Ask a Manager

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

1. As a job searching new grad, should I address people by their first names or Mr./Ms.?

I’m an undergraduate student, and I’m curious when it’s appropriate to call managers by their first names via email, etc. Campus recruiters typically use their first names when introducing themselves in person, but for a person I’ve never met, should I do Mr. Smith during my initial contact? Or address it as Dear Bob Smith? What is a good cue to start using first names, and does this rule hold true when I’m more of a professional and looking for another job further into my career?

You’re not going to offend anyone by calling them Mr. or Ms. ___, but most people these days are comfortable with job applicants addressing them by their first names. However, there are a handful of more formal fields where that’s not the case, and a handful of more formal people scattered throughout all fields who want to hear Mr./Ms. on your first contact … so there’s no harm in playing it safe if you’re not sure who you’re dealing with, particularly when you’re just starting out. (And I can’t explain why there’s an age component to this, but there is. I don’t think I’ll ever address a job-related communication to “Mr./Ms.” again, but I feel like you — as a recent grad — are safer doing it.) That said, do pay attention to how other people refer to themselves. If someone introduces themselves using their first name or if they sign an email to you with their first name, that’s a sign you should use their first name too.

Oh, and don’t do “dear Bob Smith” — that’s weirdly impersonal. Go with “Bob” or “Mr. Smith” but not the full name.

Once you’re actually working with someone and they’re your manager or coworker, use first names unless you’re in the rare organization where that’s not done.

2. Should you try to get the right job the first time or experiment as much as you can?

Thanks to your blog, I’m about to wrap up a my grueling 3-month job search. My choice is down to 2 different roles: an exciting one I have no experience in (but I love the industry), or the next logical step for my resume (more responsibilities, bigger budget, yay!).

As a fresh graduate myself, I was wondering what you would advise for first jobs: get it right the first time, or experiment as much as you can, while you can? I get mixed reviews from older friends who’ve been working for a few years now. Some say to try the unknown and jump ship as soon as you know it’s not right for you, while others say to take my time and when I find “the one,” I’ll know. But those who did find “the one” say they wish they experimented more before “settling down.”

Are they giving me dating advice or career advice? Which path would you recommend for someone at this point in their life?

Of the two, I recommend … neither. It’s great if you can get it right with the first job; that’s ideal. But it often doesn’t happen — and if it doesn’t, it’s not a disaster; there’s time to correct your course. But I wouldn’t recommend jumping all around just for the hell of it either, because there can be costs that come with that (in salary; in how close you are at, say, 30 to where you’d like to be at 30; in future employers’ perceptions of you; etc.). I’d say to try to get yourself on a path that you’re happy with as quickly as you can without putting undue stress on yourself, and don’t freak out if you turn out to be one of the many people who needs to course-correct a time or two.

(Also, a good time to do a lot of experimenting is in college, through internships and summer jobs. I highly recommending experiencing a bunch of different options then.)

3. I’m distracted by my coworker’s music

I have been at my job for a month and a half. My coworker plays music at her desk, and I find it to be very annoying. She plays it at a low level, but it still distracts me. I really wish she’d use headphones, or better yet, turn off the music, but I’m not sure how to ask her to do so. A few weeks ago I told her that her music made me want to dance (I know, I know… passive aggressive) and she immediately turned it down (not off) because she said it meant that it was too loud. Unfortunately, even with it turned down, it was still a distraction. She also said that people had complained about her noise level (including music?) in the past, and that I should let her know if it ever bothers me.

She’s popular within our team, so I’d hate to get on her bad side. I’m starting to think I will have to suck it up and live with this since I hate confrontation.

Aggghhhh!  No!

Even though you think she is the one causing the problem here, it’s actually you! She has turned down her music  in the past when she thought it might be bothering you, and she has explicitly told you that you should let her know if it bothers you. So why, why, why aren’t you just telling her, as she has asked you to do?

It really doesn’t have to be a big deal: “Hey Jane, you mentioned I should let you know if your music is ever bothering me. It actually is distracting me a bit, so I wonder if you could try using headphones when you’re listening to it.” If you want to soften it, you could say, “I actually love your music, but it makes it hard for me to concentrate.”

But seriously, invitations to speak up don’t get any clearer than this one. Speak up, and stop stewing over this.

4. Is it too early to ask for feedback on my new job?

I have been contracting and temping for almost a year, as I’ve been conducting a job search for the right job (vs. the first job that would take me–your advice has given me a lot of courage to pursue that!). I recently landed a three-month temp administrative job in a growing division in my dream company. I absolutely love this division, my boss, my coworkers, and the work we do!

When they interviewed me, they said that they were looking to “get to know” someone who they would hopefully hire on full-time afterward. They acknowledged that my experience was far advanced for the admin work I’d be doing, but if the budgets went well (this month), there would be a position when my three months ended. I am, for the first time in a very long time, excited to go to work every day, and think that this would be the coveted “right job for me in my career right now.”

I’m a month into my contract now. Because the time is so short, I would like to ask my boss and the colleague who has been training me for some feedback on what I could be doing better and what they’d like to see me do more of–especially if they are considering keeping me on. When is the best time to do that? Now, at a month? Wait two more weeks? Do I ask by email or in person? (I feel like email would give them some time to give me a thoughtful answer, but in person would be more professional).

Ask now! If there are things you could be doing better, it’s better to hear that now — so you can put the feedback to use — then to wait. And a month is a reasonable time to ask for feedback on how things are going.

Do you have a regular check-in with your manager? If so, bring it up there (no foreshadowing by email needed). If not, ask her (in person when you next see her or in email; either is fine) if you can sit down with her for 15 minutes and talk about how things are going.

But this shouldn’t be a “so are you going to hire me?” conversation yet (unless your manager brings it up herself). Just focus on asking for feedback about how you’re doing and what you could be doing better/differently.

5. Is it reasonable to have to work on Thanksgiving, and without holiday pay?

I just started working for a company whose parent company is Canadian. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but they just announced that there will be no holiday pay for working on Thanksgiving…and oh, by the way, if you don’t volunteer to work, you will be volunteered. Is the lack of holiday pay legal for U.S. Holidays? Is it reasonable to ask people to do customer service and tech support on a holiday and be happy about it, when they were coerced into working it in the first place? Believe me, after being unemployed for nearly a year, I’m grateful for the job, so I’m not sure how to react!

They have to pay you your regular pay for working that day, but there’s no requirement in the U.S. for any type of special holiday pay over and above what you’d normally receive.

As for whether it’s reasonable to require you to work on Thanksgiving, it depends on what type of customer service and tech work you do. There are some jobs in those fields where it’s pretty normal to need to be staffed on Thanksgiving, and if they don’t get enough volunteers, that means they’ll need to assign people to the shift.

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

1. How can I convince my boss to end our “use it or lose it” vacation policy?

In March of this year I started working for a small startup in California. We get eight holidays (including one “floating” holiday), plus 10 days of vacation each year. Vacation is accrued monthly (5/6 of a day each month), and we have to use it by the end of the year. We have separate sick days.

As the end of the year is nearing, I’m getting annoyed with the fact that our vacation time doesn’t roll over. I don’t really “need” to take any more vacation this year, as I’m not traveling during the holidays. In fact, I have to go out of town for a wedding in February and I would like to use my accrued vacation time then. However since vacation does not roll over, I will probably just take the four days I have left off at the end of the year because I don’t want them to go to waste.

I don’t know exactly why the policy was implemented like this in the first place. I have only ever worked at places where it rolled over. My sneaking suspicion is that he just didn’t want to deal with keeping track of it, although now we have an Admin who takes care of it.

I would like to present the idea of changing the policy to having vacation time roll over. Our CEO is a nice guy and is usually open to suggestions when presented with good backup/evidence. Do you have any suggestions for as to how I can approach him?

Well, you can tell him that it’s illegal in California. California prohibits “use it or lose it policies”; all vacation days must roll over and be paid out when an employee leaves, although employers can put a cap on the total amount of vacation time you can have accrued at any given time.

So you don’t need an argument; you just need to show him the law. But if you weren’t in California, I’d tell you to point out that the policy isn’t optimal for cases like yours, and you could suggest having a cap on the maximum amount of vacation time that can be accrued in case your company was worried about people banking huge amounts of time that then need to be paid out when they leave. Or, if they didn’t want to allow time to roll over, you could suggest paying out any unused time at the end of the year. But all this is moot, because your employer is required by your state law to change their policy.

2. Company only approves new hires once a year

Recently I learned that the company I work for does not approve mid-year replacement requisitions. If an employee leaves then we’re expected to fill that gap with work done by other people until the next “hiring cycle” rolls around and we can put in a request to get a req approved to replace that person.

This seems crazy to me and I’m wondering if you or your readers know how common this is. I see a really bad effect on hiring due to this. People are afraid to hire someone who might be a good candidate but who has any unknowns or risks because if that person leaves they’ll be stuck and not able to replace them. I think we all know that hiring is never 100% and sometimes people don’t work out for whatever reason. I think there’s an expression for this – something about letting the perfect become the enemy of the good. I understand that the company does not want hiring to be chaotic and that the process of hiring and interviewing can become a constant drag on everyone’s time if it goes on and on. But this seems extreme to me.

Yes, that’s crazy. Why aren’t the managers in your company rising up and rebelling against this? They should be pointing out the long-term impact on their ability to get the results they’re responsible for getting.

3. Job searching with dyslexia

I have dyslexia, and it has been the main reason I’ve been let go from many (if not all) of my jobs. I work closely with production teams, and when things get sent out wrong or there is a data entry mistake, it fouls up the working process greatly. It’s something I struggle with and work on daily.

I was recently let go again, and I’m wondering if it is appropriate to ever disclose to an employer that I have this issue?

I’d look for jobs where dyslexia isn’t likely to get in the way of major functions of the job. You want something where it will be a side issue; if it’s getting in the way of your ability to do essential pieces of the work you’ve been hired for, that isn’t usually fixable, no matter how accommodating your manager might want to be.

So you want to find something where it’s not likely to interfere with your success at the core pieces of the job. And once you’re in a job like that, you can certainly let your manager know you’re dyslexic so that she can take that into account when she assigns you work. (You don’t want her asking you to help on on Minor Task A if Minor Task A happens to be dyslexia-unfriendly.

In other words, it’s reasonable to let your boss know that she shouldn’t rely on you for proofreading when the bulk of your job has nothing to do with proofreading, but it wouldn’t be reasonable to ask that for a job where proofing was a major component. (Unless you find and use effective strategies to minimize the dyslexia’s impact, which readers might be able to offer suggestions on.) Good luck!

4. Do I need to have pretty graphics on my resume?

Does the format/design of the cover letter matter? What’s the position I’m applying for, you ask? Human resources generalist, or anything remotely close to that title. So do I need to have pretty graphics and huge flashing fonts for my name running up the side of the page? Is this my 15 minutes of fame and I’m expected to make the best of it?

Good god, no. Your resume should be clean, well organized, and easy to quickly scan, with a font that’s big enough to easily read (generally 11 or 12 point) and a reasonable amount of white space. It should not include a “creative” design, which will make good hiring managers (and a lot of the others) wonder if you think your skills and achievements won’t speak for themselves, and whether you put an inappropriate emphasis on appearances over substance.

Your resume doesn’t stand out through design. It stands out by showing a track record of achievement.

5. Should I send Christmas cards to people who helped in my job search?

I have a question regarding thank you notes to my (one-time) mentors. Earlier this year, around March-April, I applied for a number of graduate programs (commencing early 2014) and contacted managers at the companies I applied for in order to find out more about the organization. I was fortunate enough to get a coffee with almost every manager and I’ve sent thank-you emails after each coffee.

Seeing as it has been more than 6 months now, I would like to take the opportunity to send Christmas or a holiday card to maintain the relationship. At my age, those meetings, even though it was just once, meant so much to me.

I was wondering if this might be an appropriate way to keep in touch and whether you might have any suggestions that won’t make me seem overly thankful, if that makes sense? Mostly, I didn’t receive a reply to my thank you emails (which is completely understandable). Also, I was fortunate enough to receive three graduate offers, but only accepted one, and I am unsure whether to mention this to the mentors who work at the companies I turned down.

Better: Send them an email letting them know the outcome of your job search and about the job you accepted. So often, people spend time giving someone help in their job search and then never hear about the outcome the person got. So tell them, and tell them specifically how their advice helped you (which is another thing people too often don’t mention — thank-yous are often vague/generic, and they’re so much more meaningful when they’re specific about what helped and why).

You can send holiday cards too if you want — but I’d do this first.