Ask a Manager

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

1. How soon is too soon to reject a candidate?

I have a question about hiring timelines. Sometimes we screen a candidate, and know pretty much immediately that the person won’t be a good fit. But I feel like it might be discouraging to be on the other end of such a situation (to interview and be declined the same day). Right now, I’ve been waiting a day or two before passing on a candidate in these cases. Does this seem like an acceptable timeline, or should I be sucking it up and letting a candidate know right away that they haven’t made the cut?

I usually wait a week, because I agree — many people find it insulting to be rejected so quickly after an interview. The reality is that very few candidates require days of consideration before you decide they’re a no — the people who make it to the end-stages often do, but early on in the process, you often know as soon as the phone interview is completed (or during it) that you won’t be moving the person forward. I’d love to be fully transparent and tell them that immediately, but too many people feel slighted or argue the decision or just feel dejected (like “I’m so awful that they didn’t even have to think about it”). So I wait a week, which seems like a perfectly reasonable amount of time.

(And I know that some people will object to hearing that and think I should tell them faster, but a week is not an unreasonable amount of time to hear back — and plenty faster than many places.)

2. CEO gave my personal cell phone number to clients without my permission

I’m a production coordination trainee at a small company. I’ve been working for them for a little over 1 year, and although I’m still a trainee under the contract, I have business card and email signature with “Project Manager” as the job title which I’m forced to use. Besides that, I also do sales related jobs such as communicating with some clients, submitting quotes/invoices and getting new jobs because actual account executive for those clients is also the company CEO and he can’t do everything.

The CEO gave my personal cell phone number to clients without my permission. He told me afterwards and said I should be prepared to receive calls anytime. His email to the client listed my cellphone number and noted that they should contact me directly on my cell especially after 5 pm (our office operates 8-5). I have direct number at my desk during the day, and I’m not allowed to work overtime without prior permission from my supervisors. Is it ok for a company / boss to provide an employee’s personal phone number without her permission? I have a feeling this is not illegal and only an ethical issue, but I’m wondering if there is anything I can do about it. Clients indeed call me on my cell and it is becoming a part of stress I feel from the job.

No, that’s not cool. Legal, but not cool. But if the CEO isn’t willing to budge, then the message here is that this is a job that requires you to be on call. You’ll have to decide if you want that job or not.

However, if you’re non-exempt (and it sounds like you are), you need to be paid for any time spent answering these calls. Start tracking your time, and since you’re supposed to get advance permission for overtime, ask the CEO how he wants to handle this since you can’t predict in advance when calls will come in.

3. Forgot to bring copies of my resume to an interview

I just had a second round interview today for a position I’m really interested in. I prepared all night for the interview, and in my rush to get out the door the morning of the interview, I forgot copies of my resume! When the interviewers asked if I had a copy, I said no but I could speak to it and then just proceeded to discuss my experience. Totally my fault, but is this a deal breaker? In my thank you email I sent immediately after, I attached my resume and said please reach out with questions. I’m so upset I may have lost this opportunity due to this silly mistake!

This irks the hell out of me — at them, not at you. It’s ridiculous that they came into an interview without copies of your resume, and that they didn’t offer to find your resume in their system when it became clear you didn’t have them either. Yes, bringing your resume is a nice thing to do, but it’s not your responsibility — it’s theirs to have it, and they should have reviewed it before the interview anyway. The only way this is okay is if they were pulled into the meeting at the last minute and given no time to prepare.

It shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, especially since you immediately emailed it to them afterwards.

4. Hiring contact has left the company

I’m a retail sales and merchandising professional who wanted to respond to a job posting on a website for a position with a design company. The job description lists an email address/specific contact to send a cover letter and resume to, which I promptly did. Being my investigative self, I looked up the contact on LinkedIn. Her LinkedIn profile states that she ended her tenure with this company in 2013 and lists her occupation as “Seeking Next Opportunity.” I would really like to work with this company, but does this mean my application just got sent to oblivion if she no longer works there? Should I contact her via LinkedIn to inquire whether or not I should try to contact someone else about the position?

It’s possibly that someone else is handling her email now that she’s gone, but you can certainly call the company’s main number and ask who is now handling the hiring for that position. I would not contact the former employee; she no longer works there and no doubt doesn’t want to field questions about their hiring process.

5. Where’s my raise?

I started a new job back in December. When negotiating salary, I was told (via email, so I still have it) that it is company policy to provide a small raise along with obtaining licensure. My licensure paperwork came through the end of January, and I have been waiting for something to happen — but nothing has. The HR manager told me that the paperwork I sent her was what she needed to make the raise happen, but now 4 pay periods have passed with no changes. I contacted payroll to ask how long those changes usually take, and she told me that she has heard nothing about it and that she would be able to make that change instantly. I’ve emailed and called HR, but she is not responding to me (it has been almost 2 weeks since my last email). Should I try to track her down in person? She is at a different location than me, which is why I haven’t done it yet, and I am so nervous about coming off as a crazy person. Then again, perhaps I am expecting this to move too fast.

Talk to your manager, not HR. Your manager can advocate to push this through more forcefully than you can.

6. Using “sic” on a resume

I had a friend look over my resume and he was confused with my use of the phrase/grammar shorthand “sic.” Two of the companies I have worked for used lowercase letters in their names as a stylistic choice, and my resume reads like this:

tiny teapots (sic); Anytown, USA; Chocolate Design Engineer
Teapots R Us; Anyville, USA; Chocolate Engineer

I had to look up how to credit a lowercase company, but I want it to be clear that I am not submitting a resume riddled with typos. Is (sic) a dated or confusing term? Is it acceptable in some fields but not others (for instance, academics might recognize it, but it stumped my architect friend)?

I’ve been surprised on a few occasions by people who didn’t know what it meant, so your better bet might be to simply go ahead and capitalize the name. You wouldn’t do that in an official publication like a newspaper article, but it’s not a terrible crime to do it on your resume. (Unless you’re applying for a copyediting job, and then maybe it would be. Fortunately you design chocolate teapots instead.)

7. Applying for a job when I want more than the posted salary

I’m interested in applying for a position but the top of the salary range is still $3,500 under what I would like. Should I still apply for the job? Is there any hope of maybe getting them to offer more outside of their top range? (If it helps, the highest salary offered is only $2,500 more than the lowest salary they offer.)

Sure, you can try negotiating for more. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get it, but it’s not crazy to try. It would be if what you wanted was significantly above their posted range, but $3,500 isn’t that much.

But speaking of that, $3,500 a year breaks down to about $218/month after taxes. It’s not going to make a huge difference in your paycheck.

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

1. Do I have to provide my employer with a copy of the reference I gave a former coworker?

My ex-coworker is in the process of looking for a new job, and she put my name as a reference without asking me. However, unaware that she told the hiring company that I was her supervisor, which I am not, I decided to help her and provide a reference. The company sent me a form in an email to fill out, which I did and emailed it back to them. I did not lie; I stated that I was her coworker, which was an option on the form.

The hiring company then called my company and spoke with her supervisor. My supervisor is now questioning me and asking me for a copy of the reference that I gave to the ex-coworker. Am I obligated to provide the reference I give for my ex-coworker to my supervisor? I don’t have an issue sharing the reference with my manager, but because I think it was a personal reference, I feel I am not obligated to share this information.

It wasn’t a personal reference, even if you look at it that way; it was a professional reference because you were a coworker, or at least I can pretty much guarantee you that the reference-checker sees it that way.

Your employer is entitled to want to see a copy of what you provided, since as long as you’re employed by your company, you’re representing them to some extent when you give references for their former employees. But even if that weren’t the case, taking a stand on this is unlikely to go well for you. At best, it will negatively impact your standing with your manager long-term, and at worst it could be insubordination. Do you really want to take on that battle for a former coworker who tried to get you to lie on her behalf?

2. Cutting hours for chronically absent employees

I have a manager who wants to make it a policy that if an employee is chronically absent, their hours will be reduced. Is this legal? Wouldn’t you have to give them warnings first?

There’s no law in the U.S. that requires that employees be warned about disciplinary action before it occurs — whether it’s cutting their hours or firing them. As long as the manager is talking about non-exempt employees (rather than exempt employees, who must be paid the same amount each week in which they do any work, regardless of how many hours they work), there’s no legal issue here. And it’s understandable that she might want to schedule them less often, if they’re not reliably at work.

3. Withdrew from a hiring process but now I want to get back in

I had an interview and was told I would hear from them by week’s end or beginning of the new week. I had a change of heart (or so I thought) over the weekend and considered staying with what I have been doing. I emailed the interviewer and told him this. He emailed me back and was very nice and wished me luck and thanked me for letting him know.

Now, I have had another change of heart and regret my emailing him. Is it acceptable to call him or email him to let him know I would still like to be considered?

No. You’ll look really flaky, and they won’t be able to trust that you won’t change your mind again. You really want to be sure before you withdraw from a hiring process, because it’s hard to reverse.

4. Listing multiple temp assignments on a resume

Since I was laid off back in 2009, I’ve worked many temp assignments. Now I’m having a hard time finding permanent work because it looks like I’ve bounced around a lot. How can I make my resume look more appealing so I can finally land a permanent position?

Rather than listing them all as separate jobs, list them all under one heading — Contract Work, Temp Work, or whatever is appropriate.

5. Changing fields when my resume doesn’t show my qualifications

I am looking to change the field I currently work in. I have the education in the field I want to pursue and extensive experience in the field I currently work in. I currently work as a paramedic and I want to move into health/preventive education and wellness programs. I have an MPH in this field. The problem is my resume doesn’t speak for my true qualifications for the new career move. I obviously don’t want to falsify my resume, but how do I make changes that won’t have a recruiter or HR department just toss it in the trash?

Why doesn’t your resume speak to your true qualifications? That’s the problem. It needs to.

If it can’t because these qualifications aren’t anything you can objectively demonstrate, well, you can’t really expect an hiring manager to pick you over someone who IS demonstrably qualified. You can try to write a really compelling cover letter, but it’s hard to change fields in this economy because employers don’t have incentive to pick less qualified candidates when they’re flooded with qualified ones.

That said, having an MPH and experience working with a paramedic sounds like a pretty good background for moving into health and wellness education. You might find it useful to talk to people in the field you want to move into about how you could play up the qualifications that you do bring.

6. What should you include on a reference list?

A library application is asking for my references up front. When I send the names, what else do I include besides name and contact information? I was going to separate them according to type, manager and professional colleague. Do I include job titles? All of the references are managers, but only one is my manager.

Names, contact info, job title when you worked together, and a short explanation of your relationship to them (one sentence or less). Unless the employer has specified otherwise, they’re going to be more interested in people who have managed you than people who haven’t.

7. Not allowed to keep employee handbook after leaving company

My company just rolled out a fancy employee policy book that looks like it cost some money to produce. Of course it has that section that requires you to sign and return a page that confirms you received it, read it, and will comply. But here’s the kicker. It states that when I leave the job, whether I quit or they fire me, I have to return all company property, “including this Staff Member Handbook. Otherwise the company may take action to recoup any replacement costs and/or seek the return of company property through appropriate legal recourse.” It’s got a lot of pages so photocopying would be kind of a pain.

In my opinion, I think that anything I sign my name to, I am entitled to a copy of. But my manager doesn’t see it that way. Is this legal? I’ve seen employers try to dissuade workers from copying employee personnel reviews as well.

Yes, it’s legal. While you should have a copy of any contract you sign, employee handbooks generally aren’t considered contracts (and most contain a disclaimer to that effect). Documents where you sign to acknowledge some fact (like the receipt of a handbook) aren’t obligational or contractual; they’re more akin to signing a sign-in sheet at a meeting, which you wouldn’t be entitled to a copy of either. And companies often do consider their handbooks to contain proprietary information about their operations.

But if you think there are particular policies that you might want to reference once you’re no longer employed there, photocopy those and keep them at home. Otherwise, this is not a battle worth waging.

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

1. Company offered me a job, then called me back to meet with the owner

I’ve been searching for a job and think I’ve finally found the one that I want and luckily it seems as though they want me too … I think. I have had a phone interview and an in-person interview over the past several weeks and then Friday they called and made a verbal offer. They said they would send over the written offer today or tomorrow (Monday/Tuesday). Today, the person with whom I’ve been interviewing asked me to come in for an interview with the owner. I was caught off guard but offered up my availability. I’m scheduled to meet the owner later this week. I haven’t received the written offer yet. Does that mean they’re re-thinking their decision? What should I expect from meeting with the owner, whom I met once briefly last week, and should I bring up the verbal offer with him?

They should have been clearer with you when they called to ask you to meet with the owner! Since they weren’t, ideally on that call you would have said, “Just to clarify, we’d talked on Friday about you sending over a formal offer. Is that on hold pending this meeting?” Since you that easy window to ask has closed, at this point I would just go to the next meeting and not ask about it (although it’s still your prerogative to call them now and ask) — but either way, assume that there’s no offer yet, since it sounds hazy enough that you shouldn’t rely on it until it’s formalized. Certainly in your meeting with the owner, if it doesn’t become clear what’s going on, before the meeting ends you can ask about it. I’d can say something like, “Can you tell me your timeline for next steps? When I spoke with Jane on Friday, she had offered me the position — but I’m less clear now where things stand in your process.”

2. Company removed my name from my work after I stopped working there

I wrote a bunch of blog posts for a digital marketing agency’s corporate blog while I worked there, and now that I have left, they took my name off of all of the content I contributed. I’m sure they legally own the content, but is it even worth reaching out to them to ask about it? I ask because I work in online marketing and writing relevant blog content is important for my portfolio. It’s probably not worth it, just bummed to have spent the time on writing posts (10+) and not getting any credit.

Sure, you can ask. They do indeed own the content since you produced it as part of your work for them (and in fact they could have chosen not to byline it with your name even while you were employed there), but there’s no harm in asking them. They can say no (and really, a company that removes your byline when you leave probably has some reason for doing it that isn’t going to be reversed by you asking them), but it’s certainly no inappropriate to say something like, “Hey, I’d love to show this work in my portfolio. Is there any way to return my byline to it?”

Keep in mind, though, that even if they say no, you can still include that work in your portfolio because you did indeed produce it.

3. Withdrawing from a hiring process when your interviewer knows your current manager

I just walked out of a second interview for a position and decided that the chemistry just isn’t right and that I want to withdraw my candidacy. Normally I would handle this in the post-meeting thank-you email so that they can quickly move on to other candidates (“thank you for taking the time to meet with me, but the position isn’t right for me at this time,” etc), but there’s a thing. I work fairly frequently with the hiring company in my current capacity. Hell, the hiring manager and my boss are on a first name basis. When I submitted my resume, I did write “resume submitted in confidence, please don’t contact current employer at this time,” and of course I only spoke good things about my current employer, but I’m a little nervous now that I know for sure I don’t want the position.

Should I email them now with my withdrawal or wait and hope they sensed what I did and reject me? If I email them my withdrawal, should I reiterate my need for discretion, or not mention it and hope they’ll be discreet (and bite my fingernails for a few weeks)? As background, the hiring company is a very small one, with no HR department, and my second interview was with the head of the company.

Well, if they’re going to be indiscreet, they’re probably going to do it whether you withdraw or not. So I would proceed however you normally would, and not worry that a withdrawal email is going to send them into a fit of pique that will cause them to tell your boss you applied. Just make sure your email is particularly gracious and doesn’t sound like the decision is because of some failing on their part. If you want to be extra safe, you could even say that your withdrawal is because you’ve decided to stay in your current role, thus mitigating any potential “Jane is job searching” gossip that might be passed on.

4. Boss interrupted me in a meeting

I’m in a job that demands the most of my resources. I’m a pretty good thinker, but I never planned to end up in business analysis, and I’m surrounded by people who have majored in this stuff and gobble it up. It’s challenging, to say the least — and just like people who speak English as a second language, I’m often out to sea when they’re all running ahead. I’m afraid I’m being seen as less competent than I’d like to be. Last week in a meeting, when a particularly tricky analysis was being discussed and it just, just didn’t make sense to me (and thinking of it over the weekend, it still doesn’t, and I’m wondering if maybe I’m right!), I started to voice a train of thought — paused — and right in the middle of it my normally polite boss just picked up and changed the subject. Also, the supervisor has said in meetings, “what Jane is trying to say…” and I’m not the go-to person for answers. But one-on-one I’m fine! It’s scary, and it’s frustrating.

How do you privately address a boss who interrupted you in a meeting and it’s still burning you up??

Hmmm. I think the issue here is less about talking to your boss about interrupting you and more about figuring out the bigger picture here. Is this the right role for you, and the right company? If you’re struggling and not following along in meetings, and your boss has stopped waiting for you to work through your thoughts and you feel less competent than others, these might be signals about overall fit. That means that being irked at your boss is a side issue; the bigger one is what all this stuff is telling you about your long-term success in this role.

If you have good rapport with your boss, it might be worth talking with her about what you’ve noticed and saying that you’re trying to figure out what feedback to take away from these instances. Don’t do this if you’re not prepared for hear fairly critical feedback, because you might … but on the other hand, you might hear that you’re doing fine overall and these thing are minor in the overall scheme of things, and that could give you more peace of mind.

5. Job postings on job boards that aren’t on the company’s own website

Sometimes I come across interesting job postings on external job sites (like Monster), but when I go to that company’s own careers webpage, the position is not listed. The external site prompts users to apply through their own system instead of pointing to the company’s website to apply. Is something like this worth pursuing? Or is something sketchy/unreliable about it? Any idea of what’s going on here?

It often means that the position is no longer open, but the external job sites haven’t removed it. However, sometimes it means that the company didn’t post the position on their own site and is relying solely on external sites to advertise it. This could be because they don’t post any jobs on their site (some places don’t) or because they’re not publicizing the site internally yet (because someone doesn’t know they’re leaving yet, for example). It’s hard to know from the outside which it is, unfortunately.

6. Addressing spiritual requirements in a cover letter

If a job description (for a religious higher ed institution) lists “Spiritual Requirements,” do I need to address these in my cover letter? I don’t think I’m exactly the religious person they are looking for (although I do think I’m a good fit for the actual position, which has nothing to do with religion), but would rather apply and see if I get to the interview stage before addressing it (where I would be honest about my personal religious views if they asked). Does this seem like a bad idea?

Nope. You’re under no obligation to address any particular requirement in your cover letter, unless they specifically tell you to.

7. Books for new managers

I start a new IT job in 2 weeks where I will be managing a small team of technical people. I’ve managed project teams and technical teams, but direct people management will be new to me. I’m so excited and really want to be a success. I’m engaging with an HR leadership coach. I also wanted to do some reading on my own. I’ve heard good things about “First Break All the Rules.” Are there others you or your readers would recommend?

Well, there’s mine — which, uh, is awesome. It’s geared toward nonprofit managers, but 95% of what’s in there applies to managers in every field, and I wish I could make it required reading.