It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Work happy hours without the boss – AITA?
I work at a small (fewer than 20 staff) nonprofit. We have two types of employees: the ones who work directly with clients (like me) and the managers/administrators. Sometimes, we direct service providers have disagreements with management regarding hours, leave, workload, the usual work stuff. Basically, they’re variations on “you don’t understand why X, Y, and Z are hard to implement because you don’t actually know what we’re going through.”
Occasionally (maybe two or three times in the five years I’ve worked here) some of the service providers have arranged happy hour meet-ups, often to vent about work. We did not invite the managers because we would probably complain about them. (“Can you believe what we have to do now? Where are we supposed to find the time for that?”) Our executive director found out about the most recent one a couple days after it happened (pre-social-distancing) and is upset, saying it was unprofessional and unfair to have a group of employees gather to talk about the organization behind their back. I don’t know if she was addressing what we talked about or if she was just upset they weren’t invited. Did we step out of line?
Not only is it not unprofessional to talk about your management without them there, your right to do that is protected by federal law. The National Labor Relations Act protects your right to talk with coworkers about wages and working conditions without your management present.
Even aside from that, though, your ED is being ridiculous. It’s normal for people to want to have a happy hour without their managers there, and to want to talk about work more freely than they could otherwise. That said, if these are really grouse sessions and not just casual happy hours, I can see why your ED is concerned (either there are legit issues that need to be addressed or people are engaging in behavior that can be pretty toxic to a team) — but the right response is to try to address the issues that are concerning you, not to complain she wasn’t invited.
2. HR told me to cover up my scars
I work in a laboratory where everyone wears lab coats. We each have a desk outside of the lab where we sit to write our reports and read emails. The dress code is very lax, most people wear t-shirts everyday. To give you an idea of the culture, my boss regularly wears a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt with a curse word on the back.
I’ve been working there for five years now. A few months ago, “Brandy” started at our office. She is about the same level as me in the company structure. She recently went to our HR person and complained that I should not be allowed to wear short-sleeved shirts. Her rationale was that she didn’t want to have to see my scars. I used to have issues with depression and I would cut my arms, so I have quite a few scars on them. Since this was when I was a teenager, and I am in my 40’s now, the scars are pretty faded at this point. HR has told me that I need to wear long sleeves at all times since this makes her uncomfortable. I have read before that companies can mandate that one person has to wear something different from everyone else, but is this different because these scars are the result of a, now resolved admittedly, medical issue?
This is BS, and your HR is terrible. You don’t tell someone to cover up because someone else is uncomfortable; this is Brandy’s issue, not yours. Would your HR department also tell women to wear longer skirts because a man complained he was uncomfortable seeing their legs? Or, uh, this?
Legally … it’s pretty iffy. You can’t treat people differently because of a disability or the perception that they’re disabled. I can’t say for sure whether scars from depression years ago would trigger that protection, but no sensible HR person should care enough to argue it. I’d go back to HR and tell them you’re sure the company is not truly telling someone they need to cover up the signs of a former medical condition, and you will be continuing to follow the same dress code as everyone else. Loop in your boss too, as long as she’s not a similar disaster.
3. I’m furloughed and HR is still emailing me
After reducing everyone’s salary (or hours) by 20%, my employer of 10 years furloughed 20-25% of its workforce due to loss of business resulting from COVID-19. I’m one of the furloughed employees. The company is not paying any of our benefits and we cannot use PTO time. My badge, company laptop, and mobile phone were taken, access to my work email was blocked, and I had to empty my office the very same day. They plan to bring us back to work in less than six months, but who knows.
The HR director, Mary, has contacted the furloughed employees through our personal emails twice. The first time was to explain that the employees have taken up a collection to help financially struggling current and furloughed employees with expenses. The process to obtain these funds is to fill out a form explaining how much you are requesting and why you need assistance. then an employee-led committee makes a decision on your request. I know they mean well, but I find this offer of charity offensive, although others may feel differently. I decided to ignore this email.
The very next day Mary emailed us again, this time to send us the employee newsletter. I’m a little perplexed — but mostly angry — about this. I’m clearly not an employee, but they expect me to read the newsletter? I thing it is very out of line. There’s also a possibility that furloughed employees could have received this by mistake.
Mary and I are at the same level, and we are congenial, but I (silently) question her judgement often. Am I just overreacting to these emails, or is Mary out of line? Would it be a good idea for me to ask to be taken off of these lists, or do I just leave it alone?
I think you’re overreacting, and I’d leave it alone.
While you don’t need or want the financial assistance, other employees might — and might be grateful to know about it. Your company can’t know who does and doesn’t need it, so it makes sense that they sent it to all of you.
I can see why you’re nor interested in the company newsletter right now, but they probably sent it to you as part of an effort to reinforce that you’re furloughed, not laid off — meaning they still consider you an employee long-term and they plan to bring you back when they can. But you certainly don’t need to read it! Delete freely.
4. Should your resume list an internship that was rescinded due to Covid-19?
If a student had a summer internship lined up, but the opportunity was rescinded due to Covid-19 (through circumstances outside of their control), should they put that rescinded internship on their resume? Is it better suited for their cover letter? Would the answer be different if it was a full-time position vs. summer internship? On one hand, it doesn’t make sense to put a job you’ve never performed on your resume. On the other, having a job rescinded due to extenuating circumstances leaves an unexplained employment gap. What type of phrasing would you recommend to students in this situation?
I wouldn’t put it on a resume. It’s not going to hurt you if you do, but it’s not going to strengthen your candidacy. There aren’t any accomplishments associated with it, other than being selected for the internship in the first place. I suppose if it’s a really prestigious organization or program, there’s more of an argument for it … but if you were a strong enough candidate to be selected for something highly prestigious, you’re likely to have other accomplishments to list anyway.
Basically, if you want to mention it, you can but you’re better off using that space to talk about something else.
But you could reference it in your cover letter to explain why you’re now looking — something like, “I had been scheduled to start a summer internship with (organization name) but it’s been canceled due to the pandemic and I’m now looking for…”
5. How long do I have to forward emails to my old boss, when I still work for the same company?
Until five months ago, I was the executive assistant to a VIP within a large, international organization that has a number of offices around the globe. I was thrilled when I was promoted to a completely different, non-admin position within the same organization with a lot more responsibility. I moved to an office in a different country, but my work email address remains the same. For several weeks leading up to and following my move, I put up an out-of-office message indicating the name and contact info of my replacement. I notified all my key contacts that I was leaving and removed myself from office distro lists.
But it seems that given my boss’s huge network of contacts, some people didn’t get the message. Five months later, I am still receiving near-daily emails related to my old job. I’m trying to focus on my new role and frankly am tired of forwarding emails to my replacement and/or replying to provide her email address. But at the same time, I fear that if I delete or ignore the emails, my old boss will miss something important and I’ll be to blame. How long am I reasonably responsible for emails pertaining to my old job? Is there a ever point at which I can send them to the junk folder?
Because you still work for the same company, your obligations here are higher. You don’t necessarily need to reply back every time, but you do need to keep forwarding the messages on. (That said, it might save you time in the long run if you create a form letter asking people to remove your email from their files, and save that as a template so you can just quickly paste it in, send, delete, and move on.) You also might figure out if there are email rules you can create to auto-forward these emails to your replacement without you even seeing them.
In general, though, because this is a VIP in your company, I’d give it more time before you consider just deleting the messages; that’s too likely to bite you at some point.
work happy hours without the boss, I was told to cover up my scars at work, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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