It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My boss uses too many styrofoam cups
I work in a very small office (three of us and our boss). My boss uses a styrofoam cup every morning to drink his coffee. I believe it’s a different one each time (from his gym, where he picks up coffee each morning). Would it be inappropriate to suggest that he might switch to something reusable like a Yeti cup or something similar? I also get that there’s a debate about buying something that’s more resource-intensive at the front-end versus using disposable, but relatively less resource-intensive. It just kills me every time I see him using one.
What kind of relationship do you have with him? With a lot of bosses, if you have good rapport you could just say, “Would you ever get a reusable cup to carry with you? The environmental impact of styrofoam is so bad.” Or if you’re willing, you could even give him one as a gift — although if you do that, you’d have to be okay with the possibility that he might not use it and the styrofoam would keep showing up.
Another option could be to suggest that the office buy company-branded (or even not company-branded) travel mugs for everyone.
But with all of these approaches, he might not change the habit and there’s not a ton of room to keep pushing it if that’s the case. Ultimately he gets to decide what kind of cup he’s going to use.
2. Can we require our receptionist to wear a fake tooth?
My boss wants to speak to one of our receptionists because she is missing a front tooth. I don’t believe we can legally do that because we are aware she is undergoing dental care to try to resolve the issue, but he thinks we should force her to wear a “flipper” (fake tooth) during the process. We are aware she had one in the past but because of her smoking it caused a severe infection, which set back the progress on the whole process. Knowing all this and that she is working to correct the situation, can we force her to wear a flipper?
If wearing a flipper in the past caused her a severe infection, there’s a good chance that’s why she’s not wearing one now.
Is the missing tooth causing any actual work problems or does your boss just not like it? If he’s concerned it’s off-putting to visitors or doesn’t present a professional image, then you’d need to look at whether her dental situation is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act or state-level disability law (and the answer to that depends on facts that aren’t in your letter — but you’d want a lawyer to advise you before taking any action). If it’s not protected by those laws, then he can “require” it — but it would be a crappy thing to do if there’s no actual work impact.
Try pointing out to him that this isn’t that different from requiring a receptionist to lose weight, straighten her hair, or wear fake nails.
3. Job finalist wants to know the salaries of the rest of the staff
I’m on a finance committee for a small nonprofit with six employees. The organization is currently hiring to fill a senior leadership role. During negotiations with a finalist the hiring committee is very excited about, and after salary negotiations were basically complete but not finalized, the finalist asked to see the salaries of the other five employees before making a decision. The stated reason was something along the lines of “to know what I’m getting into.” Our opinion was that this was highly unusual and unnecessary to provide. But my day job is in the public sector, where salaries are public information, and I’ve never hired for a senior leader of any organization before. Is this a thing we could reasonably provide? Are we overreacting?
I wish your candidate had said more about why she was asking, or that you’d asked. It’s possible she meant “If I’m going to be managing this team, I want to understand if they’re paid competitively” — which isn’t an unreasonable thing to want to know in a nonprofit context (where pay can be all over the place). But that’s an odd way to raise the issue, particularly as opposed to just asking you directly to talk about the pay scale of the people she’d be managing and the organization’s compensation philosophy in general.
If these weren’t people she’d be managing, then maybe she meant, “I want to understand the salary structure of the organization and what my future pay potential might be.” But again, that’s typically not the way you’d ask that.
Either way, I think you’d want to get a better understanding of what she’s asking and why. It’s fine to respond, “That’s not something we typically share, but can you tell me more about what you’re hoping to understand and I’ll see what we can do?”
4. My boss didn’t acknowledge my 10-year work anniversary
I have weekly check-in’s with my boss about how things are going and my performance, and I’m always told that I’m doing a good job. My 10-year service anniversary just passed and my boss said absolutely nothing about it. I’ve had several bosses over the last several years and I didn’t care about my other anniversaries, but 10 years is a big deal. Do I bring it up? Everyone else in my department gets donuts and a department-wide email congratulating the employee and I got nothing except an automated email from HR giving me the link to the gift ordering page where I can choose my own present.
There’s a good chance it was just an oversight. (Many companies need better systems for ensuring stuff like this doesn’t happen; too often those systems are informal or left up to the manager, which means oversights happen and end up feeling like personal slights.)
But if it’s important to you, say something. You could say, “Since I just had my 10-year service anniversary, I was hoping we could do something to mark it the way we’ve done with other people.” Or, “I know the company usually does donuts for 10-year anniversaries. Since mine was last week, could we plan something like that?”
5. Can I ask why a company has so many jobs open?
I recently was selected to interview for a position I am very excited about! Due to this being a small industry, I am pretty familiar with the company and have crossed paths with its employees at industry gatherings. Anyway, when I was applying I noticed that there are several jobs currently open (the company has ~30 employees and there are six jobs posted). I think no more than one or two could feasibly be due to growth. Additionally, I have been eying this company for awhile and this is historically not a place with high turnover. Can I ask in the interview why they have so many openings all of a sudden?
Yes! It’s fine to say, “I noticed you have six jobs posted right now! Is this all due to growth?”
It’s possible that it is all due to growth (maybe they had a sudden influx of funding, etc.), or they could have had a perfect storm of people leaving for school, moves, and family reasons, or who knows what. But it’s a reasonable question to ask.
my boss uses too much styrofoam, requiring receptionist to wear a fake tooth, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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