Ask a Manager

It’s terse answer Thursday — seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go…

1. Accepting a job at a lower salary with the promise of a raise later

A networking contact recently put me in touch with a past coworker of his who is starting up his own firm. I met with the owner recently and, to my surprise, he asked me to join him as his first employee. He was trying to do everything himself and was quickly finding that he was overwhelmed. The position would be instrumental in the successful initial growth of the firm and could easily progress to a senior level position as the firm grows.

During our initial meeting, however, the owner advised that he knows he cannot pay me what I’m worth. I took that as a compliment! He asked if I was willing to take a chance with his company with a smaller initial salary in exchange for increased compensation down the road. I replied that I thought that was reasonable, so as long as we could revisit my salary as the organization and my level of responsibility increased.

I know your normal advice is to wait at least 1 year after starting a new job to ask for a raise, with which I agree. In a case like this, however, what is the best way to approach him in 3, 6, 9, or 12 months about a salary increase? If all goes as planned, the company’s revenue (read: his ability to afford what I’m worth) and my responsibilities will have greatly increased over this time.

Actually, agree on it with him now and you won’t need to worry about when to approach him down the road. Too many people make informal agreements like this that they fully flesh out and make formal, and then are taken aback when the raise doesn’t materialize when they ask for it later. If this guy truly means that he’ll increase your salary once conditions X, Y, and Z are met, then he should be willing to put it writing (whether those factors are a certain number of months passing, your successfully achieving specific goals or milestones, the company reaching a certain revenue point, or something else). If he won’t put this in writing, then only take the job if you’re willing to have the future increase be a “maybe,” not a definite.

2. My boss emailed everyone the reason for my time off

I requested vacation time off from the company I work for. I am doing a internship for school because I will be graduating with my associates in Health Information Technology and it is required that I do a short internship before I can graduate. The thing is, no one at my current job knows I am in school; I haven’t told anyone.

I spoke with my boss about the days I needed off and just told her I am taking family vacation time. She said okay and that she would approve my time. A couple of hours later, I saw a email pop up that was emailed to the entire office — all my coworkers and other managers — with the dates I was going to be gone on vacation and why. My name and vacation days was in bold print on the subject line. I was furious. All of my coworkers take vacation time, I in the two years I have been working with this company, I have never seen a mass email go out about their personal time they are taking off. I feel like my privacy was stripped away and don’t understand why this was done. I feel my boss could have just told the employees in person who needed to know of my absence. I also feel like this gives my coworkers a invitation to ask me about my personal time. Is there anything I could do about this situation?

I have no idea why your boss sent this email out when she doesn’t for other people’s time off, but if you’re in a role where people need to know when you’ll be out, that’s the obvious explanation. I’m sure she didn’t think she was violating your privacy by noting it was a “family vacation”; it’s not like she wrote it was for gynecological surgery or a custody hearing. I would let this go.

3. Can I use my blog to fill a gap on my resume?

I’ve recently been looking for an entry-level career in the not-for-profit sector in communications and marketing. All my experience in this area is through various internships with some fairly well-known international NGOs. My last internship ended in December, and since then I have been unable to find any work.

To fill my time, I’ve created a website and blog where I discuss development issues and topics related to the sector I want to work in. I write a post a week and with researching, writing, posting, etc., it requires about the same time as a part-time job. My question is, can I put this on my resume since it’s not an “official” role? Or if it’s relevant to the jobs I apply for, should I just mention it in passing in my cover letter? Right now, I’m worried about the 5-month gap on my resume and don’t want potential employers to think I have been unproductive in that time.

You can definitely put it on your resume. What I’m torn on, though, is where it should go. Normally you’d put it under an “additional activities” or “community involvement” section or something like that. But of course, that’s not really what you want — you want it to put it at the top of your job history to fill the 5-month gap since your last job. It’s a bit of a stretch (one post a week doesn’t really make it substantial enough to really qualify), but no one is going to have you arrested for putting it there.

4. Interviewing when the company name hasn’t been revealed

I have an interview set up at a recruitment agency next week. The job posting did not specify the exact company I would be working for (just stated, “a successful chocolate teapot manufacturer in ____town”). I’m pretty confident that I know which company is meant, as it is quite obvious if you are active in the field. How would you handle this at the interview? Is it ok to ask which company they are representing? Would you offer up your guess? Do they expect you to just “know”? Or will they only relay this information to finalists?

Also, for future reference: Would you ever include references to an unnamed company in the cover letter? (In case you are certain you identified them and it was relevant to your application, e.g. because you worked with them before.)

It’s fine to ask at the interview. If they say they’re not able to reveal the company at this stage, don’t start offering up guesses; they’ve just said they’re not going to tell you. You are not typically expected to just “know,” however. If not knowing is an issue for you (if, for instance, you know you wouldn’t work at Company X and it sounds like this might be Company X), it’s fine to decline to move forward after a certain point unless they tell you the company.

As for including references to an unnamed company in your cover letter, I’d only do it if you were 110% sure you were right; otherwise, you could harm your candidacy by appearing certain about something that was in fact a mistake.

5. Should I update my resume when applying for an internal position?

My boss is leaving a smallish (20-30 people) organization. I plan on applying for her position, which isn’t a secret. The person doing the hiring is familiar with me and my work, but doesn’t know all that I have accomplished since I have joined the organization (about a year ago).

So when I apply internally, do I update my resume to show the year I have worked for my current company? Or do I just show everywhere else I have worked previously?

Yes, update your resume. Treat it just like you’d treat applying for an external position, just less formal.

6. Why wasn’t I notified about this opening when I was on leave?

I have been off of work for a maternity leave, followed up by a medical leave, but I will be returning in the next week. I am feeling burned by my team, coworkers at the office (aka friends), and management that I was not notified of a posting for a position that I was doing before but without the formal title. I am feeling a lot of resentment about this and do not want to be feeling this anger when I return to my workplace. My manager, who is currently on a medical leave, also shared with me that it took 2-3 workers to manage my caseload when I left. She acknowledged my level of experience as being the contributing factor for why I was able to manage the workload at the time. Why was I not notified about this posting then?

Maybe because you were on leave and people are often told not to contact anyone who’s out on medical leave for anything. Or maybe because your manager is the logical person to have alerted you to the opening but she’s out on leave herself. Or who knows — it could be anything. But getting angry about it isn’t going to be particularly productive. For all you know, they’re hoping you’ll apply when you come back. Or maybe not — but regardless, express your interest in the position and ask what you’d need to do to be considered.

7. Does this mean I got the job?

I interviewed with someone for a position at a clothing retail store. The interview went really well. I was then emailed back for another interview. I attended the interview. 5 days later, the manager who interviewed me the second time sent me an email regarding what my availability is and if I was looking for part-time or full-time. Do you think that means I got the job?

The only thing that means that you got the job is a formal job offer, so no. What this means is that — at least at the time that she sent you the email — she was still considering you as a candidate.

It’s wee answer Wednesday — seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go…

1. Company gave new employees invasive “personality test”

Recently we hired some new employees at my office. Some of these employees were placed under my supervision, and while I was talking to them, they told me that our HR manager had them take a personality test. I do work with a lot of psychiatrists and psychologists, so we all like to observe people, but I do not feel this personality quiz was okay. None of the questions that were asked pertained to our jobs. For example, “do you prefer sex with a man or a woman?” “Do you support same sex marriage?” “Are you sexually active?” “Do you support abortion?” And many, many more.

I am currently studying law, and from my understanding, these questions are not allowed in the workplace. Are these allowed? The way I see it is, if someone gets fired after this, then they can claim that based on those questions, we discriminated and therefore, that person was let go. But, again, I think a little differently then the rest.

It’s not illegal to ask questions like that in the workplace, although it would be illegal to discriminate based on any answers that related to people’s race, religion, sex, national origin, or other protected class. However, despite being legal, it’s incredibly stupid and irrelevant to the work, and I can’t imagine why your workplace — and HR, no less — thinks it was in any way appropriate. Why don’t you go talk to HR, express your strong opposition to employees being asked such invasive and irrelevant questions, and find out why the hell they’re doing it?

2. Do I have to tell my upcoming new job that my old job just laid me off?

I just accepted a new job. Before I could give my notice to my old job, I got restructured along with half of my department. So not only do I get severance, but I get a vacation before I start my new job.

Do you think I should tell my new employer? I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks off to relax before I start, so I don’t really want to move my start date up and I don’t want them to misread the layoff and use it as an excuse to back out of my hire. Is it okay to just not mention it?

Sure, it’s fine not to mention it. You were employed when you interviewed and didn’t know you were going to be laid off, so you didn’t misrepresent anything, and it’s not especially relevant to them now. Congratulations on the good timing!

3. Can I decline to serve as a reference for my coworker?

I’ve held my current job for 12 years. An acquaintance is applying to a position at my workplace and has asked if he can use me as an employee referral.

The first issue is that I have no way of knowing whether he’s in any way qualified or experienced in the position for which he’s applying, but I realize that that’s our hiring manager’s problem. The second issue is that he has a very offputting mannerism. Specifically, he holds a very intense eye contact with whoever he’s speaking to, whether he’s speaking or listening to the other person speak. It’s well beyond the social norms of ordinary conversational eye-contact timing.

Based on almost 20 years of acquaintance with him, I know it’s not a cultural difference and I’m pretty sure it’s not indicative of any kind of vision problem. And he’s not noticeably socially inept or inappropriate in any other way. He’s a little formal and reserved, but certainly completely functional in social and professional situations. However, this one mannerism has caused many people of our mutual acquaintance to visibly and obviously avoid him. The job for which he’s applying is as a college admissions recruiter, in which his primary role would be to meet with potential students and their parents and attract them to our college.

Given that I have no way to comment on his qualification for the job on a professional basis, and that the only personal recommendation I could give him could not be given in good faith if I didn’t mention this problem, am I justified in telling him politely that I’m not able to serve as an employee referral? I genuinely think he’d be disastrous in this job.

Sure. You can always decline to serve as a reference for anyone if you don’t think you can recommend them in good faith, and it’s kinder to tell them so that they can find someone else, rather than to let them offer your name and them doom them with a lukewarm or worse reference. In this case, you have an easy out — you can tell him that you don’t feel you know his work well enough to provide a useful reference.

But it would be a huge service to him if someone would give him some feedback about the eye contact thing. Maybe you could use this as impetus to speak to his manager and suggest she coach him on it if you don’t feel it’s your place to do it (which sounds likely)?

4. Sleeveless tops in the workplace

I work in a fairly casual office. I recently bought a slew of cap-sleeve and sleeveless dresses for the summer, but realized I might not be able to wear them to my office. My colleagues who are my peers (early 20-ish women) occasionally wear sleeveless tops with dress pants to the office. What are the rules for sleeveless tops and dresses for women in the workforce? I’m not asking about tank tops, but arms showing. Any tips?

It varies by office, of course, but generally speaking, avoid visible armpits in the office — which means no sleeveless tops without something over them. Some cap sleeves are fine, but I’d still invoke the no visible armpit rule — so check what happens when you raise your arms over your head while wearing those shirts; if your armpit stays covered, you’re probably fine. If it doesn’t, you are In Violation and must wear something on top of it.

5. Should my company send my sick coworker home?

If my coworker comes in sick and is contagious with what she claims is strep throat, does the HR department have an obligation to the rest of the employees to send her home until she has a doctor’s note to return? My coworker is coughing and wheezing and clearing her throat and blowing her nose and sneezing all over the place. She then tells the story of how she got sick from her niece who went to the emergency room with strep throat the day before. She has told the story more than once in the last two days and goes on to tell everyone that she just can’t miss work.

I asked my HR manager, and he said there is nothing he can do to make her go home. I was under the impression that if a person is contagious, they most certainly can be asked to go home until they are cleared by a doctor. They did that to me when they thought my cough sounded like whooping cough 2 years ago. If he can’t force her to get a doctor’s clearance, what are my rights because they did force me to stay out 3 days waiting for lab work and there was absolutely nothing wrong with me except a severe cold. I lost 3 days pay.

Your company doesn’t have a legal obligation to send contagious workers home, but smart companies will — because it’s not fair or good business to have other people infected. Still, though, most companies leave it to employees’ discretion whether they come in or not, which it sounds like yours is doing. Why not ask her yourself not to come in when she’s likely contagious? Social pressure can sometimes do a lot in these situations.

As for why they treated you differently when you had suspected whooping cough two years ago, I have no idea. Maybe it was a different HR person, maybe there was a different manager involved, or maybe you seemed significantly sicker than she did. You’re not going to get anywhere by arguing about that though; you’re better off approaching it from a standpoint of being concerned for people’s health now.

6. Asking to interview by phone for a job overseas

I recently applied for my dream job. They are getting back to us in a day or two about who will be selected for interviews, and the interview dates will be scheduled for a week from today. The problem is that the job is in the UK, and a plane ticket this close to the interview date is close to $2200. I can’t afford this right now. Do I have any options? Can I ask for a phone interview? I don’t want to let this job go.

If you’re asked to interview, you can certainly explain the situation and ask if they’d consider a phone or Skype interview for this stage, but be aware that a lot of companies choose not to deal with non-local applicants (let alone foreign applicants) in part because they don’t want to deal with this type of inconvenience. So while it’s entirely reasonable to ask, be prepared for them not to offer you many options — or to talk with you by phone now but require you to fly out if you advance further in their process.

7. Are meal breaks included in my total time worked?

I am a salaried exempt employee in New York state. I am required to work 45 hours a week. Can my employer subtract the time I take for a meal period from my total, or since I am salaried, is the meal period time included in the total? So for example, I work a 9-hour day with a half hour lunch. Is this considered a nine-hour day or an eight and a half hour day?

It’s up to your employer how they want to calculate that. As an exempt employee, you’re not required to be paid overtime, and so how your company handles your hours is based solely on their internal policies, not any law. (Caveat: I’m answering generally for most states; I haven’t looked into whether New York has some unusual law on this.)

It’s tiny answer Tuesday — seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go…

1. When should I mention IBS to a job interviewer?

When is the best time to mention that I have a sometimes problematic health issue? For most all of my life, I have suffered from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Most of the time it has not been a major issue, but when I am under stress (like a new job) it is sometimes worse. And if it is flaring up, it is usually in the morning.

I am not a person that likes to be late anywhere or anytime, so for the most part, I have just tried to work afternoons part-time. But my husband is about to be laid off and I am looking at a new 8-5 job. I am on medication and try to manage it the best I can, but sometimes I just have “bathroom days.” If I am working a job where I am mobile, it is not so noticeable to my employer, but if I am at a reception desk, sometimes it can be a problem.

When is the best time to mention this, if at all? I have an interview on Thursday for a good full-time receptionist position with an accounting firm. The less stress the better, but worrying about this IBS causes stress in and of itself.

Wait to mention it until you have an offer, because you don’t want it to be a reason that you don’t get the offer at all. At that point, you can discuss whether they’re able to provide reasonable accommodation. But keep in mind that reasonable accommodation might not be possible with a receptionist position, where an essential duty of the job is being at the desk the vast majority of the time. If you know that you can’t reliably commit to that, it might make sense to avoid receptionist positions (just like you’d need to avoid, say, trucker positions if you couldn’t always drive reliably).

2. Is this an exception to the “don’t take a counteroffer” rule?

I know and agree with your opinion on accepting counteroffers (don’t do it), but I’m wondering if I may be headed towards a situation that may be an exception to the rule, or if I’m deluding myself.

There is an opportunity at my current employer that would be the logical next step in my career. I have told the person in charge of this hiring decision that I am very interested, and asked what I can do to position myself for a role like the one that is available. I was encouraged to apply, but told that it may be “a stretch” for me at this time. I am not unhappy at my job, and would like to have a long career here, assuming that career continues to progress.

I was recently contacted about a recruiter about a job that would be equivalent to the open position at my current company, and that I seem to be well positioned for in a number of ways. It is still very early in the exploration phase of this opportunity, but for the sake of argument, let’s say things go very well and I find myself with an offer. My instinct would be to go to the decision maker for the position at my current employer and let them know the situation — that I was approached about a job out of the blue, and that I had an offer and it represents a good move onto the next stage of my career. I would explain that, given my ambitions, I would have a hard time turning down this type of offer, but I’d prefer not to leave.

Would this be the wrong approach, given that counteroffers are rarely a good idea? And I were to receive a counteroffer in the above scenario, would it be a bad idea to take it?

Unless you’re at a very small company, this isn’t quite a counteroffer. The hiring manager you’d be approaching doesn’t have the same incentive to keep you as your current manager; in fact, your current manager would be losing you in this deal. Counteroffers are really about retaining an employee you don’t want to lose, but in this case the manager you’d be approaching wouldn’t be faced with whether to keep or lose you; she’d be faced with whether to hire you over other candidates who it sounds like she thinks are more qualified. The fact that you’ve been offered a job somewhere else isn’t likely to suddenly make her think you’re more qualified than she thought you were a few days ago (and if it does, you’d need to seriously question her judgment — which would bring you right back to it not being a good idea to take such an offer).

3. How can I convince my boss to let me work out my notice period?

I work in an HR-related role at a for-profit career college. In the past year, since my “new” president started with us, there has been a ton of turnover, both voluntary and involuntary. I’ve been heavily involved in each incident, and with the exception of one situation very early on, he has never allowed anyone to work out their notice. He indicated that we should discuss this with him if one of our employees quits, but in 99.99% of cases, he says there’s no reason to allow them to work their notice. I actually don’t disagree, since most of the staff that quits absolutely hates him, and allowing them to hang around only riles up the employees still stuck here.

I’ve been with the company for over six years, which is longer than all but two other employees. There are many functions I take care of on a daily basis that no one else knows how to do. We do have a corporate office that could swoop in to train a replacement, but I know it will be a huge burden on my employees if I were to disappear. I am expecting a job offer soon, and I’m wondering if you have any advice about how I can convince him I belong in the 0.01% of people who should be allowed to work their notice. It’s important to me to train those who will be left with my work. I have been tying up loose ends as much as possible over the weeks I’ve been interviewing, and I’ve prepared as many instruction manuals as possible, but if I actually start training people on some of my functions before I leave, my boss will catch wind and fire me. I’ve had an overall wonderful experience at this company, and I want it to end gracefully, not with a disappearing act.

You can’t control whether he lets you work out your notice period or not, and since it sounds like he’s highly likely not to let you, I would start working from the assumption that he won’t. When you resign, you can certainly tell him that you’ve put together a transition plan for training people in your functions before you leave, but it’s up to him whether or not he accepts that offer. And if he doesn’t, that’s really not your responsibility to handle — yes, it will be a burden on your coworkers, but that’s not your fault and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your coworkers will survive, just as others have.

That said, if he doesn’t let you work out your notice period, that doesn’t mean you have to end your work there with a disappearing act. There’s no reason you can’t say goodbye to people you’ve worked with and let them know where you’re going next, even if you have to do that from home after you’re gone.

4. Should I mention tuition benefits in my cover letter?

I am applying for a position at a university, and am doing so for three reasons — first, I love the school and the environment; second, the job sounds like a great fit and I am excited about the position; and third, I am applying to one of their advanced degree programs. One of the perks of working at a university is that you get tuition remission, so I could essentially get paid to earn a degree. Given that fact, I’ve been debating whether or not to mention in my cover letter that I plan to pursue a degree at the institution. On the one hand, I think it shows that I have an interest in staying for a while and am committed to the field (the degree and position are related), but on the other I worry that they might think that I am only applying for the benefit. I am completely qualified for the position, but I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot. I also worry about not mentioning it, and then having trouble getting the okay to take classes down the road. What do you suggest?

I think it’s fine to mention it in passing, but I wouldn’t mention it as one of your reasons for being interested in the job, as they want to hire people who are enthusiastic about the work for its own sake, not because of a tuition benefit.

5. Does it reflect badly on me that I’ve had five managers in the same job?

I have been at my present job for five and half years. This was my first full-time job after I graduated from college, and there have been more downs than up since I have been here, but I have still stuck around. Recently, my supervisor quit after being in the position for five months. So now I am about to be on my fifth immediate supervisor. When I am applying for other positions, does this reflect badly on me as an employee?

It’s very unlikely that prospective employers will know how many managers you’ve had in this position. It’s pretty rare for an interviewer to even think to ask that, so it wouldn’t come up unless you mention it yourself.

6. Interviewing for a job where there’s been a harassment claim

I recently interviewed for a job assisting a department head at an Ivy League school. I have not met the person I would be assisting yet, but did talk to the person who would be my direct manager, who seemed very nice and down to earth. The interview seemed to go extremely well. If I get a second interview, it will be with the department head.

I googled the department head after my interview and noticed that he had a sexual harassment claim against him a few years ago that was settled out of court. It was a very high profile and sensational case. What he was accused of was really disgusting, and allegedly went on for years.

Obviously, this is a really big concern for me in considering this position (I am female, and the person who claimed harassment is also female). I did ask the manager in my follow-up email what it was like to work for the department head, and whether there were any challenges involved. I actually just forgot to ask this in the interview and hadn’t looked into his past yet. I am hoping that he will address the sexual harassment issue if he replies, but I don’t know that he will.

I’m sort of stumped about what to do, and whether it’s appropriate to just ask the department head and/or the manager about it in the interview, or after I’ve received an offer. I don’t even know what to ask though! It is possible that the claim was false but there’s no way to know since it didn’t go to court. I would very much like to work for this university and I could always transfer if working for this guy is intolerable, but I would not like to work in the kind of environment that the claim describes even for a short time.

Well, first, asking about it in an email isn’t likely to get you useful information. People don’t generally talk about this sort of thing in writing; this is something you want to ask about face to face if you want an honest answer.

By the way, it’s worth considering that someone who has been through a high-profile legal battle might be highly unlikely to behave inappropriately again, since it’s extremely unlikely that they’d keep their job after a second credible allegation. (That’s not a guarantee, of course, but you should factor it into your thinking — this is someone who’s now under scrutiny from his employer and the public and who has probably been seriously reprimanded.) That’s not to say that you shouldn’t ask about it and really do some due diligence about the culture there; you should — but factor this in too.

7. Do I really have to keep my job search hidden from my manager?

I know it might be ill advised to tell my manager that I’m looking for a job in general, but I’m a recent college grad. Would it still be a bad idea to tell them and ask for their reference? I just figured they have to know I’m leaving a minimum wage job for something that could actually pay down my student loans. Am I being paranoid or should I not tell my managers about my job search?

I don’t know. What’s their track record of dealing with other people who mention they’re looking for another position? If they’ve shown that they handle it well, then it’s reasonable to assume they’ll handle it well with you too. But if you don’t know, then assume that you should follow the typical convention of not openly seeking to leave unless you have some sort of strong indication that it won’t jeopardize your job. (If you’re in retail or food service rather than an office job, it might be entirely normal to be open about this — although you should still take your cues from how others have handled it.)