Ask a Manager

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. How can I ask my manager and coworkers to stop talking about politics at work?

Do you have advice on how to suggest a rule of no talking about politics at work? My managers and coworkers have taken to discussing politics while we are in meetings, usually towards the end or while we’re waiting for other parties to enter a conference call. Some of them are HUGE fans of a certain politician who I find repellent. If makes me uncomfortable to hear them praise this person, but I’m not able to walk out of a meeting to avoid it. How can I address this without seeming adversarial? I can’t grimace and bear it until the next election.

“Any chance we can ban political talk until the election is over?”

Or, “We have people with lots of different political viewpoints here — in the interest of keeping things pleasant, can we avoid politics while we’re in meetings?”

You’re not likely to get an actual policy out of it (nor would I advocate one), but you can probably address it successfully this way on a case-by-case basis. People who insist on continuing on when you’ve directly asked them to stop — when you’re in a work meeting, as opposed to just overhearing their casual conversation — are rude. (But you probably can’t do anything about their casual conversations outside of meetings, although you can certainly decline to participate in those discussions.)

Read an update to this letter here.

2. Can I ask that a second job be added to mine, and my salary increased?

Would it be possible to request a new job and my current job to be condensed into one and request a pay increase? My manager wants to add two new positions to the team, so I had an idea that I can see if I can handle the responsibilities for one of the new positions (in addition to my current role). If that is possible, then I could take on those responsibilities and request a $30-40K increase in salary (I am currently making $90K), so she would only need to hire one new person instead of two. This would be much cheaper to the company since they would save money on salary and wouldn’t have to pay benefits to a new person. What is your opinion on trying to do something like this? I wanted to make sure it’s not too crazy before I would bring it up to my manager.

The only way it’s really feasible is if they don’t actually need two full-time people devoted to that work. The fact that they’re planning to hire two people seems to indicate that they do — or at least that they believe that they do. It’s going to be a hard sell to say “let me take on what you appear to believe is full-time job in addition to my own full-time job without sacrificing quality or quantity of work in either” — in fact, that’s basically an impossible sell. So your pitch would need to be that it you could do enough of each (your own job and the new one), and that the necessary sacrifices in each job would be worth making for some reason. It’s possible that that’s really true — but you’d need to really demonstrate that it is. And you’d need to simultaneously do that in a way that doesn’t imply that your current job isn’t valuable enough at full-time. So it’s pretty damn tricky. In some situations, it can end up making sense, but those situations are rare.

Also, be aware that if they did go for it, they won’t necessarily increase your salary by as much as you’re envisioning — so even if they agree, you might end up not liking the price they’d pay you for it.

3. Interview footwear when it’s snowy and slushy outside

Here’s a practical question that probably has an obvious answer I’m failing to think of: what do you do about professional footwear for interviews in the winter, in places where there are either piles of snow or lakes of grimy slush? When working in business casual or formal offices, I would wear snow boots to the office and change into pumps there, but if I’m only interviewing, it seems incredibly awkward to change shoes in the lobby and ask where to stash my dirty boots. Do I take a cab to the interview and hope that there are no sneaky slush puddles between the car and the building? Can I compromise by wearing tall leather boots, which are more casual but offer at least some measure of protection for my feet against the cold and for my pants against wet and dirt? What would you do?

I’d wear snow boots on the way there, change into dress shoes once there, and stash the boots in a professional-looking tote. That requires boots that aren’t really bulky, of course.

4. I resigned, but my boss doesn’t want me to tell anyone yet

I just gave my notice. I gave 2+ weeks. I’m in a management role. My boss and I have an okay relationship, but we’ve been discussing my “fit” at this organization for a little while and we’ve both agreed that it’s been difficult. I’ve been overwhelmed, overworked, and overlooked, and I haven’t been an A+ employee because of it.

When I gave my resignation, she wasn’t surprised and we actually had a candid discussion. She told me not to say anything to anyone yet, but she led me to believe that she was already thinking about contingency plans anyway. I’m two days in now from delivering the notice and I have not been given any green light to say anything to my staff or anyone. She hasn’t given me any instruction for what to do during my notice period as I’m now a “lame duck.” She just asked me to attend a meeting that has long-term decision points and I feel that’s unfair as I won’t be here when those take effect.

Granted, I only have a little over two weeks left, but any advice for what I should do? I’m getting mostly radio silence from my emails, save for the occasional, “Hey, can you send me this…” email.

You need to be able to tell your staff and other colleagues, so that they can plan and so that they don’t end up with the impression that you left with little or no notice.

I’d stop waiting for her to give you the go-ahead and instead say something like this to her, “I need to let people know that I’m leaving so that I can start working with people on transition plans. I’m planning to let my staff know later today, and everyone else tomorrow.”

If she objects, ask her why, and — unless she presents some reason that you find compelling — it’s fine to say in response, “I’m not comfortable keeping this a secret, and I feel professionally obligated to let people know I’m leaving.”

5. I gave an interviewer a salary figure, and then got a raise at my current job

I currently work in a healthcare role with a very specific set of skills. However, I am also finishing up my master’s in heatlhcare admin and hope to move to administration in the next few years.

I have an interview at an organization that is in another state and would require relocation. When I was asked my current salary by the new organization, I was completely honest with them and told them $X/hour. After the Skype interview, they asked me to come down (on their dime) for an on-site interview and said that the starting salary based strictly on my experience and certifications would be $X-2/hour. And that this number will be adjustable/negotiable following how well the on-site interview goes.

My husband and I decided that small difference was worth investigating further. Since that time (about two weeks ago) I was given a raise at my current job and now make $X+2. Of course, now I would rather make as close to that as possible if I move to another position. Is this something I should tell the recruiter? Or wait until salary is brought up again (either during the interview or with an offer?). Is it acceptable to change what i’m asking for in these circumstances? If it matters, it is a hard-to-fill position that I am perfectly qualified for with very applicable experience.

Yes, you should bring it up — your circumstances have changed, and it makes sense to let them know that. You could bring it up either ahead of the interview (if you don’t want to waste your time if their response is a clear no) or after the interview if you’re still interested at that point. I’d say something like this to the recruiter: “I want to let you know that since we talked about salary, I’ve received a raise at my current job and am now making $__. It would be tough for me to change jobs for less than that. Is that prohibitive on your end?”

Of course, if you’re actually willing to take less than that, you might want to take out the “it would be tough” language and maybe change the whole thing to something like “is that something you’d be able to match?”

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. My boss rewrote my resume — and it’s terrible

My boss is the type of person who is going to do his best to help you in your career; he’s not going to be annoyed or feel threatened that you want to leave. I know this about him, so I asked him if he felt I was ready to apply for a certain position that unfortunately we don’t have at our office but is available at one or two others in our area. He said I definitely was, and offered to help with my resume.

He gave it back to me today and while the formatting looks good, the grammar and spelling is terrible! Comma splices everywhere, inconsistent tenses, unnecessary quotation marks, and a myriad of other errors. In addition, he added an “objective” at the top of my resume (which I didn’t think was the thing to do anymore, if it ever was) as well as a “Characteristics” section, listing things like “enthusiastic” and “motivated,” when I feel like my interview and cover letter would explain those better by showing rather than telling.

However, he is also anti-cover letter, and says that if he gets 50 resumes for a position, he’s not also going to read 50 cover letters. I understand this, and I’m new to the industry so it’s possible that this is an industry norm that I am unfamiliar with, but I still think it’s weird to put “enthusiastic” as a bullet point on my resume.

I’m so torn. He knows the industry and he knows people where I’ll be applying. He fully supports my desire to apply for these jobs, particularly because the job I’m in now is a step down from what I was doing in previous positions in order to get a foot in the door at this company. Knowing all this, do I use the resume he “fixed” (once I remove the grammatical errors, of course)? Do I still send a cover letter? (I feel really great about the cover letter I wrote and am super bummed at the prospect that no one will see it!) I could use some perspective here. 

Don’t use his version, and do write a cover letter (unless you know for a fact that they’re discouraged in your field — which is rare but possible). All of the concerns you listed here about the changes he made to your resume are 100% correct — you don’t want grammatical errors, inconsistent tenses, or extraneous quotation marks, and you definitely do not want an objective, or a “characteristics” section (!?!), and you very definitely do not want to list things like “enthusiastic” on your resume. Your instincts that you should be showing, not telling, that sort of thing are exactly right.

Some people who hire are still not going good at giving job search advice, unfortunately. Your boss might be good at loads of other things, but don’t use him as a guide on this.

Read an update to this letter here.

2. My reference told a reference-checker that his own skills are better than mine

I used my coworker as a reference. When the recruiter called him, he said some nice things about me, but then he went on to tell the recruiter that he had more skills than me. Do you have any advice for how to handle when your coworker tries to poach your job opportunity?

Don’t use him as a reference again, and take comfort in the fact there’s no way that he didn’t come across as ridiculous to the reference-checker.

It’s not clear to me whether he was trying to suggest himself for the job instead (which would be a huge dick move to do on your actual reference call) or whether he was just comparing his skills to yours for the hell of it (which was also be a huge dick move).

Either way, now you know this guy is a tool and not to suggest him as a reference again.

3. How can I talk about achievements in management/leadership roles on my resume?

I’m a young manager searching for a job at a new company, and am struggling to articulate my achievements as a manager on my resume. I can articulate what I achieved in a more junior role more easily, and I can list what I was accountable for in my current role as a manger, but I’m struggling to describe specific achievements in my current role. What’s the appropriate way to describe things other people on your team accomplished with your coaching, leadership, and collaboration, but that you didn’t personally execute or exclusively own?

It feels wrong to claim “credit” for achievements where so many others did the bulk of the work to make them happen, but my entire job now is setting up structures where others can be successful, providing input at key stages that shapes the project but without micromanaging it, hiring and developing good talent, etc, and that leaves me feeling like there is nothing that I can rightly claim as my achievement. Yet I’m sure people in leadership roles still write resumes with their accomplishments!

How do managers articulate their contributions and achievements on their resumes? I’d love some examples of word choice, and some general advice on how to take an appropriate amount of credit as a leader without self-aggrandizing.

Your whole job as a manager is to get things done through other people, so when your team gets great results, you get to take some credit for that.

Of course, there are always managers whose teams get great results despite the manager rather than because of the manager, but when all is working the way it’s supposed to, the idea is that you’re helping them get those results via things like setting the right goals and strategy, giving feedback, staying engaged along the way as a resource, helping course-correct, and so forth.

That means that it’s generally legitimate to say things like “Led six-person team that achieved X.” It wouldn’t be reasonable to just say “achieved X” if you didn’t play a big role in the actual work of X — but rather that you “led,” “coordinated,” or “managed” a team that did.

4. Can I ask my interviewer why they reposted the job I’m interviewing for so soon?

I just got my first interview in a long, long time, and as you might imagine, I am really invested in making the best of my opportunity (I have already downloaded and am working through your interview guide).

I know this intership/trainee position was offered a couple months back. I applied for it, after all. The way it has popped up again (I sent a mail within 24 hours of the job being posted, got a call only hours after that, and have an interview in two days) makes me think that the previous intern either left or lost the position, and that HR is keen on hiring someone to fill the slot ASAP to make up for lost time.

Would it be a good idea to ask something along the lines of “I saw this position advertised a few months back, could you tell me anything about why it has been reposted so soon?” (hopefully followed up by asking what I could do to excel at the job) or would that be seen as prying? I had hoped it would indicate my interest in the company and the position, but I am not sure if it would seem out of line.

Well, it’s possible that the previous person is still there, and that this is an additional intern/trainee slot, so I’d word your question this way: “I noticed you posted a similar position a few months ago. Is this that same role, or do you have multiple intern/trainee positions?” If they say it’s the same one, they may give you some additional context (like that they had put the hiring on hold for some reason, or the previous hire ended up not starting), or they may not — if they don’t, I’d probably drop it at that point since it’s not clear that there’s a lot to gain by pressing for more.

It is reasonable, in general, to ask about what previous people in the position went on to do, or how long people typically stay in the position.

5. I’m in trouble for going into the women’s bathroom after-hours

I retrieved an item out of the women’s restroom after hours while no women were still working (I’m a man). I banged on the door first and had another employee stand at the door. I am bring written up for not getting a manger’s approval before entering the opposite sex’s restroom. I have never heard of such a thing to be written up for after hours. Is this a violation in any way?

It seems ridiculous to me; a single-sex bathroom is not some sacred place that’s violated by the presence of the opposite sex, when the person takes the precautions that you took (ensured no one was in there and had someone else stand at the door). If you had a reason for going in there, which it sounds like you did, I don’t see what the big deal is.

Ultimately, though, it’s really up to your employer. If they want to make this an iron-clad rule, they can. But there’s still no justification for them turning to formal discipline for a first offense, unless there’s some broader context here that I don’t know about (like that there’s been a series of complaints about you in the women’s bathroom or something). They should tell you not to do it again and leave it at that.