It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Should I wear a mask to a job interview?
I live in a state where masks were mandated in public spaces until recently as we move to limited reopening, but generally everyone is still wearing them in stores. My state has been hit hard, but less so my specific area. I have an in-person job interview tomorrow and was wondering whether or not I should wear a mask to the interview. I would prefer to as a precaution, but am not sure if that would look unprofessional. If it makes any difference, the business I’m interviewing at is not currently open to the public.
Wear the mask! It’s a public health recommendation, and you want to anyway. It does not look unprofessional in the current context.
If you happen to be interviewing with someone who has a problem with that, that’s incredibly useful information for you about whether this is a place you’d want to work. An employer that looks askance at you wearing a mask to an interview is an employer that’s going to be cavalier with your safety once you’re working there (and not just with COVID-19 either).
2. Job candidate wore a see-through shirt on a video interview
So this didn’t happen to me, but it did make me curious on how to handle this situation while keeping it appropriate.
My friend Bob was tasked with performing the first in-person interview for a candidate. Obviously, because of quarantine, all interviews are now being performed over webcam. The candidate he interviewed chose to wear a simple white t-shirt. I imagine this normally wouldn’t be a huge problem, maybe a bit too casual for an interview, but their office dress code is pretty casual anyway. Unfortunately, she also chose to wear no bra and we know this because Bob could see her nipples in full view! He conducted the interview as normal.
When Bob reached out to me, he was curious what my thoughts were and how to handle it. As much as I agree that it’s strange, I have also worn items of clothing that appeared fine in my home but turned out to be more translucent than expected.
My recommendation was to give her the benefit of the doubt and to make his decisions based on her resume and the actual interview itself. I would hope that next time around she’ll choose something more appropriate. That said, as a woman I desperately want someone to reach out to her to let her know but I imagine that’s probably too risky to bring up.
Do you have any thoughts on this? Is there a better way to handle this and do we need to reconsider how we judge an applicant during quarantine?
Assume it was an unintentional wardrobe malfunction, since it’s highly unlikely that she deliberately decided to expose her nipples during a job interview. And it doesn’t make sense to hold an unintentional wardrobe malfunction against someone, particularly on a video call during a pandemic (when it’s common for people not to realize how something will appear on camera).
If she otherwise seemed professional and to have good judgment, it’s not something that needs to be A Thing. If Bob already had concerns about her professionalism, I can see why he’s wondering if this is part of that larger picture — but then I’d focus on whatever those other concerns were and decide where to go from there (which could be deciding those other issues are prohibitive, or doing a second interview to get more data, or so forth).
And yeah, I understand the impulse to let her know, but this is one of those things where you just politely pretend it’s not happening.
3. Writing notes on your hand at work
Is it ever acceptable to be writing reminders or notes on your hand? A coworker of mine does this all the time, and I am intrigued as to why she does this as there is plentiful paper in the office.
Her hands are predominantly full by the end of the day and don’t look particularly appealing, especially when there could be clients around. My daughter is a student and has done the same in years gone by, which I have accepted but I was shocked when she recently came home from a professional work placement with these scribbles on herself. Is it just me or is this practice becoming more and more common, and should it be deemed acceptable? I have been known to do this myself on the odd occasion, but only at a pinch and would certainly not say it’s my norm.
It’s not a big deal to do it in a pinch, but if someone does it as their normal M.O., it’s going to come across as disorganized and a bit … professionally immature. It’s not something you’d see a senior exec doing (and if you did, they’d look very scattered). Carrying a small notebook will serve you better.
4. My colleagues are uninterested in my work
I started at a new job less than six months ago, joining a small team from a (mostly) family business. It is a complicated job managing a lot of different accounts but I dealt with the steep learning curve pretty quickly, even though it was tough. My coworkers are nice people and did their best to answer any questions I had.
The COVID crisis has complicated a lot of things, and it’s been even harder trying to do this job from home, but I have done okay, I think. What I don’t understand is why my boss and coworkers seem so uninterested in what I am doing. Everyone else is put on the weekly meeting agenda for project updates except for me — even though what I’m doing for the company at this time of year is absolutely central to their mission. (I don’t have delusions of grandeur — I’m the sole point person for the logistics of one of the major initiatives they do every year.) When I ask to be put on the agenda, they seem puzzled and instead say, “We can handle this through email if you need to.” During the “check in, what are you doing?” part of our weekly meetings, nobody asks about my (really huge!) project. When I speak up about how this project is going — and I always do it in a positive, prepared manner even when I have issues to discuss — I am mostly greeted with silence that other people don’t seem to get, and it’s awkward.
Recently, I found out that my predecessor in this position also felt ignored before she left after only a couple of years (and I heard that my boss seemed puzzled as to why she left). And this job has had relatively high turnover compared to the other jobs at the company. I am beginning to dread the weekly meetings because I always feel confused and demotivated afterward. I’m working at 150% on this project and yet I feel like my boss just isn’t at all interested in what I’m working on. What can I do to connect with my coworkers with what I am doing? It seems they don’t care “how the sausage is made.” Should I even care that much?
Talk to your boss! She’s in the best position to give you insight into what’s going on or help you change things. Why not say to her, “I’ve noticed I’m not included on the weekly agendas for project updates and when I’ve asked to be included, people have seemed resistant. And when I’ve tried to proactively offer updates anyway, there’s not much engagement. I’m reading it as lack of interest in the X work, but I’m wondering if there’s context I’m missing.”
5. I’m being offered a new role but without a clear salary
I’m a mid-career professional and have recently been offered the opportunity to take on a higher-level role starting next month. The last time I had a promotion, I had been doing higher-level work for a long time prior to the promotion, so I accepted immediately and was happy with the salary adjustment, and continued on with the roles I’d already been playing. This time, the jump would be bigger, both in terms of stress and responsibility, and in terms of the salary gap between levels — I would essentially be replacing my boss.
I’ve been assured that the role would come with a promotion, but no one has given me a time frame (typically we promote people only once a year — nine months from now) or a new proposed salary. It seems like they assume we’ll figure that out later. Frankly, I like the work I’m able to do in my current role and I’m not sure I want the promotion unless it’s fairly compensated, and not in 6+ months. Is there an appropriate way to say, “Thanks for the opportunity, but please make me a clear offer?”
“I’m very interested in doing this work, but I want to make sure I understand what the title and salary will be before we move forward. Can we iron that out so I have a clearer picture of what this would look like?”
should I wear a mask to a job interview, candidate interviewed in a see-through shirt, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
from Ask a Manager https://ift.tt/36C0OD0
0 Comments