2014-10-07

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. My top performer constantly texts and surfs the web

As a relatively new manager working in state government, I am having an issue with a direct report that I am really unsure how to address.

Let me preface this by saying this person is, hands down, the top performer in my group. The problem is that she is nearly constantly texting, sending and receiving personal emails (both from her work account and her personal account), surfing (both on her phone and her laptop), etc. I know you tend to reject the generational stereotypes, but I really think she is just part of the generation that grew up with constant access to technology and this is how she operates. Work a few minutes, check Facebook, make a comment or two, back to work. I don’t personally understand how she ever gets anything done, but she does.

We do of course have a policy addressing use personal technology and cell phone use during work hours. And athough she is the most productive person I have, I find it distracting, annoying, and disrespectful. Recently during a webinar she sat and surfed around on her phone during the entire time. Afterward, we discussed some of the topics covered, and she was obviously paying attention. However, she was the only person in the room behaving this way. We were in a group with several other professionals from other states, and at least one person raised their eyebrows.

I guess I would have an easier time addressing this if she weren’t such a high producer. For a variety of reasons (our heavy travel assignments, 10+ hour work days, working in a different time zone than where our loved ones are at home), I don’t think it’s necessary or even appropriate to be a crazy tyrant about enforcing 100% adherence to the technology policy, which doesn’t even throughly ban it (says simply that personal use of technology should be limited to break periods whenever possible).

Well, since she’s your top performer, I wouldn’t address it from a productivity angle. Instead, I’d focus on the impact it is having: it’s distracting other people and coming across as disrespectful. I’d say something like this: “Jane, I’ve noticed that you’re on your phone and social media and surfing the web a lot during work. Frankly, your work is excellent and you’re clearly one of the rare people who can multi-task in this way while still performing at a high level. Because of that, I’m going to defer to you to manage your use of these things on your own. However, I do want you to stay away from those activities during meetings, webinars, and other situations where your attention should be on other people. Even if you know that you can do both, it comes across to other people that you’re not fully engaged or respecting the time they’re spending with you. It can also distract other people from the meeting.”

In other words, focus clearly on the pieces of this that are demonstrably problematic for other people, without getting into whether it’s impacting her own ability to focus.

For what it’s worth, I do believe this type of thing impacts people’s productivity. So if she’s exceeding your performance expectations anyway, it’s worth thinking about whether that indicates that your expectations for your team are too low across the board.

2. Should I let this coworker be on a hiring committee with me?

I have recently taken a new job as a program coordinator. This is a new position for my agency. In the past, each of our 3 offices (in different geographic areas) had a lower level position that was managed by each of the office managers.

The program has now been separated out and is expected to be manged by me. The challenge is, two of the office managers are thrilled to have this taken off their plate, but one office manager is not happy at all that she is no longer in control of this in her area. My position on this is that it will just take some time for me to build trust with her, showing that I can effectively manage the program in her area. However, I am in an immediate dilemma because soon I will be interviewing and hiring the lower level local position for her office. It is up to me to form the interview committee for this, and she has asked to be on it. I am very concerned that if she is part of the interview and selection process, it would be very confusing to the new hire as to who their boss is (particularly when she has made it clear that she is unhappy that she is no longer in control of this position).

But, I also fear that if I turn down her request and upset her, that could have some very negative consequences. Her office is in a small community and she has a great deal of pull not only as the office manager in our organization, but also within the community. Our work is very community orientated and my life could be made very difficult if she undermines my position. I want to do the best I can to stay on her good side, and earn her trust and the community’s trust. However, if she is set on throwing me under the bus no matter what, maybe working around her instead of through her is a better option. (I am young, and while I have managed staff before I have never hired them, so any advice is greatly appreciated!)

It’s not crazy to let her be part of the hiring process, and she probably has worthwhile input to give. The key is going to be you making it very clear to your new hire what the reporting relationship is, and setting up clear boundaries with the office manager. She can try to influence that person all she wants, but if you’re being hands-on in managing that person, you’ll be able to mitigate that impact.

In other words, the most important factor here is you doing your job of managing the new hire really well (including clearly setting up expectations up-front about how your relationship with her and how she should relate to that office manager, and probing periodically to make sure that the office manager isn’t causing problems). If you get that down, the office manager is going to be pretty limited in what impact she can have on the situation.

3. Can I ask during the interview process if a company drug tests?

I’m a daily cannabis user, about to start a job search. For most of my career, I’ve worked for small companies who didn’t drug test. I don’t think it’s necessarily common in my industry to test for drug use, but some of the larger companies might do it as a matter of course (I’m definitely not in a creative field or anything like that). For right now, random drug testing would be a dealbreaker for me, though I might be able to deal with an initial drug test at hire, if I really liked the position.

At what point can I find out about whether or not drug testing is part of the package? Is this something that’s usually disclosed in job listings? I don’t want to out myself as a smoker unnecessarily, but I also don’t want to waste a lot of time (mine and the potential employer’s) going through a process out of which I’d eventually bow.

I do realize that I may change my mind about the issue if my job search takes a lot longer than I’m hoping it will, but for now, this is how I’d like to go about it. I’m not in Colorado or Washington, where marijuana is now sold legally. (Technically medical marijuana is permitted in my state, but it’s one of the most restrictive programs in the country and implementation is not going well.)

There’s no way to ask about it without it reflecting badly on you. Even I — someone who strongly supports your right to do whatever you want in the privacy of your own home and has worked professionally to end marijuana prohibition — would look askance at someone who asked about drug testing during the hiring process; there’s just too much cultural baggage associated with the question.

I know it sucks to have to go through an entire hiring process without knowing if it’s all going to be for naught; chalk it up to one more lame effect of our drug laws, but there’s no practical way around it.

4. Should I be honest about why I didn’t attend my boss’s goodbye lunch?

My boss is giving a Saturday potluck luncheon to say thank you to her employees before she retires in a month. The luncheon is at her house, and most employees live 15-20 minutes away. Two of us work in a satellite office with a roundtrip drive of four hours. Driving to the lunch, attending it, then driving back home will take more time than I am willing to sacrifice for my day off. Should I be honest about how I feel when my boss asks me why I wasn’t there?

“Attending your potluck would require more time than I want to sacrifice on my day off” is honest but unnecessarily harsh. Why not just say that you wish you could have been there but you had a prior commitment that conflicted with it? It’s fine if that prior commitment is actually “sitting on my couch watching Sister Wives” (although you shouldn’t specify that).

5. How to respond to critical feedback after a job rejection

I got rejected for a job I really wanted, so I emailed the interviewer to ask for feedback. I was fortunate enough to receive a response, but I’m unsure how to respond to the criticism I received. Truth be told, it kind of hurt to read it, probably because it was completely accurate. Would a simple “Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback” or something along those lines be sufficient? I don’t want to come off as sounding hurt by the criticism, but I also don’t want to make the response too generic, in the hope that maybe they’ll still consider me for future positions. I’d appreciate any advice on how to respond to an interviewer who took the time to provide me with honest feedback.

“Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback” actually sounds borderline curt in this context. Instead, I’d go with something like, “Thanks so much for taking the time to share this with me. I’ll definitely be thinking about what I can do to address it in the future and really appreciate your being candid with me.”

my top performer constantly texts and web-surfs, asking about drug testing during an interview, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

Show more