Ask a Manager

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

1. Can I recover from a bad phone interview?

Recently my husband and I moved across the country to carve out a better future for our child before starting school. My husband is a stay-at-home dad while I work in various creative fields. With all the changes to our lives in the past few years, I really feel out of my element.

I had a phone interview with a nonprofit group that did not go as well as planned. Our toddler was up late and then my alarm didn’t go off and I woke up only minutes before the call. I rambled and worded some questions oddly to very intelligent board members.

After sending a nice thank-you to the office coordinator who set up the interview, I still keep going over all the mistakes I made. I really wonder if I still have a chance to get this position. I would really love to know your opinion on disclosing my family situation, considering my husband tends to all the usual parent functions as well.

I’m torn on this. Leaning toward not doing it, but torn. If they thought you did fine, you risk introducing some real weirdness to the process by announcing that you didn’t, and either way, you risk making them uncomfortable if you get into details about your child care arrangements. Ultimately, you really just get one shot at the apple in most interviewing situations and you can’t generally ask for a re-do.

That said, the reason I’m torn is because I’ve certainly had times where, after interviewing a candidate who had seemed promising but who under-performed in the interview, I’ve wondered if there were some sort of extenuating circumstances, like sickness or nerves, that would explain the poor performance … and in some of those cases, I would have been open to hearing that and trying again. It’s a risky move though, and it’s hard to say “go for it” without really knowing specifics of what you said and how you came across. (How’s that for unhelpful?)

2. Offering six months notice when having to move out of the area

My husband is in the military and we moved (again); we were supposed to be here for 3.5 years. I got a job in my home health care field and I disclosed during my interview that I was committed to live/work in this area for 3.5 years. I was promoted to interim manager and then branch manager within 3 months. Then, a total of 5 months into my employment, my husband sustained an injury and the military is releasing him from his contract for medical reasons. We do not want to stay in this area. I would love to quit and move immediately because we have no family around here.

However, this company has been really great to me, so I would like to give them 6 months notice.This branch of the company is only one year old, and they have only had some management structure for 5 months (me), plus all the staff have been in this industry for a year or less. I wanted to give them such a generous transition period since I feel I have been valued here. Will this increase my chances of a good reference or is this just a desperate overkill maneuver?

Well, first talk to your manager and explain the situation. Say something like, “I feel terrible about this, as I know I made a different commitment to you when you hired me, but at the time I didn’t foresee my husband getting injured. I’d like to do whatever I can to make the transition easier, including staying for several more months if that would help. I’m prepared to give up to six months notice if it would be helpful, but I wanted to talk with you about what would make most sense.” You might find out that your manager would be equally happy with only two months notice or something like that, especially since it might make sense for them to make the change sooner rather than having you continuing to put down (what will be temporary) roots in the role.

You could also leave out the mention of six months altogether and just wait to see how your manager responds, and there’s no need to offer six months if you prefer not to.

But yes, in most workplaces, doing this would definitely help the type of reference you get. It could take it from “well, we only had her for five months, although it wasn’t her fault” to “she was amazing when it turned out that she needed to move out of the area, and was incredibly accommodating with her notice period.”

3. A recruiter changed my resume without my permission

A recruiter submitted me to a position at a major, giant, local company that I really want to work with. I have a phone interview today and the agency emailed me the details last night, along with the version of the resume they submitted. They changed my job titles and other details without my permission or advanced knowledge. I feel this is resume fraud and puts me on the hook because I actually want to work for this company, they dumbed down my resume so I have less to negotiate with if made an offer (now or in the future), and if this major, giant, local company finds out this is fraud, I’ll never work with them. I would never lie on my resume and, frankly, I don’t need to. Do I go through with the interview? If not, can I apply to this company another time via a different recruiter or myself?

Yeah, recruiters do sometimes change candidates’ resumes, in ways that they think will make them more effective. Often they’re correct; sometimes they aren’t. But they shouldn’t do anything that’s inaccurate, such as changing your titles.

In any case, I’d talk to the recruiter about your concerns. If the recruiter works with this company regularly and is reasonably competent, she might be able to give you useful insights into the changes she made and why, and might even be able to assuage your concerns. Or not — but it will be a worthwhile conversation to have.

As for applying with this company in the future … you’re not going to like what I’m about to say. Depending on the specifics of the recruiter’s contact with the company, it’s likely that the recruiter now “owns” your candidacy with them, and that while you could apply directly with them in the future, their systems might have you linked with this recruiter for at least the next six months (for commission purposes).

4. Should I list being a clinical trial volunteer on my resume?

On first impression, which would look better or throw up less red flags on a job application: “paid healthy clinical trial volunteer” or “music producer – independent contractor”?

I’m not applying for a job in the music industry and neither is fluff, I’ve been doing both. I’m thinking that with the trial volunteer, the person looking at it would at least know that I’m healthy, a non-smoker and not on drugs or an alcoholic. With the music producer, I’m thinking they might get a vision of some scum bag. I need an outside perspective.

Don’t put the clinical trial volunteer work on your resume. It’s not work where you’ll have the sort of skill or accomplishments that belong on a resume, it’s inappropriate to allude to your own health status on a resume (and will make many employers uncomfortable), and it will look, frankly, a little weird to include. It’s too similar to including something like plasma donation on a resume, which you also shouldn’t do.

Music producer is fine, assuming it’s real work; unless you present yourself a scumbag, most people won’t be concerned that you’re one simply because of the industry.

5. Juggling job offers when you’re not sure if you’d accept one of them

You have previously addressed a situation where someone gets a job offer but is hoping for a different job offer and wants to speed up the process with the other company. However, what if you truly don’t know whether Company B would be your first choice? What if it depends a lot on what salary Company B is willing to offer you, but you won’t know that until you actually get an offer from Company B? In that case, is it still appropriate to ask Company B to speed up the process or will it burn bridges with Company B if it appears that you had accelerated their process only to turn down their offer (if the salary doesn’t turn out to be as good)?

You want to be particularly interested — you wouldn’t want to do this for a random job that you had no special interest in or belief that you were especially suited for. But you don’t need to positive that you’d accept their offer — because it will depend on the details of their offer (salary, benefits, etc.), of course, as well as details that you learn about the job and company during your conversations with them.

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

1. Is there a best day of the week or time of day to submit a job application?

Is there is a certain day and time of the week that is best for applying to online job postings? For example, is it better to apply Monday morning versus Friday afternoon? I was thinking that a Friday afternoon application might be overlooked because of the weekend (applications sent in Monday morning might be read before an application from the previous Friday afternoon). Thoughts?

You’re over-thinking it. Apply when it’s convenient for you to apply. What matters most is that you have an awesome, personalized cover letter and a resume that shows a track record of achievement in the thing they’re hiring for. If you have that, any halfway competent hiring manager is going to consider your application regardless of what day of the week or time of day it was received.

It’s certainly true that some hiring managers might read applications sent in Monday morning before those sent in Friday afternoon — but others are reading in order they were received with the oldest ones last, some are reading the most recent ones first, some are reading applications on the weekend, some have alphabetized them by last name, and still others are grabbing them in random order. There’s no way to know from the outside, and it shouldn’t matter anyway. Apply as soon as you have time to apply to do it well, and don’t worry about the timing.

2. How should we handle email accounts for former employees?

I handle all the email accounts at a small nonprofit. We recently had an employee leave the company (under good terms). A different employee left months ago and I can see that he regularly checks his email account, but our director was not necessarily concerned about this. We have several people transitioning in the coming months due to restructuring of our office and I want to have a procedure in place so that goes smoothly. What is the best way to handle staff email accounts?

I want to make sure inquiries sent to their address get answered, but I also don’t wish to infringe upon anyone’s private conversations they may have been having via their work account (though I understand that is par for the course with work email). I figure I should give them warning that their account will be closed in X days and then have their messages forwarded or something along those lines. Or should I just lock them out without letting them know? What do you recommend?

It’s typical to remove access as soon as the person is no longer employed. From there, you can (a) have the account forward to someone else in your organization, (b) set up an auto-reply explaining the person is no longer with the organization (and ideally suggesting who they should contact about the most common things they might be emailing about), or (c) turn off the account altogether so that anything sent to it bounces back to the sender. If you do (a) or (b), you’d usually only do it for some set period of time (like three months) and then do (c).

You don’t really need to worry about violating people’s privacy; it’s understood that this is typically how email accounts are handled. And you really should turn off their email access the day they leave for security reasons; sensitive all-staff email might be sent there, or a disgruntled employee might use it to cause problems, or who knows what — but revoking email access immediately is common practice for a reason. (And that means that you need to revoke the access of that guy who’s still checking his account months after leaving.) A warning that you’ll be doing this is considerate, I suppose, but it’s not necessary or expected.

3. I can’t afford to pay for a work trip up-front and wait for reimbursement later

My boss has recently told me I need to go to another city for a mandatory job training. I will be required to purchase my own tickets, pay for my own meals, and pay for the hotel room for the week I’ll be there. In the end, I’ll get a reimbursement check, but other managers have said it could take longer than a month for that to come back. I don’t have a petty cash account, expense account, or company credit card and am not normally ever required to travel for my job. Apparently, this is company policy (to pay for everything beforehand and get reimbursed) but for the amount of money this is going to cost me, I would have to budget for six months to plan for a “vacation” like this if my husband and I were going for pleasure. We have worked ourselves to the bone to pay off quite a bit of debt and do not have but one credit card. The one we do have is full of medical bills because said job decided not to cover our son on my insurance and didn’t tell me until he was four months old (different story entirely).

I feel like our company should pay for this business trip, but I’m just not sure of what’s allowed and not allowed. Is this something you feel is pretty standard in the industry or should I ask our HR to look at the policy?

This policy (pay up front and then get reimbursed later) is not at all uncommon — but it’s also totally fine to say, “Hey, unfortunately I’m not in a position to charge these expenses on my own card. Can we put the flight and hotel on a company credit card?”

If you won’t be able to swing the meals up-front either, have a discreet word with your manager or someone in HR about whether you could get petty cash for the trip and then return the remainder with receipts showing how it was spent.

4. Can I ask for more money when I move from temp to perm?

I have a question about salary negotiations when moving from a temp position to a permanent position. Right now I’m a temp at a company and I absolutely love the work and the people. They’ve been great with feedback about my work and based on their compliments and other signs, there’s a great chance they’re going to hire me permanently.

I assume that as with most temp positions, the company is paying several dollars more per hour than the agency is paying me. Am I able leverage this knowledge to negotiate for higher pay if I think I’m worth more than what they may offer me? Is negotiation even possible with hourly positions? I realize that there may be other factors, like benefits that need to be considered.

Negotiate based on the market rate for the work. The fact that they were paying the temp agency more doesn’t really come into play; they were pay the temp agency for the benefits to them of having you not be an employee (no hiring costs, the ability ask to have you replaced with someone else, the ability to send you away tomorrow without paying severance or unemployment, not being responsible for your payroll taxes, etc.). In fact, making you an employee might actually end up being more expensive for them once you factor in benefits and payroll taxes. Negotiate based on the market rate for your work and not the temp premium.

5. Explaining that I left a job due to an on-the-job injury

I’ve been searching everywhere to find a good explanation of why I quit a former job. I left due to an on-the-job injury; I was a deputy at the time and, according to their doctors, the injury prevented me from fulfilling the duties of that position. It hasn’t affected any other work I’ve done since. I fought to stay, I loved my job. What do I put on any applications for employment now and in the future as the reason I left? I’m applying for other positions with that same department (years later) and other security positions so I don’t want to red flag anything. Again, I loved what I was doing and didn’t leave because I was unsatisfied, looking for new challenges, etc.

“Recovering from injury (now resolved)”

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

1. HR claimed they were investigating my horrible manager, but now they won’t talk to me

I have a bad manager. She’s a bully: constantly screaming at me, calling me an idiot, jackass and blaming me for her mistakes in front of our department. After 8 months of enduring her harassment and bullying, I politely requested a meeting to talk with her candidly about her obvious frustrations towards me. She declined to talk me with me and continued to verbally abuse me. (I LOVE my job and my peers, which is why I held out for so long.)

I filed a grievance with my HR department the following week after she accused me of misplacing an important document and then calling me a “f—— idiot” after IT located it completed on her computer desktop. The director of HR called us into his office for mediation and she cried and said I was attacking her, ambushing her, and making her feel like a bad person. The director said that he would do a full investigation of my claims and it was to remain confidential.

Then coworkers in other departments started forwarding me emails that my boss had sent to them. They said, “Don’t go to lunch with Jane, she filed a complaint against me and we have issues……” and “Are you going to lunch with Jane? If you are, I don’t want to intrude because she tattled to HR about me.”

I showed the director of HR the copies of the emails and he said he would investigate. I ended up having to go on FMLA because of a medical condition, but how do I address the situation? HR has swept it under the rug and has not returned my emails concerning the matter.

There might be nothing else that you can do. Your boss is clearly horrid and dislikes you, and when that’s the case, there usually aren’t many options beyond moving on (or resigning yourself to an unhappy work life). HR doesn’t usually have the power (or the inclination) to remove managers or magically make them into different people. The most likely outcome is that they’ll give your manager some (possibly anemic) advice about how to handle her relations with you differently and explain to her why sending those emails is a bad idea, but then leave it to her from there. Their wording about doing a “full investigation” is making you think it’s likely to be something more than that, but HR is usually pretty limited in these situations. (It’s different in cases with allegations of harassment or discrimination, where the law requires the company to truly investigate and take action.)

There are cases where HR will act more forcefully, but (a) their not responding to your attempts to contact them indicates they’re probably not in that category, and (b) even if they were, that usually would mean the manager gets chastised and told to behave differently, not removed.

Read an update to this letter here.

2. Can I refuse to give out employee salary info to reference-checkers?

I have a prior employee who is accepting a new role. The new employer has hired a background check company and they have asked me to send them the prior employee’s salary information. I am more then glad to give a positive reference, or date-joined/date-left, but I feel very uncomfortable about sending what I consider personal information like salary. Is this normal practice? I have never had anyone else ever ask for salary information. Am I legally required to give them this kind of information?

It’s not uncommon, but you’re not required to give it out. Many companies consider their salaries to be proprietary information or otherwise don’t care to share them. It would be fine to say something like, “We don’t disclose salary information.” (And frankly, most employees would cheer you on for doing so; their salaries are no one’s business.)

3. My coworker keeps turning around and staring in my direction

​What is the best way to handle a coworker whose cubicle is closely in front of my cubicle and who often turns around facing me — if standing, stares over my head ​or if sitting, stares beyond me? She does have notes behind her tacked to the cubicle wall, but I don’t mind this so much. I’ve ignored her for the most part, but sometimes I’ll look and she’ll appear to be staring at nothing or the wall, or we’ll have eye contact which means she was looking at me. She is friendly with others but not me.

Another coworker I’m friendly with said to just ignore her, but this isn’t stopping her behavior, which is extremely frustrating and distracting to me and ruining my concentration and work performance.

Are you sure she’s doing this to you, as opposed to just staring into space while she thinks? If it’s really bugging you, I’d just say, “Hey, Jane, when you stare over here, I keep thinking you want something from me! What’s up?” (Although if she’s staring at her own notes, that’s pretty reasonable for her to be doing and you shouldn’t ask her to stop.)

A better solution to this might be to figure out what pieces of it are within your control, rather than hers — can you change the angle of your desk so that you’re not facing her when this happens? Put up some kind of barrier?

4. Can I submit an updated resume to an employer when I’m already interviewing?

Is it too intrusive to submit an updated resume to an employer? I submitted my resume a month ago. I have had two interviews since then. I would like to update my skills (program evaluation, less emphasis on my step-down present job) show the new bulleted format to the employer.

Nope, don’t do that. You’re already in the midst of interviewing with them. You already had your shot at getting their attention with your resume — and you did. They’re not paying all that much attention to your resume at this point; they’ve moved past that into actual discussions with you. It would look weird to send over a new resume at this point.

5. How should my resume address being loaned to another team?

At the beginning of this year I was “loaned out” to another department in my company to help them during a period of heavy workload. During this time, my title did not change at all, but the work I did was essentially in a different field (think “assistant teapot designer” to “assistant teapot Mmaker”). I learned many new skills and did well enough during the 4 months there that I was offered a position in their department (which I declined). Now that I’m looking for a new job, how would I list this period on my resume?

It doesn’t require a separate listing on your resume, but you could certainly add a bullet point for this job that describes what you did during that time, such as “pinch-hit for teapot making team, welding spouts and performing quality assurance on lids; lowered spout production backlog by 50%.”