It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…
1. My boss keeps inviting my predecessor to our holiday parties
My manager has invited the previous employee who held my position to the last two holiday parties. Now they are invited to this year’s party as well. There are no other outside people invited; it’s all employees or vendors. There have been other employees that left since I started working here and they are not invited. I feel disrespected because of this. Am I right to feel this way?
It’s an odd reaction to have. There could be all kinds of reasons this person is invited — they were a long-time employee, they were particularly close with your boss, they just clicked well with lots of people there, or who knows. It’s very unlikely that your boss intends this to be a slight toward you.
2. Half day off, full day of vacation time
Why is it that if a company is giving a half day off (for instance, most companies I have worked for work a half day on Christmas Eve), they require you to use a full day of vacation time if you want to take the entire day off? This has been the rule/standard in any job I’ve held since college and I’ve never quite understood it. If they’re only working a half day, why can’t I use a half day of vacation time to get the full day off? Seems like a little unfair to require this, if they’re only working a half day anyway. It’s a waste of vacation time, so I never take Christmas Eve off, but I would like to if I could only use four hours of vacation time instead of eight. I know there’s probably got to be a reason for this, but I haven’t figured it out if there is!
It’s a reward/thank-you/incentive for the people who do come to work that day. They’re essentially gifting them a half day off in exchange for coming in on a day a lot of people want to take off.
3. Questions to ask when interviewing my potential new manager
I’m going to be on a staff panel interviewing people for a manager position in my group. This person will likely become my new manager after a group re-org. I am excited for the opportunity to give my input but I am wondering what are some good questions to ask now to make sure I’m not writing back to you in a few months. Most of the posts on interviews at AAM focus on what to do when you are being interviewed, not the other side of the table.
I’m still on vacation (but wanted to get some more holiday questions in before the holiday is over) so I’m taking the easy way out with this one and sending you over to this 2011 post on exactly this!
4. A salary negotiation success story
I wanted to say thank you because your advice not only helped me land a job (that was terrible, more below), but also land another job just three months into the new terrible job!
Essentially what happened was that I accepted a contract to-hire position with Big Company A. On day one there, they told me they just acquired Big Company B and my entire job would be different than discussed. Not only was the job different and something I would have absolutely turned down, but in my first week they made fun of a challenged coworker and made multiple antisemitic and homophobic remarks. On top of that, the CIO was pushing down dates for a major systems merger that were in no way feasible if the systems needed to actually function.
So very luckily I was able to continue networking and used your advice on how to explain why I was job searching again so quickly. Once I knew I was going to accept an offer, I re-read all your negotiation posts. It was the first time I would be asking for a higher salary and was pretty nervous about, it especially since I ended up asking for $15k over their offer. I took your advice on asking and then staying silent and it worked great. As uncomfortable as I felt, the hiring manager never once batted an eye at my request and even mentioned it should be easy to get a certain amount at minimum. I ended up getting $13k over their initial offer and am so so happy I didn’t let my nerves get in the way!
So long story short thank you again and I can’t wait to keep reading all the updates :)
boss invites my predecessor to our parties, interviewing your potential manager, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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