It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My employer wants to bring me back to work — at half my old pay
I live in California and I was a bar manager making $26/hour plus tips (only when bartending, not managing). Shelter-in-place happened and my boss laid off the whole company. They’ve asked me to return to a 40/hour work week at a reduced rate of $13.50/hour (nearly half my prior wage), stating I’ll lose unemployment benefits if I turn them down. What are my options? Is their proposal legal?
You know, it’s one thing for them to see if you want to come back at a significantly lower wage — fine, that’s their prerogative. But when they try to threaten your unemployment benefits in the process, it looks a lot like they’re exploiting the current situation to scare you into accepting wages you otherwise wouldn’t so they can lower their payroll costs, and that’s a real crap move.
They’re also wrong. Most states, including California, only require you to accept “suitable work,” and part of the definition of “suitable” is that the pay is within the range of what you were earning previously. California allows you to turn down work that pays “substantially less than the prevailing wage for that occupation in that locality” and/or compares unfavorably with your previous earnings. So you should be able to turn this down without jeopardizing your unemployment benefits.
Let your coworkers know too.
2. My coworker posts awful things on Facebook
I had a health scare before the COVID scare and added a few of my coworkers on Facebook because they wanted to keep up with how I was doing and I did not want to talk about it at work. Seemed like the easiest thing to do.
I work closely on a team of five. We all have the same job title, but one of us is in a team lead role. Our lead is a great coworker and we’ve been close teammates for a while. I’ve always known she was a little woo-ier than me: she was vocal about not vaccinating her kid, she’s been weirdly against flu shots for a while, that kind of thing.
Being on her Facebook has been eye-opening. I don’t know if it’s the extra time at home or what, but she’s been posting some really zany stuff — think “the Pope wears shoes made of human skin” and “Lady Gaga is part of a satanic child abuse ring.” Also, apparently the coronavirus is a plan by Bill Gates to deprive us of our liberty. She’s also posting really, really hateful things about immigrants when a large part of our job is teaching immigrant children.
I’ve got some stuff to wrestle with on my end (how does she feel about me, her out coworker?) but my biggest concern is whether or not I should tip off someone above us in our organization, given that she’s posting these things under her full name that would be easy for parents to find. I don’t want to play into her persecution delusion but I honestly don’t know how to face her when we go back to school knowing what I know, and I wouldn’t want her teaching my kids.
You work with immigrant kids and she’s posting hateful things about immigrants. That alone makes it worth flagging for someone above you. The other stuff is alarming enough that it probably warrants it too, but this part makes it an easy call.
You could say, “In addition to being personally off-putting and making me concerned about her ability to treat colleagues and students fairly, it seems like a PR disaster waiting to happen, and I felt uncomfortable not bringing it to your attention in case it’s something you’d want to know about.”
3. Can I be told not to come back to work because I take the bus?
My organization is all working from home right now until at least the end of May, but managers are starting to reach out about how we will be commuting to work when we re-open.
I might just be cooped up and paranoid, but could they decide to lay me off/fire me for being a public transit commuter? I know I’m at-will and they could let me go for any legal reason, but could commuting via public transport become an employment liability specifically because of the close contact with strangers it requires?
I wouldn’t assume they’re planning to fire people who rely on public transit! I mean, it’s possible and some employers do such ridiculous things that we should never underestimate such possibilities, but I’d look to what you know of your employer first — how reasonable they are and how well they treat people generally. Unless you know them to be horrible, it’s more likely that they’re thinking about things like tiers of returns, where people at lower risk (including not taking public transit) return first.
But there’s no need to speculate when you can ask. It’s fine to say, “I’m still working that out — can you tell me how that will affect things?”
4. Employers wants seven references in three categories
I am fortunate to work in a higher-demand industry where non-management roles do not typically involve reference checks. I’m now interviewing for a line manager role with 5-7 reports, and we have reached the pre-offer stage of the interview process. The company has said that they would like to perform seven reference checks before hire: 2-3 former managers, 2-3 former reports, and 2-3 former peers.
The recruiter said that they would want to do a few reference checks, then potentially make an offer, then do the other reference checks after I’ve signed. However, seven reference checks seems… excessive, especially given the compensation range they cited, which is about the same as what I made in my last non-management job? Is this normal?
No. It’s excessive. Three references are reasonable and normal. Seven are not.
Moreover, saving some of the references for after you’ve accepted the offer is a terrible practice. If the reference checks will inform their decision, they need to do them pre-offer. And if they won’t inform their decision, they shouldn’t be wasting people’s time.
5. How do I explain I’m applying for new jobs because of a pay cut?
I have been at my current employer for about 3.5 years, and I recently came back to work after being on FMLA for a month recovering from a minor surgery. I have just started a new position as of my return. The new position is more of a lateral move than a promotion, and it came with a slight pay increase. COVID-19 has affected my employer’s business, and everyone who wasn’t furloughed has had their salary cut by 20%. This cut is indefinite and, frankly, I’m not sure the pay will ever come back. I really can’t survive on this reduced pay — I’m making less than I did when I started working here!
I had been job hunting anyway, as I’ve been looking to go back to the industry I used to work in, so now my job search is in full swing. I’m confident in my resume/cover letter skills (thanks to you!) but I’m not sure what to do when I am contacted for a phone screen or an interview. Is it going to look bad that I’m jumping ship right after moving to a new position? How do I explain this without seeming greedy?
It’s not going to look bad! All you need to say is something like, “The pandemic has been hard on the business, and I’m looking for something more stable” and everyone will get it. You don’t need to get into more details, and no reasonable person will think you’re greedy for wanting a stable income. (Seriously, if anyone is looking for an easy reason to explain leaving a job, the current situation covers everything.)
my employer wants me to come back at half my pay, coworker posts awful things on Facebook, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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