Ask a Manager

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

1. Can I ask my boss to move his vacation days during our busy period?

I work in university administration, and my boss is at the “use it or lose it” stage of his vacation time, so he will often take four-day weekends to use up the days. No problem. This time, however, the Monday of his four-day weekend coincides with the busiest week of the semester for us – for about seven straight workdays, my boss and I are in back-to-back meetings with nine different students each for 4.5 hours, with the remaining 2.5 hours theoretically allowing time to prep for the next day’s appointments. But by him taking off on one of these days, it essentially wipes nine open appointment times off the calendar, making an already frantic week extra frantic and increasingly stressful.

Keeping in mind that my boss takes offense easily and that presumably our business manager approved his time off, is it even worth me asking if he’d be willing to come in to work that Monday and move take off Thursday and Friday instead of Friday and Monday? And if so, how should I approach that conversation? If he were in the office that day, my stress level would be significantly decreased (and so would my resentment at him purposefully taking off a day that he knew would be busy).

“Looking at our calendar for that week, we have so many student appointments crammed in that I’m worried about losing two days of them. It’s going to mean we’ll have to move that appointments to the other days, making them more packed. I realize you might have plans that make this impossible, but I wonder if there’s any way to take your vacation days on Thursday and Friday instead of Friday and Monday?”

A reasonable manager wouldn’t have any issue hearing that. (Of course, a reasonable manager also would have looked at the calendar and figured this out on his own.) But you say that yours takes offense easily, so you might have to decide whether trying to get this fixed is worth dealing with his misplaced offense-taking.

2. I’m being laid off and don’t want a goodbye lunch

I was recently laid off, and my last day is on April 30th. My manager asked me if I want to go to lunch with the department. I feel weird about it because it’s like celebrating my termination. Also, my position is being eliminated but they are hiring a manager to replace me.

I would want to go to lunch but not with the whole department — maybe with just a few people. How do I politely decline the invitation or how do I let her know that I would only want to go with some people (like those I work with every day and have become my friends)?

How about: “Thanks for offering. I don’t think I’m up for a department-wide lunch, but I appreciate you suggesting it!”

Or: “Thanks for offering. I don’t think I’m up for a department-wide lunch, but I might ask Percival, Lucinda, and Zeus to join me for lunch that day, since I’ve worked with them most closely.”

3. I’m interviewing someone I used to work for — in a situation that ended in legal action

From 2006-2008, I moonlighted as a part-time lecturer at a local university. I was not considered a regular employee, but an independent contractor. So, my wages were not directly deposited into my account, but I had to fill in a weekly time sheet. Payroll consistently lost or failed to process my timesheets, and my pay was consistently late, sometimes by months. Our head of department, my boss, simply really did not want to get involved in the matter.

So I had to deal with the late payment problem myself. I must admit after 2.5 years of struggling to get paid, and a paycheck not showing up for Christmas, that I told her that as an independent contractor, I would need some sort of deposit for teaching future classes, with final payment after the grades were turned in. She basically said she could not do that, and that I was not to teach for the university any more. So I turned in my final grades and left. She subsequently emailed me and said she was personally sorry that I was having so many troubles with payroll but that she could do nothing about it. (Yes, I still have these emails). I ended up having to take the university payroll department to small claims court to get my last paycheck and they settled out of court, also having to give me a late payment penalty. The payroll manager ended up eventually getting fired. The head of the department stayed at the university.

So, 5.5 years on, I am now a permanent professor at another university, and I have been placed on an interview panel for a pro vice chancellor position. We are interviewing four candidates, and I found out that my former head of department is one of the candidates. She would be my boss’s boss. As my last name has changed since my part-time position, I suspect she will not realise I am on the interview panel. Should I tell the upper admin on the panel of my experience with this candidate, or just keep my mouth shut, be professional at the interview and see what transpires?

When making hiring decisions, I always want as much information as possible; I don’t want someone deciding for me that something is irrelevant or wouldn’t be worth me hearing. I’d prefer to make that call myself — and if I agree that it’s irrelevant or not helpful, I can discard it. Moreover, in a case where you had direct experience working for her, it would be really weird not to mention that fact that to your other interviewers. (Whether or not they will listen to you is a different matter, since academic hiring is often ridiculously rigid about what will and won’t be considered.)

I’d say something like this: “I worked for Jane for two years as a contract lecturer. My experience working with her was ___.”(Fill in the good and the bad — not just the pay situation, but all of it.)

Also, it’s possible that your pay situation really was out of her hands, which can often be the case in large bureaucracies. But it sounds like her manner of dealing with you left something to be desired, and that’s relevant information here.

4. Employer asked me to be an “alternate finalist”

I just had an interview via Skype that was the second round in a three-round process. The interview didn’t go great and I wasn’t surprised to find out that I wasn’t a finalist. I was surprised when they asked me to be an “alternate finalist” in case another finalist didn’t work out. My feeling is that this would be a waste of my time… They already decided they didn’t think I was a good fit, so why would I continue the process? But, I’m having trouble with how to gracefully say no to this offer. I start with, “I appreciate the opportunity… ” but am unsure how to complete that sentence.

Is this a common practice? Am I looking at this incorrectly and should accept? If I turn them down, how would you word it?

The only part of this that’s weird is the “alternate finalist” thing. Employers often have alternate finalists, but they don’t tell them that they’re alternate finalists. They just don’t invite them to final interviews unless they end up needing to. So it’s a little unusual that they’re announcing it to you (although on the other hand, some people might appreciate the transparency).

But I wouldn’t assume it’s a waste of your time at all. Employers often have multiple good candidates who they’d be happy to hire but only one slot — so they end up rejecting (or even not interviewing) plenty of well-qualified people. That’s not an insult to those people they don’t interview or hire; it’s just a matter of math. And I’ve certainly hired people who were at one point my second or third or even fourth choice — because other candidates turned down offers or ended up not being as strong as I’d originally thought they were, and/or because those runner-ups proved themselves stronger over the course of more conversations.

You wouldn’t still be in the running at all if they didn’t think you could do the job well, so you shouldn’t turn it down because you’re insulted or think it’s a lost cause.

5. Listing a degree I don’t have for another month

I will graduate next month. Can list that I have my bachelor’s now on my resume?

No, because you don’t. List it this way instead:

University Name, Degree Name (expected May 2014)

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

1. I caught my employee in a lie

I recently caught my employee lying to me about sending a FedEx shipment that she didn’t really send. I had a feeling she was lying but didn’t want to say anything in case I was wrong, so I asked her all the questions I would need to know in order to contact FedEx and track the shipment. It turns out I was right and she flat out lied. She didn’t drop the package off and only did so about an hour after I had asked her about it. It wasn’t just a yes/no answer; there was a whole story to FedEx losing the package and just now locating it, etc. She just returned from taking a few days off, so this is the first time I’m seeing her since then. She is avoiding me like the plague. She also refused to answer any of my text messages after I called her out on lying to me about it – so we actually haven’t truly addressed 1) her failure to send the package and 2) lying about it. (To clarify, she was on vacation when we discovered the package had not been delivered, so all of my communication with her was over text messaging).

Do I write her up? It turned out that the package wasn’t all that “urgent” and the parent company had no problem with receiving it four days late. Do I just ignore it for now? She knows she got caught; I’m sure she feels really stupid. Does bringing it up again just stir the pot? Does not bringing it up send the wrong message?

Holy crap, you must address it. It doesn’t matter that the package wasn’t urgent; the issue is that she lied to avoid having a mistake caught, and if she’s willing to lie about this, how can you trust her about other things?

Lying is a big deal. A huge deal. It’s about integrity, which isn’t something you can compromise on. Plus, in my experience, if someone is doing this, it’s the tip of the iceberg and she’s probably a bad fit in myriad ways. So I’d (a) seriously consider firing her over this and (b) make sure you’ve taken a rigorous look at her entire performance lately. I’d be shocked if it turns out she’s really someone you should be keeping on staff. But if you want to give her another chance, you still need to sit her down and have a very serious conversation — along the lines of “this is an incredibly serious thing, it has jeopardized your job here, and I need to know that you’re committed to operating with full transparency and integrity from this point forward.” And watch her closely from here on out — because again, I’d really be surprised if this is the only issue.

(As a side note: Don’t use texting for talking about this stuff, even if someone is out of the office. It’s just not the right forum for this kind of thing.)

Read an update to this letter here.

2. Using an e-card as an interview thank-you

I have an interview coming up and wondered if it is acceptable to send an electronic card (something like Paperless Post) rather than a traditional paper card, to thank them for the interview?

Nooooo, do not do that. It’s totally fine to send a thank-you note via email (i.e., it doesn’t have to be a “card”), but using an electronic greeting card would seem odd and less than professional.

3. Manager is sending late-night texts

My wife is receiving text messages from her boss regarding work at very odd hours, like midnight or 4 in the morning. Is this okay? Also, if not, how do we tackle this issue?

No, it’s not okay, not unless your wife is in a job that requires being on-call at those hours. Your wife should tell her boss that the late-night texts are waking her up, ask her to email instead, and explain that she’ll respond once she’s back at work (or once she’s awake, if her job requires her to respond outside of regular work hours).

4. How to contact a company with no mention of jobs on its website

What’s the best way to reach out to a potential employer when the company’s website gives its address, phone number, and email, but has no Careers/Employment section and makes no mention of jobs? I have three companies I’d like to reach out to to see if there might be an opportunity for me, but I don’t want to make a nuisance of myself in so-doing.

LinkedIn is your friend here. See if you can find the person in charge of the area of the company you’d like to work in, and reach out to them directly.

Alternately, you can try sending your inquiry to the general company address.

5. Can a company wait months to pay out severance?

A friend of mine was recently let go in a round of layoffs the beginning of April from a large corporation. They have promised the employees severance pay, but are unclear on when that will be provided. They have stated that severance may not be paid out until June, leaving former employees without a paycheck for two months. Is this legal?

Yes. No law requires severance payments at all, so whether and when to provide them is up to the company. (There are some limited exceptions to this, such as if your friend had a contract that required severance payments and required them on a particular time table.)

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

1. My boss’s boss keeps crediting my coworker for work that I’m doing

We have been doing a big internal communications project at work, and rather than hire someone to manage it, my boss and his supervisor decided to give me the job to do. It’s been a big undertaking and we’ve been successful at it. I manage the content on the internal project – writing it, editing it, and scheduling it, as well as requesting graphics for posts. I’m happy it has gone so well and that our executives have begun to see its value.

However, my boss’s manager gives credit to someone in my department who hasn’t contributed at all to the project but is, for some reason, lumped into it when she congratulates us on a job well done. She’s done this not just once, but repeatedly, including today during an introduction with a new employee. She told her I “did some things with the internal project,” when I’m doing the majority of the work.

The person she’s included in praising hasn’t spoken up and said she’s not part of the project, so our boss’s manager thinks she’s involved. I brought it up to my boss that this person isn’t part of it, but he doesn’t seem to see the big deal that this person is included when they don’t contribute. Is there any way I can get her to recognize the success has been because I’m doing the work and not someone else? Or am I overreacting?

It’s annoying that your boss won’t just correct the record. But since he won’t, the next time his manager makes a remark like this, you could say, “Actually, I’m running all our work on ___. Jane actually hasn’t been involved; she’s focusing on XYZ.” The keys here are that you need to sound casual and cheerful, and it’ll help if you add on that last part about what your coworker has been doing, so it sounds less like a put-down.

Alternately, if the dynamics in your office (and with your own boss) allow it, you could casually swing by the manager’s office one day and say something like, “Lucinda, I wanted to correct something about the ___ project — I noticed you’ve mentioned a couple of times that Jane is running that, but it’s actually me! Not a big deal, but I wanted to let you know!” (That said, in some offices this would solve the problem easily while in others it would be high treason against your boss, who told you it’s not a big deal, so you need to know your office.)

2. Letting employees include personal cell numbers in company communications

If we allow employees (who choose to do so) to include their personal cell phone numbers in official company communication, does that pose any threat to the business? This is in addition of any official company numbers.

Well, you’ll have the problem that their personal cell numbers are out there with people after they’re no longer working with you — and you probably won’t have much/any control over how they handle those calls at that point. I’m not a fan of that, but more and more people are doing what you describe.

3. Job searching and multiple pre-planned trips

I want to start looking for a new job soon – in both the public and private sector. I’m a bit spoiled in terms of leave coming from my current employer, and have about 3-4 trips currently scheduled for the next year, including a 2-week honeymoon in November. Should I hold off applying for jobs until after the honeymoon, after which I don’t currently have any trips planned? And if I were to apply now, when is the best time to discuss these plans? I think you usually say after you have an offer; is that correct?

No reason to hold off on applying — worst case scenario if you start applying now if that a job will turn out not to work well with your plans and you’ll decide at that point how to handle it. As for when to bring up your plan, wait until you have an offer (but discuss it before you accept that offer). At that point, they’ve already decided that they want to hire you and it will often be easier to negotiate the time off that you want. (It’s also worth noting that the more senior you are, the easier it is to negotiate this stuff. I might balk at four trips for a junior level person, depending on their length, but wouldn’t for a senior person, assuming the other three are shorter than the honeymoon.)

4. Silly raise policies

In my new hire training, I was led to believe that 10%+ raises were entirely possible for top-performers — “We’re a pay-for-performance company.”

Recently (review time), my boss said, “There’s no way we could give you a 10% raise. HR never approves raises over 5%. But if you worked somewhere else for a year, then came back, we could give you 25%+.”

Who creates a policy that says “No raises over 5% allowed, but we can rehire someone at any increase in salary”?

Idiots.

5. How can I meet these billable hour requirements?

I work for a very large international company. They provide liberal PTO. In order to receive a good rating on work, we must perform at a billable level (in my case, it is 90 percent – I must bill my client for my work to a level of 90% of the 40-hour work week).

If I take the 11 holidays they offer each year and the vacation time I accrue each year, there is no way I can meet the utilization 90% level. My client doesn’t work on the 11 holidays, so these count against my utilization also. My choice appears to be never take vacation and try not to take off on holidays – heaven help me if I am sick. PTO doesn’t appear to be paid at all if you have to make up every hour you miss, regardless of the reason you missed it. Is this legal / ethical?

It’s legal. Companies can be as unreasonable as they want. However, are you sure that they’re not calculating your your billable time based on the time that you actually work, excluding holidays and PTO? I’d seek clarification on that part. But if that’s not the case, then it means that they expect you to work more than 40 hours a week (which is certainly common in many professional jobs with billable hours).