It’s six answers to six questions. Here we go…
1. My husband’s company is trying to find out whose spouse has cancer
My husband’s company is in the processing of signing with a new health insurance carrier. The owner of his company called him to discuss my health conditions (I am on his insurance). My husband told him my only problem was high blood pressure, which was under control. The guy calling said they were trying to find out whose wife was being treated for breast cancer. My husband thinks they plan to fire the employee! Can this be reported to someone? I find this appalling!
What the hell.
The Americans with Disabilities Act protects workers with disabilities from adverse employment actions based on their disabilities — and gives the same protections to workers who are associated with people with disabilities (like spouses and other family members). Employers also can’t grill employees about their spouses’ medical conditions in an attempt to ferret out who they want to discriminate against.
Your husband could report this to the EEOC (although I suspect it might not enough for them to act on yet), and he can alert his other coworkers to the call and what he thinks might be happening. If multiple employees get upset about this, that might create pressure on the owner to reconsider whatever his impulses are here. (It’s worth noting that it’s possible the owner isn’t in fact planning on firing the spouse of the cancer patient, but whatever his intentions are, what he’s doing isn’t okay.)
2. My boss is making us return to the office because our governor re-opened the state
I am so mad writing this question to you I almost can’t see. I am a Georgia-based worker and one of two employees. My boss is making us return to the office on Monday because the governor is re-opening the state. I talked to my manager about what needs to be done to re-open the office this morning and I told her point blank this was a horrible idea. She agreed, but our boss won’t budge and wants us back in.
I just got over the fact that three weeks ago my boss sent me to the office to make her binders for four days straight while the janitors cleaned our office without masks or gloves. I drop off the binders, and my boss doesn’t answer the door, just asks me to leave them outside for them to “air out.” I was livid for two weeks after since my boss recognized the risk of me creating these binders enough to have me wipe them down and leave them outside her house, but not enough for me not to go to the office in the first place.
I know you always advocate for pushing back, but it looks like my manager is rolling with this and unless the governor closes the state again, it looks like I will be back in office. Is there anything I can do? I’m at the bottom of the hierarchy and my only other coworker won’t push back but I’m scared to leave my house.
I’m so sorry. You don’t have good options here. If you had more coworkers, you could try pushing back with a group, which can have more weight. You could try convincing your lone coworker to take a stand with you and say neither of you feel comfortable returning. You could take that stand on your own and try holding firm. It may not work. Ultimately you may need to decide if you’re willing to lose your job over it, which isn’t a position anyone should ever have to be in.
A couple of other things to consider if nothing else works: If you have accrued PTO, you could try using all that up. You could also offer to the the time unpaid, or ask to be furloughed.
But there just aren’t good options here, and your governor and your employer are being cavalier with people’s lives and our public health system. I’m sorry.
3. Should you always answer the phone when you’re job-searching?
I’m currently job searching. On applications and my resume, I list both my email and my phone number. Today, I got a call from an unknown number. I didn’t answer, since I’m used to getting spam and political calls. They left a message, and it was for an interview!
Should I just always answer the phone now that I’m job searching? Or should I expect that employers will leave a message?
While you’re actively job searching, if you’re somewhere where you could relatively easily answer your phone if it rings during business hours, it’s smart to. Most employers will leave messages, but some won’t. Others will leave a message but then when you try to call them back, you won’t be able to reach them. (Those are the employers who stop after they reach X number of people for phone interviews and discard candidates who come in after that.) So if you can answer, it makes sense to.
But adjust this for the realities of life. You don’t need to pull over in traffic to answer an unknown number or walk out of a meeting when your phone buzzes. But if you’re able to talk, it makes sense to answer.
Also, the more senior you are, the less this matters. When you’re applying for high-level roles, you’re much less likely to encounter employers who give up after not reaching you once.
4. People misspell my name
There are people I work with very closely who more than half the time will leave the last letter of my name off in emails, misspelling it with the far less common spelling. Think “Sara” instead of “Sarah.” I realize this is horribly low stakes but it drives me crazy, especially since my full name is right there in my email address and on my signature line. On a scale of 1 to “very,” how passive aggressive is it for me to respond to people’s email dropping the last letter of their name when they do it to mine? Or to find another spelling of their name to use — sorry Michael, you’re now Michail. Another great option would be to capitalize the last letter of my name on my signature.
I know you’re going to say, just talk to them, but it feels like it’s too insignificant of an issue to bring to up. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but it does. I thought with a name like Alison (or is it Allison or Alyson), you could relate. Should I just let this go?
Since you brought up me, I’ll tell you that personally I’d let it go. People misspell my name ALL THE TIME and it’s so much easier to just choose not to care. I’d care if it were a close friend or family member doing it, but a coworker? It’s been liberating to decide I don’t care. (I’d care more if they were calling me by the wrong name — like Alice or Alyssa or something — but if they’re just misspelling it, they can have at it.)
That said, it really bothers some people and there’s nothing wrong with mentioning in your reply, “By the way, it’s Sarah!” But there are only so many times you can correct people before you start to look … kind of like a stick-in-the-mud, a la the infamous “don’t call me Liz” scenario. I mean, it’s your name, and people should get it right, but in reality people mess this stuff up and there’s a point where you’ve corrected them, it’s not working, and you have to let it go.
As for the passive-aggressive replies you propose — if you have a jokey relationship with the person, go to town. (I once did something similar to my niece when she misspelled my name, and now she always writes it as “Allllllllllison” and I am okay with that.) But if you don’t have that kind of relationship, then no, it’ll probably come across as too much.
5. Collecting unemployment for short furloughs
I work for a hospital in a non-clinical role, and it‘s looking like they’re going start to furlough some employees in the coming weeks/months due to the loss of revenue from elective procedures/appointments. It’s still unclear whether my team will be affected or how this will be handled, but given that communication and support from hospital leadership has been … lackluster … through all of this, I doubt we’ll get much notice. The rumor we are hearing is that affected employees will be furloughed for a week on a rolling basis, and there may be a couple of waves of these rolling furloughs.
I know that in this economy I’m lucky to be one of the people who is able to work completely remotely and still has a job, but even losing a week or two worth of pay will hurt. (It’s a nonprofit children’s hospital and I work primarily on grant-funded projects so salaries reflect that.) From what I’ve been reading, furloughed employees are eligible for unemployment, but does that apply if the furlough is that short? Or if there are a couple of week-long furloughs over the course of 3-4 months?
Yes, you can apply for unemployment for short periods of furlough and should be eligible to receive it. This is going to be complicated by the fact that it’s taking a really long time to file in most states right now because their systems are overwhelmed, so you likely won’t get processed and receive payments as quickly as you normally would … and by the time they do it, you’ll be back at work, but they should cover you for the time you were out. (And depending on the state, it might be that you keep your claim active and just report the income on the weeks you do work, rather than filling new claims every time. I’m just guessing though, so confirm that with your state.)
6. Is it okay to join video meetings on my phone?
Is it unprofessional or inappropriate to join video Zoom meetings on my phone? The picture and audio quality on the phone are way better than on my old laptop, and it seems to make for much better meeting quality overall. But I can’t help but feel in the back of my head that I’m taking a selfie or Snapchatting or something. Should I just put that aside and use my phone? Or should I figure out a better computer set-up? (I always prop my phone on the desk so it’s steady, and so I can access documents on my computer.)
Nah, you’re fine. Use your phone!
company is trying to find out whose spouse has cancer, answering the phone when job-searching, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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