It’s seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go…
1. Can my boss force me to lock up my cell phone at the start of my shift?
I am a recent high school graduate working at an ice cream shop for the summer. There has been an issue at work with one of my coworkers using a cell phone on the job, and my boss decided to make us lock up our phones at the beginning of each shift. I tried doing some research and all the websites I read seemed to agree that it was illegal for him to force us to give him something of our own possession. I told him I wasn’t going to give him my phone and I could sue him if he fired me for resisting. It worked, and I do understand that he can fire me for using my phone. I was just wondering if I was correct that it was illegal, and also why schools can confiscate phones if employers cannot.
Nope, that’s not correct. Your boss can absolutely require you not to have a cell phone on your person while you’re working, and to lock them up in a locker or some other area so you don’t have access to them while you’re on the job. Nor could you sue him if he fired you for refusing to comply. No law prohibits this.
2. Creating a website for your resume
What are your thoughts on creating a website for your resume? I think it’s tacky to send people to a website to view or download your resume, but what do you think?
Well, it doesn’t make any sense to send someone to a website to view your resume if it’s a context where you could just as easily attach it to your email (or whatever). Employers are generally annoyed to be asked to take an extra, unnecessary step in that context. Just give them the damn resume when you email. (Sorry, companies who are trying to make money by marketing this idea to people.)
But there are plenty of other contexts where it can make sense — if, for instance, people are coming to your website for other reasons and you want them to have access to your resume. So basically, it’s all about the context … but if you’re doing it as part of a job application, don’t. (Online portolios are fine, though, and make sense in many fields.)
3. Can my employer lower my pay when transferring me to the same job at a different location?
I have recently decided to move to Nashville with my girlfriend, where rent is cheaper and to live in a more urban atmosphere. While looking for job transfers within my company, I have been told by a few coworkers that since I live in Connecticut where the cost of living is very high, if I transfer into the same position at the same company but in a different location (like Tennessee in this case, where the cost of living and minimum wage are lower), my pay could be lowered.
I am being told by my friends outside of work that it is illegal to lower pay when making a lateral move within the same company, but everyone at work seems to believe that since the store in Tennessee is in a different market with a different pay grade, the new store will hire me on as the same position but for less. Could this be true? Is there a law prohibiting this? Should I contact my HR manager? What gives?
Your friends should stop giving out job advice, because they’re wrong. There’s no law that prevents your employer from lowering your pay when transferring you. Hell, if they wanted to, they could lower your pay because they moved you to a new cubicle, let alone a new state. (If you want to have some fun with your friends, ask them to show you the law they’re talking about. It doesn’t exist.)
4. Filling out two separate time cards to avoid overtime
I have a non-exempt coworker who works 40 hours a week. Recently we lost a person who works the mornings, so this coworker has been coming in to help with the morning shift 3 days a week — an extra 3 hours each day. He goes on to work his regular 8-hour shift each of those 3 days. He clocks in on a second time card for those morning shifts, and when I asked him about it, he said he was told to by the owner so he didn’t have to be paid overtime. His morning shifts are in a separate category on his paycheck information sheet, so it doesn’t get rolled in with his usual 40 hours. This is in California – is this legal to do? I feel he deserves fair compensation for all the extra work he is doing, but maybe there is a small business loophole I’m unaware of?
This is a small business with an owner, no managers, and 7 employees. We all share all of the work, and have in the past been asked to help with the “morning” shift and were compensated fairly for it. My coworker will be doing this for long-term so the owner can avoid having to train a new person, but is also avoiding having to pay my coworker OT. I’m looking not only for the legal aspect of this, but how to address it if it IS illegal.
Nope, that’s not legal. You can’t get out of paying someone overtime just by having them use two different timecards. If they’re non-exempt and they’re working more than 40 hours a week, they must be paid overtime (time and a half) for everything over 40 hours. And that’s true nationwide, not just in California.
Here’s some advice on how to address it.
5. How to resign when you rarely see your manager
I’m currently working from home, and most contact with my manager is over Skype in a weekly team meeting. We do meet up for team meetings in person, but this is usually only once a month.
I’ve now been given a start date for a graduate scheme which starts in September, and I will have to give four weeks notice of my resignation. What is the best way to approach my manager, given that I’ve never had reason to arrange a meeting with him before?
(To further complicate matters, I’ve only been in this job since February, but the application process for the graduate scheme took so long that I chose to accept this current job in case I either didn’t get on the scheme, or decided I’d rather not work for a big company after getting to know them. I really love this job, but it lacks any of the training prospects of the grad scheme.)
It’s fine to do it over the phone. Just call him. If you need to set up a time for that call in advance and it seems odd because you don’t normally do that, well, so be it — a little weirdness won’t kill him (or you). Just say, “I need to speak with you for 10 minutes this week. When is a good time to call?” And even if it feels weird, he’ll understand afterwards why you needed to schedule the call.
I’d be prepared for him to be a bit frustrated, though, that you’re leaving after only seven months, which in many jobs is the point where you’re just exiting the training mode and the company’s investment in you is just starting to pay off.
6. Do I have to list my current job on my resume?
Do I have to list my current job on my resume? A company is interested in me based on my position prior to my current. My current position has nothing to do with the job I am interviewing for. The company that is interested in me has a copy of my older resume prior to my current position.
You don’t have to, but it usually makes sense to do so. Interviewers are likely to ask what you’ve been doing since leaving your last job, and if you’ve been in the new position for longer than a couple of months, it can seem odd that it’s not on your resume — particularly if there’s any chance that you’ll refer to that work in the course of the interview.
The exception to this is if you’re working in a wildly-outside-your-field, just-for-the-paycheck job while searching for something else. (For instance, it could make sense not to list your current part-time stint at a coffee shop if you normally work in health care.)
7. Looking for a new job after managers reneged on a work-from-home agreement
After working with my present employer for a few years and being generally close to the company campus, my spouse completed law school and found a great position at a firm that is a substantial, yet drivable distance away. As my spouse started the job search, I made sure my management team was aware of the possibility for a move and asked about the potential of going remote on a full-time basis, as that is fairly common in our organization. They were receptive to this and approved the request when my spouse had an offer letter in hand. As I have never had a substantial problem with the organization to this point, I believed they were operating in good faith so I did not get the agreement in writing. Now that I have made the move to be near my spouse’s work, my management team has reneged on their offer and are requiring me to come into the office with only limited remote opportunities.
Given this betrayal of trust, I am going to start searching for a new job. I generally like the organization I am with, but I am hesitant to apply to internal positions because I am required by company policy to inform my management team of any internal applications I make. I fear that alerting them to an internal job search will create hostility and pressure from them and I do not want to be forced out before I am certain I have a new job lined up. The question is this. Should I bother with internal positions at all given this context, and if so, how do I address the applications with my management team so I do not burn any bridges? Given the context, they are going to know why I am looking.
Well, you could just be straightforward and say that you’re looking because the commute is too long, as you told them it would be, and you need to move into a role where you can work remotely. But if you think that they’ll become hostile to you, then you’re better off looking for positions outside the organization (and thus not being required to give your managers a heads-up).