Since answering this question from a reader whose employer was limiting her to three bathroom breaks a day unless she got written permission in advance, a commenter pointed out that OSHA rules are likely at play here.

OSHA — the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — says that prohibiting employees from using the bathroom outside of scheduled break times can create unhealthy working conditions … and while it doesn’t require that employees be given free and constant access to bathrooms, or that X breaks be allowed per hour/day, it does require that employees have reasonable access to bathrooms.

The agency notes: “It would be difficult to set a specific interval for breaks, because the need to use toilet facilities varies from person to person and even with respect to the same person. Some of the variables that can affect a worker’s need to urinate are: diet, stress, pregnancy, prostate health, other medical conditions, medication use, weather temperature (working in a cold environment makes people need to urinate more frequently), and the amount and type of fluid consumed. Also, in some workplaces the nature of the work or the tasks being performed may require constant worker coverage/attention. In such situations employers need flexibility in developing procedures that will allow all of their workers access to toilet facilities as needed. A specific schedule for breaks might not allow the flexibility needed to address all types of work situations.”

It’s also worth noting that the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employees be paid for any break shorter than 20 minutes, so employers shouldn’t be requiring people to clock out to use the bathroom (assuming that you’re not taking more than 20 minutes for it).

A reader writes:

I’ve been looking for a position in the creative industry. My application generally consists of a resume, cover letter, “teaser” images, and a link to my portfolio website. An agency I would love to work for informed me that they’ve decided not to move on to the interview phase with me. Their email included the typical “we’ll keep your information on file for future opportunities.” They also offered to send feedback regarding my application. I’d love to find where I can improve and expressed my interest in receiving their feedback.

It’s been about a month, and they haven’t sent me anything yet. Just a string of emails (all initiated by them) along the lines of “Sorry, we haven’t had a chance to send you our thoughts, but we’re still busy compiling all our notes for you into a document.” Honestly, I was just expecting a few sentences, not an entire document! It just seems odd that a firm that wasn’t interested in moving forward with me is going through all this trouble. Could this mean they’re reconsidering me for the position?

I have no idea what’s going on here — this is very strange. As I was reading your message, I thought you were going to complain that they hadn’t sent you the promised feedback yet, and I was going to tell you to let it go because sometimes these offers are made and then end up falling through the cracks. (Which I’m not defending, but if it happens, you’ve got to just let it go.)

But then I got to the end of your letter and discovered that that’s not your issue at all. Your issue is that they’re implying that they’re creating some sort of detailed feedback document for you, which is really unusual. And maybe incredibly kind of them too. I don’t know whether it indicates that they’re considering you for a position (either the original one or something else), or whether they think you’re really promising and could be a strong candidate for them in a year or two with some feedback now, or whether they’re for some reason in the business of giving people who they never intend to hire detailed feedback on the side. Or, hell, maybe they’re just going to send you a paragraph, and they haven’t gotten around to writing it up yet, and their choice of words inadvertently implied it would be more than that.

All you can do is wait and see what they end up sending you. Please let us know once you find out, because this is an intriguing mystery that I want an answer to.

A reader writes:

I just found that my wife has been talking to an ex-boyfriend through her work email and his work email as well. I saw that there were 23 messages among them, but I only got to page 3 before she deleted them. She says he contacted her after 10 years and admits to getting caught up in all the attention and memories. He lives in Missouri, but just from the few emails I could see it was leading to trouble.

Now my question. My wife says that at no time did she ever want to meet him or was anything going to come of this. But since I could not read the remaining 20 pages of emails, who knows.

Do you think I should contact his IT Dept and ask them if they could get me those emails he was sending from his work? I do not want to go through my wife’s work as I know them all.

No, you should not do that.

First of all, why on earth would his IT department release his emails to anyone other than his manager, let alone to a complete stranger from outside the company? They’re going to say no, and you’re going to look really crazy in the process.

But more importantly, your issue is about your trust in your wife. If you don’t trust her, you don’t fix that by reading through her emails. You fix that by some serious soul-searching, both jointly with her and on your own. Because otherwise that’s how you end up in a marriage where you’re searching through each other’s emails and phones and getting suspicious when the other person gets home late from work and so forth. So deal with whatever the core issue is, not just this one symptom.

Over at U.S. News & World Report today, I spill about reference-checking secrets. Soon I’ll have given away all the secrets and there’ll be nothing left for me to do anymore.

You can read it here.

I probably won’t have time to write a post today, so instead I’m posting this interesting letter from a reader about a frustrating situation with a coworker:

There is a bad employee in my office. He has a long history of being shuffled from department to department, doing little to no work, but filing copious complaints and lawsuits to keep his job (one department fired and rehired him three times due to his lawsuit threats, before finally dropping disciplinary procedures and transferring him). In my department, things came to a head with my Old Manager — there were so many disciplinary procedures started by her and so many lawsuits started by him that the entire department was stalled completely. In a spectacular show of bad management, the upper-level managers decided to send a second manager to our department. New Manager managed Bad Employee and everybody with his job classification, and Old Manager managed everybody else. Both New Manager and Old Manager were generally okay managers, but when there were two of them in one department, they both became terrible managers. It was like divorced parents — one manager gives you an answer you don’t want, you go to the other manager, who will give you what you want to spite the other one. Bad Employee buddied up to New Manager, who was his bestest friend and total defender. Complaints and lawsuit threats from him stopped while she protected him from the consequences of his behavior, which was upper-management’s goal, I assume.

Old Manager left, and New Manager now manages the whole department. As a result, she’s had to deal with the consequences of the Bad Employee’s actions upfront, as there’s nobody else to pass the buck to, and with a bird’s-eye view of the whole department, the pattern of his behavior in all aspects of work became more clear. Bad Employee has started cold shouldering New Manager now that she’s trying to get him to do his work and face consequences when he doesn’t, and she’s generally moping around like she’s been dumped, since he used to act like her best friend (invited her to house parties, had her meet his parents), and now says things like “You betrayed me! I thought we were friends!” when she won’t delete bad reviews he’s gotten from customers, or give him a bigger raise than allowed in policy.

So, the whole situation is very touchy. New Manager is sometimes on board with hearing about Bad Employee’s shenanigans, and then sometimes he shows her a little friendliness and now she doesn’t want to hear anything bad about him in case it starts him cold shouldering her again.

Your website has been invaluable in figuring out how to deal with this. Most of the time, my work doesn’t intersect with the Bad Employee, but when it does, it’s very difficult to deal with (no kidding, the other day he asked me how to access his email — he hasn’t looked at it in 6 months, and forgot how to open it). The urge to tattle is extremely strong, but I’m never sure if New Manager will be in management mode or “I want to be Bad Employee’s friend again” mode, and the last thing I want is to get dragged into a punishing and endless complaint/mediation/lawsuit scenario with Bad Employee, as he tends to do to any employee who complains about him.

So, your little trick of phrasing complaints as a request for feedback has been invaluable. Whenever Bad Employee completely drops the ball on a work task we share, I tell New Manager what happened in non-judgmental language (via email, so she has documentation for the future lawsuit that will inevitably appear) and ask if there is anything I could have done better to get the results she was looking for on the project. She usually tells me no, and whether she follows up with Bad Employee after that, I try to consider it none of my business, since I wasn’t asking about how he should do his job, but just how I should do mine. I feel relieved of the need to do something about him, because that’s not my job, and am able to focus on my work again. So, thanks so much for your very helpful advice! Without it, I think I’d be falling into some very bad, gossipy, angry work habits about now, and I’m glad to be spending this time being generally productive instead (and focusing on gathering skills for a new job search, because you don’t have to tell me that this is not a good place to settle down).

Me again. I’m so glad you’re handling it this way!  However, I can’t resist adding that Old Manager and New Manager are not “okay managers.” They are terrible managers for allowing this to continue!  Someone threatening a baseless lawsuit is not a reason not to fire someone, and the fact that they’re being cowed by that is silly. I don’t know what this employee’s legal threats are based on, but it doesn’t matter how many protected classes someone belongs to: If someone’s work is sub-par, you document the issues, warn the person, document some more, and let them go if they don’t sufficiently improve. There’s no exception for someone who happens to be really litigious; it just means that you might want to be extra vigilant in your documentation — not that the person gets to hold you hostage with fear of a lawsuit.

It’s tiny answer Tuesday!  We’ve got a reader whose boss wants her to write fake online reviews of their product, recruiters who want to know if you’re considering other offers, and more. Here we go…

1. Boss wants me to start cold calling and I don’t want to

My boss wants me to start doing cold calls. This wasn’t in the job description. I am not comfortable doing this this, and not only that but I work for a gold buying company and he won’t let us tell the people we’re calling or who call us what our prices are! What should I do or how can I get out of it?

Well, it depends on how much of a deal-breaker this is for you. You can tell your boss that you’re not comfortable with cold calls and weren’t told it would be part of the job, but ultimately, if your boss is determined to have this be part of the role, you may need to decide if you’re willing to walk away from the job over this.

2. When a recruiter asks if you’re considering other job offers

When a recruiter ask you if you are considering other job offers after you have interviewed with the hiring panel, is this a good sign they are seriously considering hiring you and how should you approach answering the question?

If you have another offer that you’re considering, say so. They may need to expedite their timeline in order to meet the time constraints you have with your other offer. If you don’t have other offers, it’s fine to just say something like, “I’m talking to a few different companies, but we haven’t reached the offer stage yet.”

3. My company wants me to write fake online reviews of our product

My company has recently requested that employees go online and review our product (favorably of course). We don’t disclose who we are and we’re supposed to pretend we’re a satisfied customer. Now, I know it’s probably a legal request since employers can seemingly do just about anything, but it seems like there might be some sort of consumer protection violation. Can my company legally fire me for refusing to write fake reviews online? We’re a niche form of online dating and rely on SEO marketing to get traffic so that is their justification. I haven’t personally received this assignment but I expect to soon.

Interesting. Yes, I think they can probably fire you for this, since I don’t think it’s illegal to write fake online reviews. (If that were illegal, then you’d have some protection.) This is probably a long shot, but is it possible for you to suggest other ways of marketing that would be as or more effective?

4. Thank-you notes after phone interviews

I subscribe to the belief that you should always, always, no matter what, write a thank-you note after an interview — phone, face to face, or otherwise. However, I’m faced with a slightly different situation. If you’ve had a phone interview with a hiring manager, who indicates that you’ll subsequently be called for a face-to-face interview, when and how do you thank him/her? Is it overkill to send a note after the phone interview as well as the eventual in-person meeting? Should one or the other take priority? Hope you can shed some light on this.

I’m slightly confused, because you say you believe you should always send a thank-you note after an interview, including phone interviews. Your situation is no different just because the hiring manager indicated that there will eventually be an in-person interview. Send the note — and think of it as more of a follow-up note than a thank-you note, following up on your conversation.

5. Does hobby experience count?

I am applying for a document delivery position at a large university library. I meet all the minimum requirements for the position from my current places of employment except one: the “ability to identify information in one or more foreign languages.” I do satisfy this requirement in my personal life. I’m a knitter. On occasion I find patterns in other languages that I want to knit. Using Google translate, language dictionaries and other resource guides I’m able to successfully translate the patterns with enough understanding to knit the pattern. Does this experience count?

Yes! Experience is experience; it doesn’t have to be something you made money from. (It helps, because it shows that you were able to do it a high enough level that someone was willing to pay you for it, and with some accountability built in. But it’s not essential in a situation like this.) Of course, using online translators may not meet the bar they’re looking for here — but there’s no reason not to mention it just because it’s hobby-related.

6. Can I get a retroactive pay raise when I’m leaving my job?

I resigned from my present position last Friday and am currently in my last two weeks. My new position is in a field I’ve been anxious to break into so I’m very excited!

I’m writing because I was due for a performance review last August. I’ve been told verbally by my direct supervisor that this review was stellar and included a promotion and pay raise. However, I have not seen this in writing since all pay increases/promotions must go through HR, a department known in my company for being very slow in processes.

A couple of my colleagues who know about this suggest I ask for my retroactive pay before I leave. I don’t think it makes much sense to ask for it since I am leaving. What do you think?

There’s no point in asking because they’re not going to give it to you. They’re not obligated to give you a raise that was never formalized, and now they have no incentive to. Raises are retention strategies, but you’re already leaving. (Plus it sounds like this raise was tied to a promotion that never happened.) Asking will make you look like you don’t understand how this stuff works and may cause a tension that will impact your relationship with this manager in the future (which will matter for networking and reference purposes).

7. Recent grad with lots of short-term jobs

As a winter graduate I’ve got an unanswered question: I have significant experience from internships, volunteering and summer jobs while in university, but all in 4-month (or 8-month) intervals, what can I do in my resume to assure employers that I am steadfast?

I took hold of many opportunities, but at the time it felt impossible to carry on commitments for more than two semesters at a time due to changing schedules, opportunities and locations. I did return to one job for two summers, volunteer as a mentor/editor with the same organization for most of 2005-2009 and renewed an internship contract for a total of eight months (which was very flattering as my manager had never offered this to any of his previous 5 interns). How can I show in my resume that I am not flighty? I want to squash this red flag before it ever sees daylight! There is a stereotype that recent grads are non-committal, and to an extent I will admit it is true – I have a sense of adventure, curiosity, and a craving to learn that often encourages me to “just try it.” How can I build confidence with my interviewers?

Well, if you just graduated, it’s normal that you’ve had a bunch of short-term jobs. Most people do, while they’re in school. So it’s going to be clear from your graduation date that this is what was going on.

However, now that you’ve graduated, your “sense of adventure and curiosity” is going to need to be channeled differently if you want to build a stable job history. You need to start building stays of several years.

A reader writes:

I recently accepted a job abroad. I’m newly out of college (and therefore young, and moving out from my parents’ house) and I got this job because my dad does business with my current manager. 

In a couple months, my parents are coming to visit me as sort of a spring break vacation for them. I am meeting them in another city and then they are coming to the city I work in for a couple days, then we are off to another city for the remaining few days of their (and my) vacation.

My concern is that if (or when) my manager finds out my parents are coming to visit, he will want (and feel obligated to) invite my parents over for a big dinner with their family. Due to their culture, it would be a 3 or 4 hour ordeal. Therefore, it would take up an entire evening (of the mere three that we have in my new home).

As I mentioned before, my parents and I will be in three cities during the week they are here, and therefore we are crunched on time for me to show them around my “hometown.” I did not take days off work for the days they will spend in my town, because I planned on spending the evenings with them after work shopping or dining.

Things would be different if my dad hadn’t seen my manager in a long time, but back (a couple months ago) when he dropped me off here for a week, my dad and I spent quite some time with my manager, as well as his family (a big dinner, in fact).

I am really close with my family, and since this is the first time I am moving out from living with them, I want to spend every waking minute with them here, especially showing them around my new stomping ground. Is it selfish for me to keep my parents’ visit a secret? Or would it ruin the relationship between me and my manager, or my dad and my manager?

You’re totally entitled to want to keep your parents to yourself on your short visit. Do the following:

1. Tell your dad how you’re feeling. This shouldn’t impact his relationship with your manager, but that’s his call to make. Tell him what you said here, and ask him how he thinks you should proceed. You might discover that your dad would like to have dinner with this guy.

2. Consider the fact that it’s okay to say no to invitations. If your manager does find out that your parents are coming to town and invites you for dinner, it’s perfectly fine to thank him but explain that they’re only in town for a few nights and you’ve already booked up that time with other commitments. That’s a lot easier than keeping it a secret and hoping that he doesn’t find out.

“Looking for a job is a full-time job.”

No, it’s not.

I don’t know why people say stuff like this. It’s one of those simplistic cliches that have ended up getting repeated over and over without being true.

It’s a great way to mislead job-seekers about what an effective job search is really about.

If anyone is really spending 40 hours a week on a job search, stop and regroup. Focus on the essentials instead: applying only for jobs that are truly a strong match, writing great cover letters, having a resume that focuses on your achievements rather than just responsibilities, and making sure you’re tapping into your network.

Go for quality over quantity, and laugh at anyone who tells you it should be a full-time job.

I probably get more questions about how to follow up on a job application or job interview than any other other topic … well, perhaps second only to “is what my employer doing legal?” questions. And I get very tired of answering them, so over at U.S. News & World Report, I’ve rounded up the basics on follow-up:  following up after you apply, following up after an interview, and following up if you have another offer.

You can read it here.

If you know someone who’s relatively inexperienced but smart, driven, and generally awesome, you should consider acting as their mentor. It doesn’t need to be a formal arrangement; it can simply mean that you’ve decided to take someone less experienced than you under your wing and help them grow professionally. In fact, I tend to think these relationships work best when they spring up naturally anyway.

Over at the Intuit QuickBase blog today, I talk about specific tactics you can use to be an awesome mentor to someone. You can read it here.

A reader writes:

I am currently job searching right now and through the local library have ran across a couple of books by Cynthia Shapiro, who is a well experienced HR manager herself. In one of her books, she gave some good ideas of how to be a good employee and ways companies could come to value you as an employee.

The question I had for you is, Ms. Shapiro seems to have the attitude of if you get fired or laid off, it’s partially your fault. That no matter what happens, if you fall under one of those two scenarios, there was something you could have done along your career path to have changed it. Her philosophy is, if a company values an employee enough, then even if tough times come, and layoffs are in store, they will still keep you.

I don’t fully agree with this, because I know plenty of people who are good workers, that followed all rules and policies, got along well with everyone, were valuable to the company, and they still got laid off (Steve Jobs, for example). Do you think this she is right, or could we all have done something to have not gotten laid off?

I don’t know anything about this author, but from what you’ve written, she sounds like a piece of work.

Sure, sometimes when someone gets laid off, and quite often when someone gets fired, there are things they could have done to avoid it. But always? Absolutely not, and it’s insane for her to say that.

For instance, sometimes a company is eliminating an entire function. You could be the most fantastic chocolate teapot maker they ever had, but if they’re no longer going to be making chocolate teapots, you’re going to be laid off. Now, maybe they have a line of chocolate chandeliers that they’re willing to train you to work on because you so impressed them with your work on the teapots — but sometimes the skills don’t transfer in way that would have that make sense. (Note: I stole the chocolate teapot example from a commenter because I want a chocolate teapot.)

I once had to lay off someone who was absolutely fantastic at her job because the work she was doing didn’t make sense for the organization anymore. It had nothing to do with the quality of her work or how much I valued her. It was solely, 100% about eliminating that function. And this type of work was her career — she wouldn’t have wanted to shift to a totally different role even I’d been able to offer that to her.

There are plenty more examples, too:  Your company is bought by another company, and they want their own people doing your function. Or a new boss comes in and brings her own team with her, so you’re out. I suppose Ms. Shapiro would say that you’re at fault for not quickly winning over your new boss, but in reality, these decisions are often made before they’ve ever even met you.

Now, firing is trickier. It’s more common to have played a role in getting fired …. but not always. You might have an insane, erratic, dumb, and/or vindictive boss. Or a racist boss. Maybe you walked in on your vindictive boss in flagrante with the intern, and you’re fired the next day as a result. Maybe you’re hired for something you’re great at, and new management alters your job to the point that you’re no longer doing something you’re good at.

Now, maybe Ms. Shapiro would argue that you should be able to finesse your way out of any of these situations, but come on. Good, competent people do sometimes get fired for things they couldn’t have seen coming and couldn’t have avoided. Sometimes you just end up in a bad situation with no good path out.

I suspect what she’s doing is to try to get readers to see how their choices can and do play roles in firing and lay-off decisions … because they often do. But to claim that that’s always true, every time, is not only ridiculous and wrong, but it’s also pretty crappy to send that message to people who truly might have played zero role in what happened to them.

It’s fast answer Friday! We’ve got a recent grad without enough references, a coworker badmouthing someone to their former employer, an employee asked to work as a secretary after being hired for a different job, and more. Here we go…

1. Is it ever okay to give a prospective employer a personal reference?

Is it ever okay to give a prospective employer a personal reference? I am currently in my first job after college and am searching for a new position. I don’t have a deep network of contacts at this point in my career. Is it OK to give two professional and one personal reference? The personal reference is someone I met in a student organization in college, so we have worked together in that capacity. However, we are very close friends now. Is this a big no-no?

Personal references are basically worthless; they’re people who can’t speak about your work and have a personal bias toward you. However, in this case, someone who you’d worked with in a student organization would actually be more of a professional reference than a personal one … but the fact that you’re close friends means you can’t use her (unless you’re positive that she won’t signal that on the call). Close friends, relatives, significant others — none of these are acceptable references. However, you’re in your first job after college and it’s normal that you’re not going to have a ton of professional references yet. If the employer — who must know that you’re new to the work world — wants more than the two you have, you can offer professors (although I personally find them useless for references), colleagues, etc.

2. Employer offered me one rate of pay, then lowered it a day later

I had an interview last night at a small company. The ad I answered said the pay rate was going to be $X-$Z/hr. It was on the lower side of what I had been applying to but figured I’d take the interview anyways and not poo-poo the job before knowing all of the in’s and out’s. I was offered the position on the spot and the HR manager that I met with told me that she was given (by the owner) a range of pay and was going to offer me the very highest amount because she really wanted me. Today, I received an email from her that said the owner told her he wasn’t willing to go that high… we’re talking a difference of a dollar/hour. This job has pros to it schedule-wise, but that’s about it. I know after looking for the past few months that jobs aren’t at all easy to come by at this point, but this company has the least to offer me of any other I’ve applied/interviewed with. How can I respond to the email and get that dollar/hr back? I feel since it was already offered to me, for it to be taken back is extremely unprofessional.

It’s definitely unprofessional of them to offer you one rate of pay and then change afterwards — although it would be far worse if more than a day had passed in between. You can certainly push back and negotiate for the higher amount, just like you might try to negotiate for more money in any offer situation, but ultimately, if they hold firm, you’ll need to decide what to do.

By the way, while you said that you feel that this job has less to offer you than others you’ve applied for, keep in mind that it has one thing that the others don’t: an actual job offer attached to it. Ultimately you’ve got to evaluate offers based on what the market tells you that you can get — so you’ve got to decide if the market has already spoken in your case or if you should walk away from this and hold out for something better.

3. Coworker is badmouthing me to my former employer

Is it a form of harassment for a fellow co-worker to go to your last employer and tell them how badly you are doing at your new job? Does foul behavior like this count when it’s outside of the workplace?

It’s not legal harassment, no. It’s really weird though. Why does either your coworker or your last employer care? More details please.

4. Appropriate gifts for a fantastic recruiter

I have been interviewing with a very large, global company. I had a phone screen with a junior recruiter from the company, then an interview with a senior recruiter who spoke with me in-depth and has since referred me to several hiring teams in the company, has answered numerous questions, set up amazingly well-coordinated interviews, done a lot of legwork and is just a very cool person all-around. Regardless of how this works out, I want to get her a gift. What would be appropriate?

Don’t give a gift. A gift in this context is inappropriate and will come across as if you’re sucking up (even though you’re just genuinely trying to give thanks). A much better response would be to write her a note and tell her how much her help has meant to you, and specifically what you appreciate about what she’s done. This is the type of thing that has way more meaning for people than a fruit basket or bottle of wine anyway.

5. Must a job seeker have a social media presence?

What if a hiring manager is searching for social media profiles for a candidate and cannot find any? I can only assume that some individuals might see this as a negative but wonder how those who do not use Facebook, Twitter, etc, are commonly perceived. As you might have guessed, I do not have any social media accounts and would only do so if it became professionally necessary. I am currently taking a break from work but may begin searching in a few weeks.

Fear not. It’s not at all mandatory unless you’re applying for jobs in social media. I’ve written on this here.

6. Asked to work as a secretary after being hired for something else

I am a newly hired employee for a certain position. But after my training, the secretary of one of the bosses decided to resign. My mind is already set on the position I applied for, but suddenly I was to become a secretary (temporarily) for the VP. How am I supposed to deal with this? I am not complaining about the work because I can do it. I just don’t know how to deal with my disappointment. The VP said that it would just be temporary. My original position was supposed to be a Quality Coordinator.

Talk to your boss and tell him that you understand the position the VP is in but that you were excited to get started at your new job and you wouldn’t have taken a job as a secretary if you’d known that’s what it was going to be. Say that you’re glad to help out temporarily, but you want to make sure it’s going to be short-term, and that you’re both on the same page about what “short-term” is going to mean in this case. If you start to get the sense that this is open-ended and you might still be doing this work in six months, then you’ll need to decide if that’s something you’re willing to do or not. But I’d push very hard to get a firm date by which you’ll be back to the job you were hired for.

As for dealing with the disappointment: See what positives you can get out of the experience. Can you build a relationship with the VP that will help you later? Will you learn about different areas of the company that you wouldn’t have other been exposed to and build connections that you wouldn’t have otherwise built?

7. Should bosses care if you’re unhappy or bored at work?

Do bosses care (or should good managers care) if you are unhappy at work, unchallenged and bored, etc?

Yes, good managers care if you’re unhappy and bored. That doesn’t mean that there’s always going to be something that they can do about it — sometimes the job is simply not that engaging and there’s no natural slot for you to grow into, for instance — but they’d certainly care about it, acknowledge it, and be honest with you about what can and can’t change. And the really good ones will talk to you about where to go next in your career, even if it’s not at their company.

Over at the Intuit QuickBase blog today, I give some tips on managing your interns, including finding out what they’re hoping to get out of the experience so you can help them get it; assuming they won’t know some really basic stuff about how offices work and giving more guidance than you normally would; and not cutting them too much slack just becuase they’re not being paid much.

You can read all the details here.

A reader writes:

After applying to a job, how long do companies usually wait before reviewing resumes to set up interviews? Twelve days ago, I applied to a job that fits me perfectly. It’s what I been doing throughout my career. I feel, based on my background, I should be called for an interview. If I don’t hear from them this week, should I call personnel or call the person looking to fill the position?

How long it takes for companies to set up interviews varies dramatically from company to company. Some employers do interviews on a rolling basis, as strong applications come in. Others have a set application period of, say, three to four weeks (sometimes longer) and don’t contact anyone until that period is over. And others are just really slow — they should be contacting people within a few weeks but because of disorganization, inefficiency, and so forth don’t contact candidates for months.

In other words, there’s no real answer.

You also need to keep in mind that this is a very overcrowded job market and most employers are getting 200, 300, even more applications for every position they advertise. I once got 600 applications for one slot. So you want to keep in mind that statements like “based on my background, I should be called for an interview” don’t really work in this context.  There might be 50 candidates who have the right qualifications for the position. There might be 100. They’re not going to call all of them, so this means that lots of candidates who are indeed qualified aren’t going to be contacted.  They’re going to pick the ones who they judge to be the absolute top tier — relative to the rest of the candidate pool, which is impossible for you to evaluate from the outside. (An awesome cover letter can often help here.)

As for following up … don’t call. They have your application. They know you’re interested. You will annoy them if you call.  (Read this.) What you want to do is to stand out by being a highly qualified candidate with a great resume and a compelling cover letter, not by irritating them with an unnecessary phone call.  (Now, will you occasionally hear from someone who called to follow up on their application and got an interview out of it? Sure, and if you want to screen for disorganized employers where the squeakiest wheel gets the grease, that’s one way to do it. But this will not work with good employers, and you will far, far more often annoy the employer and go to the bottom of their pile.)

If you absolutely must follow up in some way, send a polite email reiterating your strong interest in the job and saying that you’d love to talk when they’re ready to begin scheduling interviews. But that’s it.

It’s not the most encouraging response, I realize — it’s nicer to be told that there are things that you can do to gain some control in the process. But this is the reality of how it works.

A reader writes:

I’m a senior in college and I interned at a company this past summer and subsequently got a full-time offer. However, some time ago the company announced that it is downsizing and laying off half of its employees. I haven’t heard anything from HR but from what I’ve heard, the company may or may not rescind my offer. I also heard from a coworker that she “wouldn’t be surprised if [the company] did, and a few interns will probably choose to go somewhere else now that the company is in bad shape.”

I’m in the process of applying for new jobs and have gotten a few interviews. My question is, if the company choose to honor my offer, would it be considered burning bridges if I back out and take another offer (assuming I get one)?

First, contact the company about this since you haven’t already. Say that you’ve heard that they’re experiencing some cutbacks and you want to touch base on your role there once you graduate. Is it a certainty or would they recommend that you look at other options?

They may tell you that all of their cutbacks have been in areas unrelated to what you’ll be doing. For all we know, they may even be bulking up the area you’ll be working in; that can happen even when other areas are being cut. Or they may be vague. But ask. You don’t want to be making decisions about this without even having spoken to them yourself!

Now, even if they tell you that your job is secure, you may decide that you don’t believe them. Or you may decide that the company is shaky enough that you’d rather look elsewhere anyway. (But keep in mind that plenty of companies have gone through periods of layoffs and ended up perfectly strong. Layoffs aren’t in and of themselves a signal to run — you need to know more.)

In any case, if you do decide that you want to explore other options, it’s certainly your prerogative. Just make sure that you give the company plenty of notice, well before your scheduled start date (which I’m assuming is in May or June, once you graduate). If you notify them a week before you’re supposed to start, yes, that will burn a bridge. If you notify them two months before, it’s likely to go more smoothly.