It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. We start every meeting with “words of essence” and personality types
What do you think of a CEO who starts every executive team meeting with each person reciting their name (as a way to “own” their words), their “word of essence” (a word you use to describe your true character, what’s really important to you, etc.), and their Myers-Briggs personality type, and then discuss everyone’s answers? This is a group of five people who meet every other week. It makes me insane to waste time like this, but I appear to be the only person who feels this way. We have all worked together for 2+ years, so it’s not an ice-breaker or anything. I feel like it would be just as useful to recite my zodiac sign, and about as accurate. Do I just have to suck it up and go along with it all?
(For my “word of essence,” I usually say “determined,” because I’m determined to get through another BS meeting.)
Oh, it’s so cringey. Words of essence! And you have to announce and discuss your Myers-Briggs type at every meeting? It sounds ridiculous and like a huge waste of time and I would my words of essence would be increasingly misanthropic, but … yeah, if this is the CEO and everyone else is fine with it, it’s likely just the culture there and you have to decide if you’re up for dealing with it or not.
If you have a lot of capital with the CEO and you’re willing to spend some, you could try pushing back, but you’d have to decide if it’s a battle you want to fight. (I think I probably would because I’d be driven out of my gourd by it, but it depends heavily on your relationship with the CEO.) You also could discreetly raise it with the other coworkers who are in these meetings; you might find out they’re annoyed too and just going along because everyone else is, in an Emperor’s New Clothes way.
And really, if you’re going to engage in exercises like this on the reg, you need to check in with participants and ask if they’re finding it useful and make it safe for them to give honest answers.
2. Using the #OPENTOWORK frame on LinkedIn
Have you seen anyone use the new #OPENTOWORK frame around their profile pictures on LinkedIn? It’s meant to signal that the person is open to offers from recruiters, hiring managers, etc. I assume the intended user would primarily be freelancers, but I recently saw two former coworkers at one company (who are both still working there) put the frame on their profiles. One of them included a statement indicating they were seeking other opportunities, the other one just added the frame.
I think in this case I can read between the lines as the company is not doing so hot in COVID-19 times, but I’m curious what you think about putting #OPENTOWORK on your LinkedIn profile when you’re already working full-time. Is this as much of a faux pas as I think it is, or are attitudes changing around the taboo of seeking a new job so openly?
First, as background for people who haven’t seen it, LinkedIn now gives you the option to put a big green circle with the hashtag #OPENTOWORK around your profile picture.
If you’re already employed and your employer isn’t aware you’re job searching, it’s definitely unusual to so openly advertise it on LinkedIn … but it’s possible there’s context that makes that a non-issue for the people you saw.
About the frame more generally … I think it’s a bit much, as well as unnecessary. Recruiters aren’t shy about contacting people who haven’t explicated declared they’re open to work — if they think you’re right for a job they’re trying to fill, they’re going to approach you regardless. On LinkedIn, you don’t really need to announce you’re open to work. Plus, making your availability such a focal point can actually make you less appealing to some recruiters, who want to feel like they’re landing hard-to-get candidates (which is weird and problematic, but still a thing).
So this feels like another thing LinkedIn has dreamed up that isn’t actually in sync with what’s useful to job seekers (see also: skill endorsements).
3. Who should tell people about raises?
I’ve been a manager at my current company for 13 years. I have a team of five direct reports and meet with them for one-on-ones every one to two weeks. We review projects, develop strategies for hurdles, discuss what’s working and what’s not, and where they would like to see their careers go. Recently we had our annual reviews where I create their annual development plans, etc. These reviews are quite involved and build on conversations we’ve had throughout the year. At the conclusion of the reviews, a formal letter from HR is drafted with the annual salary increase and general “happy to have you here” language. HR always drafts these letters and the direct supervisor signs and hand delivers to each person.
This year, my direct supervisor (at the company for 15+ years, but new to me within this year) took the letters from HR, signed and delivered herself, and I found out after it had been done. I was shocked and feel like I’ve been cut out. I’ve been working with each of these folks all year, asking questions, diving for answers, developing plans, having hard conversations when needed. I think that I had the right to deliver the good news. Am I wrong?
I asked HR about it and they said, oh she’s always delivered the annual letters for her team before. Since our org did some shuffling, there are new things to get used to, and I think I’ve been adapting well so far, but this particular issue is really bothering me and I don’t know how to address it.
You’re not wrong. Giving news about raises should be part of the conversations you’ve been putting such energy into having. It can also be one of the most enjoyable parts of managing. It’s weird that your manager swooped in and took that from you. If she’s always done it that way, it probably just didn’t occur to her that you’d want to do it yourself. It’s not really an outrage — some places do it that way — but it would be reasonable for you to explain that going forward you’d like to do it yourself as part of the conversations you’re already having, and ask if she can leave it to you.
4. Can I leave right after getting a bonus?
In my current job, I’m quite underpaid. I have brought this to my boss before but there are always reasons why the organization can’t correct it. Last time I brought it up, I was promised a modest bonus as a thank-you from the organization, but it’s just a one-time thing of a few thousand dollars and it doesn’t close the gap between my salary and my market rate. My organization doesn’t give raises, nor cost of living adjustments, nor bonuses, so I could tell this was my boss’ way to try to keep me content and around, because they love my work and have repeatedly asked me to stick around along with some hazy promise to “do what they can.”
However, my boss doesn’t know I’m interviewing. So far I’ve had two very promising interviews for different jobs and I’m hoping one of them extends me an offer. Both of these places are interested in having the person in the new position start sometime in in the next couple of months. If my boss gives me a bonus, can I quit afterwards and keep it?
The way I see it, the bonus is for work performed and a recognition of how I haven’t been compensated fairly, and although I’m not planning to wait for my bonus to quit, I am aware of how bad it would look if I got it and then put in my notice. This is complicated because the money really matters to me, and I definitely don’t want to have to reject it. Is there an etiquette around bonuses you could share? Should I plan on giving it back?
You can leave soon after getting a bonus, and you definitely don’t need to return it. It’s not uncommon for people who receive bonuses on set schedules to wait until they get the bonus and then leave soon afterwards. Employers don’t love it because they intend bonuses to be a retention strategy (whereas employees tend to see them as pay for work already performed), but it’s a pretty common thing that happens. As long as you don’t sign anything agreeing to stay for a certain amount of time after the bonus is paid, you’re fine.
And really, this is a company that doesn’t give raises or cost of living adjustments — what do they expect? That’s so out of sync with how pay normally works over time that you really owe them nothing. Take your bonus, leave for a new job, and don’t feel guilty.
5. What’s my safety obligation to third party vendors?
What is my obligation to the safety of third party vendors? I work for a construction company, and quite often I have to submit locate requests in order allow our building crews to dig at job sites (think “Call Before You Dig”/811). I just had a phone call from a person who performs locate requests for the utility company in the area where we are building. There was a barking dog in the yard, and he was worried about getting bit. He wanted me to call the homeowner to see if they could come out to get their dog. At the time I didn’t have the homeowner’s contact info. I said I didn’t know what the best advice to give him. I didn’t feel like I had the authority to tell him he should leave if he felt unsafe. Ultimately, I guess I could’ve given him the sales rep’s phone number (sales reps are the ones who ask us to call in dig tickets) to see if the rep could help. Would that have been passing the buck since the sales rep doesn’t supervise the locate request employees?
Is it my or my company’s responsibility to have homeowners police their dogs when it comes to dig tickets? The companies who fulfill locate requests are completely separate from our company, so we have no jurisdiction of who or when people are sent out. I don’t want people to be unsafe, but I also don’t know how much lies on my shoulders.
I have no idea if there’s typical protocol for this so I’m just taking a guess, but if you don’t know when people will be coming out to a house, there’s not a practical way to tell people ahead of time when they’ll need to secure their dogs. Given that, it would make sense to keep the homeowner’s phone number in your own records, so you have a way of reaching them if you get another call like this. If you’re the one the utility crew is going to call, that makes more sense than you then having to track down the sales rep, who then needs to make their own call. (Or if there’s a way to pass along the homeowner’s contact info when you submit the original request, that’s an option too.)
I don’t think it’s really about whose responsibility it should be; it’s just about getting it done in the most efficient way so the work you need can proceed. But I’ve also never done this kind of work and don’t know if what I’m saying is practical for the context — so if it’s not, my advice is simply to raise it with the people you work with and figure out what will get the problem solved fastest, then make that your system. Think of it less in terms of “whose responsibility should this be?” and more as “what’s most efficient for the work we need accomplished?”
we start meetings with “words of essence,” leaving right after a bonus, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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