Ask a Manager

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

1. I’m a bookkeeper for a company that doesn’t pay its bills on time

I have been working for a small company for a few months now as their bookkeeper. They are a small retail store and money is tight. They never pay their bills on time and have their vendors calling and even sending rude emails requesting payments. My boss has been directing their calls and emails to me, but my hands are tied. There is no money to pay them and payments have to be approved by her.

I am currently studying for my CPA and working towards being an independent bookkeeper for local companies in my area. Some of these vendors are local and I may want to solicit my service to them in the future. I feel that this is reflecting badly on me as they may think that I am not doing my job in keeping up with payments. What can I say to them when they are requesting payment so that it doesn’t reflect badly on me? I do not think that my boss would be happy if I tell these vendors that we simply do not have the money to pay them. However, I feel that I need to give an explanation so that it is not jeopardizing my reputation in the future as a bookkeeper.

Well, to some extent, I’m not sure that you can get out of it reflecting on you if you stay there long-term. While you’re not responsible for your boss’s decisions or lack of payment, being associated with that kind of thing over the long-term can color the way people see you. I realize that you might not have the ability to instantly change jobs or might have other reasons for staying there, but I’d give real thought to moving on. What your boss is doing is crappy and might be directly harming other small local businesses. If her cash flow doesn’t allow her to pay on time, she should be up-front with vendors about that from the start rather than agreeing to their terms and then breaking those terms.

As for what to say to vendors meanwhile, I’d say: “I’m so sorry. I’ve spoken to the owner about getting you paid, and as soon as she approves payment, I’ll get it out to you immediately.” I don’t think it’s your place to say “there’s no money to pay you” unless your boss okays that, but it’s entirely reasonable to make it clear that the hold-up is coming from your boss, not from you.

2. Should we bother sending rejections to applicants who don’t meet basic job requirements?

I know that you suggest that a hiring manager should always respond to every person who applies for a position, and I agree. However, if the applicant doesn’t meet the basic requirements, do I need to respond? For example, we require our applicants to have their own car, valid driver’s license, and insurance. This is stated in every job posting, but people without a car or license still apply. Do I need to send these applicants a response? I feel like I don’t need to because they are obviously not reading the ad and are applying anyway.

I suppose it’s not as imperative as sending rejections to people who did take the time to read about what you’re looking for, but … why not just send them anyway? It takes a few seconds to send a form rejection. Given how fast the process should be, it would actually add more time into most rejection processes to separate out some people into a “no response” group, rather than just putting everyone into the same system.

3. Reaching back out to an employer a few months after starting a new job with a competitor

I started working with my current company a couple of months ago and I’m thinking of changing jobs. Right before I got hired with my current company, I took an informational meeting with a competitor. I met with two of their partners and four other employees and I took a writing test; they loved me and said they would keep me in mind as positions opened up. Two weeks later, I got hired by my current company and received an email from the competitor congratulating me and saying they would love to stay in touch in case anything changes.

I would like to reach out to the other competitor again, flag that I’m looking to change jobs, and see if they’re currently hiring. Of course, the easiest way to do this would be to respond to a job opening, but this company does not advertise job openings. Could you give me some advice on how to best approach this? I’m worried about my current company finding out, I also want to avoid sounding negative about my current company and I’m having a hard time deciding whether I should include information about why I want to change jobs when I reach out to the company I’m hoping to work for.

Actually, even if they advertised their openings, it would be weird to just respond to a job opening when (a) you have a relationship with these people, (b) they know you accepted a new job a few months ago, and (c) they’ve encouraged you to let them know if anything changes. You should reach out to your contact there directly and explain that your new role isn’t turning out to be what you’d hoped and you’d love to talk if they think it would be worthwhile. Be prepared to be asked why you’re already thinking of moving on after only a couple of months; that’s unusual enough that you’ll need to have a fairly compelling explanation so that it doesn’t look like flakiness. Good luck!

4. How to handle lunch as a temp worker

The culture in my office is to have lunch at your desk while you work. However, I’m one of two temp workers and I am paid hourly – not for lunch. No one eats in the lunchroom, so the few times I have eaten in there have been awkward. I want to leave a good impression, but I’m also not paid to work through lunch. Is it ok for me to regularly leave the office? Mostly I go downstairs where there is a nice balcony, but is it ok to meet friends? I’m always back under an hour.

Sure, leaving the office for lunch is pretty normal in most offices. And even if no one else in the office does that, it’s still not something that would typically be frowned on. And it’s really up to you what you do with that time; it’s fine to meet friends if you want to, assuming that it’s not causing you to take a longer lunch break than you’re supposed to be taking. I suppose that it’s possible that there’s some office out there that would frown on you leaving the premises, but that would be pretty unusual. As long as you’re not getting signals to the contrary, head out for lunch without worry! (And if you do get signals to the contrary, just ask whoever is managing you about it: “Hey, is it okay for me to leave the office when I take lunch?”)

5. Resume wording when I’m applying for a position I used to have

I recently worked a contract position at a college. They have just re-posted this position and I’m planning to reapply for it. The new job description is identical to what it was last year.

I used a lot of the wording directly from this job description on my resume and cover letter. (I have been applying for similar positions with other organizations.) But now I’m not sure what to do about my application for this job because it is back at the college. Do I need to change the wording so that it’s not essentially copied and pasted from the job description? Or can I leave it because it is exactly what I had done while in that role? I’m nervous about changing the wording because I know it will be put through a keyword scanner.

You should change into your own language so that it doesn’t sound copied and pasted. Moreover, you should change it anyway because your resume shouldn’t read like a series of job descriptions; it should be far more about what you accomplished in a job than just what duties you were assigned.

Also, since you used to work there, you have contacts there. In addition to applying through the official process, you should also reach out to the hiring manager (who presumably you know) and let her know that you applied and would love to be considered for the role.

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

1. I found an ad for my own job

I’m supposed to have a team of four, but one of my employees transferred to another team/office three months ago. I put in a job requisition request for his replacement right away but have had no movement on this front. My team is struggling to meet all of our deadlines and doing a decent amount of overtime, but we’re making it work. I’m getting frustrated that HR has not forwarded me any resumes or set up any interviews for me. I checked our online careers page to see if the job was listed and it is, and I also happened to see that my job is listed too! (At least I’m 95% sure it’s mine because there are particular terms that only relate to my department.)

We just had our annual reviews in July and I was given a great review and a small but better than average merit increase (average was 3% and I got 3.5%). My direct supervisor also told me that I received the largest bonus out of everyone in my practice area (which is about 80 people). I met all of my bonus metrics goals, plus I received a large discretionary bonus, for a total of almost 9.5% annual bonus based on my income.

If they are unhappy with my performance and looking to replace me, why would they give me such a large bonus and praise me during my recent annual review? Why else would they put my job online unless they are looking to replace me? What should I do now?

Ask your boss about this, right now. While employers do sometimes seek to replace someone who doesn’t know it yet (although it’s generally a pretty crappy thing to do), they generally don’t do it by openly advertising the role on the company jobs page. It’s much more likely that this is a different role, or that it was posted by mistake, or some other explanation.But rather than wonder and stress about it, go talk to your boss. Say something like this: “I was just looking on our jobs page to see if the X role is listed yet and I saw a position that looks like it could be mine.”

It’s highly likely that your boss’s response will set you at ease.

That said, I’m being given a tiny amount of pause by the fact that HR hasn’t sent you any resumes for the job you’re hiring for. If they were planning to replace you, they might cut you out of the loop on hiring for that role, or even put it on hold until your replacement is hired. But there are also lots of other explanations for this (including just having a kind of lame HR department, the same kind that would accidentally post a role that sounds so much like yours). But there’s no point in speculating when you can just go ask your boss what’s up.

Read an update to this letter here.

2. My manager tells us to bill the company for hours we didn’t work

My manager has employees record extra hours, and I’d like to know what the possible repercussions to the employees could be.

I work part-time, as does every other member of our department, with the exception of management. To help out the employees, our manager has established the following pay scale:
Task A = 4 hours
Task B = 6 hours
Task C = 8 hours

If we work in excess of the hours assigned to each task, we record the full amount of hours we actually worked. But if we work less, we get a freebie, since we’re told to record the additional time. My manager says that this is to compensate for low hourly wages and vastly varying workloads, and to make everything stay under the radar–if everyone gets the benefit, no one will rat him out. What are the repercussions for the employees for doing this, if any should questions arise from upper management?

Well, you could all get fired. But it’s more likely that your manager would be the one who gets booted. He’s basically defrauding the company, unless he’s doing this with the knowledge and approval of the company’s management (which it sounds like he’s not, given your reference about him doing it for everyone so that no one will report it). And telling you to report extra hours “to compensate for low hourly wages” is pretty outrageous — the company sets the pay scale and if he takes issue with it, he should advocate for higher wages, not enlist you all in fraud.

At a minimum, I’d keep very careful documentation of his instructions to you on this, so that if/when it’s uncovered, you can show that you were following his instructions. But ideally you’d also speak up about it — either to him (if there’s a chance that the company does know, since he could clarify that for you) or to someone above him.

3. How can I ask for regular one-on-one meetings with my manager?

I work for small organization. I sometimes feel disconnected from the rest of the office. My boss and I usually exchange greetings when/if we see each other in the common areas, but some days I don’t see her at all. We rarely discuss what I’m doing unless I’m in her office to ask her a specific question, and she asks, “how are things?” I understand that she’s a busy person and she doesn’t have time to chase me down, and that I need to go to her if I need anything. So I think I want to set up some sort of weekly short one-on-one meetings with her where I could give her a lowdown of what’s going on, ask her questions, ask her if she needs me on any other projects, and also where she can give me a lowdown on things on her end that she feels I should know, but how do I politely bring this up? It was brought up as a good idea at one point a while ago, but it hasn’t been mentioned since. Could I approach her office and ask in person? Or should I send her an email to preface it?

This is a totally reasonable thing to ask for, and even more so since it’s actually been suggested in the past! Asking in person or via email is fine. I’d say something like this: “Would it be possible to start scheduling short weekly check-ins with you? I’m realizing that I don’t have a great mechanism for updating you on my work, getting your input on things, and making sure I’m in the loop on anything you need from me, and I’d love to get short weekly meetings on your calendar (or even every other week if that’s easier on your schedule).”

4. I’m going to start telecommuting, but my employer wants to change me to a contractor

My husband recently received a once-in-a-lifetime job offer that requires relocation. My employer – a nonprofit organization – is allowing me to work remotely, but they want to change my status from a full-time employee to a full-time contractor. The expectations communicated to me so far would be that I’m available during business hours and that my job would not change, except for my location. The only reason I received from my employer about why my status would change is a fuzzy answer about liability of some kind (something about insurance the employer would need to carry for having employees in another state). My organization is about 70 people, and I would be the only full-time remote employee.

As I think about this, and as I’ve learned more about the distinctions between contractors and employees, I feel pretty strongly that what I would expected to do would be in the realm of an employee. Obviously, the change has a lot of implications for me personally (taxes, benefits, etc.). I’d like to go back to my employer and discuss keeping me on as full-time remote employee, as I think their expectations of me are going to be more in line with that of an employee.

Do you have any advice on how I might handle this, or what the merits of being a contractor v. employee might be (particularly from an employer standpoint)? I know lots of people work remotely as employees (instead of contractors), so I’m trying to understand my footing of how I might approach my employer on this matter.

It’s true that having an employee based in another state will sometimes require your employer to get additional workers compensation insurance (even if you’re working from your own home), which they might not consider cheap. But it’s also true that your employer can’t just decide to treat you as an independent contractor because it will be more convenient to them; whether or not you qualify to be treated as a contractor is a matter of law, not of preference. It’s possible that your role could meet that test with a few minor changes, but they shouldn’t take it as a given.

And yes, there are disadvantages to you in that arrangement: You’ll presumably lose your paid time off, health insurance, retirement contributions, and other benefits, and you’ll be responsible for paying self-employment tax, which is about 12% of your income (although that can also be offset by your ability to deduct more business expenses). That said, if you’re the one pushing to work remotely, you might decide that those trade-offs are worth it to you. But go into it with your eyes open.

5. Following up on networking emails when you haven’t received a reply

My question is about networking. After you reach out to a new person you want to connect with professionally and they don’t respond, is it appropriate to follow up in two weeks to see if they would be interested in connecting or is that just pushy and annoying? And what’s the most appropriate way to frame that email?

I just moved to a new city and have been emailing a lot of professionals who work in the area I’m interested in (nonprofit and government work). Most of the emails I send are because another connection of mine recommended I get in touch with that person. Thus I start off all my emails with some sort of line like “X recently suggested I reach out to you,” and then give a brief explanation of who I am and why I want to connect with them. I have a very high response rate to these emails (maybe 1 out of every 10 or 15 people I reach out to do not reply) so I don’t think the problem is that I’m sending a lame networking request.

However, the people who haven’t replied are some of the people I am most interested in connecting with. I really want to send a follow-up email to those people, but I don’t want them to label me as that annoying person who keeps harassing them. I was thinking that maybe I should contact the person who originally recommended I reach out to the non-responders, but I also don’t want to harass that group of people since they are also new connections and I don’t want to appear like I can’t even email someone without help. Please advise on what the best way to handle this situation would be.

It might not be a coincidence that the people you’ most want to connect with are the ones who haven’t replied. The people who others are most interested in connecting with are often the people who are especially busy and who field a lot of these requests. That means that you might need to resign yourself to simply not getting a response from them. There’s nothing wrong with one polite follow-up after a few weeks have gone by (so a total of two emails to them) — but after that I’d move on.

And I wouldn’t try enlisting the original referrer for help — that’s too much like saying “can you please nag this person who has already had a clear opportunity to respond to me but who has chosen not to,” and that’s way too big of an ask for anyone who you don’t know extremely well and where the stakes aren’t more urgent than just wanting to make additional contacts.