It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. I was hired as the expert but no one will listen to me
I was recently (two months ago) hired into a brand new position for a nonprofit that requires me to be the “subject matter expert” for a shared application. While I did not have experience with the exact application I was hired to manage, I do have experience with project managing the designing and use of similar applications. My main project right now is to clean up the data in the application and get everyone in the organization “rowing in the same direction” so we can get good insights from the info captured by the application. This is going to be a long-term, involved process that will require a lot of communication with all departments. I’ve developed a game plan and shared it with my CEO and my supervisor.
Now comes my dilemma: While the “upper levels” are very excited about the prospect of the results that will come from having me on board, I feel like I can barely get a word in edgewise about the subject expertise for which I’ve been hired! I haven’t had much opportunity to even open my mouth in a meeting about what my thoughts are on realistic results, timeline, or what is needed to make the project a success. I’m concerned that if I can’t get anyone to listen at this point (because I’m given no space to communicate in the first place!), I am being set up for failure down the line when we actually get started on the project. Truly, I’ve even tried to “politely” interrupt, but the speaker just keeps going without any acknowledgment that I might have something to add. The one time I did manage to say something in a video meeting related to the application, my supervisor walked away! I know I’m still new, but my experience and knowledge are what I was hired for. What do you do when you’re hired as the “expert,” but no one is interested in hearing from you?
You’ve got to be more forceful about speaking up. You might not know the politics of the org well enough yet to know if you can do that in meetings with higher-ups, but you absolutely can — and need to be — more assertive about raising these issues with your boss. Ask for a call with her ASAP where you say, “I want to talk about what results are realistic to expect, our timeline, and what resources we need to meet the goals I’ve heard laid out in these meetings.” If you have trouble getting a call with her, lay out the basics in an email — but be assertive about trying to set up a call first.
It sounds like you also need to flag that higher-ups are moving full steam ahead on plans without giving you a chance for input, and ask about the best way to ensure your input is included. But before you do that, I think you’ve got to consider the possibility that you being in those meetings was them ensuring your input was included, and because you didn’t speak up, they assumed they had your agreement. This might be a culture where you just need to jump in, speak up, and assert yourself (as in, “before we go any further, I need to talk about what the timeline and workload would look like for something like that”), rather than waiting for a clear opening. So you might need to own that you didn’t do that, explain that it’s a different style than you’re used to, and resolve to do it going forward.
2. I accidentally shared a list of my personal debts with my team
About a month ago, I started a new job, a huge promotion. Because of the pandemic, I’ve been working at home 100% of the time, and I haven’t gotten to know most of my coworkers very well yet. I’ve received overwhelmingly positive praise so far from my supervisor, but I struggle with severe anxiety issues so I’m constantly battling the idea that I suck at life and everyone hates me. I understand objectively that’s not reasonable, but my mind begs to differ.
Last night, when I was working on a personal spreadsheet and went to print it, I somehow accidentally saved it to the shared drive my entire team uses. The spreadsheet is a list of personal debts and their projected payoff dates. I don’t have a crazy amount of debt (less than most households), but I’m deeply anxious and a very private person.
It’s possible no one would have seen it, but this morning, my direct supervisor found it and he emailed a copy to the team to ask whose it was before he deleted it from the shared drive (I don’t think it was malicious — they seem to be a very close knit team — and he’s been a great supervisor so far).
The sheet doesn’t have identifying information, and I have no idea whether they could see the author via the copied attachment (not shared from the share drive, a separate copy — meaning they can always access that copy). I emailed my boss and apologized, and he told me not to worry about it, but I’m still really upset and unsure what else to do. The idea that my coworkers have seen my personal debt is horrifying me. The idea that I stupidly saved it to a public drive is even worse.
I don’t know how embarrassing this gaffe really is or how to move past it. I feel like it made me seem irresponsible in several respects, and look deeply unprofessional. How do I handle this?
Oh my goodness, this is your anxiety brain messing with you. This didn’t make you look irresponsible or unprofessional on any level. People have debts. People also occasionally save a personal file in the wrong place, especially when they’re working from home.
This wasn’t scandalous in any way. Your coworkers were probably profoundly uninterested in it, and no one is judging you for having an average (or below average, it sounds like) level of debt. This is on par with accidentally sharing a list of monthly bills, nothing more. Your grocery list would be more interesting to people (and to be clear, that would still be quite boring).
Give yourself the gift of wiping this from your mind, as there’s absolutely nothing you need to do or worry about here.
3. The ethics of proceeding with a planned restructuring now
I’ve been working on a restructuring effort for the past several months; I was due to tell my team in two weeks, including the two affected employees, that their roles would be eliminated. The plan had always been that we would open two different, lower-level roles that these employees would be eligible to apply for. That said, I’m not sure that these employees would want to apply for lower-level roles, and they’re not quite qualifed for these new roles, either. That wasn’t a huge worry for me or for HR, as my overall (large) organization had been posting plenty of jobs that they would be qualified for and could likely easily get.
However, my organization has now implemented a hiring freeze due to current COVID-19-related financial instability. If I proceed with the restructuring, I’d be turning these employees out into a marketplace flooded with 3.3 million unemployment claims last week alone.
We do need this restructuring; these roles aren’t the right ones for what we need to accomplish moving forward. But I’m truly shaken by the idea that what was pretty straightforward to me earlier could now be devastating to these employees. My gut says to hold off until my company lifts the hiring freeze and starts posting again. What do you think?
If there’s any possible way you can hold off, hold off. It’s never a great time for people to lose their jobs, but now is an especially terrible time. It will be much harder for them to find new work, and they’ll lose their health insurance at the worst possible time. Given the situation we’re in, you’ve got to prioritize them as humans above everything else right now.
A different option you could think about: If you could choose between not proceeding with the restructure at all right now or doing it with these two employees in the new roles (presumably keeping them at their current salaries), which option would you prefer? Even though they’re not as qualified for the new jobs as you’d like, it’s possible the benefits of being able to move forward would still make that the better choice. (Obviously don’t do this if they’re really unqualified, but if they’re just slightly underqualified and they’ve shown an ability to learn, it might make sense to consider … although you’d also need to think about whether having them in those jobs when this is all over will ultimately make things harder on everyone.) This probably isn’t the right move — to the point that I almost deleted this entire paragraph — but it’s worth having in your head as you think this through.
4. My boss wants everyone to report how they and their families are
As with most companies now, a majority of my office is telecommuting and has been doing so for at least week now. Today, my boss sent out an email to everyone asking if they are healthy and how our families are doing. He said he wanted to hear back from every person. Considering the pandemic, can a boss ask these questions? If so, what would be an appropriate general response? Should I even respond at all? I’ve always been cordial to my boss, but by no means do I ever talk to him about personal issues or consider him a friend so I would not otherwise disclose any private information to him.
I asked this letter-writer, “Was your sense that he’s asking to show care and concern for people, or more that he’s scrutinizing people’s health/potential exposure?” The answer: “That’s the part I can’t figure out. The email was very short so I couldn’t read much into it.”
He can certainly make collegial inquiries into how you and your family are doing, so I’d respond as if that’s what this is. You can keep it vague if you want: “We’re all hanging in. A weird time! How are you doing?”
If it turns out that he’s actually attempting a more formal inquiry, that would be inappropriate and potentially get into some legally problematic areas, but there’s a good chance that treating it like an expression of goodwill will be the end of it.
5. Can I ask for expedited hiring because of the quarantine?
Early in March, I was offered a job, which I credit entirely to your blog and your cover letter advice. However, just after I accepted, it was announced that my area (Los Angeles) would be placed under a mandatory shelter-in-place order and non-essential businesses like my new workplace would be closed. This delayed my start date, although my new employer has assured me that they’re still eager to have me come aboard when the city opens back up.
Given that things are so uncertain in my area, and that I’m only unable to work because my new employer’s office is closed, is it appropriate to ask that my employment paperwork is pushed through even though I wouldn’t be scheduled for any hours? My goal would be to make myself eligible for the extra two weeks of federally-funded sick leave that’s being offered to those who live in quarantined areas. (That’s my only option for additional benefits, as this is my first job after completing university and so I don’t have the kind of work history that would make me eligible for unemployment.)
I do think it’s fair that I be able to access these benefits, since I’m struggling financially due to the epidemic. But at the same time, it feels odd to ask my employer to put me on the books when I won’t be doing any work for at least two weeks, and possibly more. What do you think — is this an appropriate thing to ask?
Probably not, I’m sorry. Things are so up in the air that the company likely doesn’t want to officially bring you on board until they know for sure that they’re ready to move forward with you. Too much can change between now and then.
However, it’s likely that you’re covered under the new unemployment law that was passed last week. It makes people eligible for benefits who were “were scheduled to start employment and do not have a job or cannot reach their place of employment as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak” — which sounds like it applies to you. Try filing in your state.
I was hired as the expert but no one will listen, I accidentally shared a list of my personal debts with my team, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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