Ask a Manager

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

1. Can I set up an incentive system for admin staff?

We have an incentive scheme in place for salespeople where they can earn an extra day off if they reach certain sales targets. I’d like to implement the same incentive for admin staff, but I’m not sure how it would work as so many of their duties aren’t directly tied to sales performance or specific measurable. Their work is extremely valuable but very much day-to-day tasks. Do you have any suggestions for objective incentive schemes for admin/support staff?

I don’t think those positions really lend itself to that. You could certainly set quarterly or annual goals for your admin staff around their job objectives (and should be doing that anyway, regardless of this) and give incentives to those who meet or exceed those objectives — but that’s generally what you’d be doing normally via raises. And admins’ objectives are generally about ensuring that logistics run smoothly, that other staff have what they need, that customers get a warm and helpful impression, etc. — i.e., things that are more qualitative than quantitative.

If you want to set up an incentive system for admin staff, you could do it by aggressively rewarding great performance (including with additional days off, like with your sales team) — but I don’t think you can easily tie it to numeric targets like you can with sales staff.

2. Can my employer make me work while I’m on jury duty?

I have been called for jury duty next week. I won’t know until the night before if I am called for 1 day, a week, longer, or not at all. My issue is that there is a ton of work to do. If I get called for a day, that isn’t too bad to make up. However, if I get put on a grand jury or some extended trial, can my job require that I work in the evening after sitting in courtroom all day?

No. Federal law requires that your employer treat jury duty the same way they’d treat a leave of absence.

3. My school has made it hard to verify my graduation

The university I graduated from, more than 25 years ago, computerized its records back to about 2 years after I graduated. So, if a potential employer calls to verify my degree, they’ll look me up on the computer and respond with “Who? We have no records of this person.” The only way to prove that I attended and graduated is to request a formal transcript, for a fee.

This happened to me for a former job, and I took in my diploma, copies of some report cards, and a signed transcript request form, after a short panic. (It also happened to my husband, who attended the same school, a few years before it happened to me.) Now, when I get to the point of a potential employer asking for references, I include the signed transcript request form, and mention that this is the way this university will respond. Is there a better way to handle this? Telling them that the university will disavow all knowledge of me unless they send $15 seems a bit dodgy, but it I think it’s worse if they call and it sounds like I made up my degree. This is a accredited state university, too!

Yes, that sounds like a perfectly good way to handle it. You and your husband should also both complain to your school that their registrar is denying any knowledge of you unless paid for a transcript, which is really Not Cool for a school to do. You’re alumni, and they want your donations. Tell them they won’t be getting any until this situation is fixed (and enlist any friends you have from school in doing the same).

4. Can I get unemployment if I resigned but my boss moved my ending date up?

I just told my boss (and owner of the company) that I will need to do an internship in the fall for my masters program (8 months from now) and that, if possible, I would like to work 4 10-hour days or go part-time to have one weekday available. He said absolutely not and gave me an ultimatum of school or work, and said that if I choose school I would have to leave in the fall. After a couple more meetings, I told him I choose school and understand he can’t have me work part-time, that it doesn’t fit the position. However, now he is saying, “I have someone for your spot and you have two months to leave.” Do I have a leg to stand on as far as unemployment is concerned. I am not resigning till the fall; in my eyes he is letting me go. How do you see it?

Technically, you resigned; you just disagreed over the date it would go into effect. However, for unemployment purposes, in most states you’ll be able to collect unemployment for the period of time between the date he’s telling you to leave and the date you’d originally planned to go.

5. Bringing a dog to work

About a month ago, I promised my parents that I would look after their dog while they go on vacation for a week in the spring. I asked my manager if it would be possible to bring the dog to work with me. She said probably not, but told me to ask our HR director as well to confirm. HR also said no, so I dropped it. However, since I initially asked, my parents found out that their dog has kidney failure. Because of this, we have to very closely monitor everything that he eats and drinks, and make sure that he’s consuming liquids frequently during the day. I’ve arranged for friends to look after the dog for most of the time that I will be at work, but there is one day that I can’t find anyone to look after him for me.

The dog is extremely well trained, and very calm and quiet, as my parents adopted him when he retired from a K9 unit, and is very friendly. (He was not an “attack” dog.) Since he started getting sick, he has become even more subdued, and my parents frequently take him to work at their offices — he will sit under their desks for the morning, go for a short walk at lunch, and then sleep for the afternoon.

Would it be appropriate for me to ask again about bringing the dog to work now that the situation has changed with his illness, and because it would be for one day instead of a week? I have a 9-5 office job, and started less than a year ago. Making sure that he drinks water from time to time would not distract me from my work, and leaving the office for a short time at lunch is the common practice here. Both my manager and HR considered my request for a short time before denying the initial request, so it wasn’t a case of an immediate, hard answer of no. He would sleep under my desk, and I do not sit in an area that the public can access. Although coworkers frequently walk by my desk, the dog would be out of sight and his presence would not cause a distraction.

Poor dog. I’m torn on this, but if you really have no other options, I think you can ask again if you do it very apologetically and preface it by saying that you realize that their answer is likely to be the same. But be prepared for the answer to remain no — as nice of a benefit as this would be to offer you, it sets a precedent that they might not want with other employees, and they also need to consider other employees’ allergies, some people’s fear of dogs, etc. (By the way, I would not ask again if you don’t have an excellent relationship with your manager or if you’ve ever received signals that you’ve pushed too hard on things in the past. If either of those are the case, asking again about something you’ve already been told no on has the chance of doing real harm.)

As you can see, my initial answer didn’t sit right with me because you already asked for something pretty unusual and were told no; I don’t feel right advising you to ask again. However, I think you have other options for this one day: Have you considered hiring a pet-sitting service for the day, or seeing if you can hire a student or unemployed friend? Or even taking a sick day or vacation day, like you might to care for a sick dependent family member? Those are probably better options.

6. Applying for jobs when you’re waiting to do something else

I’m a final year university student and having to start to get serious about looking for employment. While I don’t really have an idea of what would be my “dream job” (I do Economics and Political Science, so it’s not a vocational degree), recently I’ve been warming more and more to the idea of working in immigration/border control.

I’ve looked this up online and found that there is currently an external hiring freeze for jobs in this sector. My question is, how do I approach the fact that I’ll be applying for jobs knowing that I’m only waiting until I can apply? I assume this won’t look promising to prospective employers if I manage to get interviews, or necessarilly with the sector itself if I end up doing something completely unrelated (which, knowing the current market, is likely). My student job is as a call-center fundraiser, so I’m not sure how to create a positive committed impression in this respect.

You don’t tell them. That’s too close to announcing, “I’m just going to be biding my time here, and once what I really want to do opens up, I’m out of here.” Instead, you keep that to yourself and you find reasons why you’d be genuinely enthusiastic about whatever job you’re applying for.

7. Birthday greetings to business contacts

Today I received an annoying email from a manager of another department to let us know that today is the birthday of Jane Doe from XYZ Company, and to “feel free to send her a happy birthday message.” To the best of my knowledge, Jane does not have a personal relationship with anyone here – not even said manager. And I know that we are currently negotiating an important partnership / consulting contract with her firm. I can only imagine how awkward it might be for Jane to receive birthday greetings from business acquaintances, let alone several from one office. In my humble opinion, this manager is a bit of a twit. Now, I’m not asking you to agree with me on that one. But “feel free” to agree if you wish! What is your opinion on birthday greetings and the ethics of “brown-nosing” a business acquaintance we are in negotiations with?

Yeah, it’s cheesy. Of course, Jane might love cheesy and might feel that getting a bunch of birthday greetings from people she doesn’t know is actually a warm and wonderful thing. Some people do. But Jane might instead feel that it’s a cheesy and transparent (and lame) attempt to suck up to her in the middle of business negotiations, and might be mildly grossed out by your company as a result.

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

1. Coworker keeps pitching in on my tasks when I don’t want her to

I’m in somewhat of a delicate situation. I work under a general boss, as well as a project manager. I do more of the day-to-day technical tasks, whereas my project manager handles budgets and dealing with vendors/stakeholders, etc. However, she is either super-effective, or there is not enough project-management requirements to keep her busy all of the time, so she helps on things that I would normally do. This troubles me in a few different ways — I have a decent amount of work to do at this point, but not to the point where I feel like I need help. It’s somewhat disconcerting to open a query that goes to our general email two minutes after it’s arrived to find that she’s already on it. Also, I either have to spend time walking her through performing the technical nitty-gritty stuff, or I have to spend time correcting things, when altogether, it would have been more efficient for me to just do it. I just wish I could do my own thing.

Am I not being a team player here, or is this non-standard? If it is unusual, how do I go about addressing it? It’s especially hard because she’s a lovely person and somewhat insecure about learning new things, so I definitely like to help. I just feel territorial over my “turf.” She is also friends with the general boss, so I don’t really know how addressing this with her would go. And if I do sound like a territorial jerk, please let me know so I can do my best to get over it.

No, it’s not typical, not unless she’s really supposed to be doing this stuff, but it sounds like she’s not. So talk to her. Say, “Jane, I so appreciate your helping out when you can, but when you jump in and help even when I don’t need it, I feel like I’m not performing my job well. I wonder if we can come up with a system for me letting you know when I need help, but let me take the lead on things like X, Y, and Z the rest of the time.”

Also, when she asks you for instruction on technical things that really should be yours anyway, try saying something like, “Oh, I really love doing that, so I’ll handle it. Thanks for offering though.”

2. My abusive boss is making me miserable

I am writing you about a dilemma I have been facing since my previous boss retired. My previous boss was a true mentor and, although I wasn’t always happy at work, I grew so much under her and I really respected her. But since she left last April, I have been feeling less empowered, depressed, anxious, and less willing to do my best and it has a lot to do with how I’ve been treated at work. I work at a small nonprofit; there is only a head director and an associate director beneath her (she is my boss). This boss has shown time and time again angry outbursts where she yells at me or other employees. She rarely keeps calm and her behavior is extremely stressful, so I often become anxious. She rarely gives positive feedback but instead gives criticism and complaints. She uses manipulation on employees, as well. She stresses that we not gossip but just recently at a staff meeting she was incredibly inappropriate and spent about an hour of the meeting talking about previous employees and clients.

No one ever does anything about her behavior, and those that have tried haven’t seen any results. I feel this may have to do with how she is best friends with the head director. I am unhappy working there and I am working on finding another job. In the meantime, though, I feel miserable and I wonder if I should just quit right now? I also feel that something needs to be done about this director who is abusing her power. What do you suggest I do without burning bridges since I need a good reference for my next job?

Don’t quit without another job lined up, because it will make it harder for you to find a new job and it might take a lot longer than you think to find one (a year or more). It doesn’t sound like there’s anything you can do about this director; your best bet is to focus on leaving with your own reputation intact and finding a job where you’ll be happier than this one. (And yes, I know that’s not the answer you want, but there’s no magic “fix an abusive boss” formula to give. Your best bet is to simply find a new job.)

3. How can I get promoted out of my internship?

I was recently hired as an intern (paid, full-time) at an organization where a lot of people, although more than qualified for more (myself included), start out like that. I’ve been looking at the Linkedin pages of the salaried, full-time staff and have noticed that for those who started out as interns, they were in that position for 3-6 months and then promoted. Plus, opportunities to move up was something that was mentioned/stressed at during my interview. One of my supervisors was promoted from my position some time ago, and I was thinking of breaching the subject with her at some point.

But my question is, how soon after working here should I be trying to move up? And how overtly should do this? Or should I be overtly trying at all? (Should I wait for them to do so?). For example, I saw a job announcement for a higher position put up, as I was interviewing for the internship, but I didn’t apply as I thought it would make me look weird, but should I apply?

Well, if it seems to be the norm that people get promoted out of internships after 3-6 months, then that’s what you should assume is feasible. (But make sure it’s really the norm — not just one or two people, and not just unusually impressive people … unless you too are truly unusually impressive). I’d wait until you’ve been there three months and then tell your manager that you’d love to move up in the organization and ask for her advice.

As for the higher level position you saw advertised, are you truly qualified for it (on paper, not just in the “I could do that job” sense)? If so, there’s no harm in asking your manager if you’d be a strong candidate for it.

4. Putting your LinkedIn profile on your resume

I’ve been job hunting for a while and have put a fair amount of time into a LinkedIn profile. I was wondering if it is acceptable to put my profile link on my resume and if so, how would you suggest doing that?

Sure. Just put it under your contact information. Make sure there’s something there that will supplement your resume though. If there’s nothing there that isn’t on your resume, there’s no point in directing employers there.

5. Should I share my ideas with a coworker who will steal them?

I started out volunteering for a nonprofit a year ago and created an art therapy program with two other individuals. The promise was that finally it would turn into a full-time position. Eventually, one person dropped out because she felt it was never going to turn into a paid position, and she was diagnosed with a illness that would affect her for life. In the meantime, the nonprofit got funding to create a national art therapy program. Once this started to occur, the person who had dropped out wanted to come back to work for the program and eventually did. She was not pulling her weight in the program and learned how to take tasks on to make it appear that she was doing a lot of work. Eventually, we both applied for a position to coordinate the program and she obtained it.

I am passionate about this program and want to see it succeed, and want to obtain a full-time position. I want them to realize that I am the best fit for the position and that they have made the wrong decision. Am I wasting my time? Do you have any suggestions as to how I can do this? What tips do you have for playing the game? I also have all of these ideas for expansion. However, I don’t know if I should share them or not at this point. I don’t want this other employee to take my ideas and steal them again or take credit for them.

Is it likely that the program is going to expand to two positions? If not, well, the position is already filled. You can certainly stay involved and make sure that your involvement and your ideas are visible to decision-makers other than your coworker, but you can’t really go to them and suggest that they fire her and hire you instead.

If you do decide to share your ideas, don’t share them just with your coworker; share them with others so that it’s clear that you initiated them.

6. How can I tell employers why I’m leaving my job so soon?

My first job out of college has been with a large multinational bank, in a highly complex role. At first I really enjoyed both the work and the company atmosphere, but things have gotten out of hand. In my first four months on the job (I have now been there 6 months), every other coworker on my team has left for employment elsewhere, making me the senior most person on a team of 7. I am now training new employees with only a few months experience myself.

The work amount/level has become completely unmanageable, and I have very few resources to get the proper training on new issues as they arise (which is frequently, as my department is a “problem fixing” department). I work closely with my boss, and he is very aware of the level of issues I am having with the job, but he seems either unable or unwilling to rectify the situation. He assures me, however, that I’m doing very well.

My personal stress level is something I am no longer comfortable with, and I am not sure how much longer I can manage the 12+ hour days currently needed to keep up with my work. My question: If I start a new job search now, how do I explain my short time at my current role? Is it even going to be possible to be hired somewhere else? And should I address it in my cover letter?

I wouldn’t address it in your cover letter, since your cover letter should focus on why you’d be a great fit for the new job you’re applying for. When you’re asked about it in an interview, though, you have a pretty convenient answer: “It’s been a difficult environment; in the six months I’ve been there, all six other people on my team have left.” When a whole team is looking for other jobs in a six-month period, most interviewers assume that whatever the specifics of the reasons, the reason is probably legitimate.

However, consider that you might actually have a huge opportunity to stay and stand out as the most senior member of your now all-new team. And if you can get through this period, you’ll have a great story to tell future interviewers about overcoming and thriving in challenging situations. Before you make up your mind to leave, I’d talk to your boss — tell him that you can’t keep working 12-hour days and ask him to help you prioritize your work, so that you’re working more normal hours.

7. Asked for feedback, got job

I wrote to you a few weeks back to ask if I should remind the interviewer about the feedback promised to me. Well, I have something good to share.

The interviewer called me back a few weeks later and said that she appreciates that I asked her for feedback. She said that she found me to be suitable for the role, but the salary that they could offer was below my expected salary. She added that she found me to be very professional and felt that suggesting a salary below my expectations might not be appropriate. I said that this is my dream company and my dream role and I did not want to let go off it just because of salary. They called me back for an interview. And, I was offered the job.

Honestly, I cannot help wondering that if I would not have ever asked them for a feedback I would have never got this job! Also, I am just a year out of college so them finding me professional is purely because of my regularly reading your blog and ebook.

That’s great to hear. Congratulations!