It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Is this mug inappropriate for work?
I want to bring my favorite mug into the office—it’s a silly mug with a picture of a cat with a pentagram that says, “Puuurrraise Satan,” but my mom (she works in another branch of the same company) cautioned me not to bring it into the office or even use it on video calls because our CEO is older and deeply religious and would take offense.
The thing is, I never see him as I rarely have calls with him and he doesn’t come into our office, so I feel like it’s not a big deal. Also I feel like the mug is clearly a joke and even if not, is it inappropriate to have a “religious” mug? I imagine a mug with a proverb on it would be fine, so why not mine?
Some people are going to find it inflammatory and/or offensive, and probably not just your CEO. You might decide you’re okay with that, but if you don’t feel strongly about the mug and/or your right to have it, I wouldn’t spend the capital; I’d just find another mug.
To be clear, that’s not the advice I’d give you if the mug reflected your religious beliefs, but it doesn’t sound like you’re actually a satanist. You’re legally entitled to keep religious items in personal work areas that aren’t regularly open to the public to whatever extent you’re allowed non-religious expression there. (In other words, they can’t have different rules for the religious stuff than they have for other personal things, so they couldn’t allow a mug promoting the NFL while banning a mug with a bible quote on it.)
But it doesn’t sound like this is a religious item for you; rather, you described it as a silly mug. And generally it’s not worth causing professional tension over silly mugs.
2. Should I tell my yoga studio their unpaid volunteers are illegal?
You answered a question similar to this in the past, but this is a different take and I’m curious what your response would be.
I belong to a small yoga studio. There is one owner, three teachers, less than 100 students. It is definitely a for-profit business. I like the environment and the owner.
A small handful of students (less than 10) volunteer to help with tasks. They water the plans, sweep the floors, restock the bathrooms, and do the laundry. They have a special name for this group, “Karma Queens” (the implication of karma is icky to me). They get public, sincere thanks for helping, but are not paid at all. There is a blurb on the website soliciting volunteers for this group.
As a student, what is my obligation to raise this as (most likely) illegal, since for-profit businesses are supposed to pay anyone who works for them? On the one hand, it seems like most of the volunteers are pretty close to the owner and thus are doing this as a favor they would probably do anyway. However, seeing this as an explicit volunteer group is kind of off-putting, especially with the implication that these people are garnering “karma.” If it was under-the-table, I probably wouldn’t have such a problem with it, and these are all adults who can make their own decisions.
I also really like the studio, it has been one of the most positive yoga experiences I have had in the past decade of practicing. A case could be made for letting the teacher know so that she doesn’t get in trouble in the future. So: What obligation does a client have to a business who is using unpaid labor?
Aggh, yoga studios. They love doing this, and yes, it’s illegal.
I don’t think you’re obligated to speak up as client, although that would change the more you felt the volunteers were being exploited. The less well positioned they are to assert themselves (which could be the case because of anything from, say, youth/inexperience to language barriers), the more I’d think you had an obligation to say something.
But there’s also an argument for it being a kindness to let the studio know that if this gets reported, they could be fined and ordered to pay volunteers back-pay for their time — which I’d bet they’re currently oblivious to. (The ubiquity of this kind of arrangement means people are often totally shocked to learn it violates the law.) That said, you’d want to be prepared to be treated as on some level hostile to the studio’s well-being for raising it … which is obviously ridiculous, but is a thing that can happen.
3. How much heads-up should I give my boss about a COVID-19 scenario?
My sister is a front-line health care worker. She always has been my hero and my best friend. Back at the onset of the pandemic, I made her a promise: if she and her partner were to contract COVID and became too ill to take care of their two, preschool-aged children, I would come to their house to care for them. If this happens, I don’t know how much time I would need off of work: presumably a few weeks to take care of my nephews, and then if I contracted the virus myself, another few weeks — hopefully just a few. At any rate, there is no one else in my family who could step up, and it is the very least I can do to support my sister, after all she has risked and sacrificed.
Back when I made this promise, I decided I would not tell my boss preemptively. She’s very level-headed and compassionate, and I’m pretty sure she’d support my decision. But I work for a small nonprofit in a senior leadership position; we’re a tightly run ship, and I’m currently leading about half a dozen projects at the moment. Telling my boss back in March of a possibility that I could be out for a month without any warning would just add to her stress level without giving her any real outlet for contingency planning. I mean, what could she do? Shelve all my projects until there’s a vaccine?
Up until this point, my sister has found a low incidence of Coronavirus among her patients, and her risk of exposure was low. Then she learned yesterday that one of her colleagues, with whom she had spent multiple hours, has tested positive for COVID. She won’t know if she has contracted the virus for a few more days — she has to wait to get tested, and then wait to get the results. I’m terrified for her.
I’m wondering whether this is the right moment to tell my boss about my promise to take care of my nephews, or if I should (a) wait to see if her test comes back positive, or (b) wait to see whether her test comes back positive and she and her partner experience symptoms so severe that they need me to step in. My gut is that the answer is (a), but incidence of Coronavirus is rising in our state and I have a feeling that even if my sister dodges a bullet this time, what was once a vague possibility is now a much more likely scenario.
I’d actually say B — wait until her test comes back positive and she needs you to step in to help, if that happens. That may never come to pass, so giving your boss a heads-up now isn’t really actionable info for her. It’s likely to stress her out without being useful in any practical ways. Cross that bridge if and when you need to. I hope you won’t need to!
4. My old boss keeps tagging me in LinkedIn posts
This is a fairly low-stakes question, but it’s bugging me. My boss, the head of our department, left my organization back in December and has recently decided to try and become an independent consultant. He is posting quite a bit on LinkedIn, and keeps tagging me (and the rest of his former employees/my current team) in his posts, asking us to weigh in. I suspect he is actually trying to get us to like or comment on his posts so they receive more visibility. I didn’t like my boss when I was working for him, in part because I found him to be smarmy and self-serving, and being tagged in his posts really aggravates me. So far I’ve just been ignoring his posts and hoping he’ll stop tagging me, but he’s still doing it. I’m probably tagged in 1-2 posts a week. Should I just keep ignoring him, or is there anything I can do to get him to stop?
Yeah, if you’re not engaging back, at some point this is a form of spam. But you can stop him from doing it! LinkedIn has a setting where you can prevent people from tagging you. (It’ll prevent everyone from doing it, not just him, but you could always change that setting back in a month or so once you’ve —hopefully — broken him of the habit.)
You can also remove individual tags from individual posts if you want — which is a more passive-aggressive way of doing it but might be satisfying.
Of course, there’s also the option of asking him to stop, but “stop tagging me” can feel like a petty thing to say (at least to anyone who’s never been annoyed by this kind of campaign), so you’re likely better off with one of the two options above.
5. Who do I address my cover letter to?
Who do I address a cover letter to if I don’t know who is in charge of hiring?
This is directed towards a small/medium sized law firm (about 8-10 lawyers). There is no indication that they have a formal HR/hiring department.
Would it seem presumptuous to address it to the name partner who is the principal or head of the office? Or do I go with a generic greeting? Normally I would try to track down and find who to address it to, but again, it’s unclear which of them is going to be doing the hiring.
“Dear hiring manager” is fine. No one sensible cares whether you take the time to track down a name or not. (But don’t do “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Sir/Madam,” both of which are dated.)
Also, apropos of very little, let this serve as my periodic reminder that the hiring manager isn’t the person who manages all the hiring for an organization, but rather than the person who will be your boss if you’re hired for the job.
a questionable mug, unpaid volunteers at a yoga studio, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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