Ask a Manager

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

1. A bomb scare made me late to an interview

I had an interview on Wednesday for a job that is very promising for me. I left with what should have been time to spare, but the traffic and construction was pretty terrible, to the point that simply walking to the interview (which is about a 15-minute stroll) was difficult and I was about 3-5 minutes late to the interview.

It turned out that there was a bomb scare to a U.S. Congressperson’s office and because it was also around at least two other government buildings (including one that got a different bomb scare about two years ago), that backed up traffic because of all the detours, since both the police and FBI had to do an on-site investigation.

What do I tell the interviewers? Do I tell HR and have them pass along the word? I don’t want these people to think that I’m a chronically late person and I’ve been out of work for a while. I did apologize at the start of the interview and mentioned the traffic and construction delayed me and they seemed fine with it. The interview seemed to have gone great, they really appeared to like me but I worry about this one thing. Do I send them another email bringing up the bomb scare or will they think I’m making excuses?

Eh, I could argue this either way. On one hand, following up days later about a 3-5 minute delay could be taken as overkill. On the other hand, there’s not really anything wrong with saying, “After getting home on Wednesday, I learned that there was a bomb scare at the Capitol, and thats what caused all the delays that made me a few minutes late. I feel compelled to mention this because I’m neurotically punctual.” You’d need to say this in the context of a thank-you note though — it doesn’t warrant its own note.

2. Will filing for unemployment cause my former employer to vindictively back-date my insurance?

I just recently ended a messy conflict with my ex-employer. Long story short, they were trying to back-date my last day of employment to retroactively cancel my insurance (I was out on FMLA and then not able to return to work because I moved for my husband’s job). I spoke with a lawyer who said that my last day of employment for insurance purposes was the day that we spoke about me not coming back, and they immediately corrected the date and stopped trying to retroactively cancel my insurance (which I had used for my medical condition). They sent me a fairly nasty email though, afterwards.

I was told by this employment lawyer that I do qualify for unemployment in this state since I moved for a spouse’s job. However, I’m afraid that if I apply, my ex-employer will vindictively try to cancel my insurance again and make me retain the attorney I hired. Is it silly to be afraid to file for unemployment? I’m not sure if I’m being irrational to be so nervous that they might go after me. Should I just leave well enough alone? I’m looking for a new job and I’m already afraid that they’ll give me a terrible reference despite 7 years of stellar performance reviews and promotions.

There’s never any predicting what people will do, but in general an employer who has already back-tracked on X in response to a lawyer’s intervention is unlikely to try X again just because you file for unemployment.

3. Should I prepare an agenda for meeting with my new boss during my first week on the job?

I just recently landed a great position as an Executive Assistant for the COO/President of a great company, and your website has been extremely helpful during my job search over the last few months.

I am excited about this new role and want to make sure I hit the ground running. During our last meeting before I was offered the position, my boss mentioned that on the first couple of days, she would clear her calendar and we would spend time together to “ramp up.” One thing I am thinking about doing is outlining an “agenda” of sorts for this meeting. This would include something that outlines some questions I have regarding her preferences for various things (travel, meetings, etc.) as well as some ideas for organizational systems to put in place (she mentioned this was a top priority for me during our interviews). What do you think? Any ideas?

It’s a great idea to prepare something like this, but don’t use it as an agenda — since she may already have her own agenda for the meeting, and you don’t want to override that. But you can certainly keep it as a list of topics you want to be sure that you cover — you just don’t want to appear to be taking over the meeting if she seems well in control of it.

4. Covering a ton of qualifications in a cover letter

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but I am agonizing over a cover letter. I’ve seriously spent 3 hours revising, researching online, and trying different styles for a cover letter for a really cool job. It’s a small community college job, and like a lot of those types of jobs, the “required qualifications” list is 15-20 bullet points because the job covers everything from student career advising to marketing. And I really think I have all of the qualifications, so I’m trying to cover everything between my letter and resume.

My cover letter was getting bulky (still less than a page though), so I gave it 3 bold paragraph headings in the middle to make it look more readable, and bundle some of the related qualifications. When I hold it at arm’s length, it looks way better. Do you think headings in a cover letter is okay?

Sure, that’s fine. More importantly, though keep in mind that you don’t need to address every single qualification they listed in your cover letter. Plenty of that should be covered on your resume anyway, and you absolutely don’t want to just repeat what’s already available from that. If you try to cover 15-20 qualifications, you’re going to drain all the life out of your letter.

Also, don’t agonize. Get it written and send it out. You have no idea where they are in their hiring process, and your window of opportunity may closing while you’re agonizing. Send it today.

5. Why did this position suddenly become temporary when I was hired for it?

I began the hiring process for a well-known, mid-size international company in mid-May. After 2.5 months, the original position I had applied to was changed to a *temporary* position for half a year. The HR person encouraged me to apply anew to this position, which I did. Just a day later (a Saturday, mind you), she informed me that an offer was in the works, and indeed it came through a few days later. After some deliberation and despite the drawbacks of a temporary position, I decided to accept the offer. It’s the best option I have at the moment and is a position I’m very much interested in.

What I’m left wondering about is why the position suddenly became temporary. My hunch is that they’ve decided to try me out for 6 months, because though I do bring a unique body of knowledge to the position, my experience is lacking in other respects. However, in my conversation with the HR person, she denied that this was their intent and said that it was due to a restructuring in the company. I find this explanation dubious — the position is well-established at the company, in a growing field, and it would be a bizarre coincidence that the restructuring happened just as they were about to complete the hiring process with me.

Have you ever heard of such a six-month trial period? Is it conceivable that the HR person could not tell me that such a trial period exists (for example, because they don’t want to set a precedent)? Any other thoughts or comments you might have about my experience would be greatly appreciated.

Yep, companies do trial periods all the time, often without telling candidates they’re doing that OR that the job is only a temporary commitment. I have no idea if that’s the case with this job or not, but at least they were considerate enough not to mislead you into thinking it was permanent. (Well, as permanent as any job is.)

But rather than dwelling on this and trying to figure out their motivations, the fact is that it’s temporary, for whatever reason, and you can proceed with that knowledge in mind.

6. Do I need to be paid for my whole resignation period even if they have me leave early?

I submitted a resignation giving four weeks notice to my employer as requires in our employee handbook. They accepted my resignation. After two weeks, they told me that they moved up my resignation. Do they have to pay me through my resignation date?

They do not. They only have to pay you for the period you actually worked.

7. Did I ruin my chances of ever being hired at this company through too much follow-up?

Your blog has been equal parts helpful and terrifying to come across. I recently graduated from graduate school and I’m new to the job hunt, and I admit I fell for the follow-up with phone calls/be persistent advice — even though all the positions I apply to seem to have “Thank you for not calling” attached to it. There is this one place in particular that I would very much like to work for, and over the span of 2-3 months I have applied to four different positions in their organization. For the very first, I contacted them once by email. In their response, they said that all job postings are online until someone officially accepts the position, which I understood to mean the position might be listed even though they are past accepting new applications. Therefore, before I submitted my second application, I called multiple times to ascertain whether they were still accepting applications for it. I called 3-4 times to one HR person (I never got through; I left one message), and 2-3 to another HR person, leaving one message. I never got through to a person.

Once I learned that that was not the desirable thing to do I clearly stopped, but I fear that none of my other (more recent) applications will be looked at because of those earlier mistakes. Should I stop applying to that organization? Are those of us who have called in the past written off as undesirable candidates?

Nah, I don’t think you need to assume you burned your bridges, since you fortunately only left two phone messages (despite calling more than that). It’s not ideal, but if it’s been a few months, it’s entirely possible they won’t even remember you as the person who called.

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

1. I got promoted and now have less work to do!

After 6 years with my company I was finally granted the promotion I had been wanting. Basically I went from “Junior X” to “X”. For the last three years or so I have been doing the work of both the “Junior X” and the “X”. It was a lot of work, but I was able to handle it without issue. So now that I’m just “X”, many of my previous responsibilities have been delegated to a new hire, and frankly… I’m bored! I’ve made an effort to “slow down” and even created a new project for myself (I’m in a creative field so this is easy to do) but I’m still finding myself with down time. I really don’t want to leave this job as I like the company’s philosophy, the people/culture, not to mention the fact that jobs in this somewhat niche field are few and far between. Is there a good way to ask my boss for more work, without coming across as “expendable”?

What’s the next step above X, and what will you need to do to get there? Can you start taking on some of that work now, or building the skills that will allow you to later? Since it’s easy for you to create new projects for yourself, I’d do that — and might even be explicit with your boss about what why you’re doing it. (Make sure you don’t sound like you’re expecting to move up in an unrealistic amount of time — if it normally takes people three years to get to the next step, present your plan within that framework.)

2. My employer wants me to remove an offensive sticker from my truck

I recently broke up with my girlfriend and to retaliate, I put a sticker across the front windshield of my truck that says “Lift it! Fat girls can’t jump.” (My truck is raised or “lifted” really high. You have to climb up to get in. The sticker makes fun of fat girls not able to get in my truck.) It was funny to me and my friends.

I drive the truck to work every day, and about the end of the first week, my manager came and asked me about it. I explained and he asked if I would take it off since some people had told him they found it offensive and embarrassing. I said I would park at the end of the lot and face it away from building. He came back next day and asked again if I would remove it. I said I would cover it up when coming on the property. The next week, HR approached me and reminded me of the anti-harassment policy. I am holding my ground on offering to cover it up but not removing it. I spent $150! I am waiting on what will be decided but what do you think I can expect?

I think you can expect to be seen as an ass, since you’re acting like one. And yes, acting like an ass is a fireable offense. It’s also one that destroys your reputation and harms your ability to get promotions, raises, and references. Is this really the hill you want to die on?

3. I can’t attend a required training because a medical condition prevents me from traveling

As part of my 2012-2013 goals I am to receive technical training. Getting this technical training is not only beneficial to my company as it gets them discounts and having trained people on staff is required for support of the product, but is beneficial to me as it would guarantee me a job at many other organizations. My manager is really pushing this training because it needs to be scheduled, approved, paid for, etc. all in advance.

My problem is that this software company only has training for my certification track at their location. It is quite far away from where I live and the training is about 2 weeks long. I have a medical condition that prevents me from traveling and staying away for extended periods of time. I have not told my management of this problem because doing so could directly affect my employment (even though it is not supposed to). I work in an environment where anything less than extremely professional is not acceptable.

I have tried to get the company to train me online. They do it for many of their other training classes. The people that I have interacted with are unwavering in their stance that this training is at their location only.

How can I address this issue with the company or my management that will show that I am not getting this training because I can not go there to get it… not because I don’t want to? I feel like emailing up the food chain at the company to see if I can get something accomplished. I feel like they are discriminating against people who can not travel to their location. It is known that they have the capability to train remotely, they just wont.

The company that offers the training is under no obligation to offer the training in specific locations. They may have decided that it’s not profitable for them to offer this particular training in your location and that it’s not as effective to do online. Those decisions are their call.

Instead of focusing on them being unfair, talk to your employer about your situation. You don’t need to disclose the nature of your medical condition, but explaining that it limits your ability to travel is going to be key if you want them to understand why you can’t go to the training. Otherwise, you’ll look like you’re resisting traveling for no reason, and that’s much worse.

4. Can I bring up my concerns about a company in an interview?

I applied for a position with a company that, after doing a bit more research, I’m unsure about. The position is great in that it’s the direction I would like to see my career go in, the money is good, and the commute is very reasonable. I found the position via Indeed, so I looked around the website before applying and it seemed fine. After having a very successful phone screen, I researched the company a bit deeper for a second in-person interview and I’m having a few reservations.

There appears to be a lot of turnover within the company, they’ve gone through a handful of CEOs over the past few years, and there have supposedly been issues where the company hasn’t necessarily met the goals it sets out to do. The position itself is a great fit for me overall, but I’m really wary of this company’s future. As it is, I’ve been laid off twice within the past two years due to the economy and I’m very, very wary of possibly accepting a job with yet another unstable company. I do have a few other options in the pipeline (thankfully), but this position in particular is a really good fit. Is there a proper way to bring up my concerns in a second interview? I did get a good portion of my research from Glassdoor, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. Either way, there are enough red flags going up to make me question this position. Any advice on how to go about this?

Ask about it. Good employers know that good candidates have options and that as a result they’ll do some research and some critical thinking before accepting a position. It’s completely reasonable to say, “I read that you’ve had issues X and Y, and I wonder how the company is handling that internally, and what the future looks like in those areas.”

5. Company contacted my references before an interview, and now I haven’t heard anything

I am a recent grad and I applied to an entry-level job this July across the country. I’m willing to move — it’s almost expected in my field and I said as much in my cover letter. They asked for three references which I gladly gave. I got an email two weeks ago from my former supervisor with whom I have a great relationship — she told me they had called and she’d given me a glowing review. And then I heard absolutely nothing from them! They haven’t emailed or called about an interview or any type of follow-up. It’s now been two weeks since they called her and I’m starting to get somewhat anxious about it. Is it normal to call people’s references before contacting them or interviewing them?

The listing said they would contact appropriate candidates for the job, so I am worried that if I email them it might come across as pushy. Is there an appropriate way to follow up? I’m worried they’re put off by my being currently located on the east coast.

No, it’s not typical to contact people’s references before an interview. It’s a waste of time, since there’s no point in talking to references if it turns out in the interview that the candidate isn’t someone you want to hire. Most employers wait until afterwards. (Although academia might be an exception to this, as they often are.) However, two weeks in nothing when it comes to hiring. Many hiring processes take months.

However, since they’ve expressed interest by contacting your references, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to email them and ask about their timeline for next steps and reiterate your enthusiasm about moving to their location.

6. How to avoid over-sharing anxieties with people I manage

I’ve over-shared with my assistant in the past, and realized why telling the people who look to me for support that I’m troubled is unfair to them. I was manager of one department in an annual convention, so I worked with two assistants sporadically over several months, then intensively for a few day of the convention. I had untreated anxiety that was making me overexcited and causing me to second-guess a lot of things. Mid-convention, I confided some of my worries to one of my assistant managers. Once I’d done that, I was able to envision the new situation I may have created for her, so realized why it’s bad for supervisors to do this to their employees.

Despite my limited managing experience and the personal drama, I really like organizing and watching out for all the people above and below me. So if I get to manage people again, when and how is it ok to ask for critical feedback without causing them to worry about me? I don’t want to cross that line again.

You can certainly ask them for feedback without divulging your own anxieties. You just need to keep it about the work and not about your worries. For instance, you can ask what you could be doing differently/better as a manager and whether there are things they think could be done more effectively. You don’t want to ask them this all the time, of course, or it will come across as anxious — but periodically checking in on how things are going is good to do.

It’s also worth remembering that part of the role of a manager is to minimize drama, so you want to make sure that you’re not contributing to it or causing others to worry unnecessarily. Tell yourself that part of your role is to be a calming influence!

7. Applying for a position working with Irish students when I’m passionate about Ireland

I come to you today with a question for a cover letter I’m working on. Specifically, the position is an administrative coordinator that works with Irish students who come to the US on J-1 work visas. I’m attracted to this position for two reasons. First, it’s related to my field and career goals. The second draw is that I have a particular passion for Ireland. I’m of Irish descent, and in college, I took Irish Studies courses. I worked as a teaching assistant for one of these courses and also took a non-credit Irish language course. In my post-grad life, I play Gaelic football on a local team, where many of my teammates are Irish students here on J-1 visas.

Is there an appropriate way to frame this experience in a cover letter? I feel like it’s important to touch upon that I understand Irish culture, and already interact with students on these work visas, but I also don’t want it to come across as “fangirl-esque” (for lack of better term) and that I’m only interested interested in this position because it’s related to Ireland.

Yes, you should mention all of that! Don’t frame it in an “intense fan of Ireland” way, but rather as evidence that you have an interest in Ireland and an understanding of and appreciation for its culture.

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

1. My friend applied for the job I wanted and lied when I asked her about it

I am planning a cross-country move to a city a good friend lives in. My good friend just happens to be unemployed and looking for jobs. I scheduled an interview with this awesome opportunity and shared the details with my friend. (It was for an assistant to a family, and I shared the family’s name and occupations days before my interview.) When the interview came, they asked the name of my friend in town and I told them, and their response was “Oh, we just met her!”

I thought the interview went well. I texted my friend the details and that they thought they knew her, and she replied, “I interviewed with them today and I didn’t realize it was the same position you have been talking about until my interview,” which I don’t believe. I said, “Oh well, I just wish you would have told me.”

The job was offered to her and she accepted. Now I am debating moving to this city as she is my only good friend there. I’m totally in love with the town and have other interviews set up. I feel conflicted/concerned as my friend and I would be roommates and she would be helping me out a lot since I’d be new to the town. How should I proceed? How would you feel? I don’t mind she applied at all, but going behind my back applying is the issue.

I can’t tell you whether you should move or not, or whether you should live with her if you do … but if you’re confident that she lied to you, this is a friend with major integrity issues who’s willing to lie to you if she thinks it’s to her advantage. Proceed with caution, at least.

(I can tell you though that if you’re sold on moving to that town for reasons that have nothing to do with your friend, there’s nothing to stop you from following through with your plan and simply not living with her. Years ago, during my extreme youth, I was supposed to move to Portland with a friend, who ended up getting a great job offer in another city at the last minute. I went ahead and moved anyway — on my own, to a city where I knew no one — and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. So your plans don’t have to be linked to her, whatever you decide.)

2. What’s up with California labor law?

I always notice you making exceptions for the state of California when you talk about labor laws on your blog. Really interested in this but I don’t understand it at all. Is there any way you could explain the differences for outsiders to the US, and why they exist?

The way it works in the U.S., different states can set their own laws on all types of topics, including employment. They can’t pass laws that lessen any of the protections offered at the federal level, but they can pass laws that offer more protection. So you’ll sometimes see states have more employee protections than what is offered federally. California, in particular, does this quite a bit.

3. Mentioning my company’s financial issues in a cover letter

Currently, I’m an in-house attorney at a small subsidiary office of a large, multi-national corporation. We’re not doing very well business-wise, and our CEO (my direct manager) is talking paycuts for managers. I’m not paid very much, and I really can’t afford a paycut, so I’ve been looking for other jobs.

My title and responsibilities usually belong to someone with many more years of experience than I have (as in, I have 2 years, others usually have 7-9 with my title), but I’ve been able to overcome the steep learning curve and be pretty successful.

My niche industry is quite small and gossipy, and so I haven’t mentioned my company’s financial woes in my cover letter as reason for why I would want to leave my otherwise awesome-sounding job and company that apparently thinks I’m great. Instead, I’ve focused on how I’d like to do more client advocacy than what my position allows (and would ever allow) and move into a law firm setting. However, they seem like softball reasons to leave compared with “I may not get paid in Q4” (and there are other, managerial and political, reasons why I’ve been looking, but I’m making money the reason to not burn bridges). On the other hand, I’m not sure about the etiquette of saying “I’m looking for a different job because we can’t make payroll,” in a cover letter. I’m also applying for positions that don’t have anything to do with my industry, so I could mention the financial woes for those people.

Is it improper to mention the company’s financial issues in a cover letter as the reason why I’m looking away from an otherwise awesome-sounding job? Or can I come out and say that I’m looking for other jobs because we’re experiencing some major financial difficulty?

I actually don’t think you need to get into it in your cover letter at all. Someone may wonder why you’re thinking of leaving your awesome-sounding job, but if they want to know, they’ll just ask you in the initial interview — not reject you over it without talking to you. And once you’re talking in person (or over the phone), if you’re not comfortable revealing that your company is having financial issues, I think your other reasons (wanting to do more client advocacy work and in a different setting) are perfectly compelling.

4. What do interviewers mean when they ask about leadership?

What does “leadership” mean to employers? What are they looking for when they ask applicants to “describe one thing that demonstrates your leadership skills” or describe what leadership means?

I always get thrown by these questions, perhaps because it is not clear to me how “leadership” is different from “being a good employee.” My current understanding of workplace leadership comes down to:
– treating everyone they way you would like to be treated (with kindness, respect, and the benefit of the doubt),
– doing what you say you are going to do (aka being responsible in all matters),
– being consummately hard working and dedicated.

Is the point for employers to learn how the applicant defines leadership? Any guidance you have in this area would be greatly appreciated!

Leadership is a bit different than just being a good employee, because it’s about how you lead a group, not just about your own work habits. It’s about how you lead a group to get something done — so things like communicating a vision, motivating people, influencing people, ensuring your team performs effectively, and creating change.

However, it’s so broad a concept that interviewers who ask the questions you talked about are pretty much setting candidates up for confusion, just like you’re experiencing. Instead, they should ask about the specific trait they’re really interested in, like “tell me about a time when you had to motivate a group of people” or “tell me about a time when you brought a group to an agreement when there had previously been differences.”

5. Employer won’t offer me an alternate interview date

I recently applied for a job that I want so badly it hurts! I got shortlisted for an interview and was really pleased! However, the interview is on the day the I’m flying to my brother’s wedding on Italy, and I wouldn’t be able to do both. I asked to reschedule but was told they could only do interviews that day and I would be considered if the post reopened.

I’m so upset! I even asked if they could swap my time with another candidate so maybe I could make the interview and my plane. I have been told that under employment law, they have to offer an alternative date. Is this true?

No, that is not true. They can offer interviews only for 90 minutes in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve if they want to.

Go to your brother’s wedding and don’t agonize over this — first, because if they truly thought you were the best candidate, they’d probably try to be more flexible with you (at least letting you swap your time with another candidate, as you requested), and second, because at this stage you know next to nothing about what this job is really like and your “wanting it so badly it hurts” is based on what you imagine, not anything you know for sure. (Or even can know for sure at this stage — read this.)

6. Job-hunting as a military spouse who has to move all the time

I am a military spouse who has lived in 5 different states in a 6-year time frame. I was a chemistry professor before we started the major moves more recently. As this wasn’t a very portable job, I did a career change to a drug/alcohol counselor position by going back to school for more education. Now I run into a situation where my resume looks like a written “Where’s Waldo” game. I have job positions in different fields, in different parts of the country, for months at a time. Every one of my past managers has loved me working for them, and they are happy to provide references, but I feel I don’t get a lot of response from my resume because of my “shoddy” employment history.

I don’t like to start a conversation off with strangers that I am a military spouse because I know they are legally not suppose to ask this at interviews. I am not sure how to overcome this hurdle. I would love to have a stable career, but stability is not a possibility with my husband’s career! I have applied for lower level positions and I get the “you are too qualified for this position” speech because of my multiple advanced degrees. So I feel I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t know how to approach future employers with this situation.

You should explain that you’re a military spouse. Otherwise, you’ll just appear to be a job hopper who can’t or won’t keep a job for more than a few months. That looks much, much worse than simply explaining that you’ve moved so much because your husband is in the military. (And by the way, it’s not illegal for them to ask about that — and there’s certainly nothing wrong with you explaining it yourself.)

If you’re truly moving every few months, it’s true that it will be very hard to get many employers to invest in training you, only to have you leave. In that case, you’d want to look at other types of employment, like temping and contract jobs. Either way, though, this is one of the few scenarios where it would be worth having letters of recommendation from previous employers to offer; seeing previous managers rave about you and how it was worth having you even for only a short time will be useful here, because it will address some of employers fears right up-front, whereas otherwise it will be too easy for them to reject you without even talking with you.

7. How do I network with a new contact?

I am a graduate student who recently attended a convention for my field of study. While presenting a poster for my research team, I met a professional whose background and research interests are similar to mine. He gave me his contact information and seemed sincere in wanting me to keep in touch. Although I enjoy what I do and felt enthusiastic about making this contact, situations like this fill me with anxiety as I am pretty introverted and I don’t know how to network.

I thought it would be a good idea to send him an email with my info and thank him for his interest as an icebreaker. Beyond that, I’m kind of at a loss.

Go a little bit beyond just sending him your information. Tell him how glad you were to meet him and why — explain what it is about his background and interests that are similar to your own and why you’re excited about that. Ask if he’d mind if you bounce a question or two off of him occasionally — and then do that. Think of what you might ask a mentor type; that’s the kind of advice you want to ask him for. (But be alert to signs from him about how much he’s willing to give — don’t overwhelm him with a bunch of questions all at once, unless he clearly welcomes it. Also, read this.)