Ask a Manager

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

1. Employee wants to retract his resignation — but we don’t want him to

We have an employee who resigned by email two weeks ago. He sent the email to our office manager, the head of HR, one of the VP’s, and the president of the company. Our office manager did not get it because the employee sent it to the wrong address, but everyone else got it. Fast forward to last week, when the employee told us that he wants to stay. (Evidently he had a job lined up but it “fell through.” In this business, that usually means they failed the drug test.) Well, there have been talks all week between project managers and the office manager who is on vacation, as well as corporate. Today I was told to call him to come in tomorrow (they work a four-day week) and terminate him. So, how do you terminate in this situation?

It’s not a termination — it’s simply telling him that you’re choosing to let the original resignation to stand and are declining to take him back. That makes sense to do if you weren’t too upset (or were outright relieved) that he was leaving and you want the chance to hire someone stronger (or if you’ve already promised the role to someone else and don’t think he’s strong enough that you want to find another slot for him). It doesn’t make sense to do if it’s solely on principle.

But assuming it’s the former, I’d say something like this: “At this point, we’ve already begun taking action on your resignation and don’t think that it makes sense to change course. We’d like to keep your last date as (date), as you originally suggested.”

Ideally, you’d also explain your reasoning — such as that you’re heavily into talks with other candidates or changing course with the position, or that you had performance concerns that make you hesitant to renew the employment agreement, or whatever the reason is.

2. People are stealing our break room supplies

I stated with my company eight months ago as the office manager. How do I address the situation when break room supplies are constantly coming up missing? We supply coffee, tea, coffee creamer (flavored and unflavored), plastic silverware, paper plates, etc. We only have about 24 employees, and usually most are out in the field working at clients. Usually about half of that number are in the office on a daily basis. I’ve noticed that we run out of items very rapidly – too fast for that amount of people. Case in point, we put out a new pack of silverware on a Monday. By Wednesday, the drawer was empty! What is the “politically correct” way to tell everyone to stop stealing?

Well, first, be absolutely sure that people are in fact taking this stuff home with them; it’s possible that you’re underestimating normal use for a group that size. But if you’re sure this is happening, in an office this small, you should be able to just talk to people as a group or send an email that says items are disappearing faster than normal office use would account for and that you’re asking people not to take stuff home for personal use. If the problem continues after that, you could consider cutting back on how much you supply (i.e., you buy a certain amount for the week and that’s it) … but I’d balance the actual costs you’re incurring against the potential hit to morale for people who aren’t misusing the supplies.

3. Recruiter sent me hostile message after I mentioned I’d reach out to my old managers/his client

I was working with a recruiter who had presented me to a client of his. I went and interviewed but didn’t get that contract gig.

Just a few hours ago, I was doing some job searching and came across a job posting where the point of contact was the same recruiter. I had also worked with the client previously and developed personal relationships with the managers who I worked with. When I asked the recruiter if the job was open, he replied, “The client is not interested in moving ahead with your profile.”

Then I asked him if he had any feedback, When he didn’t reply, I said, “It’s all good, I am able to contact my managers directly as I have built relationships with them while I worked there.” He wrote back the following response: “Please refrain from contacting the client directly. You will NOT! be hired. Your tech abilities were clearly not up to snuff. If you engage in communication with my client, you will be red listed from our system.”

I feel the response was very threatening, unprofessional, and demeaning. Past employees or anybody else for that matter do not need approval or any kind of permission from a recruiting agency to reach out to their past managers. And candidates are under no obligations of any kind to use recruiting/staffing agencies to go to an employer. What should I do with this?

Recruiters do have legitimate reason for not wanting candidates to contact employers directly: It raises disputes over who “owns” a candidate, the recruiter (who would be owed a commission if the person was hired) or the employer. Those disputes stem directly with recruiters’ contracts with employers, so it’s not something they’re just making up because it’s in their best interests; it’s a legitimate legal issue from the contract both sides entered into. However, in a case where you already had a relationship with the employer because you worked for them, it’s pretty silly to ban you from contacting them — especially when the recruiter had already told you that he was interested in submitting you for the job.

In any case, it’s possible that he’s exactly right in his feedback to you; he might know that you’re not the profile they’re looking for. But yes, he was certainly rude about it. I’d just opt out of working with him in the future, write him off as a bit of a jerk, and move on.

4. I’m disappointed that an employer ended up advertising the job they’re talking to me about

I recently was able to secure an interview after I cold called (well, LinkedIn InMailed an organization) and found there was a very recent opening. It was so recent that they hadn’t put the position up yet online.

Perhaps this was a bit too naive of me and idealistic, but I was disappointed that in the interview, the guy said he had put the advertisement up that day. It made me feel less special but I didn’t ask any questions about it.

I would have thought they would have waited to put up the ad to see if they liked me and if they didn’t, then put the ad up. I imagine major job search sites charge a fee for a placement of an ad, as well as the writing of the ad itself takes time and effort. I guess this might have been above the interviewer’s head and/or a legal requirement. Is this a usual practice and what does this mean for me as an applicant? (I haven’t yet heard back.)

There’s no legal requirement that they advertise the job, but it’s very, very normal for them to want to advertise and get a wide pool of applicants rather than only interviewing one person who had happened to contact them. It’s not personal and it’s not a reflection on your candidacy; it would just be bad hiring to do otherwise. Employers want to hire the best person they can find; that necessarily means looking at more than one applicant, even if that one applicant is good. (You actually should take this as a good sign about the employer; if they didn’t do it, it would be a red flag for you about how they operate.)

5. Employer won’t let us drive home if we’re sick

I work in Iowa. My place of employment is now telling us that if we leave work early for being sick, we are not allowed to drive home. They will either provide us a ride or have us set up a ride and leave our vehicle at work to be picked up at a later time. Once I’m off the clock, can they really force me not to drive home and leave my vehicle at work?

Probably. You’d need to take to a lawyer to see if there’s anything in your state law that would prohibit it, but federal law doesn’t prevent this kind of overreach by an employer.

Law aside, it’s an incredibly obnoxious policy; most people who are sick are perfectly capable of driving themselves home. It’s clearly designed to keep people from leaving during the work day, even if they’re legitimately ill. I’d ask them to explain to you the rationale for the policy, and consider pushing back with a group of others so that your objection has strength in numbers behind it.

This kind of overreach is a recipe for annoyed employees who aren’t as inclined to go above and beyond at work. (And if it’s accompanied by similar overreaching policies, it’s the sort of thing that often eventually inspires people to unionize). Your employer is being pretty short-sighted.

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

1. My new coworker won’t stop texting me

I recently started a new job, and one of my coworkers, an older man, asked to exchange numbers. I thought nothing of it, as I have exchanged numbers with coworkers in the past. Things instantly got uncomfortable, though. He texted me way too many times that same night. Some of the texts were also, to me, borderline inappropriate things to say to a young woman you barely know. My responses to him became colder and colder until I stopped responding altogether. Then I got hit with messages asking if I was still there, if I was awake (late at night), etc.

He seems like a nice person at work and is very chummy with people, and I wonder if maybe he’s just a little misguided on appropriate interactions rather than a creeper. I don’t know him well enough to answer that. All I know is I want the texting to stop altogether, but I don’t know how to tactfully say that without damaging our present and future working relationship (sometimes this coworker and I work together, alone, so I don’t want there to be tension).

Also, is this something I should bring up to my boss or HR, or should I wait until I’ve tried to resolve this with my coworker directly?

My money is on creeper.

You need to tell him directly to stop texting you. Just say, “Please don’t continue texting me on this number. Thank you.” Or you could say, “I thought you wanted my number for work issues; please don’t send me personal texts.” If you feel rude saying that, realize that the rudeness is coming from him; you’re simply asserting an appropriate boundary in response to it. (And by the way, someone who is not a creeper will hear this and stop immediately. If he resists, he’s a jerk and you don’t need to worry about being rude anyway.)

If he doesn’t stop after you directly tell him to, then yes, at that point you should talk to HR because it’s getting into sexual harassment territory and that’s their bag.

You could also just block his number, but that’s not as likely to put an end to his advances as a direct statement to him to stop.

Read an update to this letter here.

2. I sent a sloppily formatted application email

I recently worked on a cover letter, resume, and email greeting for a job at my dream company. They’re not currently hiring, but I wanted to grab their attention and was really pleased with how unique my application was.

When I composed the email, I was drafting it in Microsoft Word. Then I pasted it into my Gmail and altered a couple of things, but then made sure it was all the same font, size, etc. I sent the email and bcc’d myself at my Outlook address. When I received the email in Outlook, it looked terrible! There was random spacing, and certain parts of sentences had different fonts and sizes. I was so embarrassed! It’s as if the changes I made in the Gmail window didn’t register.

I decided to reformat the email, test it, and send through again with a short note saying that I’d noticed the format had been altered from Gmail to Outlook, that I’d reformatted for an easier read, and was sorry to have to send again. Is this going to make me look sloppy? There were no typos in the email or the attachment, just the formatting of the body of the email. I’m still embarrassed because it meant so much to me to grab their attention…but not in a negative way!

I wouldn’t worry about it. They’re not going to be outraged by the original formatting, and you sent them a clean version. It’s fine.

(In the future, Gmail’s “remove formatting” feature is your friend; it’ll make all your text look uniform.)

3. Does my employer have to act on a doctor’s note?

I have degenerative spine disease, which is made worse by sitting. I have a doctor’s note requesting that I have an adjustable height desk so I can stand as needed. They provided one that didn’t work out well with my desk. I have found another desk that would work well because it is the whole desk that raises and not an apparatus you put on the desk. Does employer have to provide an ergonomic solution since I have a doctor’s note? My doctor’s note also suggests this work station as a way to avoid potential surgery.

In general, employers aren’t legally bound to follow the requests or recommendations in doctor’s notes. Good employers will try to if it’s practical, but they’re not legally bound to. However, if the Americans with Disabilities Act is in play here, then they do need to work with you to try to find a reasonable accommodation (which might be what your doctor is recommending but might be something else — although what your doctor is recommending sounds pretty reasonable).

So the question is whether you’re covered under the ADA (which doesn’t list specific conditions other than AIDS, but does cover physical or mental impairments that “substantially limits one or more of the major life activities”).

4. Are farm workers exempt from overtime pay?

I was told by my boss (who is a farm manager) that they don’t have to pay overtime pay (time and a half) if we work more than 40 hours, because farms exist in a wage loophole which allows them to pay straight pay over 40 hours. My question: Is this true?

It’s true! Agricultural workers are indeed exempt from overtime laws (although they still need to be paid minimum wage).