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How to discuss a project that I accidentally gave a suggestive name to Background For my thesis I wrote a program that performs calculations on galaxy models. I named it easy_galaxy . My adviser thought the name was too long, and asked me to shorten it. I came up with EzGal (pronounced exactly as you think: "easy gal"). Under that name, the application was finished, it was being distributed to (and used by) the broader community, and a paper was published all about it. It is also on my github profile by its name. I never once thought about the name (nor did my collaborators, apparently), but I mentioned it in passing to my wife. She gave me a funny look and asked me if I actually named this program "easy gal". I had, and it is far too late to change the name. The problem The trouble is that it comes up in a professional context. It came up frequently when I was interviewing: it wasn't the most difficult part of my thesis, but it was a good solution to a common problem and is (for the community in question) widely used as a result. It is also publicly available, while most of my professional work has been private and locked up in closed-source-software, which made it an important talking point when I was interviewing. I enjoyed the project itself, so if I'm talking about past work with colleagues I bring it up from time-to-time because it is my little pet project. Unfortunately now that it is clear to me that the name is mildly suggestive, and that is probably more obvious to others than it was to me, I hesitate to bring up the project itself. Once or twice I've brought it up and explained the name (and that it was an innocent mistake), but sometimes I think that doing so makes a mountain out of a molehill. Then sometimes I mention the project but don't comment on the name, and spend the rest of the conversation wondering if the other person thinks I'm a womanizer. It is especially awkward when the other person is a woman. Any suggestions on how to discuss this past project of mine that I'm fairly happy with, in a way that moves past its unfortunate name quickly without derailing whatever conversation I'm having? Quick edit to add timeline Based on some of the comments I just wanted to clarify one detail. This really happened quite a while ago. I started the very first version of this software package in 2010, renamed it probably that same year, and published the paper about it in early 2012. I graduated in late 2012 and left Academia for the world of software engineering. I was more irritated with myself than anything else when I realized how the name could be misunderstood (probably somewhere in mid 2012), but with the paper already published my adviser suggested we simply leave it as is. In the past year or so there have been many high-profile stories about how both the tech industry and (in particular) the academic world of astronomy gravely mistreat women, and that helped put my project name back on my radar after many years of not thinking about it. <Q> Just refer to it by the longer name and just don't mention the shorter name. <S> Call it "Easy Galaxy", or use this opportunity to choose another name that shows a bit more imagination and is more descriptive of what the model actually does. <S> Better still, rename it on Git and <S> anywhere else you have it. <S> Since this project seems to have lived for some time with the old name, you can pass this off with: <S> Yeah, we call it this now - in hindsight <S> , it wasn't a great choice and my wife was entirely correct... <S> Obviously, this isn't a huge issue and it's doubtful that anyone believes that you're being outwardly sexist with this name, but times move on... <A> You're overthinking the issue. <S> It's a catchy humourous name if anyone notices the coincidence, if that is what it is called then call it EzGal. <S> It's like a sales gimmick, breaks the ice with a bit of a laugh, and if it's serious work it will shine on it's own merits despite any coincidental name issues it may have. <A> You're massively over thinking it. <S> As any British person will tell you, "Git" is a word for someone who is generally unpleasant. " <S> He is a bit of a git", if you will. <S> However, its name as a version control software and part of brand names such as GitHub is immovable now. <S> Whether it was Linus Torvalds' intention for it to be a double entendre is a question for history, but it's gone past any word play and became an accepted standard. <S> If EzGal is already in widespread use then it's fine as is. <S> As pointed out by Pajeet Ramahari-Mawari-Kulmini in the comments, GIMP is even worse is this regard. <A> Changing the name might be difficult, but what about the pronunciation? <S> EzGal could very easily be pronounced "ezgal" (with an initial "eh" sound), especially if you quietly tweak the appropriate bits of documentation. <S> That won't help you if you're making your case in email, but it should help manage the situation fairly effectively for bringing it up over the phone or in person. <A> Explain the acronym whenever you need to refer to in a professional context to people for the first time. <S> " <S> I also created EzGal, as in EasyGalaxy ..." <S> Also add a clarification for the name on github like easy_galaxy(EzGal). <S> and be done with it. <S> Apologizing beforehand assumes you re guilty about it and DOES make a mountain out of a molehill. <A> Having watched the conversation here for a while and given it more thought, I realized that I wanted to add my own two cents. <S> I think its important to not just consider how such a name might impact me personally, but also the broader community (i.e. those who use the tool and see its name). <S> In that context, it's important to keep in mind the ongoing issues of sexual harassment and workplaces that inherently marginalize women. <S> It's worth taking a moment to make it clear that hostile work environments for women is a real thing. <S> That much is clear from stories like that of Susan Fowler that certainly contributed to the ousting of the Uber CEO and founder from his own company. . <S> The astronomy world in particular has had many high-profile stores come to light lately about men exhibiting a long-standing pattern of blatant sexual harassment <S> : see here , here , and here for some examples. <S> The overall situation might actually be worse in the astronomy world, as in some cases the men in question were actually sheltered from appropriate consequences by their institutions, an act which (IMO) substantially adds to the impression of a general workplace that is hostile to women. <S> As a result, regardless of whether a name with sexual connotations was intentional or not, and regardless of how easy it might seem to be to dismiss it ("Oh, that was just a silly mistake"), others might very legitimately see the situation differently. <S> Especially in the context of the current situation in the tech/science world where many women feel marginalized because of their gender, anything that further contributes to that impression should be avoided as much as possible, accident or not. <S> So I would say that it doesn't even matter if it was an innocent mistake, or if it seems fairly harmless. <S> What matters is how the rest of the world views it, and I think there is a good chunk of the wider world which will view it negatively. <S> Not just in conversation, but also on the web. <S> It's important to consider not just one person's career, but also the careers of those around you. <S> That, after all, is the definition of community.
| As a result the answer is quite simple: to the extent that it is possible, change the name.
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What to do after I finish assigned task at work? Okay, so I just started my very first job ever. So I don't know what to expect from any of this.I'm a stocker/sales associate at a super market. We're currently preparing to open so we're stocking up the new store since they relocated last week. My first day the manager told me what to do and ask for help whenever needed. Then I will quickly finish the task and not know what to do or where to find a manager and I'm not one to bother someone while they're working, I'll feel downright rude. the first day was pretty simple since they kept an eye on me. (Somewhat)But today was odd. She just told me to finish stocking up an aisle then she clocked out.Once I finished I had no clue what to do and the other employees kept giving me stink eye.One came up to me and told me finish getting rid of the boxes in the middle or the aisle, so I tried doing that but later on she came over and looked at me like I was stupid. I was doing everything right, I was stocking according to the plannogram. And she came over and told me to stock a certain way but it didn't look correct.Whenever I try doing things on my own everyone looked at me like I'm some monster or something.I only worked on the empty aisles so it's not like I was taking anyone's work.Besides the never really gave any good explanation or anything to me. No show around the store or nothing it was very "just do this"Plus the doors don't work so I need to ask a manager to unlock them so I can go on break but due to me never finding them, I haven't been taking breaks needed.I don't even know where to go to put my stuff so I haven't been bringing anything necessary like a jacket or my wallet.I'm just so new, I'm used to having people to tell me what to do. Then when I try to find something to myself, they get irritated or suspicious over me.So I would like some advice or anything if this might relate to anyone else. <Q> This should be pretty straight-forward. <S> 1) Ask your manager 2) <S> If your manager isn't around when you're done with your tasks, ask your co-workers how you can help them out. <S> Do what they say. <S> When your manager re-appears, tell him/her what you've done and then move on to whatever he <S> / <S> she tells you to do next. <S> Ask about door access (you may need a security card or a pass-code), and ask where you can store your personal items. <S> In short - Ask. <A> In addition to Snarks answer. <S> If there is no one in authority to ask or someone to assist, in similar situations, I just grabbed a broom or cloth and tidied up. <S> Almost everyone appreciates a cleaner workspace, those who look askance at it will look down on anything. <S> I still advise my workers to do the same and lead by example. <A> As you become more acclimatised to your role, you'll have a better idea of how long certain tasks will take. <S> There will never be a shortage of tasks in a supermarket and at some point you will be expected to work without direct supervision. <S> But if you're truly stuck for ideas, ask someone, anyone. <S> "Everything is quiet in my usual department, is there anything I can help with here?" <S> That's all it takes <S> (I've been there myself!). <S> If your manager is absent while you are at work, you should find out as soon as possible who you should report to instead. <S> If you are given unusual instructions by a different manager, there is no harm later in approaching your own at the next opportunity and say "Manager Y said I do the thing this way, rather than the way you showed me. <S> Can I just confirm with you?" <S> As you're the new start, this should not be a problem for your own boss. <S> As for not getting your breaks. <S> It may vary depending on the country, but you will surely be legally entitled to a break at work (it may even say so on your contract). <S> I would say if your break normally starts at 12 for instance, keep an eye out for your manager in the fifteen minutes before and after. <S> Explain that you still can't open the doors and will need to go on your break soon. <S> Are you the only one this is affecting just now?
| If your manager is an intermittent presence, ask for a small list of tasks next time you see her (at least enough to keep yourself busy for a couple of hours).
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Can my boss deny me a day off request because it's for a potential hangover? Our Xmas party was just announced and it's going to be on a Thursday, in over 2 months' time (Dec 14th). I asked for the next day off. As far as I am aware, there is sufficient cover and I asked for the day off before most knew the party was Thursday. I have sufficient amount of time to take etc. Our boss sent a note to the team about 30 minutes later saying: Morning @here Please hold off on time off requests for Friday Dec. 15 (post-xmas party). More details to come! (you can, of course request it off as per the norm…just not as a ‘hangover day’). Is this OK? It seems to me that this isn't any of her business. I didn't specify that it was for a 'hangover day', though obviously it is. Any advice on how to handle this? <Q> Any advice? <S> Yes, do not sweat the little stuff. <S> That last part … <S> just not as a ‘hangover day' was obviously a joke. <S> Although that may not be the best use of a joke, a joke it is all the same. <S> You could ask your boss about this or take the offensive joke to HR, but I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze here . <A> Besides, judging by the note he sent, it seems that you are not the only one to have requested a day off that day, which probably made him even more suspicious on what could happen that day. <S> Is this OK? <S> If I were you boss <S> I would probably have done the same. <S> It is perfeclty ok to warn (note he is not denying any request) <S> you to withold your requests if your reasons are that you will be hungover. <S> Any advice? <S> Don't drink too much that day, so you don't have a hangover and are not "forced" to ask for a day off. <S> As a side note, last year in my company we also had a Christmas party, and even though most of us went home past 3 a.m. we were all the next day in the office (of course, most of us were also late, but given the time the party ended it is understandable). <S> However, it was not the most productive day we've had. <S> Update: <S> As commented by @PeteCon it could be the case that your boss is trying to get you all a general day off, given that it is understandable that one may end up hangover <S> tired after a big party, so don't rush into any conclusions as this could result better than you expected. <A> Morning @here Please hold off on time off requests for Friday Dec. 15 (post-xmas party). <S> More details to come! <S> (you can, of course request it off as per the norm…just not as a ‘hangover day’). <S> Worst case scenario, it sounds like the company is trying to mitigate the (potentially large) number of employees who might try to book this day off as a "hangover day." <S> Better case scenario, the "more details to come" bit suggests that they have something special planned for that Friday and they don't want too many people to miss it by booking the day off. <S> In either case, they've explicitly given permission to book the day off "per the norm" and (based on my own experience as a Canadian) "the norm" for booking days off does not require you to give a reason why you're booking it off. <S> And you've already booked it off anyway <S> , so you shouldn't need to answer any questions about it. <S> Just don't mention that you did, in fact, book it off for a hangover day and everything should be kosher. <A> It seems to me the intent of your boss's email is not to stop you requesting a day off, but to stop you requesting it as a hangover day. <S> There could be very good reasons for not wanting that as a reason on record. <S> Perhaps as it would upset shareholders, or auditors etc. <S> I would recommend, very simply, just requesting a day off. <S> As you have mentioned, you have checked there is sufficient cover, and it is sufficient notice. <S> Enjoy. <A> If you are going to get drunk, get drunk any other day of the year. <S> In other words, don't get drunk at work functions. <S> That is my advice. <S> Also (and admittedly off topic)... <S> drinking is better without getting drunk IMO. <S> Learn to hold your liquor!
| I think it is not necessary for you to specify it is a "hangover day" for you boss to be able to foresee your possible intentions on asking a day off that day.
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If I need to change coding style, should I ask for a standard to follow? I got my first programming job. It started well but now I got a message that I should write clearer code. I think my code is clear enough. Is it worth of asking if the boss has some coding standards on his mind of should I just change the way of coding gradually while he finds something that is not clear enough? He showed me another way to write the code and I can say that styles are approximately equally easy to read, it is a matter of taste which is clearer. I work in my home and boss is from another city so we see each other quite seldom. <Q> Is it worth of asking if the boss has some coding standards on his mind of <S> should I just change the way of coding gradually while he finds something that is not clear enough? <S> When someone says something to you and you don't understand it, the only way you'll gain clarity is by asking questions. <S> That is as true on the job as it is in life. <S> It doesn't make sense for you to randomly keep changing your coding style in hopes of honing in on what your boss wants. <S> Schedule a meeting with your boss (preferably in person, but via screen sharing if necessary). <S> Mention that you don't really understand what he means by writing clearer code. <S> Provide samples of your code and ask how you could make it clearer. <S> Ask if there is a standard (written or otherwise). <S> Ask if there is code you can read which demonstrates that standard particularly well. <S> Then you will know. <S> I got a message that I should write clearer code. <S> I think my code is clear enough. <S> He showed me another way to write the code <S> and I can say that styles are approximately equally easy to read <S> , it is a matter of taste which is clearer. <S> If you approach this with the attitude that your code is obviously clear enough and your boss shouldn't suggest that your code needs to be clearer, then you'll never make any progress. <S> You may also harm your career. <S> This is your first programming job. <S> Try to take it on faith that you might have a few things to learn - doing that will serve you well. <S> I worked for 45 years and learned new things all the time. <A> Now there are several things to "clearer code" <S> first is style that can be described in a style-guide. <S> Such are found on the web for many flours and languages and it is advisable a team subscribes to one and the same style even if most are " approximately equally easy to read, and a matter of taste "example: Delphi syle guide <S> You should ask your boss if he has something like this. <S> If not, get one off the internet to see which points are usually covered. <S> Find how this is handled in your organisation by looking at other code and/or asking your boss. <S> You could even write it down for future use and onboarding of new programmers. <S> Second, the way you structure you logic could be construed as clear or unclear coding. <S> Almost anyone can improve in this field <S> so I suggest picking up some good books like Martin Fowlers: Refactoring or Robert C. Martins: Clean code. <S> Last when and how you comment, name variable and methods also contributes to clarity. <S> You should find out exactly which of these points set off your boss and work on that especially. <S> Nonetheless professional try to master all of them. <A> You are in your very first job. <S> There are things that you don't know, that will (hopefully) become clear as you gain experience. <S> I'm assuming that right now, your boss is the better software developer. <S> That's it. <S> With "clear" code, there is an obvious goal, and every line of code goes directly into the direction of achieving that goal. <S> Clear code is as simple as it can be, because all difficulty comes from the problem, and not from difficulties coming from the code. <S> I sometimes see code examples on stackoverflow.com where I think "What is this developer thinking?". <S> Where they achieve their goal, but taking the weirdest, most obscure, most complicated paths getting there. <S> That is unclear code. <S> It takes time to develop the ability to create clear code. <S> It has absolutely nothing to do with coding standards, so asking for coding standards only shows that you don't know what "clear code" means. <S> And writing clear code is not something you just can do as ordered. <S> It's something you learn. <S> It's like telling a fiction writer "write more interesting stories". <S> It has nothing to do with style. <S> As to your comment "I think my code is clear enough". <S> It isn't. <S> The problem is, if you think it is, it might stop you from improving. <A> As a rule, we are the worst person for determining whether our code is clear. <S> The code came from our head, so it's no surprise that it makes sense in our head. <S> However, code also has to make sense to other people as well. <S> Sometimes two styles can look equally clear to us, while one is far more clear to others. <S> Early in your career, I recommend slavishly following code standards provided by your boss (aka. <S> the one who signs your paychecks). <S> They are the ones paying for the code, so they get to say what it looks like. <S> As your skill matures, you will have the opportunity to see more coding styles, and develop a more robust model of what makes code "clear" not only to yourself, but to others. <S> Then you will have a bit more freedom to challenge the status quo. <S> There is also value in conformance. <S> The hardest style of code to read is code which is written in multiple competing styles. <S> If you get used to one style, you can start to read into the mind of the developers by how they leverage that style. <S> It's harder to do that if each developer has their own coding style.
| Code is "clear" if I can easily find out what it is supposed to do, and then easily can find out that it indeed does what it is supposed to do.
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Late to work because of my small child I've worked for this company for 6 years. I just started a month and a half ago, at an office in the circulation department. I came in late 2 days in a row due to dropping my two-year-old at my mom's and then rushing to the office. I've been told "if you can't make it at 9 then don't come at all". I was not going to accept that, especially if I won't get paid for the day, and being a mom is stressful enough. The company in general is flexible about work hours. Everyone knows my situation. I was not asked to work for this department. The manager is known as rude, cocky, and doesn't care for what anyone has to say. I tried to have a talk with the manager but he left instead of hearing me out. What should I say to him and how? <Q> I've been told <S> if u can't make it at 9 then don't come at all. <S> I was not going to except that especially if I won't get paid for the day and being a mom is stressful enough. <S> I tried to have a talk with the manager but he left instead of hearing me out. <S> what should I say to him and how ? <S> It would make sense for you to sit down for a meeting with your manager and try to understand his attendance expectations. <S> Ask for a few minutes of his time and talk. <S> If you might need to be late on occasion to take care of your child, and if prompt attendance for this manager is very important, then this might not be the right job for you. <S> Some jobs can be more flexible, others cannot or will not. <S> Some moms are able to drop their children off early enough so that they can still arrive on time, and others cannot. <S> You need to weigh the job's need against your ability to get there on time. <S> I've worked for this company for 6 years. <S> Everyone knows my situation. <S> I was not asked to work for this department. <S> The manager is known as rude, cocky, and doesn't care for what anyone has to say. <S> Perhaps you are in a position to ask for a transfer to a different department. <S> You might get lucky. <S> Still, you could encounter yet another manager who wants his team to show up on time. <A> I have to strongly disagree with the other answers, because I think they're offering dangerous advice (although it may be a cultural thing). <S> My take on this is that it's the managers style <S> , he's just given you a heads up without making a formal issue out of it (however harsh it seems, that's what it is. <S> You could have had a written reprimand entered into your employee records instead <S> , you got a break). <S> It's up to you how to take the heads up, pushing back could easily lead to disciplinary action. <S> A real swine of a manager wouldn't have given you a break. <S> In time or further in your career you may come to appreciate this no-nonsense management style. <S> It's about focusing on the work during work, not the life dramas and it can have many benefits to all concerned. <S> And similar managers I have known ran a tight, efficient team and were absolutely to be relied upon to accomplish things. <S> Some cantankerous managers are very highly valued both by the company and their teams. <S> Always attempt to see positives in people before dwelling on negatives because they inconvenience you. <S> This sort of flexibility is usually at the managers discretion for their own team, rather than company policy. <S> New Manager, new discretion. <S> So listen to the manager. <S> Managing your personal life is your problem. <S> I know it can be difficult, I have 4 kids, but you just have to organise it properly. <S> The odd lateness due to unforeseen circumstances is usually OK, but more often is disruptive to some workplaces and in others <S> you just have managers that don't care. <S> You're not the only mother working, most handle the situation without their workplace needing to get involved at all. <A> This is a rare instance where I would say that an escalation is in order. <S> You have a track record with this company <S> and I would use that. <S> Talk to your previous manager, and your current manager's boss and see if they can help either with a transfer back to your previous manager or to work out with your current manager some sort of arrangement. <S> If you were just a new employee, then I'd say he had a point, but after six years, assuming you have had no other difficulties, this should at most have been a question such as "I noticed you came in late two days in a row, are you having difficulties?" <S> If you get no help, then you may need to either use PTO, or find another job, as they are not showing any flexibility towards you and it won't improve.
| My best advice is make sure that you don't have to rush, plan a healthy time margin somehow and don't rely too much on others to make it work, because other people have lives as well which can interfere with your plan. Try to approach your manager one last time before escalating.
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Is it suspicious if a company seems to be dodging the money question very late in the interviewing process? I’m applying for a position that would require relocation. So far I’ve been through: A quick “resume buzzwords” screening call with the recruiter. A 45-minute tech screening call with a senior developer to test me on platform basics. An in-depth tech round, administered as an assignment to do a full-stack vertical slice of code. An in-person interview with the CTO and a HR person. The tech round alone took me two all-nighters, so about 4-5MDs of work to complete, not to the full extent of the assignment by the deadline, but enough to pass the round apparently. The last round involved a total of 8 hours of a train ride. My impression from it was it wasn’t really a test to pass anymore, as much as getting more details on what I’d be doing and to get the usual talk about the perks, which I believe strongly hints I’m going to get some offer. The HR lady did ask me about my money expectation, I said my numbers which research tells me aren’t outlandish. In other interviews, by this point, I’d get some sort of feedback to the tune of “oh that sounds doable.” Here the HR lady segued to “what else besides money would motivate you to move across a country?” Now, I’m not a twenty-something that just needs to drop a lease and pack a duffle bag. I’d be moving for the third time in four years: crashing on somebody’s couch in a new city until I find a place there; pay three months’ rent or so just to get the keys to that; keep paying the rent on my home until I’m certain I’m established and staying for a while; and then sublet my home, possibly at a loss to keep it occupied. And as cynical about capitalism as I am, I think it’s disingenuous to talk about moving for a new job as if it’s a fun adventure they’re letting me have and not fundamentally a business transaction where they offer me money for my skilled efforts and I weigh that against the costs incurred by me. Am I just being paranoid and is what I saw as evasive behavior just standard HR nonsense where said person just wanted to do her thing of gauging my attitude? Were they simply being oblivious of my part of the equation? Or is the lack of transparency a sign that they aim to try and lowball me? <Q> I think you missed a great chance to actually answer her question. <S> It's possible that the question signals they can't (or don't want to) give you as much money as you want, but it could also signal "please reassure me <S> you really want to work here and aren't just looking for money. <S> " <S> A good answer would have listed 3 or 4 things <S> you know they provide (exciting work, a chance to make a difference in the world, fun working environment, new responsibilities, opportunities for advancement, pleasant commute, nice living environment, lower housing prices etc etc) followed by several non-cash perks they could give you (vacation time, on-site facilities such as a gym, daycare, etc, commitment to x amount of training a year, being sent to conferences, access to luminaries of your field, etc.) <S> You could then smile and say something positive about how sure you are that they will be providing all of that, so it's really just down to making sure the actual salary is ok. <S> That brings the conversation back to where you want it (please offer me a salary high enough to let me take this job) while also pointing out that a lot more than the money has gone into your decision, and you think highly of them and want to join them. <S> What to do now? <S> Wait and see I suppose. <S> You could always email her and say you feel you skipped answering that question and would like to answer it now. <S> I can't see how that would hurt. <S> But this far into the process, they must be very close to making you an offer now. <A> You are a bit paranoid. <S> Total compensation is often a motivator. <S> When I taught a job-hunting class, I would ask people if they would take a job for 250,000/yr. <S> Every hand went up. <S> I said "Good, it's in Iraq, and you're going to have to hire your own private security team. <S> This is of course an extreme example, but the HR person was simply trying to find out what motivates you besides money. <S> I'm sure if they came back with: <S> Well, the salary is below your range, but we do have 4 weeks vacation, a company car, and full medical and dental for you and your family with a low deductible. <S> Your view may change. <A> I'm going to run counter to a few answers here... <S> Having spent what sounds like around 20 hours proving your worth to the job, I'd say it's fair to ask "are we on the same page with money?". <S> If you've researched what the living conditions are and what a fair wage for your skills are in the area, and what fair relocation costs would be <S> - I'd say it's not too presumptuous to say "am I wasting my time if I expect this basic ballpark?" <S> Particularly before you spend more than a few more hours on further discussions. <S> I'd suggest that you politely parlay the "but what else excites you?" <S> type conversation - grant the premise <S> (presumably there ARE some cool things about this job that make the move exciting?) <S> - say what you like about the company that make the move sound great - but gently bring it back to the point that all the intangible benefits are GREAT, so long as your basic needs are met. <S> And politely raise the point that you've had NO indication that you and the company are on the same page. <S> I think everyone has their own point at which the lack of a salary conversation becomes a breaking point. <S> For me, it's sometimes been before the first onsite interview, as it means taking a day away from work, and I won't leave a good job to go to a worse situation. <S> The more eager you are for the given position, the more you may be willing to let it ride. <S> Only you can decide when you've spent enough time to feel you need that answer = <S> as cirumstances are unique to each of us.
| It's not dodging, it's trying to see what your interests are and what total compensation you would be satisfied with.
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Should I send thank you emails to interviewers without asking for their email addresses? I know how to find and validate email addresses (usually it's as simple as firstname.lastname@domain.com). During interviews, I usually have previous email contact with the "primary" interviewer, but I go through many interviewers, whom I know the name but not the email. Usually, I do not ask for the email address, but I always send a thank you email to each of the interviewers. Is this appropriate or would this be awkward and harmful to my interests? Should I always ask for the email address? I feel as if that may be awkward to ask, especially for some of the technical interviewers. Also, sometimes I forget to ask. Does it change anything that I am applying for cybersecurity related positions? <Q> You should know by now that you never demonstrate your ability to find out information that wasn't given to you unless you were requested to do so . <S> The reason isn't so much about hacking, but that it could appear "stalker-ish" which is definitely a bad impression to give someone. <S> So in other words, No you shouldn't, unless you're getting them from somewhere like LinkedIn or the company website. <S> Otherwise, I'd ask for their emails or let your recruiter forward them. <S> It shows a little courtesy. <S> Knowing that someone can do something and actually have it proven to them are two very different things and the last thing you want to do <S> is appear "sneaky". <S> One of the things about hacking when you're employed is that you only do it when you're asked to do it. <S> Otherwise they'll never trust you. <S> Quite the opposite really. <A> Given that e-mail addresses aren't generally considered confidential information the chances are pretty high that people won't really think twice about it, especially in the case of predictably formatted addresses such as those used by many companies. <S> Of course if they do think about then you risk them considering it to be a bit awkward or even a little bit creepy if the address wasn't in a predictable format <S> and I really can't see any potential advantage you could gain from deliberately doing it this way. <S> And no this will gain you precisely zero "hacker" credibility, cybersecurity position or not. <A> usually it's as simple as firstname.lastname@domain.com <S> I would not assume this. <S> First if you get one or more wrong and the people whom you got right start doing a reply to all, they could get invalid recipient error messages from the mail server. <S> These could reflect poorly on you. <S> As this answer says just send the note to the contact addresses you have and ask that it be forwarded to to your interviewers. <S> You may also be able to request the addresses from your contact if you wish to send customized thank you notes individually.
| If you want to send a thank you note to someone ask them for their e-mail address, if you don't have it send a note to your contact and ask to have it forwarded on.
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Is it appropriate to ask permission to record a documentary in a company you're working at? I've just started a new internship (trial period) and a friend of mine is doing a project to document the lives of working people. He asked me if he could document me which I agreed on, however he asked if I could also ask the company I'm working at if it's okay to document/ record my day-to-day. Since I've just started working there, I don't know if it's appropriate for me to ask them about it? <Q> In principle, there's nothing wrong with it. <S> That said... <S> You are new. <S> You are an intern. <S> You have <S> not (yet!) built up a reputation at the company which would make them want to do favors for you. <S> The other workers may feel like having a filming crew lurking about to be a pain in the (ahem). <S> There is little benefit to your manager or your group in this. <S> So... <S> Do not push it hard. <S> Bring it up, and ask "is this sort of thing appropriate for our office?" <S> Be very, very prepared for a "no" answer. <S> And let it go. <A> It's fine to ask. <S> The company will either say yes or no. <S> What would be not fine at all is doing this documentary without asking. <S> That could have very negative consequences for you, even if the company would have allowed it if you had asked. <A> Since I've just started working there, I don't know if it's appropriate for me to ask them about it? <S> It is not like working there for longer time <S> gives you more or less "right" to ask such questions. <S> This one would probably also come as unexpected even if it were from an experienced coworker. <S> You can definitely ask it, but it is also possible that your request is denied .
| I don't see how asking that can be inappropriate ; in any case it could be an unexpected request. If you go to your manager and tell him about this opportunity and ask if he's interested in getting in touch with the documentary people, manager can decide what he wants to do. Some companies do not like that some of their processes or assets being stored on video (one reason for NDA's), specially if it is for a public documentary or similar.
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Should I state work-life balance needs in a cover letter? I am job-hunting as a parent of a small child. My child goes to after care after school. After care closes at 6 PM. For most jobs I am applying for, the one-way commute is 30-45 minutes to the after care center. Therefore, I cannot accept a job that will require me to routinely stay at the office beyond 5:15-5:30 PM. Also, there are multiple days in the school calendar where the school is closed or there is early dismissal. Not to mention the usual times when children get sick and need to be picked up at short notice. I need a job to be accommodating of these things in time flexibility, telecommuting and a culture where a crazy amount of work hours is not expected. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to state this in a cover letter so that if I get interviewed it would only be by employers who can accommodate these needs. Is that a fair assumption? Or is doing this a potential turnoff to most HR people and hiring managers regardless of if the company they work for is family friendly? <Q> Should I state work-life balance needs in a cover letter? <S> Short answer <S> NO <S> Your objective is to get a job, and the people who are looking to hire typically are searching for ways to thin out the amount of candidates that they speak with . <S> By mentioning such a need this early in the game, in my experience as a hiring manager, you are hurting yourself . <A> I wouldn't state the requirement in the cover letter, as it detracts from you selling your application. <S> I would include this when researching the company however. <S> For example, you may want to search for whether the company offers flexible working as stated on their website, or you may wish to email HR. <A> It seems the consensus answer is NO. <S> Rather than give a Yes/No answer, I will propose an algorithm that will likely (but without certainty) lead to NO. <S> Are you sick of the amount of time you have spent in interviews for positions that you would have loved to take but ultimately had to turn down because of work life balance? <S> If yes, then you should probably cut down the number of interviews you go to. <S> One way is to put that information in the cover letter. <S> Otherwise, you not do it. <A> I'd say this comes under the remit of discussing your working hours and how flexible they are. <S> It's entirely reasonable to discuss this during the interview process as it is pretty important to you. <A> I need a job to be accommodating of these things in time flexibility, telecommuting and a culture where a crazy amount of work hours is not expected. <S> I was wondering if it would be a good idea to state this in a cover <S> letter so that if I get interviewed it would only be by employers who can accommodate these needs. <S> Is that a fair assumption? <S> Rather than laying out your family needs in your cover letter, you might be better served to attempt to find "family-friendly" jobs before applying. <S> Certain fields will be family-friendly. <S> Teacher's assistants, for example. <S> Some fields permit full-time telecommuting work with flexible hours. <S> Some call center jobs can be like that. <S> Some jobs can be more family-friendly. <S> When my wife was returning to work after being home with children, she looked for jobs requiring "mothers hours". <S> Some companies like to be known as family-friendly. <S> They often talk about it on their company website, often in the "careers" or "work here" section. <S> And a Google search for something like "family friendly workplaces near [my location]" could find them. <S> And in general, smaller companies often tend to be more flexible. <S> And if you are working through an agency, you should lay out all of your personal requirements beforehand and let the agents filter out companies that don't meet your needs. <A> Do you want to be in charge of deciding whether the work-life balance the company expects meets your needs, or do you want the company's HR department to be the one deciding whether your desired work-life balance meets their needs? <S> Mentioning it in the cover letter, before any interview or offer, lets HR be in charge. <S> Asking about work-life balance in the interview, and then accepting or not accepting the offer, lets you be in charge. <S> I don't know about you, but I like to be in the driver's seat. <S> * <S> Unless it's an 8 hour drive <S> and there's a bottle of Coke Zero and a nice book to read, anyway <S> , then I'm okay being driven.
| Your goal is to get the first interview, you can find out more about the work flexibility and work life balance after your are further along in the hiring process. In short, don't shoot yourself in the foot. Many businesses are flexible when it comes to accommodating parents needs, some aren't so much.
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Should I discuss amount of sick days with HR? The past 6 months I have been ill or working from home because of the illness for about 2-3 days a month. I realise this is not optimal for an employer, but nobody has complained/asked any questions yet. The problem is likely to keep occurring for a bit as my doctors still have not figured out what the issue is. Should I notify HR that this might be a recurring issue? Or should I wait for them to approach me about it? I feel like it leaves a bad reputation for 'always being sick' and they might suspect I just don't want to go to work. <Q> Part I <S> -- Talking further to HR <S> I would not bring it up further. <S> What I would do is work through your manager in an open an honest way. <S> Let them decide if they need to communicate new information to HR. <S> The main point I would make is to not shine the HR spotlight on yourself unless you have to. <S> I would for your own information review the employee handbook and <S> see if your situation is specifically addressed . <S> If it is not, let your manager figure it out. <S> Part II -- <S> Your reputation Since you have been able to do this ( work from home 2 or 3 days a month for the last six months ), then obviously you are doing a good job and your manager is not catching any flack due to you working remotely. <S> Your reputation is fine. <S> Summary <S> In terms of your reputation consider this: Typically those who don't get work done effectively are not allowed to work remotely long term, as you have. <A> Since you're dutch, I'd like to say that "sick days" is not a common term in the Netherlands. <S> People will always be sick and the amount of days that you are sick tend to have no effect on your salary or anything similar (not even vacation days). <S> At most it might lower your yearly bonus, if you even have one. <S> Talk to your manager <S> If you're going to be sick more frequently, just talk about this to your manager so that he can manage the situation . <S> If he asks you to work at home during those sick days, then he'll most likely count those "sick days" as working days. <S> 9 out of 10 times this is not an issue and life will go on. <S> The only time you should bother with HR in this situation, is if your manager tells you to contact HR. <S> But it's more likely that he'll do this himself. <A> 1. <S> Work from Home <S> At least for the company I work for in Germany, "Sick" and "Working from Home" are regarded as mutually exclusive. <S> If you are Sick, you are not Working from Home, and vice versa. <S> Our company is happy for employees to work 2 days per month from home, maybe your company has a similar policy? <S> If on your "sick" days you can effectively work from home, and your manager is satisfied with this, it would make far more sense to simply classify these days as working from home, and stay out of HR's radar entirely. <S> Obviously, this needs in any case discussion with your manager, so they understand why you will often be working from home at short notice. <S> 2. <S> Get a Doctor's Note whenever possible <S> Companies often classify sick with and without a certificate separately, and it will look far better on your record to have a long list of "Sick (with medical certificate)" than "Sick (without medical certificate)".
| If you must report in sick, at least try to get a doctor's note, even if it isn't strictly required in your company's policy for short periods of absence. In short, there is no need to further HR's involvement. Keep your manager in the loop in terms of further developments with your condition.
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How to introduce myself in a CV when I share the same name as an unpopular politician? I am posting this on behalf of a colleague of mine who has begun job hunting. Her problem is that she shares the same first and last name of a local politician. The local politician has a poor reputation within the community. My question is, how does someone with the same name make it clear that they are not the same person as their namesake? N.B. Please make your answers apolitical. I'm not interested in naming the politician in question or discussing their politics. They are so small town that you really have to be a local of my area to know who she is. <Q> You don't need to - I think your colleague is worrying over nothing. <S> The CV is unlikely to bear any resemblance to that of the politicians <S> and I'm sure anybody who knows the name would be able to quickly ascertain that this is different person. <S> Namesakes aren't unusual. <A> Just do it. <S> There's no need to make any kind of artificial looking compromises here. <S> People often share the same name as celebrities (I myself have the exact same name as someone I'd rather not be confused by). <S> It's all in the context. <S> And your friend won't be adding a stint of political office in his CV, will he? <A> Lets assume the politician has recently resigned, and the role in question is some sort of council/management type opening which the politician could reasonable be expected to be taking. <S> Only in that scenario would I think it worth putting any reference to attempt to disambiguate. <S> You also need to be cautious about the inclinations of your interviewer, and keep any comment as neutral as possible. <S> Name: <S> T. Blair (not the Ex. <S> PM) <S> If the politician is still active in politics, they won't be applying for the job. <A> Do not shy away from the association. <S> Use it to anchor your presence in the mind of the interviewers, so that they remember you later. <S> Find something positive about the politician and apply it to yourself but immediately refer to a negative quality about them, which you don't share. <S> For example: "Yes my name is XXXX. <S> Senator XXXX is no relation, but like them I am a very YYYY sort of person, though I don't share their love of ZZZZ. <S> I think QQQQ is much more important <S> continues... <S> Believe me, you'll be getting the best of both worlds!" <S> Done successfully <S> , you'll be remembered as "The good XXXX person". <A> Your CV isn't the place to write a chatty essay about such things. <S> If you are applying to a large company, or for a popular job with many applicants, you might be surprised (and/or horrified!) <S> at how fast CVs are scanned in a first pass to weed out the obvious irrelevancies. <S> Assume the first person who reads your CV will spend 30 seconds or less looking at it before it goes in the trash, unless you give him/her a good reason to spend longer. <S> How much of those 30 seconds do you want to waste pointing out that you are not related to someone else with the same name? <A> Use First name, Middle name. <S> You wouldn't be lying and later in the process you can sign the forms with your full name. <S> One thing is to have Donald Trump send you a CV, a whole different story would be a CV from Donald John. <A> This can be a good or a bad thing. <S> On one hand, studies show that people with certain names do face bias (whether it be that it is an uncommon name or they have a predisposition towards people with that name). <S> However on the other, it could be a reason for the employer to spend a little bit longer than an initial scan. <S> Personally, I'd keep it there cause I think the latter would be a bit more likely since it's a politicians name, but if not you could make a point of using your middle name instead, or a nickname. <A> The other answers have pretty good suggestions. <A> If the politician is well-known but hasn't been dominating the media and local public consciousness for the last 24 months, probably do nothing. <S> People with the same name come up some times. <S> If you really are concerned, you can literally just put a different name on your resume. <S> Try: <S> Your middle name <S> Your initials <S> Some plausible nickname Use something plausible enough and just go by it for a while. <S> Sort it out after you're hired. <S> To clear the one obvious question, resumes do not have to have any bearing to legal name. <A> Many people use a shorter version of their legal name on almost all their documents. <S> For example, why call yourself Bartholomew when everyone knows you as Barry or Bart? <S> And most married women discard their last name in favor of their husband's, but no one complains that they are using the wrong last name on their resume. <S> Your friend is free to put a similar first name on their resume, and mention "people usually call me .... <S> " during the interview. <S> This is useful for people with unusual or potentially unappealing names who worry about discrimination.
| There is no requirement that you use your legal name on a CV - in fact, many people don't. Any interviewer influenced by the presumed association will not take a positive view of you attempting to state the obvious. One approach I haven't seen mentioned is using your middle initial like the actor Michael B Jordan.
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Using corporate email lists to address lost and found A bit of background to the topic... My wife works for a very large international bank in Canada. Recently, her team was moving to another floor and looked like the moving company has lost a small value personal item in the process. My first reaction was: "No big deal, just send a group email to see if anyone got it by mistake", which seemed pretty normal within mid-size tech companies I am used to work for. Her immediate reaction was that she felt super embarassed to even think about sending such sort of email and bother her colleagues about pretty much a personal matter. To be honest, the item doesn't matter as much but I felt that she doesn't feel comfortable with her workplace culture or maybe she is just too shy. To cut story short, this has escalated into arguing and now I feel I might be missing something and owe her an apology. So would the sort of email I've suggested be appropriate withing larger companies or not? <Q> Yes, it's appropriate, and just like this: All, During our recent move a small, personal item was lost. <S> If anyone has come across a three pointed widget box, please contact Mrs eYe at 555-1212, thank you.eYe Kindest regards, Mrs. eYe <A> Yes, you owe your wife an apology. <S> Is this sort of email appropriate within larger companies? <S> Depends on the company culture. <S> For some it may be commonplace, particularly if there are smaller lists for specific buildings or office. <S> We really can't answer whether it's appropriate or not, because it will vary depending on where you work. <S> If she were unsure whether she felt uncomfortable with it because she's shy or because of the culture, she could ask her manager if it would be appropriate. <S> Your biggest mistake here however is letting this turn into an argument. <S> Your wife knows the answer to this question far better than you do. <S> You should have trusted her opinion and let it go far before it turned into a fight. <A> 1) Ask colleagues how this kind of thing is done. <S> In my company, emails like this are sent out by an administration address. <S> 2) Use the appropriate distribution list. <S> Ensure that it's limited to the geographic location/departments involved and no more than that. <S> You may need more than one if you're wanting more than one department. <S> 3) Consider buying a replacement. <S> Take the third option.
| For some smaller companies it may seem inappropriate if no one ever uses the company list for things not directly related to the business. The person who can tell you whether it's appropriate is your wife, who actually works for the company.
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How should I explain employment gap taken intentionally for learning new skills? I have been working as an Android developer for the past 1.8 years and recently left my job. Even though I have decent knowledge of Android development, I believe one can never rely only on one technology. Hence, I am now taking an online course in Java with data structures from a reputed institute, because I have never been good with data structures and algorithms. I have decided that for the next 3-4 months, I will concentrate only on improving my skills through this course and not take up a job. After completing this course, how should I explain this gap in my resume? <Q> Unfortunately there’s not really a way to fill in the “Experiences” section on a resume with an explanation of the 3-4 month gap. <S> However, in your cover letter, you could just specify that you took some time off to educated yourself on Data Structures. <A> I've been a hiring manager at several companies, let me offer you my perspective. <S> I get resumes. <S> At times I get too many resumes, and have to triage them. <S> Sadly, gaps can be a triage criterion. <S> If you get past triage to the conversation stage, gaps are pretty easy to explain away; in your case, "I went back for more education, took X and Y courses, and (best!) <S> Z certification". <S> Make sure that classes/certs are on your resume, this helps. <S> So ... to counterbalance the gap, what else can you do? <S> At a lot of companies, having open-source projects helps, a lot . <S> As does having something downloadable from apple/android stores. <S> These things should be on your resume. <S> Last point ... <S> many places ask for an optional cover letter. <S> That is a good place to mention that after you left your last job you went back to school. <A> It's not a gap. <S> You were completing an Android/Java/comp sci course that, evidently, was a full time course. <S> Your resume should say something like "May - August: <S> Android course". <S> The only risk I see is if it's something like a 10 hour a week course. <S> You could publish some related code to demonstrate you were productive <S> but if I were reading your resume I really wouldn't care whether you had free time or were churning out 40 hours a week during the course. <A> Assume that your CV isn't about employment, but about what you have done. <S> Which makes obvious sense when you consider that you would list time at university. <S> Obviously call it not "Work history" but "Experience". <S> So there is no gap. <S> There is 21 months doing job X, 19 months doing job Y, 3 months doing a course in ABC. <S> There is nothing to explain, because it is all written in your CV, no gap. <S> What I would hope for in a CV is that every item listed gives a reason that you were a better employee at the end of that item than at the beginning, and that would be true for your course.
| I've also seen education-based gaps mitigated by putting the education stint in the resume proper, between two jobs.
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How do I tell my boss I'm leaving to start my own business? TLDR How do I tell my boss of ~9 months that I want to leave to run my own business? I will start with a bit of (relevant) background to this question to give some context. I was a self employed web developer during university and was quite successful with my work. When I finished university I got a job straight away via a recommendation from a client, it was remote and I did well in it for 18 months, I did miss self employment though. I then managed to land a job in my local area with much better pay but in an office. At the interview, it seemed that I would be working with a couple of others but when I started work they were no longer there and it has just been my boss and I in the office ever since. The first month or two at the new job were good but things have since gotten very stale. Being the sole developer at this place, I have to balance bug fixes on old company projects with creating new functionality for our new clients and I am not enjoying my time here at all. My boss (the director) is excellent, he is friendly and flexible and the pay is good, but I don't feel happy. I feel now more than I ever have that I want to go back to being self employed, but full time. I have a number of contacts (from my past and unrelated to my current job) that want to use my services, some on a project basis, others on a monthly retainer basis. These are reliable enough to give me the confidence to go it alone, and I have been saving for a few months to give me a large buffer in case things go awry. The chance of getting work from my boss is relatively likely but I am obviously not going to count on that. My business is not in the same industry as his, so no threat of competition for him. My main question is, how do I tell my boss that this is what I want to do? Being the only two people in the business at present make it feel harder for me to do. I want him to know it's not a personal thing but just something I feel I need to do but not sure how to do that succinctly. I'm looking to go in December, so would be giving my 30 day notice in November which is not far away now! <Q> Just resign as normal. <S> Don't mention it before hand. <S> Then when asked why you're resigning give your reasons politely. <S> But don't mention you're thinking you may get work from him. <S> Leave that to his imagination. <A> My main question is, how do I tell my boss that this is what I want to do? <S> Being the only two people in the business at present make it feel harder for me to do. <S> I want him to know it's not a personal thing <S> but just something I feel I need to do but not sure how to do that succinctly. <S> I'm looking to go in December, so would be giving my 30 day notice in November which is not far away now! <S> You appear to be filling a role no-one else can in your current company. <S> So while 30 days may be a perfectly legal period of notice to give, you may be putting your employer in a very difficult position by leaving him only 30 days to find a good candidate to fill your job. <S> You are also leaving them no time to allow for you to hand-over your work to your replacement. <S> You will presumably not be there to train in the new person. <S> So if you want to leave on good terms (a very sensible idea) you may need to be more flexible with them in the transition period. <S> I'd suggest considering offering to be available for part time work or to consult (paid perhaps at your current hourly rate) with your replacement. <S> You should suggest helping in the interview/recruitment roles to find your replacement. <S> All of this may delay your move to full time self-employment, but it would be a great help in not creating problems for your employer and retaining (and perhaps even improving) <S> the relationship you have with them. <S> You should consider any extra time it takes to allow an easy transition to a new employee for your current employers as an investment in a strong business relationship. <A> I think that giving him the 30 days you mentioned is a really good start. <S> Heck, tell him Monday. <S> The more time he has to react, the easier it'll be for him. <S> Another thing you should bring up is that you can help screen candidates to replace you, and help get them onboarded with the codebase and processes you've set up. <S> Hmm ... do you have good documentation for your setup, your code, your process? <S> The new guy will thank you if you do! <S> You should ideally come in with a checklist of all the things you do, which will need to be covered when you're gone, either by boss or by the new fish. <A> How you handle this depends very much on your relationship with your boss, which will change once you give your notice in. <S> It's not unheard that employers just want you gone (with pay) as soon as you give your notice. <S> In the first instance, you need to do everything by the book. <S> Thank him for the opportunities and experience you have received while working there (if that is something you want to say). <S> Emphasise that you want to help make any transition as easy and straightforward as possible (again, if that is something you want to say). <S> Do everything you can to be a good employee, it's a small world after all, and you're a good guy, right...? <S> After that, let your boss initiate/lead any further discussions. <S> I think the worst thing you can do is to bring it up yourself with the aim to get freelance work from him, it will be obvious what you are trying to do.
| Emphasize that you want to help make the transition to a "you-less" environment as smooth as possible. If he asks what you're going to be doing, and you're comfortable discussing it, say that you're going back to working freelance. Give your resignation in writing, detailing exactly when your last working day will be.
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Is it acceptable to ask a colleague to conduct their speaking practice elsewhere? I'm a PhD student who likes to work in the lab on weekends because I'm more focused and can work longer at my desk which is nicely set up. We've had two new Asian PhD students (I'm Asian as well) who now come in on the weekends as well. They both practice 'speaking English' by using some popular apps on their laptops and while I admire the effort, most of my afternoon is me trying to get stuff done while I hear words like 'couch', 'giant merger' or 'determination' or any other random words talked out loud and with heavy enunciation. The speaking practice goes on for well over an hour. My question is, is it too rude for me to ask them to maintain quiet in the lab or should I accept that any workplace has some 'noise' at any given time? Thanks. <Q> Their speaking practice isn't a work activity; the lab is apparently just a convenient place for them to do it. <S> Yes, every workplace has some noise -- <S> stray conversations and the like -- but pre-meditated noise is something you can reasonably ask them to adjust, if you do it politely. <S> You said that the sound from the computer is what's distracting you, not any speaking they're doing. <S> If so, you could ask them to use headphones. <S> I've done this with coworkers who are taking online video courses or listening to presentations. <S> Tell them what you've told us <S> : It's great that you're working on this ( <S> and you've been there too, if you have), and you appreciate that they're doing it in "off" time, but you're trying to do work too and could they use headphones? <S> That way you and they can both use the lab without interfering with each other. <S> Another answer suggests that you wear headphones. <S> You can do that if you want, of course, but in my experience it's not unreasonable to ask the people generating controllable noise to make a change. <S> If you were bothered by them having any conversation with each other, or by somebody's cell phone occasionally ringing, that would be on you. <S> But that's not what you're describing. <S> Be prepared to help them look around the lab for some USB headphones. <A> is it too rude for me to ask them to maintain quiet in the lab <S> But they're there for the same reason you are and equally entitled to be there. <S> So you might get flipped off. <S> My advice would be to wear headphones or something and try and ignore them rather than make an issue out of them trying to better themselves in a place they have every right to be. <S> Better yet, ask them when they'll be finished, go drink some hot chocolate or contemplate nature for a while and then use the lab after their hour is up. <A> is it too rude for me to ask them to maintain quiet in the lab or should I accept that any workplace has some 'noise' at any given time? <S> Just nicely ask them to use a conference room or other office with a door, so that you can concentrate on your work. <S> If it's on a weekend, there should be plenty of places for their practice that won't disturb others. <A> is it too rude for me to ask them to maintain quiet in the lab or should I accept that any workplace has some 'noise' at any given time? <S> It is never rude to ask someone a request, just make sure you do it in a polite a professionall way. <S> Now, remember they have the same right as you to use the Laboratory facilities, and it may be they also find it a calm place to study. <S> In a way every workplace has its baseline noise level as you say, but also seems to me that a research lab is no good place to practice languages out loud. <S> I suppose that people in the lab should be doing study-related work, and seems to me that learning English (although it is studying per se ) is not something that seems related to their PhD and should be done elsewhere if possible. <S> I suggest you try first to see if you can tolerate those words spoken out loud. <S> Then, if you can't, you could try asking them your request. <S> If they don't cooperate you could escalate this and use the argument exposed in the previous paragraph and other resources to make them stop. <S> This could be going too far for such a problem, so procede at your own risk and judgment. <S> Hope this words help you out.
| It's not rude if you ask politely.
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Strategies for getting work experience to enter workforce when overqualified My partner has a PhD in Semiconductor Physics from one of the best universities in the world and extreme interest in low level electronics engineering. His research career fell through a few years ago (that's the tragic state of research funding these days) and he's spent the last few years dealing with depression surrounding this and just tinkering/building devices for a portfolio. He has no professional work experience in electronics engineering (despite living and breathing it on the daily) and cannot get any firms who do electronics or any employment agencies interested in talking to him about a role in any capacity (even just to get experience). He hasn't tried that hard though and needs more advice/input. Questions: What "stepping stones" are there between no experience and professional positions? Are there any firms, or class of firms (anywhere, but we're in Australia but can easily relocate O/S for his career) that would be sympathetic to people in his position? -- NB: Question here is about getting work experience, we've taken this question in to consideration: Omit a doctorate from resume if overqualified? <Q> I also left research when i was 35, and had no big problems - but I was always more a broad type than a specialist. <S> Make sure that you are addressing the right problem with your actions. <S> Instead of considering to move, first seek outside comments on the CV, and possibly ask for professional advice. <S> I receive a lot of applications from scientists who want to leave, and the CV should not look like "disappointed and waiting for a chance to come back to science", and during interviews he need to be prepared for HR probing in that direction Your partner needs to accept that there will be a step down in the career for some years <S> - i did that <S> and i am happy <S> I am absolutely sure that during his PHD your partner gained a lot of other skills (e.g. Simulation/Programming, Project management, Cleanroom experience, intercultural experience, writing, Data acquisition and evaluation, quality control, examination/analysis of solid state circuits, system simulation, etc.) <S> List these, and look for a job where they can be applied (for me it was simulation/programming <S> which go me an interesting job) <A> Possibly he is setting his sights too high. <S> Electronics is a huge field and if he is practically competent he can get a job or start a business almost anywhere. <S> He needs to think of it from the employers angle, a PHD is really good if you're looking for a PHD, otherwise it's not worth much especially when other candidates have more directly relevant certifications. <S> When composing CV and doing the interviews etc,. <S> it's fine to have a PHD but don't stress it, because it's irrelevant. <S> You focus on the skills and experience you have that are relevant to the job. <S> Keep in mind that because this is just to get your foot in the door, you don't go crazy on the salary negotiations either. <S> Accept lowish pay just to get started, think longterm. <S> I've moved to different countries a couple of times. <S> When I get there I'll take ANY job at ANY (legal) pay just to get my foot in and start networking a bit. <A> It seems to be difficult for him to get a job by cold application. <S> The next thing to try is networking. <S> Is there an active maker/robotics culture in your area? <S> If so, he could get involved in that. <S> He could both help with projects and teach. <S> The more practical skills he can develop and demonstrate the better. <S> There are two ways that could lead to a job. <S> Some amateur projects turn into start-up businesses. <S> Many people who are influential in high tech development also participate in the maker culture as a hobby, and might think of him when they need to hire for something they know he can do. <S> Even if it does not directly lead to a job, he will be practicing applying his skills and working in a team. <S> Even a successful amateur project would be material for his resume that might help convince potential employers of his practical skills. <A> I was in a similar situation a few years ago. <S> It took me some time to land a stable job <S> and I don't have any easy solution or very original advice <S> but I can tell you a bit about what did work and did not work for me. <S> Specifically, I don't think “setting your sights too high” is a problem or that seeking entry-level positions is a good strategy. <S> It sounds like common sense and possibly dovetails with a stereotype (that of the arrogant academic expecting everything to come to them for free) but it just doesn't work in my experience. <S> I applied for many of these jobs, was genuinely enthusiastic about some <S> but if you are overqualified, employers will always be concerned about the fact you could be unsatisfied with the scope of the work, the compensation package, or be eager to run away at the first occasion, etc. <S> That's an obstacle that's very difficult to overcome, no matter what you say or do. <S> By contrast, I had more success in my applications with top-level employers (think Google, Microsoft…) and finally landed a great job in a R&D lab for a large European company. <S> Having a PhD was explicitly listed as a plus on the offer and many of my colleagues came from a similar background. <S> From there, I was in a perfect position to move to a more traditional career closer to the business and have a lot more opportunities now. <S> So, whatever else you do, keep an eye open for this kind of positions and keep trying. <S> Beyond that, the things you could do are pretty obvious <S> : network as much as you can, don't make your resume too research-y (no list of publications!), emphasise any business-relevant experience you might have (internships?), keep applying to hone your interview skills (even if that can also be frustrating and depressing) and try to find something relevant to do in the meantime (privately-funded applied research at the university?)
| So apply for any jobs to get your foot in the door, and then work your way up just like everyone else.
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How to resign after just retracting your resignation? I've been working for 5 years now for an IT firm and I resigned. When my last few days were approaching, I retracted my resignation because I haven't found another job to move to yet, and they gladly accepted it. Now after three weeks, I realized I want to find another job out there and I want to resign again. What can I say to make things easier for all the parties involved? I'm deeply regretful that I had to retract and waste their time, but I have to do this because I feel like if I don't go now, I won't be able to leave ever again. By the way, the first resignation's notice has lapsed so I'm a regular employee again, and I probably need to render the notice once again. Can I ask for that to be shortened since I just recently did that? <Q> What can I say to make things easier for all the parties involved? <S> I'm deeply regretful that I had to retract and waste their time, but I have to do this because I feel like if I don't go now <S> , I won't be able to leave ever again. <S> I think it's a huge mistake to quit (twice) without already having a job waiting for you. <S> But you aren't asking about that, so I'll concentrate on the specifics of your question. <S> Just resign. <S> Work out your notice period to the best of your abilities, and try to find ways to make your transition out as painless as possible. <S> Your new announcement will certainly be awkward no matter what you say, of course. <S> Say you are sorry that you wasted their time and strung them along this way <S> but that you feel you really need to go this time. <S> Try to be sincere in your apology - sincerity goes a long way. <S> You probably don't need to bother to explain why you want to leave. <S> The time for that was during your first resignation. <S> With a second resignation it's unlikely anyone will really care. <S> By the way, the first resignation's notice has lapsed <S> so I'm a regular employee again, and I probably need to render the notice once again. <S> Can I ask for that to be shortened since I just recently did that? <S> You can ask for anything. <S> Given that you have changed your mind several times, it won't be a huge surprise if they don't accommodate your wishes. <S> Still it's worth asking. <A> Tough position. <S> Rejection (which is what you're doing to your employer) is psychologically tough once, twice is virtually insurmountable. <S> 5 years is a long time. <S> I'd analyse deeply, earnestly and honestly <S> (warts and all) why you're leaving. <S> I'd spend a long time working on it and prepare some substantial notes. <S> I'd sit and talk about it all to my best friends in the organisation candidly beforehand <S> so they'd understand where I'm coming from <S> and it's as psychologically least shocking as possible. <S> Maybe organise a post-quitting BBQ or pub session to keep the door open to staying friends. <S> (Note: this is all if you're absolutely certain <S> you have another job lined up, per @HorusKol's comment the bridge will be thoroughly burnt after quitting a 2nd time.) <A> This answer is without knowing the details of your contract and notice period. <S> The reason for a notice period is to give the company enough time for you to clean up the items you are working on. <S> They generally don't have enough time to hire an outside person and have you train them, because that person will probably have a notice period also. <S> Your quitting, un-quitting, and now quitting again doesn't remove the obligation to serve a notice period. <S> They still want you to finish up your projects, and prepare to handover your responsibilities. <S> But they also may decide to end your employment as soon as they can. <S> You might even find yourself unemployed the day you tell them. <S> All depending on the terms of your contract. <S> They could also decide to make you work every bit of that notice period. <S> There is nothing you can probably say to make this better. <S> Either you made promises to them when you un-quit, or management made promises to their boss when they took you back; and now those promises are about to be broken. <S> But it is unlikely that the company will agree with you. <S> The advice is the same for employers: an employee that accepts a counter-offer is expected to leave within a year.
| You're probably leaving them in the lurch, but by communicating deeply try to make them sympathetic to your position and perhaps help them be able to move forward. Planning on explaining why you have to leave now, may make you feel better. I'd then organise an official formal sit down and have a long honest talk to management telling them the whole story, giving them plenty of complimentary but constructive things to think about and work on. The general advice given to employees is that they shouldn't accept a counteroffer to stay.
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Being accused of interview fraud after working 2 years I interviewed with a software company 2 years ago. I completed a time constrained online judge programming task, and did well but not 100%. After accepting an offer, I successfully completed a 6 months probation period. Fast forward 2 years, and a task goes over the estimated time and I am being threatened with being let go and accused with interview fraud. I don't really know to deal with the situation. Can anyone offer advice? <Q> It's time to dust off the ole resume/cv <S> At this point, if you are being threatened ( to be fired ), it's time to update your resume/CV and start looking immediately. <S> If your employer has already moved to threatening your job after over 2 years of service, why would you want to wait and hope for this event to pass? <S> Also keep in mind that in my experience, it is always easier to find a job when you are currently employed . <S> In other words do not wait to be fired to begin your job search. <S> I do not know whether or not you falsified information during the interview process or not, but always be honest in your relations with employers in regards to your capabilities and accomplishments. <A> Consult a lawyer. <S> No one here can offer you legal advice. <S> Two years is a bit long to come up with that, so there's clearly something else at play here. <A> It is possible they want to get rid of you, and they are looking for a way to get you fired. <S> It seems that they take this small mistake that you made and try to blow it out of proportion. <A> You could contact ACAS , they'll be able to offer you advice about your situation and what to do next. <S> I am not a lawyer, but have been in a similar situation, and being threatened to "be let go" could be "constructive dismissal" <S> Ultimately, like many others here have said, is this somewhere <S> you want to continue working?
| Consult a lawyer before taking any actions, and document everything you do (from now on).
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People sitting at my desk after I've left for the day. I have been accommodating up until now, allowing others who do not have a desk in my office sit at my desk after I've left for the day. I'm finding out that they are sitting at my desk to eat, or to chat with others. Mind you, we have a conference room in the same office area with a large table and as many chairs that can fit at this large table. I'm looking for ideas to keep people from sitting at my desk. I attempted to put my chair behind a locked door to have them pull another chair over and was actually annoyed that I had done that. It's not so much that I mind them at my desk, because as I said I have allowed it up until now. It's the crumbs I find or the ring from their drink on my desk the next day. Not happy about that.Any suggestions?Thank you. <Q> It's not so much that I mind them at my desk, because as I said I have allowed it up until now. <S> It's the crumbs I find or the ring from their drink on my desk the next day. <S> Not happy about that. <S> Any suggestions? <S> Leave a note on your desk asking those that use it after hours to clean it when they are done. <S> Perhaps even leave the cleaning materials there as well. <S> Some folks will indeed clean up. <S> Others will avoid your desk so they don't feel obligated to clean up and use another. <S> Either way you win. <A> There's not really much you can do about this, apart from causing conflict if you do raise it. <S> The simplest thing to do is to get a tub of moist wipes and wipe your desk every morning. <S> I don't see this taking more than 20 seconds or so. <S> At least then, your desk will be more consistently cleaner than everyone else's in the office. <A> I'm looking for ideas to keep people from sitting at my desk <S> This probably isn't what you want to hear <S> but it's not really your desk. <S> I attempted to put my chair behind a locked door to have them pull another chair over and was actually annoyed that I had done that. <S> I'm not surprised that they were annoyed by this, it's an incredibly childish and passive-aggressive response. <S> Something like: <S> Hi <S> [Desk-borrowing-coworker] <S> , I've got no problem with you using my desk when I'm not around but would you mind taking care to leave it clean afterwards? <S> If you don't really have the sort of relationship where you can talk to them or if you feel that they wouldn't take it on board <S> then I'd go with Snark Shark's suggestion. <S> Keeping a tub of wet wipes handy and giving it a quick wipe down in a morning might feel annoying when you didn't create the mess in the first place but realistically it's few seconds out of your day at the most and will give you the confidence of knowing that your desk really is clean. <S> If you don't know who it is or know that it's a variety of people <S> then a polite note on the desk (and perhaps a tub of wet wipes as well) just asking anyone who uses the desk to leave it as they find it is a good way to go. <S> I would say that if it is just one or two people and you do know who they are then a note is a bad idea as, like the locking-the-chair-away tactic it will come across as passive-aggressive and is likely to backfire on you. <A> If you know the people who does this, you should approach them directly telling that you don´t mind let them using your desk <S> but you are not happy with how dirty it gets after they use it. <S> And ask politely to clean after themselves or go somewhere else. <S> If you don't know who does this, leave a gently reminder on your desk telling people what i've said before. <S> If this doesn't work you can probably raise this to your manager
| If you know who the person (or persons) is that use your desk after you leave then you could try talking to them and ask them politely to leave the desk clean after they have used it. So trying to get them to stop sitting there when you aren't around is ultimately futile and will likely cause conflict and bad feelings.
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Shall I make research about my interviewer? I passed a job interview the other day and during the meeting, the interviewer noticed we had some common interests and I believe this made the conversation more comfortable. Is it a good idea or not to make research about your interviewer before going to the job interview to try to show your common interests during the meeting? How would that balance things if the interviewer realises you're trying to get better chance by using this kind of research ? <Q> Be real, be yourself, be genuine. <S> Don't do research on an interviewer beyond their LinkedIn account. <S> Any rapport you build with an interviewer must be real. <S> It's not something you should try to fake. <S> Research <S> the heck out of the company, their products and their practices. <S> Don't research individuals (beyond LinkedIn) unless you want to give off a stalker vibe. <A> Is it a good idea or not to make research about your interviewer before going to the job interview to try to show your common interests during the meeting ? <S> The more you know about the company and its employees, the better. <S> It makes perfect sense to research a bit and learn what you can about your interviewers. <S> And many interviewers will similarly research about you. <S> It's simply good preparation. <S> Would that make the person uncomfortable if this become obvious <S> you're playing with it ? <S> You can certainly go too far and be considered a "creeper". <S> Don't do that. <S> Keep any comments relevant to the company, job, and perhaps some common interests. <S> Don't comment on the interviewer's family, or the childhood pictures of themselves that they posted on Facebook. <S> That wouldn't go over well. <A> Would that make the person uncomfortable if this become obvious you're playing with it ? <S> I can't speak for everyone <S> but I know it would make me feel uncomfortable if I knew the interviewee was researching my personal interests to make him/her come across as more likable. <S> If you see something obvious on their LinkedIn profile, maybe you could mention it in passing but I wouldn't take it any further than that. <S> Instead, if there's time for small talk before or after the interview, you could talk about some of your interests outside of work and see if you can find any common ground. <S> Mostly you should focus on making sure you're prepared to answer their questions. <S> Even if they like you as a person, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to hire you.
| As you just experienced, having common interests with an interviewer can be a good source of discussion. There are many people who would find that rather creepy and/or stalker-like.
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Ways to answer "why you left previous company" question? I left a small company a couple of months ago as I didn't see any career growth and now I'm in a similar situation. The new company is about the same size but is growing, all be it slowly. Small companies usually mean less open positions and less promotions. I really do like this company though. If I say I left because of career advancement and mention my previous company size, I may not get an offer. Should I just give a generic answer? <Q> You may also have unrealistic expectations for what options are available to you since the time frames you're describing are somewhat short. <S> Determining what advancement looks like at potential employers seems like an important step in your process. <A> Should I just give a generic answer? <S> Yes, career advancement is a generic answer, <S> no need to mention the size. <S> Bigger companies don't necessarily mean faster advancement, sometimes it's totally opposite. <S> When talking about career advancement there is one pitfall. <S> Unless you're applying for a job that is more advanced than the one you had it doesn't make a lot of sense. <S> Companies don't go to the trouble of hiring someone in the expectation of advancing them soon after. <S> They hire people to fill a role that needs filling for the foreseeable future. <A> You can always frame things from another perspective. <S> Self -centered perspective: <S> "I left the company because I am no longer getting any career advancement. <S> I was promoted to the position of..." Company <S> -centered perspective: <S> "I have contributed to the limitation of my abilities, and challenges were much harder to come by. <S> I contributed to the company through..."
| If you're leaving because you're not getting the career advancement you want, you should state that to potential employers since it seems to be very important to you.
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How do I gracefully bow out of a job search? I've been working at my current company for almost exactly a year and a half. Recently, I had a recruiter contact me (he's been emailing me for the past year) and I said I would be open to talking with companies, and since then I've been put in touch with a half dozen. The reason I started looking for a new job is that I've been getting increasingly frustrated at work, often getting into heated arguments with superiors and dealing with incompetent leadership. In addition, I haven't been able to do the projects I've wanted and have been bored for a while now. To top it off, my manager - who I was close with - recently left and my new boss is one of said leaders who I've been arguing with. I had been pushed to the verge, but now things have cooled down a bit. My boss has gotten more "chill" and receptive to feedback, I've been given a bit more say in things, and overall getting into less arguments. I'm still bored, but I figure that's not a huge deal. I think I'd like to stay at my current company a little longer, and the stress of a job search is already wearing on me. But I don't know how to tell this to the recruiter and the various companies he's put me in contact with. Is it ok to just say "I changed my mind"? I feel like that would mean these companies would never consider hiring me again, when I resumed my job search. <Q> It depends on the company, and on how far down the process you are. <S> Some companies may keep a blacklist of previous applicants they found unfavourable, but most don't bother. <S> If you apply again in a couple of years time, chances are you'll be dealing with different people anyway. <S> It is always better to bow out of the process as early as possible as soon as you know that you don't want a job - regardless of the reason - otherwise you're wasting everyone's time (including your own). <S> As for explaining to the recruiter and the companies they've contacted on your behalf, keep it simple: <S> my circumstances have changed and no longer wish to pursue this opportunity at this time <S> That should be enough. <S> In fact, this would work even if you did take an offer somewhere else, since there are bound to be other companies that interviewed you <S> and you did not end up working with. <S> It might take the recruiter a couple of goes before they catch on and stop presenting opportunities - after all, that's how they make their money - but only a bad recruiter would harbour bad feelings. <A> In such a situation, as per usual, honesty is best. <S> Call the recruiter and tell them that your circumstances have changed and you're no longer looking for a new job. <S> This reinforces the message that you're not just looking to get rid of them but are truly suspending your search for a new job. <S> I'd also ask the recruiter if they mind breaking the news to the companies they had arranged interviews with. <S> If they seem reluctant, mention that you thought that might be the best approach for the recruiter since it would allow them to propose an alternative candidate at the same time. <A> I would be open with the other jobs your were possibly going to interview/ attempt to get. <S> I would do as mentioned above and simply write <S> : " Thank you for taking the time to review my application <S> /interview me/ <S> etcetera. <S> I would like to proceed forward with you, but some things have changed in my career situation, and I will be unable to do so. <S> Thank you again for taking the time to proceed forward with me, I appreciate it. <S> If our paths don't cross again, I wish you the best of luck finding a candidate to fill the position. " <S> This may be a bit lengthly, but I find that it is polite, and leaves you and your prospective employer on a good note. <S> Best of luck with maintaining a peaceful, productive work environment.
| While it may not be completely honest, to make the news go over better I would also tell them that 'you liked working with them and should you once again be in the market for a new job, you'll let them know' even if you don't actually intend to.
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How do I learn and grow my skillset if there is concern that I will step into a coworker's responsibilities? I've taken the cognition to do some research: How to deal with a coworker that writes software to give him job security instead of solving problems? How to handle a manager who thinks I will leave the company How can I be a leader if I might get myself replaced? My take is that there are generally (very loose word, very inaccurate, please feel free to edit with better words) two types of individuals when it comes to knowledge gathering and sharing. Hoarders and Sharers . Hoarders take knowledge and compartmentalize it to increase value, but primarily of themselves. Something breaks? It would appear that Bob is the only one who knows how to fix it. We can't fire Bob. Sharers take knowledge and try to share it with their team and increase value of the people around them, this might make them replaceable, but they are also valued as a result but jut not in the same vein as hoarders. There is a tech conference coming up and I wanted to attend on my own time (I am only 50%, so attending for work would not be viable). I asked my organization if they would be willing to pay for two classes and my transportation costs. Thus far, the reception was fairly cordial given the content. I believe that by attending, I would be able to accomplish two outstanding stretch goals for a project that I was assigned. However when I started to pitch the idea, a comment was made by coworker A along the lines of "how much would what you learn, step into the job of coworker B ?" Now my intention wasn't to replace the coworker B, but to learn the skills needed to accomplish stretch goals that were set as part of the original design specifications. I blundered in response on how my goal wasn't to replace, but to learn. Plus I was adamant with the idea of graduate school, so I would be leaving in the near future. How should I attend to this present concern moving forward? Should I even give it the time of day, just move on and focus at the task at hand? <Q> Assuming the upskilling didn't impact on the ability of X to cover their function of course. <S> Employee Y might object of course if they see it as threat to their position in the company <S> and I've certainly seen that happen plenty of times <S> - the "hoarders" you mention. <S> Apart from in exceptional circumstances however it's bad management to indulge hoarders in perpetuating their ability to hold the company "hostage" to their skills or knowledge. <S> That's not to say it doesn't happen though, it's just ultimately counterproductive. <A> Learn all that you can to increase your value and share your knowledge. <S> There is a third type which I like to be which is a "Knowledge broker". <S> It's closer to the sharer type, but it makes you the "go to" person for knowledge. <S> Knowing someone else's position is always a good thing and you can put it forth with the very logical and reasonable BUS FACTOR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor Stress this to management so that you have their support. <S> If your coworker is a hoarder type, he may take it personally. <S> Having the support of management will blunt any efforts to object on his part. <S> You are not trying to take over someone else's job, you are providing backup and support. <S> Not only will you be able to back this person up, but also be able to teach another to help him if needed without distracting him from his work. <A> I would just continue to learn and grow and ignore the concern. <S> It doesn't matter that you could take over a coworkers job <S> because: There are plenty of people around who could do this anyway, in the company or outside it <S> You already have a job, so you don't have time to take over someone's job <S> Your coworker already knows the job <S> and you'd have to be worked in from the start <S> There are only positive sides to having the ability to do someone else's job, such as taking over their work for a bit if they are sick, or helping them out when they are overworked. <S> I would not take these concerns seriously. <S> Being able to do another's job isn't a bad thing. <A> I would probably fall onto both categories. <S> Hoarders because I try to have a thorought knowledge of what I am doing. <S> , this has the tendency to make me view has an expert that is not so easy to replace. <S> Sharers because I try to share a significant part of the knowledge, but usually what I think people need because I think they don't want to know every little thing that I know. <S> My vision of a competent team is the following : Expertise : people that have a very deep knowledge & experience in few fields and develop some "strange instinct" (from outisders perspective) about what is wrong from very not so much informations. <S> Common knowledge : common knowledge shared between the coworkers, more shallow that experts knows. <S> This helps communicate with the experts by having a basic understanding of his fields, describe the problem better for him, being able to understand better the answers of your expert. <S> In one conference you won't have the knowledge and experience of your coworker, however by having more knowledge of his fields, you will be able to communicate with him better and increase the producvity of the tasks that require working with him. <S> Moreover if he's too loaded and is confident enough with your new skills, he could delegate you the easiest tasks and keep those that require his level for him. <S> So, the point that I'am adding comparing to the others answers (bus factor of 1) is that : <S> Even if you don't use those news skills directly, you will gain in productivity with your coworker by having more efficient communication together <S> You can increase producivity by having him off load some task to you if he's loaded and you're not. <S> It's like SE's site : if you have a problem and probably need a true expert to answer to your question, you have to understand enough the field in order to be able to provide an accurate description of the problem with all needed informations, and in order to understand the expert answer, having the knowledge of the fields wil <S> make it way easier to digest.
| In my experience companies/managers generally wouldn't object to employee X learning the skills necessary to cover the responsibilities of employee Y because this has the benefit of reducing the dreaded bus factor.
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Is it okay to go to an interview for another company while I'm on a trial period? I know there's a similar thread to this, however I feel like I'm in a different position since I'm only officially tied to my current company for the next month (they may or may not extend my internship period). Would it be wrong to come for an interview at a another company? And If I do come, how could I explain to them that I'm currently working for a company but they may not hire me for the next few months without sounding like I'm using their company as a backup? <Q> You go and explain that you have an internship which is expiring in a month. <S> They may ask if you would take a job with the company if they extended after the internship. <S> You explain that yes you would, but you also are looking for other possibilities to ensure you get the best position for yourself after the internship is up <S> and you don't want to just limit yourself to one option. <S> You might need to explain more and it might cause them to not want you, but that shows you are willing to go where the best position is and not just settle for the same company. <S> Also, if you get an offer you can compare it to a possible offer from the company you interned with and possibly negotiate. <S> Be sure you get where you want to work though. <A> Would it be wrong to come for an interview at a another company? <S> Going to interviews while still being employed is quite common actually; you usually don't want to wait until you leave to start looking for other jobs so you minimize your unemployment gap. <S> In other words, you usually want a place to land before you jump (otherwise where are you jumping to?) <S> How should I explain to them that I'm currently working for a company but they may not hire me for the next few months without sounding like I'm using their company as a backup? <S> I think it is not necessary for you to explain that in such detail, so I suggest to talk about it only if they ask you about it (like your current work or similar), and if you do keep it simple. <S> Usually, recruiters are more interested in learning about you and your skills (and what you can bring to the company) than about the places you have worked before, so I doubt they will ask many questions about the latter. <S> If you see them deviating, try bringing them back on track with your answers (like the example before) or with questions you have about their company. <A> Yes you can! <S> You owe your employer the agreed amount of time a day, and to give him notice in time when you plan to leave. <S> Other than that you are a totally free being and have every right to pursue whatever goal you wish in your life, including other/better job-opportunities. <S> Also, you do not have to explain anything. <S> In an interview, you just state that you are currently employed elsewhere and will be free to join the earliest at XY. <S> If they ask why you want to change to them, choose any personal reason like: More interesting field of work, better career chances, etc. <S> Try to be honest, but leave out negative things and always try to connect your reasoning on why you want to join specifically this company. <S> Nobody expects 100% complete honesty about your private motivation - they just want somebody who is enthusiastic and seems honest.
| If they ask, I would go for something on the lines of: "I am currently working, but am also looking for other opportunities and I think that your company could be a good fit for me". I would say no, as long as it does not interfere with your current tasks or you go on a day off or authorized leave.
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Being interviewed by someone who you previously interviewed and rejected I had an interview today for a job at a different company. It's the first round of interviewing, I have yet to actually meet the hiring manager, but I will have 5 interviews with individuals that are part of his team. I had 3 of those interviews today. Two of which went well, but the third, not so much as it was very different: the questions were very theoretical and the interview generally felt much more aggressive. I have now realized that the third interviewer was someone who had applied for a role in our company before and didn't get the job. I was the hiring manager for that role and directly intereviewed him. While I can't confirm 100% if he was biased because of that, I think there's a decent chance i.e. maybe he doesn't want me joining and people finding out he was looking elsewhere, or maybe he just wasn't happy with how he didn't get the job. Do you guys have any advice on how I could proceed in a situation like this? Could it be a conflict of interest type situation? If so do you think I should mention in the next interview that I had previously interviewed one of the candidates or mention it to the hiring manager over email or mention it to the person who referred me to the job and knows the hiring manager or should I just leave it and do nothing for now? <Q> could it be a conflict of interest type situation? <S> or is there not much that I can do? <S> Well, it is possible that it may be a conflict of interest of some kind (or even some sort of vendetta), given that the person had access to your information. <S> You can even say this could be related to the concept of Work Karma and one of its funny curious manifestations. <S> However, I think that it is not so useful to try find why he may be doing that, and there isn't much you can do to change that anyways. <S> You can now be aware of that person in future steps of the recruitment process and be extra careful and professional when being evaluated by him. <S> If he does, then that is unprofessional from their part, and it would be something to consider. <S> A place with such work environment is probably no good place to be, and you more likely be better seeking elsewhere. <S> Hope this helps you. <A> There isn't really much you can do. <S> There is no way to know how much they'll take his opinion into consideration. <S> If 4/5 of the team think you're great, and the hiring manager does too, then there is no way to know if they'll reject you based on one opinion. <S> You also don't know if this person has told anyone about this. <S> All you can do is continue with the interview process as usual. <S> If you do get a job offer from this company, you'll need to decide if this person is reason enough to not take the job. <S> If you decide to take it, all you can do is remain professional and do your best. <S> I recommend treating them exactly in the same way as everyone else on the team. <S> There shouldn't be any need to bring it up or make any issue about it. <A> Just soldier on professionally. <S> There isn't much you can do, and <S> if he <S> / <S> she took it personally, they will hold it against you. <S> Even if they didn't take it personally they may think you have bad judgement and devalue your application. <S> I have been on the other side several times interviewing people who I had been interviewed by years before. <S> I invariably put their application at the bottom of the pile since they had demonstrated bad judgement. <S> It put them at a disadvantage, but I still considered the rest of their application unless it was a role that required that skill.
| If you are a good candidate and demonstrate great skills then that should be enough to make you the right choice for the job, and if that person is a decent professional he will not let something like a past rejection bias his evaluation of you.
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Co-worker tells me he cannot keep up I got something like this from a co-worker: I can no longer keep up with things here. I just don't know how to approach tasks and I also have now clue how to catch up with things here. To me, this really sounds like "inner resignation" and I already told my boss about that, but nothing happend yet. Till now, I was giving him advice and assigned tasks to him that are important for us right now, but his performance continues to be inferior compared to other co-workers. On the other hand, I don't think my co-worker is totally aware of his (serious) situation. How can I help my coworker improve? Just do nothing is perfectly viable for me at this point, as my boss is aware of this. Talk to my coworker and ask him, what he wants to do in the future? I.e. making him aware that he already resigned sort of. Continue to support him by mentoring, providing ideas and guidelines. Getting HR involved. And then bad things will happen. Some additional information: I'm just a co-worker that knows some details. He is a peer, but a junior from a technical pov. I won't involve HR. <Q> Assuming you want to grow your coworker into a valuable teammate and colleague, there are some things you can do. <S> The first thing to realize is it seems that your coworker is suffering from both a crisis of confidence and motivation. <S> The best way I have found to address that is to give them small wins. <S> Cut some simple, small achievable tasks and assign them to your coworker. <S> This will give them a small boost of confidence and make them feel like they are contributing even if it is a not at as high of level as they would like. <S> Set aside some time, I prefer 2 hours chunks a few times a week, to do some pair programming on some more complex tasks. <S> You will probably have to start off in the lead, but you need to actively get direction from your coworker. <S> The goal here is to again build their confidence in their ability to problem solve, and to develop their skills. <S> So it is important that they contribute. <S> You should at some point transition to where they are driving the programming sessions <S> and you are helping to contribute to their work. <S> Help them chew it in manageable chunks. <S> Then follow up on their progress with each step. <S> You may even need to help show them some techniques to solve some of the steps and that is ok. <S> It is also ok for them to fail to complete a task if they tried it. <S> But you can not let them sit there floundering for days and not expect them to regress. <S> You have to stay engaged with them, and keep them moving. <A> HR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND <S> Getting them involved will also get you personally involved. <S> You have reported up to your manager, that is the end of your obligation. <S> If your coworker reaches out to you again, just tell that coworker to talk to the manager. <S> Remove yourself from the situation entirely and worry about your own work. <S> Anything else could have a negative impact on your own career. <A> Try not to get too involved. <S> Intervening with your co-worker's self-doubt may not prove very productive, and so option #1 is your best bet. <S> Here's an analysis of the four options you listed: <S> Doing nothing is, as you said, perfectly viable. <S> It requires no additional effort and no risk on your part. <S> Admittedly this is not a particularly sympathetic solution, but it seems fine considering this co-worker is not your responsibility. <S> Besides, if the job is a bad fit, then perhaps leaving and moving on to another position could benefit them in the long run. <S> This is your most rational option of the four. <S> Talking to your co-worker about their future plans is a nice balanced strategy, where you are showing sympathy and being helpful, without significant risk for yourself. <S> Just try to keep the discussion informal, and don't commit too much of your work time to these talks. <S> You're not in a position to manage them or dictate what they should do. <S> Serving as this co-worker's mentor is kind, but unwise. <S> You risk placing yourself to accept additional responsibility that you don't need <S> and you don't want. <S> If you genuinely think they have the potential to improve their performance and contribute more, then you could recommend some strategies or resources. <S> But it's not your job to guide them or train them, especially if they consistently anchor the team's progress. <S> Contacting HR yourself can and will pull you in to however the company decides to handle your co-worker. <S> Also, this scenario doesn't seem to warrant HR intervention. <S> The co-worker's performance issues are best handled by the project manager or their immediate manager, not you and certainly not HR. <A> I'd say your best options are either one or three. <S> You're not his manager, so it's not your duty to talk to HR. <S> If you like this co-worker or think he has potential, you might try to continue to mentor him, however in the end, only he is responsible for his success. <S> Firing an employee is never a good thing and should be seen as a failure of management. <S> The manager either failed by hiring the wrong person or by failing to give him the right motivation and mentorship for success. <S> If you think you are capable of turning him around, you would be doing your manager a great service. <S> Just make sure you keep your manager informed about everything you do and don't take anything into your own hands. <S> Also, make sure you don't forsake your own duties by trying to fix a weak link in the chain. <S> From what you say, it sounds like this person has a bad attitude <S> and I wouldn't want to associate with someone who complains about his situation instead of looking for ways to improve, <S> but in the end, it's up to you. <S> If you aren't sure, ask your manager what to do. <S> Whatever you do, avoid any situations where management might use collective pronouns to refer to the two of you in a negative way. <S> " They failed to complete this project. <S> They're performance is suffering," etc. <S> On the other hand, comments like "[co-worker] was failing to live up to expectations but user78206 helped him get up to speed" could be very good for you.
| Having someone to talk to could help them prioritize their goals, and possibly improve their performance. This is a matter for your manager to deal with, not you and going to HR will likely be seen as going behind your manager's back and might get YOU put on the short list for being let go. When they get assigned a new task that they say is over their head, break down the task with them. Nothing good will be achieved by involving HR.
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I got fired after rejecting sexual advances from the firm head. How can I explain this to interviewers? I tried several jobs after my graduation to figure out what I want to do (I had two jobs and worked for 1 year for each firm) until I took my current job. It's exactly the job function I'm interested in. However, after I turned down the sexual advances from the GM, my life at work got harder and harder. It's a small office and other managers sided with GM to bully me at work (verbally abused, bad performance review, less and less projects, etc..) This week I got the ultimatum that either I quit or I get terminated, but if I quit they wouldn't even pay 1 month notice period salary. I chose to get terminated. I started interviewing two months ago. When I'm interviewing for new jobs, the interviewers all questioned my stability as I changed jobs every year for my past three years. And I also don't want to get into details of this harassment, because what I read on the internet is you should never mention this during the interview. I'm also looking for the same function job in the same city. Sometimes the interviewers also questioned why did you change jobs at all? When I explained further it's for the job quality. Then they will respond that you just worked there for 1 year and you will get more responsibilities if you work there longer. So how could I explain this? And now I even got fired. I just feel it's getting more challenging to explain. <Q> If they ask you for specific details, let them know exactly what happened. <S> This means they are interested in what happened, and what exactly you did about the situation . <S> Otherwise, if they ask you something like " why did you leave your last job <S> " you can say something like: <S> I didn't feel that I was in a very positive work environment, and my co-workers were not interested in making any changes to promote a better workplace. <S> The role wasn't right for me, but I am confident that this one is because ..... And then expand on that. <A> I got fired after being sexually harassed. <S> How can I explain this to interviewers? <S> The short answer is "you don't" Do not bring this up in the interview, ever . <S> From a hiring manager perspective , if I hear you were involved in some way with a sexual harassment incident, I am going to protect the company from any such risk and pass on you as a candidate . <S> While you are telling the truth in regards to what happened, I as a hiring manager, have no way to validate exactly what happened . <S> Therefore in a scenario such as yours, I will avoid the risk an hire someone else. <S> In short, keep your reason(s) for leaving this company as general as possible, such as " The environment was not a good fit for me " or some such statement. <S> Note: <S> I am not blaming the OP here. <S> The OP is a victim obviously, I am just trying to help them get the next position by not bringing up something that might hurt their chances. <A> And I also don't wanna get into details of this harassment because what I read on the internet is you should never mention this during the interview. <S> It seems like you are being branded as a job hopper and nothing more due to 3 short jobs in a row. <S> Part of that is your first 2 jobs, but part of that is due to issues not of your own doing. <S> To counter that, you might be better served by indicating that you had hoped to stay for a long time at your most recent job. <S> You don't need to get into any more details. <S> You were a victim. <S> It wasn't your fault. <S> Trying to avoid the issue is making it harder for you to find a position. <S> It might be time to try a different approach. <A> From reading the question the following stands out: <S> When I'm interviewing for new jobs, the interviewers all questioned my stability as I changed jobs every year for my past three years. <S> I know the OP question is about sexual harassment, but that isn't the real issue here. <S> The real problem is that you have had 3 jobs in as many years. <S> That is the objection you need to overcome. <S> I feel the harassment part of the question should be dropped because it's just not material to whether you will stay on at the new location. <S> Ignoring the last place, you took 2 other jobs that you later decided weren't for you. <S> The interviewer is trying to figure out if you've given any actual thought to the job you are applying for or if you are just applying everywhere and taking a position with whoever happens to give you the first offer. <S> When asked the question about why you left those previous locations, your answer needs to focus on why you know this particular job at this particular company is right for you. <S> There is zero benefit to going into any harassment details from your last position.
| There is no good place for your to take the conversation if you bring up that you were terminated under your circumstances. Then you can say that you were the victim of sexual harassment in your most recent job, you were given the option to quit or be terminated, and that you chose termination.
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How do I avoid appearing indecisive when interviewing again with an employer who I previously declined an offer from? I interviewed with a company a few months ago. The position involved staying late (I have a family) but with more money. I had to decline the offer and decided to stay with my current employer. Since then, I have been promoted to a supervisor position, but the turnover rate is getting out of hand. A friend from the other employer recently told me about a position opening that doesn't require intervening with my family life, but I will have to interview with the same panel of supervisors. How do I explain that I would like to be with that organization without showing indecisiveness? <Q> You're not showing indecisiveness. <S> You're showing that you're deciding to choose a role based on your needs and there's nothing wrong with that <S> (you couldn't accept the previous role because it didn't fit in with the hours you could work). <S> Apply for the new role, it's a completely different job - having <S> the same interview panel doesn't change that. <A> Firstly, I very much doubt they'll even ask about the previous interview. <S> As it's a panel, I'm guessing it's quite a large company, they likely get many people who apply for many jobs there before finding the 'right' role and accepting. <S> If they do ask, simply explain that you felt the previous role wasn't the correct decision for you and your family, and you wouldn't want to start in a role and then find that X months down the line you can't continue with it. <S> They'll understand this, and they'll understand the benefit to both them and you in not previously wasting time starting a role you couldn't have stuck with. <S> It's far better to train up someone who's planning to stick around for the 'long haul' rather than someone who comes in, and quickly is off looking to move to another role again. <A> I think the answer you gave is perfectly crisp, and could largely be said to the committee. <S> Apply to the position, go through the cycle again, and don't be the one to bring it up. <S> If you sense hesitation or concern, ask why, don't presume it's that you interviewed previously. <S> If you end up on the topic - I think it's totally fair to say: <S> The last position involved evening time that didn't work for your family. <S> This position doesn't. <S> Although you've gotten a promotion in your current job, your not as happy there as you used to be, so you're reviewing options like this, at company's you found interesting. <S> If they say something like "this role involves lots of late nights, too" then you know something new, and while they may be concerned about your interest, they SHOULD be, because that's a bad fit for you. <S> Do keep in mind that some companies have a policy of not re-considering candidates that have declined offers in the last year or so. <S> It's to keep someone from consuming the interview resources of the company over and over again. <S> If that's true, you may not get a call back this time, but you might when the year has passed, if you re-apply. <A> How do I explain that I would like to be with that organization without showing indecisiveness? <S> When asked, you provide a clear and cogent reason why you declined last time and why you believe this time is different. <S> If staying late was the only factor involved in your prior decision, make sure you can explain specifically why this won't be a problem this time around. <S> Think it through ahead of time because the question is likely to arise. <S> Practice your answer if necessary, perhaps with a friend you can help evaluate your answer and throw additional questions your way. <A> "I've been interested in your company. <S> Its culture and the opportunities are a great match for me. <S> I'm excited about finding the best role for me there. <S> " Or something like that, in your own words. <S> People want to see that you're interested in the company, and helping them be a success, not just that you're interested in a particular role. <S> Also, it'd be best to not say anything negative about the other role <S> , only what's positive about this one. <A> That depends on how you declined the previous position. <S> If you declined and cited your family concerns, you should have no problem. <S> If the panel you meet is the same as interviewed you previously, thank them for the opportunity to meet with them again and let them know you are excited about this opportunity to join the company with a position that works great for you and your family. <S> All in all, it may not even matter.
| As long as you haven't been interviewing and declining offers multiple times, you will likely not come off as indecisive. If you did not explain why you declined the previous offer, you might want to briefly explain before the interview starts. It's honest - you've stated your desire to be at that company - and this will give you an edge over people who just choose jobs, not employers.
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What to do when I'm out of tasks but my boss is sick I've just finished two different projects and got nothing to do. I'm still in training but my boss is sick and he didn't tell me anything else to do. I also don't want to keep annoying the my co workers by asking if I can help them since it's rather likely I can't. (still in training and don't know too much about our architecture etc + I've got diagnosed social anxiety which doesn't help either) I really don't want to just sit around while waiting, not only because it's boring but also because I'm still in the first 4 months where they can decide to not keep me employed without having to say why so I don't want to seem unproductive. <Q> Is anyone deputising for your boss while they are sick? <S> If so this is probably the person to ask. <S> Explain that you've finished the work you had already been assigned and ask if there is anything they would like you to work on until your boss returns to allocate more to you. <S> If there isn't anyone who is obviously stepping in to provide that cover <S> I'd suggest asking the same thing of the most senior person in your team, even if the in-team structure is essentially flat there will usually be someone who has been with the company longer than the others, if that's the case then you reframe your question slightly as more of a <S> "what do you think I should be doing?" <S> or "who do you think I should ask for more work?" <A> Other than asking other senior members of your team what to do, like others have answered here, I would suggested taking this time to read up on documentation. <S> That could be documentation from past projects or ones that are currently ongoing. <S> You could also ask other team members if you can look at their project documents to get a better idea of how your team works. <S> If all of that drys up, which isn't likely, then at last resort I would start reading up on any online training material that you can find. <S> You didn't list your job, but if you are a programmer for example, read up on tutorials or training material for programming languages, etc. <A> Since you're concerned about the company's perception of your performance, you may want to do this with overt permission. <S> For instance, you might send a (brief) email to a decision-maker which outlines the situation and explains what you plan to do. <S> 2-4 sentences might work for this. <S> If you take this approach, you might not be "productive" in the sense of producing anything that the company will actually end up using, but the goal would be to increase your future value without needing to burden an already-busy coworker. <S> For instance, if this is a software developer position (my profession, hence the choice of example), you might glance at the bug tracker to make sure there's something on there. <S> Then, send a brief email saying that if there's nothing in particular requiring your attention, you'll try reading through the documentation and familiarizing yourself with the system, and maybe try to fix some bugs. <S> Then, learn! <S> Read up on things, observe how the system works, change things on a local copy of the code, and so on. <S> For other professions, try to find a similar sort of task (if possible), and do that. <S> e.g., if you deal with spreadsheets often, learning how to use various features of the spreadsheet software in use by your company might be a valuable way to spend idle time. <S> This does assume a degree of self-learning, however; if you're still in a stage where you need a mentor in order to learn productively, then this approach is likely not the best.
| If nobody is able to delegate tasks to you currently, see if you can work on boosting your skills or getting accustomed to the ecosystem that you work in.
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How to interact with a team that is working overtime I haven't been working for that long, but I have been in several projects already, I have been moved and traded and whatnot. It's the second time I am assigned to a project where people sitting next to me are working overtime on a regular basis where I am not, and I would like to know if I can do something better than simply: -stating my condolences -saying how hard it would be to me (which is true), -and what I think about the issue (I believe they are being abused by the circumstances and our relatively young age). I am the new guy, I have been told by them I can not help since they cant teach me the specifics of the project right now. Also, I am assigned to a similar project that happens to have less workload. <Q> Don't worry about it and carry on with your assigned tasks. <S> Make them coffee, do other mundane tasks so they don't have to... <A> How to interact with a team that is working overtime? <S> You interact with them the same as you would any other team . <S> The amount of hours they work, or the current work load of the team is not your concern. <S> You are not responsible for their situation, the team's manager is . <S> Its up to the folks on that team to change the situation, not you. <S> You may want to <S> suggest that the team discuss the situation with their manager , but beyond that there is really nothing more for you to do. <A> Over the years with several employers and seeing several of my friends dealing with those problems, I have come to on one assertion: <S> You can´t help people who let themselves be abused. <S> You can on only lead the way by not participating in this behavior yourself. <S> For most comes the time when, after working their asses off, the see they gained nothing for themselves. <S> Then is the time when, often with a change of employer, they will start being responsible with their time-investment.
| Bottom line, just do your job and let them do theirs as they see fit. You could try and make their days go a little easier in helping them out in ways that could help.
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Is it within the rights of my employer to pose limits on personal appearance such as hair color for only certain people with similar positions? I'm interested in changing my hair color to something a little outside of the norm, but I'm not 100% sure if it is ok for me to do so. When I was still a temp working for the company, I had been hired with Blue/Purple hair. Within the first week someone who works for the client company had informed the temp Agency and had them contact me - I was told to dye it back to a normal color or I would be fired. No one from the client company talked to me directly for this. The problem here for me is that I have seen countless people in the company with the same hair color as what I was made to change. An internal flier has even been released in the elevator hallways showing one employee with bright blue hair, and the company logo right above her. I have now been hired on as a permanent employee for over a year now, and the number of sightings has only gone up. My questions are along the lines of: Was I only made to change my hair because at the time I was a new temp employee, thus more expendable? How do I go about finding out if changing my hair is a possibility for me(without repercussion)? How is it alright for certain people, but not alright for others, assuming that all involved in this question are non-client-facing individuals. As a point of reference, I am no longer intending on Blue hair, but instead a 'technically natural' color, in white. <Q> How should I ask if changing my hair color is acceptable? <S> If your position is not customer facing, then I don't see the issue at all with your choice in hair color. <S> If you do have a customer facing position, then most likely there is a section in the employee handbook that addresses employee appearance. <S> Bottom line, if you're not certain, ask your manager . <S> I would not recommend that you involve HR in this. <S> I don't think you want the HR spot light on you for something so trivial as hair color. <A> Ask HR. <S> They're going to be the point of contact with regards to dress code. <S> So, you could bring up the fact that other people have the same or more lurid coloured hair. <S> But go with HR's advice here. <S> And your co-workers of course.... <A> Just do it. <S> In most ways I think the answer "Mister Sort of Positive" is the way to go except for asking your manager. <S> Look in the employee handbooks. <S> And if there's nothing in there about hair color then just go for it. <S> The reason why I say this is that it's often better to ask for forgiveness then permission. <S> What if you don't like the answer you get? <S> What if the answer is: "Well, officially you can have all the colors you want, but personally I dislike it." <S> At the point you have officially gotten permission to do it from you manager but also know you annoy him <S> /her when you do. <S> Whereas if you would have just done it you could have claimed ignorance about your managers preference.
| I would review your employee handbook first, and if there isn't anything that addresses the topic, then I would definitely run it by your manager. The answer might depend on whether you're customer facing or not.
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Should I view being pulled to assist other teams as a good or bad thing? I do Software Quality Assurance. In the past 6 months I've been pulled off my primary team to work with other teams. These are not one day tasks, but month long projects that require lots of time spent learning the product to understand how to effectively test. I'm happy to assist anyone, as long as I'm adding value. I complete the work required, report to management and move back to my Primary Team, to only be pulled away again to assist some other team with testing. Since I feel my primary responsibility is with my Primary Team (since that is the team I was assigned to when I was hire) I feel slightly as if I'm not needed/wanted for that team. I understand that it is hard to give a good answer without some context...All I can say is that I have not really received any negative-feedback with my work. Most people seem happy to have the extra help. My question is: Should I view being pulled to assist other teams as a good or bad thing? -Should I be worried that my work seems unsatisfactory or not needed for my Primary Team? -Or should I take this as a compliment, that I can add value no matter where I am placed. <Q> Should I view being pulled to assist other teams as a good or bad thing? <S> Should I be worried that my work seems unsatisfactory or not needed for my Primary Team? <S> Or Should I take this as a compliment, that I can add value no matter where I am placed. <S> If you sense that you are being placed on another team because they need your particular talent and expertise, then you should feel honored. <S> Either way, unless you sense that you would be first in line in the case of layoffs, it's likely nothing to worry about. <S> Try to make the most of it and increase your value to as many teams as possible, and to the company as a whole. <S> When in doubt, I like to default to the positive - you are so valuable that everyone fights to have you on their team. <S> I know that when I'm a team lead, I try to get the best help I can, not just whoever happens to be around. <A> I would say it would depend on the status of the projects you are being assigned to and pulled off of. <S> If your primary project is behind in terms of there is a lot of code ready for testing is behind schedule if they are pulling you off for low priority work, then it's probably not a good sign. <S> Typically this happens when the team is not confident in your ability to contribute, and the team would be better off with you not helping. <S> On the other hand if the projects you are being put are are high priority and you are being credited with helping get them out faster or even just caught up <S> then it's a good thing. <S> Now if they are pulling you off of these new projects before you contribute much it smells of just keeping you busy but not involved and that is a very bad situation. <A> Should I view being pulled to assist other teams as a good or bad thing? <S> Should I be worried that my work seems unsatisfactory or not needed for my Primary Team? <S> Or Should I take this as a compliment, that I can add value no matter where I am placed. <S> You should not just take it as something good or bad. <S> The only way of knowing for sure is by asking your manager about this , so <S> I recommend you do so to clear your doubts and know what to think about it. <S> The fact that you are being required in other teams seems to suggest that you are doing a good work and that those other teams are probably lacking on help, thus your increased need to assist on other teams. <S> Again, this is just speculating so you should talk to your manager about it. <S> You could try getting a meeting with him/her and saying something on the lines of: "Hey boss <S> , I am noting that my work is being required more on other teams. <S> However, this makes me worry about my commitment and time available to assist my Primary Team. <S> Can you tell me how to proceed with this?" <S> It is possible that your primary team no longer requires that much assistance as before, so it is better to check with management to clear those things out so you can do your job efficiently and effectively. <S> Hope this helps you out.
| If you sense that you are just an added headcount and you find that you are the only one on your team that is moved to other projects, then you might feel that your value on your primary team isn't as high as other team members. As is often the case - it depends.
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Putting a patent in a resume when the list of inventors is very long I have a patent in which I am listed as the last inventor, and there are about 10 inventors in total for this patent. I want to put this patent on my resume since it's very relevant to the work I am still doing today. However, listing all the inventors seems really unnecessary. I cannot put MyName et al. either, since I am not the first inventor. How should I approach this? Should I avoid putting the names at all? Should I put the company from which the patent was filed on behalf of me and the others? <Q> This is great for a resume, because it is interesting. <S> You are entitled to list it as an accomplishment <S> there is no reason not to. <S> The other inventors are not applying for the job; you are, so there is no reason to include them on your resume. <S> In any position that this matters, they are going to understand that almost all patents have multiple inventors. <S> So leaving the other inventors off of your resume is not going to seem dishonest. <S> But as with anything on your resume, if you put it on there you need to be prepared to talk about it in depth. <S> Remember that these people are going to be in your field and may be in a position to understand the scope of your contribution. <S> So if you feel that you are the guy that got credit for picking up the lunch orders, that may come out in the interview. <S> How should I approach this? <S> Just list it as a single bullet point either under accomplishments, where you include the name of the company that owns the patent, or under the job where you worked when the patent was applied for. <A> How you write it depends on exactly how you contributed. <S> If you worked on the solution but not the patent you'd use something like " did X, Y Z to arrive at patented Product P ". <S> If you were part of the patent process and that experience is both relevant and substantial <S> you could use " did X and Y to successfully complete patent application for Product P " <S> Your actual contributions to P would then be listed in other bullet points. <S> If you have multiple patents and they're valuable for your profile and relevant to the job you're applying for, which is not always the case, only then should you be listing them separately under an "Achievements / Awards / <S> Whatever" section. <S> But there's zero reason to list anyone else who worked on that patent unless you want to name-drop someone like Elon Musk. <S> Your CV is a marketing document and one of the rules of marketing is to avoid mentioning the competition. <S> Citation standards do not apply to resumes in the real world. <A> How should I approach this? <S> Well, if what you want is to focus on the patent and its related work (rather than other authors) then one option could be to focus more on the patent and related descriptions rather than who did it. <S> Do note that even though you are the last author (and if you did wrote it as FirstAuthor et.al), it is implicit that you were involved in its creation, due to the fact that you are including it on your resume. <S> Maybe you could go with something like: Worked on the Invention and patent of product Foo, while laboring on company Bar Co. - Jan, 2017 - Jan, 2017 <S> During interviews or other follow ups, you can specify more details if necessary (like authors involved, etc.) <S> if you are willing and able, but you should try to keep you resume as lean as possible so it is easier to read and understand. <S> Also, make sure you have clearance or authorization to include that information on your resume, so you don't conflict with any clauses or legal terms involved with that specific patent and the company and other authors involved. <A> As others have said, there's no point listing the other people on the patent. <S> They're not applying for this job. <S> They are irrelevant. <S> Why can't you say "et al"? <S> Or maybe something slightly wordier, like "along with others" or "part of the team that" or whatever fits with how your resume is worried. <S> It is probably best to say something to indicate that you are not the sole owner of the patent, just to avoid someone thinking you were trying to exaggerate your role. <S> But this can be done with 2 or 3 words. <S> The point of a resume is to sell yourself. <S> Emphasize the positive. <S> Acknowledge limitations <S> so no one can accuse you of lying but don't dwell on them. <A> Most patents have a primary contributor who came up with the original idea and others helped to may be refine the idea. <S> So I believe it's important to mention the list of inventors in the same order it appears in the patent
| If you have just the one patent, you shouldn't be listing it on its own at all: you should simply mention it while talking about the accomplishments of the job where you worked on that patent . But if you are proud of your actual accomplishment then yes, it will be a good thing.
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Is it OK to watch movie at work on break time? I always used to eat my lunch behind my desk and watch movies simultaneously from 12:50 TO 13:30 pm. It was OK until this behavior gradually spread to my coworkers, and after a while all employees watched movies during their lunch time. Two days ago our manager announced that during lunch time all monitors should be turned off and using mobile is prohibited . I'm so bored with this new rule and want to know is this rule common in other companies? If this is a time to break off from work and get a little rest, don't I deserve to decide how to rest or break? How can I protest against this rule? <Q> Your manager has said no so the answer is no. <S> It's as simple as that. <S> The reason he's (probably) doing it is that with so many people streaming films, the internet speed becomes too slow for anyone using the internet for work related things (ie, those earning the company money) cannot work. <S> At my workplace we are allowed to surf the internet at lunch times but streaming is forbidden. <A> Is it OK to watch movie at work on break time? <S> Typically companies will have a policy around internet and equipment usage, but the best way to be sure is to ask your manager. <S> You manager has done one better for you in this regards and said no, so move along . <S> If you want to use your mobile, go out to your car and use it. <S> If your interested in training , ask your manager about training videos. <S> These would benefit you and the company, plus have added the benefit of passing the time . <A> Companies normally have a reason for these sorts of policies. <S> For example, not everybody takes lunch at the same time and if a client walked in and saw your monitor with a movie on it, they might not be impressed. <S> This in turn might be a bad reflection on your company and may result in loss of future business if they think they're paying for slacking off. <S> If you really wanted to watch a movie, I would suggest going somewhere off-site, such as a park bench or something and using your phone there. <S> The bottom line is your manager said no and protesting it may result in career-limiting prospects. <S> There are always rules that folk disagree with, but 9/10 there are reasons they have been implemented in the first place. <S> Very rarely will managers get together and think "How can we inconvenience OP today?"
| Your manager cannot tell you what to do on your break if you are not on company property .
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What does a job description mean by "candidates need to be able to work on a W2 basis"? If a job description requires candidates need to be able to work on a W2 basis, what does it mean? What does it prevent? For example, does it mean no contractor from a consulting company? Is there any way for a contractor from a consulting company to work on a W2 basis, so that they can qualify for such positions? Some consulting company told me that if I can find a contract position from another company, then they can hire me and send me to work there. I would like to know what positions are contract positions when searching in the job descriptions. <Q> "requires candidates need to be able to work on a W2 basis" <S> They are looking for an employee, they are not looking for somebody who works for a different company, or who is an independent contractor. <S> why? <S> That is their preference. <S> They may want to give you additional duties that they don't want contractors to do. <S> They could even have a requirement. <S> The government is giving them a contract to complete a task and is telling them that they must keep 51% of the work in house. <S> This is done when they won because they are a small business and the government wants to keep them from taking a 10% and then having all the work done by a big company. <S> Is there any way for a contractor from a consulting company to receive W2, so that they can qualify for such positions? <S> They want to hire a w2 position; they don't want to send a 1099 to a consulting company who then gives you a W2. <S> So, no. <S> Example:Bob's programmers want to hire an employee. <S> So they advertise on a job board they include the line: "candidates need to be able to work on a W2 basis" <S> Bob's programmers doesn't want a contract with we_are_coders. <S> If you aren't willing to quit we_are_coders and become an employee of Bob's programmers, then don't apply. <A> does it mean no contractor from a consulting company? <S> Is there any way for a contractor from a consulting company to receive W2, so that they can qualify for such positions? <S> Absolutely. <S> It depends on who's advertising the job. <S> If the end-client is advertising it then no, but if a consulting company is advertising the work and is intending to contract you to the end-client then that's what they're looking for. <S> For example, I work at a large (Fortune 10) company. <S> I've worked there almost 2 years. <S> But they're not my employer. <S> My employer is a consulting company who bills the large company I work AT. <S> I get a check 2x <S> a month and taxes are taken out. <S> When I apply for loans, my employer is not the large company but the consulting company. <S> In that respect, I am a "W2 contractor" in that I'm contracted (by my actual employer) to another company. <S> On the other hand, if you work for a consulting company and you're a contractor to a certain company and that certain company advertises for W2 employees, you can't go to work for the same company that is the customer of the consulting company that's contracting you. <S> In that case, someone would likely get sued. <A> If a job description requires candidates need to be able to work on a W2 basis, what does it mean? <S> It means that they want to hire an employee rather than an independent contractor. <S> Employees need to be given W-2 forms . <S> While I'm loathe to quote Wikipedia, they provided a decent summary of the differences : <S> The distinction between independent contractor and employee is an important one in the United States, as the costs for business owners to maintain employees is significantly higher than the costs associated with hiring an independent contractors due to federal and state requirements for employers to pay Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes on employees. <S> Likewise, employees are protected from being fired without cause, and if fired or let go for other reasons are entitled to unemployment benefits, whereas independent contractors have neither protection nor entitlement. <S> Employees are also entitled to receive overtime pay for work performed over the 40-hour-per-week standard, whereas independent contractors may work any number of hours (including far above this standard) with no change in pay. <S> An independent contractor can be someone who's independent (typically self-incorporated) and who the client company pays directly, which will require the company to issue the contractor a form 1099 . <S> But they could also be getting contractors through a consulting company and those external consultants can be working as employees of the consulting company or they could themselves be working under 1099 status. <S> Whether the client company has to send 1099 forms to the consulting company will depend on numerous factors.
| So in short, if a job description mentions "W2 only" that means that independent contractors and consulting companies need not apply because they want to hire a full employee.
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"You're in the top 10% of applicants based on your LinkedIn profile!" - So what can I do with this info? With LinkedIn Premium, when you go to a job posting it gives you some analytical details based on your profile that tells you how "qualified" you may be for a given position. This is based on your skills listed, your past positions held, education, etc. If one is particularly well-qualified according to LinkedIn, is it at all appropriate to include that point somewhere in the cover letter? My gut sense tells me no, but given how ubiquitous LinkedIn has become, I thought it may be worth checking in here. <Q> So what can I do with this info? <S> Very little. <S> I suppose it would be useful to tell at a glance how compatible your skills and experience are to a given position <S> but that's something you could just as easily and more accurately determine by reading the job posting. <S> But those are both big ifs. <S> Note that I'm assuming that it shows you an actual percentage match rather than the percentile where your hidden match percentage is in the pool of people who accessed the job posting or applied to it. <S> The latter would just be useless noise. <S> Is it at all appropriate to include that point somewhere in the cover letter? <S> Absolutely not. <S> You'd come across as naive at best. <S> Your cover letter is the best document you have of selling yourself to a potential employer and needs to be customised for each position. <S> You need to highlight relevant experience and skills instead of bringing up useless metrics. <S> There's as yet no algorithm that can do that for you. <A> This doesn't mean anything at all beyond the fact that you have some keywords in your profile that match keywords in the job offer. <S> If you think about all of the butchers, bakers, and candle-stick makers on LinkedIn that don't have any of those keywords in their profiles, it kind of puts this message into context. <S> To put this into a dating website analogy: <S> Oooh!! <S> This person has brown eyes too - you're a perfect match!! <A> If one is particularly well-qualified according to LinkedIn, is it at all appropriate to include that point somewhere in the cover letter? <S> I would say no . <S> It is understandable that such a statistic may sound interesting and worth mentioning, but nevertheless it was calculated by LinkedIn (some algorithm) and not the actual company or recruiter that is looking to hire. <S> It is true that Machine Learning is useful in those sort of tasks and analysis, and that it has been improving considerably in the last years (FWIW, my field of study is ML). <S> Even though I am really positive that candidate matching could be feasible to achieve with good accuracy, it is a task that most humans are not quite ready to delegate yet . <S> Companies like to see, and talk, and come to <S> really know their candidates before hiring them. <S> Most companies have customized and sometimes long hiring processes for this reason. <S> That's why including that information in your cover letter may not help you much, as you would do better focusing on other things, like why should they hire you and what you know and can bring to the table. <A> Statistics and Big Data analysis are only tools. <S> In this kind of context they're tools to help you, not to choose for you. <S> In this case it is to help you discriminate potential good matchs vs bad matchs, so you could focus more on those that "are good". <S> Of course that depends of your trust in their algorithm, if you think it is reliable enough, then you should definitively read with care this job offer. <S> The rest is up to you. <A> If one is particularly well-qualified according to LinkedIn, is it at all appropriate to include that point somewhere in the cover letter? <S> I'd like for you to imagine this for a second. <S> You paid LinkedIn to upgrade to a premium account that in turn spits out various data about your resume, current job posts, and how you compare to others. <S> What sort of relevant information would that give to a potential employer other than that <S> you a) paid money for statistics, and b) you think that data means something? <S> You're better off practicing your interview skills and landing a job rather than relying on some data points that in reality means nothing. <S> Your end goal is to get a job, so you should work towards that goal rather than being sidetracked into believing that you are better than others based on what a paid <S> statistical analysis does. <S> I can't imagine them saying anything bad about you due to you paying money, so you can't really rely on this for being useful to anyone but you. <A> It doesn't mean much of anything. <S> I've had this happen for every job I applied for that <S> was listed on LinkedIn. <S> I know I've got good skills but the top 10% for every single one. <S> Sheesh. <S> I use LinkedIn for networking. <S> I do not use it (or Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Monster, etc.) <S> as my basis for job hunting. <S> Very few positions are filled by using job boards. <S> Old fashioned networking (where LInkedIn can be a great help) has gotten me my last several jobs.
| If your profile is complete and detailed and if the job posting is accurate and detailed then a simple match percentage can do a decent job of quickly gauging whether you're qualified for the job.
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As a candidate how to answer "If you were accepted everywhere, which company will you choose?" Recruiters often ask the question: "Did you also applied to other companies?" And if the answer is positive they complete with: "If you were accepted everywhere, which company will you choose?" How to answer when you did applied to multiple companies and this one is not your preferred choice?And how to answer when it's indeed you preferred one? <Q> This sounds like one of those first-date questions: If you could be anywhere in the world, where would you like to be? <S> The usual answer is Right here, with you <S> The same could be said of this question, but that would invariably be the wrong answer (or one that shows the least amount of insight). <S> The question is really asking: <S> What do you need that we're not offering you? <S> This is your opportunity to speak about the pros and cons of your other candidate employers and describe what aspects you like and dislike about each one. <S> This highlights the differences between where you're sitting now and the ideal. <S> It's up to you to make this a positive experience in your current interview in letting them know what you like about this company and where you'd like to be. <S> If you choose another company where the pros are radically different from your current interviewer's company, then it's an indicator to them that you might be a bad fit, and you will have talked yourself into rejection. <S> Use this question as a route into negotiation and as a way of letting them know what you like about this company. <A> "If you were accepted everywhere, which company will you choose?" <S> You can say that you'd consider all the aspects of each offer: salary, benefits, office culture, commute distance, potential for advancement, interesting projects, etc.; and that you'd choose the one that makes the most sense for you and your family. <S> Be honest about the factors that you care about and what your priorities are — the recruiter may be asking in order to learn how to create an offer that you'll find compelling. <S> I'd avoid talking about the other places and positions to which you've applied. <S> If they press you for that information, don't feel bad about deflecting with an answer like "I wouldn't have applied here unless I were really interested, so let's stick to talking about your company" or just "I'm not comfortable talking about that right now." <S> And how to answer when it's indeed <S> you preferred one? <S> There really shouldn't be a difference between how you answer for the company <S> you'd most like to work for and any other company. <S> If you're not excited about the possibility of some position you've applied for, you probably shouldn't have applied in the first place. <S> This is a great opportunity to do all of the following: <S> Explain why you're interested in the job in question and what you like about the company. <S> Talk very briefly about what you think you can do for the company. <S> Say that you hope they're as interested in working with you as you are in working with them. <A> Agree with the other two answers: the question is not just "what is your dream company" but also "what is important to you and why". <S> Be prepared, dive deep and offcourse tailor what you want to what you think they can offer - and a bit more. <S> I'd like to add one extra dimension: when they are talking about other companies, this is your chance to inject a bit of " pre-vetted status ": other companies also want you, and you are in the third interview round - they'll subconsciously think you must be good since others want you too. <S> It also helps afterwards when negotiating compensation if they already know you have other interviews/offers.
| The best thing to do here not to say specifically which company you'd choose, or even which other companies you've applied to, but instead focus on how you'd choose among several offers.
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Should I tell my current employer about a job I have lined up after my current contract ends? My current contract is coming to an end fairly soon and my bosses informed me a few months ago that my contract would not be renewed. Interestingly, I had to directly ask my boss whether this was the case, as they were preparing to tell me a number of months further down the line. Thankfully, I asked in advance and was able to apply for a new position, which I recently interviewed for and was awarded the job. In terms of job etiquette, should I inform my current boss that I have a job lined up after this one ends? I suppose that given that they haven't offered to extend my contract that they probably will not care either way, however, this is the first time I've been in this situation and I'd like to know how to proceed. <Q> No. <S> It's none of their concern as they will no longer be your employer. <S> The only reason to mention it would be for reference purposes <S> but as you've already signed the new contract, you probably don't need to do that here either. <A> There is no strict etiquette in this situation. <S> Had the situation been a bit different and they were discussing the renewal terms of your contract with you staying on in mind, it should be mentioned in either a contract negotiating way or as a legitimate reason to not continue working there. <S> The only time I would consider telling them is if it came up organically in conversation i.e. I was asked what my plans for the future were over coffee or lunch with my boss and/or peers. <A> In terms of job etiquette, should I inform my current boss that I have a job lined up after this one ends? <S> There's no need for you to inform your current boss what you will be doing once <S> your employment there ends. <S> That wouldn't be discourteous. <S> Either way, on your last day you should thank them and perhaps say that you enjoyed working with them and would look forward to doing it again at some point in the future. <S> That ensures that you won't be burning any bridges.
| However, from what you said they have no intention of keeping you on so in terms of transparency you don't really owe them anything other than a polite 'goodbye/good luck' as you walk out of the door for the last time. You may be asked about it, but you can be vague if you choose.
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How do I avoid explaining the reason for my sabbatical in an interview? I intend to take a sabbatical to write a book about the domain I work in (I will quit my current job and spend some months to write it). It would be on a topic that some might think it's controversial. I don't want to tell what the book is about but it will expose some problems together with me offering some solutions in trying to make it better. I plan to use a pen name, so it won't be obviously linked to me. After the book is written I will put it on sale on Amazon and try to make some income from it. Since it's my first book, I don't expect to retire with the sales I make, so at some point I will need to get another job. And then I will need to explain the gap in the CV. How can I do that without mentioning the book, having the interviewers look at it, and wrongly interpret it's content, thus affecting my chances of getting the job? Please don't say not to write the book! It's something I think will benefit the domain and I want to write it. <Q> I took some time to focus on personal devlopment and some studies. <S> I didn't gain any qualifications, but what I think what I learned would help me with this job. <S> For example... <S> This keeps it professional, is still objectively true and will allow you to use the insights you gained in a positive light, opening up the conversation. <S> If the interview steers towards your book, so be it. <S> By that time you would have disarmed the interviewer sufficiently. <A> I took some time out to be with my family <S> This would be ambiguous enough for most people. <S> There's no much else <S> you can say really apart from making up lies about how you used that time. <S> Keep it simple. <A> You could tell any other reason. <S> For taking care of the family is a reason used a lot where I live. <S> If you do volunteering you could fill that space and put a focus on that. <S> In a interview that would allow you to skip the subject faster. <S> " I was at home for reason xxx, and at the same time I took the time for some volunteering for yyy ..."
| You might want to subtly imply that a family member needed caring for, or that you were stressed in your previous job and needed some time to unwind and gather yourself.
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Managing people for the first time - what you can do to start out well as their new manager? I've just accepted a new position in my company where I will be managing others for the first time in my career. They are already a team, 3 people, and I will be replacing their boss. Similar to this question , but different, as I am senior to the team members. What are some specific things I can do in the first days / weeks to make sure that I manage the team well? <Q> I'll address the question in your post not in the title (too broad). <S> Here are some generics things you can do to start : Get to know (skill, background personallity, ...) <S> each of your subordinates individually and make them know you. <S> What they expect of you, what you (and the company) will expect of them. <S> If they're willing to talk about the previous manager, what was working for them, what they think could be improved (no blaming, bashing of course). <S> Get to know how they work as a group, (who is their leader, ...) <S> what make their group good (and don't need to be changed!) <S> what can be improved. <S> When you address what can be improved, stay positive, don't say "you bad" but "we can improve this". <S> Learn <S> management styles and which one(s) would suit the people you are going to manage. <S> Learn what your company (those above you) expect from your team and make sure your team understand it. <S> When receiving orders from top (new organisation, new process,...), and when it is possible, handle the mail and propose to your team a way to handle what the top is asking. <S> Don't just follow it to your team and expect them to handle it. <S> Also note that since peoples are different, it's possible that you have to adjust your management for some people. <S> For instance some are very autonomous and will strongly dislikes recurrent follow-ups and others will apreciate. <S> You can also read various thing about how to deal with introvert/extravert people and other traits of people. <S> I don't recommend you any neither to choose one and follow it to the letter, but reading about them will likely help you to understand your people better. <A> When stepping into management for the first time, or any time, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. <S> You have the title, but not the approval or respect of the staff, especially if you have had a previous peer relationship with them, this must be earned. <S> You earn "legitimacy" for lack of a better term by setting expectations, being fair, consistent, and open to the views of your people. <S> (open, not agreeing to) <S> Now, what to do.... <S> Meet with everyone for some one on one, informal time, create personal relationships. <S> Set expectations with the group. <S> Let them know what is expected of them, and what can be expected of you. <S> Learn what motivates your people and their habits. <S> Some respond well to bluntness, others tact. <S> Some people need hand-holding, some work independently, et cetera. <S> Establish yourself as an authority. <S> This is important. <S> You want to get along with your staff, and it's fine to ask questions, but when descision time comes, you say "We are going to take this approach". <A> Some good answers already, but one thing I think is missing. <S> Find out from your boss if any of the people working for you had applied for the promotion. <S> You need to know if there is someone who is likely to resent your selection. <S> You may want to talk directly to this topic with that person and find out their feelings and discuss a plan for them to help them qualify for the next available promotion. <S> Some people truly don't understand that success at one level is not a guarantee of promotion especially when changing to a management position. <S> If the person appears to be resentful, then you may need to keep an eye on behavior to make sure he isn't poisoning the group against you. <S> You need to nip that sort of thing in the bud immediately. <S> If the resentment is bad enough, sometimes the best move is to find another place in the organization for that person.
| Start assigning tasks as soon as possible because again, this establishes your authority You need to help that person understand what skill sets are different for the promotion and work out a plan for that person to get them. Solicit input, but make the decision yourself. You need to make it clear that while he doesn't have to like you, he does have to work with you and that any negative behavior will not be tolerated.
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How to gauge someone's competence without asking a technical question I have been asked to be on an interview board in the next few days as a tech guy to try and get a feel for if the candidates are a good fit technically for our position. The only problem is, the interview questions are set (they cannot be changed or appended to) and none of the questions are technical questions. It doesn't feel right to give a technical opinion on someone I have not been able to ask a technical question to. No matter who does this interview, the parameters will be the same. Because of that, I would rather not step down as the next person will have to do the same thing I am doing anyway. Because this is my first time on an interview board, I was wondering if there is anything else I can look at to try and a sense of if they are competent? This interview process is a bit different than what most people would consider normal, so I will explain the process a bit. The candidates have already done several tests and interviews with other people throughout this process. All of their credentials (such as schooling) have all been validated up to this point. So that means, they have the necessary experience and schooling to get the job. We have to deliver an interview of set questions and following a marking rubric for each candidate to determine if they will make into a pool that can be hired from at a later date. Because this process is very strict, no questions can be changed. Most of the question revolve around explain to us how you solve a problem or how you interact with clients. <Q> It doesn't feel right to give a technical opinion on someone I have not been able to ask a technical question to. <S> It isn't right. <S> And it doesn't seem very smart. <S> Because this is my first time on an interview board, I was wondering if there is anything else I can look at to try and a sense of if they are competent? <S> You can only base your opinion on what you can see, hear, and read. <S> If at the end of the interviews you haven't gotten enough information, then hopefully the rubric allows you to answer "Not Applicable" as much as necessary. <S> On the other hand, if you can read what this candidate has written outside of the interview process (blog, technical papers, Q&A forums, etc) you might be able to give a much better assessment. <A> What an asinine interview process! <S> Assuming there aren't any questions on the set list of even a remotely technical nature then you're going to struggle. <S> You'll be able to comment on anything the candidate says, either in an answer to one of the set questions or freely volunteers I suppose but that's just pot luck as to whether they say anything useful. <S> If you are able to explain this to the other members of the interview board and they are sympathetic to your view on this <S> then they could maybe help steer a candidate in the direction of giving technical answers - for example if there are questions on the list asking the candidate to give examples of stuff they have done " <S> Describe a time you overcame a particularly challenging problem at work" or something like that <S> then you could get whomever does the introductions of the board to say something like <S> This is Sagging Rufus who is our technical expert and then have <S> you ask the questions that could have technical answers - this should lead a candidate to the expectation of giving a technical answer. <A> This is very dependant of the type of post and their requirment, but if you're searching for mid level developer or above, I would say that you can avoid a raw technical test. <S> This is my point of view as someone that went through them <S> and I really think the most relevant part of my interviews wasn't there. <S> Let's say one of your top requirements is that they master the framework X. IMHO, the best way to test them is to ask them a problem and have them answering how they would structure their code using the framework. <S> Another way, a bit more generic, ask them how they would handle a specific problem (ex : a problem about designing the database) but stay vague in the requirments. <S> What I would expect from someone with enough experience is either : <S> They ask you more details (any specific requirments ? <S> volume of data, ....). <S> In the answer they describe one way while precising that it might not fit depending on specifics requirment. <S> In the answer they describe multiples ways depending on specifics requirments. <S> This is what I do when I'm described a problem that is not specific enough. <S> Basically, they show that : They're aware that there is no silver bullet can adapt to specific situation where generic pattern doesn't work. <S> They show that they understand the mechanics of the techologies you used, not just how to write working code, but how to think with them. <S> Of course, this way needs that your questions tailored to allow multiple good answers depending off the problem. <S> Finally, I'am not really not found of technical tests, but some basics checks like if they can understand recursivity, data structures, complexity, inter process communication are always worth. <A> Chances are there probably is a question along the lines of "Describe to me a time when you ran into problems with a project and how did you resolve it?" <S> To me, that would be a good question to gauge their technical abilities. <S> The interviewee will probably go into some level of detail on the project and then perhaps describe a technical aspect of it that he ran into a problem with and explain how he resolved it. <S> But at the root of it, there's no way of gauging someone's technical skills without asking them or making them show you.
| If you are only able to form your opinion based on what you heard in response to a pre-determined set of questions, you could judge them based on the technical thoroughness of their responses, the technical jargon they use (do they use it in the right context with the right meanings), etc.
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How to ask technical questions about the workplace to a non-technical interviewer I'm going to have my first interview (a phone interview, to be precise) for an entry level position as a software developer tomorrow. I assume that at the end of the call, I will be confronted with the question "do you have any questions?". I don't know anything about the person doing the interview since the recruiter refused to even tell me the name of the company, so I'm going to assume the worst: He's going to be some HR person without an engineer's mindset. Now, one thing that I'm keen to learn is what exactly my potential workstation is going to look like: Is it some locked-down Windows PC without administrator privileges? That would be awful, I probably wouldn't want to work at such a place. Do I have the possibility to choose my own operating system and the software (including the IDE) running on it? Is it something in between? The reason I would like to ask this is simply because I think the productivity (and happiness) of a developer depends not only on his knowledge about various programming languages and frameworks, but also on how familiar he is with the entire working environment, including the operating system and the tools he's working with (tools you would not necessarily list on a resume). My concern is that asking this question to a non-technical person will result in question marks or raised eyebrows: he might not know the answer or, worse, think that I haven't got my priorities straight and think of me as some kid who's eager to bring the toys he's gotten familiar with to work. So my question is: Do you consider this question appropriate to ask to a non-technical person when interviewing for an entry-level position and if so, how to phrase it without seeming too opinionated? <Q> NB: I'm not going to look at whether they are questions you should be asking at all - at the end of the day if they are things that matter to you and would influence whether you would take the job <S> then that's what's important here. <S> An interview process is a two-way thing. <S> So assuming you do indeed end up with a non-technical person interviewing you, and there has been no indication about whether you will have an interview with someone who is at any point in the process then instead of trying to ask the HR person these things directly or trying to ask questions they might be able to answer and trying to puzzle out the answers from there you are instead much better off <S> asking them this: <S> I've got some technical questions about your working environment that I would like to ask, will there be any opportunity for me to talk with some of the team or would you be ok passing on some for me? <A> It seems to me that the questions you plan to ask are more about Company Standards or Politics rather than being technical per se , so I don't see why they could be inappropriate. <S> A technical question would be more on the lines of "do you prefer agile development over traditional development?" <S> , "do you host your website's back-end on an DMZ?", etc. <S> The ones you propose I think could be easily answerable by HR or anyone that interviews you. <S> Also have in mind that several companies have more than one type of interviews; some of them usually have a initial interview (by the Manager or HR, where they analyze you in a general way) and then a more technical interview (usually carried out by the CTO or similar, where you discuss more about the tools and tech involved in the job). <S> That is, don't ask the HR guy about technical stuff and vice versa. <S> It is not worth it <S> and you could surely ask more relevant questions in that moment. <A> I wouldn't ask that question at this part of the interview process. <S> Not only is the HR person unlikely to know the answer <S> (even is she/ <S> he gives an answer, it's most likely the rules which apply to HR staff, which may be different from rules for IT staff), but you have nothing to gain by cutting the interview process short. <S> Wait with those questions when you get to talk to your peers-to-be. <S> They will know what's really possible. <S> But more importantly, you seem to be at the beginning of your career. <S> Even if you have already decided not to take a position, go on with the interview process as long as possible. <S> It's valuable experience you can use later on. <S> Until you have signed a contract (and in many cases, for some period after) you can always walk away from the hiring process.
| If this is the case, and if they give you the chance of asking questions, I suggest you ask questions that you think can be answered by your current interviewer .
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Addressing Sir or Ma'am to Transgender or Androgynous looking individuals I am manning the front desk at a tech conference and I ran into a situation where I did not know if I should address an individual with Sir or Ma'am. My salutation is "Hello Sir/Ma'am Welcome to Tech Camp! How may I help you?" But given the sensitive topic, I am at a loss as to what to say. I've reached out to the conference's organizers, but my immediate supervisor cannot be reached (phone, slack, text) or found. <Q> Just drop "sir/ma'am" entirely and say " <S> Hello and welcome to tech camp! <S> How many I help you? <S> " It doesn't seem like such a formal environment that omitting that would be too casual. <S> That would sidestep the issue entirely and give you one less thing you have to think about when you're helping them out. <A> I am manning the front desk at a tech conference and I ran into a situation where I did not know if I should address an individual with Sir or Ma'am. <S> My salutation is "Hello Sir/Ma'am Welcome to Tech Camp! <S> How may I help you?" <S> There is never a need to mention gender when greeting someone in person . <S> "Hello! <S> Welcome to Tech Camp! <S> How may I help you?" is completely appropriate. <A> Hmm ... there are intergenerational and inter-subcultural (word?) considerations here. <S> Specifically, many people (myself included!) were raised with the notion that omitting the honorific in a formal situation is staggeringly rude. <S> For this and for practical reasons -- I doubt that there's enough cultural impetus to discard honorifics entirely, for the benefit of the small amount of people who are in honorific-ambiguous territory <S> -- I'd suggest the following: Take your best shot on honorific. <S> The vast majority of people, it's pretty clear which one to use. <S> If you get it wrong, person will tell you what he or she wants. <S> I've been asked by someone to use 'zir' before. <S> I gamely promised that I'd try.
| You could also consider addressing everyone that way, not just to transgender or androgynous people.
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How are multiple majors perceived in the professional world? If somebody has multiple apparently unrelated academic degrees what are the pros and cons of mentioning them? Should they be included in a CV? For example, there is no immediate connection between (say) a music degree and a STEM degree. But I believe that pursuing a broad range of professional knowledge speaks about the person in a good way. Even more, there are a lot of examples of the usefulness of having deep knowledge about multiple not so closely related areas, but I don't know if that is a commonly held view. <Q> If somebody has multiple apparently unrelated academic degrees what are the pros and cons of mentioning them? <S> Should they be included in a CV? <S> Yes, they should all be included. <S> Personally, I believe that all education is a good thing - even when not directly related to your career field. <S> In the best case, they show that you have a wide variety of interests. <S> You may need to be prepared to answer if you really want to go in the direction that fits the role the company is offering or if that you would prefer to go in the direction your other major would take you. <S> ("Do you really want to be a programmer? <S> Or would you rather be an actor?") <S> The interviewer may be worried that you are just marking time until the job you really want opens up. <S> Or if this would be your first job, you may be perceived as someone who would rather stay in school than be part of the working world. <S> That could appear to be the case for someone who pursues one degree after another. <S> For me, I'd include all my education, and then be prepared to talk about why I chose those majors, and why I now want my career to go in the direction I have chosen. <A> They don't hurt. <S> If I saw two degrees I'd assume you were a diligent student to complete both, which would increase your chance of getting the job. <S> That said, it would probably only matter for you first job or two. <S> After a few years in a field, experience trumps everything on your education section. <A> If somebody has multiple apparently unrelated academic degrees what are the pros and cons of mentioning them? <S> My experience is that it will be a topic of conversation of “Why did you pick X and Y” and “Was it difficult”? <S> It will be your job to dovetail your academic experience to the job at hand and how it will be a benefit to the company. <S> Should they be included in a CV? <S> List it as it is something you accomplished. <S> But I believe that pursuing a broad range of professional knowledge speaks about the person in a good way. <S> Correct in general. <S> But remember that a position was designed to turn one very specific gear in the machine. <S> Your skills as a X would have translatable value as an Y, but not as a 1:1 ratio. <S> My experience that the ROI on each successive degree after (1) at the bachelor level has been effectively 0. <S> But that’s just me. <S> The job I do does not require three degrees. <S> At the same time, I didn't receive interviews/offers from other companies despite (or is it in spite?) of my academic accomplishments. <S> You might get more mileage on your second and third degree from a different institution then mine.
| And I believe that any degree earned is a significant achievement. They can show that you are a hard worker, and that you are willing to commit effort in disparate fields.
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How do I ask a co-worker to turn down the volume on their laptop, when I don't know which co-worker to blame? I work in an open office with about 10-12 workers, all in partitioned cubicles. Most of us have the sound turned off on our laptops out of respect for the rest of the team. However, one (or maybe more) person hasn't done this, so there's occasional interruptions from IM messages, error messages and the like. Besides stalking, how can I work out which co-worker has left their volume up and how can I ask them how to respectfully stop it? <Q> I work in an open office with less than ideal acoustics, and face this issue every once in a while. <S> I solved this once by just standing up and making a polite request myself in an informal tone, being careful not to look at anyone in particular: <S> Hey guys, that sounds too loud. <S> Can we lower the volume please? <S> That led to everyone checking their settings, and the concerned person/ <S> s adjusting their settings. <S> Problem solved without making a song and dance. <S> The next time the issue occurred, someone else stood up and made the request. <A> Find a reason to use IM (not related to the volume) to ping each of your colleagues in turn. <S> When you hear the bing, you have your culprit... <A> How can I work out <S> which co-worker has left their volume up and how can I ask them how to respectfully stop it? <S> Have your manager send a general reminder email to your team asking them to be respectful of their fellow coworkers in regards to: wearing head phones (we all don't like the same music) <S> put your mobile and other devices on mute <S> smelly foods and so on and so forth <S> Using this approach, you are not the bad guy and no one in particular should feel singled out. <S> Ultimately, this should help eliminate the behavior as most folks are not rude on purpose. <A> I can think of two possible approaches to this. <S> Hey guys, sorry to bother but would you mind turning down the volume of your devices please? <S> It's a bit loud and it can be heard from across the office. <S> If they are not intentionally being loud an disturbing they will surely lower the volume. <S> If they do not, and continue to be loud, you can try the second option, and tell your manager about the situation <S> so he/she can kindly remind them of lowering their volume (maybe in an email as someone already suggested). <S> I would advise you to try the first option before you consider escalating this. <S> Even though telling your manager will surely solve this, your coworkers may think "Huh, this fellow went straight with boss to make us quiet, if he had spoken to us I would have surely lowered my volume" . <S> In most cases it is better to address these things in person before trying other means of getting what you want, so trying to reason with your coworkers first could be recommended.
| One option is to be straightforward and approach those cubicles where you hear the noise and politely say to them:
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Should I send a delayed thank-you two weeks after the interview? I interviewed at a mid-size company (on-site) about 2 weeks ago and I totally forgot to send a follow-up thank-you email to my interviewer for showing me around the company and the great experience etc. etc. (I mean it, I really did enjoy visiting the company and seeing the opportunities). Should I still send a thank-you? Or should I just wait for the company to send me their decision and then thank them at that time for the interview opportunity (to at least save the bridge for the future, I guess?) (This question is different from this other question since I'm already stuck in the situation of being too late, and now I'm debating whether it's still worth it to send the thank-you. The other question doesn't recommend a course of action if you're late in sending) Update: I sent no follow-up and still got extended an offer a few weeks later. Worked out well! <Q> If you've not sent one right away, there's little point. <S> Just wait for their decision, like everyone else is. <A> Send the thank-you. <S> You have no idea what the hiring manager or HR at that company is thinking, or even IF they're thinking about you. <S> Don't interpret too much into their silence, as you don't know their timeline for hiring the position. <S> They may always take a month to decide who to hire, it may have to go through some informal committee that hasn't met yet, yadda, yadda... <S> What do you have to lose? <S> This link has some really good arguments for always sending the thank-you, even if you're late. <S> Such as, " <S> There's a 99% chance that the person who gave you the gift, invited you to the event or did you <S> a kindness or favor is keenly aware that you haven't thanked them." <S> The site has sample wording as well. <S> You can't go wrong. <A> I'm 2 weeks late in sending a follow-up thank-you after my interview. <S> Should I still bother? <S> Better late than never. <S> But don't expect an answer back if the company didn't select you to move forward in the hiring process. <A> I wouldn't. <S> If it's truly a company you see your future developing then by all means, don't be passive! <S> be unique is from my experience the best way to go.
| The company will probably interpret this as you chasing them for a decision or trying to bump up your chances, and may not take kindly to it. If you truly wish to say thank you then i'd do it on a personal level or pass by.
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Communicating effectively with a former director who is now a member of my team I started my software engineer career six years back in a company. I always used prefix "Sir" when communicating with the director of that company (both emails and verbally). After two years I resigned from that company. But I still used "Sir" when talking with that director. Now I am working as a "Tech Lead" in another company. Today, I got a confirmation from HR, a new person will join as a "Senior Software Engineer" next month. He is the same director! (His company was shutdown about 2-3 months back). Now my problem is how should I communicate with him? I always used "Sir" when I was talking with him and I have huge respect for him . But after just one month he will work under me. I have no idea how I should communicate with him. I am not comfortable even saying "do this work", etc.... And please note that, we never call "Sir" unless he is a teacher, upper level position person, or a customer /client in Sri Lankan culture. So, if I call as "Sir" for my team member or person in lower level me (I mean job position wise), people will think that I am crazy person. Update : I invite him to a dinner and discuss with him about this thing. Idea got from Nemanja Trifunovic <Q> How to deal / talk with new employee who was in upper level and now join as junior for me? <S> Treat him like you would anyone else that works with you. <S> With respect and honesty. <S> I would stop calling him sir now unless you call everyone else that, and address him as you do your other peers and team members. <S> This person will already be anxious starting a new position, at a new level, in a new company. <S> Don't do anything to make his journey any more challenging than it has to be. <S> When assigning work to him do it without fear , and do it just like you would for anyone else. <S> If you treat this person differently (with more respect for example), your other co-workers will notice. <S> You don't want to be seen as treating this person special. <S> Discipline <S> your mind <S> so that you can treat him appropriately: <S> Just like everyone else . <A> Can you meet him before he starts and openly discuss it? <S> I am pretty sure that if you tell him what you wrote here there will be nothing awkward after he starts working. <A> Chances are, he's going to be as uncomfortable, if not more so, as you. <S> He likely remembers you <S> and there's a certain shame that many people experience after things go wrong <S> and they need to pick themselves up and start over. <S> You need to build a new relationship with him and feel him out as to where he is. <S> If he feels like he's still your superior, you need to nip that in the bud. <S> If he's feeling like he's failed, you may need to support him. <S> What you need to remember first and foremost, is that your relationship now is different than the one it was <S> and you are <S> BOTH going to need to adjust. <S> Meeting with him privately is the best way. <S> Also, do not bring this up with your team. <S> If it eventually comes out, deal with it then, but you don't want them to be in an awkward position either. <S> Then, get your head in the right place. <S> He's just another member of your team. <A> As long as you communicate in a respectful way there is nothing to worry about, sure it can be a little awkward at first, but its part of being professional. <S> Now he is below you, it makes more sense to call him by his name, so if you wanna be more 'cool' about this turn of events you could insist in he calling you by your name too. <S> That respect can be translated in treating him in the best way possible, no matter how he treated you in the past <A> Now my problem is how should I communicate with him? <S> Try to be objective as much as possible esp. <S> for business-related conversations. <S> At some point biases arise, so try to catch such thoughts/instances and avoid those because they will certainly call the attention of your team members, and would cause problems. <S> I always used "Sir" when I was talking with him <S> and I have huge respect for him. <S> As suggested by the others, try to initiate calling each other using your first names. <S> You can show that you have a huge respect for him, even if you don't call him 'Sir'. <S> Respect can still be manifested and observed in other ways. <S> If he's a good leader from your point of view, he should be professional, matured and humble enough to work with you in this new setup, where you are his leader. <S> In my opinion, there's no problem if you would still call him 'Sir' if he has more experiences than you do (the context would be seniority in the professional arena). <S> If he finds this awkward, he'd be the one who'll request you to stop calling him 'Sir'. <S> I am not comfortable even saying "do this work", etc... <S> Why? <S> Because it would be awkward to delegate work to him? <S> I suggest treating tasks as collaborative efforts for the company you're working in. <S> It might take some time to be absorbed and realised, but it might help you in the long run. <S> Finally, just be yourself. <S> This is actually your chance to showcase to him how you lead. <S> So, relax and communicate to him the same way you communicate with the other members. <A> While it may that the context is different, I think an example from academia would be useful here. <S> PhD-track grad students are encouraged to address full-time professors by their 1st name (in the US). <S> This can be a shock to a student who goes from undergrad to grad school in the same university. <S> The whole point is to emphesize flattening of power structure because grad students are expected to become peers of the professors once they do attain the PhD. <S> How is this related to your situation? <S> Practice saying this person's 1st name in front of a mirror a few times. <S> And have a conversation with them on day one where you are very casual (respectful, but still casual maybe even jovial) and make the point of addressing them by their 1st name. <S> Make it so that you are overheard (speak a little louder if you have to) by others. <S> This will set the tone that the past is just anecdotal. <S> It does not determine (even if it has some influence) on how you proceed forward.
| As the other answers provide, deal with him the same way you deal with other members of your team. You may want to meet with him privately when he starts for a "get to know you" session.
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How can I inform my boss that I may have been hired by mistake? I was hired at my current workplace just over a month ago. During the interview process, I found out that someone I knew from university was also interviewing for the position. I'll call him Jim. Jim and I have never been close, but are merely aware of each other. Based solely on technical knowledge and relevant expertise, I believe that Jim would have been the better candidate for the job. In particular, he previously worked at a well known company in a position very similar to this one. I was therefore somewhat surprised when I received the offer. On multiple occasions, my manager has made statements along the lines of “You'd be good at this project due to your experience with [some technology]”. I have only limited knowledge of the technologies mentioned, but I know that Jim has experience with them. Each time I've simply brushed it off. More recently, I overheard my manager mention Jim's previous employer as though I had worked there. He's made this mistake twice, referencing the same company. Given the above and some other hints, I believe my manager mixed up our résumés and may have hired me by mistake. The interviews were over the phone, so he would not have noticed by my face that I'm the wrong candidate. I want my manager to know my actual background and areas of expertise and feel guilty that I “stole” a position using someone else's credentials. However, I'd also like to retain my position, if possible. How can I tell my manager that I was hired by mistake? <Q> I want my manager to know my actual background and areas of expertise and feel guilty that I “stole” a position using someone else's credentials. <S> However, I'd also like to retain my position, if possible. <S> How can I tell my manager that I was hired by mistake? <S> Skip the "hired by mistake" part - <S> that's just silly. <S> Deal with the "my manager doesn't know my background" part. <S> You don't really know if your manager was confused during the hiring process, or is just now remembering details incorrectly. <S> Deal with the real issue, not the imagined one. <S> Talk to your manager in private. <S> Something like "You know, you mentioned [wrong previous employer]. <S> But I never worked there. <S> " should start the conversation. <S> Don't make it about " <S> You hired the wrong person. <S> " <S> Make it about "You are confused about my background". <S> I want my manager to know my actual background and areas of expertise <S> That's reasonable. <S> and feel guilty that I “stole” a position using someone else's credentials. <S> Unless you did something intentionally, that's nonsense. <S> You didn't steal his credentials any more than you stole his identity. <A> How can I tell my manager that I was hired by mistake? <S> Short answer: <S> You don't , you don't bring any of this up at all. <S> You have no real way to know if this is true or not, so assume it's not and continue on. <S> Keep your head down, focus on your tasks, and do the best you can. <S> Now, if you feel this position is beyond your skill set, and you were really hired by mistake, then begin looking for another job. <S> Remember it is always easier to find another job while you are employed. <A> Always be honest; doing otherwise will come back to bite you in the end. <S> If your boss mentions your previous experience (that you don't have), correct him politely. <S> You did not misrepresent yourself during the application and hiring process, and you don't want to make the mistake of doing so now by allowing his assumptions to continue. <S> They evaluated you and decided you ARE the right person for the job. <S> If they made mistakes during that process, that's their blame and not yours. <S> There is always a learning curve, and you do not need to apologize to your boss or to yourself that there may be others who are more qualified than you. <S> Do your best, and become the employee they need. <A> Don't overthink this. <S> Boss, I don't have experience with [some technology]. <S> I have worked with [some other technology]. <S> Let him figure out what to do next. <S> Don't go looking for trouble. <S> It is not your problem. <S> Not correcting your manager's mistaken assumption about your skills would be trouble, however. <S> Just clarify the misunderstanding and be done with. <A> You are suffering from imposter syndrome. <S> Just use your new job as an opportunity to learn the new technologies. <S> Once you gain confidence with the new technologies, the imposter syndrome will disappear. <A> Ask yourself: If you convince your boss that you were hired by mistake, what's the benefit to you? <S> Because that is the only thing that matters, the benefit to you. <S> I can't actually see any benefit, and huge risks. <S> What you are doing will be considered weird. <S> You destroy your reputation. <S> There is actually the risk of losing your job. <S> And why? <S> You applied for a job, you've got it. <S> Jim may not have got that offer because he found a better job elsewhere. <S> Whatever happened to him, his problem, not yours. <A> I think that is excellent you have a conscience, however, it does not seem that you are certain that you are certain regarding the 'facts'. <S> It would seem that the issue is that you need to face <S> is to understand whether your supervisor has an incorrect understanding of your background and if you need to address this. <S> If you think you were hired by mistake, then think again... <S> It is unclear if you are able to do the job you were hired for. <S> Can you do the work? <A> Name one thing you kept from your childhood -- Vogue interviewer <S> My insecurities. <S> -- <S> Taylor Swift Insecurity is a real thing and it lies to you all the time, and tells you very elaborate stories over and over. <S> What's worse, it sounds like you <S> so you want to believe it! <S> Don't be fooled. <S> Presume things are alright. <S> , don't go out of the way to do so. <S> Other than that <S> , do a good job and don't let insecurities tell you you are unqualified or a fraud. <S> Everyone's insecurities tell them that all the time, and it's just noise. <S> Frankly, all human minds say a lot of trash all the time, it's nearly an endless stream of gibberish... <S> if you doubt that, look at Youtube comments! <S> LOL! <S> Honestly I think the brain works by creating every thought possible and then filtering out the wrong ones, and insecurity is an error where self-doubting thoughts make it farther through the cull than they should.
| Yes, politely correct the boss's misconception about your experience when he mentions it That said, you do NOT need to tell him you are the wrong person for the job.
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What to do about a boss that doesn't know how to communicate Here's my situation. I work as a web developer at a fairly large tourism company. Our dev department is really small though, there's me, one colleague who's on the same level as myself, and another frontend developer (who's also expected to test work that we do and write manuals) and my boss (he's one of the directors of the company and he also does development). Because our department is so small there's pretty much nothing in terms of protocol. So when it comes to developing new stuff there's no specs or anything, we're just told more or less what the thing we're developing has to do and then when it comes to specifics we have to ask our boss what he wants and he'll then figure it out on the spot and tell us. There's also no protocol around testing, and there's also no deadlines, we just carry on until we feel it's good and then after the frontend dev tests it and confirms that it's good we make it live. Now to the problem at hand: The three of us (myself, the other developer and the frontend dev) feel that our boss is too ambiguous when communicating to us what to do and when we end up not doing something we get in trouble because, to quote our boss, "I can't think of everything and you should've known [what the right thing to do was]" as if it's common sense.So my question is how can I approach him about this? What I want to tell him is that he needs to work on his communication because several of the problems that arise is his own fault. I don't want to insult him though and I don't want to just hint at it (which I've done in the past) because that doesn't get the message through. We don't hate him and generally he is really nice and approachable. He's a really good mentor when it comes to development and technology and we're "friends" outside of work, i.e. we game together online and sometimes go for dinners and do other social things. <Q> Get Professional. <S> You are the developer, you should know what you need and how a complete spec looks like. <S> You should identify ambiguities in request and clear them up before you start developing. <S> If you feel you need a better testing environment and procedures, set them up. <S> If you need some agile planning and tool and protocol - introduce it. <S> If you feel you are missing resources, write a thorough e-mail to your management what you request and how and why it would benefit the company. <S> Stay constructive. <S> Stay patient, one step at a time, and your can transform you team to excellence and develop yourself in the process. <A> Learn to communicate on your bosses level. <S> You've been through a few already, so you should learn from them. <S> What sorts of questions do you need to clarify PLAN the project before commencing, take it to the boss for approval. <S> Document <S> the whole process for reference to cover yourself when told off. <S> Politely refer to where the problem lies rather than be resentful. <S> Just basic professionalism. <A> Write notes during these ad-hoc meetings and start creating at least basic requirements documents. <S> Get the document signed off by your boss before you commence the bulk of the work. <S> This should protect both parties from the effects of forgotten/conflicting requirements. <S> Start off with at least some bullet-points per stack and work from there. <S> Pitch this as a "trial period" thing to soften the blow and then ramp up the detail when it's proven to be a beneficial thing to do.
| You should counsel what is need for you do be able to do your work. Treat your boss as an internal client.
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Is it inappropriate to keep a mirror on my desk (to see people behind me)? I work in an open-plan office, at one of the 'edges' of the room. Nobody sits behind me, but the printers are immediately behind me, and people often walk past to get to the toilets or an adjacent meeting room. When someone is standing behind me (usually at the printers, or having a chat with someone en route to the toilets), I start to get nervous and feel that they are all staring at my monitor and judging my work. In a rational sense I am not worried about this - it's just the feeling of it which is strongly distracting until they move away. I have a phone on my desk which has a camera for video calling, and I often turn on the 'self-view' function. When I start getting nervous as above, I glance at the screen, and 90% of the time that solves my nervousness and I can immediately get on with my work. However, some people have commented on it/asked why I always have the self-view on (I usually say something about how vain I am - which is trueish, half the time I look it's just to check how my hair is looking!). More significantly, my boss tends to lean over me and turn it off himself when he walks past. He hasn't told me not to use it, but it clearly bothers him for some reason. I was thinking of getting a small mirror to put on my desk instead to serve the same purpose without looking as strange to my colleagues as the self-view on the phone. But I'm worried that since they don't like the self-view, they also won't like the mirror. I'm not keen to raise this with them as I think it's an irrational nervousness, and just a practical adjustment that's a bit tricky to explain without sounding suspicious or weird. How normal or appropriate is it to keep a mirror on one's desk in a setting like this? For reference: I'm in in finance, I've been at the company for ~6 months, in a fairly junior position, in the UK. <Q> How normal or appropriate is it to keep a mirror on one's desk in a setting like this? <S> These mirrors are usually small and come with a self-adhesive strip that attached them to the corner of your monitor. <S> They can be very inexpensive. <S> It seems perfectly normal to me. <S> I suppose in some offices it would be frowned on, but none that I've ever seen. <A> First thing ... <S> it came up in comments that it might make sense for you to sit at another desk. <S> That's not a bad idea, as it addresses the underlying problem (people behind you) instead of trying to mitigate the effects. <S> It's worth a chat with your manager. <S> If moving is not practical, broach the subject of the mirror. <S> For what it's worth, I did overhear a conversation around such a mirror that you might appreciate: Worker 1: <S> Hey, what's with the mirror? <S> Worker 2: <S> It's in case <S> I have to back up. <S> Worker 1: <S> [Laugh] <S> Yeah <S> yeah, about that bug... <S> In the offices I've been in (largely filled with software people) they pop up from time to time, and attract the odd passing comment like above, and that's about it. <S> I would suggest that if you get a mirror and someone asks you about it, explain it as a minor convenience; most coworkers don't need to hear about any anxiety you are feeling. <A> Personally, I wouldn't like the video self-view on the video phone either. <S> But the mirror on the monitor, I would have no problem with that. <S> Just make sure it's convex <S> so you don't have to change your viewing angle and strain your neck every time you look at it to make sure no one is there. <S> If your boss really doesn't like it, you could just use a shiny blurry convex mirror, or maybe place it in a slightly different viewing position in your cubicle. <S> After all, to be effective, you just need to know when someone is in the back of you, not exactly who they are. <A> In regards to having a mirror on your desk, at our workplace it is common for almost every desk to have a mirror. <S> The mirrors have a small message saying something along the lines of "smile more" as when you work at a call center if you are smiling it can translate through to the customer. <S> I am pretty sure. <A> Here are some ways to "hide" a mirror on your desk : put up a little square vase with a flower in it that is made of some silver-shiny-see-what's-behind-you material. <S> We have a slogan at our workplace : "The only person responsible for your safety can be seen below." <S> and there's a mirror below. <S> Maybe safety isn't an issue at your workplace, but then you can change this. <S> Make a photoframe with for example the text " The only person responsible for your hapiness can be seen below." and put a mirror under it.
| You could place the mirror on your desk and simply say it is to remind you to smile more and no one would ask further about it I know many folks who have a small mirror attached to their computer monitor so that they can see people who walk up behind them. Point being, it's not weird. And I've never heard anyone say that it was inappropriate.
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Answering an interview question about short-term tenure in previous jobs I am actively interviewing for positions and one issue that keeps coming up is that in my last four jobs, I had tenures of about 2 years per job. Reasons why I left these jobs involve financial instability in the organization, escaping a toxic and dysfunctional work culture, or the opportunity (as I saw it then) to expand my skillset and career by taking on a major project or switching to a larger, more prestigious organization. One way I thought I would answer this question is to flip it around and state what would make me stay at a job for the long term. Because I do intend to stick around long-term — for at least five years — in my next job. My script is below What would make me stay in a job for the long term are: Stability. I am looking to be in a role or organization where there are no issues with funding or serious financial instability Flexibility to accommodate the challenges of raising a young child. Benefits, work-life balance, flex schedules, telecommuting and a decent commute are as important to me as salary at this point in my life Work culture. I would like my workplace to be where colleagues treat one another with respect, are able to collaborate and communicate effectively, and if there is disagreement, people are able to work them out in a civil and professional way. I am not happy in a setting where problems are allowed to fester over time. I am happy in a setting where there is mutual respect, transparency and open communications between staff and those who manage them [EDITED] Is the approach I take above something that could allay hesitations or suspicions on the interviewer's part about my long-term potential for their organization? Is it an effective answer to the questions raised about short term stays? <Q> Let's take a look at the interviewer. <S> What is he really asking here? <S> Basically, "reassure me that you intend to stay here longer than 2 years". <S> Your answer should be (a) true, and (b) relevant to that. <S> I interview a lot of people, and I will often ask directly: "I notice a lot of short-term engagements on your resume. <S> Are you looking for a longer-term position now?" <S> Therefore, you should be prepared to discuss why you left each of those places. <S> Financial instability is an easy sell. <S> Great opportunity, not bad. <S> "Toxic work environment" might flow better as disagreement with the corporate culture. <S> After that, or if interviewer doesn't ask about specifics, you can say that you are at a point where you are looking for stability. <S> This is where your points about company stability, work/life balance, and so on fit in. <S> Just my two cents. <S> Good luck! <A> If you "flip it around" then you will not be answering the question they are actually formulating. <S> You can be lucky and get out with it, but it is also possible that they reiterate the question until you answer the "un-flipped" question. <S> By answering evasively a clear and direct question they may even think that you are afraid/reluctant to answer truthfully, suggesting that you may actually leave them after 2 years but don't want to say it in the interview. <S> If they eventually ask you that question <S> I suggest you don't evade it. <S> Instead, you can use those points in your script and reformulate your answer to something like: <S> I quit those jobs for personal reasons, mostly because their Work culture changed over time into something I did not agree with and that affected my performance. <S> My knowledge of this company so far is that you have an interesting and efficient work culture, which I am sure is something I can definitely work with in a productive way. <S> Have in mind that mentioning that it was also because you wanted "to expand my skillset and career" may not be a good idea. <S> Whatever you say, try to keep it simple and honest enough, so it does not seem like you are making it up just to land this job. <S> Hope <S> this helps you decide on your course of action. <A> To be honest I think stating these things will hurt your chances on landing another job. <S> These points you made are great and are valuable to you but in today's volatile market, anything can change. <S> There is no guarantee that your workplace can/will comply all 3. <S> Even if they did in the beginning, these can change at any given time. <S> What you are really saying here is that when the direction of the company changes, you will most likely move away. <S> If I were interviewing you, I'd definitely pass on you. <S> Not because you aren't the right candidate, it's because these 3 items is not something any of us can truly control. <S> Rather than just giving you an answer, I would to offer you another perspective and a change of attitude. <S> I think where you want to be is to be the kind of employee that's flexible while working towards your 3 goals. <S> What you can say to the interviewer is something along these points: <S> These are the points that matter and most important to me. <S> I believe these qualities will produce a positive environment for everyone and well aware that companies may / may not have all of them lined up. <S> There maybe even times of changes within the company and all 3 can't be accommodated. <S> However, it's important to me that the direction of the company is working towards these same set of goals. <S> Good luck <A> Is the approach I take above something that could allay hesitations or suspicions on the interviewer's part about my long-term potential for their organization? <S> Is it an effective answer to the questions raised about short term stays? <S> It's hard to say. <S> Some companies and interviewers tend to be optimistic and might feel that they match all of your criteria, and thus would have a chance to earn your employment for a long term. <S> But one question that will surely be asked - If you are very clear about what would get you to stick around, why haven't you picked such a company in your past four attempts? <S> Four short term jobs in a row can come across as a pattern of someone who will never be satisfied for long. <S> I understand your points about financial instability and toxic and dysfunctional work culture. <S> But your points about expanding your skillset, taking on a major project, and more prestigious organization - those don't seem to match any of your "what it would take for me to stay" requirements at all. <S> You need to be able to answer " <S> Why will this time be any different than the past four? <S> " I'm not sure your script does that.
| Other companies would conclude that you have a laundry list of job requirements that wouldn't stay satisfied for long.
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How to respond to a rejection email when I have yet to attend the final interview I was invited to? A company I applied to gave me an invite for a final interview. However, I just received an email stating that they've already picked a candidate and that I won't be invited for the final interview (which I have yet to attend) and my application is rejected. Now you can probably understand my frustration as I was really excited for this interview (even informed a few friends/family). Doesn't this show a complete lack of professionalism from their side? How do I respond to this? I don't want to burn bridges, but I also want to let them know that I'm not happy about this. <Q> Now you can probably understand my frustration as I was really excited for this interview (even informed a few friends/family). <S> I can only assume that this is the first time this has happened to you. <S> I know multiple people who are at the top of their careers to whom this has happened a dozen times in a year . <S> This is perfectly normal. <S> The job market is extremely competitive, and some industries have more qualified applicants than positions available by far. <S> Yes, it is deeply frustrating. <S> Get used to it, because it's going to happen to you a whole lot more times. <S> Doesn't this show a complete lack of professionalism from their side? <S> Absolutely not even slightly. <S> How do I respond to this? <S> I don't want to burn bridges, but I also want to let them know that I'm not happy about this. <S> They have a problem that needs solving. <S> They thought you might be the person to solve it. <S> Then they found someone else to solve it. <S> That's all they care about: that they get their problems solved. <S> Your feelings are, how shall I put this, completely irrelevant to them . <S> So if you want to express unhappiness and not burn bridges then always keep the company's interests in mind . <S> The thing you say is: Thank you for considering me. <S> I had a great time interviewing. <S> I am glad that you found a good candidate, but disappointed to not have the opportunity to work with you this time. <S> I am very enthusiastic about finding another opportunity where we can work together. <S> Please keep me in mind if another position comes open. <S> The bit where you express unhappiness is "I'm disappointed to not have the opportunity to work with you this time", in case that was unclear. <A> How do I respond to this? <S> I suggest you just move on. <S> Look for other jobs you like. <S> I doubt it was unprofessional, but that is less important than what you should do next, and that I suppose is to continue job hunting. <S> It's not worth it to vent out on them. <A> As a manager who has had interview and hiring authority for several companies, I can add a little insight. <S> There have been times where I liked several candidates, and had scheduled one or two of them for follow up interviews, but then extraneous circumstances intervened and I wasn't able to hire them. <S> For instance, the last company I worked for lost a contract in the middle of a hiring phase for me. <S> I needed to add a couple new people to my workforce <S> and I had already interviewed all candidates, had made a short list of the people I liked and was planning on calling them back for another interview. <S> However, the regional manager for the company informed me that I several employees from the closed branch had shown a willingness to relocate to our office and that we should accommodate them. <S> That was that. <S> I sent rejection notifications to ALL of the candidates and picked the two best employees from our closed branch to transfer to mine. <S> I didn't tell the candidates why, nor do I really have to. <S> In other words, a dozen things could be going on behind the scenes that you have no idea about. <S> It's not optimal for you, but it's time to take it gracefully and move on. <A> There isn't any good way for you to complain to them about their behavior and still keep a good relationship. <A> Rejection letter kind of closing the issue of the position for youBut, in case you really want to respond to that, try sending the question regarding the interview scheduled in light of the latest development. <S> Perhaps you will find out that its miscommunication between departments and your interview is on track.
| Best thing you can do is tell them that you appreciate their time and that if they have any other positions that you would be a good fit for, to keep you in mind. You can state your feeling in the communication.
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Bored and not challenged at good job I work as a software developer for a large financial services company. I started on my current team as an intern, after which I was offered a full time position after graduating college, and have been working here full time for about a year now. I like a lot of things about the job: the pay is good, hours are fine, and I like my colleagues. The problem is that I've become extremely bored and disinterested with the work. When I first started full time, most programming assignments given to me were at least a bit challenging, and I felt like I was learning while doing them. Challenging technical assignments (not just for me, for the whole team) have been non-existent for the past six months, and the BAU work is becoming increasingly less interesting (I don't mind BAU work in general, I know it has to be done). I am starting to feel that there is nothing programming-skill specific left for me to learn on this team. Additionally, the new projects we've been getting are more geared toward learning industry-specific software, and not programming concepts/coding, which I find myself more interested in. For the past six months I've felt like the only things I've learned here have been job/company specific, and that I haven't gained many transferable skills/knowledge in that time. This is starting to eat at me because I think I should be learning as much as possible on the job while I'm young. I realize I can learn things I'm interested in on my own, but wouldn't it be better if there was stuff available to learn on the job? On the one hand, I do like the people here, and I believe that in general, the company has a good outlook for the future. However, I don't want to be wasting my time at a job where I'm not learning or being challenged, and my dream has always been to work in the high-tech industry, and not in finance. I guess now it boils down to a few options for me... Should I talk to my manager about my concerns, or is it time to look for a new job? Or is there another option I'm overlooking? Here is my attempt at an edit. I think it would be best for me to first discuss my concerns with my manager. My question is, how can I best go about doing this without an accusatory tone? <Q> I realize I can learn things I'm interested in on my own , but wouldn't it be better if there was stuff available to learn on the job? <S> Yes, that would be great. <S> Unfortunately most jobs have their interesting parts as well as other more dull or that you've done before. <S> This is sometimes the "natural" cycle of workplaces, and it also depends on that company's nature or what you say Business <S> As Usual <S> (i.e.: data scientists may face more ups and downs than, say, coding yet another Factory pattern for a webapp on some language). <S> is there another option I'm overlooking? <S> A third option could be what you already realized in the previous question: use that time in between tasks or your "dead" time to pursue your academic interests by yourself . <S> Try to read papers to stay updated, go back to some old code idea you had, and even use that time to answer emails and other work-related paperwork. <S> Not only is this beneficial for you (and the company) but also will help you endure those "boring" moments. <S> If this continues to be a problem considering doing either of the other two options. <A> Take a look for efficiencies you can make in your team's projects. <S> Is there anything that can be improved upon in terms of security/performance/UX that may have been compromised over at the original time of development? <S> Get these analysed and document how they can be improved (obviously, it's up to management whether they get acted upon). <S> You might want to ask your manager for some training budget. <A> Or is there another option I'm overlooking? <S> Have you considered volunteering your time and skillets? <S> One often overlooked mechanism for people (not just employees) is to spend their most valued asset, their time, in purpose of a cause they care about. <S> For some, the goal is to share their opinion on some obscure website called the workplace about questions about workplaces and workpeople ... <S> However there is more than likely local non-profits or organizations that might benefit from your experience. <S> Through this option, you can: network with local leaders and volunteers <S> learn skill sets that you often won't find in a software development setting <S> feel good about what what you've accomplished through volunteering without money involved.
| Maybe take a Project Management certification and start thinking about the possibilities of extending your roles in more challenging ways.
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What to do if my boss delays the approval of my resignation Last week I received a substantial offer from another company and by the time the offer arrived my boss (direct line manager) had already left for the day. So I called her up to explain my situation and discuss my departure (last day, transfer of duties etc.), or simply just book a time to talk things over. To my dismay, she was very indifferent to me on the call, even cut me off bluntly when I attempted to explain my decision/motivation to accept the offer and move on, and said she'd need to work out my last day with the BU Director. Honestly I was a bit shocked by this, as I really wanted my departure to be amicable and decent. The reason I called her immediately was to see if we could catch up so and see if I could help her better present my attrition to the upper management, just so to relief her of any trouble/pressure as a result of my departure. Getting off the call I emailed her my resignation letter immediately and CC'd the BU director, as I thought since she needed to work out my last day with the director it's probably best to let the director know first hand as well. To my surprise the director was quite eager to find out about my motivation to leave, and offered to have a chat privately. During the chat with the director I was able to gain written approval from the director on when my last day would be. However the stance my direct line manager took was quite alarming to me, as I ultimately need her approval for my offboarding to be processed... Now almost a week's past and I was told that due to the high volume of HR queries at the moment, the response time for offboarding requests could be long. So what should I do if my boss simply delays, w/o proper reason, to approve my resignation just to hold off my offboarding in an attempt to thwart/sabotage my onboard to the other company? Because I will need the formal release/termination papers from my current employer for onboarding to the other job I've accepted. I had documented everything much as I can to prove that I've given enough notice in adherence to company policy and local employment regulations. But what if she just plays nasty and keep me hostage? <Q> Given that you documented your adequate notice period and resignation process I would not worry too much if this happened. <S> It was a wise thing to have a paper trail to back you up. <S> If this really came to happen the facts and evidence surely are on your side; I would proceed without hesitation with any interesting offers I receive regardless they are taking too long to process the resignation. <S> You did as agreed in contract and gave the specified notice, and that is what matters. <S> If those offers require you to show you were properly dismissed from your last job, as some offers do, then you can provide your evidence and show that you were dismissed by the director but your manager is delayed. <S> Also, I doubt that your manager will even attempt something like this. <S> Not only because "holding you hostage" as you describe is clearly illegal in this situation, but also because there is a limited quantity of things she can do to delay things. <S> Eventually her intentions would be obvious. <A> From your question, it seems as though you called your boss after she left for the day and dumped the news that you're leaving on her and expected her to be able to have a discussion with you there and then regarding your leaving process. <S> It's pretty understandable to me why she's feeling a bit angry about this <S> - you threw a curve-ball at her during her personal time. <S> Your director was probably ok about this because he's used to working after hours, or he's that kind of guy who cares about his employees and is happy to talk after hours. <S> Your line manager seems to have a different personality, she didn't appreciate being called after work, and I guess didn't really appreciate you emailing your resignation and copying in the director immediately afterwards. <S> That being said, we need to move forwards. <S> You've entered a discussion with the director regarding your leaving process and your line manager should really be in alignment with that. <S> If that's not the case, mention this to the director and see if you can request some kind of resolution to this. <A> As you say you've got a letter detailing your leaving date from your director - <S> that should be enough detail to pass on to your next employer to confirm a start date. <S> Ringing your line manager on her way home to say you are quitting, well its akin to dumping someone over the phone after they've had a hard day & then expecting them to tell you its all OK! <S> If she had no inkling of your decision to leave then I'm pleased that it didn't affect her driving too much. <S> Good luck with your new challenge.
| So I would ensure that you have a paper trail of that document being received by your line manager & also pass that on to your new employer - a formal paper trail will forestall any silliness.
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My colleague keeps getting static shocked at work My colleague gets statically shocked by the equipment (standard tech office with keyboards, trackpads, monitors, and laptops) roughly half a dozen times a day. None of the rest of us are getting shocked at all. How do we prevent him from getting shocked? <Q> Suggest he take off his shoes. <S> @DavidSchwartz's answer is excellent. <S> Very likely, he's building up static because either his chair or his shoes are not grounding as necessary to keep from building up static. <S> I know it can sound very unprofessional in some domains - <S> and it is - <S> so I don't suggest it unless your workplace is very relaxed and is absolutely fine with him doing just that. <S> For instance, if there are high profile clients going in and out of your office all the time, don't do it. <S> But if you're a kind of back-end tech company who basically sits in a back room all day, this could be an option. <A> I would strongly suggest just treating the areas they work in with anti-static spray. <S> Typically, spraying only once a month is sufficient. <S> You can use ACL Staticide. <S> It's available in spray bottles, large refills, and aerosols. <S> Getting a one gallon refill is probably the cheapest solution. <S> Just re-use an old spray bottle (or buy one at a home and garden store). <S> You can punch "ACL Staticide 2001" into Amazon or any search engine to find sources. <A> Possible that an anti-static spray on the carpet(?) would help, but it is odd that only your colleague gets shocked. <S> Guys in particular seem to wear the same shoes. <S> Leather soles tend to be less likely to build up a static charge and rubber soles the most. <S> It could be that his (or is the equipment used by all?) <S> desk/equipment is not properly grounded so over time a static charge builds up.
| It could be his shoes (which insulate him) or clothes (which could create the charge). If, however, he does not want to invest in anything, and your workplace is comfortable with this, he could simply take off his shoes. If the floors or carpets are regularly deep cleaned or mopped, treating after cleaning is best so you don't remove the anti-static coating.
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Can I omit certain work experience while searching for jobs? I have been working in a software product development company for the past seven years. And prior to that I had 9 months of experience in another company. Now I am looking for a job, but my experience is too high (actually I haven't learnt as much as my work experience indicateds, and my salary is also very smaller than what's expected). So can I omit my work experience with related technology on my resume? I am not going to hide everything. I plan on reducing my working experience to something like 5 years. Will it be accepted? <Q> So can I omit my work experience with related technology on my resume? <S> Yes. <S> You can always choose to omit any work experience you choose from your resume. <S> If it leaves a gap, be prepared to explain what you did in that time frame. <S> That said, omitting a 9 month job over 7 years ago is unlikely to attract any attention. <S> I'm not sure why this would make you look more favorable to an employer <S> (I'd leave it in), but you can certainly omit it if you prefer. <A> So can I deduce my work experience with related technology on my resume. <S> Usually you want to customize your resume according to the type of job you seek . <S> This means you include only the things you wish to show and also make each one stand out the way you think better. <S> If you want to apply for a position of, say a Python web developer job, then your resume should focus more on your experience and knowledge about that subject and focus less on other not-so related things (i.e. in this case, past experience on sales and marketing). <S> Your deception may become evident if they do some research on your profile, and that may compromise your application. <S> They may also become aware of that once/if you are hired and your overqualified skills start showing. <S> You may decide to try hide those skills or deliberately work slowly, but I doubt if it is worth the effort. <S> In any case, I suggest you include only related experience and refrain from including too much details on them. <S> This way they may consider you less overqualified and give you better chances. <S> On interviews that follow you can truthfully (preferably) enhance or clarify any other details regarding the nature of your experience they may want to know. <S> Edit: <S> You indicate now that you plan to leave out 2 years of experience. <S> It is up to you to decide if that is "too much" to safely remove it. <S> Personally, I would leave it untouched. <S> I think it's safer to omit the 9 months on the other company than 2 years in the most recent one (more likely they will check you last job). <A> So can I omit my work experience with related technology on my resume? <S> You can, <S> but I would not recommend doing so. <S> Be careful if you choose to go the route of leaving an employer off your resume/application. <S> If your potential employer so desires, they may run a background check which might show the company your attempting to hide. <S> At that point your integrity has been compromised. <S> Then come the uncomfortable questions as to why this information wasn't disclosed , and it may come across that you are lying. <S> I suggest you always be honest , and have your resume be an true reflection of your work experience. <S> This way you can avoid any awkward conversations as to why you left out a certain employer.
| You can surely do whatever you want with your resume, but willingly omitting too much experience on a topic in your resume may not be so recommended.
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I showed some copyrighted code online and got busted for it. Now what should I do? I am starting a new big project for an important company. My boss provided me a code base of not so functional code and said "Just be careful with this, it is used to manage sensitive information." After this, I began to review the code and its the the biggest, most complex code base I have seen in my Life, so I decided to get to work. But pretty soon I hit a brick wall and ran out of ideas. The only solution I saw was to cut the specific part of the code that was giving me trouble while giving as little information as possible and post it on a webpage to ask some experts. It actually worked pretty well, soon enough I got a working solution and was able to continue with the project. The problem is that I forgot to remove the code and the question from the web page. A couple of months latter, my boss finds out and starts screaming about copyright infringement and how I may get arrested for this. I am really stressed about this, I did a lot to take all traces of the code off the net. My Boss is still mad about it, but I really did this to impress him, and to show him that I was able to live up to his expectations. He was the first to believe in me after I got out of college. In a case like this what should I do smooth over the situation? <Q> In cases like this what should I do? <S> As for smoothing over the current situation, the only thing you can really do is apologize to your boss (which I assume you have already done) and show that this will never happen again. <A> There's not much you can do about it now <S> and I'm sure that you'll be more careful about asking for coding help in the future. <S> Don't forget that it's often better to ask within your own team first. <A> I don´t think 15 out of context lines from a 5000 lines code are likely to be legally considered a copyright infringement. <S> Would have to see the actual code to judge though. <S> ;) <S> I would recommend you find out all the levels where you did wrong and then go with an honest apology together with the assurance <S> you won´t do something like that again. <S> Taking full responsibility and showing remorse is the first step to build trust in these situation. <S> Points to think about: Breach of confidentiality <S> Insubordination <S> Not communicating when you needed help <S> Now these are big words for a probably not so big incident. <S> Don´t beat yourself up about this, but understand how this is inappropriate at a workplace. <S> In your defense, you did what you did to <S> get the job done for your employer <S> so there is no malice involved. <S> You learned your lesson and will not do it again. <S> If your boss get´s that message from you, chances are that it´s soon forgotten. <A> I worked at a place where the Senior Programmer posted 16 lines of code, trying to figure out a solution. <S> We had no restrictions, we only cared about getting the work done. <S> Months later, CIO comes across the post. <S> He laughed, then saw that the 16 lines of code had a hardcoded SU style username and password. <S> He then cried while he had to change credentials for the entire company and update code. <S> Lesson - never publish something on the internet that you don't want to be public. <S> That post still is around and referenced. <S> Apologize and let your boss know you learned your lesson. <S> Don't do it again.
| All you can do is apologize and demonstrate that you've learned the lesson. Learn your lesson, never do it again , and never, ever, ever think that you can completely delete anything that has been posted to the web. You could try to analyze what you really exposed, but most likely your boss is more upset that you have gone against his expressed orders, and the trust-issues it carries to the future.
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Ethical obligation after finding fraudulent applicant? Acme Co. screens and places candidates at other companies including those fictionally-named Bravo and Tec2. Candidate J. Doe applies for a role with Bravo, including a resume citing a lot of experience on a project at Tec2. Acme learns that this is a serious misrepresentation, through a combination of its own knowledge resulting from the partnership with Tec2 and J. Doe's performance on interview questions that should have been easy if the resume was truthful. Beyond simply declining to hire the candidate, does Acme have any further ethical responsibilities? <Q> Literally any employer could find this out by contacting Tec2 to verify references (even start and end date, which is all some companies do, would presumably expose the lies) asking the same sort of questions you asked in the interview <S> You don't appear to have needed or relied on your relationship with Tec2 to discover this person is a fraud. <S> Any company out there that does even minimal screening would make the same discovery. <S> And any that doesn't (sure, they exist) would not be hooked into whatever mechanism or backchannel <S> you're thinking of using to spread the word about an exaggerated, inflated, or even entirely fictional resume. <S> People do this. <S> That's why interviewers check. <S> And interviewers who check don't hire people who do this. <S> You don't have a part to play in this beyond protecting your own agency from hiring or placing this person, which you did. <A> Beyond simply declining to hire the candidate, does Acme have any further ethical responsibilities? <S> You definitely can not spread the word , so to speak, about J. Doe being a bad candidate. <S> Something you could do is share the feedback you received with J. Doe in an attempt to help them grow or perhaps refine their resume. <A> I would say: it depends. <S> In general, you wouldn't hunt people with misrepresentation on their resume. <S> That could even bounce back to you. <S> And cost a lot of money in litigation. <S> However, if for instance the fraud is that someone claims he's a doctor <S> and you find out that he isn't. <S> And you later find out he's working somewhere else as a doctor. <S> I would inform that company. <S> So my answer is: 90% of the times, just let it go, but there are situations where you actually have to. <S> It depends on the actual fraud. <A> Beyond simply declining to hire the candidate, does Acme have any further ethical responsibilities? <S> None at all including hiring the chap despite the dodginess. <S> Businesses do not have clear cut ethical responsibilities. <S> They have legal obligations.
| Besides not placing the candidate, I don't think there is anything further for you to do from an ethical or just plain ole professional point of view.
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How to handle some one misrepresenting what others say I have an interesting case. A new person joined the company which is something like a project manager. I do not report to this person. It is starting to become apparent that this is a person that can not really do a proper planning or describe to the team what needs to be done. The thing is that the person tries to distract from a mess that he is responsible for. For example: when team is blocked and asking to write details on what needs to be done, the answer is: we can not allow documentation to block us. or Is it efficient to spend time writing 5 pages of requirements? Or why don't you want the team to talk? That's why the team sits near by to easily talk. Basically whatever statement he hears he exaggerates and misrepresents it so that his position appears the reasonable one and I suspect in order to cover up by blaming others for the mess e.g. That the person has no support. Basically he is using the strawman logical fallacy. What are effective strategies to handle this pattern of behavior? Update: As mentioned I do not report to this person. I have to get involved occasionally in some of the things the team that is working with him is doing to help them finish as I know the system and technical aspects really good. I have seen the frustration of the team in meetings and for me the impact is that my time is wasted and I can't neither get the answers I need or understand what is expected as an outcome from what we are working on. I suspect from the comments that someone will suggest to talk to my boss but at this point I do not want do that for 2 reasons. 1) I think it would be good for me to be able to handle conversations with such people effectively especially if I want to move higher up. 2) I am giving a small chance that the person is not realizing what he is doing and I would prefer someone else to report him with more stakes than me on this <Q> Not worth documenting requirements is ludicrous. <S> Come at him head on. <S> If there are 5 pages of requirements then yes. <S> No one is going to remember 5 pages of requirements from conversations. <S> Once the product is complete there will not agreement on verbal requirements. <S> As PM it is your job to document requirements. <S> I am not willing to put myself in a situation where you say that is not what I said. <S> Yes I would like to talk to the team about documented requirements. <S> If he cannot write up 5 pages in 2 hours then he did not know what the requirements were in the first place. <A> Like proper backups, this sort of stuff only becomes apparent when things go wrong. <S> In the general scheme of things 5 pages is not a lot. <S> But here are a few things that are a lot of time/money. <S> Trying to figure out how something works after the team has changed/quit. <S> Customer refusing to pay because it’s not what they requested, and you have no evidence to prove otherwise. <S> Wasting time on feature creep. <S> avoiding arguments on what the application is supposed to do. <S> Unable to easily access the quality of your requirements. <S> Requirement documents also change during the project, but in the long term help reduce time. <S> How to make your PM follow it I am not sure. <S> I would recommend reading “Code Complete” section: Requirements Prerequisite. <S> Maybe give the book as a present. <A> The book you want to read is When I Say <S> No, I Feel Guilty by Manuel J. Smith. <S> Do not let the title mislead you, it doesn't describe the book accurately. <S> Read its customer reviews on Amazon. <S> Applying the formula of that book on your examples, you'd end up saying something like: <S> we can not allow documentation to block us. <S> Sure, documentation can block us sometimes, but I want us to write these requirements down. <S> Is it efficient to spend time writing 5 pages of requirements? <S> It may not be the most efficient and I may not be the most efficient worker around, but I want us to write those details down. <S> why don't you want the team to talk? <S> That's why the team sits nearby to easily talk. <S> I know I'm frustrating you and the team with all this talk of taking notes and writing things down, but I still want to write those things down. <S> The second part of each response would be your "broken record". <S> Honestly, I'm not sure what things you need to write down, or who needs to write those things down, so that's why I'm not being very specific with that part. <S> If you get bored in your head of how many times you need to repeat the same broken record, just keep a count in your head. <S> Just don't deviate from the book. <S> The first part of each response is "fogging" or acting like the "fog", you'll have to read the book to understand how it works. <S> I'm sorry I can't explain more. <S> I'm really busy this week. <S> Hopefully, I'm giving you enough to get started on studying this stuff. <S> If the book feels too abstract to you, read the end and the middle of the book first. <A> Make sure to acknowledge his perspective and try to avoid being condescending. <S> For example: Is it efficient to spend time writing 5 pages of requirements? <S> Response: <S> I agree, that would be a waste of time. <S> So, five pages may be a bit of an exaggeration but I feel it's important to have a good understanding of the project goals before we begin. <S> This could help us to avoid having to repeat work. <S> A simple outline should be sufficient. <S> Anyone overhearing the conversation will know who is in the right.
| Maybe you could politely correct his overzealous interpretations of your points of view.
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Is it up to the boss to inform people of subordinate's annual leave or is it up to the subordinate to inform people? I have a subordinate who has gone on annual leave, he booked the time off with me through an online HR system. When I mentioned to my team today that he was on annual leave it came to a surprise to them. Normally, when people go on annual leave in our office, they email around and let people know a week before they go on annual leave. Also, when on annual leave an out of office notification is normally configured in Outlook. Neither are mandatory requirements of the role. The subordinate has gone on annual leave and has not emailed the office or set his out of office status. I appear to be the only person he told. This is regarding annual leave, not a resignation or being made redundant. Is it up to me to inform people of my subordinates leave or is it up to the subordinate to inform people? <Q> Is it up to me to inform people of my subordinates leave or is it down to the subordinate to inform people? <S> In most of the companies I have worked for, its up to the manager to inform the team when someone goes on leave. <S> The other aspect you may wish to consider is are there other teams that this individual works with that may need to know as well? <S> The subordinate can do it , but if the manager handles the communication, the perception will be that you are on top of the situation and have a plan in place . <S> The key though, is that someone let's the team know and that the information is not discovered on the team members last few days before heading off on leave. <S> The other advantage of letting your team know early on is that they will be able to help you get all the little nuggets of information that might be required to keep the ship afloat while the individual is out of the office. <A> Is it up to me to inform people of my subordinates leave or is it up to the subordinate to inform people? <S> Because you are in charge, it's up to you to make sure it happens. <S> You can direct members of your team to inform everyone themselves. <S> But if they don't do it, then you must. <S> If not, you should do so. <S> Some shops have morning or weekly status meetings. <S> That is an ideal place to mention the list of team members who won't be around in the upcoming time period. <S> That's how I handled it with my team. <S> I made sure they always knew when I wasn't going to be around. <S> And if the team members didn't announce it themselves, I made sure everyone knew when others weren't going to be around. <S> That way everyone could plan for the absence accordingly. <A> Normally, we let the Out of Office assistant do the talking for us and don't bother about emailing the team or the world in general that we're out. <S> Additionally, project managers are informed of availability for people working for them, so any booked vacation time is relayed to the responsible PM. <S> We have an online resource plan that shows availability of each team member that gets updated whenever someone books vacation time. <S> If someone doesn't respond to the email, we look at the resource plan and see if there's a planned vacation period booked. <S> As to what your backup is to the OoO notice, it's up to you. <S> You should only really notify people if they need to know. <S> If someone in my team is working on another project or work-steam, it really doesn't matter to me if they're in or out.
| If it is important that coworkers know when one of their team is out of the office, you should check to see if that team member has already informed others about the absence. Who needs to know in your particular team really depends on how the team is made up and what work they're doing.
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Ask coworker who is avoiding doing their work to leave your area of work I work in a print-shop that has no doors, so coworkers come in to talk. One person at my company is getting a reputation for not doing their work and just hanging around people he doesn't directly work with to get away from doing work. My manager has asked me to tell this person to leave me alone so that person go back to doing their job. If this coworker comes into my area to get away from work, should I tell that person to go away because they could get in trouble? This person is getting close to getting fired. I am wondering how to phrase that this person should not spend so much time not working. <Q> My manager has asked me to tell this person to leave me alone so that person go back to doing their job. <S> There's your answer, plain and simple. <S> Do as your manager asks. <S> You can stress it by saying "ManagerBob has told me to tell you..." <S> If he's smart enough, he should get the hint that he's on thin ice. <S> If he can't see that his manager instructing others to tell him to get back to work is an indication of his current state, then he deserves to be fired. <A> It sounds to me like there are two approaches here. <S> "Hey, can we discuss this later? <S> I need to get back to work." <S> "Sorry, I can't really talk right now <S> - I'd like to get this done today. <S> " If it continues, you may need to be a little more direct. <S> "Please don't visit me while I'm working - it is distracting. <S> I can speak to you during lunch/break if you want. <S> " Of course, this assumes you actually want to talk to them at all... <S> Address them privately as a friend (or a concerned co-worker). <S> This one's a little trickier because you don't want to overstep your bounds or misspeak for the company/manager. <S> But something brief which shows your concern for the person. <S> " <S> Hey, I think you should spend more time during the day doing your work. <S> I'd hate to see you get in trouble or even get fired for it. <S> " You definitely don't need to push the envelope or get into an argument. <S> Number 2 is definitely not necessary - it's more of a courtesy. <S> Your manager is another factor - it's unclear from the question what their role is in this whole thing, but they definitely play an important one. <S> It's ultimately their job to discipline employees who are not working. <S> It's your job to get your job done. <A> If your manager has noticed that this person is not doing their job and instead is hanging around people, then you should do as your manager told you and tell him "leave me alone and go back to your job". <S> You could be nice and say "My manager seems to think that you are trying to hang out with other people instead of doing your work and asked me to tell you to leave me alone. <S> If you value having a paid job with this company, you should go straight back to your job. "
| Ask them courteously to move along so that you can do your own work. It could also make you very unpopular with the person, so you'll have to gauge if you have enough of a relationship with them to do it at all.
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How to tell coworkers I need to leave early without telling them why? I need to put something in my calendar so people don't schedule me into meetings during a time when I'm out for medical reasons. However...I don't know what to call it, or how to respond to people asking me why I have to leave. I'd use the "my kids need to be picked up" excuse, but they know I don't have kids. I'd put doctors appointment, but our calendars are public and I don't want to make an obvious lie. I also know I don't have to tell anyone, but saying "none of your business" or "it's too embarrassing to say" doesn't seem appropriate. What's the protocol here? <Q> However, I need to put it in my calendar <S> so people don't schedule me into meetings at that time. <S> However...I don't know what to call it, or how to respond to people asking me why I have to leave. <S> In the calendar I'd just label the time as "Out of Office". <A> <A> Beyond that, it's nobody's business. <S> If anyone asks you say: <S> "I have a scheduling conflict." <S> or "I have some personal business that I need to attend to." <S> Leave it at that. <A> I have had similar issues, and have always just labelled the callendar slot: "Medical Appointment". <S> This is vague enough not to be a lie but also makes it clear <S> it's a medical issue which should dissuade people from prying much. <A> As someone with mental health issues I had this. <S> I told them 'I suffer from depression <S> and I'm going to my classes to help cope with it' <S> That said, there's no reason why they need to know <S> , you can just say "I'm going to a medical thing" and leave it at that. <S> The interesting part was, upon telling people this, others opened up to me about their issues. <S> To be honest most of the time I don't care what other issues people are dealing with, but it was good to hear that others 'understood' that sometimes I would have off days and such. <A> So, enough answers already and an accepted one, which looks good, but I'll present a different spin: <S> Say you have hired a mental coach and you are getting coaching - and that he/she is really helping you become more focused and driven, and mgmt has accepted you take unpaid leave for it. <S> It is basically true, and it sounds much better, and if it was me, I'd be more positive about "seeing my coach" as opposed to "having therapy" just for my own feeling about the situation. <S> Even psychologists are unsure about what the difference between coaching and therapy is... <A> Your options are, in descending order of honesty: <S> The truth (e.g. mental health appointment) A variant of the truth (e.g. medical appointment, coachgin) Refuse to say (e.g. private appointment) Believable lie (depends on your situation) Obvious lie (e.g. have to take my tortoise for a walk) Shaggy Dog Story (e.g. part-time astronaut training) <S> Depending on how comfortable you are with talking about it (or talking in general). <S> I would not recommend trying a believable lie - you'll get caught out eventually. <S> But if you don't want to tell people, making up a blatantly obvious falsehood is a good way around it. <S> A private appointment might be asked about, but your colleagues are likely too polite to outright accuse you of lying, so saying something obviously false is a good way to indicate "don't ask" without being too explicit. <S> See also: Refuge in Audacity .
| If every time they ask you tell a different story, they'll quickly get the point that you don't want to say, and for some reason telling tall tales seems to spark less speculation than trying to hide. All you need to put into the calendar is that you will be off at these times. If people asked, and I felt compelled to answer at all, I'd just use the vague term "I have some things I need to take care of" or "Family issues" and leave it at that. Simply call it a private appointment - people have those all the time.
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How to find English-speaking science jobs in Germany and Netherlands? I am looking for English-speaking science jobs in Germany and the Netherlands. I already speak three foreign languages, and I guess I can learn these new ones, but I can't wait until I am fluent to look for jobs. So far I have found the job portals monster.de and monsterboard.nl. However, it is difficult for me to navigate these sites because they don't have an English version. That's why I'm looking for a way to speed up the search. I don't live in these countries, so going to job fairs is not a viable approach. I have read the question How do you access English recruiters and jobs in a location that is not primarily English speaking? It doesn't apply to my situation because I don't know what companies I should search for and googling for jobs has returned sites that only have English for the front page but not after logging in. What steps should I take to find English-speaking science jobs in Germany and Netherlands? Also, if it's unlikely for me to find English-speaking science jobs only by online searching, please let me know. <Q> I would recommend logging into some Ex-Pat forums for the countries you're interested in and asking the English people who live in those countries for additional advice and resources. <S> They've been through the same experience as you have (well, at least some of them will), and they'll be best place to point you in the right direction. <S> There's nothing like local knowledge from people who have gone through the same search as you and succeeded. <A> Search in Google, in English . <S> The language used in the job advert will mirror the language used in the job, so you can count on English-speaking employers advertising in English. <S> I have no idea what area, specifically, of science you are looking for a job in, but, for example, searching: "research chemist" germany job returns, in the first link, English-speaking jobs with BASF, GlaxoSmithKline and others. <S> Hopefully, this would also work with your area of expertise. <A> EU has EURES service, a job seeking portal you can use. <S> Simple search doesn't seem allow filtering by language, but advanced search does. <S> https://ec.europa.eu/eures/ <A> From my experience, where you search will depend on whether you are looking for a science job in the industry or in academia and what type of science jobs you are looking for. <S> I can only share my experience from Berlin. <S> I'm sharing a link to Bernstein Center forComputational Neuroscience jobs just for inspiration. <S> Maybe if you research the institutes in your field, they might have similar pages. <S> If you are most interested in working in the industry, I can share a website for English speaking jobs in Berlin - Berlin Top Jobs , where you can find a section about data and analytics. <S> Often an expert domain knowledge is required for those positions and some might be a good fit. <S> Also I would definitely recommend going to meet-ups for networking, events organized by universities or attending career fairs. <A> You might want to try <S> www.academictransfer.com for academia-related jobs in the Netherlands. <S> It offers filters for English language jobs.
| Some of the universities and institutes post jobs in English on their website.
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Feedback to company about a bad interview Recently I was offered a job at a company but I declined it. One of the biggest reasons for this was an unpleasant interview by someone who would have been a senior coworker. I heard that this company sends out surveys to applicants regarding their process. Usually with things like this my instinct is to not burn any bridges and to just lie and say everything was great (I assume that when they say "anonymous survey" they mean "anonymous until we want to look at who submitted it"). I also don't want to make trouble for that interviewer, but at the same time they were basically the reason I didn't take the job. Is it productive to say that on the survey? I'm not sure what the company would even do with that information because it's not like they'd fire the interviewer for this, and if they're a symptom of company culture rather than a cause, it was good to know in advance rather than after I accepted the role. This is all in the US. I would really appreciate any insight on this, both from the perspective of if I'm hurting myself in the future by being honest and if it's a waste of time to try to give honest feedback. Thanks <Q> Is it productive to say that on the survey? <S> Some companies might try to improve their process based on feedback. <S> This might benefit the company (if that's what you mean by productive) but is unlikely to benefit you at all. <S> If you mention an individual, there's a chance it will hurt them (which you indicate you don't want to do). <S> It's unlikely you will actually hurt yourself <S> (and if you did, you wouldn't know that you did) <S> - it's more likely just a waste of your time. <A> Are you likely to be trying again with this company? <S> I suspect it's unlikely that you'll meet the same person again in the future. <S> You could respond back by saying that the company isn't a good fit for you, which covers a multitude of sins, or you could be more explicit and say you had a personality clash with the interviewer and didn't feel that you'd be a good fit. <A> Don't overthink this. <S> Forget about the interview and move on. <S> You have nothing to gain from filling out an "anonymous" survey. <S> They clearly wouldn't call you back and tell you something like "Thanks for your honest feedback, it helped us a lot in improving our process. <S> We would like to redo the interview." because they still have to pretend that the survey was anonymous. <S> The more likely scenario is the "anonymous" survey responses will be fed into some database to generate "metrics" to be presented to middle management, and then nobody will look at it again. <S> It is not your problem to "fix" their interview process. <S> Besides, in the big scheme of things, it is not even an issue that needs fixed. <S> They will find a suitable candidate eventually and you will find a better job. <A> Is it productive to say that on the survey? <S> If you phrase it in a constructive way (without bad mouthing or pointing fingers) you are reducing your chances of bridge-burning while still giving the feedback you feel the need of giving. <S> If they want they can go back to check your interview process to try learn how to improve on that <S> (and maybe see that the problem is indeed that interviewer). <S> Again, just consider if it is really worth giving the feedback, and if you do I still suggest you try to keep it as professional as possible <S> , you never know if this will come bite you in the future if you do otherwise. <A> Here is the question for you to ask yourself: <S> What is the upside of disclosing that I refused the job because I disliked one of my interviewers? <S> I can not think of any that have tangible benefits. <S> On the other hand there is plenty of downside. <S> As you noted there is no guarantee of anonymity. <S> But there is also no protection for you <S> should they choose to disclose your answer to other employers. <S> I know of at least one platform that does share lots of survey information with background services. <S> Your complaint may seem petty, and the decision to share it, could burn more than just the bridge with the one company.
| Also, that company probably has a survey for them to be able to improve their processes , so If you say that everything is OK then in a way you will be perpetuating this problem (or not helping to solve it at least). In general, I just decline to return such surveys. The thing about burning bridges is that you won't always want to go back to the same bridge in the future. I think you have the freedom to say whatever you want in that survey.
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Returning to a Company in a Different Position I'm a college student, working at a company near my university. I worked on the IT team, helping coordinate projects - and it was going quite well before my semester kicked up. Once classes were in full-swing, my hours had to shift rather dramatically to compensate. I'm an hourly employee, and my manager communicated that we would make it work - though it wasn't ideal. Right before a weekend, I had a one-on-one with him (regularly occurring) where we were discussing future plans (such as me eventually transitioning to a different role, etc) and discussed my future schedule (since I had made accommodations for greater work availability in my coming semester). Things seemed peachy. I returned the morning after the weekend, and my manager called me to another meeting - a bit foreboding - at which point he informed me that I was going to be let go with a recommendation to re-hire when my schedule was less difficult. I know that we were going to potentially acquire a couple new members for our team, and I feel as though I got the boot because we ended up being over-quota or something (and I was probably least productive given my difficulty syncing up with others' schedules). Now I'm potentially accepting a part-time position at the same company in a different role (different team, perhaps even more to my abilities and far better for my schedule) and I'm worried about how to keep things separate: I don't want to fall back into the same role I was working before, particularly when they've made it clear that I was expendable (so perhaps I'm feeling a bit petty). I want to perform well in my new role, but I'm worried that my time will be often spent trying to finish things that I was working on in my old role - things that I didn't have time to finish, given my rather sudden letting-go. How do I avoid essentially working my old job when I'm now assigned a different role on a different team? On one hand, I don't want to take pay from my new team to work on projects for my old team - the responsibilities are quite different and not compatible. On the other hand, I know there are things for which they'll want my help, and I know I shouldn't just cold-shoulder them (regardless of whether I WANT to) because of the way they treated me. How do I balance these concerns? <Q> How do I avoid essentially working my old job when I'm now assigned a different role on a different team? <S> You avoid this by letting your new boss worry about your assignments. <S> If your old boss tries to co-opt your time, just make sure that approval goes through your new boss first. <S> You may indeed be asked to help transition your previous work to someone new. <S> As long as your new boss approves, you just do it. <S> Don't be petty - <S> that won't be good for you. <A> If someone approaches you who is not your new boss, refer that person to your boss. <S> It is that simple. <S> If he feels that the helping is a priority, then do it cheerfully. <S> If he feels that the work he hired you to do is a priority, then he will tell them that you can't do it. <S> Likely it will be a mix of both depending on what is on your plate at the moment. <S> And talk to your boss about the issue on your first day to have a game plan in place. <S> He may ask you do go ahead and answer questions that take less than 15 minutes <S> but if it is going to take longer, then you would need to have the task priority adjudicated by him. <S> Do not take on such tasks without your current boss's knowledge and permission. <S> You don't want to work overtime to do your real work because you were doing someone else's. <A> When you accept a job, the company pays you for your time. <S> As long as the type of work is what you agreed to, it shouldn't matter who is benefiting from your time. <S> Your manager is going to give you tasks/projects to handle. <S> So I'm not entirely sure what it is you are trying to avoid. <S> If your manager believes that you should spend time on the other teams projects, then that's his/her decision. <S> I'd find it highly unlikely that this would occur <S> but if it does you could certainly discuss it (at that time) with your manager. <S> Essentially - Don't make this into something it's not. <S> At this point you don't actually know what tasks you'll be assigned. <S> If the other team starts approaching directly you for help then you could certainly bring that up with your manager. <S> Again I wouldn't do this before it even happens.
| If the company decides that the project you are to work on is for the benefit of the other team then it shouldn't matter to you at all.
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How can I get out of extra on call duty, to cover for new coworkers religious obligations? In our company one person from the team has to come to work on Saturday. We are a team of 4 so it comes to 1 Saturday per month (paid overtime). Recently 2 guys left and have been replaced by other 2 guys who are unable to work on Saturdays due to religious restrictions. This means that the last month me and my old teammate had to work 2 Saturdays. Our contract has no specific mention of Saturday, it just says something general about when the company needs overtime the employee is required etc. How can I deal with the unfairness of this situation, where two of us are required to work on (now twice as many) Saturdays while the new guys aren't? Can I refuse to work on Saturdays too? <Q> Is it possible that I can refuse to work on Saturday too? <S> Yes you can - <S> but I would not advise it, as you already have shown willingness to work on Saturdays when needed. <S> The real issue here is that whomever hired these folks did not fully consider the fact that some of you are forced to work Saturdays . <S> The problem now is that your employer hired these two knowing that information in advance or they did not communicate the need to these individuals until after the fact . <S> If I were you, I would suggest talking to your employer about this and see if the need to work on Saturdays can be removed entirely for all or if some additional compensation could come your way for working them. <S> Which would make things equal among your peers. <S> Otherwise, you may have to deal with it or move on to another place that doesn't require working on Saturdays. <S> One thing I would not recommend is to pretend you also have a religious conflict that you do not really have. <S> Lying to your employer is never a good idea . <A> First, get the idea of fairness out of your head. <S> Life is unfair for everyone in some form or fashion. <S> Get used to that. <S> And NEVER consider saying you won't do something because it is unfair <S> , you get nowhere that way <S> and you appear as immature. <S> What you do in this specific case is talk to your boss about how you now are expected to work half the Saturdays of the month instead of one Saturday and what kind of compensation can you get for that? <S> Not just money. <S> Perhaps the two people who cannot work on Saturday can be the first called for Sunday or evening work. <S> Perhaps you can negotiate extra vacation days. <S> Perhaps your boss and his boss can each take one of the Saturdays or perhaps someone from another team can. <S> Perhaps Saturdays are not really needed at all. <S> In the end though, someone has to work those Saturdays (if they are truly needed) and if they won't give you any other perks besides overtime pay, then you will have to decide if you want to continue to work at this place. <S> After all if the other person who shares the work with you leaves, you might have to work all the Saturdays. <A> Don't lie. <S> Don't make something up that isn't true. <S> Have a conversation with your management. <S> You are not treated fairly and it's perfectly okay to talk about this. <S> Be clear about what you want out of this conversation <S> Don't work Saturdays at all Only work one Saturday a month <S> Get extra pay for Saturdays <S> worked <S> Whatever else you may want Once you decide on a goal, make sure you have a good plan how to explain this to your management. <S> Sometimes it helps to write down what you are going to say and practice it with someone. <S> You can enter the conversation more confidently. <S> It all needs to be fact based and data driven, it doesn't matter how you or anyone else "feel" about it. <S> Leave the emotions out. <A> Notice that the question doesn't specifically seek to have Saturdays off, it only seeks to avoid "extra on call duty." <S> Thus, I would consider asking management if working Tuesday through Saturday would work for them ... assuming it works for you (and the other co-worker who is currently coming in on Saturdays). <S> Such an arrangement is more equitable, assuming that the amount of work performed on Saturdays is the same as on weekdays. <S> Everyone might have to work a little harder on their 5 days-per-week to get all the existing work done, but at least it would be divided equally. <A> As you pointed out, your contract states that you have to work out-of hours if requested. <S> I'm pretty sure these news guys would be able to work Sundays or lates if required. <S> You not wanting to work on Saturdays is your own point of view - religion doesn't come into your situation at all. <S> You can't use the Jewish guys religion as an excuse for you not wanting to work Saturdays. <S> And no, you can't make up a religion that states that you can't work on Saturdays. <S> You'll get laughed at. <A> Can I refuse to work on Saturdays too? <S> You <S> can <S> but I really wouldn't recommend taking this approach, especially since you were doing them before <S> and it's only the increased frequency that is the real issue here and <S> addressing that is perfectly reasonable. <S> You should talk to your manager and focus on the increased frequency of Saturday working, not on anything else. <S> You need to forget about what your other coworkers do or don't do and any notion of "fairness" and talk about what you are prepared to do. <S> Something like: <S> Hi [manager] <S> , I need to talk to you about the Saturday workings - I understand we've had some staffing issues lately <S> and I've been happy to step up to provide cover over the last month <S> and I'm totally happy to do the 1 out of 4 arrangement like we had before <S> but I'm finding that doing it every other week is cutting in to my weekends too much <S> , can we come up with something to let me reduce the Saturday work back to the previous level? <S> Note that there is no mention of your coworkers because how many Saturdays you work is between you and the company, others don't factor into that. <S> Also there is no "justification" or excuse as to why you can't work those specific additional days beyond the fact that it is cutting too far into "your" time because that's all it needs to be.
| Perhaps you can get Monday off when you work Saturday. All you can do is speak with your manager.
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Salary negotiation in an interview I have an interview and they may ask about the expected salary. I'm planning to say something like "given my years of work experience plus a master degree, I would expect something around 80k". The thing is I know that they give something in the range of 55k-60k, but I assume that if I say 80k, then this might end up to 65k or even 70k for example. Is this strategy correct? What is your advice? Thanks! Update: Company is a multinational company with around 3000 employees in total Company field is software solutions <Q> When you know they planned 55-60k, saying you want 80k will most likely only get you rejected. <S> Reason is: If you are worth 80k and the position is not, you are overqualified which will create problems in the future. <S> Also such a drastic mismatch of expectations is likely to get you frustrated and moving on to anther job soon. <S> All investment in you will then be lost to your employer. <S> Better strategy, knowing their salary range, will be getting at the top range ie. <S> stating 60k+. <S> If you feel you can earn 80k elsewhere, I suggest to go looking on these other opportunities immediately - if there is nothing else especially interesting for you that would persuade you to take the lower paying job just the same. <A> Assuming they offer you a job, at the end of the day only you can determine if the offer is acceptable or not. <S> If you want $70k and they offer less, then let them know at the time of the offer, that less won't work. <S> The only "trick" is in whether you will walk away from an offer that doesn't meet your requirements. <S> You don't need to play games here. <S> Sometimes I've overstated what I was looking for <S> , sometimes I've simply given them a number and refused to accept anything less. <S> Both ways can work but you have to be willing to walk away. <S> The moment you become desperate is the moment you lose all control over the situation. <A> I recommend a dual approach in these situations. <S> , however, also indicate that you want the best company even if it's not quite at that level and that for the right company you would negotiate in order to get a better work environment. <S> This puts most everything into the discussion of the interview where you can talk to them and find the "best" fit with them. <S> If they know what you are looking for in a company and they fit it 100% then they will likely still extend an offer to you after you assure them the environment is a priority and that theirs is the best, if they think your skills are worth it, then likely they will come in closer than the bottom of their tier. <S> If however, it's not a fit <S> then you will both know that during the interview and they will likely not bother extending, but shoot for someone more in their price range. <S> Get them to sell their work culture, environments, benefits, and not just focus on the bottom line. <S> If it's literally just the bottom line that is the sole concern then don't bother unless you are willing to take a companies range. <S> Then when you go in hit the top of their range and work negotiations from there. <S> Otherwise request the amount you want and let it go how it goes.
| Indicate that based on your experience/degree/and market value you believe that 80k is the appropriate salary that your skills deserve The key is to focus on the company quality and work environment and match that up with your expectations (benefits included) and that naturally everyone wants more base pay, but that the environment is so very important to you.
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How to help an under performing colleague I have a colleague (lets call him Harry) who is constantly either forgetting do work, or only half doing it. I work in an IT shop that is currently still practicing the waterfall method of development. Harry always reports that his work is on target, but when the time come to move the code into production, it is either not started or half done. This has left a lot of our team unhappy with Harry, because we are the ones that are assigned to clean up the mess. I spent many overtime hours cleaning up the last mess because the team leader didn't trust Harry to do the solution. It is getting the point where Harry will probably be disciplined. I think Harry could do the work if he cared enough to try. Harry tends to refuse any help offered and gets flustered when micro-managed. When he isn't micro-managed and left to do the work, it doesn't get done. I am in not way managing Harry, I am just a co-worker who would rather see this end well for him. Short of doing his work for him, is there anything I can do? Or is this a case of sink or swim for Harry? <Q> I think Harry could do the work if he cared enough to try. <S> Short of doing his work for him, is there anything I can do? <S> Or is this a case of sink or swim for Harry? <S> If Harry doesn't realize that he is close to being disciplined, you might clue him in on that. <S> Otherwise, you have to let him choose his own path. <S> Maybe the discipline will be a wake up call. <S> Then, they are on their own. <A> I work in IT as well, and there will always be the occasional task that, at the eleventh hour, turns out to be far more time-consuming than anticipated. <S> No matter how late in the process this is, Harry should know that these moments need to be brought to the attention of everyone affected as soon as possible. <S> Honesty is always the best policy. <S> He can explain if it is due to his inexperience with a certain part of the system, or some unforeseen complications. <S> Emphasise (if you need to) that he won't be in trouble if he asks for help. <S> You and your colleagues will surely see right away if his justifications are genuine or if he is simply being lazy. <S> Do you have to log your time spent working on tasks, bugs etc. <S> anywhere? <S> Colleagues can usually see each other's tasks and progress on these and it would surely stand out if Harry is falling behind or not logging his time properly. <S> If he has logged 10 hours against a task with a 2-hour estimate, you can approach him as the more experienced colleague and offer help. <S> This can be done in a friendly way, as knowledge-sharing is always encouraged in IT, lest a single employee becomes the only one that can fix a critical system! <S> Here in the UK, in the places I've worked, it becomes part of the work culture. <S> From that point on, there is little you can do for him unless he shows a willingness to improve or change his attitude. <S> In short; determine first if he is struggling, nervous or lazy. <S> Decide if he is worth helping and if not, let your manager (eventually) let him go. <A> This is something for management to handle. <S> You say he doesn't like being micromanaged. <S> Tough, he has made micromanagement necessary. <S> Your manager should expect daily commits from him and should code review then to see if he is making progress. <S> If someone lies about meeting a deadline and never brings up that they are not making progress, then they cannot be trusted until they show by their actions that they are doing well. <S> We had to do this with someone who was working remotely (as well as revoking the right to work remotely) and as soon as this person knew how closely she was being watched, she straightened up and did her job <S> and we were able to ease off after a couple of weeks. <S> Most likely this person will be fired from what you describe. <S> Be prepared to pick up his part of the work. <S> You can suggest that he be assigned to less critical tasks, you can suggest that he be given a deadline a couple of days before the real one so that someone can pick up the work if he fails again. <S> You can plan to be done early knowing you will have to pick up his part of the work. <S> But only management can take effective action when a person is under-performing.
| As his co-worker, you should encourage Harry to be more honest about his deadlines. As a peer, you can do nothing about this except discuss the lack of progress with the manager and help him or her devise a game plan. There's probably nothing you can do for someone who can't be bothered to try. My personal philosophy - I have always helped folks on my team and my coworkers any way I could - right up until the point where I could tell they weren't trying. It may sound harsh but if he is outright lying when delivering estimates, it should be important to work out if he is being a bad apple or genuinely trying and struggling.
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Quality auditing my superior I work in an office with a fairly specific work-flow. My part of the work-flow is to inspect my coworker's work for accuracy before it is sent to the sales force in the field. One of the people I audit is my immediate supervisor. Once in a while, they get upset when I send a document back for correcting. Sometimes I am accused of being insubordinate for requesting the item be corrected before I would sign off on it. To be clear, these are factual type errors, not matter-of-opinion errors. How can I address my superiors quality issues in a way that is professional and not insubordinate? <Q> In my experience, it's more normal for the auditor to be out of the chain, and it's better that way. <S> But it does happen, especially in smaller companies. <S> As with any audit-type job, it's not a popularity contest; continue as you are. <S> They can get upset if they must, but you have a job to do; do it and discount the sour grapes. <S> Your work is valued, or you wouldn't be there. <S> Just relay your findings professionally and factually. <A> This isn't all that unusual - I regularly get passed stuff written by my General Manager (2 levels up) for a review before it is sent out. <S> If your supervisor didn't want you to provide a review, they shouldn't be passing it to you. <S> That said, there may something in how you communicate the error that needs correcting: requesting the item be corrected before I would sign off on it <S> That does rather sound like you are directing your supervisor (possibly without intending to). <S> A better approach may be: <S> Hey boss, that document looks good, but I think we need to fix this one thing before it's good to push out. <A> You don't really have any choice other than being professional and reporting any mistake you find in your review. <S> Angering your superior might be "bad" for your career, but signing an incorrect document would be an even bigger mistake, because you would accept to share the blame (and probably be the ultimate target, as superiors often tend to offload faults down the command line). <S> Given that you WILL fight with him over reviews from time to time, there are a few things you can do to improve the situation: <S> You state that To be clear, these are factual type errors, not matter-of-opinion errors. <S> but this might not be clear for your boss, and this confusion might lead him to think you're just trying to impose you ideas on him. <S> Last, don't be bothered by it.
| Nobody can be fired or reprimanded for just doing his job. First of all, always remark in the positive, and try to shed a good light on his work. Second, always provide complete information and documentation supporting your findings. He will be less inclined to fight if you downplay his mistakes to "minor issues not worth fighting for".
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How to propose to my Company to add recycle bins in the common areas? I am working for a global company and in a four-story building within which there does not exist any recycle bins anywhere, Neither paper-recycle bins nor battery-recycle bins nor electronics-recycle bins nor generic-recycle bins. I really do believe that a global company should promote recycling in the workplace, but I do not know how to propose it to the company and have an impact. What is the most professional, and effective way of addressing this issue? <Q> You want to change something that is normally the responsibility of others in your company, and others may have a different view on that - or have already evaluated and discarded it. <S> So tread lightly, it is easy to offend others if you attempt to change your organisation. <S> That said, I don´t want do discourage you to take action just warn you: It is going to involve more than just adding a few containers. <S> If you really want to make this happen, find out who is responsible for office management / furniture / waste disposal because this is not normally an HR-responsibility. <S> Hint that you would like to see more recycling bins and see how they react. <S> If he/she is somewhat open you can volunteer to support, but don´t take away their responsibility. <S> Another option could be to draft a decision proposal to the responsible manager. <S> It should contain a good overview of costs, benefits and risk and be neutral as in: Hey, I have a suggestion. <S> Maybe you find it helpful. <S> If you decide to act on it, I am happy to support this. <S> If not, no big deal. <S> In any event, be prepared for very frustrating reasons why nothing can be changed... <A> Yeah, it's ok to propose these changes, or at least ask. <S> It probably won't be HR that you'll ask. <S> More likely the operations/facilities department (although this really depends on how your company is departmentalized). <S> I'm not sure that conducting an employee survey is needed, you can ask off your own back. <S> You're not likely to annoy people by wishing to be more environmentally friendly in the workplace. <S> However, it's one thing putting bins in the workplace, it's entirely an different thing to organize getting the waste collected and dealt with appropriately. <S> This will inevitably incur extra cost to the company and may not be economically viable. <A> To send a simple email to HR proposing to add recycle bins in the common areas Which of these options would HR be most likely receive better? <S> This is the option that would be best received by HR. <S> It's the equivalent of popping a short note in a suggestion box. <S> Send an email. <S> Explain why you think recycling is important. <S> Explain the kind of bin(s) that could be used - perhaps even with a link to a supply of those bins showing the type and cost. <S> HR gets these sorts of suggestions all the time. <S> Sometimes they act on them. <S> Sometimes the requests are used to support a future initiative and can help get budget for the initiative. <S> Remember that the big cost here might not be in the bins themselves, but in the service required to empty the contents and send it to a recycling center. <A> When I joined my current team, I noticed that we consumed a lot of canned/bottled drinks and had no recycling bins. <S> I asked the office manager (who's responsible for the whole floor, not just us), who told me that we used to have them <S> but people misused them <S> and it was too much trouble, so they stopped. <S> I didn't ask to change that; I was just gathering information. <S> Next, I investigated whether recycling could be effectively collected . <S> One night when I was staying late enough, I saw the cleaning person and asked if they separated recycling -- if we got a bin for our team, would it end up in recycling or would it just go into the trash anyway? <S> The cleaner told me they collected recycling (and belatedly I noticed the second can on his rolling cart). <S> So I went to the store, bought a bin, put it in our team's common room, and told my team-mates to not make a mess. <S> I told this story for two reasons. <S> First, your first step should be to gather information . <S> Bins are easy; it's what happens to their contents next that matters. <S> Second, armed with that information, approach the powers that be about implementing it. <S> A busy office manager responsible for your whole building will react more favorably to " <S> I checked and we're allowed to have recycling bins at no extra service cost; would it be ok if we got some?" <S> than to "could you get us some recycling support?".
| Find out if the people who are already servicing your building are set up for recycling already -- and, if so, if it's just a matter of having bins, or if it would incur extra costs. Try to get in touch with them and have an informal chat where you probe the situation. Make it easy for the person who has to approve this to say "yes".
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Should I tell my employer coworker is suing? A coworker is thinking about suing my employer and has asked me to create a statement that says I was a witness to the reason as to why she is suing. Should I tell my employer that she is considering this and can I be affected if I cooperate or even tell them this may be happen? <Q> If you're forced into an involvement, then consult a lawyer before you commit to getting involved. <S> Assume <S> the worst will happen if you do get involved without taking advice first. <A> Should I tell my employer that she is considering this? <S> No you should not tell your employer that a coworker is "considering" suing them. <S> You don't really know what your coworker will decide to do in the end. <S> Can I be affected if I cooperate or even tell them this may be happen? <S> Yes you could be affected. <S> If it gets out that you are supporting a lawsuit, there could be repercussions. <S> And if you tip off your employer, the coworker may be very resentful and might try to get back at you. <S> Depending on your feelings about the reasons behind the potential lawsuit, you might still choose to be involved. <S> But you want to make that decision with your eyes open. <A> A coworker is thinking about suing my employer and has asked me to create a statement that says I was a witness to the reason as to why she is suing. <S> Don't even consider it. <S> Depending on where you live / work, this could potentially see you kicked out of your current job and make it very hard to find a new one (do you think future employers will want to take a risk on someone who helped to sue their old company?)
| Perhaps not overt, but the company may trust you less or even try to find a way to retaliate. Don't get involved.
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Would it be unprofessional not to eat during a team lunch? My manager organized a team lunch for next week. The restaurant we will be going to is one where the only options are meat and fish. For medical reasons, I can't eat those things. In the past I was able to eat fish and I think that's the reason why the manager chose this restaurant (they always try to keep people's preferences in mind during these kind of events) without really informing me. Now that everything has been organized and all, I think it is too late to ask for any changes. So my question here is: "Would it be unprofessional to go to a team lunch and not eat anything?" I would still ask for something to drink so I have "something to do" while everyone is busy eating. According to other Q&As here, declining wouldn't be a good idea because these kind of team lunches can also be seen as team meetings. <Q> So my question here is: "Would it be unprofessional to go to a team lunch and not eat anything." <S> But it would likely be considered odd. <S> Check out the restaurant's menu ahead of time. <S> Find something on the menu you can eat - if not an entree, consider ordering an appetizer, salad or soup. <S> Unless this just a burger and fries restaurant, or you have an extremely unusually strict diet, there's almost certainly something <S> you could eat. <S> If there's truly nothing you can find, call ahead and ask if the chef can prepare something specifically for you. <S> This has worked in the past for a friend who was gluten-intolerant. <S> He called the restaurant and found that the owner had a child who was gluten-intolerant too. <S> While they had nothing great on the menu, the owner was happy to instruct the chef to prepare something suitable. <S> This became my friend's go-to restaurant and the restaurant expanded its menu. <S> Put some effort into it rather than just assuming there's nothing you can eat. <A> I don't think it would be particularly problematic. <S> It's certainly not unprofessional . <S> You'd very likely be asked a few questions about it, but if you're not worried about that and have a good response I don't think it's a problem. <S> You can either provide a canned minimalist response, or provide more details, depending on your comfort level. <S> My team typically goes to a pizza place for team lunches, and for a while I was on a fairly restrictive diet (by choice) and didn't want to eat any pizza. <S> I did eat a small amount of salad, but otherwise I ate my usual protein-and-fiber high foods after the lunch at my desk. <S> The salad wasn't very healthy, hence only a small amount. <S> Nobody asked beyond asking me if I wanted a piece <S> , at which point I said "no, thanks, I'm alright". <S> After the first of those, my manager did ask me afterwards if pizza was a problem; I told him that he didn't need to worry about me particularly, but that I don't prefer pizza for diet reasons. <S> He understood and let me know that if I wanted he could switch to something else, but I didn't push that as I'm entirely happy to simply talk and not eat. <S> I treat it identically to going to a bar for happy hour and not drinking (which I also don't do); I get a soda/water/etc. <S> and just hang out. <S> The food is just something they provide in order to encourage you to come. <A> It will not be a problem at all if your manager and coworkers are civilized. <S> Just make sure to tell them that you enjoy their presence (you may have some starters which are appropriate?). <S> I had a case <S> once (EDIT: twice, I forgot again recently) <S> where I forgot I was having a team lunch and had lunch before. <S> I went with them but did not eat and of course everyone was fine with this. <A> Regarding the actual question: to some extent, "professional" seems to be in the eye of the beholder, so the real issue here is how would your colleagues view things if you don't eat during the lunch. <S> If they know your diet is restricted and this restaurant has no options for you, I would expect that they wouldn't think anything of it if you do not eat. <S> Also, I've had co-workers who are observing Ramadan who've avoided food during working lunches and never heard anyone accuse them of being unprofessional. <S> I've never had to go completely without food, but I have had to settle for an appetizer or side dish and then get something else later. <S> As noted above, if there is nothing on the menu, you can ask for alternatives from the wait staff; I've had mixed luck with that myself. <S> Another proactive approach would be to make sure with your boss that it is too late to find another restaurant, explaining that this restaurant appears to be one where it would be difficult or impossible for you to get food and see if an alternative could be chosen - you might want to be prepared with an alternate or two when you do this. <S> You could also skip the outing if this is a social event instead of a working lunch. <A> If they are kind to you, go and tell them your eating habits. <S> If they were truly kind, they would go somewhere all the team could eat. <S> But if your coworkers are rude and treat you as a ghost, I would ask to not even go
| Other observations, some from personal experience: My diet is more restricted than many folks and I have encountered situations when dining out with co-workers where there was nothing on the menu from which I could make a full meal. I wouldn't specifically label it "unprofessional", but some might. I've experienced similar issues before (see below) and haven't really encountered anything more than some good-natured ribbing. The important thing is that you're there and that you're conversing with your coworkers.
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Am I dealing correctly with my PM's mobbing attempts? In the last year I started working with a new PM because the previous one quit, and I'm having some issues with him. Given that I don't have any experience of this kind of things, I'm not sure on how to behave. The central point of our "situation" is that I always leave at 6pm (unless I have something urgent to do and it can't be delayed), and he doesn't really like it because he'd like me to do more (unpaid) extra hours, even if it's not necessary at all. Why I wrote "mobbing" in the title? Because he takes any chance to make "jokes" in front of other people, trying to make me feel guilty if I leave at 6pm (it's a 9am to 6pm job, I'm not leaving early). This happened 3 times in the last 2 weeks, and it looks like a little bit too much for me as it doesn't seem something random that is done just for the sake of the joke. Here's a quick example of one of our interactions: While talking with a co-worker, he joined the conversation saying that my co-worker shouldn't follow my example because I'm one of the guys that leaves early. He then added that I behave like public workers (in my country they're usually lazy and they leave as early as they can because they don't care about their jobs). All of this while smiling and laughing. I laughed too and, while still laughing, I replied that if public workers were as productive as me our country would've been way better. He kept on laughing, but his expression changed and he looked as someone that couldn't reply back, as if he was angry because I won the "argument" but he didn't want to show it (sorry for this weird description, I wouldn't be able to describe his face even in my native language!). Me and my co-worked then moved away, while still smiling. Why I didn't like this interaction (and all the other ones too)? For starters, I didn't like him saying that kind of things in front of a co-worker because it was an unprompted personal attack that was out of the context of our conversation (which didn't include him by the way). Also, given that he's known to be the one that instead of saying "you did a good job" he'd rather make up an excuse to criticize people, I feel that this is exactly what he's doing with me, and the way that he didn't reply back in the previous example is one strong evidence of that. While I can handle it, saying this kind of stuff in front of other people will make me look like the bad guy, and this will surely have some kind of influence in my yearly evaluation as his words matter more than mine. Why did I reply in a way that could seem aggressive? Well, it didn't was aggressive at all actually, I just kept his same tone and attitude while replying. When he first started with his "jokes" I usually just laughed and moved on because I didn't want to engage in discussions or in anything potentially harmful for my career, and I also thought that he would stop once he saw my results.Unfortunately he didn't stop and things started to get even worse. I decided to start replying because I'm 100% fine with myself and I want him to know that. In the last year I've received a lot of positive feedback from my team leader, co-workers and all of our clients. Everyone is really happy with my job, even our boss wrote me an email to let me know how happy he is and this never happened to anybody this year. So, while my reply could seem a little bit cocky, the purpose was to let him understand that I know how important and productive I am in my team and that there's no point in his jokes because he knows that he owes me a lot (as a junior, this year I saved 3 messed up projects that my fellow seniors couldn't handle). Finally, the question: As this is a new situation for me, am I handling it correctly? I fear that giving this kind of reply may upset him, but not giving any reply may be seen as a sign of guilt that could legitimize his behavior. <Q> Keeping it in joke territory is a rather passive-aggressive way of responding to the situation and neither party can really address the deeper issue. <S> Also, I would make it clear to him during this chat that you are uncomfortable when he makes these remarks in front of others. <A> I spent several years working with mobbers and my experience is that there is no single way to deal with them, as they are all different. <S> The thing they do have in common, is that the core of their intention is to bully others as a means of drawing attention away from their own (real or perceived) weaknesses. <S> Often, their goal is simply to make you feel worse/more insecure than they do. <S> So my first advice is, keep that in mind. <S> It's easier to not feel so reactionary towards bully tactics when you fully realize the bully is actually pretty pathetic at heart. <S> At least temporarily. <S> It may be that in time he will give up bullying you as he risks embarrasing himself in the process. <S> At the very least, I do think it's important to stand up for yourself, ideally without losing your cool. <S> So far so good. <S> Third advice: it does NOT feel good to be cornered into behaving this way, and it's dangerous, too. <S> What I have seen in companies that have serious mobbing issues is that those who are consistently mobbed over time eventually end up in one of two camps: they fall apart and become nervous wrecks, OR they become mobbers themselves. <S> So even if you can find a way to keep the mobber at bay, if he doesn't make a pretty serious turnaround in his behavior, it will likely wear on you over time. <S> I do think it might be reasonable to talk to your boss about this to get a better sense of whether you can get assigned to a new PM or what your other options might be to get this guy out of your life. <S> Good managers know that mobbing destroys morale and productivity, so ideally your boss will take this seriously. <A> Your work ethic and success rate is speaking for itself in terms of your working hours <S> and there's not much that the PM can say about that. <S> He's attempting to show his superiority in terms of rank and having a longer seat time per day. <S> That isn't working out so well for him. <S> There's no need for a separate discussion on this; at some point he'll find something else to joke about that doesn't involve this kind of passive role/status discrimination. <S> Good for you. <A> You handled the first few interactions fine, but you should act immediately to prevent this to transform into a badmouthing contest that worsen morale in the office. <S> The first thing to do would be to have a direct chat (or better, email him to have a record of the conversation), asking if he thinks there are problems with your behavior. <S> Try not to be confrontational, as you should aim to avoid any kind of personal fight in this phase. <S> If he is somewhat reasonable and is not actually mobbing you (maybe he IS just joking), this should solve the problem. <S> Ideally he would state his concerns of you leaving too early and you would reply that your productivity is top notch (it is top notch, right?) <S> and you don't feel that working extra hours would change anything. <S> If he IS mobbing you, don't keep trying to change his mind. <S> This would only lead to an unnecessary fight and worsen the situation. <S> Escalate the problem to your boss instead, and let him handle it. <S> Remember that, by badmouthing your productivity, the PM is also indirectly badmouthing the ability of your boss to handle his underlings correctly. <S> In the end, this is not a matter that you want (or should) try to solve alone, and making recurrent jokes about productivity could easily lead to a big inner fight.
| I would suggest taking him aside to chat seriously but respectfully about the situation. Second advice would be to keep doing what you're doing, to the extent that it seems you have already found a tactic that pretty much shuts this particular bully down. I think that you're handling this right because you're standing your ground.
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Ending a probationary period of an employee based on work attitude There is an employee in probationary whose attitude does not fit in to the culture of the team and it somewhat hampers productivity because of blaming others for his fault; in short he does not practice accountability. He could do some tasks but it takes some time due to maybe personal hang ups. We met this employee and had already discussed issues with a coworker, but after these discussions, he won't change. He has a senior position in the team but he is always spoonfed - it looked like it is difficult for him to catch on our team's pace. Our team is very agile and this person cannot make it with that kind of attitude. Will work attitude be a possible way to end the probationary period of an employee? <Q> Will work attitude be a possible way to end the probationary period of an employee? <S> Don't over think this. <S> During a probationary period, you can let the employee go for any reason. <S> This may vary by location slightly but is true in general (It is for sure in the USA). <S> I would just say " Sorry, but this isn't a good fit . <S> " offer him some paid time to make the move if you, can be done with it. <S> Time to say goodbye and move one. <A> The whole idea of a probationary period is that you can let a person go for any reason . <S> Sounds like this guy doesn't fit in with the team, doesn't get his work done in a timely manner, and creates discord, all in addition to having an attitude problem. <S> Show him to the door, and stop worrying about it. <S> Every day that you have this guy on premise is another day you could be using to bring a more appropriate candidate up to speed. <S> However, do make sure that you don't give him an opportunity to "take revenge" on you. <S> On the day that you decide to fire him, he should already have access to his workstation revoked by the time he gets back to his desk. <S> I know it sounds paranoid, and probably quite rude, but there's too many examples on the internet on why it's better to do things this way. <S> Call him into a meeting, explain that things are not working out, wish him the best of luck looking for a new job, and walk him over to his desk to collect his personal belongings. <S> Make sure to have a box on hand. <S> Don't let him send one last email, or even delete personal files <S> (those shouldn't have been on there in the first place). <S> If others are around to witness this, maybe address the team and assure them that the decision was not lightly made, etc. <S> How you want to handle perception by the team is entire up to you. <A> Yes it should. <S> While doing an evaluation, 2 things are looked at, what has been done, and how it has been done. <S> Both what and how are equally important. <S> Some organizations have this build in their appraisal system. <S> Hard part is justifying it. <S> At some places, you have to give a proper justification and create a document trial. <S> Talk to your HR to see what those guidelines are and complete the requirements for that. <S> If a person is not fit due to traits you have mentioned (blaming others), it is never healthy. <S> Try to give him more of something he has done earlier to make a fair assessment. <S> Give proper feedback ( in writing if needed). <S> New hiring has its own cost. <S> Anyone new coming in might need a similar time span to settle down. <S> Some people are slow starters, but once they are comfortable, they catch up with the team. <S> If that assessment has been done and you have realized he is a bad hire, by all means, follow your HR guideline and let the person go.
| There is no harm in letting the person go if this happens every time. One more point of view to consider , it could also be that the person is just taking time to settle down and is afraid of loosing his job. Discuss with him to assure that the team is there to help. People should take accountability for what they do.
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Dealing with aggressive complaints by the head of different department in our company I work in the IT department of a bigger company. For the last couple of months I have been in charge of tech support of a couple web applications, I only do this occasionally since I work in software development full time. A specific person, the head of a different department, is well known for somehow always experiencing issues with his software or computer equipment in general, but mostly the issues appear to be because of his own wrongdoing. This person is also a user of said web applications. Since I'm responsible for them, he takes every chance he gets to ask for my presence so he can explain to me everything that "is wrong" with them, complaining about how he has to waste several hours each month (web apps are used on a monthly basis) to try and make them work but still they don't. He gets aggressive enough to complain loudly about how we may have time to waste but he doesn't, about how it's unbelievable that he has to every month call someone and show them what's wrong and still nothing gets fixed, about how he thinks we are doing it on purpose so he can't take care of whatever else he's supposed to do, about how can we develop such horrible systems that nothing ever works on them. Basically he thinks it's garbage, and he knows I'm the only person responsible for it so the use of "we" is only a euphemism. Now, in a way, I understand some of the things he says, there are several things I see on the software that I probably would have done differently, but that's the issue, I didn't develop it, I didn't design it, I wasn't even an employee before this was up and running. And it's not like I can just say I'm gonna work on that because he keeps complaining, I'm part of other projects, with several deadlines that take all my work time and even more in many cases. However I don't tell him that, I only tell him the truth, every time he calls me I try to explain the same things, that some functionality is actually designed to behave in such a way (it is), that there are things that because of security he cannot do, that the software works as it was intended to and so on. But it serves no purpose, he just keeps yelling at me because "well... but it doesn't do this and it doesn't do that... and also...". My direct boss is aware of him and the so called issues he complains about, then I'm told I probably shouldn't worry too much about it. But still I'm the one that has to keep getting yelled at because of others' past decisions plus the lack of greater understanding of this person. He's even passively aggressively threatened me to talk with the head of my department and complain about how everything "we" do is garbage. Something I'd have no problem with because he also uses those web apps and doesn't experience those issues. I like my line of work, I enjoy it, I strive to make the best out of everything I make. And it angers me that basically he tells me I am everything I try not to be. I have no idea if he does the same to other people, he might as well, but I know for sure he didn't do it to whoever was responsible for this before me. So, if you've read all this through, how could I deal with this? <Q> Being yelled at sucks. <S> It sucks a lot less when you know that the person doing the yelling is in the impotent position of being able to do nothing but yell. <S> He can't complain to the head of the department because the head also uses the web app and doesn't have the problems. <S> Since he can't hurt you, stop caring what he thinks. <S> You also might try to minimize face to face contact - have him log tickets in your bug tracking app instead. <S> He will either log decent tickets that report bugs you can fix, or he'll log incoherent garbage that will eventually cause him problems. <A> Instead of explaining why the site works the way it does, try to validate. <S> Offer no resistance or argument to his complaints. <S> Agree <S> wherever you can. <S> Empathize. <S> "I understand that must be very frustrating." <S> "I would be annoyed too." <S> When he tells you to fix this or that, tell him that it isn't your call. <S> You are the wrong person to talk to if he wants a new system or wants the old one redesigned to meet a different set of requirements. <S> Suggest he talk to someone at a higher level to get the ball rolling on a redesign. <S> Have him log everything as a ticket. <S> Tell him that creating a document trail will help make the case with management. <S> Immediately after you speak to him, email your boss or the head of your department and cc: AngryMan. <S> " <S> AngryMan has told me that he is concerned about X, Y, and Z. <S> How do you want to handle this?" <S> People like this guy seem to get off shouting at people low on the totem pole - which is totally not cool, btw. <S> A supervisor should intervene if he keeps shouting at you or treating you abusively. <A> Don't waste time talking to him - get him to record everything in your companies ticketing system. <S> Sell that idea to him on the basis that his complaint will be recorded and visible at the highest levels in the company. <S> When you have time or resources, work on his tickets. <S> Next month, when he complains, ask him to update his ticket with the new information. <S> .... <S> if there is any. <A> It seems that both of you are in agreement that the software currently in place could do with some changes/upgrades, perhaps that's a good place to find some common ground? <S> You could be proactive in trying to find a solution to his problems. <S> It probably wouldn't take much to get him on board with kickstarting a new project to improve what is there. <S> The outcome of this would likely either be: <S> Your company ends up with better tools for managers to do their job and, hopefully, you get shouted at less. <S> The company decides not to go ahead with changes for budgetary/political/whatever reasons and, hopefully, this manager will have found someone else to direct their anger at because it's no longer you that is "blocking" them.
| He can't complain to your boss, because your boss already knows the score and is on your side.
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How do you deal with a colleague who likes to argue with you? I am an intermediate level professional and I just joined a company and started coworking with a guy who is one level senior to me. He has been very generous in giving me suggestions, trainings and work guidance. However, he is very smart and he almost argues with every single point I make and I never get a kudos on whatever I contribute. Ironically, sometimes, he denied my ideas in the beginning, and then we ended up with using my ideas because he realized later on that what he thought was not right. Maybe he is just that kind of person who is always argumentative, but sometimes I just feel uncomfortable talking to him because I know he will deny whatever I say. How can I keep things smooth with him? <Q> Grab a [insert beverage/meal of your choice] and ask if he <S> /she is free to chat over food. <S> If his/her behavior is affecting the company in a specific way, He actually just say 'no' right after I say something, and he does have that habit of saying 'no...' a lot even to our clients. <S> then this is something that needs to be addressed as it would be unbecoming if there is dissentation in front of clients. <S> As for everything else, keep the dialogue open even if he shuts it down initially, say how you would love to hear his/her counterpoints and see how your ideas can be incorporated with the final product. <A> I'm somewhat similar to your argumentative colleague. <S> I have strong opinions and I love to argue because I believe that through a good argument, both sides can come out with more wisdom than they went into the argument with. <S> Some people are hard for me to work with because they don't respond when I start a discussion, or they just drop a statement without any arguments to back it up. <S> To me, this feels like they're saying <S> "This is the objective truth but <S> I won't bother to explain why" which clashes directly with my need to know why I am wrong if that happens to be the case. <S> This seems applicable to your situation: perhaps if you had provided a deeper explanation of your ideas from the beginning, you could have convinced your colleague and saved the both of you the time it took to work on the 'wrong' solution? <S> One of the most productive coworker relationships I ever had was with a coworker whom I had a very difficult start with, until he realised that I am not just arguing for arguments sake but am inviting him to explain his ideas to me so that I can understand it and we can consider the pro's and con's of the idea together by discussing it. <S> On the other hand, some people are worse than me and will say 'no' to any idea that isn't theirs, just because it didn't come from them. <S> Those people are a lot harder to deal with because they're not actually interested in what you have to say. <S> In this case, you probably want to talk to your manager and explain that you're having difficulties working with this colleague because you feel that they don't value your knowledge and experience. <S> In the end, you'll have to try to figure out which of these two cases applies. <S> I would advocate trying the approach of explaining your ideas further first, since this gives you a strong argument if it turns out to be the second case: you'll be able to say to your manager something like " <S> no matter how well I explain my ideas and back them up with arguments, [coworker] just doesn't seem to listen to me and just shots me down at every turn" . <A> Let him win. <S> It's only an argument if there's a disagreement. <S> Like this: <S> YOU: I've learned that a burning candle uses up oxygen in the surrounding air and produces carbon dioxide. <S> HIM <S> : You're wrong. <S> Burning candles produce phlogiston which fills the air immediately surrounding the candle. <S> YOU: <S> Interesting. <S> I hadn't thought of it that way before. <S> Often with someone like this, they will just argue no matter what, even if you ask them not to argue. <S> They will simply argue with you about how much they argue. <S> and you would like him to not speak like that in the future. <S> If that happens, try to say nothing about the actual disagreement and focus on the insult. <S> He will probably argue about whether it was actually insulting <S> but if you mention the actual point of disagreement he is likely to focus on that and not on your feelings.
| Note that if he ever says something insulting when he disagrees with you, it's appropriate to tell him you feel insulted Although the topic of discussion may vary, offering to eat with the coworker allows you the opportunity to discuss any rough spots in your working relationship. You'll find that other people either already know this person argues all the time or they will quickly figure out that he does, and they will give you the benefit of the doubt.
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How to handle a situation that passing hints which seems like Sexual Harassment? One of my best friend (a girl) works on a small but very high facility company in south Indian country. She started work just before two weeks. There are around 20 employees in that company. 3 women and others are men. She has very tiny breasts and always she worries about them. But the problem is not that... Almost all Coworkers in her company passes hints about her tiny boobs and laugh (other women also laughing ). When laughing they looked at her breast area too sometimes. This happens two, three times per day. She was in really uncomfortable situation , she has cried everyday when I meet her, but because of financial issues she can't resign. The salary of her is above than average (this is a high paying company). Otherwise, they are good Coworkers. They helps her to do office tasks, etc... There is no HR department. Both directors handle the HR also. She can't complain this about to director because of she in new, she is shy as well as she can't directly complain because these are hints... So they can said sorry we did not mean something like that.... How to handle this type of situation? What she can do without losing the job? <Q> People keep making these jokes only if they see the recipient is affected. <S> and they'll stop. <S> If I were in this situation I'd add a short remark in a relaxed tone, something like <S> 'Well, they're big enough to draw your attention', or 'How come you think about my boobs if they're so small?' <S> Just don't give them satisfaction <S> and they'll get tired of trying and being unsuccessful. <S> Another option is saying 'Don't worry, I wasn't interested in you anyway'. <A> It's something that they might get tired of fairly soon. <S> It sounds as though this might be a cultural as well as a sexual issue. <S> It might be an idea to see what other people do in the same situation in the same region as a Westernized response might not work as effectively. <S> Maybe a coping mechanism is needed. <S> For example, wearing a looser fitting top/scarf/pashmina/ <S> whatever that makes the size more ambiguous. <S> Other people in the same region must be addressing the same issues. <A> I really only see two options: <S> Directly tell them to stop. <S> "Could you please stop making those types of jokes?" will suffice. <S> To the point, without being accusatory. <S> If that does not work, then she will have to escalate to the directors. <S> This is basically the only way I see addressing the problem if she wants to stay in this job. <S> I do not recommend keeping quiet and hoping it goes away, or trying to laugh it off. <S> She is upset, only a really good actor could make it seem they are not affected by it, and the pattern has already been established. <S> They will almost certainly see through any act that she tries to put on, and so the act will be ineffective. <S> Perhaps they might get bored on their own eventually. <S> But she shouldn't have to suffer waiting for that to happen. <S> The sooner she says something, the less awkward the conversation will be. <S> It may be useful to convince higher ups to listen to her, or if she seeks legal advice at any point. <S> Look for a different job. <S> If she wants to avoid confrontation, this is pretty much the only way she can try to change her situation. <S> There's also the possibility even if she tries asking them to stop, that nothing will change anyways, and then looking for a different job will be the only option to get away from it. <S> As an addendum, if the directors do nothing if she tells them, depending on the laws on her area, she may have some sort of legal recourse. <S> It might be beneficial to seek a lawyer at that point.
| I also recommend recording details of the incident, and details of any requests she makes to stop. When your friend won't be bothered about her tiny chest anymore, the others won't find it funny
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Incorrectly labeled contracting on my resume Background - I stumbled upon this answer and it's making me very nervous. I've only been in the work force for about 1 year, working through a contracting agency (my paychecks are from them) for a different company. On my resume, I thoughtlessly listed the company I actually worked without mention of the contracting agency. It was an honest (and I think not unreasonable) mistake from someone new to the industry and not intentionally meant to mislead, since my interaction with the contracting agency has been so limited. The references I listed were also all from the company for which I actually performed the work. I just accepted a job offer from a new company - is the contract nature of my employment worth mentioning to the new company at this point? Would this be grounds for them to rescind my offer, and if so, how best should I address this? <Q> I've only been in the work force for about 1 year, working through a contracting agency <S> (my paychecks are from them) for a different company. <S> On my resume, I thoughtlessly listed the company I actually worked without mention of the contracting agency. <S> I just accepted a job offer from a new company - is the contract nature of my employment worth mentioning to the new company at this point? <S> Would this be grounds for them to rescind my offer, and if so, how best should I address this? <S> Based on your question and comments, it appears: <S> Your resume leads readers to believe that you work for the "different company" full time. <S> Some people would consider this the same as lying since you are actually a contractor, working for a contracting company. <S> Background checks and references will be performed. <S> They are certain to uncover the fact that you were not an employee, and were in fact a contractor. <S> Clearly you never mentioned that you were a contractor in your interviews, or you wouldn't be asking this question. <S> You should contact the new company right now, and correct the data. <S> Offer to send an updated (and correct) resume. <S> It's far better to find out the truth from you now, than have them discover it on their own and conclude that you were attempting to mislead them. <S> Since you appear to be in the US, then yes, this could be grounds to rescind their offer (or fire you after you have started). <S> If they like you, it probably won't cause them to change their mind. <S> But you need to find out now. <A> Correct your resume First, it probably goes without saying, but be sure to update your resume so that it accurately reflects your experience. <S> This way you don't find yourself in this predicament in the future. <S> I just accepted a job offer from a new company - is the contract nature of my employment worth mentioning to the new company at this point? <S> Yes, come clean with your mistake , as they will most likely find out about the error with a background check. <S> Better to admit the mistake than to be taken as a liar. <S> Would this be grounds for them to rescind my offer, and if so, how best should I address this? <S> Yes, it would be grounds for them to rescind the offer or potentially let you go later on down the road if they found out. <S> As I stated above, call them now and tell them about your error. <S> Most likely in this case you will be fine. <A> Tell them what you have told us before they find out from other sources. <S> Be prepared to lose the offer though, because everyone is not reasonable. <S> To put you at a little more ease, I will point out the other option you have: don't tell them and pretend that you know nothing. <S> That doesn't get you too far with this offer, because it will be easily caught in the background check. <S> At that point, they may rescind the offer or at best, ask you to explain the discrepancy. <S> If you explain the mistake then , they might carry the perception that you are just cooking up a story because you got caught. <S> It is possible they might even believe your explanation, in which case, it would have been much cleaner to just explain in the first place. <S> Long story short, in any scenario, owning up to your mistake doesn't lead to a worse outcome than pretending that you didn't realize your mistake. <S> So go ahead and clear your conscience. <S> For future reference, always get your resume proofread by an experienced person, or at least a peer. <S> Good luck for the rest of your career!
| You made a honest mistake and you have been in the industry for only a year, so most reasonable people would let it go if you own it up.
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Handling fallout due to new security policies I am an InfoSec professional working as an IT auditor. For several months now, I have working closely with our information security team to strengthen the security controls governing our PCI and SOX compliance efforts. Last week, new security policies went live in the production environment. In response to a comment by @Lilienthal, we are implementing these safeguards to better safeguard the production environment containing card holder data, customer PII data, and non public financially sensitive data from unauthorized access / use by employees without a need to access this information. The new controls came about both due to compliance requirements (i.e: PCI) and also to strengthen our security due to customer security being necessary and the right thing to do. @Brandin, the new policies were communicated through joint emailing between our team and the IT Security team. @JAB, developers either have no access or R- only access to the production servers. However, other teams such as the IT Security and DBA do have frequent needs to access the production environment, which somewhat prompted such a process change. As examples, the following requirement is now in effect: (among others) Access to production servers must be through a jump box proxy. Before these new changes became effective, as long as an employee had logical access to a production server, he / sh could directly access the server from his / her end point machine. Now access to sensitive company and customer data is centrally controlled through a proxy rather than individual end point user computers. This week, our team has been getting complaints from IT and non-IT users that the new security measure are getting in the way of them performing their jobs. It seems that the end users don't really see the purpose of the new policies, although it was explained to them through a joint effort of both our teams. As monitoring security and internal controls compliance is part of my job, I don't to go to my manager unless absolutely necessary as it seems I am unable to do my job. I also do not to alienate coworkers as I will most likely need their cooperation in the future. When faced with resistance from other employees in implementing what is ultimately necessary and beneficial to the company, how can one best explain the situation diplomatically and effectively? <Q> As with any security additions that limit end users, you get backlash. <S> Usually this passes quickly as they get used to it, the more mature (mentally) and professional the group, the less time it takes. <S> You don't have to do anything except politely defend the new security measures whenever needful. <S> But, even if you personally disagree with some of the measures, do NOT let people know that. <S> Just be professional. <A> When faced with resistance from other employees in implementing what is ultimately necessary and beneficial to the company, how can one best explain the situation diplomatically and effectively? <S> Most changes take time. <S> Also, most people are reluctant to change at first for several reasons, mostly due to the fact that they are already used to the current procedures and the new ones result unfamiliar to them. <S> A way to make those people stick to the change process is to make them aware of the benefits it will have after they have learned the new way. <S> In short, they will eventually come to like it with time (that is, if the changes were not a failure), so a bit of patience from your side is also recommended. <S> As a side note, it is important to keep in mind that "what is necessary and beneficial to the company" may not be the case for the final users or employees . <S> This could be one reason why those people are not comfortable with the changes, as usually changes in policies are made with the company's benefit as a whole (income, metrics, standards, regulations, etc.) <S> rather than being beneficial to the employee/user directly (like a UX redesign for example). <A> Security isn't an "on" or "off" thing. <S> Each individual measure you take in the hope of improving security also has a cost, and the value of the improvement in security needs to be weighed against that cost. <S> As an extreme example, turning off your servers and locking them in a vault will make them considerably more secure. <S> Yet, if your customers can't access your servers to buy things from you and you can't access them to sell things, your company won't have any revenue and the overall benefit will be (very) negative. <S> So as a security engineer you need to to consider not just how to make things more secure but do risk analysis and risk management <S> : understand what risks you're taking, why, what bad things could happen and their probabilities, and the cost of those bad things should they happen. <S> You should regularly find yourself saying, "yes, this bad thing could happen with some probability, but it's more cost effective to run that risk than to try to mitigate it further." <S> For your jump host, if you're surprised by the reaction of the people who need to access that server you missed something in your analysis. <S> (You can't do a risk-benefit analysis if you don't know how much implementing a particular measure will make the users' jobs easier or more difficult.) <S> You need to try to find out before you implement a security measure how much harder it will make users' lives. <S> And once you've worked that out, and why it makes things harder, you're also in a better position to implement mitigating measures. <S> Using the example of a jump host, not allowing direct login might mean not only that users have to type an ssh command twice but also that copying files back or forth (say, to pull a backup out of the system) becomes more difficult. <S> You might be able to mitigate this by preparing an entry for their SSH config files that uses ProxyCommand to set things up so they can still use a single SSH command just as they used to do. <S> Showing that you're considering how your changes affect other people's jobs will probably go a long way toward making your changes more acceptable to them. <A> "When faced with resistance from other employees in implementing what is ultimately necessary and beneficial to the company, how can one best explain the situation diplomatically and effectively?" <S> I think this is the wrong approach. <S> Of course you can try and explain again . <S> But that will not help the users. <S> So, what I would like to suggest is: <S> Find out what they are trying to do when security measures get in the way . <S> Find a way for them to be as productive as before. <S> Maybe with the help of other departments. <S> Understanding the necessity for the measure is only one tiny part. <S> That part is what matters to you . <S> But to them it matters how to do their job efficiently without having to bother with those measures. <S> So, I feel this is where you can get them on board.
| People may get frustrated at first because things are different than they were used to (sometimes meaning they have a temporal drop in efficiency while they are learning), so telling them "hey, bear with me, after you handle the new policies this will be even easier than before" may help them take the process with a better attitude.
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I've lost my CV, how do I rebuild it? Due to some unlucky happen-stance, losing boxes during a house move & hard disk crashes, I find myself without a copy of my current CV. I'm 50 and have moved jobs a number of times (including some temping & contact work), been made redundant a couple of times and had short periods of unemployment. I've got a general framework of where I've worked with rough dates, but I need to tie it all down better than that, especially the periods where I wasn't working. Does anybody have any suggestions on how I could try and get more information? I've asked any ex-colleagues that I'm still in contact with, but obviously they don't have precise details of my employment, just their own. Edit: Thanks all for the comments & suggestions, trying to get details through my NI contributions was probably the most useful. I was sorting through my loft at the weekend and I stumbled upon an old CD box that I'd forgotten I'd got which, along with installers for v.old OSs and various other stuff, contained a disk with a backup file of a computer from 2002. After much faffing trying to extract the data out of this file, it did indeed contain various versions of my CV from that period so I'm back up & running. (Apparently I don't have enough reputation to actually close my topic) <Q> In general potential employers are only going to really be interested in the last 10-15 years of relevant experience. <S> So start at "now" and work backwards, as WorkerWithoutACause says approximate month and the year is really all the precision you'll ever need in the timings, it would be very unusual <S> for slight inaccuracies in this to even be noticed much less become an issue <S> and it's perfectly normal to generalize more as you go further back <S> and in fact this is generally considered to be the "right" thing to do in order to keep the CV optimized! <A> For the past twenty years (give or take), you may have email records of when you started and ended certain jobs. <S> If all else fails, you could try looking at your bank records. <S> It could give you an idea of when you were working in various places. <S> It may take some time to go through decades of records, but it will be as accurate as you could ask for. <S> Online applications that ask for exact dates can be frustrating, but for a CV, just the month and year will suffice 99% of the time. <A> For CVs all that is needed is the month and year for start/end dates, e.g. Jan-15 to present, Chief Widget Maker at Widget Co. <A> Depending on your country you can check social security systems. <S> When I log into their website, I see: social security service: list of all insurance times (including start-/end-date and which company). <S> this does not include positions, times of not-reported work like unpaid internships or education pension insurance service: for each month I see which company paid how much into the pension insurance taxes: <S> list of employers per year and <S> how much I was paid for the last 7 (? <S> ) years <S> The information you get from there is not complete and needs some reworking but at least it is a good starting point and help for memory. <S> If you can't access the information directly it might be worth calling the corresponding institution and asking them.
| For people with lot's of experience, you can summarise anything older than 10 years in one catch all statement (which you may want to include the years), e.g. 15 years' widget building experience (2000-2015) Depending on your bank, they may retain records from further back in time.
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How to deal with illness while starting a new job? I am living in The Netherlands and recently left my last job due to a stressful work environment. However right before I left I became very sick and have been sick ever since. I have seen several doctors and they have all told me it is a stress-related condition caused by over-working. To clarify, I have been sick for just over three weeks now. I am due to start my new job on December 1st (just over three weeks from now), however my doctor has told me that I may not be better by then, and I may only be able to return to work in January. It is not certain that I won't be able to return to work by Dec. 1st however it is a possibility. How should I handle informing my new employer about this and what kind of a reaction might I expect? My new employer is also very anxious for me to start work with them. The original plan was that I was going to start working for them already but Dec. 1st at the latest. <Q> How should handle informing my new employer about this and what kind of a reaction might I expect? <S> No job is so good to be more valuable than your personal health and mental sanity. <S> I would first try to speak to your doctor so he can give you a more precise date. <S> If it seems like you will indeed have to start after the specified date (Dec. 1st) then proceed to inform your employer. <S> If you do, make sure you explain your health situation and what the doctor considers is best time for you to start. <S> Your employer can either take it good or bad, but there is nothing you can do to change the way he will take this news. <S> I also advise you to be careful here. <S> You don't want this stress situation to repeat itself in this new job, otherwise you will surely continue having health issues like that until you solve it from its source (which seems to be overworking, as you suggested). <S> This is something you should meditate by yourself, so it does not affect you in your future jobs. <A> I have had colleagues in the Netherlands who changed job while being in therapy for burn out or other serious health conditions. <S> As far as I know, it's not something that will prevent you from getting a job, as long as you are open about it with your employer. <S> You may ask your doctor advices on how to handle it with your employer <S> (he/she will surely have other patients in the same condition). <S> Maybe you can settle to start working part time (0.6 or 0.8 FTE) and then gradually increasing your work load as your health situation improves. <A> Your health is the most important thing by far. <S> I have a permanent, incurable disability caused by stress, so learn from my mistake. <S> From an employment point of view mental health issues are no different to physical ones, e.g. if you broke your leg or got the flu. <S> You have a date when you expect to be recovered that you can give to your new employer. <S> In a way it's actually a good test of the new employer, to see how they handle this issue. <S> If they handle it badly, maybe they are not the best place for you. <S> Hopefully they will be understanding, I think the Netherlands is a pretty progressive place when it comes to mental health issues.
| That being said, you should definitely inform your new employer about this situation. Stress can result in permanent health problems if not treated, so don't try to soldier on if your doctor advises you not to.
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How to deal with exhaustion when I just started a new job I started at my new job about a week ago as a web developer. I simply love the place and the people are super caring and wonderful. I have already been given a project with a set deadline like normal procedures run. However I left my previous company because I was never allowed to take my leave which put me in the state of complete mental exhaustion. I have in fact not taken a single day leave since I started working 5 years ago. I am at the point now where I cannot continue, Its even a struggle simply driving to work, I find myself taking quick burst naps when traffic is at standstill. How do I deal with this without my new employer losing trust in me? <Q> Book some leave. <S> You're in a new company now, so make that change in your life. <S> You're in South Africa, you have a statutory entitlement to PTO , so take it. <S> Book something soon that doesn't infringe too much on your current project and get used to taking your entitled amount of leave. <A> How do I deal with this without my new employer loosing trust in me? <S> Lot's of folks leave work and either keep right on thinking about work or get home and continue working. <S> This is terrible for your health , both mental and physical. <S> Be sure you are not taking your work home with you. <S> I worked really hard at not doing this by using the door <S> I leave work from as a mental switch to not think about work. <S> The other suggestion I would make is the next time you change jobs, adjust the start date and resignation dates <S> such that you have a nice break between leaving your old job and starting a new one. <S> (Yes, this advise is for the future) <A> As someone who has experienced similar symptoms before - this sounds like burnout . <S> When this happened to me, I couldn't touch a computer for half a year. <S> I can't emphasize this enough: <S> this is dangerous and can have a profound effect on both your mental and physical health . <S> Unfortunately it's also pretty common. <S> I warmly recommend meditation* which can help you leave your office issues in the office and has had a positive impact on my wellbeing. <S> I also recommend talking about this openly with your new boss - communicate what you're struggling with (and that you love the new work) and your fears. <S> Here are some things that helped me or other close friends when dealing with these issues: <S> Take some time off, you have the right idea - there is nothing problematic about taking time off as long as you're responsible about it and communicate it clearly. <S> Keep track of your working hours and work life balance actively and make sure work does not consume your life. <S> Get professional help from a therapist. <S> I've been unable to do so unfortunately (though meditation helps) but it might be more accessible to you. <S> Most people I know who work high stress jobs do this and if you can afford it <S> I recommend it. <S> Working out has also been a great help, physical activity really helps clearing my head. <S> Leaning on friends is/was also very helpful. <S> It is important that you do not blame yourself or develop a feeling of guilt around this - this happens to a lot more developers than most are willing to admit. <S> It's only when I started doing open source on big projects that I realized how common it is. <S> As a reference I personally know at least 5 other Node.js core collaborators who struggled with this in the past year. <S> (I use headspace personally but perhaps there are better alternatives - it's just what works for me)
| One of the ways you can reduce stress and anxiety is to learn the trick of leaving work at work.
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Which questions to ask prior to working for an IT service provider? I'm currently applying for a position with an IT service provider. This company offers a permanent position, but its employees work with one of their clients at a given project for the duration of that project, meaning I would receive my salary from the IT service provider while working for their client. Now, after two phone interviews (one with the IT service provider, another with one of their clients) the manager of the IT service provider would like to meet me in-person.I would like to use this opportunity to have all questions answered that should be relevant for me. Here are the questions that I consider relevant when working for an IT service provider: How long will I be working on a client project, on average? After working for a client for a few months or years, is it common to be offered a permanent job by the client? When I skip from one client to another, may I assume that the new client is located near the previous client, or do I have to move? Are there any company events where I get to meet coworkers who work for different clients? General questions about the line of business of their clients. General questions about vacation days, flexitime, wage, etc. However, all of those questions were are already answered either on the extensive FAQ of the company's homepage, or during previous phone interviews. Nevertheless, I'm sure there are important questions that I should be asking, but due to not having any prior work experience (neither for an IT service provider, nor otherwise), I just don't know them. Please note that I'm not looking for general questions that are asked for the sole purpose of faking interest in the interviewer's person ("how did you get started in this line of business") or pretending I'm the perfect employee ("What can I do to increase my value"), such questions are discussed elsewhere in abundance. I want to use this opportunity to gather the information I care about, so I'm eager to hear about the experience of others, especially those who (used to) work for an IT service provider: after having worked a few years for an IT service provider, is there anything that makes you think: I should have discussed this with my employer before taking the position? <Q> "Coffee" generally means a quick, informal, conversational meeting. <S> He wants to see what kind of first impression you will make on a client and to make sure you are friendly and polite. <S> If you have the opportunity to ask him a question, ask him about himself, his company, or his clients. <S> How did you get your started in this business? <S> What is the most important thing someone in this job should know? <S> What advice would you give to someone like me, starting their first job? <S> You might find other question ideas googling 'informational interview.' <A> What questions can I ask the manager of the company who basically just pays my wages? <S> Why are you looking to fill this role? <S> ( new addition or replacement ) <S> How are the company sales tracking this year versus last year? <S> ( on target or stagnant ) <S> What are your plans to continue growing the business? <S> How would you describe your companies culture? <S> What can I do to increase my value to the client company? <S> Is there anything I need to know before I start working there? <S> Who will I be working for and what are they like to work for? <S> What key feature am I expected to excel at? <S> How can I improve on my predecessor's work? <S> Are there any concerns relating to my application for this job that I might need to expand on for the next interview? <A> To add to the other answers, when you say This company offers a permanent position, but its employees work with one of their clients at a given project for the duration of that project, meaning I would receive my salary from the IT service provider while working for their client. <S> I would ask: <S> Where are your clients typically located? <S> Do employees work at the client's site, or in the company office? <S> If at the client site, do I get compensated for additional travel time? <S> How long does a project typically last? <S> Do you move people between clients? <S> Or do you try tokeep them with the same client <S> Basically I would want to know about the stability of the workplace and whether working at a client's site <S> adds inconvenience that you don't know about. <S> EG the company office may be 5 minutes from your home, but it would suck if the client is 2 hours away <S> and you have eat that extra commute time yourself.
| Let him know you are excited about the opportunity and be prepared to tell him about your relevant experience if he asks.
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Is it acceptable to eat nuts in an open-plan office? I work in an open-plan office with at least 150 other people. I only really know the people sat in my immediate vicinity; I work in a team of around 10 people, though I wouldn't say I know any of them well enough to be aware of any allergies. From experience, I've found that illnesses spread like wildfire in this sort of environment (within this office they do, anyway). Quite often, I like to bring small portions of nuts with me to work, to snack on throughout the day. I've seen stories where people have had severe allergic reactions on planes, when people sat around them have opened packets of peanuts - could this occur in open-plan offices? Is there an "office etiquette" when it comes to eating nuts within this sort of environment? I do know quite a few people with food allergies, and I personally wouldn't class them as uncommon. I'd bet my bottom dollar that there are a few people within this office with some sort of food allergy. If somebody were to have a severe allergy, would this sort of information be brought to workers' attention, as to avoid such a reaction taking place? Is it acceptable to eat nuts in an open-plan office? <Q> However, if in doubt, you can open with <S> Does anyone mind if I chew nuts around here? <S> I'm happy to share.... <S> (adjust the level of innuendo as required) <S> However, it's normally fine and most people don't usually even think about things like this and go right ahead with the nuts without asking. <S> If you have any doubts, then ask HR or a first aid representative if there's anyone in the building who has declared themselves as being severely nut allergic. <S> They can't tell you who it is, but can tell you if there's anyone affected. <S> You can then work from there. <A> Is it acceptable to eat nuts in an open-plan office? <S> I would answer this with a question. <S> Is it acceptable to eat at your desk at all , do you see other folks doing this? <S> If not, I would probably refrain from eating at my desk at all. <S> These "open office" plans are open to issues that come from folks that eat loud food or just eat at their desk in general. <S> If its acceptable at your company to eat at your desk for lunch, then I think your cleared. <S> Update : <S> Special consideration should be given to smelly food (fish for example) or burned pop corn. <S> These items are typically frowned upon regardless of office environment. <A> In general terms I would say yes it's acceptable, <S> what I would potentially do though is before you open up the packet/tub/whatever of nuts <S> is ask the people in your immediate vicinity if any of them have a severe allergy if you want to err on the safe side.
| If so, then yes in general it should be fine. Logically speaking, if anyone in your team has an extreme allergy to nuts (or seafood, or anything else that's relatively common), it would be in their best interests to make this known among the people they're in regular contact with.
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Is it rude to look in co-workers peoples outlook calendars? In some organizations, people do not enable security on their Outlook calendars, so when you open someones calendar to schedule a meeting, you can see what else they are doing. From time to time, this might reveal a cool project or sales lead they are working on that I might want to get involved with. I do from time to time read my bosses to try and guess what my deadlines are. However, I feel without really knowing why that looking in a colleagues calendar to simply understand what they are working on is crossing the line and an invasion of privacy. Am I correct, and if so, why? <Q> Am <S> I correct, and if so, why? <S> Either way seems to suggest those calendars don't contain anything that the creator would like to keep private, so I don't think that this is purely crossing the line. <S> If this worries you, I suggest you talk to the owner of the calendar and say "Hey, I saw that your calendar is not secured, don't you mind others looking into it?". <S> This will help them protect their documents or well indicate you that they do not mind you looking there. <A> If you have a valid reason to look then it is not rude. <S> If you are just browsing other people's calendars because you are bored, then it is definitely unprofessional. <S> The calendar is there for business purposes and left visible so that business needs can be taken care of. <S> It is not there for you to be curious, or get nosey. <S> If you have a legitimate need, then opening up a calendar is perfectly acceptable. <S> However what you see in that calendar should be considered confidential. <A> If you're just opening their public calender, then it's not rude. <S> They set these events to be public, which means they're okay with you seeing it. <S> If they didn't want you to see what was going on, they should have marked the event as "private", which is an easy toggle at the top of every event you put in the calender. <S> Besides; checking if they are available is a legitimate requirement. <S> That's why you can see their calender in the first place, and why private events are still visible, just marked as private. <S> So they can't really complain about you using the tool for the very thing it's built for. <S> (If they do, make sure to point out that they can just set things to private, and you'll still need to consult their calender to make appointments) <A> However, I feel without really knowing why that looking in a colleagues calendar to simply understand what they are working on is crossing the line and an invasion of privacy. <S> Am <S> I correct, and if so, why? <S> Assuming that this is a private (rather than public) <S> calendar then yes, you are correct. <S> Unless you explicitly share your calendar with others, the normal expectation is that it is private. <S> And seemingly your company's default security setting lets you look at the calendars of others. <S> Presumably they are not aware that you are able to look. <S> If you aren't sure that you are invading their privacy, just ask permission first. <S> And if you aren't willing to ask, then that's a strong sign that you know they wouldn't approve and that doing so anyway would indeed be an unwelcome invasion of their privacy.
| If people don't enable security on their calendars is because (1) they forgot to do so, or (2) they don't care others seeing their calendar. It is not your place to try to insert yourself into meetings about projects that you have not been invited to, or asked to contribute.
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My boss jokes too often about me not been able to write good code to the point I think it may damage my reputation. Any solution? I don't know if this is "normal" for other people but I've seen a trend with my boss in the last months. I have always been trusted and respected by former bosses and coworkers, so (impostor syndrome excluded) I consider myself an above-average software developer. I'm not really sure if my boss has a different opinion (I have always received positive reviews) but he jokes more and more often with other coworkers, customers and suppliers that our applications may not work because of some bugs I put in or that some new features may be almost impossible due to my lack of skills. I may understand that this kind of jokes once in a while may be completely acceptable but I'm starting to think that when repeated so often they may damage my reputation. I'm not sure if he does this just to get a laugh, to put psychological pressure on me or just to put his hands forward in case a project fails to have someone to blame (or already blamed). I tried to hint to my boss that this bothers me and also to joke back (saying that whether or not things are successful depends also on him doing his job in the proper way) but he seems completely uninterested about me having an issue with this behavior. Since it's very subtle and always done "jokingly" I'm already sure that in a direct confrontation this would be downplayed as me worrying about nothing and a reputation of being difficult. Is there any other route I can take? As an additional detail it may be important to say that he keeps this behavior also with some of my other coworkers (the SW developers), not with me exclusively, but I think that with me he is a bit worse. <Q> Ask. <S> But ask in a way that indicates you are curious if there is an underlying problem. <S> Hey <S> Boss, you often joke about me putting bugs in the code or not making the code usable. <S> I was wondering if there really was a problem with my work, and if so, could we talk about it <S> so I know what to do differently. <S> If he says yes, there is a problem, then listen. <S> Perhaps there really is something you could be doing in a better way. <S> Make sure you aren't defensive, and be open to feedback (although feedback via jokes is pretty useless). <S> If he says no, there isn't really a problem, and he's just joking around, then politely ask him to stop: <S> When you make jokes like that, it makes me look bad to users and management. <S> That is hurting my reputation, which hurts me. <S> Could we find a different way to make jokes that are less harmful? <S> I would really appreciate that. <S> If he agrees, but then goes back to the joking, bring it up as needed: <S> Hey, that's one of those kinds of jokes that we agreed we'd avoid. <S> Right? <S> If he doesn't agree to change his joking, or always forgets anyway, even if he says there is no problem, then the real problem is your boss. <A> This is probably not the best approach, but from time to time I enjoy taking other people's jokes too seriously. <S> Basically when he does this kind of joke you act as if it isn't a joke and an extremely serious concern. <S> Ask what bug specifically he could be referring to and that if you lack skills it could be important to get a formal training or coaching. <S> When he will explain that it was just a joke, take it slightly further and explain that resolving bugs is a serious part of your job. <S> If in the end it becomes too awkward <S> you can joke that you were kidding about taking this too seriously and that its all good. <S> I enjoy doing that because it often makes the other person rather uncomfortable so they won't want to make the joke again. <S> However, some people may react differently which is why I started this answer saying this isn't the best approach. <A> This is clearly bothering you, so approach him and discuss the issue in private. <S> Arrange a one on one, and get right to the point: <S> Hi boss, lately you've been making a bunch of comments regarding my abilities as a programmer. <S> I was wondering if this is because you have concerns regarding my performance, or the quality of my deliverables. <S> His answer will guide the conversation going forward. <S> If he says he was purely joking, however, ask him to stop: <S> I understand that you meant it all as a joke, but could I please kindly ask you to not joke like this around customers? <S> I feel that it's impacting their perception of me negatively. <S> I'm supposed to be the subject matter expect, and them doubting my skills or abilities impact the quality of the support I am able to deliver to them. <S> That little twist at the end makes it about the company, and the customer, rather than your own feelings, and you avoid coming across as "difficult". <S> If your boss is mature, he will take your concerns to heart, and stop. <S> If he isn't (which is probably why he's making these incredibly tasteless jokes to begin with), then you may need to revisit this conversation ... <S> Remember that he can only brush you off if you let him. <S> Now as far as him doing this to the rest of the team is concerned, don't conflate your own situation with theirs unless they elect you as their spokesman. <A> It's obvious <S> your boss is giving you feedback in an inappropriate/undesirable way, but what you haven't talked about is whether or not he is accurate in the assessment of your coding. <S> Ask for some one one one time and review the code he jokes about. <S> Ask what you should do differently or have alternate solutions ready and see if they are acceptable. <S> He may indicate your code is fine and he was truly joking. <S> He may have to acknowledge he doesn't know good or bad code when he sees it. <S> This could result in him stopping the jokes or he may get defensive. <S> Not sure what you can do after that.
| If I were a client, and the boss of a software company made jokes about his developer's bad code, I would suggest he find better coders or better yet, the company needs to find a better manager or one who refrains from bad jokes.
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Asking a subordinate to mentor you? I am a team lead in a tech company, and I'd like to know if it's taboo to ask an engineer on the team to mentor me in leadership. This individual does not report to me of course, but I am in a leadership position on the same team. The engineer was a successful manager for several years, left the corporate world to pursue entrepreneurship, then came to our company as an engineer. He didn't pursue management again because he wanted to be hands-on again. I have quite a bit of respect for this person, and I believe they can help me navigate corporate politics and give advice on handling situations. I can definitely see a potential conflict of interest, but the topics I wish to discuss are mostly interactions with my manager and other teams. <Q> If the engineer isn't interested in managing then that's all the more reason to leverage this persons experience. <S> Having said that there are likely some topics that are out of bounds - coworker salaries and other personal information would be my top two. <S> I've been the engineer and the manager and as the engineer I wouldn't worry about a manager learning from me and as the manager I'm happy to learn from my coworkers, even if it's not technical. <A> It's absolutely a good idea. <S> I recommend being willing to learn from anyone you can... <S> friends, bosses, coworkers, the new intern, anyone who has some lore to drop on you! <S> As long as you're polite and not annoying about asking, approaching this ex-manager type could work out well for you. <S> Maybe you ask him if you can take him out to lunch to "pick his brain" about his management experience. <S> Basically, ask nicely and without pressure. <S> Per other answers, you won't generate a conflict of interest unless you unnecessarily favor the guy. <A> but nothing drastically wrong with it. <S> There are some things to bear in mind though: <S> Keep any discussions in general terms - it wouldn't be appropriate to get into specifics surrounding other individuals <S> Even if the engineer is trustworthy and you don't believe they would give you "advice" that would unduly benefit them this perception could easily form within other members of the team and once such a perception (or one of favoritism etc) forms you'll never get rid of it. <S> As much as possible keep this discreet - not only do you want to avoid the perceptions I mention above <S> but you don't want to give the impression to your reports that you lack confidence or ability to lead. <S> Avoid any situation where you are essentially using this person to make decisions for you - <S> not only will it not actually teach you anything <S> but you'll probably piss them off (they chose to get out of managment remember!) <S> and it's fundamentally unprofessional to basically get someone else to do the job that you are employed to do. <S> Keep this to a minimal level - this person was hired as an engineer not as a leadership coach, if you start disrupting their ability to do their actual job your bosses are unlikely to be pleased. <S> Picking their brains a couple of times a month is one thing - asking for discussions about this every other day would be an entirely different story. <S> As much as is possible you want to make sure they really are okay with doing it - there can be a natural sense of unspoken pressure to agree to requests from those higher up the ladder so try and make it clear that it's OK if they don't want to help you and that there will be no negative consequences if they decline the request.
| It would be wildly inappropriate if you managed this person but as you don't I'd say it's fine (assuming the manager-turned-engineer is happy with it of course), not ideal Avoid discussing any topics or situtations where there is a conflict of interest. I see no reason to not leverage a resource that you have access to.
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My identity and Google search results where my namesake is a criminal I happen to have the same name as someone who was convicted of a particularly terrible crime . So when I google my name results about that other person are at the top of the results page. By a fluke they also happen to live only a few towns over. They're three years younger than I am. But still this has made me quite worried about being confused for this person when I apply to roles, which I am currently doing. This other person has done something I find totally abhorrent and potentially detrimental to my prospects if someone were to mistake me for them even just by name. My online presence isn't that great either, I'm a few pages deep in google results for things I link to in my CV. How likely is it that this will hurt my chances when applying for a job? Any advice would be welcome. <Q> How likely is it that this will hurt my chances when applying for a job? <S> The best thing you could do IMHO is have a LinkedIn profile that has your picture included as part of your CV\Resume . <S> This way when looking at your credentials they can see your not the criminal. <S> Alternatively, if you don't want to create a LinkedIn account, you could just include a recent photo embedded in the resume\cv itself . <S> I'll admit this is not common, but it should not hurt you, and will help you against the Google effect. <A> It is unlikely to matter. <S> First, unless you have a terribly unique name, it is pretty common for two people to have the same name. <S> I have a pretty good Google presence <S> but there are at least two other people named Justin Cave that come up on the first page of Google results. <S> People generally aren't going to assume that the criminal A Watkin is the same as you. <S> Second, since this person was convicted of a serious felony, they're presumably going to be spending some time in jail and that conviction is going to show up on a background check. <S> And when your background check comes up clean, they'll be assured that you're someone else. <S> You can certainly work to improve your online presence and you can include relevant links on your resume/ LinkedIn to your online resources. <S> The first page of Google results will almost certainly still include the information about the criminal, though, so you likely want to help people avoid the need to Google your name in the first place. <S> Most employers won't bother searching on your name if you provide them links to follow. <S> It appears that you are a developer so including a link to your LinkedIn profile, a GitHub account with some code samples, a StackOverflow account where you've answered some questions, or a blog that has some technical content would all be appropriate. <S> If you make it easy for a potential employer to get the information they're after, they're much less likely to bother going to a search engine in the first place. <A> As someone suggested to use a complete Linkedin profile, but I have another approach for you. <S> Make your online presence bigger <S> Make multiple accounts with your real name on many websites, Quora, Reddit etc. <S> maybe on technical forums and whereever possible and use real images of yourself. <S> Obviously, dont post any strange things using these accounts. <S> You wont need to regularly update them, just have them existing to somehow 'seed' the google search to have your name, associated with these accounts and this image of a person. <S> Walla, you are now on the first page of the result with multiple images online segregating yourself from anyone else. <S> Be sure to have a short bio on any of the accounts you make and make <S> at least 10-20 just be sure. <S> Sure, it'll take an hour or two but will most likely solve your problem. <S> Downside is that you would need to make these profiles public, but at least companies find you easier and know who you are (and how you're not a con).
| Unless you happen to have been unemployed during the window that this person was in jail, potential employers are going to figure out pretty quickly that you are two different people.
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2 day coding project before interview - overkill? I applied for an entry level software engineer position, and before even getting an interview with a company, they asked me to complete what I'd consider to be a rather significant coding project. I am given two days to build an application stack using SQL database, node.js, REST APIs, front end UI with react.js. I'm certain it's doable in time frame, but to me it seems like this is overkill. No other interviews I've had included a coding challenge of this size. Is this a common practice before even talking with someone at the company? <Q> Whether they call it "a test" or whether it's getting you to do some production work, I think what's being missed is (given the amount of time involved here), They don't think your time is worth anything. <S> It's one thing to do a test, but to do something that takes 2 days deserves compensation. <S> Period. <S> Think about it this way: <S> If this is how much they value your time now, what makes you think they'll value you later? <S> We train people as to how we are willing to be treated, with every action we take and every reaction. <S> How is doing a 2 day project for free telling them you're willing to be treated? <A> This isn't a two day task - you've been given two days to complete the task - <S> that's a big difference in the size of this exercise.... <S> If it just seems as though you're doing work for them for free, then I'd think twice. <S> This really depends on who the job is for and the role you're going for. <A> They might be trying to get you to do some work for free, without having any intention of calling you in for an interview. <S> Or they may have so many talented applicants that they only want the very best. <S> I'd be a little bit cautious in this instance because of the minimal contact that you've had with them. <S> I would typically expect this to be a "step 2" kind of thing, after an interview. <S> But ask yourself how the market for developers is in your area (is it a software hub where lots of devs come for work?). <S> Generally speaking I would consider a coding test for an entry level position overkill. <S> You're new at the whole development thing, and by definition have lots to learn. <S> So what do they expect to see in the code of a novice whom they should have the expectation of having to train? <S> You will now have to decide whether this is worth your time . <S> This is something that many people don't seem to remember when looking for a job - you don't have to put in all that time and effort! <S> It's entirely your choice whether you want to sacrifice those 2 days for a shot at an interview. <S> After all, no one is paying you for that effort! <S> This could very well be interpreted as a lack of respect for your time. <S> If you're getting other interviews, you may wish to tell them "thanks but no thanks" , and focus on other opportunities. <S> Or you could contact them and request more information about the company and their policies before you engage in this exercise (I'd do this at a minimum). <S> After all, if they're not willing to put some time in for you, why would you put two days in for them? <S> If, however, this looks like it might be the job of your dreams, do your best on that test. <S> The more I think about it, the more I think that this sort of request for a junior position is a total scam. <S> Full stack app, and two days of work for an entry level position? <S> Unless this is Google or Amazon, or it pays insanely well <S> , it's not worth it IMO. <A> Let's not talk about 2 days , because nobody really will work 48 hours straight on it. <S> Let's assume you're unemployed, you got time, and you sink 4 hours per day into it. <S> 8 hours of work. <S> Did they give you any specifications? <S> If not, a smart programmer will be spending that 8 hours hammering out the specs. <S> Not a single line of code will be written after 2 days. <S> If they push back and say "Well, I wanted to test your coding skills. <S> " <S> You then reply " <S> Planning IS a coding skill. <S> A very important one at that!" <S> Let's also try on the interviewer's perspective. <S> You just got dumped a bunch of people's code they wrote over 2 days. <S> Let's assume it is a light day. <S> You get 20 applicants. <S> What the hell? <S> How are you going to review this kind of code? <S> Run it and see if it works? <S> My god, it has a DB! <S> It's a full stack application! <S> It's not compiled! <S> What if it opens a freaking backdoor to your corporate network? <S> WTF? <S> How are you gonna test it? <S> You don't. <S> You just randomly pick a handful of guys and interview them. <S> Extremely unrealistic scenario. <S> If this is pre-interview, they'll be getting massive amount of code. <S> It's probably analyzed based on some sort of stats like LOC or something equally useless. <S> I would go for plan A and hope it is a trick question. <S> If not, then spend some time doing it <S> and, if you get interviewed, ask them how much of your code did they read. <S> Ask them how they secured the testing environment and not have viruses infect their network.
| If it genuinely appears to demonstrate your full-stack abilities and it's a good job opportunity, then I'd go for it.
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Interview for Technical Support Position - how to answer a question about prioritizing/triaging multiple requests I had applied in one company and the interviewer asked me this question: How would you deal if multiple issues came suddenly at a time while your co-worker was on a break or not available? I was unsure as to what the best response would be to a question like this. Is there a best practice way to answer these sorts of questions at interview? <Q> Prioritize Prioritise based on the severity of the problem. <S> You'll want to address any concern affecting company revenue first and then work down from there. <S> In order (basically): <S> Revenue generating system broken (people can't fulfil their jobs) <S> Something else broken (many people can't access a system) <S> Department wide issue User specific problem <S> Support tickets are normally tagged with a priority/severity grade, so follow those. <S> In cases of ambiguity, you'd ask a manager what the priorities should be and follow that advice. <A> They are expecting you to show that you can apply some independent thinking skills in how you prioritize dealing with multiple tasks and that you can take into account business needs. <S> At least that's what <S> I expect when I ask similar questions to Tech Support candidates! <S> Something like this would be a great answer for me: <S> If there were multiple issues coming in at the same time I would first try and see if there was any obvious commonality to the issues to see whether there was a single problem affecting multiple people who are then reporting it individually. <S> This shows that you can prioritize and that you can understand that people need communicating to when there is going to be a delay in dealing with their issue. <A> If you're going to be doing tech support, it's probably something you should think about. <S> As far as what is the answer, I would say one that shows some thought, uses some logic and is organized. <S> Hopefully, during the interview process, you've learned what is expected, so that may give some insight. <S> What are the nature of problems? <S> Are most of them solved quickly? <S> Is there a procedure for escalating problems? <S> Ask what your boss will prefer: solving a lot of little problems to make the reports look good or are you encouraged to take on difficult problems and use the time necessary to come up with an effective solution. <S> Often, support jobs require you to play a "game" <S> so you better know how they're keeping score.
| If that's not obviously the case then I'd prioritise the issues that were having the biggest business impact and work down the list, letting those with lower priority issues know that I was currently on my own and that I will get to their issue as soon as I can.
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How do I deal with a bad reference from a previous employer? I was on a job for 10 years, and I was injured and went on FMLA. I was not released by my doctor to return to work, yet the company told me if I didn't return to work they would mark me as "Job Abandonment", which they did. Since that was my last job I had no choice to list them, but I have since found out that they are defaming me as a ex-employee as I am currently looking for work. What can I do, as I need a job ASAP. I even spoke with them, and they give me high praise. But when a potential employer called for a reference, it's a different scenario. How can I address this issue in my Job Search <Q> What can I do? <S> If it is as you say , they are talking false ( they are lying ) then take the recording to a lawyer and sue them. <S> Its worth noting that most attorneys offer a free consultation in cases like these so you can see if you have a decent case against your previous company. <S> (Check your state laws on recording conversations, <S> it is legal in my state , but laws in this area do vary state by state. <S> An attorney in those states where its illegal can be creative in accomplishing the same goal <S> *) <S> Also, is there anyone in the company you still have a relationship with that might possibly give you a good reference? <S> If so, ask them if you can use them as a reference, and would be willing to be contacted directly. <A> This is a tough situation - and you can't really control what they are going to do, if they want to be difficult about it when someone calls them then they are going to do so one way or another. <S> Any legal action for defamation or whatever is a) not going to make them give you a good reference (they can always just refuse to give one) and b) is going to take a while and your need for a job is probably more immediate than that. <S> What might be a better strategy would be to get in touch with people that you worked with there with whom you are still on good terms and ask them if they would mind being a reference for you. <S> If someone (let's call them Joe) agrees to do this then when you are next engaging with a potential employer you can explain the situation that you've had problems with this employer during previous reference checks but that if they would like to contact Joe directly he would be able to provide a reference for you. <S> If you can't get a person such as "Joe" (and I'd be surprised if there wasn't someone who would speak well of you - even if it was a peer rather than a superior) then all you can do is be up front with the potential employer <S> Just to let you know my last employer <S> and I didn't part on good terms after they disputed my FMLA <S> and I've been made aware that they are giving me bad references when potential employers call. <S> It's not great but <S> the fact that you are being up front about it will help and may incline them towards taking your side of the story into account. <S> If nothing else getting your version of events across first will help as they will be bearing that in mind when they talk to the previous employer rather than automatically taking it at face value. <A> If you were injured at work, in the US(Assuming that since you mentioned FMLA), then you should have gone through the Workmans Compensation Process . <S> This would, an possibly still can (depending on how long its been) give you some protections and give you some compensation. <S> So Contact an attorney (they will do this on contingency ) so get a good one. <S> If you were injured during your personal life, your employer only needs to provide you with 12 weeks of leave per year . <S> After that 12 weeks it can require you to return to work, regardless of your medical condition. <S> You should contact your employer and see what you can do about clearing up any problems they have with you. <S> This may help with the reference or <S> at least give you something you can explain to potential employers. <A> Please note many states require an employer to file an injury report where an injury takes place on the job. <S> Securing a copy of this report would be good for you, a prospective attorney, and a prospective employer - - - so as to validate your side of the story. <S> Also, an attorney may be willing to make the call to discover what is going on. <S> Keep your head up! <A> It sounds like the employers you are interviewing with are contacting your former employer's HR department. <S> They will only confirm that you worked there, for the dates you claim, your job title/description, and recite legalese information such as "Job Abandonment". <S> I would see if you can get a personal reference, preferably from a former supervisor, to speak about your conduct and abilities on the job. <S> If you don't want to share someone's personal office number or email, see if they can write up a letter or summary for you, for you to send out. <S> Once you have an offer, contingent on background checks, you can share the contact information at that time.
| Have a friend of yours call your previous company, and ask for a reference, and record the companies response.
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I've been given a warning at work for disciplinary actions I was told that the reason for the warning was that on a certain production day, a product error was committed. I am the lead supervisor and the personnel involved told me what happened and how they planned on correcting the problem. They offered to redo the product to make it better, however, overtime would be needed. During the conversation the employees offered to work the overtime without payment. I discussed this issue with Administration and Owner and all agreed that it was ok. Two days later I got called from Human Resources telling me that I had made a mistake by letting the personnel work overtime without pay and that I would get a written warning for it because some employees called in saying that it was not fair to not get that overtime pay. I agreed on certain aspects of the warning, however I also don't think its fair that I received this warning, as I notified Administration and business owner of the situation when it happened and they failed to say that it is incorrect and should not be done. Human resources is blaming me, the supervisor, for that day when I think that I, along with administration, and owner should get it because we all failed to stop production or to say that employees would get paid for their worked overtime. Administration is now saying that I obligated the employees to stay without pay, when I clearly told administration and owner that the employees themselves offered to work to fix that day's production. Am I the only one who deserves a written warning? I am confused as to why I'm receiving the blame when I informed administration and owner and no one stopped this from happening. Who is right and what can I do? <Q> Who is right <S> and what can I do? <S> Take the warning and keep your head down and learn from it, but do NOT admit culpability in writing. <S> In future make sure you're not in the firing line and always get a paper trail to support anything unusual. <A> The problem here is that you are the one who allowed it and apparently organized the effort. <S> What you did would have violated the law had the company not chosen to pay the workers(based on the context of having to pay overtime). <S> I have seen people terminated for that on a first offense. <S> If you were directed to do this by management then yes it is probably the right action. <S> You still have an obligation to the company to not enable or assist other managers and supervisors from breaking the law, and violating your worker's rights. <S> It is also possible that others are receiving the warning or some other disciplinary action that you are just not aware of. <S> That is quite common for disciplinary actions taken against others, that not your reports, be done privately and not announced to the rest of management or staff. <A> Since you are the first line supervisors of these people who worked overtime without pay, unfortunately buck stops at you, unless you have a written document or an email that shows, people higher up than you, agreeing to what was going to happen. <S> If the blame can not be shifted legally to someone higher than you are, take the written warning as a punch in the gut and recover from it by keeping quiet and following every inch of law to the last dot for the foreseeable future. <S> As an addition, do not sign any document as it is written and put in front of you. <S> If you are asked to sign it, put your account of events in writing on the paper and then sign it. <S> So that someone will see what actually happened later in time. <S> If your higher ups are not taking the blame but when everything goes okay, they take the prizes, they most probably will engage in this activity again, probably with a different peon than you and your writing will help the next case and may be clear your name as well. <S> If they do not agree that you putting your account of events, refuse to sign the paper. <S> Do not believe if someone says nothing will happen out of this. <S> It is just a formality and will blow over in 6 months or so, <S> DO NOT BELIEVE <S> A SINGLE WORD OF THESE. <S> In the future <S> , near future that is, if they want to get rid of you for any reason, they may find a minor flaw in your work, which normally gets overlooked as way of doing business and bringing this up as a second strike and can let you go with cause, which will open a whole new can of worms for you.
| You are in the wrong, you should not have taken that responsibility on yourself, but made sure you got it signed off in writing by someone above you.
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Senior developer doesn't trust my work I'm a junior developer working in a small team of about 10-12 core developer and some technical people. I've been working with this team for about three years. We're all pretty close and spend a lot of time together outside of work as well. However, one of the senior developers (whom I'll call "X") doesn't seem to trust my work. I find this rather odd because I think I produce decent work and we also have a very robust version control and review process. "X" is often really confrontational when reviewing my code, and seems to get angry if it's not immediately obvious what the code does. I do my best to write clean code and comments. "X" also avoids using any helper scripts if I've written them, even if they save time (e.g., setup a test environment that's time-consuming and typing-intensive). All the other developers use my scripts and seem to like it. "X" doesn't seem to trust my code, even after it's been tested and released to production. "X" also never believes me (initially) when I find bugs. Oddly, "X" is actually a really nice person."X" is always the first to offer to help and explain things and is patient. I genuinely like "X" as a person, and we have a good time together, whether at work or after. I don't think I've ever given "X" a reason to doubt my work. After almost three years, I'm not sure how to gain "X"'s trust. I just want "X" to see me as a contributing member of the team, and also take me seriously when I find/fix bugs. How can I discuss this with X? Should I? Some potentially important factors: I'm the youngest developer in the team. I joined the company straight out of university. The next youngest person on the team is two years older than me. "X" is about 10 years older than me. I didn't have any prior experience with the languages they use (except C/C++). However, after three years I feel very comfortable with them. <Q> Don't take criticism personally or get emotional. <S> " <S> X, I see a code review comment that this code is unclear. <S> Could you suggest how it could be improved?" <S> "X, was there a reason why helper script couldn't be used here?" <S> (and/or) <S> "X, how can we enhance helper script so that it can be used in this scenario?" <S> Don't make it an issue of "your" criticism of "my" code, or "your" non-use of "my" script. <S> Don't bring up how "others" don't have a problem with "my" code or "my" script. <S> That only creates problems and doesn't help improve anything. <S> Your goal should be to understand and address his concerns. <S> This would lead to one of the following scenarios: <S> You learn something from him in the process, and get to improve your coding/scripting skills and/or understanding of software design/business. <S> You politely and respectfully convince him how the existing code/script already addresses his issue. <S> You both have strong and conflicting opinions about the topic, and you agree to disagree and move on. <S> Given that he is the senior developer, you would most likely have to do things as he says even if you respectfully (and perhaps, rightly!) disagree with him. <A> It's called 'Playing the devils advocate' and is a legitimate strategy to help in troubleshooting and resolution. <S> It's not a matter of trust <S> , they're not getting paid to trust anyone, they believe quite the opposite. <S> I use this strategy quite a bit because it keeps people on their toes producing good quality work. <S> In the same manner that I will doublecheck a senior engineers work 'just to make sure' even though I know they're competent. <A> Consider these options: <S> On what people say above: ask if your colleagues feel the same. <S> Maybe it's a defense or opposite a way of him to teaching you or both. <S> What if you are the smartest and mo promising developer on the team? <S> He might feel both threatened and (proud/wanting to train you) at the same time. <S> the way how he subconsciously responds to you is totally logical. <S> Anyway best advice is to talk about it openly. <S> Ask for a performance meeting (about you) and drop these questions you have.
| In probability the chap does not have any personal issue with your work at all. Focus on solving the problem instead of confrontation.
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How to negotiate salary twice in a single year? Is this kosher? Near the beginning of the year I put out my resume on Monster, Indeed and other job sites to get an idea of my market value. Its very easy for software engineers to be working at a discount if they are out of college and have been with the same company for many years. In my case, I was hired in at 60k. I built my way up to 82k with 2-3% raises in about 5.5 years. From discussing with recruiters and doing a bunch of market research I concluded that the value I should be working for at the low end is 90k. Earlier this year I got a very nice letter from my program's customer's president giving appreciation to me and my impact on the customer's product. He CC'd many of the head executives at my company for our division (my company is not small ~20k employees). Despite being touched, I knew I was working at a discount and saved the e-mail and all my research to go in to ask for a raise. When I did, I made my case: I am hunting my low end salary should be at least 90k e-mails from the customer's president my impact on my team Within about a week I got the low end market value I mentioned earlier with a contingency I stop looking. Truthfully, I still felt that was too low and was hoping the engineering manager would have fought for something higher, but I didn't want to sound ungrateful on the phone and thanked him for the raise. That was the end of that. This was in March of 2017. In any case, since then I had been happy but now my company wants to pass the program on to the customer and no longer wants anything to do with it. (Politics with the customer and company executives). I started to look elsewhere again (within the company and outside). Externally, I am expecting a job offer at around 105k per year minimum as that was what I said was the lowest I would work for that company. Currently with annual review, I am now at 92k per year. It is November 2017 and companies are calling me left and right. I still want to join other programs within my company and I am not ready to leave but being paid a salary that I feel is below my market value leaves a bad taste. Would it be wrong of me to ask for a matching salary, with an offer letter from company#2, to the same engineering manager who asked that I no longer hunt for jobs? He will probably feel somewhat betrayed when and if I show him an offer letter. In some ways this feels wrong and in-genuine to ask again with an offer letter, in other ways it doesn't feel right to work for less when another company is wiling to pay me more. How do I go about these treacherous waters? Is it kosher to negotiate twice 8 months apart like that? <Q> I think you are setting yourself up to be fired. <S> First, and most importantly, you have broken the contingency on which your higher salary rests. <S> Your manager laid out the conditions for your increased salary and you violated them in less than a year. <S> By bringing up the other job offer in any capacity, you will be showing your manager that he cannot trust you. <S> You would be sending a message that you are not committed to the company at best, and that you are manipulating them for higher salaries, at worst. <S> I would not bother with an employee who threatens to leave twice in one year. <S> I'd either let them leave or shove them out the door myself. <S> So the short answer is <S> you don't negotiate for a higher salary twice in one year. <S> You did a good job of it the first time around, but that is the kind of move you only get to pull a handful of times in your career. <S> If you want a higher salary, then you're probably going to have to leave your job to get it. <S> I don't know how you are going to do that without burning bridges with your current manager/employer, for the reasons outlined above. <A> I imagine that your manager probably will feel betrayed, and I can't say I'd blame him. <S> You were underpaid, negotiated a raise (which you claimed to be happy with) <S> then decided that you weren't in fact happy with it and now you want another bite at the cherry. <S> Obviously you are perfectly entitled to look for other jobs and to take one if you prefer the offer, and that's regardless of any informal agreements not to be job searching but trying to leverage an offer into another raise in less than 9 months because you messed up the negotiations last time is going to come off as massively unprofessional at best and downright unscrupulous at worst. <S> There's nothing wrong with doing that <S> and if your manager is a reasonable person then they will probably wish you all the best. <S> If you want to soften the blow you can tell a bit of white lie and say that you weren't planning on leaving but that the opportunity was too good to pass up. <A> Simply take your manager‘s perspective to answer your question. <S> He or she will get the impression that your main interest is money, not the company <S> you are never satisfied, at least not longer than a few months <S> you will continue to look for other jobs in any case <S> As a result, you will appear as a non-loyal and unsatisfied employee which is the type of employee one cannot rely on. <S> I recommend to think about what you want. <S> You did not mention if your current job is satisfactory or if you think another job might give you a better perspective, but I believe this should be the key question. <S> If you always only look at the money, you end up as a job hopper. <S> So the answer is, no, you cannot ask again without loosing confidence. <S> Either be content or leave. <A> You will probably have to leave if you want more money. <S> Your company clearly is not monitoring market rates and offering them to you, and especially since you promised to stop looking is unlikely to be impressed if you come to them with evidence of breaking that agreement. <S> Best to move on now and don't repeat this mistake at your new company. <S> I'd suggest telling them up front as a condition of you accepting the offer that you expect your salary to increase in line with the market, which will likely be well above the 2-3% they might normally offer. <S> The only other option is to keep moving every few years, if employers are unwilling to pay enough to retain staff.
| Second, I wouldn't expect that you could negotiate a higher salary twice in five years, let alone one. If the jump in salary with the new offer is sufficient to make the difference then take it .
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When applying to software development positions, under what conditions is it OK for the company to not be using source control? I've had 3 years of prior development experience with two different companies. One used SVN. One used VSS (Visual Source Safe. Not the greatest... but it's something.) In my last web development role, during the interview process, I asked about the version control they're using and they said "We tried SVN, and we tried GIT, but right now we're just passing zip files around". I thought that was a bit weird, but I took the job anyways. I... was not impressed. I'm now job seeking again, and I encountered another company that is currently not using any version control. Under what condition is this an acceptable answer? How should I proceed with the company if I am still interested? <Q> I don't think I agree with the other "it depends" kind of answers. <S> The fact that they are not using a known solution would not be a problem in my point of view, but they are stating they are not using any kind of version control, let it be internal or external. <S> It probably means you will pass hours and hours solving client bugs, trying to manually merge <S> already corrected bugs in god knows how many files from release bundles. <S> Have you asked about release versioning, by the way? <S> I would not consider the position challenging, because if they are still a company, I don't see how building complex and reliable software is possible by having a human doing the log database, merging modifications in multiple files, manually tagging releases. <S> Bottom line is: issues with client support, bad software reliability, not a challenging position. <A> Well... <S> It's all about the value judgements. <S> There must be some factor which attracted you to this job in the first place: <S> maybe it's close to your home; maybe you like their product; maybe you "click" well with the team. <S> You must weigh these good factors with this screamingly negative factor of no source control . <S> Personally, I'd treat lack of source control as a gigantic red flag which likely betokens a lot of other process problems which you won't enjoy. <S> I'd likely not join them at all unless I'm hired with the mandate of helping to rationalize this situation. <S> Your mileage, of course, may differ. <S> As above, take this datum as just one of the factors which weigh into the overall decision you have to make about the company. <S> Good luck! <A> There are no conditions for a company to not be using source control except one. <S> That's when they are trying to hire someone to implement source control. <S> So if you're interviewing for the position to implement source control, ok, go for it. <S> If not, you can do better. <A> The first thing you should do after hearing this, is to inquire further, and find out why on earth <S> not. <S> In the end, not using source control is simply one point of data about the company. <S> It doesn't absolutely establish anything. <S> It does give you a pretty strong prior that the developers at that company are not very experienced, or not very disciplined, or that there is something very idiosyncratic about their development process, any one of which is strong grounds for concern. <S> Depending on the situation, it could be a flashing red light, or there could be other factors that outweigh it. <S> For example they could have an absolutely genius business plan, but you are the first experienced developer they've hired. <A> In those cases I would (as a prospective employee) expect the company to have a manual software release versioning process so as to control the versions of their software. <S> There is a big difference between no version control and not using a solution like svn or git. <S> For example, in the software development space of the insurance industry the largest financial modelling software packages require coding for them to model the business of a given entity, but do not lend themselves at all to an SVN like system. <S> Audit requirements, however, generally mandate the implementation of a more manual version control system for these models.
| Not using any kind of version control is a huge red flag . There are some industry specific software development environments which preclude the use of a programmatic version control system (like git or svn).
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How to prevent envy of coworkers about company car Introduction:I'm the youngest employe in my company (of 8 persons) and only employed 1 year. But you could say I'm at least the most important employee for my company future (according to my boss). I'm a carrier of know-how, threaded some representative research deals with a known university and with our federal state. Our company is very familiar: you could consider us as a group of friends, even our boss. Because of this my boss offered me a pricey company car (70k€), which happens to be my (realistic) dream car. Here in Germany we have to pay taxes for company cars and for every KM we have to drive to our workplace; I'm able to pay them because I don't live far away of my workplace. So I would love to take it since it may be the first and the last option to get a car like this. However I'm afraid of envy around my coworkers who also received company cars, but for around half of that what my car is listed as. The two coworkers in question selected their car by themselves. They could have got a pricy car like me, but couldn't afford it because of the high taxes they would have to pay because they live relatively far away. The question that come up in my head is how to address my coworkers in a way they will most likely understand and how to prevent envy.I've already talked with one coworker in a hypothetical way how he would react and he told me he's fine, but somehow I do not believe him. I'm certain that at least one will develop envy, since a car is a very emotional subject (at least here). Is there any advice on how to address them to prevent envy, and if not possible, how to deal with it? A little more background to the company-car policity in germany: A company-car is owned, insured, fueled and maintained by the company. If a employee is allowed to use the company-car for private tours, the employee has to pay tax on 1% of the listed price per month and has to pay taxes on 0.03% of the listed price per kilometer per month, as like these % are payed out in salary. A employee is allowed to buy the company-car after 3 years (like in leasing). E.g. my car is listed as 70.000€. I have to pay salary taxes (~45%) on 1% of the listed price per month. If I live 10km away from my workplace, I have to pay 10*0.03%=0.3% more per month.In this situation, I have to pay a salary tax on 1.3% of the listed price. So 1.3% are 910€, now I have to pay a tax on that 910€ as like my boss would pay an additional 910€ per month. Therefore the car costs me around 400€ per month in real cash. A colleague that lives 40km away would have to pay ~700€ per month. <Q> you are not responsible for your colleagues feelings <S> (as long as you behave professionally) <S> It is not your fault if your colleague can not afford the same car as you, so I would not worry about that. <S> What you must do however, is make sure you do not make him more Jealous than he could be (note the conditional, you do not know how he feels), so avoid things like talking about your cool weekend roadtrip in your sweet new car, do not "rub it in their face". <S> Be graceful. <S> In my opinion, it would be a bad move to choose a cheaper car, I would not let someone's (rather childish) <S> feeling interfere with your aspirations (As long as there is no real prejudice). <A> The question that come up in my head is how to address my coworkers in a way they will most likely understand and how to prevent envy. <S> You say everyone here is friendly, and that you have to pay tax for every km you drive to your work. <S> Assuming that the latter is well known, there should be no qualms at all. <S> If anyone does start to question it, you can just say something akin to " <S> I know, I'm really lucky I live close enough that I don't end up paying much in tax." <A> The two coworkers in question selected their car by themselves <S> Supposing <S> all the company staff is made by rational adults, I see no problem here. <S> I assume they did their fair share of calculation and opted for a car which would not bleed them out with taxes (maybe they don't live as close as you) and can still fit their needs. <S> As you stated, company car can be selected and it is not a measure of the employee importance. <S> Why should they complain about their own selection?
| If this colleague feels envy though, and believes that they deserve a better car, the issue is between them and the boss, not you.
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No names or contact information in job ad, why? I recently saw a job ad for a junior technical (data science) position in a very large reputable company.The ad had no application deadline and provided absolutely no contact details for anyone (like a recruiter or hiring manager) and didn't mention any names, only the name of the department. Contact details for that department are not available from their website or anywhere else, it seems. What would be the reason for this? Not wanting to be disturbed by applicants? Could it be a sign this isn't a real job ad? No deadline or contact details seems a bit strange to me. <Q> They expect you to use either their corporate system to apply for the job, or the system provided by the job board to apply. <S> Many companies don't want applicants to contact the hiring manager, recruiter or HR POC directly. <S> They don't want to be disturbed. <S> The lack of deadline may mean that they are hiring these positions frequently. <S> They may need one or two a month <S> and they just look through the recent applications whenever they have a project or contract that needs that position. <S> That would also explain the lack of contact info because they have no idea which projecy will be sifting through the resumes the next time they need a junior technical (data science) person. <A> The lack of a deadline isn't something that I'd worry about - it's not uncommon to have a fairly open-ended situation. <S> Lack of contact details may or may not be an issue - as you touch upon in your post it may be to prevent them being spammed by applicants <S> , I assume that there was a way of applying through the site that listed the ad? <S> In that case I'd take it that they are wanting to funnel the applications through that process. <S> Out-of-band applications and details are a pain for hiring managers to deal with and tend to be more annoying than useful. <A> You don't specify the location, but one possible, slightly dodgy, reason for doing this in some countries would be that they want to hire a foreigner who requires a visa, and have to advertise the job first in order to show that they can't find a suitable national (or EU citizen, in the case of EU countries). <S> In that case, lack of applicants would actually be desirable. <A> Another simple reason that contact details are conspiciously missing is that a specific, important employee is about to be replaced and this person has currently no clue of the impending doom. <S> This would work in your case <S> if the department is big enough, so mentioning it in the ad does not raise the alarm (if the employee searches for a new job). <A> Yes, this is a legitimate thing that businesses do. <S> This is common for business that use ZipRecruiter/similar service. <S> I know this from personal experience. <S> I found a similar advertisement and did some research. <S> In my case I found the contact information for the job by searching the description of the job and the location in google maps. <S> I completely bypassed the hiring service. <S> When I called the business with the contact info obtained by google maps they were confused, because they posted the job listing hoping that nobody would be able to find the contact information. <S> Why do businesses do this? <S> They just don't want the business phones tied up. <S> They might not want their customers or competitors to know about any restructuring going on in the company.
| They also don't want other companies to find their number and contact info in their job ads so they can avoid spam/other problems.
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How do I gain the attention of a person of higher rank? I’m currently involved in a group that is supposed to test bugs and give feedback about a game. We are called the Quality Assurers. We’ve been giving feedback about the current state of the game and we suggested a few ideas, however the developers remained silent. They only speak/interact with us if we’re giving feedback about the upcoming update. We have updates release every week. I’d like to know how to get their attention without annoying them. We communicate through discord and the developers do not like being tagged so i dont know how to get their attention without giving them a bad impression of me and the rest of the group. There are a lot of feedback that require the developer's opinion, yet it is lacking. The only thing I fear is getting kicked from the quality assurance group if I try to tag one of the developers.There is a community manager that i can contact though. I can tell her about this ongoing issue. However, I will only be doing that if I have no other choice.Any tips? Thanks. <Q> Talk to the community manager. <S> Explain your need to contact developers and what issues you're facing and then take the resulting advice. <S> Discuss as required. <S> It seems as though being the interface between you and the developers is part of the CMs job. <A> I would encourage you to compile a short list of the most important feedback topics that you felt got ignored. <S> Then go to you manager and ask if there is a way for you to improve the feedback-process. <S> (Don´t go complaining, but with a positive attitude!) <S> It may be that certain topics are ignored because they are scheduled for a later date, or the dev´s already got their own solutions they want to try next. <S> May also be that management does not want you to waste time on those topics, because they are paying somebody else for this job. <S> May also be that you feedback is welcome, but needs another form of communication. <S> Be open-minded and see what your manager thinks about this. <A> I asked if what you were referring to was a job or more of a community based project. <S> If it were a job, you would have more leverage because, I assume, there would be an established process and ramifications if its not followed. <S> Since its more of a volunteer I have a couple of different suggestions. <S> We software developers tend to not like people criticizing our work, which makes it difficult for many new developers since so much of the job involves exactly what you are saying, feedback from testing...as well as code reviews, etc. <S> My suggestion would be to pick out a developer or two and try to find something in common with them...develop a personal relationship/friendship. <S> If you are more than a screen name/email address they are more likely to listen to you. <S> Also, if you come can across as knowledgeable about development rather than <S> just "X doesn't work right", " <S> Y looks bad", etc you have a better shot at gaining their respect. <S> is much more useful than relying on a printed write up or communication via managers both of which usually result in twisted information. <S> I am a little confused by terminology you used. <S> My experience is that QA tend to be interested in things like Are you following the process? <S> , have you created all the documents, are you following the coding standards? <S> , Are all the requirements met, etc. <S> whereas there is usually a different test team which runs the software and verifies it is working correctly. <S> It's conceivable that a small project would combine these, but be sure you aren't overstepping your responsibility.
| Personally, I would try to discuss issues directly with developers (not suggesting you bypass the formal process of bug reports, etc), because my experience from a developers standpoint is talking to the person reporting a problem
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Should I answer a question if it is not directed at me? I was CC'd on an email today asking to identify the name of a database table for our data modeling group - this person has the right to know this information, and I was planning on answering their question since I know the answer with confidence. However, the email was directed at my co-worker, addressed to him in the email text, and he is our primary Database programmer. I do some work with our database programming language, but he primarily writes our database functions and puts in our modeling requests. If I know the answer to this question, and he is not currently at his desk or available to answer it, should I respond with the answer, or wait for him to give his response? <Q> In general answering a question addressed to someone else, just because you know the answer and they have not replied, is a breach of professional etiquette. <S> However there are some considerations that may trump etiquette. <S> Is not having the information holding up fixing or addressing someissue that is important to the company? <S> Are you a designated back up for that role, and have been directed toanswer questions as their proxy? <S> Is there some extenuating circumstance that is going to prevent theperson asked, from providing an answer to the question? <S> (Like theyare in training that week, or in meetings all week that will likelyprevent them from seeing the email) <S> Is there some other reason where the need to share the information,outweighs the expectation that you follow standard expectations? <S> There countless exceptions to every rule in business. <S> However just because you felt, that answering the question was the appropriate action <S> , does not mean that the person the question was directed to will agree. <S> For this reason I always qualify that I believe the answer is this, explain why I choose to answer the question in the email, and ask for the expert to confirm the information I provided. <A> should I respond with the answer, or wait for him to give his response? <S> I see no problem in you replying back with the answer, given you had permission to disclose so and the recipient right to know. <S> If you were included in an email it was intended for you to hear the writer's request. <S> Given your coworker could have done the same if you were the main recipient, and it is ok in your workplace to do these things when unavailable then surely you can go ahead. <S> Another option you got is to write an IM or call your coworker, to quickly inform him about this (double check) and then reply if your coworker is still unavailable to reply. <A> If I know the answer to this question, and he is not currently at his desk or available to answer it, should I respond with the answer, or wait for him to give his response <S> Two things aren't clear: why you were CCed, and how urgent is the question. <S> In general, since the question was asked of someone else who seems to have responsibility for such questions, you should let the main addressee answer the question. <S> It's effectively the same as if you were in a room and someone looked directly at the this person and asked the question. <S> You may know the answer, but it was asked of someone else. <S> What could change the answer is if the writer of the question believes that the individual in question doesn't know the answer. <S> Even though that individual might formally be the one to provide the answer, you were copied to help craft it. <S> In that case, you should offer the answer to the addressee and let them respond. <S> The other possibility is that you know the question is urgent and that the addressee cannot answer in the expected timeframe. <S> In that case, you reply to All, and say something like "I know this question is for [addressee]. <S> But since he isn't available right now, I can help. <S> [the answer is...]".
| The question was asked of that person, and while you may be able to provide an answer, the person asking the question may want an answer from the person most appropriate to ask.
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What should I say when asked why I want to join night-shift when the reason is insomnia? I have applied for a night-shift post. There was an option for day-shift in the same company. I choose the night shift because I have insomnia and I sleep late. If my interviewer ask me why I want to join the night-shift instead of day shift, should I tell them about my sleeping habit as I have stated above? If not, what should I say instead? <Q> Insomnia is a medical condition. <S> In many places, medical conditions which do not require special care from the employer are a taboo topic in job interviews. <S> Even in those where the law does not forbid questions about medical conditions, you are better off not mentioning them. <S> Some people simply have an atypical circadian rhythm which makes them sleepy during the day and active at night (some people call this a disorder , which I find discriminating). <S> Those people are perfect for night-shift jobs. <S> (This often gets misdiagnosed as insomnia, by the way. <S> Insomnia is when you can not sleep well at all. <S> But people with atypical circadian rhythms can sleep perfectly fine when allowed to follow their natural sleeping pattern. <S> It only looks like insomnia when they are forced to wake up early every morning). <S> Another concern you might want to diffuse is that you don't have a day-job. <S> Some people are so hard on cash that they need both a full-time job during the day and a second job at night. <S> Those people often have trouble getting enough work-life balance to do either job properly. <A> They may or may not ask that question.. if they do however I probably wouldn't get into the specifics of your insomnia but would instead say something about you being a "night owl" ( <S> someone who is generally more productive/awake late at night) rather than a "lark" (someone who is at their best first thing in the morning) and leave it at that. <A> I spent nearly two years on the night shift before moving into a dayside job with the same company. <S> When I was interviewed, the questions focused more on if I understood how hard the night shift can be, rather than why I wanted to work at night. <S> I doubt that your interviewer cares if you have insomnia. <S> Say something honest, like "I'm more productive when I work at night" and leave it at that. <S> Caveat sopitas <S> I want to warn you that that night shift and insomnia aren't necessarily a good match. <S> When I was on the night shift, I had to convince my body that it was time to sleep, regardless of the amount of sunlight <S> or if there was a jackhammer tearing apart the sidewalk outside. <S> If you have trouble sleeping now, working nights and sleeping days might make it even harder to sleep. <S> (This may not apply if you have an atypical circadian rhythm, as described by Philipp.)
| If the question comes up (most companies have trouble filling the night-shift positions and are glad for anyone they can get), just say: I am a night person
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