It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My boss says I should go to grad school to prove I’m serious about my field
I’ve been with an association for close to five years now, and have consistently evolved in my role. I started as a coordinator for a particular department, and have moved onward to assistant project managing a few key initiatives. This aspect of my job is challenging and exciting and what I would like to be doing full-time. However, I’m also still managing a lot of administrative tasks for other groups, like scheduling calls and ordering lunches, which I would like to move away from.
In every performance review, I’m consistently given feedback that I’m doing a great job, that they recognize my intelligence and drive and value my contributions. However, I have repeatedly asked the organization to invest in me by allowing me to attend conferences or trainings, and they have ignored these requests. I recently received feedback from my supervisor that the only way I will advance in the organization is to get a master’s degree in the field that I’m working on. Not specifically because of the knowledge I will gain, but because it will prove that I’m serious about the field. Should I take this advice seriously? I’ve always thought about grad school, and wanted to continue my learning, but I could only do an online program, so that I can still work full-time. I’m also not sure how long I want to stay at this organization, and I know that it can be more challenging to find a job with a master’s. If they are telling me I’m not going to advance, I should leave, right?
Going to grad school to “prove you’re serious about the field” is terrible advice! You go to grad school if you need the degree to achieve what you want in your field. Or perhaps if you’re have a love of learning, don’t care if it helps you professionally, and are either independently wealthy or fully funded. You don’t go to prove anything. And really, you could get the master’s and find out you still can’t advance in your organization because they have you pigeon-holed as someone who does admin work.
You’ve been at this organization for five years, which isn’t a bad time to start thinking about moving on anyway (and especially if you’re not advancing). Why not look around? If you realize you need a master’s for most of the jobs you’re interested in, then you can make a decision based on that. But don’t do it to prove something to an organization that you’ve already proven yourself to through five years of excellent work.
2. I’m being micromanaged by a new manager after a great review
I recently had a six-month performance review in which my work was rated very well. All metrics were met and the higher-ups praised the work I’ve been doing.
During the review, I was made aware of the fact that I have a manager other than the one I’d originally been working with. I was never told this person was my manager or supervisor in any capacity, and until after the review, he’d never come off as someone in a leadership role.
It’s been weeks since then, and my new manager is constantly checking up on me. He is piling more and more on my plate than ever before. He is giving me a dozen tasks and checking up to see if I’ve done them all within an impossibly short period of time. He is micromanaging and making me go over every decision I make with him, whereas before I was able to work relatively independently.
I’m feeling deflated at this point. Previously, this job was the perfect mix of collaboration and independence. Now, I constantly (and I mean constantly — dozens of check ins during an eight-hour day, every single day) have someone breathing down my neck. I don’t understand why the response to my stellar performance review was to put this kind of supervision in place. It wasn’t discussed at all.
It wasn’t the stellar content of the review that triggered it — it was that something happened then that made this person aware he was your manager (which somehow no one knew before that, which is weird). And so now he’s managing you, and he’s terrible at it.
I’d go back to the person you thought was your manager previously, the one who wrote your review, and talk to them about what’s happening. Explain what’s changed and how miserable you are and ask if there’s a way to be moved back under their purview. (They clearly thought they managed you earlier, since they wrote your review!) Point to the outstanding feedback you had, and use the words “demoralized” and “interfering with my productivity.”
There’s no guarantee they can or will step in, but in a functional organization that would light a fire for someone to address this.
3. I don’t like the way my employer is screening us for COVID symptoms
I work at a relatively large organization in a large U.S. city. We are starting to have people coming back on-site. As part of this, we are asked to do a virtual health screening each morning that we’ll be on-site. This screening asks if we are experiencing a list of COVID-19 related symptoms (coughing, fever, etc.) or if we or anyone we have been in contact with has received a positive COVID test. You select either yes or no and if you select yes, you cannot come in (understandably).
Originally I assumed this information was being received by my manager who was cross-checking it against those of us who were coming into work that day. While I don’t love my manager being given info about my health normally, I understand that right now he needs it in order to do his job of assigning work and ensuring coverage. However, I recently found out that it isn’t my manager receiving this information — it is a few of my peers in another department (not HR, a similar department to mine, think marketing or graphic design), who then let my manager know who is cleared or not.
I … don’t like this and I can’t fully articulate why. I understand we’re in a pandemic and that some things are necessary, but these colleagues don’t need access to my medical info to do their jobs, and they are not trained on handling personal medical info. I realize that this is a pretty limited amount of info, but I think it should go to as few people as possible and only those who really need it. I’m not likely to make an issue over it, and so far I haven’t had any symptoms that would require me to answer yes, but I’m curious as to your thoughts on this and if I’m just being overly sensitive. I used to work in healthcare so I have pretty strong feelings about sharing medical information and that may be affecting my perspective here.
Not to further alarm you, but your boss might not be trained on handling personal medical info either. If you company is smart, they did train those coworkers and your boss as well — but the rules for healthcare workers are different than the rules for most employers. (One major difference people often don’t realize is that HIPAA doesn’t apply to most employers.)
I imagine your employer set it up this way because your manager’s time needs to be spent elsewhere, and/or because it’s easier for them to train one set of workers to collect this info rather than to have every manager collecting it for their own teams, and/or because they want a firewall between managers and employees on this — so that your manager is just receiving the final verdict (cleared/not cleared) and not hearing personal health details from people.
If the people receiving the health info are generally responsible, trustworthy, and discreet, I wouldn’t worry about this. If they’re not, that’s the angle I’d address it from — not that they’re not your boss.
4. How do I express concern without prying?
I’m a manager of an employee who’s had to take some time off for doctor’s appointments, and it seems like there have been more as a result of others. This is not someone who would take advantage of time off, so that’s not my concern, and is also someone I have a relatively close personal friendship with. What’s the best way to express concern or support for their well-being without seeming too intrusive or sounding like I want to know more?
“I don’t want to pry, but I hope everything is okay, and please let me know if there’s anything you need from me!”
They can then either offer more if they want to, or can ignore it and move on.
That said, there are times when I wouldn’t recommend saying even this. If you’re a manager who does tend to pry or who has expressed skepticism about someone’s sick days in the past, this can come across as fishing for info or signaling you’re watching their time off. But in a healthy environment, it will be fine.
5. My company wants to know if I’m willing to travel this year
I am an account executive working four years in the same company. Last year, due to turnover I was given an opportunity to spend a month abroad (Canada) visiting various clients. I don’t mind travel and welcomed the opportunity, wrongly thinking it would help progress within the department.
Fast forward a year and due to Covid there is no clarity on whether and how this same travel duty will play out. Normally these visits occur annually, around summer. Due to a specialized skill set, it would be difficult to have another employee replace me for this and virtually no one else is trained on the required tasks. With a work-from-home structure set up four months ago, I imagined travel was off the table until 2021. Yet twice management has asked whether I am open to traveling this year. I felt I couldn’t flat out decline but was direct in stating my strong preference to delay travel until conditions are safer.
Having been approached again about the travel conditions I’d feel comfortable with, I responded with questions such as will the company cover any potential treatment needed due to corporate travel (especially if treatment is required abroad) and would they cover any costs if I’m required to quarantine abroad and am prohibited from returning home? Legally I doubt there is precedent on this and I’m floored this discussion is even taking place and want to ensure I’m not being overly pessimistic or negative.
Well, wait. They didn’t come to you and say “you must travel.” They asked if you were open to traveling this year, and you didn’t explicitly say no. You said you preferred to delay it until conditions are safer, and so now they’re asking what that means to you. Why not go back and say, “I’ve thought about it and, given the current data, I’m not comfortable traveling this year at all”?
I get that you’re worried that a flat no wasn’t an option, but you should take them at their word until they show you that you can’t. They asked if you’d be up for doing it and you’re not — so just tell them you’re not.
If you feel weird about backtracking now, you can say that the recent spikes have changed your comfort level, or that simply thinking through what benchmarks you’d want to see first has made you realize it won’t be this year.
my boss says grad school will prove I’m serious, being micromanaged after a great review, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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