Ask a Manager

It’s short answer Sunday — seven short answers to seven short questions. We’ve got a frustrating interview question, last-minute job applicants, and more. Keep reading…

1. What’s up with this interview question?

In an recent job interview, I was asked this head-scratcher (well, it’s a head-scratcher to me): “When assigned a project, do you think it’s more important to make deadlines and submit work that is not perfect or do you feel it’s acceptable to submit work late, but make sure it’s perfect?” So, this is one of those “it depends” answers, and it depends on many factors, but the interviewer just wanted my opinion only on those two options. I was wondering what your opinion is on this. And what is an interviewer looking for in the answer? Seems to me one is screwed either way you answer.

I hate these false dichotomies. Frankly, the right answer (to me) is, “It would depend on the project itself and my boss’s preferences.” Sometimes a deadline has flexibility and it’s more important to get the work perfectly right, and sometimes a deadline is utterly inflexible. And often it’s essential that it be both perfect and on-time, and you just do what you need to do to make that happen. Setting up the question as an either/or without further details is silly, and I’d refuse to pick one of those two options.

2. Applicants who apply at the last minute

How do you feel about job applicants who wait until the very last day/minute to apply for a position? I’m hiring and have had a posting up for just over three weeks and received plenty of applications, but received a mountain on the very last day (and I find this happens often). I have a hard time not regarding these applicants as procrastinators who may just as easily turn in their assignments at the very last minute. Granted a couple *could* have just discovered the posting but I somehow doubt that’s the case for all of them (and sadly I won’t know who’s who). If I decide to interview one of these applicants (and I often do), I do work in questions in some way or another about their prioritizing skills. But, with so many applicants who appear to be somewhat qualified (and inevitably I’ll need to weed some out in some way), is it wrong to count this as a strike against them?

Yes, it’s wrong. If you give a deadline, applicants are entitled to take you at your word that that’s the deadline. If you want their applications earlier, say so. After all, if you assign an employee a piece of work with a deadline of Friday, are you secretly penalizing them if they don’t turn it in by Wednesday? I hope not.

Plus, some of your best candidates are likely to be people who have a lot of other things going on in their lives (like focusing on achieving in their current jobs), and there’s no reason they should drop everything to apply when your job posting tells them that they have plenty of time.

(And I know that there are commenters who are going to be itching to jump on you for this, so let’s take this as a test of my recent call for civility.)

3. My high school changed its name

My high school changed its name the year after I graduated. Should I use the old name (the one I graduated from) or the new name? I don’t want the company to think that I am lying about my educational background if they do a search and cannot find my school. I also don’t want to disqualify myself on online applications.

Why are you mentioning high school at all? It certainly doesn’t belong on your resume. And if online applications are asking for it — wait, do they do that? What the hell? Well, if they do, use the current name, as that’s how the institution is now known.

4. My store locks us in at night

Each department in my store is “checked out” before you can leave to clock out for the night. However, the front doors are locked and we have to wait until everyone is checked out until we are let out of the store, I have always waited at a minimum of 5 minutes but have waited up to 20 minutes. This is unpaid and if we do attempt to leave we are terminated. Is this legal?

Nope. Federal law requires that you be paid for any time that you’re required to be at work. They owe you for every one of those minutes. Plus, if they’re truly locking you in, they’re also violating OSHA laws.

5. Awards from high school and college

I am a minister (a degree and everything). At age 15, I began working in ministry positions (paid summer staff at a Christian camp). From age 16-19, I was also in professional radio (mainstream “Hits,” DJ, morning show programmer). In high school and college, I won awards for speech and acting (dramatic, comedic, improv). Now I’m 31, and I feel my communication experience in these areas is still valid and useful, but I’m struggling with how to position these in describing my experience. I haven’t won any awards since college (chili cook-offs not withstanding). Any ideas or suggestions? A different perspective? I want to look my best on paper, and I’m not sure how to do that.

You can’t really use the high school stuff. You can probably get away with including the college stuff for a little while longer, but a hiring manager is going to legitimately ask, “What have you achieved since then? And if not much, why not?” And that’s what you have to figure out how to work around.

6. Is salary history the new discrimination?

I have been in sales, a sales manager, business manager, operations and business development professional, among other things. I have a wealth of experience and history to be a viable candidate for many roles in and outside of my industry. However, over recent years I have found it difficult to find employment for a variety of reasons. One that baffles me among the normal under/over qualified, wrong industry, etc. is this — I have either made too much money or did not make enough money in my previous positions. I actually applied for a few roles where the company mentioned that if the applicant did not make a certain salary at the current or previous role, then they need not apply.

Does this not sound like a hiring manager’s new mode of weeding out applicants based on salary since it cannot be done on sex, race, etc.? I believe this is an issue that needs to come to light.

There isn’t really a connection between weeding out applicants based on salary history and weeding them out based on characteristics like sex or race. Employers who weed people out based on salary history are doing so because they’ve decided that your previous salary indicates your worth on the market — and that if, for instance, they’re hiring for a job that pays $80,000 and your previous jobs haven’t paid you more than $40,000, you’re not yet at the level where you could do the work they need. Now, I happen to think that this is wrong-headed for a whole bunch of reasons (they should judge your worth for themselves, different sectors and geographic areas pay differently, etc.), but this is just about poor reasoning, not bigotry.

7. My boss wants me to keep interning … and interning … and interning

My boss offered me a 6-week internship, and told me at the time, that after those 6 weeks were up, we’d talk about a full-time job. After 6 weeks, I heard nothing, so I kept on working my hardest. After 9 weeks of the internship, they offered me a full time job. The catch? The full time job starts in 4 months, and they want me to continue my internship until then. Quite frankly, at this point, I need an income, and can’t pay for the gas to or from work (and there is no mass transit in the area). How do I tell my boss that I need pay, and can’t continue my internship, but still show interest in the job? Also, I couldn’t get the offer in writing, so how do I know I’m just not being taken advantage of and am going to be told “just kidding” at that time?

Say this: “I’m really excited about taking this job, especially after having been working here and seeing what a good fit it is. However, our original agreement was that I’d intern for six weeks, and I can’t afford to continue for another four months. Can we move up the start date?”  If you come to an agreement, your next step is to put it in writing yourself. Send your boss an email that says, “I just wanted to summarize what we agreed to, to make sure we’re on the same page. Does what’s here look correct to you?” And then list what you’ve agreed on — start date, title, rate of pay, etc. You can do this informally while still getting it in writing.

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It’s fast answer Friday! We’ve got coworkers who won’t train someone, how to answer your boss’s phone, and more. Here we go…

1. Who should have employee passwords?

Who should confidentially hold the usernames and passwords for employees’ server, e-mail and SharePoint access? Some say HR and some say IT. Put another way, are user names and passwords an IT issue or an HR issue? I believe in normalized data structure so primary data can reside in only one place. BOTH is not a satisfactory answer for me.

IT. HR doesn’t need them, and IT might. If your HR department is asking for them, it’s a sign they’re overreaching, probably on other stuff too.

2. When negotiating salary, how much more can you ask for?

There’s a job that I really want, and I feel I have a good chance of getting an offer. However, the salary stated in the posting is significantly lower than my current salary. This job has many other benefits, such as a better commute, better work environment, and a better schedule, but I’m living paycheck to paycheck as it is and can’t work for any less, and would ideally like to make 5 to 10 percent more. So I want to know–when negotiating salary after a job offer, is there a percentage that is a good starting point? Say 15 or 20 percent of the base salary listed? I don’t want to come off as arrogant or ignorant, but I also don’t want to undervalue myself (which is hard because right now, my field is oversaturated so there are plenty of people willing to work at well below market value).

There’s no hard and fast rule because things vary by industry and type of position, but if a salary was listed up-front in a job posting, then 15-20% more is a lot to ask for (because it raises the question of why you applied in the first place if you’re so far apart on salary, or at least why you didn’t raise the issue earlier in the process). 10% is closer to where you’re probably going to be able to end up, but again, there’s a lot of variation. Some companies (especially smaller ones) are waiting to find out what they’ll need to pay (based on what the people they want are willing to work for) and others have a very set range in mind and won’t consider going outside of it.

Ultimately, though, what you need to know is what the market rate is for this type of work in this particular field in this particular geographic area — and if your field is oversaturated with people willing to work for less, by definition that will lower the market rate.

3. Coworkers won’t give me the training I need

I’ve been at a company for 20+ years. Six months ago, I accepted a new position in a different department. My problem is there are two people in the group who are supposed to be training me but neither one seems to want to give up the information they have – they make excuses for not having the time to sit with me. I discussed this with the manager of the team but instead of speaking to these people individually, she made a general statement about the need for training to the whole team in a staff meeting. It didn’t change anything. What more can I do to get these coworkers to train me?

You need to go back to your manager and let her know that the problem has continued. You might suggest that it would be helpful for her to talk to them individually, since they seemed to have missed the message last time. And you can also try talking to the coworkers directly yourself and asking them point-blank to give you the help you need (be nice, not demanding, but be direct). But ultimately if you’re not getting what you need, your manager needs to know about it.

4. How can I help my new boss succeed?

Yesterday, my boss (the executive director of a professional organization) had his contract terminated by the Board. A colleague of mine was promoted as interim executive director, and the Board is hoping that he’ll take on the job full-time. He knows the organization, he’s really on the ball, and we have a good working relationship. I’m really hoping that he succeeds in the role. Is there anything I can do to help him settle in? (Other than doing my job well and making sure I’m available for him if he needs it, obviously.) We’re a very small office — right now it’s just the two of us, so it’s not like he can get help from other managers or shift some of his old responsibilities on anyone but me, and I’m not really qualified for a lot of them. (He’s an event planner, I’m an admin assistant.)

Ask him! Tell him that you’re thrilled to see him in the role and that you want to do anything you can to help. Ask him what would be helpful for you do to. And then ask again in a few weeks.

5. Help! My boss is leaving

I found out that my boss gave her notice and will be leaving soon. This is a devastating loss for the department and I am truly worried about how we are going to keep up with the workload without having someone there in her position. I’m worried that everyone’s work is going to suffer greatly and that I will be working 14-hour mad dash days until a new plan is created. My team is already overloaded with work and it’s very overwhelming thinking about how to keep up now that our manager will no longer be there.

Talk to your boss while she’s still there and tell her what you’re worrying about. Ask her advice, and ask what the plan is for keeping things running until a new manager is hired. Specific things you want to know: What’s the likely timeline for bringing in someone new? Who will you be reporting to until then? How will decisions that she normally made be getting made? Who will be covering X, Y, and Z? Are there things you can do to help out in the meantime? (If you’re interested, this can be a good time to rack up new accomplishments that can help you in the future.)

And once she’s gone, you should feel free to talk to your interim boss (which might be your current manager’s boss, or it might be someone else) and raise problems as they arise. But don’t be too anxious — this stuff happens all the time; it’s just part of business.

6. Online application systems that automatically screen you out

What do you think of job application systems that ask you a series of questions and automatically screen you out if you don’t meet the minimum qualifications? I recently submitted an application for a position requesting 6 years of experience and I only have 4. After answering a question on the online application about how many years of experience I have, I was immediately informed that I didn’t meet the minimum qualifications and I was rejected. I understand that hiring managers receive high volumes of applications and some way to screen them is necessary. However, it seems short-sighted to use such stringent measures to screen out candidates when there could be other equally valuable qualities they bring to the table (for example: less years of experience, but the experience is of a high quality). Shouldn’t a human being at least glance at the resume before it’s summarily dismissed? I’d love to know your opinion on this.

Yep, for the majority of positions, it’s short-sighted. Hiring shouldn’t be an automated process; a good hiring manager who really gets the value of having the best team possible looks at the totality of a candidate, which is something these automated systems don’t do.

7. How should I answer my boss’s phone?

I have a (hopefully) easy question. I’m an Executive Assistant and have taken on the added responsibility of answering my Executive’s desk phone (he used to answer all of his calls). This was a suggestion I made to save him time, and he loves it! But he doesn’t care how I answer the phone, so what do I say when I answer his line? My standard greeting is “Thank you for calling XYZ Company, this is Jane, how can I help you?” If I add “You have reached John Smith’s office” my greeting sounds too long. What is proper etiquette? When I don’t mention John Smith, the caller thinks they have dialed the wrong extension, then I have to explain that I am John’s assistant.

Oh yeah, that’s too long! You don’t need to give the company name (unless your company specifically wants you to, but I’d bet money that your boss wasn’t answering his own phone that way). Personally, I’d just say: “Robert Smith’s office.” If that feels too brusque to you, you can add in a “how can I help you?” but you don’t need to — it tends to be implied.

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