It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Is it okay to breastfeed my baby on video calls?
I had a baby in late March and will be returning to work next week, which means working from home in my case. My mother will be watching him while I work. One of the few bright spots of the pandemic is that instead of pumping breastmilk like I was planning, I will get to feed my baby directly. I imagine that despite my best planning, sometimes his feeding times will coincide with calls. My question is whether it’s unprofessional to breastfeed while on work calls or video meetings (with the camera pointing away from the baby). It takes me less than 10 minutes to feed him directly vs more than 20 minutes to deal with the pump, cleaning parts, and storing milk. In my state, women are allowed to breastfeed wherever they want but I’m not sure if it will be frowned upon or just awkward for my coworkers. If I were pumping milk under normal circumstances, I would close my office door and do it in private while still answering the phone and doing work.
I’d love for this answer to be “yes, do it without hesitation,” but how it’s perceived may depend on the meeting and to some extent the culture of your office. If it’s a pretty routine meeting with colleagues who know you, you should be able to do this; point the camera strategically and you should be fine. (Do make sure you mute the sound if he’s a noisy eater though.)
If it’s a meeting with a client or other VIPs, or if you’re in a very conservative office, I’d be more hesitant — not because of the breast-feeding, but because I’d be more hesitant to be holding a baby at all during that type of work call, even with no feeding involved. If he starts making noise or squirming or so forth, in some office cultures that’s going to read as you not fully focused on the meeting. That’s not true in all work cultures, though, so that’s where knowing yours comes in.
If you’re in a meeting where you’re not fully comfortable doing it, one option is just to turn off your video for that call (or that portion of the call.)
2. My interviewer asked if I had any credit issues he should know about
I had a pretty embarrassing job interview last week and was wondering if I could get your feedback about it. I was interviewing for a role that is not in the banking or financial industry for a job title I’ve held before at other companies for years. During the meeting, the interviewer mentioned that part of the pre-employment background screening would be a credit check and he asked me if there were any issues on my credit report that he needed to know about. I was caught off guard and pretty embarrassed because I am rebuilding my credit and I’ve never been asked this during an initial job interview. I just gave a vague answer that downplayed some of the negative marks on my credit report. I sent an email earlier today removing myself from consideration for the role because I didn’t want to be embarrassed again after the credit and background check came back. This interviewer seemed to really like me, we’ve worked at the same company in the past, and it seemed I had a good chance of getting the job until this issue came up.
Is this normal? I’ve read that it’s not legal to ask about financial history during an interview but wasn’t sure if that was true.
Most of the time when you see pre-employment credit checks, they’re for positions that involve money in some way, although some employers have broadened their use as a way of assessing your responsibility in general (which is gross and hugely problematic, given how many Americans have poor credit because of medical debt or poverty).
At the federal level, pre-employment credit checks are legal with some restrictions (they need your consent before pulling the report, must give you a copy of the report if they plan to reject you because of it, and need to send you an official notice if they don’t hire you as a result). But some states do prohibit them or restrict them to certain types of role, and some prohibit inquiries in an interview like the one you received. So you’d want to check your state law.
Assuming it’s legal in your state, the way your interviewer brought it up was still weird and guaranteed to make you feel put on the spot. He should have waited until he was ready to offer you the job and then given you a non-pressurey opening to to provide any context you wanted to provide (and ideally would have that done by HR or someone else who wasn’t him, since most people aren’t super enthused about talking about credit issues with their would-be manager), not put you on the spot like he did.
3. No one hears me introducing myself on conference calls
I’ve just started a new job, and this is the first time I’ve ever been on conference calls with any regularity. I’m having issues being heard on audio-only calls — I try to jump in at an appropriate time to say hello, but I keep being spoken over or not heard, to the point where I recently was on a call where the call leader assumed that my number was a silent hacker eavesdropping on the call rather than me! I know part of this is difficulty interrupting people, and that if I wait for an opening I’ll never be heard, but what’s the best way to politely make sure people know I’m here?
Yeah, it sounds like you’re going to have be more aggressive about announcing yourself — to the point that you may need to interrupt whoever’s starting the meeting at the very outset to say, “Sorry to interrupt — I’m not sure anyone heard me say I’m here. This is Jane.” That might feel a little jarring to do, but if people are assuming you’re a silent hacker, it’s worth doing.
You also might be able to message whoever’s running the call to say, “Not sure if anyone heard me announce myself, so I’m making sure you know I’m on.” I would also pay attention to your voice volume — if you have a naturally softer voice, you may need to speak unnaturally loud (or what feels unnaturally loud to you) when you’re interjecting.
If you hate all these options, another one is to call in slightly early so you’re one of the first ones on, and thus don’t have as many people to speak over to be heard.
4. Should I reapply for a job that just got reposted?
I’m currently in search mode due to being let go right before the pandemic hit. I’ve applied to quite a few jobs, including one a few weeks ago I was really interested in. I heard nothing back from the company and then the other day, I got my daily “New Jobs You Might Want to Apply For” email and saw that the company had reposted the job listing. Should I bother applying again? I lean towards no, since I figure there must’ve been a reason they didn’t reach out before, but then part of me wonders if they see me applying again, maybe they’ll realize how interested I am in the position and give me more consideration. What are your thoughts on this?
Nope, don’t reapply. It would be different if you’d applied six months ago and saw the position reposted now. But you just applied a few weeks ago; it’s too soon. You’re either still in their candidate mix or they’ve already considered and rejected you, but either way, applying again so quickly would be odd.
Don’t read too much into them reposting — it’s common to refresh job postings because they expire or so they don’t seem old/out-of-date, and it doesn’t indicate much about how the search is going. But even if they reposted it because they’re having trouble finding the right person, if they wanted to interview you, your application is so recent that it would already be on their radar.
5. I want to keep reporting to my temporary manager
About three months ago I started working for a new company (incredibly lucky to have been hired at the start of the pandemic!) and have few complaints. When I started, I reported to Sally, a kind person that was pulled in too many directions to give me the onboarding experience I would have liked, but I got the feeling she did her best. A few weeks ago, Sally was put on a large project taking up more of her time so it was decided I would temporarily report to her boss, Jack.
I’ve been much happier reporting to Jack. Our work styles are more similar, he promptly answers emails, and has yet to miss a meeting (all issues I faced with Sally). I’m apprehensive about this temporary arrangement ending and am wondering if there’s a way I could ask to continue reporting to Jack.
Because I’m so new to the company, I don’t want to make waves or make Sally look bad to her boss, but I also know I can do my job more effectively under Jack. Is there a tactful way to approach this?
Talk to Jack. Tell him you’re enjoying working for him, feel your styles are well suited for each other, and would like to continue, and ask if there’s a way to make that happen. You can also mention that Sally has seemed really busy and you appreciate that Jack has more time to talk with you. (Say that without judgment about Sally’s responsiveness; you don’t want her to hear you were criticizing her, especially if you end up back on her team.)
There might be nothing Jack can do — it might not make sense structurally for him to take you on permanently, in which case this would be a hard sell — but it’s worth asking the question.
can I breastfeed my baby on video calls, credit checks in job interviews, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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