Ask a Manager

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

1. Is my VP warning me about layoffs?

I have moved into doing internal communications with our organization, among my other duties, so sometimes the VP of our department sends me information for our intranet to write up. 

She shared an email recently about a hiring freeze that only went to leadership and wanted something written for everyone in the company to see about saving money while traveling for business. That wasn’t too out of the ordinary, so I wrote what she wanted and went on with my day. However, today she sent me a meeting invite titled “[Department] Staffing” that was meant to go to a VP that deals with HR and Administration. It didn’t have any other details outside of the title and who was invited. Not long after that, she cancelled the meeting. It was clearly not intended for me to receive and appeared to be about a topic that would potentially impact jobs in my department.

We have already had raises delayed a few months, so are layoffs next? Is she subconsciously warning me my job is in jeopardy, or am I reading too much into this? I have only been here one year and worry it’ll be “last one in, first one out” if push comes to shove.

If she’s the sort of person who likes to communicate in elaborate clues, I suppose it’s possible, but I think you’re probably reading too much into that specific email. That would be a really weird way to give you a tip-off. That said, if your company is struggling financially, you don’t need a signal from your manager to tell you that it’s possible layoffs could be coming and should probably be proceeding on the assumption that that’s the case.

2. Another company told me my employee applied for a job with them

I had a meeting yesterday with an IT company that wants me to outsource my In house IT person and contract with them. During the meeting they told me that I should be aware that my In house IT person had submitted his resume to their company and requested an interview. Therefore, I should expedite our association accordingly. I don’t doubt they are telling the truth. I had already planned to follow the outsource course of action. However, their tattling left a bad taste in my mouth. Are there any laws against that sort of thing or is that just bad form?

Wow. It’s not illegal, but it’s an incredibly crappy thing to do. For all they know, they’ve just put that guy’s job at risk (and it doesn’t matter if they’re planning to hire him, since they have no idea if he’d accept their offer). I strongly, strongly urge you to tell them that you’re disgusted that they’d violate someone’s privacy and jeopardize his livelihood that way, and that you won’t do business with them as a result.

3. All-day interviews when you’re breastfeeding

I have recently been asked to go for a second interview to my dream job. It’s wonderful news (thanks in great part to your good advice!), but the interview is a whole day affair with people at two sites, including the president and VP, who need to sign off on whoever gets hired for this position, though I won’t ever be interacting with them directly.

I’m a new mom with a 3-month-old and I exclusively breastfeed. In order to keep my milk supply up, I will need to pump at least every 3 hours and find a private place to do so (not to mention hauling the pumping equipment all day and between the two sites, something which will leave me looking less than professional!).

The admin assistant who is scheduling the interview contacted me today and asked me to respond to her about which dates I can do for the interview. Help! How do I handle this?

Be straightfoward! Explain the situation to the person who’s scheduling the interview, and ask if they can schedule a X-minute break for you every three hours for pumping. If they don’t react well to that, it’s far better to find that out now than to discover after you’re working for them that it’s not a friendly environment for working parents, and new moms in particular.

4. Interviewing with a brain injury

I have an interview for a job I’m really excited about next week at a really great nonprofit. I’m preparing for it like crazy, but I’m not sure how to handle my recent brain injury in the interview. I had a bike accident where I broke my elbow and got a really good concussion. It was a few weeks ago and I’m totally capable of doing the job I’m interviewing for now, but there’s still some lingering things that might make the interview awkward. I can’t shake hands with my right hand, and while I offer people my left hand, it definitely creates a weird moment right away. I also have trouble recalling specific words (like saying “blood tubes” instead of “capillaries”), and substitute words without noticing it (“vanilla” instead of “soda”). It takes me a second to translate thoughts to words, and I worry that it comes off as nervousness or incompetence. The symptoms are supposed to get better over time and be mostly to completely gone six months from now.

I know these things aren’t related to the function of the job, but they definitely can make me look like a less strong candidate or just foolish. But if one of the first things I tell interviewers is that I’m recovering from a brain injury, I worry that they’ll see me as an invalid, not as a viable candidate.

It’s definitely more of an accommodating work environment, from what I can tell. The person who called to offer me an interview briefed me on her organization’s interview dynamics and was very eager to make sure the interview date/time/location worked for me. So should I power through and maybe embarrass myself, or should I tell them and have them potentially pity me?

With any kind of disability, when you’re concerned an interviewer is going to notice symptoms and attribute it to the wrong cause, I’m a big fan of just explaining the situation up-front. That way, they know what’s going on without assuming something worse, and you don’t have the anxiety of wondering what they’re thinking about it.

So I’d tell them. But I wouldn’t do it on the spot in the interview, since that can sometimes feel awkward; instead, explain it to the person you’ve been talking to there (the one who called you) ahead of time. I’d say something like this: “I want to let you know that I’m still feeling the after-effects of a concussion from a bike accident a few weeks ago, since there are some things you might notice and wonder about otherwise! I’m not able to shake hands with my right hand yet, and my brain is occasionally substituting the wrong words, or it might take me an extra few seconds to start speaking! My doctor is confident this will all go away in a few months, but I wanted to give you a heads-up in case anyone I speak with notices it.” Good luck!

5. Should I contact someone else when the recruiter is on vacation?

I have taken the first steps towards what would be a dream job. I had a successful initial interview with an internal recruiting manager and was given a mock project to complete. Once I submitted this, he followed up to let me know that he should have feedback/next steps in the upcoming week.

After the full week passed, I did not hear back so I wrote a brief, enthusiastic follow-up this Monday. I instantly received his out-of-office message saying he will be out on vacation for two weeks. He left two points of contact: a coordinator for rescheduling interviews and also his supervisor for urgent matters. I certainly know this is not urgent and that I do not have an interview. In this situation, is it out of line or over-eager to reach out to the coordinator?

If it makes a difference, I noticed that yesterday the man who would be my boss viewed my LinkedIn profile. Should I just have faith that the process is moving along and try and relax?

Yes.

Yes, it would be overkill to reach out to the coordinator (since the recruiter’s out-of-office message only said to contact the coordinator if you need to reschedule an interview). And yes, you should assume that they’ll contact you if they want to talk to you. The best thing you can do now is to put it out of your mind and move on.

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

1. Giving input for someone else’s evaluation

I work for a government agency, and my position is somewhat supervisory, but not directly. I am often asked for input for the secretaries’ annual evaluations. Due to our office structure, several of us share a few secretaries, and we interact with them often, assigning work, working together, and communicating in writing and in person. My boss normally sends out an email to us for our input and we are given some time, but very few/no parameters. When I have a good working relationship with a secretary, it’s easy– I try to give examples of things they handled well. I talk generally about how they approach their work and if it’s enjoyable to work with them. But when I don’t, I’ve struggled with whether to provide feedback and what is the best way to do so.

Additionally, my coworkers told me that they don’t provide feedback on the evaluations because they have been burned in the past. Their comments have been shared and attributed to them, which has made it more difficult to work with the secretaries. They said that they always say that everything is okay. However, everything is not okay. Balls are dropped, lots of mistakes are made, and honestly it stresses me out. Also, I understand that since I work for the government, no one is going to get fired or let go. I feel like I want to do something about it, and providing feedback is a good way for me to do that. But I don’t want to seem grumpy or adversarial or petty (most of my evaluations of the secretaries would point out a lot of issues), and I don’t want them to not be taken seriously. What would you suggest?

First, tell your boss that you’d like to share candid feedback but are concerned about causing tension in your relationship with the secretaries, and ask if she can use your feedback as background for herself or in aggregate with no names attached. But then, yes, you should absolutely give feedback. Balls being dropped and mistakes being made are big deals, and you’re being explicitly asked to give feedback on their performance. It’s not grumpy or adversarial to point out factual things like that, as long as you do it in a calm, objective way. If there are things you do like about working with them, include that too, of course.

Read an update to this letter here.

2. The job I wanted to apply to disappeared

Over this past weekend, I saw two openings listed on Idealist at a company in which I am very very interested. I went to the company’s website and they were listed there as well. I was thrilled, but I wavered as to which I should apply to, as they were both semi-similar but very interesting and frankly I believed I could be happy with either. So, I wavered until Monday — and I could not believe it, but they had been removed from the job listings. I reloaded the page multiple times to make sure it wasn’t an error. I checked the original job posting site, and sure enough, they had been removed from underneath the company’s heading. I am shocked and angry at myself for not moving more quickly, but most of all I feel as though I’ve lost my opening within this company.

My question is what now? Is that it, do I just move on and check back to see if anymore relevant openings come up? Would it be plausible to contact the company just to inquire about whether the jobs were filled? Or should I assume that they were because the listings are gone? What is your advice going forward for seeking a job at a company in which you are interested, but there are no listed openings and you have no internal contacts?

There’s no harm in contacting the company and asking if they’d still accept your application — or, even better, just submitting it now with a note saying that you hope they’re still accepting applications. Don’t go into the explanation of why; just keep it simple.

And yeah, generally if you see a job you want to apply to, you don’t know what the window of opportunity might be (they might stop accepting applications, they might hire someone, etc.), so it’ good to apply as soon as you can.

3. Explaining why I’d like to stay in a job long-term

I am a law student currently interning at a firm in a city that I have absolutely no connections with. Generally, all the interns receive offers to come back to the firm, but I am really worried that they may make an exception for me. My work hasn’t been outstanding to the extent that there is no way they could not give me an offer, but I think it’s generally been fine. The biggest worry is that I’m from California, and I have a boyfriend in a different city, so I have no real reason to stay there. And to make things worse, an attorney that has only been around for 6 months, and is also from California, just quit to go back to CA. I think they’re going to be worried about making the same mistake twice. My mid-summer evaluation is coming up, and I want to convey to them that I am interested in staying here long term without making it too obvious that I’m worried about that. What should I say?

Just be straightforward: “I’ve really loved working here and I’d love to stay on long-term. I know you’re probably not at the point where you’re making decisions about that, but I wanted to let you know how very interested I am in that.” It will help if you can talk more specifically about why you want to stay with the firm — what you like about the work, the culture, etc.

4. While I was waiting to hear about a job, HR called me but didn’t leave a message

I had an interview this past Tuesday for a property accountant position with the director of accounting (not HR). After the interview, I emailed my references to the director as requested and sat tight, as she had said they would make their decision by Friday. On Thursday, I missed a call from her when I was in a meeting with my team. She did not leave a message, so I had no idea if I should have called her back or why she didn’t leave some sort of message (I’ve received rejection voicemails before). I called her back as soon as I saw the missed call (about an hour later) and could not reach her, so I left a brief but detailed message.

Was this the correct action to take? Should I call again sometime this week? She was not the easiest person to get ahold of initially to get the interview set up, so I’m not sure if she just isn’t savvy with scheduling or HR type of etiquette.

You left her a message, and now the ball is in her court. I can promise you that if they want to hire you, they’re going to contact you at some point to tell you that; there’s no danger of them forgetting. Don’t keep following up; that will be annoying. (And really, the best thing you can do is mentally move on. Agonizing over it will do you no good, and it’s not like they’ll know that you’ve moved on in your head.)

5. Am I owed overtime when two pay periods are lumped together?

The company I work for made a mistake on my last check and decided to put the missing hours on my next check. When they do that, it’ll put me over 80 hours (I get paid bi-weekly). If they do it in this way, do they have to pay me overtime for the hours they’re correcting or are they are able to put it on my check as straight time?

No, they don’t have to pay you overtime just because they’re including it on a check with another pay period. You’re only owed overtime for weeks in which you actually worked more than 40 hours, not when they’re just lumping one pay period in with another.

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

1. We’re not allowed to work out while staffing a conference

I work for a small healthcare-related organization that holds an annual meeting each year. Most of the staff go and work 15-hour shifts throughout the entire meeting, which lasts about 4-5 days. Recently, upper management announced during a meeting that if you have a break during the meeting (which is rare), you are not allowed to go to the pool (fair enough) or the gym to exercise. My coworker felt very singled out during the meeting because it is commonly known that she exercises every day and the upper management looked over at her when they made the statement. They indicated that you are only allowed to go to your room to take a nap during any break time.

My coworker was very upset by this as she uses exercise for stress relief and her overall well being. They will be working very long shifts during a high stress time and she only has 1 or 2 breaks long enough for a workout throughout the entire 5 day meeting. She approached her supervisor who basically told her that she would have to abide by this rule, unless she wanted to work out in the mornings or at night. This is almost impossible as the days start at 6am and end at 9pm, if you are lucky. Apparently the logic behind this is that they don’t want any meeting attendees to see staff not wearing “work attire” or not appearing “busy enough.” For most of the meeting, staff wear polos except during special events and they spend all day assisting with all of the sessions. I find this to be extremely demoralizing and it’s not even happening to me! I can’t seem to understand the logic of an organization dedicated to healthcare and which even held a 5k run at a past meeting saying that exercise is not allowed. It also doesn’t make you feel good about your organization and their support of your well being and work/life balance. Is there something I am not getting here? Can they do this? Either way, what is the best way to approach a situation like this?

We just hired an outsourced HR firm and I told her to contact them. I am hoping the outsourced firm will be more of an advocate for us than our previous in-house model.

Their rationale is silly, but I don’t think it’s the outrage it feels like to you. They’re not saying that exercise isn’t allowed. They’re saying that during your shift, they don’t want you in the gym. It’s a five-day trip where they basically want you working during most of your waking hours. I’m not sure why they care if they’re willing to allow breaks for napping, but it’s not really outrageous.

Your coworker could certainly make her case to a higher-up and see if she can persuade them, but it’s really not crazy for them to say, “This is a once-a-year trip, the hours are long, and there’s not really time during the day to do anything else.”

2. My manager keeps assigning my work to other people

My position is with a small nonprofit organization. I am the only person who is officially employed in a communications role; I handle the organization’s branding, signage, media relations, and social media. The problem I am having is the manager regularly gives communications projects to other people in the organization. These projects have included updating the organization’s banners, finding new promotional avenues for our events, and creating a new branding for a program we run. There have been many more examples. I have literally been involved in conversations about these projects and had my manager turn and assign the project to someone else.

I’m not too busy to take on these tasks, and I feel each of these is clearly in my job description. I feel I’m not trusted and not valued. Because of these decisions, I’m not getting near the experience I hoped my first job would give me. I know I need to address this with my supervisor so I’m looking for a script to say to “Hey! That’s my job!” in the moment, and maybe something to address the problem with my supervisor in private.

Ask your manager about it in private. It’s entirely possible that it’s not the slight you’re taking it as; in many organizations, the projects you list here wouldn’t absolutely have to fall to the communications person. (Keep in mind, too, that since this is your first job, there are going to be things that make sense to assign to people more experienced.)

But in any case, just ask about it. Say something like this to your manager: “I noticed you’ve been assigning jobs like X and Y to other people. I’d really love to do those things under my purview as communications — could I take those things on in the future? Or is there a reason you’d rather give them to Percival and Xaviera?”

3. Laid off but telling employers I’m still working there

I was recently laid off for business reasons, but was granted a generous severance package given my tenure with the company. They emphasized their good will and that they would leave me on the payroll for a while, which would be beneficial for finding another job. And they told me that I can say that I am still employed by them, just working remotely (I moved cities). The problem is, though, that they have already removed me from the company website and placed a note indicating that I *was* employed there (but clearly no longer am).

I would love to be able to tell employers that I am “presently employed” but given the circumstances it seems slightly dishonest even if it is technically true. Moreover, I wouldn’t want the employer to Google my name and company and see the note indicating that I no longer work there (It comes up easily in search results). Should I ask the company to remove the note, or just be glad for the severance and indicate on my resume that my employment ended? Will not being currently employed terribly hurt me in the job search process?

Don’t indicate that you’re still working somewhere you aren’t. Not only is it not really ethical, but there’s too much chance of being found out — for instance, if the hiring manager knows someone who works there, asks them about you, and hears “Percival hasn’t worked here for six weeks.”

4. Is it better to use multiple recruiters or just one?

When looking for a job, is it better to use multiple recruiters or to use just one?

Multiple. Recruiters don’t work for you — they work for the companies that hire them. Their job is to fill positions, not to get people jobs.

Also, in most fields, especially for someone without a lot of experience, you can’t really just pick out a recruiter and decide to work with them — they need to approach you about a specific job. (The exception here would be temp-to-perm or temp staffing agencies, but that’s a different thing.)

5. Employer wants my high school diploma

I graduated back in 1987 and unfortunately have lost or misplaced my diploma. I am in the process of getting a new job and the company asked for my diploma, so I sent them my high school transcripts. They are saying the transcripts are not good enough and they actually need my diploma. If my state and high school do not have copies of diplomas, how should I handle this?

What?! They’re requiring a copy of your high school diploma, from more than 25 years ago? Why on earth do they want that?

All you can do is (1) explain to them that you don’t have a copy and neither does your school, and (2) think hard about whether you want to work for a place that gives a fig about this.

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

1. When should I remove college accolades from my resume?

I’m 25 and have been employed full-time since I graduated undergrad at 21. I’ve had two jobs in this time period. At what point does the scholarship, Dean’s list, etc. information under my college education become irrelevant and can be removed? I feel kind of silly still having it on there and feel the space may be better used by an extra line or two under my work experience, but am unsure if it’s too soon to remove it on the off chance that it actually matters.

College achievements on a resume are a proxy for “this person has the potential to be a high achiever in the workforce” when there’s no other evidence to look at. It makes sense to include those things when you’re an inexperienced candidate — but once you start racking up a track record in the work world, that track record says more about what you’re capable of in the terms that employers care about most.

At 25, you’re probably right on the borderline of when college accolades should start coming off. It won’t look silly to leave them on for another year or two (although then they should definitely come off), but if they’re taking up space that you could be using for work accomplishments, it makes sense to start removing them now.

2. Should my business card have my photo on it?

Should job seekers hand out business cards with their pictures on it? I know people that do this. I’m going to a conference in hopes of networking or jobs and want to know thoughts on this practice.

Some people will tell you that it will help people remember who you are (which can be helpful when you’re meeting a bunch of people at a conference), but others (like me) will tell you that it feels too cheesy (unless you’re a real estate agent, where it’s inexplicably common).

(Some people will also tell you that I use too many parentheses.)

3. Can I ask about my employer’s philosophy on raises?

I started a new job with a new company at the end of last year. I was a contract employee with the company for around nine months prior to that, so when I was hired they already knew exactly how much I was making. I tried to negotiate their salary offer up (by $3,000) and they said they were firm on their offer. I accepted.

I’m contemplating asking for a raise during my annual review. I know I need to prepare by understanding where I’ve gone above and beyond for this role, and what added value I’ve brought to the team and the company. But I think I’ll be shooting myself in the foot if I don’t also know my boss’s philosophy — or the company’s philosophy — on raises. (i.e. do managers have wide discretion to bump up employees? Do they only get a small pool of money each year for things like this? Does the company only approve higher salaries when you’re promoted?) And, I don’t know quite how to find out that philosophy.

Does it sound weird or greedy to come right out and say “hey, I’d like to better understand the company position on raises?” I know a few folks who have worked for this company for a long time, so I was thinking maybe I’d ask one of them off the record rather than ask my manager directly. I don’t want to seem overly concerned with money, having only been here around eight months, but at the same time, I’m at a stage where I’m comfortable asking for more when the time is right. I just don’t want to get shot down for something I should know in advance — for example, if my company only approves raises based on promotions and not based on someone asking and providing a compelling list of accomplishments to back that up. So, any thoughts on how to find out what my boss and my company think about raises?

Ideally every manager would be able to tell you the organization’s philosophy on raises, but in practice a lot aren’t going to have an easy, ready-to-deliver answer for this — particularly because sometimes there’s a lot of variation depending on the circumstance. There’s nothing wrong with asking and it certainly doesn’t sound weird or greedy, but you might get more practical information by asking someone else informally.

By the way, if you just started late last year, make sure you wait until you’ve been there a year before you ask for a raise. It’s typically considered premature to ask before that.

4. Applications that ask for your current manager’s name

I’ve been reading through several of your posts related to future employers requesting information about your current employer. The only part I’m not really seeing is how to answer when an online application requires you provide your supervisor’s name. The same form does allow you to choose “No” under “May we contact this employer,” but I’m still wary of providing my supervisor’s name.

Would something like “I prefer not to answer at this time” work? My supervisor’s name actually is accessible on the company site, but does that mean I’m obliged to provide it on the online form?

“I prefer not to answer at this time” sounds shady, for some reason. I’d be more direct about why you prefer that. For instance: “Percival Montblanc (don’t contact; search is confidential).” If there isn’t room for all that, then just: “search is confidential.”

5. Update: Is this company stringing me along?

I wrote in recently asking about whether a company was stringing me along because they asked me to interview for three different positions. I just wanted to provide an update that I found out on Friday that I did indeed get the job! Third time’s a charm! Thanks to Alison and everyone else who commented for their advice! I am accepting the position and will be starting in a month, and even though this is not the job I originally had applied for, I have been analyzing this new one carefully and think at the end of the day, is going to be a lot less dry than the department I had wanted to work for. Thanks!

Congratulations!