It’s seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go…
1. My boss is breaking laws and promises but I feel guilty about leaving
I began working at a small business this past July, and there have been a few red flags that tell me I shouldn’t be here for much longer. First, my boss hired me as an independent contractor, even though I follow a daily schedule and perform a key role in the company. The reason he gave me is that he can’t afford to pay the necessary taxes for a W-2 employee. Second, he is paying me significantly less than I was promised. When I was interviewed, I was told I’d be working 20 hours per week at a “competitive” rate. But because my job is essential to the business’s success, I work about 40 per week and receive a total of $600 per month. My third issue is that there’s no HR to speak of, and I am regularly harassed by male clients; when I told my boss about these clients, he suggested I start wearing a wedding ring.
I feel guilty for thinking about quitting because my boss has told me on several occasions that I’m “the one” and I’d be leaving the company in a rut. I’m also afraid that potential employers would see that I quit after 4 months and think I’m a flake.
You should have zero guilt about quitting. Any one of these complaints — breaking the law by paying you as an independent contractor when you meet the legal test for an employee, paying less than the rate you agreed to, paying you less than minimum wage, and/or dismissing harassment concerns — would be reason to leave on its own. All of these are illegal (well, the harassment might not be, if the company is too small to be covered by harassment laws), and big deals.
As for concerns about what to tell future employers, just explain (calmly, without anger) that you agreed to one rate of pay but were paid another one. No one is going to think you’re a flake for leaving over that. Most people would leave over that!
2. I don’t want my manager to tell people I’m having surgery
I just learned that I need mandatory surgery, and I plan on telling my immediate boss that I have to be out. I don’t plan on giving him a reason, as it is very personal reason that I don’t feel should be shared. Although it should go without saying, can I ask that he not share it with the rest of the office? It was already spread around the entire office that I received a raise (prior to me finding out and without my permission) and that another coworker was having breast implant surgery (who they now mock). Also what should I do if it shared?
Of course you can ask him not to tell people that you’ll be out for surgery. You can request that he simply say “planned time off” or “planned vacation” or “medical reason” or whatever else you’re comfortable with.
That said, he’s clearly indiscreet and there’s no way to guarantee that he won’t talk anyway. But your best bet is to limit the amount of information he has and explicitly tell him that you don’t want it shared.
3. Manager saw someone watching YouTube at work and freaked out
A coworker was working as an external consultant for a very big European institution in Brussels. He has worked as a consultant for more than 7 years, spoke 5 languages, and worked on 5 out of 7 of the most important projects in our department. He was efficient and hard-working. One day, at lunchtime, he was looking at a video about Tour de France on YouTube, just at the same time when a new manager passed by his office. The manager didn’t like this guy watching a video on YouTube, so he decided to take a picture of his screen with his phone, without this guy noticing. He sent the picture to the directors of the unit, as well as to the consulting company the guy was working for, asking for his inmediate dissmisal. He literally wrote on the email, “I don’t pay your consultants to browse YouTube during working hours.”
Both the regulations of this Europan institutions, as well as the rules of the consulting company, permit a “reasonable personal use of the telecommunications and IT infraestructure during working hours.”
Many people think the reaction of the manager was a bit innapropiated. Some others don’t. I personally don’t know what to think about it. Do you think the reaction of the manager was appropiate in this particular case?
No, of course not. It was ridiculous. The guy could have been taking a lunch break, or sure, maybe he was slacking off for five minutes. Even 10 minutes — horrors! Good managers judge people on what results they get, not on how they spend five minutes here and there.
4. I heard I was going to be promoted, but haven’t heard about it since
I was hired for my current role (associate product manager at a videogame company) less than two months ago, and my intended duties involved managing live games, just helping on sales, weekly events, and basic data analysis. But within just a couple weeks after starting, I was offered the opportunity to take on much more difficult and vital duties, further up the chain for titles still in development. My boss’s boss basically poached me in terms of responsibilities and tasks, and I’ve gotten more and more involved in these duties.
Two weeks ago, my boss’s boss took me aside and told me that I’m being promoted “soon” to full product manager, as that title is more fitting for my level of work and responsibilities. He said that there were issues with P&L that had to be worked out, but otherwise it sounded like it was going to happen for certain. I was completely stunned – I knew I was doing good work above my job title, but I never, ever, expected a promotion so soon.
But since then, I haven’t heard anything regarding this promised promotion. And now I’m having a hard time not thinking about it. I was wondering if you had advice on how to approach my boss’s boss (soon to be my boss, after the promotion), about a more specific time line regarding the promotion. It’s a weird situation, since I never would’ve asked had he not mentioned it, and I don’t want to seem overly eager or aggressive. In the meantime, I’ve just been working hard as usual, and pretending like nothing’s changed.
Go back to him and say, “I was really pleased by your feedback a few weeks ago. I wonder if I can ask you how firm a plan it is to move me to product manager, and what the timeline most likely will look like.” It’s perfectly reasonable to want to follow up on this — you just want to ask for details, rather than push for it to happen right this very second.
5. Can my husband’s company require me to relocate with him?
My husband works for a company in Florida that has terminated him effective at the end of the year because they had informed him that he would need to begin working from the corporate office beginning in January 2014 and that he would need to reside in that area. He informed them that he would be moving, but he was going to move alone and I was going to stay in the area we have lived in for almost 18 years. I am a paralegal and have a wonderful career and would not make anywhere near the same amount of money in the new area.
But since he is not relocating his entire family, he will no longer have a job after December 31. He’s 62 and had planned on retiring from the company that he has been at for almost 13 years. I can find no legal precedent that requires an employee to live with his spouse if he wants to keep his job.
You’re looking for a legal precedent for what the company is requiring, but what you should be looking for are laws PROHIBITING the company’s requirement. That’s different, and it’s the key point people often misunderstand in employment law. If something isn’t specifically prohibited, it’s generally allowed. I can’t think of anything that would make this illegal, other than that I suppose it might be considered a form of discrimination based on marital status, which is illegal in some states (but not all, and not at the federal level). You’d need to talk to a lawyer to be sure.
6. Asking my manager how to get a raise in a year
We have our annual compensation review coming up, where we’re told what sort of raise and bonus to expect for the coming year. From what I’ve experienced here in the past, it comes out to roughly a 2-3% increase in base pay, and a $1500-$3000 raise — it varies based on the yearly performance review (delivered separately from this discussion) and the pool of funds available company-wide.
My idea is this: I’d like to set up my own meeting with the person that is the decision maker in this regard (and also the department head), before both the formal review conversation and the compensation review, and say something like the following: “I’d like to make $X base pay by 2015. Since this is an Y% increase from where I am now, what could I do over the next period to make myself worth this much to the company?”
Is this a smart conversation to have? If yes, is the timing a good idea? Basically, I’m setting it up as “hey, I don’t expect to get this size increase this time around, so looking ahead, how can I get from here to there in a way that makes it work for you?”
Sure, I think you can do that, if the 2015 salary you’re talking about isn’t outside the norm for your role in your company, or the role you expect to be in then.
7. How to use board members as job leads without angering my current boss
I work for a mid-sized non-profit and have a lot of contact with our very active board members. A number of them have commented over the last few years that they like my work and if I’m ever interested in leaving to let them know. Unfortunately this has almost always been in front of the managing director who reacts negatively to the suggestion (I’m her assistant).
Now that I’m starting to look seriously into finding another job I’d love to leverage the network I’ve managed to build and reach out to the board members for opportunities. One of the board members who has worked as a mentor to me made it clear that when she steps down off our board she’d love to have me come work for her but she’s not willing to ‘poach’ from the organization.
Is there any way I can use my network of high powered board members without setting off political problems or causing sour feelings?
You could ask. Pick one who you trust and have the best rapport with (and who has made this type of comment to you) and say, “You and other board members have made this comment to me, and it’s occurred to me that I don’t know how I’d take you up on that offer when the time came, without causing tension with Jane.” (Keep in mind too that once they think about it, they might realize that there’s no way for them to do that without it posing a conflict of interest in their roles as stewards of your current organization.)