Ask a Manager

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

1. Can I suggest a candidate to replace my low-performing boss?

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed that I rarely see my boss performing or producing much of anything. As his employee, I was assuming (and hoping) there was a lot going on at a higher level that I was not privy to that was consuming his time. However, last week, while I was working late and he had already left for the day, his boss came into my office and vented about how poorly he is performing, and how frustrated she is with his work. While it was inappropriate, it made me feel better, because it validated my feelings. She later apologized profusely for speaking about it to me.

I like my boss personally, and he’s been very easy-to-work-for, so I do not want him to leave and be replaced with someone I do not enjoy working for. But I also happen to have a former colleague who might be looking for a new position, and who I know could do the job at a much more efficient level. I would like to suggest this person have coffee with our director, but I don’t want to cross over a boundary or imply that I think my boss should be fired. Is this inappropriate? Is there a way to do this without seeming presumptuous? (We are too small to have an HR office that I could submit a resume to, so it would have to go directly to the director.)

Normally there would be zero way to do this; the position isn’t open, and you’d essentially be saying, “Hey, fire my boss and replace him with someone I like better.” But in this situation, your boss’s boss opened the door to the conversation by complaining to you about how bad his performance is. Given that, you could potentially pull off saying something like, “I feel really awkward about saying this, but in light of our conversation the other day, I know someone with an amazing background in X who’s actually looking for a new role — is there any scenario where it’s not horribly presumptuous for me to put you in touch with her? If I’m being wildly premature in mentioning this, I’ll forget we ever had that conversation, but I wanted to throw it out there.”

This is only workable if you have a pretty good rapport with her, but I’m taking the fact that she vented to you as evidence that you do.

Also, in doing this, you want your own mental framework to be that talking to others who can do this work well might help your boss’s boss realize that the organization can do so much better, not that she will hire the specific person you suggest– since if she’s going to replace your boss, she should go through a full hiring process and talk to a number of candidates. But sometimes talking to one great person can help push a manager to realize that it’s time to search for a replacement.

2. How can I find out a prospective employer’s policy on fragrances and toxic cleaning products?

At my current office job, I am forced to sit in a cloud of air fresheners, cleaning products, and perfume, all of which bother me intensely, aggravate my allergies, and lower my morale. I’ve tried asking the people who sit near my cubicle not to use air fresheners, but one of them refused, and honestly the problem is so pervasive that we would need an across-the-board policy to make a difference. In this big bureaucracy, it’s a lost cause.

My question is, when I search for my NEXT job (which will be soon), how can I ensure that I work at an organization that cares about indoor air quality and puts restrictions on air freshener use? This is extremely important to me – I do not want my health to be compromised by my workplace. I simply can’t sit in an office where air fresheners are constantly being sprayed or where my desk is doused in toxic cleaning products. Do I bring this up at the offer stage? How can I suss out an organization’s culture when it comes to air quality, chemicals, and employee health? To me it’s a no-brainer that toxic aerosols should not be sprayed in an office, but most people don’t seem to notice or care.

You could certainly raise it at the offer stage, like you would any other health-related accommodation that you wanted to inquire about, saying something like, “I’ve found that air fresheners and some cleaning products (although be more specific here about what types of cleaning products) aggravate my allergies. I know many organizations are taking measures to minimize the use of those. Any chance you could tell me about the working environment in that regard?”

However, only a minority of employers have taken this issue on in any meaningful way, and so I think you’re unlikely to find many with a satisfying answer. That means that you might need to look into whether your symptoms are severe enough that you’d be covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act; if they are, that opens up new avenues for addressing this.

3. Applying for jobs right before going on a three-week vacation overseas

In the last week, three jobs that really excited me were posted – I’m dying to apply. I live in a small city where jobs in my field aren’t that frequent so I don’t want to pass on them. But I have a three-week overseas holiday coming up that begins three days after the closing date for all three applications. I don’t want to put something in my cover letter that immediately puts me in the do-not-interview pile, but I don’t want people to call me to arrange an interview and get a sorry-I’m-overseas-try-emailing-me voicemail, which seems both a shabby thing to do to HR and likely to look bad or thoughtless. Is there a non-off-putting way to phrase this in a cover letter?

I know (having perused similar in your archives) that by not cancelling the trip I’m showing where my priorities are, but it’s a big financial investment for me and I’ve saved up a lot of leave for it. So I guess it is my priority, I just want to mitigate its effects as much as possible!

I don’t think it’s so much about “showing where your priorities are” — it would be crazy to cancel a trip just because you might get called for an interview while you’re away. You should proceed with your plans, and no one should find that odd. But yes, it might end up being the case that you’re away during the period when they’re conducting interviews. If it’s a hard-to-fill job or you’re an especially ideal candidate, they might be perfectly willing to wait for you to get back, but you risk that they’ll move forward while you’re away. There’s not really anything you can do about that though; you certainly shouldn’t alter your plans, particularly since you don’t know if they’ll invite you to interview anyway, or whether they’ll even be scheduling the interviews for before you’re back.

It does make sense to include a note at the end of your cover letter saying something like, “While I’ll be traveling overseas from DATE to DATE, I’ll be checking email regularly and would love to set up a time to speak for any time after DATE.” You should also make sure that your voicemail is clear about the situation, and that you do check email while you’re away (ideally at least every few days if you want to be able to respond to an employer quickly).

4. I don’t find out my schedule until the night before I’m supposed to work

I just got a new job. We have one supervisor who is scheduling the whole animal hospital (boarding, reception, technicians, doctors, retail, etc.) — at least 40 employees. I usually don’t even find out my Sunday-Saturday schedule until Saturday before the Sunday of the coming work week (for example, I found out mid-day on 9/1 what my schedule is for 9/2-9/9). This makes it hard to plan any kind of doctor visits, plans or any errands I need to do. I’m used to knowing my schedule for the next two weeks. The past two days, my supervisor has texted/called employees at almost 11 pm telling then what time they work the next day.

I feel like this isn’t right, especially if I don’t know what time I should be in bed or am not able to plan my day because I’m not sure if I work the next day or what time I work until it’s almost midnight. I don’t know what to do or say. I don’t think it’s fair but I can’t seem to see any laws against it.

Yeah, it’s not illegal, just really, really bad practice for the reasons you mention. All you can really do is point out the difficulties it causes and ask if there are alternatives. For instance: “Jane, is there any chance of getting our schedules a few days earlier? When I don’t hear until midnight before a day I might need to work, it makes it really hard to plan.” You could also talk to your coworkers about speaking up as a group; presumably everyone else is frustrated by it too, and speaking up as a group can sometimes carry more weight.

If that fails, you should at least be able to fight back on the midnight thing — as in, “I need to know no later than X if I’m scheduled to work the next day. I’m often asleep by the time you send the schedule.”

5. When should I mention my visa status?

I’m a Canadian citizen in the U.S. on a employer-specific work visa. I’m looking to change jobs but stay in the U.S., and am worried about how to disclose that to prospective employers. At what point in the process should I disclose my visa status? And in what form? I don’t want to be deceitful, but I also don’t want to be dismissed before they have a chance to look at my qualifications. I’ve heard the advice of putting it on my resume at the top as “Current U.S. Visa status: would need sponsorship” but that feels quite brusque. For context, I’m planning on applying to large organizations that I know have some level of sponsorship program.

Yep, you should put it on your resume. If an employer is set up to do the work of sponsoring you, it’ll seem normal to them to see it there, and if they’re not, it’s useful (and considerate) to alert them to your status ahead of time so that they don’t start the ball rolling with you only to find that it’s an obstacle.

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

1. Wearing school colors when interviewing at a university

When applying for a classified or administrative position at a university, whether or not you attended that particular university, is it inappropriate to wear a blouse or accessorize with one of the colors of that university? My feeling is that it could go either way, so I would love a professional opinion.

I don’t think it’s going to hurt you, but it feels gimmicky to me — and it’s pretty unlikely to help you unless you’re interviewing with someone who judges candidates on the wrong things. You’re better off focusing on showing why you’d excel at the work. (And that goes doubly if the school colors are creamsicle orange or another garish selection.)

2. Should I write a letter of recommendation for an employee I fired?

I manage a team of remote workers, and recently my boss and I decided to fire one of my employees. A few days after being fired, the employee contacted my boss asking for a letter of recommendation. My immediate reaction: WHAT?

My boss forwarded her email to me, and said he doesn’t want to write her one, but I can if I’d like. Is it common to provide letters of recommendation for fired employees? Is it acceptable and reasonable to tell her no? I don’t think I could possibly write a good letter considering she was fired for very serious performance issues, and only worked at our company for 2.5 months. I’m always more than happy to write letters, but not when the employee is fired.

No, it’s not not typical or expected to write recommendation letters (or give positive references) for employees who were fired for cause, not unless they were fired for A but you worked with them long enough and closely enough to honestly say that they’re great at B. It’s completely reasonable to respond to the former employee with something like, “I don’t think we’re in a position to be able to write you a helpful recommendation, especially since we worked with you for such a short period of time.”

Also, letters of recommendation aren’t generally that helpful at all for the reasons I explain here (outside of a few fields that still use them, like academia and some parts of law). Most reference checkers want to actually speak to references and don’t care that much about what a letter says.

3. How can we address confusion over our internal transfer process?

A concern that comes up consistently on our annual associate opinion surveys is that associates feel confused about the internal job application/transfer process, including lateral moves and promotions. Survey results say that eligibility criteria for job transfer don’t make sense, that they feel these decisions are made unfairly, and that they don’t understand the process all that well in general.

I only recently joined the HR team, but I now handle internal job transfers. I am still getting acquainted with the company, but I think these survey results may be something I can address – or at least begin to address. Although I imagine some of the people making these statements on the survey may be venting frustration at not being selected for job transfer, I am also concerned that this is hitting on a real issue. During recent exit interviews, at least two associates have said that dissatisfaction with at least part of the job transfer process has influenced their decision to leave the company.

What can we do differently? Each manager announces job transfers during departmental morning meetings, and refers associates to the job postings board in the break room for more details. (Most associates have limited computer access at work due to the nature of the work.) Interested associates can apply by seeing me, and I make sure to offer them a copy of our job transfer criteria at that time. I always ask if they have questions, although they rarely do. Any associates who are ineligible are notified by their current manager of the reason. Associates who interview for the position but are not selected are notified by the hiring manager. I am not sure where the breakdown in understanding and communication is happening.

It’s difficult to say from the outside what’s going wrong, but I bet the people who are telling you that there’s a problem could tell you! Or at least, they’ll be able to help you better understand how they’re perceiving things from their side.

So make your first step in tackling be seeking to better understand the problem. You can do that by soliciting more information from employees — either the ones who have complained about it (if the responses weren’t anonymous and if you can follow up with people without making them feel like they’re in the spotlight for complaining), or a selection of employees from various parts of the company. Ask them what they think of the process, where the problems are, and how they think it could be handled better, and I bet you’ll get the beginnings of a blueprint to address it.

4. Responding to a fundraising solicitation from a coworker running for office

My colleague (and former manager; we aren’t on the same team any more) is running for office. She recently reached out to me directly (in my personal email) and asked for a donation to her campaign. I was already planning to donate (both because I believe in her candidacy, and because I like to support my friends who are doing hard and admirable things), but her direct request still rubbed me the wrong way.

The situation is complicated by the fact that our employer is an advocacy organization with a (c)4 partner that supports candidates directly. The office she is running for is directly relevant to our mission and it is likely that the (c)4 is supporting her campaign (but I have no way of knowing that for sure; I don’t work with the (c)4). It all just feels a little murky to me, and I both wish that I wasn’t put a position where I may have had to say a direct, uncomfortable no to a colleague (had I not wanted to donate) and I worry that she’s crossing lines that could get her or our employer in trouble. What do you think? Should I do anything?

First, I don’t think you even really have to respond to these sorts of emails if you’d rather not. I tend to think that emails and letters soliciting donations or purchases should be treated as informational messages that don’t require a response — you should see them as “here’s information about an opportunity that you might appreciate knowing about,” but not as direct questions requiring direct answers (in most cases, regardless of the language of the email).

On the broader issue of whether you should say something about it being a bad idea to do this in general, depending on your relationship with her, you could say something like: “I think it’s awesome that you’re running and I was glad to be able to donate! I’m a little worried about whether fundraising with staff gets into a murky area with the (c)3 rules on electioneering — have you thought about how to navigate that?” And if you have an especially comfortable relationship with her, you could go further and say, “While I was already planning to donate to your campaign, I can imagine staff feeling awkward about getting fundraising solicitations from a colleague if they weren’t.”

5. My written offer is lower than the verbal offer

I was interviewed and hired on the spot. I was offered $12 working retail, but a few days later in orientation the written offer said $11. I didn’t say anything at the time because other people were around, but should I clarify what was verbally said and what was written?

Whoa, yes, absolutely. Treat it as a clerical error or a miscommunication that needs to be corrected, and do it immediately, because it will get far harder to fix it the longer you wait. Say something like, “We’d agreed to $12 an hour, but I noticed the paperwork says $11. How do I get this corrected?”

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

1. Should I reach back out about a job I was rejected for?

About 6-8 months ago, I went through three rounds of interviews for a job I was really excited about, at a company I would love to work for. I had a really good connection with the HR manager on the phone and over email, and (I thought) with the team members I met during a six-hour in-person interview. The supervisor of the position told me she really liked me as a candidate, but that she usually takes many months to hire the right person. I get that – I have hired for high-level positions and agonized over making the right call. Eventually the HR manager notified me I was being passed over (and at the same time, I saw the position re-posted on several industry sites). It has now been about six months since I was rejected, and the position has been re-posted AGAIN – proving how truly difficult it is for this supervisor to pull the trigger, I guess.

I’m still really interested in the job and the company. Would it seem crazy to reapply and try to make a better case for myself? I’ve done some temp work since then that would possibly make me a slightly more attractive candidate. I have an alumni connection with the HR manager; I’m thinking maybe I could test the waters with her more informally first?

I wouldn’t apply all over again; you’ve already been through their interview process and, for whatever reason, the hiring manager decided you weren’t quite right. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with reaching out informally and saying something like, “I noticed the role was still open, and I’d love to reconnect if you think it might be worth our talking again.” I’d reach out to the hiring manager, though, not the HR person, since the hiring manager is the one who’s going to decide if it would make sense to talk again.

I’ll caution you against being too hopeful that anything will come of it, since there’s probably a reason why the hiring manager declined to keep you in the running last time. But you never know, and you’ve got nothing to lose by shooting her a quick email.

2. Should I go to this interview?

I was contacted via email by an apparel company that found my resume online to come in for an interview for a receptionist/administrative assistant position. I have no idea what the job entails or what the salary is since no description was provided, and it’s located 15 miles away from me. I live in Los Angeles, and traffic here is pure hell. I don’t know if I should go to this interview or not. I don’t want to work someplace where I’m fighting traffic for hours every day. After googling the company, I wasn’t excited. But after months of job hunting, this is the first interview I’ve gotten. But I’m worried about taking off from my current job and going way out to this place just to find out its not what I want or it doesn’t pay enough. Without a job description, it’s really difficult to decide what to do.

When you’re contacted about a job you didn’t apply to, it’s totally reasonable to say, “Could you send me a copy of the job description to look at?” I’d even argue that it’s reasonable to ask about the salary — normally too many employers consider that a terrible sin to do an early stage, but where they’ve proactively approached you, I think it’s fine to ask at the same time that you’re asking for more details about the position.

3. The person I recommended for my old position is struggling in the job

I recommended someone for my former position when I was promoted. However, they are not thrilled with her. They say she is a slow learner and doesn’t complete assignments unless asked multiple times. I never saw any of this from her when we worked together previously. Should I feel as bad as I do? Is there anything I should do?

Assuming you genuinely thought she was great, you don’t have anything to feel bad about. Sometimes a role just isn’t the right fit. I do think that you could say something like, “I’m sorry it’s not going smoothly with Jane. I didn’t see those issues when we worked together previously or I wouldn’t have suggested her for the role.” You might feel like that’s obvious, but putting it out there can make you and the person managing her feel less awkward about the fact that you recommended her.

4. Can my restaurant make me do hostess shifts?

I’m a server in a restaurant and hurt my knee outside of work. I was not able to serve, so I did some hostess shifts. My doctor okayed me to go back to work and I gave my general manager the doctor’s note before he made and posted the new schedule. In between that, one of his managers offered me a position as a hostess; she never got back to me on about how much I’d be making. I emailed her and the manager and respectfully declined the position and shifts for that position. Can they now make me do hostess shifts even though I’ve declined their offer?

Assuming you’re not under some kind of indentured servant arrangement, they can’t make you do anything. But they can tell you that they’re switching you to hostess work, and they can require it as a condition of your job. At that point, you’d need to decide if you want the job under those circumstances.

But as a next step here, if you find yourself being scheduled for hostessing work, I’d just address it head-on, nicely but directly: “I appreciate the chance to try out hostessing, but I’d like to return to server shifts. Will that be okay?”

5. Update from the letter-writer who wanted to convince her friend to job-search

Here’s an update from last year’s letter-writer who was wondering how to convince her friend to get a job. (#3 at the link) The friend hadn’t worked for 2+ years since finishing grad school, was being supported by her parents, and had weird ideas, like that “people get jobs because of their charm but not by merit,” and “employers should approach the candidates instead.”

It has been more than a year since the question was published. Thanks to your wonderful readers’ comments. Here’s what happened to my friend in the past year.

Through her parents’ connections, she got a part-time job proctoring exams at local universities. In addition, she got a gig marking tests at a college. Those jobs were mundane (which I agree), but were better than nothing. Finally, she decided that going for a PhD in her field would be better than working at all those dead-end jobs. She applied to at least a dozen of universities and got accepted in a few of them with funding. She accepted one of the offers and has moved to another town to start her PhD. The acceptance letters were an ego booster: She had never felt so much in demand for years.

She has been quite honest with me that the job prospects of the particular field outside of academia are limited. The job prospects in academia are even more limited. Attending PhD is a temporary solution for not working on anything at all. In the past year, I kept my mouth shut about all those “Help Wanted” signs near her home.

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

1. My boss seems disengaged — how can I ask what’s up?

My manager is in a remote location from me. Recently he has become disengaged. He no longer reaches out or responds to messages on a timely fashion. When I’m able to get him on the phone, I do have his full attention and we have a healthy dialogue. But after the conversation, he goes back to silence. There have been some changes above him that I know he isn’t happy with, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he is looking for a new job. But paranoid me needs to make sure that I’m not the problem. How can I ask him if our relationship is OK without coming off as needy?

There are certainly some work relationships where you could just ask that straight-out — as in, “Hey, we hardly ever talk anymore and I’m wondering if I’m the problem.” But if you had that relationship, you’d probably just plunge ahead with that and wouldn’t be asking about it here.

Given that, I’m not sure that the right approach is to ask about the relationship. Without more reason to think that you’re the problem, it does risk coming across as overly needy, especially for work. Instead, I’d just name the specific behavior that’s concerning you, give him the benefit of the doubt about the cause (for instance, assume that he’s busy), and then ask if there’s anything you could be doing differently to help the situation. For instance: “Hey Bob, I noticed we’re not as in regular communication as we used to be. I’m guessing that you’re swamped. Is there that I could be doing differently that would be helpful on your side?”

All that said, if you know intellectually that you’re not the problem and this is just about assuaging anxiety, then I’d just let it go. (And I’m all about assuaging anxiety, but if it’s truly about you and not about the situation, you’re better off forcing yourself to back off.)

2. My boss sizes me up every day

My boss is the HR director at our company and she’s not the easiest person to talk to. You’d think that being in HR, she’d know how to interact with humans but that’s not the case.

How do I approach her when it comes to her sizing me up every day? I’m talking about a straight up and down look at me while saying absolutely nothing. Not even a smile, compliment or anything. It’s obvious she doesn’t like what she sees, but how do I go about telling her that it makes me very uncomfortable and puts down my already very low self esteem? Should I email her once about it? Schedule a meeting (probably only to have her yell at me that I’m doing something worthy of her actions)? When I see her do it, it just makes me want to scream in frustration and say “WHAT?!”

Well, first, I wouldn’t assume she’s looking you up and down because “she doesn’t like what she sees.” Some people do this just as a way of processing the other person’s presence, or because they’re interested in what people wear. Some people are also oblivious to the fact that their quick scan of other people reads as uncomfortable scrutiny. So you might be reading more into it than what’s there (although maybe not; it’s certainly possible that you’re picking up on a critical vibe).

So ideally, I’d let this go if you can stand to. But if not, don’t schedule a meeting or send an email about it; that will introduce way more drama than is needed. If it bugs you enough that you feel you have to address it, the way to handle it is to say something in the moment about the behavior but without accusing her of anything. For instance: “Is something on my outfit? You’re looking me up and down.” It’s the same principle as saying, “Is something on my shirt?” when someone is staring at your chest.

(It’s also kind of similar to the answer in #1 above, actually.)

3. Telling a coworker not to use Comic Sans

Someone on our partner team used Comic Sans font in an official computer record that many people from all over the business may see. This person is at a higher level than I am, but not in my management chain, and my team is in charge of these records. So I fixed it, and I need to alert him that he really shouldn’t use this font (he’s in India – I have no idea if he has a notion of American typography zeitgeist). How do I phrase this?

“Just wanted to let you know that I changed the font in this document from Comic Sans. American culture is rabidly anti-Comic Sans (there are even whole websites devoted to attacking it), so I went with the less controversial Arial. Thought I should flag it for you!”

4. I’m earning less than our team’s contractors

I work for a very well-known tech company that routinely makes the “Top Companies to Work For” lists and is, to put it mildly, rolling in the dough. I mention this because our department, traditionally, is ridiculously underpaid. There are 10 of us in this department, all doing the exact same job (except the 2 new hires, who are in contractor status and don’t have the same authorization levels we do), for what I thought was roughly the same pay. Turns out, I was wrong. The contractors are both making more than I do, by a pretty substantial amount, and that’s after the 33% raise I got when transferring from contract to full-time one and a half years ago. (I know that sounds like a lot, but I was just barely scraping by before, and with the health insurance premiums, I’m only coming out about 5% ahead in take-home pay…so I’m still just barely scraping by, but now I have health care.)

I don’t really think I can say anything about this, since it’s not anything against me that they happened to go with a contracting firm that apparently had more pull with our employer, but I’m feeling a little undervalued and, if I’m honest, kind of ripped off. I’m also frustrated at myself because I feel like I should have negotiated harder when the time came to convert my contract, but I was told at the time that what they were offering was the absolute top for this position. It’s not really enough to live on without a second income, but I’ve been persisting for the sake of the health insurance. So, is there anything I can reasonably say that won’t make me sound like I’m whining about how life isn’t faaaaaaaiiiiir?

It’s pretty normal for contractors to make more. It’s because they don’t get benefits (which can account for a sizable portion of an employee’s costs). It’s not really a useful comparison because of that; your employer presumably pays for you to have paid vacation and sick time, health insurance, retirement contributions, and other benefits that the contractors aren’t getting.

5. Should I let my references know every time I apply for a job?

I’m currently applying to jobs very selectively, as in maybe 1-2 jobs per month. Considering that most application systems require that I submit reference contact information at the application stage, how do you suggest I keep my potential references informed that they might receive a reference call? Should I email them every time I list their name on an application or can I assume that once they okay me using them as a reference, I’m good to go for a few months or so?

The latter. No need to alert them every time; that’s going to be too many interruptions and too much for them to keep track of (even at only 1-2 month), and statistically speaking, you’re unlikely to be invited to interview for the majority of jobs you apply for, so you’d be loading them up with a bunch of unnecessary information.

Plus, even though those application forms are asking for references at the start, those employers are still highly unlikely to CHECK your references until late stages in the process. They’re asking now so they have them on file (which is annoying and silly), but they’re not likely to use them until after you’ve been interviewed.