July 2009

which employee should be let go?

July 29, 2009

A reader writes:

I supervise a staff of 5 people as part of a team that was just created within the organization since the beginning of the year. Two of them are constantly bickering between themselves and each runs to me with complaints about the other. I have tried coaching and mediating with the two of them. But this has been going on for six months now. I do not have the time to do a weekly “intervention” with these two and it is draining on the whole team.

I have decided that one of them has to go (not fired; just to another team within the organization). The dilemma is…which one? One of them is disorganized, has made some mistakes and cannot seem to stay on task. The other one performs efficiently but has a track record of not getting along with people, gossiping and just generally keeping things stirred up. I have addressed the specific issues with each of them independently to no avail. Any suggestions?

Yes. Expect them each to meet appropriate standards and fire them if they don’t. With their current level of performance, I don’t see why you’d want either of them staying on your team, or why you’d inflict them on someone else in your organization.

You’re not holding them accountable, and you need to.

Meet with each one individually and explain that you have serious concerns about her performance. With the one who’s disorganized, makes mistakes, and has trouble staying on track, address each of those issues. With the one who causes problems among the staff, address that. And with each of them, tell them the bickering is going to stop, effective right now, and that you’re not willing to deal with it anymore. They are expected to deal with it between themselves like adults, without it affecting their work or taking up your time, period. These are fundamental requirements of the job. If they don’t or can’t meet those requirements, they can’t stay on staff. It’s not negotiable.

And then stick to it.

Do you know how many competent people are on the job market right now, who wouldn’t cause you these kinds of issues? These two aren’t entitled to hold onto their jobs at all costs. Plus, the opportunity cost of having the wrong people on your staff is enormous. Think about if you had stars in those positions — the impact can be dramatic.

As a manager, getting results is your fundamental job, and since having the right people makes a huge impact on your ability to do that, you should be putting significant energy into getting and keeping the right people on board and moving out the ones who don’t meet a high bar.

Be clear about your expectations, warn them that if they don’t meet them you will let them go, and then back up your words with action.

{ 16 comments }

Posted in firing, good management

when an employee gives you info in confidence

July 29, 2009

A reader writes:

An employee tells you they observed another employee talking on a cell phone while supervising children (which is against company policy). How can you effectively address the situation when an employee asks you to to keep it confidential that it came from them, yet no one else saw it happen? It’s not likely that it would happen in front of a supervisor, and waiting for it to happen again puts the children at risk. What’s the best approach to address this with the employee who was on the telephone?

You have a couple of options when an employee tells you something in confidence in a situation like this.

In general, I believe that your bias should be toward respecting requests for confidentiality if at all possible. Otherwise, your employees will be less likely to come to you with information that you want to hear about, and that’s not good. You want your employees to feel confident that they can speak to you without having their name attached to it, because otherwise you’ll never hear about some pretty important things.

Almost always, there’s a way to act on information without attaching the person’s name to it.

But not every time.

Here are your options in this situation:

First, I would start by explaining to the employee that what she observed is serious and puts children at risk. Ask her to reconsider and to allow you to relay what she told you. Sometimes, just pointing this out to people will get them to agree to it. (And people appreciate being asked, rather than having you plunge ahead without their permission.)

If the employee doesn’t agree, however, then your options are:

1. Try to witness the behavior yourself — by coming by when you’re not expected and so forth. If you can spot it yourself, you can address it without violating the other employee’s confidence. I’ve had employees tip me off to a problem before, and once I know, I can easily look around and find evidence of it myself. This can be a good option in some situations.

2. Address the issue on a more widescale basis, such as reminding all the employees that talking on a cell phone while supervising children is unsafe and a fireable offense. Hope the perpetrator gets the message.

3. Tell the employee that you’re sorry but the situation is so important that you need to be able to use the information. Say you’ll keep her name out of it, but since she’s the only one who observed it, you can’t guarantee the other employee won’t draw conclusions. (I’d also point out that the cell-using employee has probably done this before, and so for all she knows, there have been multiple witnesses to it.) You can also tell her that if the other employee gives her any crap about it, you’ll intervene and make it known that that’s unacceptable.

I would only use this option if you consider the situation so dire that you have no other choice, because you may pay a price in how open employees are with you in the future. In other words, this option is only for really serious stuff.

Anyone have a fourth option?

{ 12 comments }

Posted in good management

cautionary tale: leaving Track Changes on your resume

July 28, 2009

Today I got a resume where the candidate had left Word’s Track Changes feature on. As a result, I could see all the edits someone had made on his resume, and I know that they weren’t his own, because they also included suggestions like “you have to beef up the first paragraph.”

I don’t have a problem with him having editing help; I have a problem with the carelessness. It made him an instant rejection, even though he was otherwise was qualified.

There are so many silly ways of shooting yourself in the foot that are easily avoided if you pay attention.

{ 19 comments }

Posted in resumes

am I a back-up candidate?

July 28, 2009

A reader writes:

I am curious to know what the message is to back-up candidates while a the company is waiting for someone to respond to a job offer. I was told that a decision would be made late last week, and I recently received an update that it will be another week and a half.

I know that there are only 2 other candidates up for the job, and I’m pretty sure the decision will be made by 3 people who are in the same department and work together daily. This makes me think that they have already made a decision and made the offer, and I’m in a back-up candidate in case their first choice declines. Are my instincts right or am I overanalyzing? How do hiring managers typically communicate with “alternates” in this stage of the game?

Heh. Well, that was exactly what I used to do when someone was a back-up candidate, until it occurred to me to build a buffer into the timelines I was giving people.

But let me tell you, there is no shame in being a back-up candidate. In this economy, it’s not unusual for me to end up with three back-up candidates of stellar quality, any one of whom I’d be excited to hire.

On the other hand, it’s also possible that it doesn’t indicate that you are a back-up candidate at all. It could indicate that their process is dragging out for some other reason — it’s taking a long time to check someone’s references, or the company moves really slowly on putting together offer paperwork, or their interview with one of the other candidates got delayed, or the person who has to sign off on the final decision is on vacation, or whatever. So you definitely can’t take it as anything certain — more just as fodder for speculation.

{ 3 comments }

Posted in job offers

7 mistakes managers make when giving criticism

July 27, 2009

Giving critical feedback to employees can be difficult, and it’s one of the areas that managers most often handle badly — and there are myriad ways to mess it up.

Over at U.S. News & World Report today, I talk about the seven most common mistakes managers make when delivering less-than-positive feedback. Please check it out and leave your own thoughts in the comments over there.

{ 0 comments }

Posted in good management

bad interviewer behavior: a forcible, sweaty hike

July 27, 2009

I always enjoy nightmare interview stories, so here’s one for you.

A friend of mine recently went for a job interview that consisted of two parts — first an interview with an HR rep, followed immediately by an interview with the hiring manager. At the end of the HR portion, the HR rep told her that the next meeting was in a different building, but that “it will be faster for you to walk there than to drive.”

My friend believed her because … why wouldn’t you?

Her walk to the second building ended up being close to three quarters of a mile. She was in heels and a suit. It was a horrible east coast summer afternoon, meaning hot and humid. When she arrived at the second building for part two of her interview, she was, by her own description, covered in sweat and reeking quite foully.

She was then immediately sent into a small, hot, and apparently not air conditioned office to finish the interview … which she did, drenched in sweat and smelling what can only be described as terribly offensive.

She is quite understandably baffled and annoyed.

She also notes that it would have been faster to drive, parking wasn’t an issue, etc., so why the HR rep inflicted this on her is rather inscrutable. This was not a job that requires the ability to withstand unpleasant physical conditions, nor does it involve any sort of boot camp, so WTF?

So, a public service announcement: When you are interviewing someone, in general it’s both useful and nice to try to put them at ease, so that they have a decent experience and so you can get a better sense of what they’re like day-to-day. It’s also to everyone’s benefit not to direct candidates to do things that will cause a normal person to reek. And if you do somehow inadvertently push them into a forced march or a sweat lodge, you should apologize profusely and offer extended bathroom time for repairs.

What is wrong with people?

{ 11 comments }

Posted in bad interviewer behavior, interviewing

creative resumes, and how long employers take to respond

July 26, 2009

A reader writes:

I would like to inquire on how long an employer will usually take to reply to an expression of interest in a job.

I am a 16 year old student that has emailed several different employers with my resume and cover letter and have only received an instant reply from one. A few were advertised positions and the rest were general inquiries on my part. I admit it has been less than a week since I have sent them but considering I received a reply from one within a few hours, I am rather anxious and frustrated to hear from the rest too (I have refreshed my email around 20 times today, I kid you not).

I understand that the job market at the moment isn’t particularly keen on employing less experienced teenagers but surely the lower pay rate attracts them?

I’m also unsure whether my resume is a turn-off because I made a much more creative one that still clearly delivers the facts and figures, but is presented with color and more flair. Also the jobs I am applying for are cafes, juice bars and fashion stores. And no doubt my lack of real retail experience (I only have volunteer work) disadvantages me. Any words of wisdom you may offer?

Okay, clearly I have to drop my preconceived notions about teenagers not reading career blogs, because you are the second 16-year-old in three weeks to write to me. It still surprises and impresses me though.

It can take some employers quite a long time to respond to applications. A week is definitely nothing — some take a month or even more. I tend to be pretty fast and often respond within a few days, but even I wouldn’t feel ashamed of myself if it took me, say, two weeks. And lots of employers really do take a lot longer. In some cases, this may be because they’re disorganized, but generally it’s just because they have lots of other stuff going on that they have to deal with first. So stop obsessively checking your email.

As for creative resumes, in certain fields if they’re well-done, they can be a plus. I’m sure there are some HR people or hiring managers out there who consider them a deal-breaker because they want you to do things the traditional way, but in general I suspect most people feel like I do, which is this: The most important thing about your resume design is that I need to be able to read it clearly, without straining, and I want to be able to quickly scan it and get the highlights. Creativity, while a nice trait, doesn’t trump those requirements, so make sure whatever format you use works in those ways.

As for more general teenager job-searching advice, I’m going to refer you to the comments section of the last post from a teenager — people offered up really helpful advice, so read through that and see if it’s useful.

{ 6 comments }

Posted in resumes

advice recommendation: Tomato Nation’s The Vine

July 26, 2009

I hope I have you covered on the career/management advice front and you will never, ever need to look elsewhere, but if you enjoy reading advice on life in general, I have always thought The Washington Post‘s Carolyn Hax was indisputably where it’s at. And she still is, but I’ve finally discovered someone else who approaches her god-like heights of wisdom: Sarah Bunting of Tomato Nation. And not only is she fun to read and pretty much always right on, but she also has archives going back to 2000, so if you, like me, like finding someone new who you love and then reading everything they’ve ever written, this will keep you occupied for days. I’ve been reading backwards through all of them, finding it hours and hours of high entertainment, and you can do it too.

Start here (which is the archive for The Vine, the advice portion of her site).

(Oh, and interspersed in there you’ll also find questions and answers like “where do I find these shoes” and “what is the name of this book that I vaguely recall from my childhood” — keep going and you’ll get to plenty of “how do I tell my friend that our friendship has run its course” and “my parents won’t let me drive even though I’m in my 20s” and all kinds of other more traditionally advicey topics).

{ 5 comments }

Posted in Uncategorized

interview questions to ask when hiring a manager

July 25, 2009

I recently put this together for someone, and I’m recycling it here: interview questions to ask if you’re hiring a manager of a department, organization, whatever.

As you’ll see, the idea of most of these to give you a good feel for whether this is someone who gets things done, is a strong manager who’s focused on results, etc. Please add in your own!

General

Send the candidate your annual report or other materials ahead of time. In the interview, ask him/her to explain the organization’s work to you as if you were a prospective funder or investor.

How would the people around you describe you?

What’s a common misconception some people have about you?

Tell me about a difficult decision you had to make recently. Walk me through the problem and what your thought process was, and how you ultimately handled it.

What is one thing that you have had difficulty over coming in your career, and how did you do that?

What is some of the most useful criticism you’ve ever received? Why?

Have you ever been given criticism that you disagreed with? What was it? How did you handle that?

Getting things done

What has your biggest achievement been at ___? What results there that you produced are you most proud of? (Then ask the same question for other jobs they’ve had. You’re looking for someone with a pattern of taking things from X to Y — with Y being greater than X.)

What were the big things you were trying to achieve in the past year at ___? What things were/are worrying you? What were/are you doing about it?

What were your organization or department’s major goals last year (depending on whether the person was managing the organization or a department there)? How did you settle on those? To what extent did you meet them? How did you measure whether or not you met them? Were there targets you considered setting, but ultimately rejected?

What’s an example of a goal you didn’t meet? How come? How did you respond to that?

What will success look like for you this year? Why is that important? How hard will it be to get there?

If I were to ask your ___ (someone who reports to the person) what her goals are, what would she say? Does that match what you would say they are?

Tell me about one of the organization’s largest or most important projects and how you managed it, from start to finish. I’m interested in something where others were doing the work, but you were overseeing it.
- What was the vision for it?
- What happened?
- How did you ensure that happened? (You’re looking for managers who leave little to chance: either they have good reason to rely on the person in charge of the project, or they keep their hands in things enough to ensure success.)
- How do you know it happened?
- What lessons did you take away?

What are some of the biggest obstacles your organization/department (whichever they are responsible for) hit in the last few years? What did you do to address them?

Tell me about something you got done at ___ that someone else in your role probably wouldn’t have.

Managing people

How would you describe yourself as a manager? How do you think others would describe you?

What is your philosophy about management?

What do you think the fundamental purpose of a manger is? (You’re looking for someone who knows it’s about getting things done, not something touchy-feely.)

How has your management philosophy evolved as you’ve gained more management experience?

What do you do to work on being a better manager?

What do you think are some of the most common ways people fail at management?

Talk about the balance between not micromanaging but still being involved enough to be able to catch problems early on.

Tell me about an employee who became more successful as a result of your management.

How would you describe the bar for performance at ___ (or in the department you manage)?

Who are your best people? What are you doing to retain them?

What do you look for when you hire people?

Tell me about your most recent high-level hire. How did you go about searching for the person?

When was the last time you fired someone or coached someone out? How many people have you fired in the last two years? Why? (You’re looking for a manager who fires people who don’t perform at a high standard.)

Walk me through one of more challenging times you had to let someone go — what did you try first, how did you make the decision? How much time did it take from when you first started having concerns until when you ultimately let the person go?

Tell me about the most difficult employee situation you ever had to handle. What did you do and what was the result?

Tell me about a time you were managing a poor performer. How did you handle it and what was the outcome?

What was the most difficult management decision you’ve ever had to make?

Tell me about a management mistake that you made in the past. What would you do differently?

Even the best bosses generate complaints from their employees now and then. What complaints do you think the people you’ve managed would have about you?

{ 2 comments }

Posted in hiring

don’t list basic computer skills on a resume

July 24, 2009

A reader writes:

Is it really necessary to list computer skills on a resume? Shouldn’t basic skills be assumed at this point in history? I’m great with Microsoft Office and I know Macs and a couple of other miscellaneous programs, but I don’t know Photoshop or Dreamweaver or HTML or anything specialized. And my most recent position is “Administrative Assistant,” so isn’t computer use implied in the title? Can I save that space for something a little more, I don’t know, stand-outish?

Yes, yes, yes! I totally agree. There is no need to list basic computer skills, like Word, Excel, or Outlook, on a resume.

If you have specialized computer skills — in a program that isn’t being used by everyone in any office in the U.S. — list those. Or if you’re known for something really amazing in these basic programs, you could put that — like “became office Excel guru and trouble-shot all complicated Excel functions.” But otherwise, skip any mention of computer skills; there’s no reason to use up valuable resume real estate with it.

Frankly, in my dream world, candidates would instead list the expected skills that they DON’T have — like: “warning: I’ve never used a word processing program, and I don’t know how to attach a file to an email, nor am I likely to pick it up easily.”

{ 27 comments }

Posted in resumes

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