It’s 5 solutions to 5 questions. Right here we go…
1. Teenager’s job desires her to go on a weekend retreat
My daughter is 15 and has her first job. Supervisor messages everybody she is planning a team-building occasion which shall be a Friday to Sunday summer time women getaway at an AirBnB someplace. Supervisor’s message goes on that she REALLY desires all her workers to come back and he or she’s giving this a lot discover since they’ll have to clear their schedules and can every have to pay as much as $400 on their very own for the weekend.
The group my daughter works with is about 12 women and girls ranging in age from 15 to twenty-eight — with only one 15-year-old, one 17-year-old, after which the bulk over 21. We instantly stated “no” and my daughter is on board with that call. If the occasion occurs and it’s one thing she feels she completely can’t miss for her job, we stated we may drive her to no matter day is most vital and drive her again dwelling at night time.
This all appears loopy, proper? The combination of adults and minors, having to pay for this on their very own, having to spend three days of private time with no compensation … none of this passes muster.
A bit of extra background: The job is at a boutique aimed towards teen women with issues like attire and jewellery. The boutique is owned and managed by older girls, however this group of workers are all of the younger part-time staff and their supervisor is about mid-twenties. Up till now, they’ve been anticipated to go to a month-to-month “bonding” exercise (like an escape room or dinner) on their very own time and at their very own expense.
One may recommend attendance at these items is voluntary, however there’s all the time language like, “I would love everybody to have the ability to attend this … And I’m gonna repeat this, I REALLY need everybody to come back, that’s why I kinda wish to begin planning it now.” So, probably not voluntary? Very curious what your tackle that is.
That is somebody who’s (a) making an attempt to make use of her workers to get her social wants met (which is wildly inappropriate given the facility dynamics, to say nothing of the combo of ages) and/or (b) has no concept methods to handle successfully and so, somewhat than specializing in issues like managing folks to clear targets or coaching them and growing their abilities, is as an alternative excessively centered on “bonding,” as if managing is akin to being the top of a sorority. My guess is it’s each (a) and (b).
The month-to-month occasions are already an excessive amount of, significantly if there’s strain to attend. The weekend retreat crosses the road into ridiculous. If this have been genuinely a work-focused retreat, they would want to (a) pay for the attendees’ time (since these are clearly non-exempt positions, not salaried exempt ones) and (b) cowl their bills. They’re not doing both of these issues, so that is only a social trip.
Does your daughter like this job and wish to hold it? There are jobs that will demand rather a lot much less of her time and private cash! If she actually desires to maintain it however would somewhat keep away from these occasions, one choice is “my mother and father say I can’t work at a job that requires me to spend the cash I’m incomes so I can’t attend these occasions.”
2. Oddball interview questions
I got here throughout an article that claims to compile the favourite interview questions of prime design leaders. Loads of the questions are what you’d count on, however then there’s stuff like “what’s in your Netflix queue that you just haven’t watched and why?” (I don’t even have Netflix!) and “how do you manage your closet?”
What do you make of this? As somebody who’s simply began to interview, how severely ought to I take this listing? Ought to I put together for a few of these unusual questions in addition to the anticipated ones when I’ve an upcoming interview?
These are crap questions requested by crap interviewers. Individuals who ask these kinds of questions usually declare it provides them some sort of particular perception into candidates; that’s BS. What it does do is elevate the possibilities they’ll rent individuals who they like on a private stage, remind them of themselves, or share their pursuits, that means they’ll find yourself with a extra homogenous employees. It’s an incredible alternative to introduce bias into the method.
You don’t want to arrange prematurely for questions like this. Most interviewers don’t use them and among the many ones who do, you’ll be able to’t predict what random factor they’ll ask — there’s no level in getting ready to speak about your Netflix queue if what your crap interviewer is admittedly going to ask is what’s inside your purse.
3. Worker desires to make jam
I run a information web site that covers the meals trade. I’ve an worker who has all the time harbored small ambitions within the house, which we authorised— like making jams that he bought at a number of native occasions.
Now, he’s taking conferences with traders to broaden that line of jams. It’s a small-time seed investor, nevertheless it’s an actual firm that sees enterprise potential. My worker views this prospect as complementary to his job (provides perception into the trade we cowl); I see it as giving the looks of compromising his objectivity (and creating land mines for what he can’t cowl). Even for a modest market launch, the calls for of scaling up a product are appreciable, if not all-encompassing — however he thinks two weeks’ PTO will cowl it. And that’s most likely the most important pink flag: He doesn’t see any of those points, and even after prolonged dialogue nonetheless doesn’t completely get it.
All of this may concern me even when he was an incredible worker and he’s not. His work high quality is erratic — typically nice, different occasions the naked minimal — and his supervisor has spoken with him a number of occasions about this. Simply earlier than we discovered in regards to the jam investor, we spoke about whether or not we should always put the worker on a PIP.
How ought to I strategy this problem? I don’t wish to seem punitive (you wish to make jam, due to this fact we’re sad together with your work). Even when his work have been stellar, I’d be severely alarmed by an worker who didn’t acknowledge, a lot much less determine these issues — however the cluelessness across the jam and his job (regardless of prior criticisms of his work, he believes he’s doing nice) has me feeling like I wish to pull the ripcord.
You want — and will have already got! — a battle of curiosity coverage. It’s actually normal for journalists to have battle of curiosity insurance policies that forbid having a monetary stake within the industries or folks they cowl. (For instance, right here’s the AP’s policy on financial conflicts of interest.)
You want that coverage regardless of the state of affairs with this worker, as a result of different conflicts of curiosity are more likely to come up sooner or later (or could have already come up) and also you received’t essentially find out about them in the event you don’t have a coverage requiring folks to reveal them.
However the truth that he doesn’t even see the battle of curiosity after you’ve mentioned it’s alarming, as is his perception he’s doing great despite serious performance discussions. The perfect factor to do is to be easy about all of it: “It is a battle of curiosity and we will’t enable a reporter right here to function their very own enterprise within the trade we cowl. You’ll want to choose between the 2; you’ll be able to’t do each. That’s non-negotiable. As you assume it over, I wish to be up-front that we’re on the level of needing to maneuver to a proper efficiency enchancment plan to deal with XYZ. I notice which may issue into your choice both approach, so I’d be glad to allow you to take a couple of days and assume it over in the event you’d wish to.”
4. Explaining why I’m leaving my job
A 12 months and a half in the past, I used to be a mid-level supervisor in my trade. My dad was identified and handed from most cancers inside a month’s time. Per week after this, a former colleague I extremely revered on the time reached out and supplied me what seemed like my dream job from a monetary and time facet. I used to be skeptical as it could be a pay minimize, however there was a schedule for elevate concerns that I assumed I may handle financially. I used to be susceptible on the time from my loss and determined to make one thing “extra” of myself and so I stepped down from my managerial place (however stayed on at a decrease stage to make up pay discrepancies) and took the job.
Inside a few months of beginning, I used to be drowning in work that wasn’t communicated as a part of the job and was frequently anticipated to choose up new initiatives and create new system processes. On prime of that, the entire construction was being reworked, which eliminated the earlier dates for wage consideration I had been advised about. I’m very overworked and underpaid on the new job, and so have nonetheless been working my final job to make ends meet. The brand new place is extraordinarily poisonous on prime of all the pieces else, and I’ve been actively searching for a brand new job both again in my outdated trade or one thing new.
The problem I’ve run into is when folks ask my why I left my earlier place after 15 years, and why I’m searching for one thing else so quickly. I’ve been advised that telling the folks entire situation would make me to look emotional and missing in judgment. So my typical reply has been alongside the traces of, “I took an opportunity to study one thing new, and sadly I discovered that this line of labor just isn’t the fitting match for me.” Regardless of my greatest efforts, I’ve been unable to discover a new job. Financially I’m caught, and I can’t assist however marvel if my reply to this query is what’s holding me again in my job search. I’ve solely had a couple of second interviews and no promising leads. I’ve been advised my resume seems nice, I’ve a whole lot of expertise and nice references, they usually all the time sound so happy with my interviews on the time, so I’m actually unsure what’s holding me again moreover this.
So long as you’re ready to speak about why you’ve concluded this line of labor isn’t for you, I don’t assume that reply is holding you again. (And it’s undoubtedly higher to sum up the situation with one thing concise like this somewhat than get into all the small print.) However it could even be effective to say one thing like, “I got here on board to do X, however the job has turned out to be rather more Y.”
5. Is my firm violating extra time regulation?
I’ve a job that was on-call shift work and now’s transitioning to hourly work. We solely work one week a month. We used to work a median of ~10-20 hours in that week, nevertheless it actually diverse. I can’t consider a time it ever went over 40 hours in every week. Now they’re asking us to considerably improve our hours, together with a pay elevate. It’s primarily necessary to maintain this job. The brand new system would imply that individuals are being requested to work 50+ hours in a single seven-day interval, until they selected to swap shifts.
My questions are twofold. One, does extra time regulation shield periodic staff in our place? All of us produce other jobs, and this isn’t a job we work each week. Two, are there guidelines for our firm having to make use of fair-play in deciding how every week is measured? For instance, let’s say my one week a month is normally Tuesday-Monday. However they measure their payroll week as Friday-Thursday. I may have a state of affairs the place I labored 50+ hour over a seven-day interval, however in line with payroll I labored ~20 hours one week, and ~30 the following. How does extra time regulation affect this situation?
No and no, sadly. In reply to the primary query, no regulation prevents employers from assigning 50+ hours in a seven-day interval, even in the event you’re solely a periodic employee. The regulation assumes you’ll both settle for or decline the job primarily based on whether or not that works for you, however doesn’t forestall an employer from making that the job they’re providing. In reply to the second query, an employer is allowed to set their payroll week as any seven consecutive days they need (even when they select it for the aim of lowering extra time prices); nevertheless, they’ll’t hold altering it to get out of paying extra time. As soon as they choose a workweek, they’re anticipated to stay to it long-term.