Ask a Manager

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

1. Being ordered to come into work during a dangerous tornado

Today we had severe storms spawning tornadoes all around us. My wife called her work at Kmart to ask her manager if she was to still come in. Her manager said yes and that if she was late she would be assessed a point. (Mind you while on the phone, tornado sirens were going off and the police were driving around telling people to take cover, using their loudspeakers.) We decided to wait till the sirens stopped and then I drove her the 20 miles to work in my truck. She was 5 minutes late.

Is this normal behavior for a manager of any business? If faced with this same situation, what would you do or recommend? It seems it would be a lawsuit in waiting if an employee were to leave during this weather to try to make it to work due to the threat of a point being assessed and got injured or killed due to the storm..

Reasonable employers do not expect people to put themselves in harm’s way to get to work during a serious weather event, particularly when they work at places that aren’t providing life-saving services. Your wife’s employer sucks for handling the storms this way. Sucks in such a large way that it would be nice if they heard from customers who are disgusted that the company jeopardized employees’ lives like this, and the lives of the emergency responders who could potentially be called to help them.

As for what to do, if you judge a weather situation to be seriously dangerous and/or if authorities are telling people to stay inside and off the roads, you should stay inside and off the roads. Those warnings are issued for a reason. People get killed in serious storms (and indeed, got killed in yesterday’s storms in the midwest), and in many or all cases, it’s going to be because they were on the streets. Your safety is more important than any point you might be assessed.

2. How can we implement 360 reviews?

My office of 11 people has not historically had a regular review process. As part of a company retreat earlier this fall, the employees (myself included) asked that we implement some kind of regular review. The powers that be have decided it will be a 360 review.

My manager asked me to look into the best ways to implement this, and what kinds of things we should look for/be aware of. Can you tell me what sorts of procedures we should have in place (or what we should make sure to discuss with everyone before-hand) to make this a useful tool? I think they are looking at using Surveymonkey to take in the information, and have located a prebuilt 360 review questionnaire. Do you have any thoughts on that kind of option, or any specific questions that you think this kind of review should include?

Wait, they’re currently not doing performance reviews at all? That’s where I’d start before taking on 360s. 360s do have value, but they’re not easy to run well — for one thing, you need someone synthesizing and reporting on the feedback who’s really skilled at it; you can’t just randomly assign that to someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing. More generally, doing really good 360s takes a huge amount of energy and it’s not clear that the return beyond a traditional evaluation is worth it, unless it’s informing an extremely important decision (for instance, promoting someone to a key senior role). If the organization hasn’t even been doing traditional performance evaluations, I’d start there instead. (And as part of those evaluations, managers should of course seek feedback from people the evaluee works with.)

3. Why didn’t I get an interview for this job?

I applied for a role that I have performed successfully in the past and was denied an interview. I was the only applicant to have a post graduate masters in that field. What could have been the problem?

More qualified applicants, since there are usually more important qualifications than degrees? Lots of strong applicants and a limited number of interview slots? Bad cover letter? Who knows, but there’s no shortage of possibilities.

This is important: Being qualified — even highly qualified — for a position does not guarantee you an interview. Employers have a limited number of interview slots and (often) many qualified candidates. You should never assume that your qualifications mean an automatic interview, because you have no way of knowing what the rest of the candidate pool looks like.

4. Can my boss make me keep my purse in my car?

Can my boss make me keep my purse in my car?

Yes. Your employer can restrict what’s allowed on their premises, including employees’ personal belongings.

5. Manager wants us to answer our phones 24/7

My manager had a staff meeting to tell everyone no matter what time of day and no matter the reason, if he calls we must answer our phone. First of all, most of us do not have a position critical enough to require a call in the middle of the night. Secondly, this all stemmed from one of the employees getting repeated phone calls for advice about a TV he (our boss) was buying, and this employee was having major family issues that he was trying to address, so by the 8th call he stopped answering his phone. Unless it is a work emergency, there should be no reason for calls like this and there should be no reason we should be required to answer.

The company is an IT staffing / IT project consulting firm. Nowhere in the handbook nor employment agreement does it say it is a rule that we must answer our phones. Can he do this?

Yes, he can. He shouldn’t, but he can. You all, on the other hand, can push back as a group and insist on a dialogue about more reasonable expectations, and can look for a more reasonable employer if this one doesn’t budge.

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

1. Should I ask my boss if it’s appropriate to go to a memorial service for an employee I didn’t know?

I’ve been at my new job for 2 weeks. Next Friday, there is going to be a memorial service for an employee that died before I started working here. It won’t be in our building, but it will be on campus (I work for a university) during business hours. I feel like I should go, but is there any chance that might seem inappropriate/odd since I didn’t know her? Should I ask my boss if I should go?

I wouldn’t check with your boss about whether or not you should go; it’s not really your boss’s call to say “yes, you should attend” or “no, you shouldn’t.” You should decide on your own if you want to. As for whether it would seem odd, I don’t think it would seem odd either way — if you don’t attend, people will assume it’s because you didn’t know the employee, and if you do attend, people will assume it’s a sign of respect.

If you do decide you want to go, I’d only check with your boss about whether it’s okay to do so from a time-away-from-work perspective (if that’s something you’d normally check with her about).

2. How to ask about a promotion when taking on lots of new responsibility

I work for a large company where I’ve been a manager for the past year, but have a lot of previous management experience. My project just ended and was a huge success– better than the projected best case scenario. As a result of my contributions and the many other things I supported this last year, I received the highest rating and was given several awards– one of which is typically given to very few from the C-level. While I did incredibly well (words from my manager and several above him), he wished there was a way to promote me, but there was no place for me to move. I understood this completely, being a manager myself– however, the circumstances have now changed.

My project’s funding was cut for this year (this was completely unrelated to the performance that me and my team had this last year), which means I was to be reassigned to another project. I am not one sit around and wait for things to happen, so I immediately started working to find an ideal place for myself. Long story short, when an executive was in town, I pitched an idea I had for the creation of a new department. The executive loved the idea and wants to me to run with it. I began work on it ASAP and I am now being reassigned teams, where my peers are all higher level than I am and my manager is higher level than my last. That all said, it got me thinking, that while performance reviews are completed (next one is a year from now), I believe I have a lot of ammo to pitch me getting promoted immediately. Thoughts? And how do I approach this with having a new boss?

Totally agree. I’d approach it as, “Can we talk about what makes sense for the title for this new role, as well as salary? I thought (suggested title) fits what we’ve been discussing, and I was hoping for a salary of $X to take on the work.” Approach it as if you assume that of course these things will be changing, since that’s not an unreasonable assumption to make.

3. How to interview for my own job, with my current manager

I currently have a part-time position in a city agency. Recently, an position opened that is exactly the same as the one I hold now (under the same manager and in the same location and everything), only full-time rather than part-time hours. I have an interview next week (the structure of the agency and rules and such means that I can’t just ask for and get extra hours, the number of hours makes it a different position that I have to interview for). Presumably there are 5-8 other candidates.

When I interviewed for the 20-hour position, my manager had a worksheet of questions that she was required to ask everyone. I have no idea if she’ll be able to deviate from that worksheet when interviewing me, though I assume it’ll be at least a little more casual–my manager and myself have been working together for 6 months, so she knows me and my work habits and ethics pretty well by now. I don’t plan on taking anything for granted, I’ll dress nicely and be professional, but at the same time, to pretend like we don’t know each other for the purposes of the interview seems silly. It feels like this is something in between a job interview and a performance review, and I’m not sure on the stance I should take going in, or how much I need to focus on selling myself on somebody who’s been supervising me for six months. My inclination is to talk about things that I think will improve if I’m full time rather than part time (both in my performance and just for my life generally), things that I’m either not able to do right now or not able to do as well as I’d like, but I don’t know if that’s the right stance to take either.

No, you don’t need to pretend that you don’t know her — meaning that you don’t need to introduce yourself or act as if she’s never seen you before — but you should answer the questions the same way that you would if she were a stranger. The reason for that is that with very formal, structured hiring like you often see in government (and which you’re seeing here; that’s what that required list of questions is about), interviewers are often instructed not to consider information that they know about the candidate that comes from outside the interview. That’s ridiculous, of course, and it’s frequently ignored, but if you have a strict rule-follower interviewing you, you risk that only your answers and nothing else will be taken into account. So you want to make sure those answers contain everything you’d tell an interviewer you didn’t know. (Government hiring has rules like this in an effort to be fair and avoid claims of discrimination, but it ends up impeding good hiring, as you might expect.)

All that said, you can still use your plan to talk about things you’d be able to improve if you’re full-time that you’re not able to do now, but make sure that’s not the entirety of your answers. (Also, leave out the part about what would improve in your personal life — that’s not relevant to the hiring decision.)

4. Is two weeks notice enough when you’re in a senior position?

Is two weeks notice enough when you are in a senior position? I am the manager of an office where I have all or most of the administrative responsibilities. I am planning to get a new job closer to home, but I’m feeling guilty about handing in the standard “two weeks notice.” No one has been cross trained for any of my duties and even if I found a replacement quickly, there would be very little time left to train someone in all that I do. On one hand I just want to leave and not worry about it, but I kind of feel bad that they are going to be left in a precarious situation. I wanted to get your opinion, just to be sure that walking away guilt free was ok.

There are definitely offices and fields where two weeks notice isn’t considered sufficient, but you probably know if you’re in one of them. If you’re not, then I wouldn’t worry too much about this … and really, if you’re in a pretty senior position, they’re probably not going to be able to do a complete transition in four weeks either. Sure, an additional two weeks is nice, but realistically they’re not going to be able to advertise the job, screen and interview candidates, have someone start, and get them trained in four weeks.

Leave behind as much documentation as you can and leave your projects in good shape, and that’s all that’s reasonable to expect. (Again, assuming that you’re not in an office where additional notice is the norm and expectation.)

5. Should I withdraw from this hiring process rather than waiting any longer?

I’m being considered for a position that I’m really excited about. I’ve been through a few rounds of interviews so far, all of which I think went pretty well. It has now been a few weeks since my last interview, so I followed up with the hiring manager to see if he needed any additional information. He told me that he is still interviewing other candidates and will be in touch.

Here’s my issue: Despite what I’ve been told, I have seen the job re-listed on LinkedIn and have seen the hiring manager continue to share the listing on his personal social media accounts (I work in digital media, so we have connected on a few social platforms). Do you think I’m really still in the running, or is he just waiting for a better candidate to come along before he tells me “thanks, but no thanks”? I feel like I’ve given him plenty of opportunities to tell me that I’m not the right fit for the role, and it’s getting to the point where I’m tempted to just tell him that I assume I’m no longer being considered based on the continued effort to find candidates. It’s frustrating because I’m so enthusiastic about the position, and the fact that he has not outright rejected me keeps that little sliver of hope alive, even if I’m pretty sure that it’s not going to happen. What would you do?

I would put the job out of your mind and move on. If he decides to offer it to you at some point, great — but what would be the point in taking yourself out of the running? Do you really want closure more than you want the job? You’re losing sight of the fact that your goal isn’t to get this wrapped up as quickly as possible. Your goal is to get the job. Don’t foreclose that possibility for yourself just because you’re frustrated.

Sure, it’s possible that he’s already mentally rejected you and is just waiting to find a different candidate before he tells you. It’s also possible that you’re still a strong candidate but he doesn’t feel comfortable hiring until he’s interviewed at least a certain number of people, to make sure he’s making the right choice. We have no way of knowing. Give yourself the closure that you want by mentally moving on — but don’t close off the possibility for real, by withdrawing.

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

1. I want to work from home but I don’t have a good reason

I work for a large company that publicly celebrates its benefits such as flexible hours and working at home. I’ve never worked from home and never felt like my own manager really encouraged it, but would like to start, even if just once a month. Here’s the problem: I don’t really have a reason in the traditional sense. I’m not a mom, I’m not in school, etc. It’s just something that I see most of my colleagues in the company doing and I’d like to do it as well. I’d like it for a better work/life balance. I work in NYC and have a long commute; I think it would be a refreshing change of pace to not have to do the commuting rat race every once in a while. I also work in a small cramped cubicle with lots of distractions and interruptions. On some of my more complicated research assignments, the peace and quiet of my home office would be incredibly helpful. Also, this is totally bratty and unprofessional, but in the spirit of full disclosure – everybody else does it and I want to too!

So what’s the best way to approach it with my manager?

Actually, those are all good reasons — well, maybe not the one about your coworkers all doing it, but the rest. I’d say that you’d love to have a day periodically where you could focus without as many interruptions. And you could also mention, if you want, that you wouldn’t mind the occasional break from your long commute. Those might not be the most compelling reasons imaginable, but they’re reasonable and in a company that promotes its work-from-home benefit, it should be sufficient when you raise it with your boss. Mention you’ll pick the days carefully so they don’t interfere with anything you need to be in the office for, blah blah blah, and I bet it’ll be fine.

2. Was my note to this interviewer inappropriate?

I applied for a permanent teaching position at a university program. After interview, I was not shortlisted/offered the job, which was not 100% surprising as I really need to strengthen my teaching experience. I sent a thank you note to two people after the rejection phone call: the hiring professor, and another professor in my particular field. Both were essentially former colleagues. We worked in the same organization and building, but they were affiliated with the university and I was not. We never collaborated, but we would see each other in the halls, at meetings, conferences, etc.

To the professor who works in my field, my short note thanked her for her time. I then said that I appreciated meeting with her, and that I learned a lot from the experience in hindsight, having been out of the job search market for so long. I then reiterated my commitment to the particular fieldwork, and to teaching. I said I admired her career and asked if it would be okay to seek some guidance from her on my hopes and plans to develop a more robust teaching career. I said that I could briefly swing by her office at her convenience, or that I would be happy to invite her to a cup of coffee if that was easier.

I thought this request was okay because she had been very informal and warm when she responded to my post-interview thank you letter, acknowledging our time as former colleagues. But it’s been a few days and I haven’t heard back. I wonder if I had crossed some kind of boundary there.

Nope, you did nothing wrong. It’s possible that she’s planning to respond but hasn’t had the time (a few days is actually not that long, particularly when you have other stuff that you have to prioritize above it), or it’s possible that she’s not planning to respond (which would be a little rude but not outrageous; some people don’t believe they have to respond to unsolicited invitations from job-searchers) … but either way, there was nothing out of line about the note you sent. It was normal and appropriate. If she chooses not to respond, don’t take that as commentary on you or the note; it’s just the way job-searching goes sometimes.

3. Can I let the employer that rejected me know that I don’t need their job — and get some feedback too?

I applied for a job a few months ago and was short-listed. Once I moved to the next stage, I had to take a 3.5 hour language proficiency test. Fast-forward several months later, and I have been offered and accepted a position that is a stronger fit. However, today I (finally) received the rejection email for the position for which I took the proficiency exam.

Although I don’t really care about this position anymore, it would be helpful to get feedback from this employer about my test results. At the same time, the “jilted lover of the job search” in me also wants to let them know that I don’t need their job. Would it be appropriate to reply the rejection email and say something like “Thank you for the application status update. Although I have found employment elsewhere, I was wondering if you would be willing to give me feedback or a score re: the proficiency test.” Or should I just cut my losses?

You can absolutely ask for feedback. But resist the jilted-lover in you and leave out the mention of having found another job. First, because it’s already a challenge to get employers to give rejected candidates feedback; they’re less likely to do it if they hear you’ve already found work and are out of the job search anyway. But second, and more important, you wouldn’t be “showing them” anything. That’s just not the dynamic. They’d be glad to know that you don’t “need their job” (no one takes any pleasure in rejecting candidates, after all) — if they think about it at all, which they probably won’t.

There’s nothing to prove here, or to shove in their faces. And if it makes you feel better to let them know you’re hireable, well, they probably already knew you were hireable. You just weren’t the one they hired for this job; it’s not personal, at least not to them. You’re better off not seeing it as personal to you either.

4. Should I wait to job search until after the holidays?

I was told my last day with my current company will be in early December. With the holidays approaching, should I start job hunting now or should I wait until after the holidays?

Start now. While some places slow down or stop hiring over the holidays, plenty continue — and you’ll have less competition because a lot of job-seekers put their searches on hold around now.

5. I’m doing work for two businesses for the price of one

I was hired by a company as a graphic/3D designer 3 months ago. Last month, the owner partnered on a business in a different state in order to covertly filter business from the new company to the existing (as the new company is akin to the type of clients the existing company supports). As a result, several of us in the office have been told we will now be supporting the new startup as well (branding, identity, website creation, marketing materials, etc.).

How do I have the best chance at renegotiating a salary that’s fair compensation for supporting two companies instead of one? In the hiring process, I was never even let on to the idea of having to support a second company and – as such – I negotiated a compensation package that was fair for the one existing company position. Clearly, things have changed and I’d like to be paid what I believe I’m worth to both companies.

I’m not sure that’s realistic. Unless the hours of your position have dramatically changed, it’s not unusual or unreasonable for an employer to expand and give you more internal “clients” to work with (just like they might add new departments or new campaigns). Assuming you’re not being asked to work two separate full-time jobs, you don’t really have a lot of standing to ask for more money here — and doing so might come across as sufficiently out of touch that it could pose a serious issue for your tenure there. But you can certainly fold into a case for a raise at a more typical time — i.e., when you’ve been there for a year, it would be reasonable to ask for a raise and point to how well you’ve supported the second company in addition to the first.

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

1. My coworker is showing photos of me in lingerie to guys at work

I had a small relationship with a coworker. I apparently sent him some pictures of me in lingerie. He showed most of the guys at work. I didn’t know this. I cut it off with him. I ended up dating someone else from work and we got married. Now the pics have gone viral and he still has them and is showing them. Is this illegal?

This guy is an ass.

If he still works with you, it’s sexual harassment and you should report it to your company immediately and they’ll have a legal obligation to stop it and deal with the dude. Whether there are laws that protect you aside from that will depend on what state you live in; a couple of states have laws against “revenge porn” that prohibit this kind of thing. (Although those laws might be specific to nude photos; I’m not sure if lingerie would be covered or not.)

2. A great candidate applied for a job, but I never saw her application

Recently, a senior person outside our organization that I respect and sometimes work with inquired about a position for which I was the hiring manager. I answered her and encouraged her to apply for the job before a certain date if she was interested. She never replied to my email, nor did I get an application from HR, so I assumed she wasn’t interested in the position because the salary range for the position wasn’t aligned with her interests (totally reasonable given her seniority).

I hired a great person, but as our HR manager and I were going through the applicants so that we might send out rejection notes (he is the gateway through which all applicants pass), I learned that this senior person did apply through normal challenges but her application was never forwarded to me due to a HR administrative oversight! HR was very apologetic to me, but I feel terrible, as this person and I move in the same circles, and we may want to engage her for a consultancy in the future (not to mention she would have been a great candidate and deserved to be fairly and fully considered). Any advice on how I can give the candidate a fair response that also preserves our professional relationship?

I would be straight with her: “Jane, I never saw an application from you so assumed you had decided not to apply — and then was horrified this week to learn from our HR manager that you did in fact apply and due to an HR oversight never made it to me. I’m absolutely mortified by this. If I had known you applied, I would have been thrilled, and you would have heard from me right away! We’ve already hired for the role so I unfortunately can’t undo the error now, but I wanted you to know what happened (and that I’m making sure there are no such errors in the future). If we have future openings, I’ll be sure to reach out to you personally.”

And then really delve into how this happened and how HR is ensuring it won’t happen again. You only learned about it this time because you happened to know the candidate, which makes me wonder if other great candidates aren’t being sent to you too. Sure, occasional mistakes do happen; people are human. But I’d look into this enough to determine if it truly was a one-time error or evidence of a more systemic problem with how they’re screening resumes.

3. Responding when your boss corrects your grammar

What is the correct way to respond when your boss stops you mid-sentence to correct your grammar? I said “irregardless” today instead of “regardless,” and she held her hand up to my mouth and told me never to say it again.

“Thanks for the correction.”

She’s your manager and she’s allowed to correct your grammar, even mid-sentence. But putting her hand over your mouth might have been over the line, depending on your relationship with her; in some relationships it would be friendly/affectionate/silly, and others it would be disrespectful and rude. If you found it unwelcome — I think I would have — you could add on, “Just the verbal correction is plenty.”

4. Logistical complications when interviewing for the job of someone who doesn’t know she’s about to be replaced

Recently I had a job interview for an executive assistant position at a fairly small company. The person currently in the position does not know she is about to be replaced. I would like to send a thank-you note or email to the interviewer, but am concerned that this assistant receives all incoming mail and perhaps also checks emails and voice mails. Would you suggest a phone call to the interviewer, hanging up if voice mail picks up? Should I just leave it and hope for the best?

Don’t call — calling just to say thanks for the interview (instead of sending a note) will seem a little off. It’s good that you’re being sensitive to the confidentiality of the hiring process, but I’d just go ahead and email your note, as long as you can use her direct email address (as opposed to a general company one). It’s unlikely that someone engaged in a confidential hiring process would have the very person who’s she’s secretly trying to replace checking her email.

For what it’s worth … I’m not a fan of interviewing for someone’s replacement when they don’t know that they’re about to be fired. It’s shady, it’s not especially fair or kind, and it says the employer doesn’t don’t put a high premium on integrity or transparency. Why aren’t they just being honest with her that it’s not working out?

I’d do a lot of probing into culture and management style as you’re considering working there, because it’s possible that this is a sign of a somewhat messed up management team there.

5. Will getting a GED hurt me later in life?

I am a high school student planning on getting my GED at 16 and heading straight to college. I should graduate with a bachelors at the age of 20, but I don’t want the fact that I have a GED to be a limiting factor later in my career. Would my GED hinder my progress in life? Even if I got one simply to get into college faster? Any and all advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

It will not matter one bit. The delightful discovery that you are about to make is that no one cares about anything that happened in high school once you are out of it. High school will never go on your resume once you’re in college, so not only will no one care that you got a GED once you’ve graduated from college, but no one will even know about it!