Ask a Manager

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

1. New hire told me about punching out a neighbor

I am a project manager and an associate at my firm with 10+ years experience. Last week, a recently hired, recently graduated, young staff member disclosed the following story to me (for brevity, I am paraphrasing): “I was doing laundry in my building’s common laundry room. Someone else took my clothes out of the dryer and dried their clothes on my money. I waited for him and then confronted him. He said something I didn’t like so I pushed him. We fought. I punched him three times in the face and knocked him out. I called the police. They came, I explained what happened, knocked out guy woke up and went back to his apartment, police left. Knocked out guy’s girlfriend called the police back and told building management. No charges pressed, but building evicted me the next day. Took off of work Thursday and Friday last week to find a new apartment.”

I didn’t know what to say, but told him that this is serious and he should consult a lawyer. I believe I’m the only person in the office he told. I want to advise him further, but don’t know what to say. Also, do I let upper management know? I will be conducting this employee’s year-end review with a senior associate. I wish he never told me.

I guess kudos to him for at least calling the police afterwards, but yeah, it’s alarming to hear that you’re working with someone who assaults someone who said something he didn’t like, and who’s cavalier about it to talk about it at his new job.

I think you’d be doing him a favor if you went back and talked to him about why this reflects badly on him, and why it’s the kind of thing that will stick to him forever if people hear about it in a work setting. And yes, I think I’d err on the side of telling someone above you — not in a “we must fire him” way, but more like “Hey, I thought this was an alarming story and I feel uncomfortable keeping it to myself in case it fits part of a larger pattern.”

2. I got in trouble for letting my staff leave early the day before Thanksgiving

I got in trouble for letting my staff leave early the day before Thanksgiving. Everyone came in extra early to get a head start on their work for the day, and so when i saw that the deliverables were complete, I let them know they could leave early for the holiday and put in for an 8-hour day. They all probably worked about 6 hours.

I let my boss know just so he would be aware, and he said I shouldn’t have done that because other departments do not have that luxury.

I’m not sure how to react to that. My team members are not allowed to leave early because other departments are not as good at managing their workloads? I just responded to him that they all came in very early and completed their deliverables so I didn’t think it was a problem, but that it would not happen again.

This makes no sense to me. What do you think?

Eh, I could argue it either way. On one hand, yes, you should be able to make decisions like this for your department, it’s a pretty common thing to let people go early the day before Thanksgiving, and if you’re a good manager, your boss should trust your judgment on something like this. On the other hand, it sometimes does cause real morale issues if people see one department getting a perk that their own manager isn’t offering.

Of course, the response to that is that different departments have different needs; just because the mailroom staff can’t work from home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t let anyone else do it. But with something like this — where other departments might have been just as able to leave early, but just weren’t allowed to — I can see your boss worrying about it causing strife or resentment.

Ultimately, though, I think he should have deferred to you, assuming that you generally have a good track record of managing your team well.

3. Invited to a walk-in interview

I just applied for a job and received an email back thanking me for my interest and inviting me to a “walk-in interview” held every Wednesday from 8:30-11:30. It’s for a fairly professional position. I’ve never heard of anything like this, have you? I’m not real inclined to participate.

Do you know if it’s a group interview or just “we’ll talk to anyone who shows up at this time?” The former is worse than the latter. And it sounds like you passed an initial screening so it’s hopefully not really “anyone at all” but rather “any candidate who met some initial qualifications” … but I’m still not sure why they’re not willing to just set a specific time to talk with you, and it would give me pause too. Still, though, if you’re otherwise interested in the job, I’d say it’s worth going and trying to get a better sense of what they’re all about.

But yes, it’s odd.

4. My complaint about coworkers got back to my boss

I work in the medical field in a outpatient clinic setting. Most of the time I work alone with patients, but for an hour or two I work with other employees. A few weeks ago, I was telling someone in our front desk area that I was kind of frustrated about how loud the cursing had gotten in our work area. I told this person (who I trusted) that I was afraid patients would hear, and I was asking if these people ever cursed loudly up front. Well, this person went to another person and it got to my manager. I was not going to take it to my manager. I was going to talk to my coworkers myself first.

I think my coworkers who cursed a lot got written up, but I am not sure. I feel very bad about this. I feel like there is tension and resentment when I am there now. I feel like I threw people under the bus. There is one person in particular who used to talk to me a lot who is barely speaking and acting weird. I feel like I need to just come out and apologize and let them know that I was not the one who originally told my boss! The info went from one person I told and got to him without me doing it. I had no intentions of telling my boss and getting them in trouble. Should I apologize and explain this to them?

Sure, it sounds like it could help and isn’t likely to hurt. I wouldn’t make a huge deal out of it — just, “Hey, I’m sorry that my comment to Jane ended up getting back to Percival. I had planned to talk to you directly and wouldn’t have taken it to Percival myself. I like working with you, and I feel badly that it turned out the way it did.”

5. Will my PIP transfer to my new team?

If I was put on a Performance Improvement Plan, and in the midst of the plan transitioned to a different manager and team, would the original PIP still be in effect and potentially ruin my career if not met? The new manager has no knowledge of it and the old manager does not plan to disclose the PIP to the new manager. There is no statement anywhere in the PIP saying it is transferable from one manager to the next, nor have I signed it.

Also, is it known for employees to ask HR to step in and mediate on the fairness of the PIP?

It’s really up to your company and how they want to do things. In many companies, people can’t transfer if they’re currently on a PIP. In yours, though, it sounds like your manager isn’t even telling the new manager, so I’d assume it’s not transferring along with you. That said, you should just ask your old manager directly how this will work. If she isn’t sure, then you should ask HR.

As for asking HR to mediate on the fairness of a PIP … again, it really depends on your company. In some companies, HR would review a PIP and possibly advise the manager on making it stronger or more objective (typically, though, it would be more of advising than ordering a particular change). In others, HR would defer to the manager. So it really depends. In your case, it sounds likely that the PIP is going to go away with your transfer (but again, verify that), so it’s probably moot.

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

1. Salary when moving to part-time

I recently made a request at my job to move from a full-time schedule to a part-time one, due to some personal and medical issues that need more of my attention. I spoke with my director, who immediately said she supported my request and that she’d speak to my two project supervisors after Thanksgiving to discuss how we’d work out the day-to-day work.

In the meantime, she asked me to reach out to the operations manager and HR director regarding salary and benefits. I just met with them for a brief meeting, where they basically just let me know the next steps, but we did not discuss salary at all. However, I did see a number written down on a paper in front of the HR director that was equivalent to what my current pay would be if it was an hourly rate. (I am salaried.) My husband insists that if I’ll be going to an hourly rate as a part-time employee, I should earn more per hour, since I won’t have the option of benefits and do not get PTO.

Should I have a number in mind for an hourly wage, and is it reasonable for that number to be slightly higher that the hourly wage I’m receiving now, since I will no longer be eligible for benefits or PTO?

It’s not unreasonable, but it’s also not necessarily unreasonable of your company not to want to do that. Some companies do that, and some don’t; there’s no absolute “this is how it’s done.” Also, in this case, since you’re the one asking to move to part-time, you might have less negotiating power than if the move was being driven by their interests.

But it’s certainly completely fine to ask and see what they’ll agree to. I’d word it this way: “Since my compensation currently includes benefits and won’t anymore once I move to part-time, I’m hoping we could do an hourly wage of $___ to reflect that.”

2. Manager blocked internal move

My employer (a large company) advertised a post (to internal and external candidates) for a secondment to cover someone’s maternity leave. An internal candidate scored best at the interviews and in assessments and so was offered and accepted the post. This person’s line manager has refused to release them from their current position. Can they prevent someone developing their skills and working in another department?

Yes, if your company permits that. Many companies do indeed require a person’s current manager to sign off on a transfer.

With temporary moves (as it sounds like this one would have been), it can be understandable for a manager not to want to deal with temporarily covering someone’s position. But with permanent moves, it’s a pretty bad policy, since do you know what managers don’t get asked to sign off on? That same person leaving for another company entirely, because this one blocked them from advancing.

3. Double standard for exempt employees

Is there a double standard for exempt employees about time in vs time off, and what are your thoughts on that?

About five years ago, my husband was co-manager of a restaurant, and one day he got ill during the early hours of the day and had to go home. His pay was docked (he had no PTO), which he assumed was to pay the other manager, who had to come in to cover. Shortly thereafter, the other manager had a family emergency and he was called in to cover her full day, but he wasn’t paid anything extra because “You’re salaried and you have to work extra hours sometimes.”

Similarly, my exempt coworkers are expected to work past 5 most days (often unnecessarily), but if they want to leave before 5 they have to claim it as PTO.

I am currently non-exempt, but our director is pushing for my position to be made exempt. I’m wondering if the above examples are typical about how time is thought about for exempt employees, and whether you think that makes sense.

Yes, there often is a double standard, where exempt workers are told to use PTO when they want time off, but aren’t given anything extra when they put in extra hours. I’m not a fan.

That said, what your husband’s company did was illegal. They can’t dock the pay of an exempt worker for working a half day, and by doing that, they treated him as non-exempt, which means that they could have ended up owing him a whole bunch of overtime pay that he would have been entitled to as a non-exempt worker.

As for your current manager wanting to convert you to exempt, (a) make sure your position would qualify under the law; it’s based on job duties, not the employer’s preference, and (b) find out whether they too have a double standard where they’d require you to use PTO to take time off even if you regularly work additional hours.

4. Staying in touch when a hiring process is put on hold

I know you get asked about following up after an interview all the time, but my question is about what to do when you’ve been told hiring has been put on hold. I had a great interview a month ago, sent my thank-you email, and then sent a follow-up about a week later (when he told me they’d be making a decision by). Some time later, I got an email back saying that they’re in a holding pattern (because some contracts needed to drive the position hadn’t come through yet), but he’d be in touch when they’re ready to move forward with the process. I’m just wondering if there is a way to stay in touch, and keep following up so I’m still fresh in their in mind…without being annoying?

I wouldn’t do much of that, since he told you directly that he’ll be in touch when they’re ready to move forward. I think it would be fine to do one check-in, in about a month to see if he has a sense of their likely timeline, but after that I’d move on and assume that they’ll get in touch when/if they want to resume the process.

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

1. My coworker kept some of the donations she collected for a gift for our boss

One of my coworkers collected donations for Boss’s Day gifts for our project manager and assistant project manager. But over a month after the holiday, a gift had not been given. The person’s excuse was that she kept forgetting. A lot of people kept asking her about it; I know I asked two times. Still, though, no gifts. We finally told the assistant project manager, and he went up to her and asked about the donations and where the gift was for our project manager was. She made an excuse and said that she decided to save that money for a Christmas gift for them instead. Well, she never informed us of her change in plans. So a week later, she gives our manager a handmade item she bought. This is not what we agreed on.

We don’t know how much she collected for two gifts, but what I gave was way more than the one gift, so basically she kept a lot of money. I know I know we will never trust this person with money again. What should we do or can we do?

You should tell her clearly and firmly — preferably with the rest of the people who donated — that you want an accounting of how the money was spent, including a receipt, and that you want the remainder returned. If it helps to have specific language, I’d start by saying this: “It looks like there must be money left over from the gift purchase — can you show us the receipt for the final cost so we can figure out how to divide up and return the money that was left over?”

And unless she makes this right immediately after that, you should give your boss a heads-up about what happened, because stealing from coworkers is a serious thing.

2. Managing an employee who’s missing a ton of work because of chronic illness

I have an employee who for the last six months has been out sick about 1-2 days a week on average, due to chronic illness. In the last couple of months, his health has deteriorated considerably and he’s had to miss two and a half weeks straight. Now that he’s back, and still in not better health, it looks like it’s back to the pattern of weekly days off. This is affecting performance, and others, including me, have had to shoulder a lot of the burden: missed deadlines, poor quality work, and an overall significant decrease in productivity.

I want to be compassionate but am not sure what the best solution moving forward is. All employees are at will and he’s exhausted all his paid time off. I’ve considered making him part-time to give him the time he needs while freeing up resources to get the work done (full disclosure: he’s communicated in the past that he needs the full-time position because of financial reasons, though obviously cannot do the job). I’m not sure if there are other transition/temporary solutions to a situation like this.

I run a small company of only 12 employees so we are not required to offer FMLA. I’ve considered doing an FMLA-like structure but worry that because of his financial concerns it’ll be more of a burden to administer than a help (especially given that my company is incredibly flexible; he can come in for five hours one day, be available a full day another, or only be able to do one hour of work another). I will consider termination but given that much of this in intertwined with health issues I want to make sure I do the right thing.

All you can really do is figure out the bottom line answer to what you need — which might be having the person in his role reliably at work full-time, or having him go part-time so that you can hire a second part-time person to take up the rest of his duties, or either of those, or some other option altogether.

Once you’re clear on the scenario(s) that would work on your end, sit down with him and tell him that you know he’s been having a rough time of it, that you’ve tried to be as flexible as possible, but that you want to be realistic about what’s going on and what you need on your end. Tell him the scenarios that would work on your end, and ask what makes sense to him. You can be kind and compassionate while still saying, “Ultimately, here’s what I need. Let’s talk about how our needs can line up, or what to do if they can’t.”

3. Should I resign or do I owe my employer a chance to try to keep me?

I put in notice at the end of September that I’d be leaving my job. The job had far more travel than was originally discussed, and my life as a remote worker was very difficult (poor phone connections and a consensus-based workplace culture didn’t mix well, and indecisive bosses, who sometimes gave contradictory guidance, added to the frustration).

Despite the poor fit and my failed attempts to make it work, I pushed through my first year and completed our main annual project, and decided to leave only after that was over. I didn’t want to leave the position in the middle of the project, as I wanted to leave on good terms. I’m uniquely qualified for my position, and so I offered to stick around for a month or two to train a replacement. I gave excessive travel as my main reason for leaving, and did not touch on the workplace culture or communication difficulties (I’ve mentioned those before with poor results).

They didn’t want to see me go and offered to change my position to make it more workable. I told them I didn’t see how my job could work with reduced travel, but I’d hear them out. They said they’d put together a plan soon. That was two months ago. They’ve dragged their feet on the plan. Then about four weeks ago, they said they wanted me to meet with an outside consultant and they’d put me in contact with them. I haven’t heard anything.

I’ve done all that I should do, right? I’ve been trying to do the right thing by them, but now they’re having me set up new projects that I won’t be around to manage. I’ve kept asking about their plan, but haven’t heard anything back. The workload, however, has been light the past month or two and I’ve been using the time to bide my resources towards my life and career after this job. But I’m good now, they haven’t offered me a plan, and I’m ready to move on. Should I just finally put my foot down, give them a last date, and leave?

Yep. You didn’t renew marriage vows with them; you just offered to hear them out, and they haven’t bothered to make that happen. You were entitled to say “no, my decision is final, but thank you” two months ago, and you’re entitled to say it now.

If they act aggrieved that you’re leaving without hearing their proposal, you can just say, “I’ve given it a lot of thought and realized this is the right decision for me.” If you want to be more pointed, you could say, “I hadn’t heard anything concrete in the last two months, and have decided it makes the most sense to move on.”

Read an update to this letter here.

4. When my state’s vocational rehabilitation sucks, where can I go for help?

You’ve written several times about how government agencies give poor job search advice. I have two obvious disabilities that pose serious barriers to employment, so I reached out to my state’s department of vocational rehabilitation for assistance. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the advice I’ve been given is appalling. The career counselor told me to use a functional resume with an objective that lists duties for the job I held previously. She also advised me to show up to companies in person to ask for interviews. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she steered me toward menial jobs even though I have a college degree. The higher-ups wouldn’t assign me a new counselor when I complained, so I decided to run far away.

My question is: Where should I be running? There are resume reviewers/writers and career coaches, but their fees are out of reach for the chronically unemployed. The industry is also entirely unregulated, so I wouldn’t have much recourse if I ended up hiring a fly-by-night company. The other popular suggestion is to tap your network, but one of my disabilities is high-functioning autism. The social difficulties inherent in that condition mean I don’t exactly have a huge network that will charge in to save the day.

It has now been over six months since I last worked. Research conducted during the recession suggests that anyone who has been out of work that long is only marginally employable, and with my poor work history, that goes double for me. Is there a way to extricate myself from this unemployment quagmire?

I actually think you can get the best job search advice these days from blogs like this one — look for advice-givers who have done significant amounts of hiring themselves, and ignore the rest. It’s not as personalized as working with a coach, of course, but with some work you can figure out how to apply posts like this one to your situation, and while it’s a bit more work, I think it’s a better bet that one-on-one time with someone giving you terrible guidance. (I am assuming from the context you gave that you’re looking for resume and interview advice rather than “apply for this specific job” type of advice, but please tell me in the comments if I’m getting that wrong!)

Also, I strongly, strongly urge you to file a complaint about the agency you worked with. Write to your state legislators and let them know what your experience was; this stuff won’t change until people speak up.

What other advice do people have?

5. How do I write goals for next year in my annual review?

I am preparing for my first annual review in my administrative assistant position at a small non-profit. I have only been in this job for seven months, but our organization conducts reviews for all employees just once each year.

As part of my review, I have to complete a self-evaluation form, and I am having some trouble with this. The section where I must describe accomplishments from the past year is easy–I’ve learned a lot very quickly, so I am recapping systems, processes and structures that I feel I’ve mastered. However, I don’t know how to set goals for next year. I’ve received a lot of praise for excelling at this job, and it’s hard for me to come up with ways to improve on tasks I feel I’ve already mastered.

I’m also struggling with this because our director has generously allowed me to take on tasks that are outside the purview of my job description but that are aligned better with my academic background (I have a master’s in a social research field) and still support the goals of our organization; they even sent me on a professional development course to get more training in how to perform these functions. However, I want my self evaluation to reflect the fact that I know what job I was hired to do (be an admin) while also acknowledging that I have an interest in developing my skills in this new area.

How can I write goals that are aligned with my job description, but are still honest about my sense of mastery over my tasks and desire to explore other areas within the organization?

It sounds like you’re thinking of goals as being about your personal mastery of things, but they should be about what you will achieve for the organization, not about what you personally learn. (In fact, you sound like you still have an academic mindset and are thinking about this in that context — but what your job cares about is what you’re accomplishing for them.) So for an admin job, examples might be things like:
* All meeting requests have been scheduled within 48 hours, with a first scheduling attempt being made the day the request is received.
* Locate a new space that fits our needs for expansion and ensure the move goes seamlessly with minimal disruption to staff’s work.
* Manage our finances so that our expenses are aligned with the budget and we know whether or not we’re on track at all times.
* Ensure staff has access to whatever administrative support they need to do their work smoothly on a day-to-day basis.

In other words, if you do an awesome job next year, what will you have achieved by the end of it?

Also, I’d use this focus when you’re doing your self-evaluation for the past year too; focus not on what you mastered but on what you accomplished.

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

1. I see meat being left out for hours in the cafeteria

I’m a security guard, a contractor working for a high tech business. I work for the security company, not directly for the company I’m posted at.

The company has a cafeteria, which is catered by another third party contractor. Often during my night patrols, I find raw meat left out of the fridge/freezer, at room temperature. The cafeteria staff arrive at about 10 a.m. They leave the property at about 2 p.m. That means that by the time I’ve come in and found it, that meat has already been out at room temperature for 8+ hours, and by the time the cafeteria staff get in, that meat has been out for more than 18 hours. I used to do restaurant work, and I know this goes against every food safety rule out there. This can easily cause food poisoning, salmonella, and even E. coli. This could even kill people.

I mentioned it to my boss, who told me not to bother about it, since it isn’t our job to police the kitchen, but I’m afraid someone will get sick. I reported it to the local health board, but because of the high security at the company, the board cannot make surprise inspections. They have to apply weeks in advance, and because of that, the cafeteria staff learn the inspectors will be there and hide all their bad practices. I have even gone so far as to take photos of the bacteria-growing meat and send them to the health board, but their hands are tied. The board has already approached the cafeteria catering company about leaving meat out of the fridge, but they continue to do this up to three times a week that I know of and likely more.

I don’t know if management knows how bad the cafeteria is, but I DO know that the staff who eat there don’t have any idea how much risk of food poisoning they’re in. What should I do? What can I do? I like the people I work with. I’m protective of them. I don’t want them to get sick. But I also don’t want to get pulled off this site or fired. And I don’t want my own supervisor to get in trouble. I’m stuck here… I just can’t make myself not care.

I’d mention it to a reasonably senior person at the business where you’re seeing this (not at the security company). Make it clear it’s something you’ve seen regularly, not just once, and say that you’ve been unsure about what to do about it but that you thought you should report it to someone because it’s a health risk.

If you’re not sure who an appropriate reasonably senior person would be, is there anyone who works for the company you patrol who have pretty good rapport with? You could discreetly tell them what you’ve seen and ask who to talk to (if they can tell you who oversees the cafeteria contract, that would be ideal).

2. Employee’s personal life is derailing conversations about her work

My friend has an employee who she is in the middle of a formal performance process with. This employee has had difficult events in her personal life a year ago (a messy divorce and all the difficult logistics that go with that), and has stated that this combined with the performance process is causing her stress and further impacting her performance.

The employee has asked for regular meetings to talk through priorities, get feedback, etc. All well and good. However, when her manager has these meetings, they inevitably become about the employee’s difficult personal life, and this derails the discussion and the employee becomes very emotional. She does not accept feedback well, and while her issues are no doubt genuine and difficult, it feels they have become a shield to use up time and deflect from the real problem: her unwillingness to take accountability, and a poor productivity rate.

Her manager has offered the in-work support line and made other reasonable adjustments. Can you please help with some phrases to stop the discussion of her personal problems and turn the conversation back to feedback about her performance and discussion of her priorities?

“I’d like to keep our focus on your work/the X project/how to improve your Y numbers.”

“I know you’ve been going through a stressful time, but I do need you to focus on X.”

“I’m sorry you’re going through that. For this meeting, I’d like to keep our focus on X.”

If that doesn’t work, the manager needs to say, “I’m finding that we’re continuing to end up on what’s going on in your personal life, and while I’m sympathetic to that, it’s getting in the way of our being able to address X. For you to improve your performance and succeed in this role, we need to focus on work when we’re in these meetings. Can you commit to doing that?”

3. I received an unexpected gift card after I spoke to a class

I am an analyst at a government agency. I was recently contacted by a professor at a local university, who asked if I could present my work to her class. I gave my presentation today, speaking and answering questions for about an hour. After, she invited me back to her office to chat about research. Before I left her office, she handed me a gift. I opened the box and saw a coffee mug with the university logo. I thanked her for the kind gesture and left. Back at the office, I open it again, and see that in addition to the mug, there was a $25 gift card to a department store.

I feel weird about the gift card. I looked, and didn’t see any agency policies about accepting gifts in our personnel manual. I think the professor didn’t realize that the gift card was a bit much; she is very young and also may not be familiar with professional culture in the U.S. (she is from China). Anyway, what should I do? Contact her about giving it back? Ask my HR department? Use it to buy socks to give to homeless people? Right now, the sock giving idea appeals to me most … I really feel weird about contacting her about giving it back, and I also don’t love working with our HR department. But I want to do the right thing.

Check with your HR department because the government generally does have policies on accepting gifts (although this one might be under the dollar limit). If you can keep it, I’d consider it a speaking honorarium that you can use however you want, including buying socks for the homeless if you’d like.

4. Should I tell my new job I’m still doing some work for my old job?

I have been working at a grocery store for eight long years. I went to school and recently got hired in an office and it is related to my career choice. I have only been there three weeks and I absolutely love it. But of course, it pays less than my retail job because I had been there so long and I took a pay cut for an entry-level position since I have little experience. So I have been working weekends and a couple of night shifts at my old job to make money.

At my new job, I overheard one of my coworkers say that once in a while during a crazy week, we are required to work Saturdays. I work at my old job on weekends.

I feel compelled to tell my new manager about how I still work at my old job. I think he is glad he hired me and I’m really nervous to speak with him about it. I never brought it up before I got hired but I don’t want to be dishonest. I do not want him to be disappointed or think I am not fully committed to my new job. Also would me telling him this make him reconsider and affect my three-month probation period? I overthink and stress a lot and just need some encouragement.

If no one has officially told you you may need to work an occasional Saturday and this is just something you overheard, I think you should feel free to continue what you’ve been doing until someone tells you otherwise — which is what you would have done if you hadn’t overheard that conversation, after all. It’s not dishonest not to disclose something it had never occurred to you disclose and that no one had asked you to disclose.

That said, it might not be a bad idea to proactively ask your manager about it now, so that you don’t end up with a conflict at the last minute. You could say something like, “I thought I overheard a mention that we sometimes have to work Saturdays. Is that right? And when that happens, how much advance notice do we normally have?”

It might turn out that this isn’t an issue at all. If it is, though, then you can decide if you can make the old job still work under those conditions, and how you want to handle it if you can’t. But as long as you’re committed to working when the new job needs you, it would be very unlikely for your manager to let you go for keeping some hours at your old job. There ARE jobs that don’t want people having outside work, but if this is one of them, they’d just let you know that — not peremptorily fire you.

5. My new job isn’t what I’d expected

I work in the university system and have a background in student development. I recently moved to a large city with plenty of universities after four years working for Teapot University in another state. After four months of aggressively job-searching (and having no paycheck), I was hired at Coffeepot University (supposedly in a student services department). It was hard to get universities to pay attention to my resume because I “only” have a bachelors, so I took a position that was underpaid but sounded vaguely related to my experience.

The problem is, I barely have any interactions with students that are meaningful or developmental. I knew I would have some administrative work, but what I didn’t fully understand at the time of hire is that I’m purely an administrative assistant. For example, I was told that I would be liaison to student senate. The reality is that about once a week, I make photocopies or send an email for them. I am absolutely miserable. To top it all off, I was hired as an hourly worker, so the “amazing” vacation time and 35 hour work-week that the university is known for (and uses to recruit) are benefits that are reduced for my position. I also often end up working though lunch even though that’s not part of my paid hours, because I don’t have anywhere else to go (no lounge), my desk is out in the open, and I’m not paid enough to go out to eat. You don’t start working in student development for the money, but now I’m underpaid, have a lengthy commute and I don’t get to do the thing I love the most at all. I feel unsatisfied, broke and duped!

When is it acceptable to start putting myself out there again for other positions? I’d like to start immediately, but I’m worried that having this position for one month on my resume is going to taint me as a job-hopper. Is there anything I can write in my cover letter that could address why I’d like to leave my position so soon? If I’m lucky enough to get an interview, I was planning on saying something like “Unfortunately, the position didn’t allow me to utilize my any student development experience, which is what I was not what I was led to believe at the time of hire.” I’m a little wary of sounding like I’m slamming my current university, when I’m already on thin ice for looking like a hopper.

If you’ve only been there a month, I actually wouldn’t put it on your resume at all. You’re not going to have meaningful accomplishments in that amount of time, after all, and it raises more questions than it answers. You recently moved to your city, so it makes sense that you’re currently job searching.

But if for some reason you need to disclose the current job (for instance, if you’re applying elsewhere in the same university system), I’d say, “The job turned out to be a different type of work than what I’d expected when I was hired. I had understood I’d be doing student development work, but it’s turned out to be more of an administrative assistant position.” That’s pretty similar to the wording you suggested, but I think slightly more dispassionate in tone.

Read an update to this letter here.

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Also, there’s a Thanksgiving open thread in full swing! It should go on throughout Thursday.