It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My company refuses to let us come in sick, even with minor colds
I graduated from college last year and started a full-time job in December. Last week I came down with a bit of a cold, but I wasn’t feeling too terrible so I did go to work. However, my manager sent me home when he saw I was sick. He told me company policy dictates that anyone with a contagious illness (cold, flu, etc.) is not under any circumstances allowed to come in. He said I would be given paid sick time and had to stay home until all signs of my cold were gone. He said the policy applies to everyone, including the CEO.
I am over my cold now except for a bit of stuffiness, but I’m still not allowed to return to work even though I am no longer contagious. The company does not allow working from home at all, so I can’t even get work done or off to help anything while I am away. I work in an office; it’s not like I work in a hospital with immune-compromised people.
My manager said that I won’t be penalized for coming in sick because it was my first time, but in the future I am expected to stay home when I am sick and not come in at all. The company automatically grants paid sick time to anyone with a contagious illness because they are not allowed to come in. At the part-time job and internships I had in college, there was nothing like this and people came in sick all the time. This seems wasteful to me because I could be at work getting things done instead of sitting at home. Is it normal for a workplace to make you stay home if you show any signs of being sick?
What’s more normal is feeling pressured to come in, getting other people sick, and not getting enough paid sick leave to stay home when you’re sick … so this is actually a pretty great policy. It sounds like they’ve taken it to somewhat of an extreme (if they don’t even want you coming in post-cold with just a little stuffiness), but of all the extremes they could go to, this is a pretty fantastic one. If they weren’t paying for the time away, that would be problematic — but they are! They’re protecting other employees, letting you rest, and paying you to do it.
Do not complain about this. This is the holy grail of sick leave policies.
2. My coworker sends me reminders about emails as soon as they are sent
I could use some help with wording to politely tell a coworker, Jane, who does great work and who I like very much, to stop pointing me to emails I just received a minute ago (or less).
Jane works remotely, and we’ve only met once, but we’re working closely together on a project for the first time. I am the overall project manager, while she works more directly with the client. Every once in a while, the client will contact me directly about something, and when she does, I will immediately receive a message from Jane via our company chat application asking if I saw the email. Not giving me background or context that might be helpful — she just wants to make sure I see the email as soon as it comes in.
I am not someone who takes my time in answering email. I am very responsive and will answer within the same day, if not within the same hour or less. I can only assume that Jane has a made a habit of this with people who are less organized with their email accounts (and we have a few of those in our company), but it irks me when I am in the middle of reading or responding to the client only to receive a message telling me to look at it. I will let Jane know that “yes, I’m reading it now” or “I’m responding right now,” but is there a polite way I can tell her to stop sending me these reminders?
Ugh, yes. How annoying. Say this to her: “I’ve noticed you’ll often check to make sure I saw an email from a client, right after it’s come in. I’m really on top of my email, so I’d rather you not check with me since that distracts me from actually answering the email! Can you assume that I’ve seen it and I’m on it, unless there’s some specific reason not to?”
Then if she keeps doing it after that, reply by saying, “Again, I need to ask you not to send me these sorts of messages. They end up causing more work, and I stay on top of my email.” That will probably stop them, but if it doesn’t, I’d just start ignoring them and she’ll hopefully get the message at that point.
3. Enforcing a four-hour minimum as a freelancer
I am a freelancer with a client base of a few regular firms. Mostly I work from home, but sometimes a client will ask me to come on site to work in the office. I have a four-hour minimum policy when I am asked to come on site. I always explain this policy in writing prior to my first assignment with a new client. This practice is very common among freelancers in my industry.
Two of my clients respect my policy. If they ask me to come on-site at say, 8 a.m., they will keep me on site until noon or later. One of my clients is much less agreeable about my terms. Here’s an example: They schedule me to come in at 8 a.m. I arrive, I work 8-10. There’s a lull and they ask me to stay for another 30 minutes, then an hour, thinking more work will come in. Nothing comes in. I go home. So, I was physically in their office for three hours. I think they should pay me for four hours for coming on site; that’s my four-hour minimum. They will only pay me for two — as in, the Finance department returns my invoice to me and tells me to resubmit with only two hours.
A variation on this is: I work two hours on site, and then they send me home with a promise of two more hours later in the day that I can perform remotely. They see this as honoring my four-hour minimum. But this isn’t how I want my minimum to work: I only want to get dressed up and commute downtown (approximately 50 minutes each way) if I am guaranteed four hours of billable time. Otherwise, I would like to work from home or pass on the assignment.
Twice I have pushed back and said, “Are you sure you have four hours of work for me? I do not want to come in unless you can hit my four-hour minimum.” They assure me there will be enough work, have me come in, and then send me home early. I don’t think they’re taking advantage of me; I just think they have a very hard time predicting (or managing) they workflow.
My question: Is my policy reasonable? If so, how can I better enforce it?
Yes, it’s reasonable.
Put it in your contract, get them to sign it so that their Finance department can’t keep overruling it, and — importantly — change it to a minimum fee for on-site work. Right now you’re saying you won’t come on site without four hours of work, but it would be better to just charge that minimum fee and take the question of hours out of it. Word it this way: “I charge a minimum fee of $X for each visit to perform on-site work, which includes up to four hours on-site. Because this fee accounts for travel time, work performed off-site is not included in this fee and will be billed separately.”
That way, if they only have two hours of work for you, it’s clearer that they’re paying that minimum of $X regardless, because that’s your on-site fee.
4. Using a different job title on LinkedIn and my resume
Can I change my job title on LinkedIn (and maybe my resume) to be more recognizable? I am a teapot maker; for some baffling reason, my organization has decided to call us all “teapot fabrication specialists.” This means nothing to most people, including people in my industry, because everyone who works in a similar position at other organizations is a “teapot maker.” This is a very recognized and well-understood position in my industry with a very standard set of duties and level of responsibility. I would not be lying about my job tasks or prestige by calling myself a “teapot maker” on social media and on my resumes. Can I do so?
Yes.
There are definitely times when you shouldn’t do this, but they’re (a) when the title you want to use is in any way misleading or makes you sound more senior than you actually are or (b) when it would cause problems in a reference check by raising red flags about your honesty, if the title you used is quite different from the title your company gave you. In your case, the two titles are similar enough that even if the discrepancy is noted, it’s going to sound like you’re just using more colloquial shorthand, and that’s fine. (It would be a problem if you were changing it to something like teapot chief, but you’re not.)
5. Should employers explain why you’re not hired if you’ve made it to an interview?
I just had a phone interview and then an in-person half-day interview with three people that I thought went well. When I asked the manager who the position reported to what qualities should the person have she said “all of your qualities.” I received an email from the HR coordinator a week ago letting me know that my references would be checked, and then today I received this rejection email:
“Thank you for taking the time to meet with us about the ___ position. We regret to inform you that we will not be pursuing your candidacy for this position. Though your experience is quite impressive, the selection process was highly competitive, and we have made the difficult decision to pursue another candidate whose qualifications more closely suit our needs at this time. We will keep your resume on file for consideration in similar openings that may come up in future. We thank you for your interest in our organization and wish you all the best in your endeavors.”
If I made it this far in the process, shouldn’t I have received more of an explanation of why I was not chosen? Does this rejection email seem canned to you?
Yes, it’s canned — but that’s very, very normal and not something you should take offense to. They need to deliver the same message over and over, and so it makes sense to use a form email to do that.
It’s pretty common for employers not to give candidates feedback on why they were rejected, for the reasons I explain here. You can certainly try asking for feedback if you’d like to, and you might get it (or you might not, but it’s a reasonable request to make), but you shouldn’t be offended that they notified you by that form email.
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company refuses to let us come in with minor colds, coworker sends reminders about emails right after they’re sent, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.