Ask a Manager

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

1. My boss wants me to do something skeevy

As part of our link building strategy, my boss wants me to email bloggers and webmasters pretending that I am a random person who is a fan of theirs and has discovered a broken link on their site. I am to tell them that I found a great article (on our own site) and try to convince them to link to it. In short, I am to pretend to be someone else who is recommending our company/our site. This would entail using a fake gmail account with a fake name.

I don’t feel comfortable doing this. I see it as lying and I think it’s deceitful. I also think it’s unnecessary and that we can have the same success presenting ourselves as the creators of the content and asking them to take a look at it. In the end, it comes down to whether the owner of the site thinks our content is good enough and worthy of linking to, not who the email is coming from. Aside from that, I’m not convinced that this isn’t illegal, under the light of Canada’s new anti-spam laws.

My bosses say that it’s just part of marketing, that I should leave my morals at home and stop being stubborn about it. They don’t even want me to try any other approach, as they’re convinced it’s not working. I tried to reach a compromise but they wouldn’t hear it. They want me to do it by pretending to be someone else. I’ve been yelled at and treated pretty badly over this issue.

What should I do? Should I suck it up and do it, but feel bad about myself? Or should I be true to my conscience and refuse to do it? What could be the consequences of refusing to pretend to be someone else?

Ha, your boss is ridiculous. Not only is this ethically shady but it’s not going to work. As someone on the receiving end of an awful lot of emails like this, I can tell you that they’re transparent, annoying, and ineffective.

However, you’ve already pushed back and your boss is telling you to do it anyway. So this is now part of your job — and your boss can require it just like she can require any other responsibility. You, in turn, can decide you don’t want the job under these circumstances — although in general it’s better to find another job before you pull that particular trigger.

2. I’m getting an undeserved free lunch

I work at a law firm, and am probably what you would call an honorary member of the document drafting department. My job is to email clients and escalate matters when we need documents back quickly. I don’t do any drafting, but I’m still included on the group email and I sit in the same area.

Recently there was a push to clear out our backlog, and the lead partner said he’d take the department out to lunch if we succeeded in doing so. Well, because of the department’s hard work, it got completed in less than a week. Last week I received an invite email to the lunch from someone who isn’t an attorney, but still high up and could probably fire me if she wanted. It’s scheduled for about a week from now.

I feel really awkward being invited and probably going to the lunch. My position being what it is, I did nothing to help with the project. I’m afraid that my coworkers will be a little bitter that I’m literally getting a free lunch out of this. I’ve considered explaining to Boss Lady that I don’t feel comfortable going to the lunch, but I don’t want to be difficult. Should I just go anyway?

(For some background, my coworkers rarely speak to me as I was a little isolated from them for about a year and I half, so I don’t really have a relationship with anyone in the department except for the team lead. There will also be a lunch for the entire division for a similar reason, which I feel much less guilty about going to.)

Your coworkers would have to be extremely petty to care that you’re included in the lunch. But if you’re worried, email her back and say, “I’d love to come to this — but I want to be up-front that I didn’t work on the backlog, so if this is only to thank people who did, I probably shouldn’t be included. (But if it’s not restricted to that group, I’d love to attend!)”

3. When should I ask about my internship turning into a regular job?

I am 2 months into my 4 month internship in the HR department of an IT department. I am finished with University and took this internship as I had no job after finishing school :) I would love to work full – time for this company but at the beginning of my internship, my manager would hint at the temporary nature of my position by saying “at the end of your internship….”. (when I interviewed for this position I was told that there is a possibility that it could translate into a permanent position).

My manager will be back from a vacation this week. Is this a good time to ask her if they intend to keep me on in a full time/permanent role? Or should I wait to ask her one month before my internship ends?I have no work lined up after this internship is over and I’m scared she will say no.

My title is L&D coordinator (Summer Student) and I perform a lot of work that the L&D coordinator (full time employee) used to perform. She has been given a different set of duties. I perform he work she would do when she joined the company a year ago. This employee is excellent at her job and I am somewhat intimidated by her. I have had a few minor hiccups at this job, and while I am not as good as she is, I am very hardworking and always willing to learn. What do you think my chances are of landing this job?

“There’s a chance you could be hired on after your internship” doesn’t mean “that’s likely to happen.” To the contrary, it means “assume this will only be an internship and nothing else unless you hear otherwise.” You should be proceeding from that assumption that that’s the case, which means lining up work for once your internship is over. You can certainly let your manager know now that you’re very interested in working there full-time once your internship ends and ask what your chances of that are and what a timeline for a decision might look like, and you can check in again one month before your ending date — but meanwhile you should proceed as if it’s not happening and job search accordingly.

4. I’m getting mixed messages about a possible promotion

I have worked for my company for about 6 months, and although I like my current position, I think that I can learn more and be more of an asset in a management position in a different department.

In March, I was approached by my boss’s boss about expanding my role and taking on more of a managerial role in another department. Although I felt uncomfortable about him approaching me without speaking with my boss first, I told him that I was interested. The following week, I spoke with the Director of Operations and she explained that they would prefer to have a formal posting for the position in June and if I am still interested at that time I am more than welcomed to apply.

So, I applied in June and have yet to hear back. I even saw that they posted the job on Indeed. What should I do? I am very confused considering that I was initially tapped for the position.

Why not talk to your boss’s boss again, since he initially approached you about this? Let him know that you applied for the role and are very interested and that you’d love to talk with him further about where he sees your role in the company going.

5. Can I reapply for the job that just rejected me?

I applied for a job that I was qualified for although it is not in the same field. (I would be moving from Human Services to Manufacturer but doing the same job.) I went through the interview process and was told on the third interview that I was going to get an offer. Well, I got a “thank you for applying but no” email.

A day after the email, the job is posted back on their website. Should I or can I reapply? I really wanted this job and would be great fit for it. And if yes, what should be my cover letter say?

No, you shouldn’t reapply. It would be one thing to reapply a few months down to road — but not this soon. They know you’re interested, they’ve considered your candidacy, and they decided to reject you. You can’t change that by turning around and reapplying — and it would look a little weird to do that. Your best bet here is to move on, although you could certainly try again after some time goes by.

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

1. How can I tell if things are going well on my new job?

I’m happy to say that I landed a job recently (which I attribute in no small part reading Ask a Manager and also, the wonderful comment section). This is my first job after graduate school, and I’m working with a group of very nice people who haven’t managed anyone in a while/ever. They are so nice that I worry that they won’t tell me how I’m settling in. Any advice for signs that things are going well in the workplace?

Ask! Don’t wait to be told — because while you should be proactively told, the reality is that plenty of managers aren’t good at doing that, or they wait too long.

Sit down with your manager and say, “I’d love to talk about how you think things are going so far. Are there things you’d like me to be doing differently, or areas where you think I should especially be focusing?”

2. Should I mention to my boss that the competition tried to recruit me?

I like my job and am not searching for a new one. If I leave, I expect it would be a big move out of the industry.

I was contacted by an internal recruiter from a competitor via LinkedIn. I suppose I was connected with her from my previous job search. It’s a pretty small industry that we are in. She said they are interested in me, sent me a job description and some other information, and asked if I would be interested in an interview. They have recently acquired a lot of our employees, but I am simply not interested.

What I do is pretty specific and the fact that the competition is looking to expand their business in this direction is good information for my company to have. I don’t want my manager to think I was searching or that I am trying to play this up for a raise. I have a great relationship with him and we are open about my career plans, so he should know I am not planning on leaving any time soon. Is there a delicate way to approach it, or should I even bother?

A reasonable manager won’t think you were searching or that you’re trying to use this to get a raise if you’re straightforward about what happened and why you’re telling her: “Hey, I thought you’d be interested in this: A recruiter contacted me the other day about a job with ABC Corp and it sounds like they’re expanding into teapot design. I told her I wasn’t interested and am happy where I am, but I thought the fact that they’re moving into teapots was pretty significant and the sort of thing I should pass on to you, in case that’s useful for the company to know.”

3. How can I tell if a job applicant is detail-oriented?

How do you assess if a job applicant is detail oriented? I am moving on from my current position and interviewing potential replacements. A major part of the job is staying on top of deadlines and following highly specific instructions that change from one time to the next. How do you determine if a candidate has those skills, other than just asking them? If you ask them, any red flag to look for in their answers?

Don’t just ask them; people can come up with good answers to those sorts of questions whether or not they’re actually detail-oriented. Instead, this is something that you want to assess by actually seeing it in action. That means looking carefully at their application materials and their correspondence with you and believing what you see there (are there typos? do they follow directions? if you ask three questions in an email, do they only answer two?), but — most importantly — it also means creating exercises for them to do as they progress through the hiring process that will specifically test that skill. Ask your finalists to do a short exercise (something that will take no longer than 30-60 minutes) similar to the work they’d be doing on the job and provide them with detailed instructions; with the right exercise, you’ll be able to assess attention to detail plus judgment, how they communicate in writing, and all sorts of other skills.

You’d be surprised at how much this will differentiate some candidates from others, and you shouldn’t hire without it.

4. Can I ask my boss to shut her door when she meets with others?

My office is right across the hall from my boss. There is a lot of tension there due to many being upset with her way of managing. They are nice to her face but talk badly about her when she is not there. I am older and have learned much in my years in management, so I keep to myself most of the time. They all go out to lunch and don’t invite me because I do not get into petty talk and I am doing a good job so the boss is not on me.

Because my office is right across from my boss, when she has meetings with the other staff, I can hear what she says. My problem is that they will start whispering (as in high school) which then in turn makes me wonder what are they talking about that they don’t want me to hear. I want to tell my boss that this is uncomfortable for me and to please shut her door when she has meetings. She is a high type A so that is why there is discontent in the office; everyone is always blaming everyone for anything. How do I handle this? I want to tell her during my review how this affects me. How do I do this professionally? I thought maybe shutting my door would work but she does not like that.

I don’t think you can really ask her to stop doing this. She apparently doesn’t like closing her door, and it’s not unusual that she’d have meetings where sometimes people want to lower their voices. That’s really her prerogative.

I agree with you that whispering is distracting, but there are all sorts of reasons that people in meetings with your boss might lower their voices; there are often often conversations that are sensitive in some way (for instance, explaining a health issue, talking about a performance issue, giving advice on how to deal with a tricky coworker situation, talking about money — the list is actually pretty endless). I think you’re better off reminding yourself that it’s highly unlikely that these conversations are about you or anything that you need to know about — and maybe trying to find ways to drown it out on your side, such as playing music at a low volume or wearing headphones.

5. How should I include semi-work-related activities on a resume?

My question is about how I should incorporate a couple of semi-work-related activities into my resume. Last fall, the company I’m with finally reached out to Enterprise to get a vanpool program set up for those of us who still commute from when our headquarters relocated over a year go. Each vanpool needs an official coordinator and someone to be point of contact with Enterprise and essentially the leader of the group when it comes to communication with the rest of the riders. I keep track of who is riding when (and not) and send in these little monthly reports to Enterprise and generally keep things running smoothly. It’s not complicated but it’s one of those things that someone has to volunteer to do it or else it all falls apart.

My second side gig is a book club with six or seven other associates in the office that meets every six weeks. I also am the coordinator or lead of that group as well. I took over for someone who left a while ago and I update everyone with the titles/ratings/meeting reminders and kind of lead the discussions. How should I categorize this within my resume if it’s something that I should add? I don’t really have a “hobbies/volunteer” section at the moment.

The first one probably doesn’t rise to the level of significant enough to include on your resume. The exception to that might be if it demonstrates a skill that you’re trying to play up and which you don’t have much other “evidence” of on your resume — but otherwise I’d leave it off.

The second might be something you could list in a professional development section, but only if (a) you have other stuff there — don’t create that section just for this, and (b) the books your club reads are mainly for professional development. If the books are novels or just for pleasure, it probably doesn’t rise to level of worth giving resume space to. (Although it might be something that you bring up in an interview as a way to talk about what you’re like as a colleague.)

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

1. Should I put my headshot in my email signature?

I’m curious as to what your position is on putting a headshot in your email signature. Personally I love receiving emails with photos, because I engage in a lot of correspondence with people I have never met in person. Thoughts?

Not a fan. For professional correspondence, it’s far enough outside the norm that it’s going to stand out to people as unusual, and while some will like it, it will feel a little cheesy/inappropriate to others.

It will also clog up people’s in-boxes because you’ll be sending an attachment each time you email.

(And for job-searching, definitely don’t do it — for the same reasons that you don’t include a photo on your resume in the U.S.)

2. Should I tell someone that my boss asks me to clock him out after he leaves?

My boss makes me clock him out hours after he leaves. He says it doesn’t matter whether he works the full 40 hours/week or not because either way, he gets paid salary, not by the hour. When he leaves the office, he leaves me in charge when he should be the one supervising. He’s decided to replace me with a new employee (that I referred!) and I’m thinking about going to corporate with this bit of information to go out with a bang. My question is, how much leverage do I actually have? Does corporate really care if management is falsifying hours actually worked? Can they get fired? And how should I go about this?

It depends. If he’s not paid by the hour, it’s much less of a big deal. If he’s asking you to clock him out because he’s out doing work stuff and not returning to the office, that’s also not a big deal. But if he’s doing it with intent to deceive, that’s something his manager would probably care about.

However, I think your judgment is probably being clouded (understandably) by the fact that you’re pissed off about being replaced — because you’re mixing it up with stuff that definitely isn’t a big deal, like leaving you in charge when he’s out aren’t a big deal; managers don’t need to be on the premises every minute to manage.

In any case, this isn’t really something that gives you leverage. You could certainly report it if you think his manager would be concerned, but I wouldn’t expect it to change your own situation, and if you’re doing it with that hope, you’re probably better off just leaving on good terms, preserving him as a reference, and moving on mentally.

3. Why didn’t my manager warn me I was going to be laid off before I took an expensive vacation?

I recently requested and took a 3-week vacation, which cost me a huge amount of money. The following week I got a pink slip along with a few others. Couldn’t my manager have declined my vacation and said, “There is a big event coming up and I suggest you wait”? I could have canceled all my flights and saved $4,000. What makes it worse is everyone knew but us.

It’s possible that your manager didn’t know — that decisions hadn’t been finalized or that she hadn’t been informed. It’s also possible that she knew and had strict orders not to say anything, which is pretty common in these situations. Navigating this stuff well is really tricky for employers — if they tip people off it before decisions are final, they risk causing panic unnecessarily, but if they don’t tip people off they risk situations like yours. It’s a hard thing to get right.

4. My coworker gets more assignments than I do

Recently I was selected from my department to train in another department. This was very exciting to me, as I have been looking for an opportunity for the last couple of years and was told that I was recommended (I had trained on my own previously). Another person was selected also. In a meeting, it became clear that he and I were selected to transition our department to this new technical workflow. We quickly went through some haphazard training and were thrown into it. It was clear to me the manager had no interest in training, and was more comfortable letting us just figure it out.

Since we started, I have noticed that the other person selected has been assigned more jobs. The scheduling department as well as the manager keep assigning him these files to create. I would get two jobs a day, while he would be assigned 8. I’m confused, as the only way to get better at this is to practice and do the task regularly. I mentioned this in an email and asked again if I could start completing these files. This morning, after the manager told me he had no work assigned to me, I saw the other person (who was there two hours before his shift) doing these jobs.

Please help me be more assertive. I do not want to get kicked off the rotation and want to prove I am capable of doing these tasks, but feel out of the loop and like I am losing traction. I know there are a lot of politics surrounding this situation, and I know that the other guy gives off more confidence than me, and is certainly more aggressive, but I need to prove that I am just as capable.

Go talk to the manager in charge of these assignments. Say something like, “I’ve noticed that Bob gets more of this work assigned to him than I do, and I’m wondering if that’s because there’s something you’d like me to be doing differently. I’d very much like to get better at this, so I’d welcome any feedback you can give me.” If she tells you there’s nothing you need to do differently, then let her know that you’d really like to take on more of the work and ask if it’s possible to split it more evenly with your coworker.

5. Do I need a local phone number for job-searching?

I just moved back to my hometown this week, and started looking for a job. Though I was able to find a place to live (and changed my address on my resume accordingly), I have yet to change my phone number. Will having an out-of-state phone number affect my job search, meaning will perspective employers not call me because I have an out-of-state phone number? And if I were to change my number now, what should I do as far as the jobs that I have already applied for?

If you have a local address on your resume, an out-of-state number isn’t likely to hurt you. Given the ubiquity of cell phones, it’s now pretty common for people to just move their old number with them to their new location, and employers are used to local candidates having phone numbers with all sorts of area codes.

If you’re truly worried about it, you could always get a Google Voice number with a local area code and have it forward to your current number, but I don’t think that’s necessary.

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

1. Can I use troubling info one employee gave me about another?

Can I tell an employee that I know they purposely aren’t doing something that they should?

The employee I’m referring to has been telling a coworker that she “hates” doing something that’s one of her responsibilities and has been getting others to complete it for her. Since the employee hasn’t directly said it to me, I wasn’t sure if I could say anything to her. In addition, I don’t want to betray the trust of the person who told me because I want her to feel that she was right to tell me and should feel free telling me any other items like this that I should know.

There’s no reason that you can’t use information that you got from someone else, rather than witnessing it firsthand — but unless you know for sure that it’s correct, you should either ask about it (rather than stating it as a fact) or find ways to observe it for yourself.

But usually the best way to use information that you don’t want to attribute to a particular person is to use it as “background info” to inform your thinking. In other words, now that you’ve been alerted to this, dig into it a bit to see what you find. If there’s no easy way to observe what’s happening for yourself, then try asking the employee a direct question about it. For instance: “Tell me how X is going; I know it’s not your favorite thing. Have you been completing it yourself or pulling others in?” (If she says she’s doing it herself and you doubt that’s true, then you really need to poke around further, because lying to you about it is a much, much bigger deal.)

2. Did my boss lie about extending my position?

I work as a research tech and project coordinator at a university. We’re running low on money, so my boss accepted another faculty position at a different school (in another state) so our project could continue with more funding. Some of my lab mates are moving there, most are not. There’s been some talk of keeping a faction of us here. No one knows yet if that’ll happen.

I’ve been helping my boss set up the new lab at the other school, staying in a different state for weeks at a time over this spring and summer. My position renews yearly at the end of July. My boss said he’d work on getting my position extended until the end of the year when the lab here would be shutting down. On Friday he told me point blank that position had definitely been extended at least through October.

Good, right? Except today when I reached out to HR to make sure my benefits and everything would still be intact through October I was informed that my end date is still 7/31. I had a hunch this would happen; I’ll bet my boss still thinks he can get my contract extended, and just lied and said it had happened so I’d stop bugging him.

So now what? He’s out of the country for at least a week, so I need to talk to him/confront him via email about this. I want to say if this isn’t settled in two weeks I’ll be calling my old temp agency and I’ll have them set up something for me starting 8/1. I’m sort of afraid telling him that will make him not even try to get my contract extended. Gah, I’d been looking for jobs, but not aggressively because I’d been assured this would be taken care of. I won’t even be able to go on interviews this month because I’ll be in the other location until the 30th, one day before my last day. What do I say to him?

“Hey, Bob, HR still has my end date down as July 31. I need them to update that so I’m assured of my benefits being intact through October. Can I update them about my extension?” Even better, if your answer from HR came in an email, reply to it with a note letting them know that your boss extended you, and cc your boss.

It’s possible that your boss didn’t lie to you and HR just doesn’t have updated records yet. But either way, this will flush out whatever’s going on.

3. How can I ask if I’m likely to be laid off?

My manager has just laid off multiple workers because he cannot afford to keep them. How can I ask my boss if I am next on the list?

“I know the company is in a tough financial period. Are you able to give me a sense of whether my job might need to be cut too if things don’t turn around?”

However, keep in mind that it’s pretty common for employers not to tell employees that they’re likely to be laid off — because if it doesn’t happen, they don’t want to lose good people, and because they don’t want people checking out at the exact time when they most need people doing good work. So regardless of what your manager says*, it probably makes sense to be looking for a job — not because you’re definitely going to be laid off, but because there’s enough of a chance of it that you’ll be glad you got a head start on searching if it does happen.

* Well, not totally regardless. There are some jobs — and some manager-employee relationships — where you can trust a manager who tells you that your job isn’t going anywhere. But if you’re not sure you’re in that boat, assume that you’re not.

4. Can I forward praise to my manager without looking like I’m fishing for compliments?

I work at a university and my office handles a program for out of state students (among other things). I don’t handle this program directly and usually refer people to the person who does. Last week, that person was out of the office and some parents dropped in for some answers about the program. I helped them out by answering questions, emailing them pertinent info., etc. They just responded to my email with an amazing compliment about how helpful and friendly I was and that they are excited about their child coming here with people like me working here. Should I forward this message to my boss or should I just thank the parent and move on? I don’t want to seem as though I’m fishing for compliments from her?

It’s not going to seem like you’re fishing for compliments. Managers love seeing this kind of feedback. Forward it to your boss with a note like, “We got this really nice note from some parents.”

If it helps you feel more comfortable, think of it as being about “us,” not just “me” — as in, it’s great that people are feeling so positively about your office as a whole.

5. Does this rejection mean I need to revise my resume and cover letter?

This is sort of a silly question, but I was wondering if you have any insight into the wording of this job rejection email. The email stated that “After careful consideration, we regret to inform you that this position is no longer available.” I’m a bit confused as to whether this type of phrasing tends to mean that my application was reviewed and rejected, or if I applied too late to have my application read at all. While I know that either way it’s a rejection, I’d like to know if it’s the former to figure out whether I should be presenting my cover letter and resume in an entirely different manner.

I guess my more general question is how I should be responding to a rejection in regards to future applications. Should I be revising my cover letters and resumes, or is it just that for the particular position I applied to, there were more qualified applicants regardless of how I presented my application? I suppose this isn’t something one can really know, but do you have any advice as to when and how I should be changing the way I present job applications?

That message could mean that the job has been filled, or that they’ve canceled the job altogether. But regardless of what it means, you shouldn’t be taking any single rejection message as a sign that you need to revise your application materials. You can have great application materials and still get rejected for tons of jobs — that’s normal. Of course, it’s also possible that your materials are in dire need of revision — most people’s are. This post can help with that.