s a manager but I do not work for her; she works for my boss) who constantly delegates menial tasks to me that I feel she should do herself. I don’t know how to bring this up to my boss or even if I could without sounding petty. She asks me to do things like drag an email into a public folder in Outlook, copy and paste something from one Excel worksheet to another, etc., despite my having shown her how on several occasions. Another example is asking how many calls came in on a certain number that, again, she can easily login and look up herself in about two minutes, rather than wait until I can get to her email. Or, sometimes I have to email her for clarification because she she leaves out something, and by the time she replies with the missing detail, she could have just done it herself. Is this one of those scenarios where I just have to keep sucking it up and doing it? To be clear, I do do certain reports for her department, but at some point, she began leaning on me for these other little things, as well. Talk to your boss and find out if she wants you doing these things for your coworker or not. It’s possible that she does. It’s also possible that she’d be totally fine with you pushing back on these requests. But your boss’s stance here is key, and how you handle your coworker is 100% dependent on that. (And so is the way you feel about it, I’d imagine; if it turns out that your boss sees this as part of your job, that would presumably lower your annoyance.) So say this to your boss: “I’ve found that Jane is increasingly asking me to do tasks like X, Y, and Z. Many of these are small things that don’t take much time, but they’re very easy for her to do on her own. I’d like to nicely start telling her that I need to focus on my own work and suggesting she handle them herself, but first I wanted to check with you to make sure that’s okay to do, and that I’m not actually supposed to be assisting her in these sorts of ways.” 4. How many microwaves? How many microwave ovens should be provided per group of people, if any? Enough so that there aren’t typically lines to use them. 5. Can I list my employer’s clients in my own list of clients as a freelancer, if I did work for them? As a freelance writer or marketer, it’s crucial to have your own website or portfolio, with a dedicated section to past and current clients. I understand that under the client section you would include companies, websites, and brands that you worked for on freelance projects, but what is the standard protocol for clients you worked with at your full-time job (non-freelance)? For example, I’d like to include writing samples and web design samples from clients I’ve worked with during my typical 9-5 full time jobs, but it is okay to call them a “client” technically? It’s generally absolutely fine to include samples of work that you’ve produced for clients at your full-time job (assuming that you’re not violating any confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements). But it’s not quite accurate to claim they were a client of yours — they were a client of your employer, and that’s a different thing. Saying that they’re your client implies that they chose to hire you in particular, which isn’t really the case. So show the work you did, yes, but I wouldn’t list them in a list of your clients. You may also like:I lied to my interviewer about being employedmy coworker lied about having a terminal illness -- and we donated money to hershould I explain I quit on my second day because my coworker was overwhelmingly difficult? { 177 comments }
when a job ad says a preferred candidate has been identified by Alison Green on November 6, 2014 A reader writes: I recently saw a job posting that said at the bottom that a preferred candidate had already been identified, but that all applications would be considered. In such a situation, is there any considerable benefit in applying? While I am qualified for this position, I wouldn’t consider myself to be an ideal candidate – but for the future I’m curious what this means. Is there ever a great incentive to applying for a position with this kind of statement? A friend had mentioned to me that perhaps the preferred candidate has stated a desired salary that the company feels is too high and is looking to see what less expensive options would look like. Contrary to your friend’s hunch, “preferred candidate identified” doesn’t usually mean “but we’re hoping for a cheaper one.” It usually means “we’re giving you fair notice that know who we’re likely to hire, but we’re still open to talking to other candidates.” Sometimes they’re open to talking to other candidates because they’re genuinely interested in making sure they hire the best person for the job, and sometimes they’ve only open to talking to other candidates because their internal hiring rules require them to go through the motions (post every job, interview a certain number of candidates be interviewed, etc.). When it’s the latter, it’s a waste of your time. But it’s important to know that you can’t really tell from the outside when that’s the case and when it isn’t — so if you think you’re a really strong candidate for the job and the application process isn’t terribly time-consuming, it can still be worth it to apply. If nothing else, interviewing for the job can help you make contacts and get you on the employer’s radar screen for other positions that might fit you. Or, the preferred candidate might become unavailable. Or you might find that it’s a truly genuine process where you’re given fair consideration. So it’s really a cost-benefit question for you: Are you willing to put in a little time, knowing that there’s a front-runner will may or may not work out? You may also like:employer rescinded my job offer -- where did I go wrong?an employer told me I was their back-up candidate in case their first choice didn't work outis applying for jobs a numbers game? { 61 comments }
4 cool tools to help you manage your week better by Alison Green on November 6, 2014 While technology is supposed to make our lives easier, at times it can feel like it’s made our work lives far more complicated (hello, email overload). But there are plenty of techy tools that will truly help you manage your work life more smoothly. 1. Mailbox: Take more control over your email “While we can’t get away from email,” say the makers of the app Mailbox, “we can change how we interact with it. We can put email in its place.” The app – available for OSX, iPhone, iPad, and Android – lets you postpone email messages to deal with later. If you receive an email that you want to reply to at some point but can’t answer immediately, you can swipe to the left and schedule a time for the email to pop back up in your inbox – keeping your focus on the messages that are important now, while ensuring you don’t forget about the others. This functionality means that you can easily delay that email from your mom until tonight or have a message from your boss that you receive late on Friday pop up at the top of your inbox Monday morning. 2. Boomerang: Even more control over how you use email Ever wished that you could write an email but schedule it to send at some later time? Or wish for a magical assistant to remind you when you’ve neglected to get back to someone or when you still haven’t heard back about a request you’ve sent? If so, you’ll love Boomerang, which is a Firefox/Chrome browser plugin for Gmail or Google Apps accounts. (There’s also a paid version for Outlook.) Boomerang lets you schedule emails to send at a later date and time; schedule a time for an email to bump back up to the top of your inbox to remind you to follow up or take other action; and even set it to remind you when you send an email and don’t hear back. 3. Cut down on scheduling back-and-forth If you spend too much time dealing with back and forth while trying to schedule meetings, consider using a self-scheduling program like Timestamp or Acuity. Both let you save time by having others book time with you from a web interface that syncs with your calendar, shows what time you do and don’t have available, and gets it all confirmed for you. Acuity also includes features like limiting the number of appointments booked in a single day and automatically emailing reminders ahead of time. 4. Easily make quick screencasts Have you ever tried to explain something to someone in another offer and been frustrated that you couldn’t show them your computer screen? Enter Jing, an free tool for quickly making screencasts that you can then share with colleagues. You can record up to five minutes of all or part of your computer screen, and share the video when it’s complete. You can even add arrows or highlight parts of the screen. It’s super useful if you want to demonstrate how to use software or help troubleshoot a technical issue. I’d love to hear recommendations for other tools you like too. I originally published this at Intuit QuickBase. You may also like:someone or something is deleting our work emailsI'm addicted to snooping in my boss's emailwhat's up with people responding to emails with a phone call? { 31 comments }
how do I recover from a huge, fireable mistake at work? by Alison Green on November 6, 2014 A reader writes: Yesterday another coworker and I made a careless mistake that may have huge results. Among other things, our company may lose a contract because of our error. Our mistake was probably a fireable offense and certainly one that merits being written up. I think the only reason neither of those things has happened (yet…) is because we have both been stellar employees otherwise. I’ve made smaller mistakes here and there during my two years at this job (basically the ones everyone makes) but never one with such big consequences. I had my annual review two weeks ago with my supervisor and it was nothing but praise and an unexpectedly large salary bump. Among other things, I was told that I’m very consistent and dependable. I’m devastated and disappointed in myself for proving otherwise. How can I recover from this mistake and make my supervisor think of me as a great employee again? When I’m managing someone who makes a major mistake, here’s what I want to know: * that they understand that the mistake was truly serious and what the impact could be * how it happened, and that they understand how it happened (two different things) * what steps they’re taking to ensure nothing similar happens again If the person makes all of this clear on their own, there’s not a whole lot left for me to do. I don’t need to impress upon them the seriousness of the mistake (which is an unpleasant conversation) if they’ve already made it clear that they get that. I don’t need to put systems in place to prevent against it in the future if they’ve already taken care of it. But if they don’t do those things themselves, then we need to talk through each of them — and I might be left even more alarmed that I needed to say it, that they didn’t realize it on their own. So the thing to do here is to talk to your manager. Make it clear that you understand what a huge mistake this was, what the potential impact could be, and how serious the situation is. Say that you’re mortified that it happened. Explain — briefly, and not defensively — where you went wrong and what steps you’re taking to avoid it ever happening again. Then see what your manager says. There’s a decent chance that you’re going to hear that while your manager obviously isn’t thrilled, people are humans and mistakes happen. (And the chances of hearing that go way up when you take the approach above.) Or, yes, you might hear that what happened was so serious that the above isn’t enough and your manager is still Highly Alarmed or — worst case scenario — even harboring real doubts about your fit for the role. But as unpleasant as that is, it’s still better to talk about that explicitly than not to have it surfaced. As for how to recover from there, well, simply taking responsibility in this way is a big part of it. You also, of course, should be extra careful in your work going forward, find opportunities to do unusually fantastic work, and generally counteract any worries that the mistake might have created (e.g., that you’re careless or prone to poor judgment or whatever might be concluded from the mistake). You’ve noted that you’ve been a stellar performer otherwise, so I think you’ll be able to do this. (Panicking will make it harder though, so to the extent that you can, try to put this behind you mentally. That’s easier said than done, I realize.) Read an update to this letter here. You may also like:mistakes at work: a round-upmy employee never apologizes when his mistakes cause extra work for other peopleour boss cross-examines us over minor mistakes { 122 comments }
am I wrong not to share job contacts with friends, a sexually explicit Facebook snafu, and more by Alison Green on November 6, 2014 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Was I wrong not to share job contacts with my friends? I had this experience a while back, but I have always wondered if I handled it correctly. When the economy turned, some of my friends and I were unemployed. I found an excellent staffing firm and was placed at some great organizations for short term work. The problem was that my unemployed friends would hound me for contacts at the company I was working for. “What are all the directors’ names? What are their cell phone numbers? Can you get me an internal directory?” I considered the company my client so I would only give them the HR contact and encourage them to sign up with my staffing firm so they could start making connections of their own. They felt it was commonplace to “network” and share contacts. But I didn’t want anyone calling my boss saying some form of “Hey, Jenny Penny who has been working for you for three days said you are great and you could get me a job!” Did I behave correctly? Or was I being stuffy and it really is okay to share organizational information? No, it’s reasonable not to let yourself be used as a connection when you’re brand new to a job and still proving yourself, especially (a) as a temp, (b) when your friends are aggressive as these friends sound, and (c) if you really think they’d say something like what you give as an example here. Plus, networking isn’t about sharing lists of names; it’s about vouching for people and helping them find job leads that might fit both their needs and the employer’s. Of course you want to help your friends, but you were totally justified in choosing not to do it in this particular way (which likely wouldn’t have been especially helpful to them anyway). 2. Dealing with a sexually explicit Facebook snafu while job searching I’m applying for an exciting job overseas. Thanks to your advice, I have reached the reference check stage. I belatedly checked how my Facebook profile looks to the public and I was mortified to find a group on my profile that has a very offensive name and implies that members of the group have sex addiction. It was prominently displayed and I haven’t got a clue how it got there (maybe a group I’d joined changed its name?). Now I’m worried this might hurt my chances as it would seem to indicate poor judgment on my part – should I raise it with the HR contact to explain in case they saw it or would it be better to keep quiet? I wouldn’t raise it, because chances are pretty high that they didn’t see it — and mentioning it will just interject weirdness where there doesn’t need to be any. I was going to say to take this as a prompt to change your Facebook settings so that your people who aren’t connected to you can’t see the groups you belong to, but I just tested that out on my own profile and it seems to be impossible. (WTF, Facebook.) 3. Asking a company owner to stop piping music into everyone’s office My fiancée works at a new small online retail company. The office is pretty open, with a few private offices for the owner/manager and a few others, with the rest at desks around the office. The owner recently decided to pipe in music from the radio around the office at all times. I think he just picks an AM or FM station, and basically subjects the employees to this all day. My fiancée sometimes likes to work with music, but like a lot of other people, oftentimes also needs quiet to concentrate. I don’t think she should have to spend her money on expensive noise-canceling headphones to be able to have quiet at work. I think some of the other employees are also annoyed by this. How should she go about handling this? You mention it’s a new job, so it’s pretty risky to complain about something that owner probably sees as part of the culture. (Although if I’m reading correctly that it’s a new company too, then she does have going for her the fact that any culture there is going to be less established.) However, her best bet is probably to see if some of her coworkers would be willing to speak up with her as a group, so that they can say to the owner, “Hey, we’re finding it hard to focus with the radio playing all day. Could we stop piping it in and let people play it in individual offices or not, as they choose?” 4. I don’t have experience with a program my interviewers want, but I’ve been studying it There’s a company I really would love to work for. However, they have a particular computer program that they use and always ask me about during interviews. I do not have coursework or professional experience with that program. Because I know this program is so important to them, I’ve been on the official website reviewing as much as I can. I’ve also been viewing tutorials. I’ve even have a past manager who uses the program in her new workplace, and I asked her how I could best learn more about the program. Knowing all of this, as a hiring manger, would this impress you? How do you think I could best answer the question “Do you have experience with program x?” I’d say, “I’ve never used it at work, but I’ve been teaching it to myself on the side because I’d like to work with it. I’ve spent about X hours playing around with tutorials and ____.” (That X should ideally be more than three — maybe a lot more, but that depends on how complicated the program is. And to fill in that second blank, it would be great if you had a way to use the program on an actual project, since using it for something real will usually teach you more than the tutorials will.) I’d also mention that you have a track record of picking up new programs quickly, if true (and ideally illustrate that with some quick examples). As your interviewer, I’d be pleased that you put in the energy to try to learn the program. Whether it would count as the amount of experience they’re looking for is something I can’t judge from the outside, but it’s certainly a good step toward making up that gap. Read an update to this letter here. 5. Including volunteer PTA work on a resume Is it ever appropriate to list volunteer work at your child’s school on a resume? What if you are Chair, Secretary or Treasurer of the parent committee? Or a role such as Fundraising Coordinator? Are there guidelines about when to include school volunteer work and when not to? If it was a substantive role with real work and achievements, any type of volunteer work is reasonable to include. I think you’re getting sidetracked by the fact that it’s for your kid’s school, when it’s beaten into (mostly) everyone not to include stuff about your kids on your resume — but this isn’t really about your kids; it’s about your own volunteer work. You may also like:how should I navigate social media connections during a job search?my friend is angry that I can't help more in her job searchmy networking meetings aren't leading to interviews { 179 comments }
my manager invited me to a product party by Alison Green on November 5, 2014 A reader writes: My manager invited me, and everyone else in the office, to a product party which is her home business. It’s not a business that I care about or would want to make any purchases from. Yet I feel that there is pressure to go – it seems that “everyone else” is going and I’m pretty sure that “everyone else” will make purchases (at least one co-worker already has). I legitimately can’t go (I’m not making up an excuse) but I feel already that I’m part of the “out group” since I can’t be there. Is it right for a manager to invite her direct reports to her home business party? Nope, it’s totally inappropriate. This isn’t a real social event; it’s a sales pitch. And because of the power disparity, it’s highly likely that at least some employees will feel obligated to go, as well as obligated to buy things. They’ll feel that way whether or not that’s her intention because that’s how power dynamics work in these situations. This is an abuse of her position, and I can’t imagine your employer would be okay with it if they knew about it (or at least not if they spent a minute thinking it through). It doesn’t make your manager a terrible person necessarily, but it sure does make her a thoughtless one. You may also like:our polyamorous employee wants to bring their 3 partners to the holiday partymy boss and my employee won't stop asking me to spend the night at their housesmy boss wants me to host a product party for her, I compared my interviewer to my dog, and more { 133 comments }
my coworker told a candidate’s current employer that he’s job-searching by Alison Green on November 5, 2014 A reader writes: Earlier this summer, my director undertook to restructure our department. She asked our team to pass along resumes for qualified candidates in our field. I used to work for a competitor across town, so I reached out to a former colleague (I’ll call him Adam) who I knew was looking for a new job and asked if he would be interested. He agreed and sent me his resume, which I passed along to my boss. A current coworker (we’ll call her Lucinda), who also used to work for the same competitor, saw Adam’s resume on my director’s desk. She told me she saw the resume and expressed surprised that he had applied. I answered benignly but did not tell her that I was the one who passed his resume along. In the meantime, Lucinda reached out to another former colleague at our former employer (we’ll call him Bob) and asked if he wanted to pass along his resume as well, which he agreed to do and Lucinda told me she did that. One important note in all of this is that Bob is Adam’s manager. Our director set up a meeting with Bob. I saw him in our office and he asked me to keep it quite that he was there. (I agreed… no one wants their job search made public). Our director actually offered Bob a job which he turned down. My director never called Adam. My former employer recently went through a restructuring where Adam was removed from his team and put on project work. When I had lunch with a former colleague this week, I asked why that was. She told me that management had found out he was looking for a new job, so they were isolating him so his eventual departure would not be disruptive. Then she told me that Lucinda had reached out to Bob and told him that Adam was interviewing for a job with my current employer. This is not true. He only submitted a resume in response to an unofficial solicitation and he was never brought in to an interview. Apparently Bob spent a lot of time asking people to confirm that Adam was looking for a new job. This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. There isn’t anything I can do to help Adam, but I am very concerned about the breach of confidentiality by Lucinda. She should not have told anyone what she saw on our director’s desk. She’s having issues at our firm and, while she’s not on a PIP, she is being watched and getting a reputation as a drama queen (some people call her a trouble maker). I think there is a good chance if I raised what she did, she would probably be lose her job. I have to work with her on a number of clients and I don’t trust her. If she wasn’t fired and found out I raised it, it would make my life incredibly difficult. I am going back and forth with whether I should tell my director (or HR) what happened. I can’t prove a lot of this, but I believe it based on the circumstances and having known/worked with the parties for years. I really don’t know what to do… if anything. Should I tell someone what she did? You should tell your manager what you heard. Explain that you don’t know for sure but you’re troubled by it, and let your manager decide what to do with that information. But the reason you should relay what you heard is that if your coworker did in fact alert Adam’s employer that he was job-searching (and it certainly sounds like she did), she committed a major breach that (a) is a terrible violation of Adam’s trust in his dealings with your company, and (b) reflects poorly on your employer. If candidates think that they can’t apply at your organization without risking word getting back to their current jobs, that’s bad for your organization, for obvious reasons. We talked earlier today about the fact that employers sometimes reach out to mutual contacts for informal references on candidates, but you don’t contact someone’s current employer, and you definitely don’t contact people for gossip purposes. If Lucinda did what it looks like she did, she abused information that her job gave her access to, violated multiple people’s trust, and put a candidate in a terrible position (one that’s caused him real damage, it sounds like). That’s something your employer needs to know about. (Also, Bob sucks in this story too, but there’s nothing you can do about him.) Read an update to this letter here. You may also like:Mortification Week: the cat race car driver, the terrible headline, and morecompany tried to change job offer after I accepted, forwarding a contact's terrible resume, and moremy colleagues and I disagree on whether to hire someone who works for a competitor { 84 comments }
interview with a lab worker at the Arctic Circle by Alison Green on November 5, 2014 Recently, a commenter mentioned that her dad is a lab supervisor in a mine at the Arctic Circle, and there was a clamor to learn more. Her dad graciously agreed to do an interview for us. Here’s the Q&A — with much thanks to Kevin Lackey, who works at Teck Alaska, Red Dog Mine. (By the way, this was conducted over email and I submitted all the questions at once, which I feel is important for you to know so that it doesn’t appear that I’m badgering Kevin with questions he’s already touched on.) How did you end up with this post? How long have you been there and how long do you expect to stay? I first came on 9-11-2001 as a consultant. My company sold analytical equipment to Red Dog and I came to install it and train the employees here in its use. I have been here almost 13 years, and I anticipate being here until I retire, which should be about three more. What’s the basic set-up? Are you posted in a remote community, or is it just “the lab”? Where do you live? This is a remote “community,” but probably not in a manner that you envision. Generally, community implies things like houses, post offices, stores, etc.; we have none of that. We are a remote fly-in camp. We are about 22 miles from the closest town, which is the village of Noatak, Alaska. Neither the mine nor Noatak are accessible by road. None of the villages in this region are accessible by road. The only way in to the mine is by air, and Noatak is accessible by air and river in the summer, and by snow machine during the winter. Our mine facility includes a living area for about 400 persons. The best description may be a large industrial complex with an attached dormitory facility. Meals are prepared by a staff of excellent chefs/cooks, and we have a wide variety of entertainment options. There are several weight rooms, aerobic exercise facilities, sauna, craft areas, satellite TV and game rooms (pool, darts, cards, etc.). How is it similar to a regular office environment? How is it different? For 10 to 12 hours each day, it is very similar to a regular office. My office and laboratory would fit easily into any industrial or mine facility in the lower 48 states. The only real difference is that, when I’m off work, I’m still 4,000 miles from home. There is no daily commuting for anyone. That is sometimes hard to explain to vendors when we talk about servicing equipment. They want to know how far it is to the nearest supply store, Lowe’s, etc. When I explain that it’s at least a full day by plane, it takes a while for them to fully comprehend. They just don’t understand how remote we are. If we need a simple repair, it’s generally a five or six day trip for the vendor. They fly to Anchorage on Tuesday. Our charter to Red Dog is on Wednesday. They can complete the routine repair on Thursday, but the charter back to ANC isn’t until Saturday afternoon. Their return to the starting point will be on Sunday. And if they “forgot their screwdriver” and it’s not something we have on site, it can be really challenging. In addition, flights can be delayed due to weather. I have had one unlucky service rep who came on Wednesday for a routine two-day preventative maintenance visit. His Saturday flight was delayed by weather for four days. He didn’t leave until the following Wednesday. By the time he got home (to Pennsylvania), the two day repair had taken nine days. In looking for people to staff a location like this, do they look for any odd qualifications on top of the usual ones for the position? Anything specific to being able to thrive in an isolated location? Our first choice for staff is always from the shareholders of the corporation that own the land on which the mine is located. It’s owned by the Northwest Arctic Native Association, and all of the shareholders are members of the Inupiaq Eskimo tribe. If we have an opening and there is a qualified Inupiat applicant, they will be our choice. If there are no interested NANA shareholders, there is a lengthy list of other preferred candidates (shareholders of other native corporations, other Alaska natives and native Alaskans, etc.). If a unique skill set is required and no one from the preferred candidates can meet those needs, we search in the lower 48 or other countries. That’s how I wound up here. There are no particularly odd qualifications, but being accustomed to extreme cold, times of 24-hour darkness and 24-hour daylight certainly helps. How isolated is it there? Is it difficult to have any sort of “life” outside of work when you’re in the Arctic Circle? We are 600 miles northwest of Anchorage, about 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The only road leads from the mine to our port facility, which is about 60 miles southwest. We ship the metal concentrate that we produce from the port during the summer, which is approximately July through early October. We do have (slow) satellite internet, satellite TV and internet phone service, so routine contact with the rest of the world is not difficult. There are two answers to the difficulty of life outside of work. Daily, it’s not a real problem. I talk to my wife regularly, and, in my opinion, at length. Since we routinely talk for an hour or so after work, I would guess that we actually talk more than many, if not most, married couples. As I mentioned earlier, we do have an extensive group of activities available, so we can be as entertained as we like. Or, we can go hide in our room and watch TV. The second part of having a life is the R&R time when we’re not on site. When I’m off site, it’s for a two-week stretch if I don’t take additional vacation time, and can be for a month at a time if I choose. During that time, I generally have no responsibilities at work. When I’m home, I can be totally home if I choose. I’m free to spend 24/7 doing what I like with my family. Again, that’s an opportunity that most regular jobs don’t offer. What do you do to stay sane when faced with limited things to do outside of work? Do you ever feel trapped? Our things to do outside work are in many ways no more limited than in a regular job. As I mentioned, we have several exercise facilities (six, I believe), a full basketball court, sauna, and many other facilities. In addition, we have a Recreation Committee that oversees other activities. We have recently had classes in making local-style beaver fur hats, and we’ve just begun classes on making fur-lined mittens and boots. There are annual photography contests, and quite extensive celebrations at Christmas and New Year’s. We have had several sessions of “Financial Peace University” (Dave Ramsey) classes offered after hours. We also provided Rosetta Stone software to any employee who was interested in learning a second language. All of those things are provided at no charge to the employees. As I said earlier, we can be as involved or as isolated as we choose. Are there any additional or unusual perks or benefits due to the location? As a staff employee, mine is a regular salaried position. Our most common work schedule is two weeks at work, one week off site. In my case, I spend four weeks at work and two weeks off site. In a regular job, you get weekends off, and a few weeks per year in vacation. Here, I have eight regular “rotations” per year. That’s at least 16 weeks off in two week chunks. I also have about five weeks of personal time off that I can schedule. If I choose to take it all, I can wind up with what is effectively 21 weeks per year of paid vacation. I personally don’t take all of my vacation time, but I still enjoy 16 to 18 weeks per year of free time. I enjoy hobbies that lend themselves to large blocks of time (building, remodeling, etc.). With this schedule, I can easily plan a project that takes three weeks and know that I can have time to finish it in a leisurely manner if I choose. The other perk due to the location is the location. We don’t have many options to see northern lights in Oklahoma. I’ve never seen a caribou in my back yard, a musk ox in the garden or a grizzly bear along the road. Those are all relatively common here. I’ve had to wait while driving to the port for several thousand caribou to cross the road. We are committed to not interfering with their migration, so when they choose to amble across the road, sometimes singly and sometimes by the thousands, we just stop and watch. That doesn’t happen in Oklahoma. What is the food like? They must have to bring a lot in. Is there enough variety? Do you ever crave things you can’t get there? The chefs are excellent, and the meals are quite varied. Every Thursday is rib eye steak night. Other than that, it changes regularly. Every morning, I can choose “buffet style” hot breakfast, or the morning cook will prepare eggs to order. There are usually at least three or four choices of fresh fruit, and often more. I’m a big fan of strawberries and grapes at breakfast, and I definitely have them much more often here than at home. I’ve almost quit having either prime rib or crème brule when I eat out at home. The chefs here do a much better job at both of those than most restaurants. The only “complaint,” and it is a very mild one, is that they really don’t understand Cajun or TexMex as well as they believe. I’ve tried several times to explain what spicy really means, but it hasn’t helped yet. What has surprised you the most about working in a location like this? What do you like and dislike the most? My biggest surprise is that I don’t find this lifestyle difficult at all. Before Red Dog, I had a variety of positions that required routine travel. It was not uncommon for me to fly somewhere 30 or 40 weeks per year. I actually fly fewer miles now than I did in the past, even though the roundtrip is about 8,000 miles. The 8,000 roundtrip is also what I also dislike the most. In general, I don’t mind flying, but eight or nine round trips per year, 12 to 14 hours each way for 13 years gets a bit old. I will confess to liking the “good old days” when men wore suits on the airlines. Adults in flannel PJs and carrying pillows on the night flights is less fun than one would hope. The first time I see someone boarding a plane in footie PJs, I may scream. I imagine that some people take this post and end up realizing fairly soon that it’s just not for them. Have you seen that happen? How is it handled when/if it does? It’s not at all uncommon for someone to realize that they were not cut out for camp life. I’ve had several people who were not able to finish their first two week rotation. The record is one young man who realized after about three hours that he was not going to like working here. He flew in one day, reported to work the next and then flew out that day. Most of the time, it’s relatively easily handled. If the person is willing to work a full rotation, they can resign without prejudice. If they feel in the future that they’re ready to try again, they will be considered for an open position. In some cases, we have folks who just can’t tolerate another day. That is a minor problem, since our regular flights to Anchorage are only on Wednesday and Saturday. If it does come up, we can hire a local airlines to fly them to Kotzebue where connecting flights to ANC are available. The planes for the local airlines generally hold only 6-12 people, and getting one to stop by for a quick pick-up isn’t too difficult. That is a discussion that I have particularly with the young people who apply for positions in the lab. I point out that if they like being single, working here gives them a good chance to stay that way. When you’re away from home for two-thirds of the time, you don’t have much time to develop relationships. I urge them to consider that very carefully. We invest a good deal of time and effort in training our employees, and having folks work for a few months before deciding that they can’t maintain the lifestyle is expensive. It’s much better to think of that early, both for the employee and for the laboratory. You may also like:interviews with a prison librarian, a brothel receptionist, an Arctic Circle lab worker, and other interesting jobsmy employee has a bad attitudepushy coworker won't stop bringing me food I didn’t ask for { 94 comments }
my boss wants me to buy a client flowers with my own money, my interviewer contacted our mutual Facebook connections, and more by Alison Green on November 5, 2014 It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Interviewer contacted mutual Facebook connections before interviewing me I applied for a part-time administrative job at a small business (3-4 employees). Social media is a component for the position, so I assumed that I would be googled before applying. What I didn’t expect was during my interview, one of the people interviewing me told me that she called our mutual friends that we had on Facebook, prior to contacting me for an interview. Is that not totally weird? I had no chance to give our mutual friends any warning and the ones she did called were acquaintances, at best. Well, if a hiring manager knows people who knows you, it’s pretty common to reach out to them for an informal reference before bringing a candidate in for an interview. They’re looking for “OMG, she’s great, you need to hire her” or “she was a disaster when we worked together or “hmmm, she could be good; worth your talking to, at least” or whatever else, from someone whose opinion they trust. That’s just a normal part of hiring, and hiring managers aren’t going to stop doing that; it can save them (and candidates) time and give them loads more information than generally comes with a typical job application. The part that I could see feeling a little weird about here is that she used Facebook connections to do it. Because Facebook is a social network, not a professional one, it’s easy to feel it should be off-limits for this kind of thing. But mutual connections are mutual connections, no matter how they’re spotted. 2. My boss wants me to buy a client flowers with my own money My employee messed up a report and offended a client. Now my boss wants me, as her supervisor, to buy flowers to apologize using my own money. Is this legal? Probably, unless you’re in a state like California that forbids employers from having employees cover business costs. But it’s ridiculous, and you should push back with something like, “Gifts for clients are a business expense that I don’t feel comfortable covering it myself.” If your boss pushes back and says that it’s a mistake that you’re ultimately responsible for, then you should say, “I’m going to work with Jane to make sure this doesn’t happen again, but I’m not comfortable personally covering the costs of doing business and maintaining client relationships.” 3. My reference has job openings at his company, but I’m not interested I left my last job in City A on good terms when my husband and I relocated to a different area. We are now returning to City A and I have contacted a manager at my old company and asked if he can be a reference for me. He was a big fan of my work and naturally said yes, but he also mentioned there may be opportunities at old company. Here comes the problem – I am not interested in working for old company again at this time. It is a good company that I respect, but it was a bad fit for me in terms of location and culture. I don’t want to lie to him, but I also don’t want to risk the reference by being too blunt about saying no. Any suggestions on how to word my response? I really appreciate that he would be excited to work with me again (that’s a sign of a good reference, right there) and absolutely don’t want to burn any bridges by not being honest. “I so appreciate that, but I think I probably want to try something more like ____.” (Fill in with “closer to where we’ll be living,” “focusing more on X,” or whatever seems reasonable. The location thing is a really easy, understandable one.) 4. Hipster glasses at work As a manager, what do you think of employees wearing hipster-like thick large frame glasses to work? Is it a yes or nay? I think they’re fine, but there’s probably some highly conservative workplace out there where they would feel out of sync. But that’s true of most accessories. 5. Company reposted the job after making me an offer I interviewed with a company two weeks ago and received an offer last Friday. I sent a counter-offer over the weekend because I needed time to think about it. I was browsing jobs today still and saw that they re-posted the job listing for the position I was offered on the same day I received the offer. Do companies usually do this? Does this mean they’re still looking for potential candidates? I’m so confused! Many companies keep job postings active (including refreshing them if they’re getting old) until an offer has been accepted. After all, you might decline the offer or they might not be able to come to terms with you salary. It’s smart to keep the search active until the position is officially filled. There are other possible explanations too, like a junior-level HR assistant who’s responsible for keeping postings fresh and is totally out of the loop on the fact that they’re close to a hire. Ultimately, you can’t read anything into this kind of thing. You may also like:how should I navigate social media connections during a job search?was this interview as bizarre as I think it was?I need time off work because of my husband’s alcoholism, boss doesn't pay freelancers on time, and more { 299 comments }