Ask a Manager

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

1. My company uses short-term rotations instead of promotions

I work for a large company at a call center. I’m fairly compensated for what I do and I love almost all aspects of my job. There’s one thing that’s bugging me a bit. There are decent opportunities to moving up in the department or getting a better paid position in another department, but the thing is that most of these are just rotations. That means if selected, you do the work of that department for typically 6 months, but your official salary and position stay the same. Sometimes that rotation becomes permanent and then you get an official promotion. Sometimes they just needed head count and it’s back to your original position.

I realize this is great for your résumé but it just strikes me as a bit shady in terms of lack of a raise. The company is definitely not hurting for money.

I was very lucky to get promoted within the department with just a week rotation. My colleagues did 7 months to a year rotation before an official promotion. There’s a new position that now open for rotation. The position is eventually where I’d like to be in my career and I’d love your insight. Am I right to be a little bit frustrated with that process? I don’t want to be frustrated at that when I love everything else at my company.

It seems inefficient to me — they’re training people to do work and then sending them away right around the time most people are feeling like they finally know the job — but hey, it’s their prerogative, as long as they’re up-front with employees about how it works, which it sounds like they are.

As for whether you should apply for the position you want, I’d say to go for it if you’re comfortable with what they’re offering: a role that’s maybe temporary, and maybe more long-term, with no change in pay for at least a year. It’s up to you whether that’s an offer you’d be willing to take.

2. Factoring a recent degree into a salary offer

I have two applicants for the same position, both with similar backgrounds and number of years of experience. The first got his bachelor’s 20 years ago, while the second got an associate’s 20 years ago but recently upgraded to a bachelor’s through an online school. Typically I would offer a recent graduate a salary at the low end of the pay scale, but in light of the second applicant’s experience I’m wondering if he should or should not be offered the same pay that I would offer to the first applicant. All things being equal, I prefer the second applicant because of his personality, so the question in a nutshell is whether or not they are entitled to equivalent pay. The second applicant’s salary history is of course much lower than the first, but I’m sure he didn’t go through the trouble of getting a better degree so that he could make the same salary.

Of course they’re entitled to equivalent pay for the same work. When you refer to the salary you’d normally offer a recent grad, you’re thinking of someone right out of school, without much experience. But this is someone with years of experience, so that doesn’t apply. If he got an associate’s 20 years ago, he most likely has at least 20 years of work experience — why would you care about the degree at all at this point? Pay based on his track record of performance in his career, which at this point is far more relevant than what he did in school.

Degrees are shorthand that tell you what people are likely to be able to achieve, at a time in their lives when you don’t have much real data on their work performance yet. That’s not the case here; you already have the data on him that matters — his 20+ years in the work world. Pay accordingly. (And please ignore his and all applicants’ salary history, which is irrelevant to what their work will be worth to you.)

3. Should you be more dressed up for the first, second, or third interview?

Should you be more dressed up for the first, second, or final interview? Say I have three interview outfits. One is the most dressy/professional/conservative, one is a bit more colorful although still conservative, and one is less conservative still. When do I wear the most conservative and when do I wear the least conservative? Or, buy more interview clothes?

Start with the most conservative, and move down from there — always staying reasonably formal, of course, and keeping in mind the principle that even fields where more casual dress is the norm still generally expect people to dress more nicely for interviews.

And of course, if you’re in an industry that always expects formal dress, then you would stay at that level of formality, not decrease it with successive interviews.

(And as always, this is a case of needing to know your own industry. If you’re in a field that never expects you to dress up, even at interviews, this wouldn’t apply — but I doubt that’s the case for you, since you’re asking the question.)

4. I listed my salary incorrectly on a job application

I accidentally listed my incorrect salary on an application — I was $1,000 over what my actual salary is. Should I:
a) wait to see if they actually double-check, but risk being accused of fraud and getting myself into one of those nasty potential-job-offer-revoked, current-job-lost situations
b) preemptively tell them I was incorrect and offer the correct amount, but risk that they’ll see me as sloppy, especially for a position that requires detail-orientation and for which I emphasized my accuracy
c) state that I was including my employer’s 401(k) match amount in my compensation (which works out to about $1,000 and would be fairly accurate)

How often do employers double-check current salary and if I’m off by $1,000, how likely would they be to tell me to hit the road?

The majority of employers don’t verify a new hire’s previous salary, although enough do that people absolutely shouldn’t feel safe lying about it. That said, the odds are on your side that they won’t check it. If they do, though, $1,000 isn’t a significant enough amount that they should pull your offer over it; you could simply explain that you hadn’t double-checked it when you filled out the application or that you were indeed including that 401(k) match (which isn’t something you should normally do when asked about salary, but not a massive crime). I wouldn’t worry about being seen as sloppy; you’re not required to know your exact salary at all times.

(Obligatory disclaimer that there are crazy employers out there who will do all manner of crazy things, but what you’re worried about is unlikely.)

5. Should employee disciplinary information be confidential?

When you write up an employee, is that information confidential? Might there be certain people that you can share that information with?

Legally, you can share it with anyone you want — coworkers, clients, even the UPS guy who delivers to your office. In practice, though, that rarely happens. Typically disciplinary information is shared on a need-to-know basis, so if you’re talking to an employee about performance problems, you might share that information with your boss, your assistant manager who also oversees some of the person’s work, and — in some offices — HR. There are times that it might make sense to share it with someone else to, but there should be a reason for it — it shouldn’t be information a good manager shares casually or without reason.

6. Can our company force us to use company cars instead of driving our own and getting reimbursed for mileage?

Our employer pays us mileage (.57 per mile) for the use of our personal vehicles. The company is now in a position to give company vehicles to all employees instead of having us use our personal vehicles. Are we required to take the company vehicle?

The reason I ask is that one employee has racked up $12,000 in mileage so far and we have four more months left in the year and our employer says that it would be better for the company to put everyone in a company vehicle versus paying us mileage. Also, if we take the company vehicle, we would lose that extra income on mileage on top of our hourly wage. Is our employer obligated to make up the lost income for our mileage?

Your employer can absolutely require you to begin using company vehicles so they don’t need to pay you mileage. They should pay out any mileage that you’ve already accrued, but beyond that they have no obligation to “make up” the income that you were getting through mileage that you won’t now be receiving.

Mileage payments are intended to reimburse you for gas and wear and tear on your car. They’re not intended to be extra income.

7. I don’t want to tell my boss where I’m working next

I’m wondering if I am required (ethically or legally) to tell my boss about my new job when I resign. I’d like to avoid dealing with the barrage of questions that will come with announcing where I’m going next (what will you be doing, who will you be working with, how did you find out about the job, etc.). I’m leaving to work for an organization that my current boss would love to have connections to and I’d like to avoid his asking me to make introductions to people there. I don’t like or trust several of the people I work with, including my boss and executive management, and I’d like to sever all ties, starting with not informing them of my next employer.

Am I required, ethically or legally, to tell my current employer about my new job? If not can I gracefully exit by just saying I’m leaving to pursue other opportunities, without saying what those opportunities are?

No, you’re not required to — certainly not legally, and not ethically either. However, it’s so common for people to share where they’re going that it’s going to come off extremely oddly (and badly, frankly)if you refuse. You can certainly start by giving a vague answer — “a tech firm” — but if you’re asked which company and you refuse, you’re going to look pretty strange and probably sour the relationships just as you’re leaving.

However, if your concern is that your boss will try to milk you for connections, there are easier ways to avoid that — just say something like, “Let me get settled in there first and get the lay of the land.”

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

1. Can I delete company files that I created?

I have been employed for two years by a company to do filing and some typing. After a short while, one of my colleagues mentioned that she wanted something to calculate volumes and pricing for her surveys to make her job easier. As Excel spreadsheets and VBA scripting are a hobby of mine, I created one for her with password protection so she could not accidentally delete the formulas within it. I am the only one with the password. She used this, and it saved her a substantial amount of time. After that, many people within the office asked me to create them sheets for many sectors of their work, which I was happy to do in my own time at home. Since then, staff have left and others have joined the company and still use my spreadsheets.

A few months ago, I asked for a pay raise and was told my position did not qualify for a raise, despite the fact that they knew all departments rely on my worksheets to enable more efficient use of work time. My wages have never changed in the two years, but those of the staff that use my sheets have, due to better work efficiency.

I have now decided to leave the company. Am I obliged to leave the spreadsheets on the company common files, or can I delete them as I would like to use these towards a portfolio to offer other companies on a freelance basis?

Leaving them in the company files and using them in your portfolio aren’t mutually exclusive — you could do both, so it sounds like you might just want to delete them out of bitterness. Acting out of bitterness is rarely a good idea when it comes to your career, and that’s very true now.

You can certainly use these worksheets in your portfolio unless company policies prevent you from doing that (and check — because some do), but you can’t delete them from the company files. That would be destroying work property, which is a Big, Big Deal. It would ruin your reputation there and any future reference.

2. Food allergies when you’re a new hire being taken out for lunch

I have had several trusted colleagues tell me over the years that they (typically department managers, directors, etc.) always make it a point to take a new hire to lunch — if not the first day, at least during the first week — to make them feel welcome, part of the team, and get to know them.

Is this still common in 2013 and if so, when is it proper to let your boss know that you have a food allergy? I wouldn’t want to wait until we are walking to the car to say, “Hey, can we go to this place since I can eat there?” I don’t want to seem high maintenance or pushy with where we dine (especially if they offer to pay), or scare any new colleagues, or make them think anything unwarranted. As long as I stick to my restricted diet (not peanut related), I am fine. Thoughts on how best to approach this, whether it’s a new boss, senior leadership or fellow colleagues?

Taking a new hire to lunch is indeed common.

Are you generally able to find something to eat at most restaurants? If so, you probably don’t need to say anything — particularly if as a fallback you can ask for something like a plate of steamed vegetables or a green salad if the menu doesn’t have anything you can eat. But if it’s harder than that, and it’s likely you’ll end up somewhere where you can’t eat, then yes, speak up. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, though; when lunch is first mentioned, say, “I’d love to. I have a X allergy that makes most restaurants hard, but I’m usually fine at Italian/Asian/___ (fill in the blank) places.”

3. Leaving a job after 6 weeks

I was previously working a temp/contract job where I could at most work 900 hours at a time. Right around the time the contract job was up, I was offered and accepted a permanent job in a different department that pays fairly well. The issue is I’ve pretty much hated the new job since day one. My boss is unorganized and flaky, I don’t really think my coworkers like me, and I haven’t been doing much work at all in my almost 1-1/2 months working for the new department.

Due to the fact that I was unhappy, I immediately began to job search again and after a few applications I got quite a few call-backs for interviews that led to multiple job offers.

I feel really bad that I’ll be leaving soon but I’m miserable in this new position and it’s not at all what I expected it to be. Is it wrong for me to take one of the new offers (which by the way pay $10k more than what I make now and are essentially promotions to management positions) after only being with this department for less than two months? I have tried to have multiple meetings with my manager to discuss it, but he’s always too busy and when we schedule meetings “something” usually comes up at the very last second.

You’ve tried to talk to your boss about your concerns and he’s blown you off each time. That means he’s forfeited the right to be upset or surprised if you accept one of these other offers and leave. Go — just make sure that you do your due diligence on the next company so you’re confident you’ll stay a while. (And be aware that you might not be eligible for rehire, including contract work, at the company you’re leaving, as a result of leaving so soon, which is probably a price you’re willing to pay.)

Read an update to this letter here.

4. Interviewer ignored my LinkedIn request

I had met up with an interviewer who is pretty senior. While he had roles in sales, we both agreed that my profile is better suited for marketing, which also is under him. This was also the eventual feedback he shared with the recruiter.

I just wanted to stay in touch with him on LinkedIn. I sent him an invite explaining him that I would like to stay in touch to be considered for marketing roles in his team. He has replied back saying that he will stay in touch, but he has not responded to the connection request!! What do I make of this? Have I done something wrong?

Make of it that he only connects to people he knows better than you on LinkedIn, or that he rarely is on the site, or that he overlooked the request, or all kinds of other explanations. And then drop it and don’t spend another second thinking about it. There are all kinds of reasons for this that have nothing to do with you having done something wrong.

5. Getting reimbursed for not using health insurance

I work as a funeral director for a family-owned company. I have been here about 8 months. When I was hired, they asked if I would need health insurance through the company, and I said “no, I am on with my husband’s employer.” Come to find out, my employer will reimburse my husband for what he pays for me. I just found out and I am a little annoyed but torn on what to do. I know they will start to pay it from now on, but what about the months that I was not receiving the benefit? Should I say something or just be grateful that they do that and drop it? I don’t want to be greedy, but everyone else was receiving that. I know they are not trying to screw me over, it was an honest mistake. What would you say/do?

You can certainly say something like, “Since it sounds like it was an oversight that I wasn’t receiving this all along, is it possible to reimburse it retroactively for the months we missed?” But I wouldn’t push it beyond that — it’s a benefit that many employers don’t offer and you don’t want to sour the relationship over this. (By the way, are you sure they’re talking about reimbursing your husband directly? It would be more common for them to add to your paycheck the amount that they would otherwise be paying for you … otherwise they’d be paying all different amounts for different people’s spouse’s plans, and sending checks to non-employees, both of which would be unusual.)

6. Why haven’t I heard any more about being made partner?

I’m currently a senior engineer at an environmental firm and bring it quite a bit of business. I’ve been at the firm for 2.5 years and came on with the idea that a role as a future partner would be there if I delivered.

Well, last year around Christmas, my boss told me that another engineer who has been here for 8 years was getting promoted to partner, and that I would be too sometime in 2013, sooner rather than later. I asked if he had talked with the other owners and the reply was yes. I also asked if the short time that I worked here was a sticking point and he sort of indicated yes and that’s why we would wait until 2013. Fast forward to review time this year around April, and my boss again mentioned that he and the other partners would like to sit down at the end of 2013 to talk about partnership. He asked if I’m on board with that and of course I said yes.

From that point on, I have heard nothing about it from my direct boss, nor any of the partners. Not one word has been mentioned and it kind of has me all worked up. I should say that my boss is notoriously flighty and says a lot of things that don’t come through. I can’t believe that he would trivialize something as important as partner, but it’s tough to think about. What should I do? I guess I’d like some more talk about it or at least have someone other than him mention it. To make matters worse, I have turned down three overtures at potential jobs in the past year without even listening to salary ranges. Should I ask for a lunch in a month or so and bring up the matter? It would definitely make me feel better to hear it from another partner for sure.

Well, on one hand, he told you in April that they’d talk about it at the end of the year — which is four month away. So I don’t think they’re being negligent by not having raised it since then. However, since you’re wondering about it and you’re making career decisions based on what you’ve been told, why not bring it up yourself? Ask your boss for more information about the timeline, ask about how likely it is to happen (and how likely it is to happen on that timeline), and ask if it’s okay for you to talk with other partners about it at this stage.

7. Responding to behavior interview questions when you’ve never been in the situation being asked about

What is the best way to respond to situational behavioral questions if I’ve never been in the situation?

After graduating college, I have been job searching since January to get out of retail and land an entry-level job. I was rejected after a recent job interview and I can’t help but feel that my answers to their behavioral interview questions weren’t as strong as they could be. The reason for this is they were 99% behavioral questions and I feel I was unable to really relay why I’d excel at the job through them, though I tried to tie it back as best as I could. They were almost all a variation of “Tell me a time a customer acted like X and what did you do?” Except for some, I never actually had a customer act like X, or argue against a policy, etc. I took a moment to think, but my answers were not the complex or solid answers they probably hoped for since I’m a lowly apparel sales associate. (The most I had a customer confused about a policy was when I told them that they couldn’t try on underwear…) When I could I tied it to my more respectable past job at my university’s newspaper. I am always tactful and polite and made it clear I never argued with customers. I know how I would act in those situations, and I had behavioral answers prepared for the more common questions, but obviously can’t anticipate every question, and I can’t recall every situation I’ve ever had either!

My experience was a great match for the position, but I felt like their questions never gave me a chance to shine. Especially because I wouldn’t even be working with customers in the position. (Also one of their two non-behavioral questions felt like a trick: “Do you believe the customer is always right?” After thinking carefully I said “I would have to say no, because -” And explained that if an issue did arise or a customer is upset, it shows things must be handled differently to avoid an unsatisfactory customer or misunderstanding etc. I felt it was less about the right answer and more about my reasoning. What do you think?)

Generally, the best way to respond to behavioral interview questions (the “tell me about a time when…” questions) if you don’t have a past experience that quite matches up with what they’re asking about is to say, “I’ve never been in quite that situation, but something similar I can tell you about is…” and then offer up something that gets close to what you think they’re trying to get at. Or, less ideal but not horrible, you can explain you haven’t had that come up, but you imagine you’d handle it like ____.

However, I think you might have simply had a bad interviewer. Asking you so much about customer service for a job that doesn’t work with customers is a little off. And yes, some of those questions can be a proxy for how you deal with coworkers or challenging situations, or how you think in general, but it sounds like their focus on them was overkill.

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

1. Do I write horribly unclear emails?

Do you have any tips for writing emails in the office? I just left a job after 5 months of temp work in an office of 3 people (me, a paralegal, and an attorney). It seemed like every time I wrote an email, I was reprimanded because it wasn’t clear or didn’t make sense. I was even told that if the email didn’t make sense to either my boss or my coworker or if it was too long that they just deleted it.

My boss was in the office 0% of the time (I met her 3 times), so email was our lifeline, but if something didn’t make sense she would ask my coworker what I meant. They would never say “this doesn’t make sense, can you be more clear?” They would just speculate about what an email might mean, delete it without answering, and reprimand me the next morning for writing an email that didn’t make sense and for not getting the work done that I was asking about. They also had rules about how many spaces had to be before and after a slash, and had form emails and subject lines that I was supposed to copy for certain things.

After about a month of this, every time I went to write an email to someone, I started to freak out and take forever even to write one sentence making sure it was as concise and clear as possible. I have worked in 2 offices before this, and we emailed, but not often. My other bosses were more face-to-face or used the phone because our offices were next to each other. No one has ever told me I write confusing emails before, or that anything else I write is confusing.

I feel like they were over the top with their email requirements, but I’m still afraid I might need some tips on how to write email since my other bosses didn’t rely on it so heavily. I’d appreciate any help or links you can provide.

Well, your email here is perfectly clear, so if this is any representation of the types of emails they were objecting to, the problem was your boss and coworker, not you. And I’m inclined to think that, particularly because they handled it so poorly — not asking you to clarify, deleting, and so forth.

In general, you want emails to be short and to the point, with the most important information up top, without tons of background, and you want it to be very clear why you’re emailing — are you asking for approval on something, keeping someone in the loop on an issue, asking for some sort of action, etc.? And you want a descriptive subject line (not “hello” or “question”) so the recipient can find it later or tell at a glance what it’s about. But you also want sane coworkers who don’t berate you for writing in what appears to be a reasonably clear way, and I’m thinking that was the bigger issue here. (That said, it wouldn’t hurt to show some of these emails, if you still have them, to a friend or mentor who writes well and ask them for feedback, just to make sure.)

2. Asking a prospective employer about going part-time a few years from now

I’m currently going through the interview process for a job that I’m really excited about. It’s a full-time position. With that said, I have a few reservations and don’t know how to address them, or even if they can be addressed.

I’m currently the sole benefits provider in my household. My husband is self employed, with a great salary but no health insurance. My existing job has great benefits, and I know that if in the future (two years, maybe), I start a family and decide to change my hours to part time, these benefits don’t change. This is basically the only “pro” to my current job.

I know you don’t discuss benefit packages until final negotiations, but is there ever an appropriate way to say “If I want to switch from full-time to part-time in a few years, is that an option? And if so, how does it effect my benefit package?” My gut is telling me you can’t ask this. But it’s a huge consideration for me as an early 30s woman who is starting to consider starting a family!

You’re right that you definitely don’t want to bring it up until you have an offer, but I’d be somewhat wary about bringing it up even then. Many employers will hear “I plan to take significant leave in a few years, maybe sooner, and I might not come back at all, and if I do, I’ll want to cut my hours.” Some employers will be just fine with that, but some will not — and you’ll see it reflected in the projects you’re assigned and how seriously you’re taken. And you probably won’t know these people well enough yet to know which camp they’re in.

One option is to work your ass off over the next few years and do such an outstanding job that they’re jumping to keep you after you have a baby, part-time or not. It’s not a guaranteed outcome, of course, but both paths are somewhat risky.

3. My manager says she can’t do anything about a slacker coworker

I have a coworker who doesn’t come into work until 10 a.m. and leaves at 4 p.m. most days, if she makes it that long, and who does not write down PTO hours for the time gone. She averages 26 hours a week (which doesn’t even qualify her for the medical insurance that she receives). Anyway, my manager says there is nothing they can do about this. Is that true? She and I are the only two non-exempt employees in the department.

My question is, can they set a schedule for her to work by? Or at least tell her that she has to be to work by 8 like the whole rest of the company?

Of course they can require her to stick to a particular schedule. Your manager’s claim that they can’t means one of the following: (a) your manager is incredibly incompetent, (b) your company is hamstrung by some overly zealous (and incompetent) HR department that doesn’t understand employment law, or (c) your coworker is being given legitimate schedule accommodations for a medical condition (or a family medical situation), which isn’t something you’d necessarily be informed of.

4. Was I too pushy in this hiring process?

I am in university administration. I was laid off so am unemployed in an area with few institutions of higher ed. I am desperate not to have to move my family so keep an eye on every open position at the two universities near me.

A director level job came up, and I applied, had a phone interview, and was asked in for a final interview, along with two other candidates. It was a six-hour event, including an hour with the dean and the vice chancellor. The vice chancellor (who would have been my boss) and I seemed to make a personal connection (he worked at my alma mater and knew my mentor very well). We spoke a little about what it was like being unemployed and he looked directly at me and said, “Well, if you don’t get the job here, I know I will have some suggestions for you so we’ll talk. You won’t be getting a form letter from me, I can tell you that.”

I sent email and handwritten thank-you notes to all 14 people I met with. Some emailed me back, which was nice. Two weeks passed with no contact. I sent a short, polite follow-up email to the search chair, asking her if a decision had been made or if she wanted to meet with me or see any of my portfolio work. She replied immediately that they still had to interview the final candidate because scheduling had been tough. I waited one month. I received an offer for a job five hours away requiring relocation. I wrote to the search chair again, letting her know this and asking if I was still under consideration or whether they had moved on with a different choice. No reply. A week later, I wrote to the vice chancellor to let him know about the other offer and to also tell him I had started my masters in university admin and to ask him for any suggestions or advice. I should also say another director level job in the same area had been posted during this past month and in each e-mail I asked whether my application for that position would be welcomed since they knew so much about me already. No reply.

Where did I go wrong? Is this just the norm — to not even let final candidate know the outcome? Can I do anything else? I don’t want to move 5 hours away if there is still a chance. Do I just have to let this one go? Was I too pushy? Should I apply for the other job which hasn’t closed yet? I checked their website and no new staff are listed and no announcements have been made (which are routine).

Yes, all of this is the norm — not responding to candidates when they send direct queries, not sending rejections, and promising a personal response but then going silent. It’s extremely rude, but it’s extremely common. It doesn’t sound like you were too pushy at all, but it also doesn’t sound like you should continue contacting them at this point. You told them you had another offer, and you got silence — that’s a signal to move on. I’m sorry.

5. Applying for a second full-time job on top of my first full-time job

I have a full-time job right now working 8-5 (M-F). My financial situation is such that I feel the need to get another full-time job to cover expenses. It is just my husband and myself (so no kids missing their mommy time or anything like that). I am fully committed to doing both jobs to the best of my ability. I keep all my commitments, which include paying my debt/expenses.

The second job is 1AM-8:30AM M-F and on some weekend hours. I am very qualified for this position (maybe even overqualified). My questions are this: When/if they ask why I want to leave my current position, what do I say? I plan on doing both jobs. I don’t want to scare them away and make them think that I will be over-committing myself, as I don’t believe that to be the case. Is there a way that I can avoid saying that I will be having two full-time jobs or should I tell them that is the plan up-front?

Also, how would I negotiate either with my current job or this potential new one to flex the time so that I can still work both since there is an overlap of 30 minutes (noteworthy that they are only 15 minutes apart commuting time, tops)?

I do think you need to tell them because it might turn out the two jobs are incompatible — they might need you to stay late or come in early, or they might simply not want you working 1 a.m. to 5 p.m., because they might figure that you’re not going to be at your best. And they’re probably right about that — that’s a really long day, with less than four hours of sleep per night. Not only should you not be working with the sort of chronic sleep deprivation that you’ll suffer from if you do this night after night (and most people would see that reflected in their performance at both jobs), but you shouldn’t be driving either! This is bad for you, it’s bad for your employers, and it’s potentially bad for other people on the road. Is there some other option?

6. Should I tell my boss that a competitor has three people doing my job?

I work in an administrative job at a private school. Should I tell my boss I discovered that a smaller peer school has my job divided amongst three people? I do at least two full-time jobs, and I manage to pull it off despite being spread very thin. After speaking with a director at this other school, who was shocked at how much I’m expected to do, I feel like I’m being taken advantage of. However, I doubt there is any money in our budget to accommodate another employee (even if they wanted to hire one). My supervisors are always trying to add other pieces onto my job, and I frequently push back letting them know how busy I am. Since I always meet deadlines and produce quality work, they feel like there shouldn’t be a problem and that I should just “work longer hours.” I don’t know how to curtail the endless sprawl of my job responsibilities without being seen as having a bad attitude. Should I bring up the conversation I had with the director at the smaller school?

No. It’s a smaller school so the workload is probably different. Also, I’d avoid thinking (or saying) that you’re working two full-time jobs. Unless you’re working close to 80 hours a week, you’re not; you might be doing work in two different areas, yes, but that’s not “two full-time jobs.” If two people were doing the work, there would presumably be more work, it would be more in-depth, and there would be more responsibilities.

I don’t say that to minimize what you’re doing, but you want to make sure that you’re thinking about this aspect of it clearly, so that (a) you’re not more resentful than the situation warrants, and (b) if you do talk to your manager about this at some point, you don’t make arguments that she’ll be dismissing in her head.

7. My internships make employers think I’m a job-hopper

I’m applying for new jobs and facing a challenge in structuring my resume. I worked for three years and then went to graduate school (for law). During law school, I decided I would rather do something in my previous line of work, where a law degree could be beneficial, but is certainly not necessary or even the norm.

After law school, I went back to a similar industry/type of job, where I have been for the last two years. Throughout law school, I had a number of internships (between 20-40 hours per week) that are either directly or somewhat related to the industry where I currently work/where I’m seeking new opportunities. I’m currently looking for new opportunities, and I’m having trouble finding a good way to present this information so it makes sense for potential employers.

When I just list my full-time job experience, employers have asked about a gap in service. When I list my internships, it looks like I jumped around in positions (in the legal world there is often a distinction of the types of jobs available for second year students vs. third year students, so I had two jobs and a consulting gig during law school). And almost unilaterally, either way I present it, employers tend to look at me as someone with two years of experience, not five years of full-time experience and two years of part-time internships.

List your internships in a section clearly labeled “Internships,” separate from your work experience. Or, keep them in your work section, but clearly label them as internships (for example, writing “Researcher (Intern)” rather than just “Researcher”), so that it’s clear that they were structured as short-term position, and you weren’t just job-hopping.