weekend free-for-all – December 5-6, 2015

by Alison Green on December 5, 2015

Olive under the treeThis comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. (This one is truly no work and no school. If you have a work question, you can email it to me or post it in the work-related open thread on Fridays.)

Book Recommendation of the Week: The Family Fang: A Novel, by Kevin Wilson. If you like the dysfunctional family genre as much as I do and you want to read a book that feels inspired by a Wes Anderson movie, this is the book for you.

* I make a commission if you use that Amazon link.

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update: my coworker is trying to track my hours and PTO

by Alison Green on December 5, 2015

Remember the letter-writer whose coworker announced that she’d be tracking everyone’s hours and PTO usage, despite seemingly not having been asked to do this by their manager? Here’s the update.

I did end up talking to my boss about the situation because I wanted him to hear from me before my coworker could get to him, plus I wanted to know if it was his idea. If it was, I figured I’d just have to deal with it.

He was a fairly new hire in January and basically had no idea about the norms in the office, so when I told him what was going on, he was aware that she had decided to keep track, but assumed that it was a company policy. So, I told him that it wasn’t and that I was opting out because I know how to keep track of my own time, and he was fine with that. My coworker eventually got over herself and we’re back to normal.

However, my boss never told her not to keep track of peoples PTO and she’s definitely still running a tally. I covered for her one day and saw the chart in Excel; my column was blank. Ironically, I overheard her talking to the boss a day or two ago about how one or our remote colleagues had never used all of her bereavement days when her father passed away earlier this year and that she was going to tell the lady that she was allowed to use them when she traveled to the memorial service next week. Again, shocking to me, but not to anyone else. I still don’t understand why everyone else in the department allows her to get this in depth in their business, but after dealing with her for almost 10 years, I’ve learned that she is the way she is and it’s never going to change.

The best part of all of this is that it’s now all totally irrelevant because our HR department FINALLY rolled out our new automated system where we log our time and enroll in benefits. We can see all of our PTO in one place and it’s private. Somehow, that development irked my coworkers! I of course, am completely thrilled.

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update: my new coworker keeps joking about violence

by Alison Green on December 4, 2015

Remember the letter-writer whose new coworker kept making graphically violent “jokes”? Here’s the update.

Thanks to your advice, things for the most part worked out, but not in the most ideal way.

I decided I still felt uncomfortable talking to my coworker directly, but also that I wanted to give it one more go with my manager because I had always felt like I was in good standing with him, he often told me how much he appreciated my work, and I had never had an issue with him taking my concerns seriously, so I felt that maybe I had presented my concerns poorly the first time, or that he had a bad day.

I went to talk to him again, explained why I wasn’t okay with dealing with the problem in a more direct way, and he begrudgingly agreed. Well, it turns out I shouldn’t have ever wanted his help, because all he did was, right in front of me, yell across the room to my coworker, “Hey, you and OP need to talk, because she doesn’t like the jokes you’ve been making!” I was appalled! My coworker just looked stunned, and we both went back to work.

Later on, I approached things with him, and he said he had just been joking, so I said to him what you suggested, and explained to that I understood it was a joke, but it was really inappropriate. He seemed to take it to heart and never said anything like that to me again. I noticed him saying it to other people, and mentioned that he might consider cutting that out too, as someone might take it more seriously than I did and he’s putting himself at risk of getting in more trouble.

I happened to be in a position where I was essentially training him, so he listened to my advice really avidly. He really is a great worker, and I nudged him into being more and more professional while at work. We’re all pretty young (myself, and my manager included), and this may have been his first job, so I think this new way of acting at work will stick (one can only hope!).

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how to take a vacation when your work never stops

by Alison Green on December 4, 2015

A reader writes:

The holidays are here, and I’m meant to be taking a week off for vacation. The trip is booked, it’s been approved months ago by my boss, and I’ve scheduled my requested time with an eye to our work cycle and done my best to get everything done and covered before I’m gone.

However, two days before departure, my manager said that perhaps I can’t go, as we are not as far along as she’d hoped. (It’s impossible to do a month’s load of work in three weeks, and while I attempted to get all of it done and create the minimal amount of stress and bother for those left behind, there is still work to be done of mine in that week I’m away that will have to be covered by someone else.) She says I can either not go, or be available during my leave at all times for work, or I can pay out of my own pocket for a freelancer to come in to backfill me.

There may be no way to save this vacation, but I wonder: how does one responsibly take some time off? I haven’t had a holiday in nearly two years for this exact reason; every time I try, there always seems to be more work or responsibilities that only I can attend to and that can’t be put on hold even for a weekend. How does a responsible employee in a management position get away for a break?

You can read my answer to this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and often updating/expanding my answers to them).

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open thread – December 4, 2015

by Alison Green on December 4, 2015

It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on anything work-related that you want to talk about. If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to talk to other readers.

* If you submitted a question to me recently, please don’t repost it here, as it may be in the to-be-answered queue :)

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I distributed layoff plans without permission, new job says I can’t take a previously okayed trip, and more

by Alison Green on December 4, 2015

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

1. I found my company’s layoff plans on the copier … and distributed them

There are several changes happening at my current workplace. A month and a half ago there was an announcement that we would be organizing a few departments into a new model which came directly after higher-ups laid off 3 directors very suddenly. This was not due to performance issues but specifically part of the plan to move forward with a new model. They even escorted one of them out of the building with security. This employee had been with the organization for 35 years and did nothing wrong but apparently they do this to prevent retaliation. Needless to say, there are trust issues now and each week there seems to be a new issue.

We were told at the beginning of this process that no one would be losing their jobs and that the company was working to procure raises for everyone are on the same level as other professionals in our area. There hasn’t been a lot of communication since and morale is low. Our previous leadership had been advocating for our raises prior to being laid off.

A colleague of mine found a copy of the proposed restructuring plan on a copy machine in a common area. The plan had significant staffing cuts in some areas and we had heard nothing about it. We were promised staff input and public forums about any changes. This employee shared this information with me and another colleague. We thought about approaching our manager but thought they might sweep it under the rug and avoid our questions. After a sleepless night, I spoke with my colleagues and made a copy of this document and anonymously distributed it. Within hours, there was a response and it seems the higher-ups are now having meetings to actively deal with issues. However, our manager is also accusing someone of breaking into their office which isn’t the case. This document was left on a copy machine and anyone could have seen it. Our manager believes whoever did this only wanted to share information and wasn’t being malicious but should have gone about it a different way.

Part of me feels guilty but part of me is happy that we are finally getting included in big decisions and our raises are now at the forefront. What are your thoughts? I feel terrible for upsetting our manager but I feel like we were owed direct answers and weren’t getting any until this happened.

I mean … they left it on a copy machine. Whoever did that basically invited this to happen. Should you distributed it? No; it wasn’t yours to share. Is it understandable that you did anyway? Yes. (At least, given the fact that it appeared you’d been lied to. Without that detail, my answer would be no.) Is it possibly pushing your company to be more transparent with you? Yes.

That said, I wouldn’t assume that this will change their layoff plans or that it will result in raises. Those aren’t usually things that happen just because people learn about layoffs being planned (in fact, I’d say raises are probably fairly unlikely right now, but who knows).

2. My new job okayed my trip but now says I can’t have the time off

In August, I was offered (and accepted) a new job at a company. At the negotiation stage, I said I had an upcoming trip in December and the new company agreed I could take it.

Well, December is here … and the company is now saying that they can’t let me go due to a myriad of reasons, including being short-staffed, rolling out a new HRIS (in which I will be taking on some additional work), the tight turnaround for three-day pay periods in December, and any month/year end recon that I need to do will have to be done in a two-day timespan. My only saving grace is that I don’t have plane tickets in hand.

My boss says she feels horrible. We have a great relationship and are pretty candid with each other. I’m irritated, but also understand (life happens, eh, and when trying to make this a long-term career oriented role … I’m not sure I want to chance this). I’ve offered to take a company owned laptop with me and work from there, but in the insurance world they’re not keen on that.

I know this is legal, but should I fight back for something (additional vacation days?) to make up for this? I’ve been here three months and don’t want to rock the boat. We are going through some changes and looking to hire a counterpart to my role, but so far we don’t have anyone yet.

I think you’re right to be irritated, but it sounds like you like your job and your boss and think that their reasoning here is understandable rather than outlandish. I wouldn’t think of it as “fighting back” (which is more adversarial than it needs to be), but what about saying something like this: “I can’t say I’m not disappointed since I thought we’d nailed this down when I was hired and talked about it as part of the offer, but I understand what your concerns are. Would it be possible to do something to make up for it, like a few extra vacation days for when I reschedule the trip down the road?”

A good manager is already going to feel terrible about this and will be happy to have a way to make it up to you.

3. Is it unethical to try to recruit people away from competitors?

I am recruiting for a very specific job in a very specific location (think industrial copper teapot spout designer, located in a large city) and having difficulty attracting good candidates. Using LinkedIn, I can find qualified folks doing a very similar job at specific companies in the right location pretty easily. Even though I know that this is what recruiters do all the time, is it wrong for me, as a hiring manager, to reach out to people directly this way?

On the one hand people are putting themselves out there, and if they didn’t want to be found they would hide themselves. On the other, it feels a little wrong to target specific companies (even though I know 95% of qualified candidates are going to be working at one of these companies). I certainly wouldn’t want my employees targeted this way!

Nope, that’s not unethical and it’s both normal and smart to do. Don’t fall into the “I wouldn’t want my employees targeted this way” kind of thinking; your employees are free agents who deserve to be able to pick the job that’s best for them. You can decrease the chances of that being a different company by offering competitive (or better) salary and benefits, treating them well, and so forth — but it never works to try to keep people by blocking them from other opportunities. And the same applies to your competitors!

4. Company wants us to leave quarterly reviews on Glassdoor

I’ve been informed by my team lead that we are expected to leave quarterly reviews of our company on Glassdoor. This is justified by the reviews “being used in our proposals” and to “maintain ratings.” I am very uncomfortable with this process, and find it morally objectionable as a whole. I am afraid if I leave a review and honestly report the problems I have with the company, I will be pinpointed and retaliated against. Would consulting HR for the reservations I have about this task be appropriate?

I took a look at Glassdoor’s term of use to see if what your company is requesting might violate them, and unfortunately it probably doesn’t. Their terms do limit you to “personal, non-commercial use,” and it’s possible this could violate that but it’s probably a stretch, although you could try arguing it with your manager.

What would happen if you just didn’t do it? Or started the review with “my company asked me to leave this review”? Or, yes, if you’re willing to speak up, I’d love it if you’d say, “This is outside the spirit of Glassdoor. Most people think it’s pretty obvious when a company has tried to drum up positive reviews, and it ends up making the company look bad, like it’s covering something up or engaging in a Big-Brother-ish PR campaign with workers. I’d recommend that we encourage people to do this if they’d like to, but not require it and definitely not push people to do it quarterly, since these reviews are typically a one-time thing.”

Of course, the reaction to this may depend on your standing in the company and the way they handle dissent.

5. Can I ask for details about a health insurance plan before accepting an offer?

My employer offers exceptional benefits – one being a great health insurance plan that covers fertility treatments (particularly ART, which from my experience is not a given on most plans). I am in the beginning stages of interviewing for a new job, but leaving for a company whose health insurance does not cover this would likely not be an option for me. I may be undertaking some fertility procedures in 2016, and the out-of-pocket cost is absolutely astronomical. Staying at my job for the benefits is certainly an option for me.

Is there a tactful way to ask to see a full breakdown of the health insurance plan if I make it to the offer stage? In the past, I usually just saw a breakdown of costs, not the specifics on coverage, copays, deductibles, etc.

Yes, absolutely. At the offer stage, it’s reasonable to say something like, “Could you send me more specific information about your health care plan coverage, including copays, deductibles, and so forth?” It should be easy for them to provide you with the insurance materials they give new employees, which will answer these questions. (Or they may have a website to direct you to, or some other way of providing this information.) This isn’t an unusual or outrageous thing to ask at all; consider it a normal part of collecting information about the benefits package that’s a key part of the offer.

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update: my boss turns it into an ordeal every time I ask him a question

by Alison Green on December 3, 2015

Remember the letter-writer who thought her boss wasn’t helpful when she asked him questions? I suggested that she instead view his behavior through a different lens, and thought he might be trying to teach her how to find answers for herself. Here’s the update.

Thanks for your advice. I think between your response and the comments it helped me have a better perspective on things. I’ve realized I was struggling with a lot of impostor syndrome and insecurity about my abilities and that was making me take things personally that weren’t.

I’m still at the same internship and feeling much better about it. I think a few things have really helped: 1) learning a whole lot about programming, not just in the particular languages and packages we are using but also “learning how to learn,” figuring out my own best practices for solving problems, 2) talking to other programmers and learning that a lot of the anxiety I’m feeling is very normal, and 3) learning how to effectively communicate with my boss.

Instead of saying “I don’t know how to do the thing, HALP” I try to say something like “I’ve tried X, Y, and Z, and that solved problem A but I’m still seeing some weird issues with B when I do C. I’m thinking of trying D but not sure about E, what do you suggest?” This has also helped me clarify my own process–sometimes I’ll be halfway through typing a question for him and realize there’s something I haven’t tried yet.

Thanks so much for your help! If I could give one piece of advice to someone in my situation it would be to try and make some friends who aren’t involved in your particular workplace but who have done similar work and can help you figure these things out.

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time off at the holidays: can my employer do that?

by Alison Green on December 3, 2015

This is the time of year when my in-box gets flooded with questions about how companies can and can’t handle time off around the holidays. Here are answers to some of the questions I receive most commonly.

1. My company is closed around Christmas and making me use PTO or take the time unpaid. Can they do that?

They can indeed require that you use vacation time for that period, even if you don’t want to.

As for making you take the time without pay: If you’re non-exempt, they don’t need to pay you for time you didn’t work, so yes, this would be legal. But if you’re exempt, they’d need to pay you; the law is clear that exempt employees can’t have their salaries docked “for absences occasioned by the employer or by the operating requirements of the business.” (The exception: if you’re not working for a full week, they can dock that.)

Either way, though, it’s not a great move, outside of industries where this is such a common practice that everyone knows to expect and plan for it.

2. I have to work on Christmas and New Year’s. Can they make me do that without extra pay or giving me a comp day?

Yes. No law requires extra compensation for working on holidays. However, if it’s normally a holiday for your company, you might ask about taking the holiday on a different day instead.

3. I arranged to take a vacation day the day after Thanksgiving. My office ended up closing at 1 p.m. that day and letting people go home early. But I’m still being charged a full vacation day. Shouldn’t they just deduct half a day of vacation?

Different employers handle this differently. Some will do what yours did; others will just charge a half day of vacation. For employers who do charge the full amount, the argument is that there’s benefit to being able to have a guaranteed full day off that you can plan on in advance, whereas the employees who came to work that day didn’t have that.

4. I’m an exempt employee, and my employer is closed down for two weeks over the holidays. If I’m expected to work a day or two during that time, am I entitled to either receive comp time or additional pay for the hours I work? These two weeks are paid staff holidays for all full-time employees.

Legally, there’s no requirement for that. But you could certainly approach your manager and say, “I’m missing out on two days of holiday pay that everyone else is getting since I’ll be working those days. Is it possible for me to take those two days in January (or later) instead?”

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4 signs that your team needs you more involved

by Alison Green on December 3, 2015

If you’re like most managers, you’ve probably proclaimed at some point that you’re not a micromanager. And that makes sense – hovering over your staff while they work, dictating how the smallest details should be done, or actually doing their work for them are all bad things that should be avoided. But it’s rarer for people to talk about the problems with the other extreme on that spectrum: being too hands-off when your team needs you to be more involved. That can be just as damaging as micromanaging, and yet it gets far less attention. In fact, many managers even brag about how hands-off they are with their team members – which isn’t always an effective style.

Here are four signs that your team needs you more involved than you currently are.

1. When work is completed, it doesn’t look like you wanted it to. If you’re often surprised or frustrated that work product doesn’t meet your expectations, take it as a flag that you’re either not delegating the work correctly at the beginning or not staying sufficiently involved along the way – and possibly both.

Taking the time to agree on expectations at the start of a project and then staying involved and checking in as the work progresses is what allows you to keep work on course, catch problems early, and course-correct if necessary. It’s also what makes it highly unlikely that you’ll be surprised by key details of a project at the end, and keeps your staff members from being frustrated when they need to go back and redo something because they didn’t get your input earlier on.

2. You’re not sure if team members know your assessment of their work (or you know for sure that they don’t because you’ve never told them). If you have an opinion about a team member’s work, good or bad, and that person doesn’t know it, you’re not communicating enough. That’s what leads top performers to feel unappreciated, mediocre employees to think they’re performing at a high level, and low performers not to be held accountability.

3. You don’t know if your employees are on track to meet their biggest goals. You might assume that they are and that they’ll tell you if they’re not on track to meet their goals, but a surprising number of people don’t proactively update their manager on this kind of thing – or update the manager much later than the manager would prefer. Plus, by not checking in about progress toward big goals, you’re signaling that you might not take those goals all that seriously.

At least quarterly, and in some cases monthly, you should be checking in with each staff member about their progress toward their biggest goals. You might also ask people to set interim milestones so you can both easily spot where projects are getting off course.

4. You’re not getting the results you want. If you’re not seeing the results that you want in a particular area of work or from a particular person, it’s time to get more closely involved so that you can get more insight into what’s happening on the ground, provide better coaching and direction, figure out what changes need to be made, and make sure they happen.

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how can I move from retail into a professional career?

by Alison Green on December 3, 2015

A reader writes:

I currently work full-time at a large retail store as a department lead (no real management responsibilities). I oversee the department, order and stock product, plan and build displays, and other various duties. I was promoted to the position three months ago, after six months in a part-time position. I enjoy my job, but it is physically exhausting and the schedule is unpredictable and often requires me to work weekends/early mornings/late evenings. I would like to eventually move into a more professional setting with a more traditional schedule.

My question is, how do you break into a professional setting when you have no experience for it? I’m in my late 20s, and my 10 years of work history consist of numerous child care jobs (many of them “off-the-books”) and two other retail jobs (a three-month seasonal position and a six-month stay at my very first job as a teenager). My educational history is also less than impressive. Due to various personal and family issues, I never finished high school. I eventually earned my GED and an associate’s degree in early childhood education (with a 4.0 GPA and honors society membership, though at a technical college).

How can I make myself an appealing candidate for entry-level professional jobs? I am very hard-working and detail-oriented, and pick up processes quickly, and I have gotten excellent feedback from my current managers on my performance, but do I even have a hope of being considered for administrative assistant/receptionist-type jobs? How can I write an awesome resume and cover letter, when I don’t have any professional achievements to point to? I can’t afford and don’t have the free time for more education, training, internships, etc. I don’t have a professional network that can get me a foot in the door. Is there any hope for me to change career fields, or am I doomed to remain in retail?

It’s going to be hard but not impossible.

The catch, though, is that you’re going to be competing against candidates with advantages: they’re either right out of school and so seen as the “right profile” for an entry-level admin job (which fresh grads are often expected to fill), or they have experience doing office work.

Because of that, it means that you’re going to need to look for ways to give yourself some advantage they don’t have. Maybe that’s making a personal connection with someone who gives you your first office job, after which it’s going to be a lot easier to continue on down that path (the first one will be the hardest to get), or maybe it’s writing an incredibly personable cover letter that demonstrates why you’d excel at the job and that you’re smart and motivated and that you’d be an awesome colleague, backed up by a resume that makes the most of your retail experience, or something else that raises you up above the sea of applicants for these jobs.

Speaking of your resume: It’s going to be really important to find ways to use it to highlight skills from your past work that will be relevant to admin and receptionist work. A resume that just lists off retail or nannying duties won’t position you as well as one that draws out the pieces that are transferable to the jobs you want now — things like handing sensitive information with diplomacy, dealing with challenging personalities, calming upset customers, problem solving, flexibility, working around multiple schedules, and so forth.

Other things to try:

* Getting creative about your network. You say you don’t have a professional network, but what about all those parents you provided child care for? Can you reach out to them and explain what you’re trying to do, and see if any of them can connect you to openings? They might be good sources of leads. (It also might not go anywhere, so don’t be devastated if this doesn’t lead you anywhere — but it’s well worth trying, because it’ll only take one.)

* Temping. This isn’t the fail-safe method it used to be (it doesn’t reliably result in work the way it used to), but if they give you work, it’ll be a great way to get office experience on your resume, which will help tremendously.

* Volunteering. This too can be a good way to get office experience on your resume.

* Targeting office jobs that may have less competition. When you know you’re not a super competitive candidate (right now, at least — doesn’t mean it’ll be the case forever), it can be easier to go after jobs that are less desirable, because fewer people will be pursuing them. Unfortunately, that probably means the lower-paid jobs — but if you’re willing to do that for a year or so, you might then have an easier time getting the next (hopefully better paid) job. And you could think of jobs that are less desirable for other reasons too, like a bad location or hours. Again, the idea isn’t that you’ll need to do this forever, but that it might make it easier to get the first job, which will then unlock the gates to more.

What other advice do people have?

Read an update to this letter here.

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