Ask a Manager

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

1. Should I tell a job candidate that I know he lied about his work history or just reject him without saying why?

We have an open staff position and a promising applicant applied. I did a phone interview and he was great. We talked about his current job and whatnot, and I set up an in person interview for the next week with my boss.

During that time, I googled him to see if I could find any red flags. His name is pretty common so nothing came up, so I also went to the website of the nonprofit where he worked. He wasn’t listed on the staff page, and they only have 11 or so staff so it wasn’t that they just listed senior people. My boss had searched for him too and noticed this same thing, so I told him I’d look into it. While he was in the interview with my boss, I had a coworker call the organization and ask for this person. She connected with someone in HR and was told “I’ve never heard of him.” To make sure it wasn’t something strange, I called back myself and talked to another random person and asked for this guy again and they said he hadn’t worked there in a year and a half, so I now had double confirmation that he no longer works there. (By the way, if he had been a current employee we wouldn’t have blown his cover that he was job searching; we had a cover story about having a question about a blog post he has written for the organization and had some questions we wanted to ask him about it. We aren’t careless enough to risk someone’s current job.)

I know for a fact that he said he currently works there because his resume listed it as his current position and in my phone interview he said he’d have to give two weeks notice, and he told my boss the same thing. So, clearly he’s lying and we can’t hire him.

Do we just send him a generic rejection and move on or do we tell him that we know he’s lying? We aren’t going to hire him so there’s nothing he could say to change our minds; he’s clearly being deceptive and it would be more of a “you’ve been caught and need to stop this,” but I don’t know what purpose that serves. Also, do we reach out to his former organization to let them know that he is out there telling people that he’s still a current employee? I don’t know what’s courteous or proper to do in a situation like this. We definitely learned a great lesson today though about doing our due diligence on applicants!

On the off chance that there’s actually an explanation for this other than that he’s lying, I’d ask him about it. (For example, maybe there’s a second organization with a similar name, or maybe you reached a temp who had bad info, or who knows what. I mean, he’s probably lying, but you should find out for sure before concluding that definitively.) I’d say this to him: “I wanted to confirm — are you still working at Teapots Inc.?” Assuming he says yes, I’d say, “I noticed you weren’t on their staff listing, and when I called and asked for you, I was told that you haven’t worked there in a year and a half.” Then see what he says.

Not only does this let you find out if there is actually a legitimate explanation, it has the additional benefit of letting you call him out on the lie (assuming it is in fact a lie).

But no, I wouldn’t reach out to his former employer to let them know; that’s going beyond the bounds of what you have standing to do here.

2. Do I really need to include a return date in my out-of-office message?

I was thinking about removing the return date in my out-of-office autoreply. I leave the office quite frequently, and keeping this date current is a bit of a chore. By contrast, without it, it’s a static message I can just turn on and off.

I’m sure you’ll say that all things considered it’s better to have it in, but in this age of shared calendars, is it really such a faux pas to leave it out?

If the only people who email you are internal, I suppose you could have a message that said something like, “I’m currently out of the office. Please see my calendar for my availability” … but you’re asking people to jump through an additional hoop that some of them will probably be annoyed by.

Plus, if anyone external is emailing you, they can’t see your shared calendar, so that does them no good.

I vote for leaving the date in, and keeping a reminder near your desk to update it when you return.

3. Putting limits on how late I work during my notice period

I am very excited because I was just offered an exciting new job opportunity doing something I enjoy. Upon accepting my new job, I requested three weeks notice because I knew my current boss would be facing tough deadlines the next few weeks. I’ve been working late into the night all this week and I’m starting to realize that this is how the next three weeks are going to be.

On the one hand, I don’t want to leave my manager stuck with all of the work, but if I continue to to work late into the night, I’m worried that I’ll be completely burned out by the time I start my new position. The deadlines that the corporate group has tasked us are unrealistic. Do you think it would be acceptable to tell my manager that I’m happy to work as hard as possible, but ask for a firm time that I leave every day. Leaving early would require my manager to work even later, but I think I need to start looking out for myself. What is the most appropriate action I should take in this case?

Absolutely you should be able to work reasonable hours during your final weeks, especially since you gave more generous than required notice. I’d say this to your boss: “I’ve realized that I’ve been working late in the night and can’t keep that up or I’ll be starting my new job exhausted. I’m glad to give you the extra week of notice and I’m going to work hard to leave things in as good of shape as possible, but I’m going to need to work more standard hours for my remaining time and am going to aim to be out of here by (time) most days.”

If your manager presses you continue working long hours, say, “I’m sorry, but I really can’t. I’m going to work as hard as I can during this remaining time, but realistically I know that I need to start the new job reasonably well-rested.”

4. Sending a thank-you note over a holiday weekend

I had a phone interview this afternoon (finally, an interview!) and I’m a little confused as how to proceed in sending a thank-you email. I didn’t send one immediately after hanging up because it might come across as perfunctory. I noticed on your website that you recommend waiting 5 to 48 hours, but that will leave my email being sent on Friday evening or in the middle of the weekend (and this is a long weekend). Does that matter?

Nope. You don’t need to time it to arrive during business hours. They’ll see it when they return to work.

5. Overtime pay during weeks with holidays

I work in a call center and have 42 hours next week, but I do not get time-and-a-half. Are they allowed to do that? They explained to me that the only reason I have over 40 hours is because I get an automatic 8 hours pay because of the holiday.

Yes, if you’re not actually working eight of those hours, then they’re right. If you’re actually working over 40 hours, they’d need to pay overtime. Overtime pay is just about how many hours you actually worked, not how many you’re getting “credit” for.

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

1. Coworker regularly mock-slaps me with a clipboard while yelling at me

The manager of the department next to mine frequently marches in front of my desk and, in a standing position, mocks slapping my face with a clipboard while yelling, stomping her feet, and pointing animatedly with her arms, then drops the clipboard to the ground for emphasis at the conclusion of her tirades. I find her actions aggressive and physically threatening. Certainly they are unprofessional and inappropriate. Can I legally report her for wrongdoing and to whom? My immediate supervisor is aware.

No, there’s no law agains mock slapping if she’s not actually making physical contact. You can, however, tell her directly to stop: “Please stop waving that clipboard in my face right now.” You might also add on, “Please stop speaking to me that way,” followed by, “I’m not willing to be spoken to this way, and I’m going to walk away from this conversation now.”

And your manager sucks for knowing about this and doing nothing. If you have a reasonably responsive HR department, you might consider talking to them about it.

2. The friend I referred did horribly; should I talk to her about it?

I’ve been working freelance in film and television for the last two years since graduating college. What this usually entails is long hours, being detail-oriented, being on time, and having a good attitude. I assume this isn’t too far off from qualities required in other job fields, so I don’t usually explain crew expectations to people I recommend for jobs.

I have a slightly younger friend who recently graduated and is looking for work in the same field. She sees me as kind of a junior mentor since I’m slightly older than her, we have similar personalties and interests, and I’ve gone through all the job hurdles she’s about to encounter for the first time. All summer I’ve been recommending her for opportunities when I can. This morning though, I got a call from a coordinator friend at a major TV network. They recently hired my friend as a production assistant for a shoot, and it went horribly. They said she was nice, but she was repeatedly late to work (ranging from 20-60 minutes late), did not pay attention to details (got the director tea instead of coffee, etc.), and in general wasn’t motivated/a good worker. It caused some problems for my coordinator friend at the network. I apologized and made sure to get the story straight (I don’t want to ruin my reputation with a bad recommendation).

Should I talk to my friend about any of this? She wasn’t fired because the job was only a few days long, but she definitely soured her reputation at this network and isn’t going to get hired back. She is new to our industry and I want to make sure that she knows what the expectations are at future jobs, because I care about her and want her to do well. I got permission from my coordinator friend to chat with her about this, but I’m not really sure how to proceed. It’s worth mentioning my younger friend is incredibly, sweet, talented and shy, so I’m also a little worried about a talk like this doing more to hurt her than help her. Do you think I should talk to her, and if so how should I go about it?

Yes, you should talk to her. I’d say this: “I talked to Jane, and she mentioned that they weren’t happy with how things went on the X job. They gave me some feedback; would you like me to share it with you?” Assuming she says yes, be straightforward about what they told you.

No matter how receptive she is to this, though, you should stop recommending her until you know for a fact that she’s become a different type of worker; otherwise you risk harming your own reputation (not having future referrals taken seriously).

3. Telling my boss about a coworker’s inappropriate comments in a meeting

I was supporting a senior colleague in an external-facing meeting, and he made a number of analogies using terms generally inappropriate for the workplace. The tamest was “pooping in other people’s pools”; the least tame involved UV lights and bedding. At the end of the meeting, the external folks noted that the analogies “need to be sanitized” in future; the senior colleague responded, “Well, at least I didn’t say ‘semen’.”

I notified my other senior colleagues (notably my own boss) about the external folks’ comments (verbatim: “need to be sanitized”) as part of my predesignated role of relaying their feedback. Most of these other senior colleagues corroborated with similar accounts from their experiences with this guy, but one wants to know exactly what he said in order to prep/warn him in future.

Bottom line: I don’t think these comments should be put in writing anywhere (international team, very reliant on email) and I’m extremely uncomfortable having to repeat his comments (particularly because my boss has also made inappropriate comments in the past). So – how do I handle this without having to say the word “semen” to my colleagues?

I would just tell him; you’re allowed to say the word “semen” at work when it’s in the context of explaining someone’s inappropriate comments so that they can be addressed.

If you really don’t want to put it in email, you could say, “I’m uncomfortable repeating it in an email; feel free to give me a call if you need the verbatim quotes.” If you’re uncomfortable repeating it at all, you could explain that, but I’d urge you to just report the language dryly and factually.

4. Employees want details about a potentially contagious virus

One of our managers reached out to me regarding an employee who told a few of her coworkers that she had a viral infection that caused her to go on medical leave. They want to know if I can share what she has, whether it is contagious, and whether her work area needs to be cleaned because she works in a shared space. I know I can’t disclose the information per HIPAA, but how do I respond?

Actually, you’re probably not restricted by HIPAA. HIPAA applies to medical professionals, like doctor’s offices, but in most cases not employers.

That said, there’s no reason to disclose an employee’s medical information; you should protect her privacy even though the law doesn’t require it. But her coworkers aren’t being unreasonable to want to know if any precautions need to be taken. You can answer those questions without discussing the details of sick employee’s own situation.

5. If we’re on a call when our break comes, we have to skip the break

I am working at home for a call center that provides insurance agents for insurance company call centers. The company is domiciled outside the U.S., but the workers are U.S.-based; I am in Florida. We work standard shifts of 9 hours, with an hour for lunch and two 15-minute breaks. We have been told that if we are on a call and we miss out break time, we can not take it and just have to work until our lunch break or the end of the shift. To me, this does not seem correct. Is my employer skirting the law on this issue?

Florida doesn’t have a law requiring meal or other breaks during the work day (and nor does federal law), so it’s up to the employer whether to offer breaks or not. That means that your company is free to do what they’re doing; the breaks they’re offering are above the minimum required by law (which in this case is zero), so they’re free to revoke them if they want to. (That said, it sounds like you might have coworkers in a bunch of different states; if any of them are in states that do require breaks, your company would have to honor those laws for those workers, despite the fact that the company itself is based elsewhere.)

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

1. I’m interviewing for a job where I’d work at a small table in my boss’s office

I have a second interview coming up for an admin position in a small company (less than 30 employees). I am a seasoned admin, coming from a much larger company in a much larger city, but this job appeals to me for a lot of reasons. The biggest reason is that it’s seven minutes from my house, as opposed to my current one-hour commute each way. The money is not as much as I’m making now, but with the difference in gas money and the wear and tear on my car, it’s almost a wash, not even including my time.

There’s one thing really bugging me, though. This is a newly created position. The interviewer (VP and sister of the company owner) will be my boss, and the work space she has planned for her new hire is a computer set up at a small round table in the corner of her office. That’s it. No desk, no shelf, no drawer, not even a proper office chair, at least as far as I could tell in my first interview. The building the company occupies is new and nicely furnished. It’s a very pretty little table. We sat at the matching side chairs for our interview.

She explained that she wants to keep her new assistant “close” while this person learns the ropes. I don’t know if she plans to move that person to a real desk later. (God, I really hope she does, even if it’s not me.) I didn’t get a tour…I only saw her office and the front/showroom area. I don’t know how much other space there is.

What do you think? Should it really be bugging me this much? Should I ask her about it, and if so, how? I’ve never in my life had a job where I didn’t even have a desk.

I suppose it depends on your own preferences, but I sure as hell wouldn’t want to work at a tiny table in my boss’s office, unless it was only for a day or two for training.

It’s perfectly reasonable to ask, “Can you tell me more about the office space this person will ultimately have? Will they continue to work from your office or move to a different space once they’re trained?”

Depending on the answer, you may need to consider how much a seven-minute commute is really worth to you.

Read updates to this letter here and here.

2. Recruiter contacted me at my work email address

This morning I had an email about a job opportunity. Lucky for me, I’m in a very hot career field and I get these emails pretty regularly via LinkedIn or from recruiters who’ve held on to my resume for years and years.

This one came to my work email. I’ve only had this job a few months and my work email address isn’t listed anywhere. It’s not on any company website or on LinkedIn. I realize it’s fairly easy to guess someone’s work email address and that must have been what this recruiter did. Considering that LinkedIn is the only place that mentions where I’m now working, I can’t understand why this person chose not to contact me on LinkedIn. Is it best just to delete it or should I reply back about how completely inappropriate this is?

It’s actually fairly common for recruiters to email people’s work addresses; I’m not really sure why. I think you could certainly write back and say that you don’t want to be contacted at work about other jobs; it’s a legitimate point to make. (And if you don’t want the correspondence on your work email at all, you could write back from your personal email address.) But it would also be fine to simply delete or reply that you’re not interested.

3. My former company laid me off but is telling reference checkers they fired me

Six years ago, I was laid off from a job I had been at for about six months. The reason I was given was that my position was being eliminated, but they also said that it was a concern that I had used one more sick day than I had accrued. They gave me a severance package, and I collected unemployment until I found something else. Since then, when interviewing, I’ve said that I was laid off due to my position being eliminated. I’ve even used my direct manager at that job as a reference. So you can imagine my surprise that when I got a copy of my most recent background check a potential hiring company ran, I saw that the company gave the feedback that I was fired due to attendance and would not be rehired. Obviously, this is bad. What is my best move for future interviews and background checks?

Contact the company and tell them that you’re concerned that they’re providing an inaccurate reference that’s standing in the way of you finding work. Tell them that when they laid you off, they told you that your position was being eliminated — which is different from what they’re now telling references.

This is a little tricky in that it’s possible that they selected your position for elimination because of attendance concerns (and it actually sounds like that might be the case), and it’s also possible to lay someone off and still consider them ineligible for rehire (because of their performance before the layoff, even though a layoff is different from a firing) — but by addressing it forthrightly, you might be able to negotiate what they say. At a minimum, they shouldn’t be saying you were fired when you were laid off.

Sometimes a lawyer can be helpful in negotiating this kind of thing, so that could be an option to consider too, depending on what kind of dynamic you have with the company.

4. How can I get an employee to be less chatty with customers and coworkers?

I have an employee who is very chatty on calls with customers, as well as with employees. She’s an older lady and she is overly thorough to the point that my warehouse mangers and drivers don’t like having to talk to her because she keeps them on the phone too long. I have done a couple of one on one meetings with her but she continues to ramble with employees especially. Can you please advise me of ways to address this?

How direct have you been in your feedback? Have you told her clearly that she needs to significantly pull back on how chatty she is with customers and coworkers, or did you soften the message (which managers often do in an attempt not to hurt people’s feelings)? If you haven’t been very, very straightforward, now is the time to do that. You should also spell out exactly what her chattiness level should look like — because she might think she’s pulled it back sufficiently and doesn’t realize that it needs to be, for example, 50% of what it is now.

If that doesn’t get you where you need to be, you’d need to decide if you’re willing to invest some time coaching her on this, which could include things like observing her interactions with people and giving her feedback afterwards and/or practicing conversations with her.

5. My manager says my weekend hours “don’t count”

I am a salaried exempt employee. I worked hours over a weekend (our work week ends at 11:59 p.m. on Friday) and then had pre-planned vacation that next Thursday and Friday. I took vacation time to equal 40 hours for the week; I included my weekend hours in my calculation, as it was the same work week.

Upon my return, my manager suggested that my weekend hours “don’t count” toward meeting the expected 40 hours, as they were not in my standard Monday – Friday schedule. Is this legal? Can I be made to take vacation time above the 40 hours in a week?

Yes, it’s legal although it’s really, really bad management. It’s unfair, and there’s no faster way to discourage people from doing extra work over the weekend when needed than to tell them it “doesn’t count.”