It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Is it OK to fire someone over email?
Is firing someone over email acceptable? Someone I know was recently fired via email. They are not a remote employee. Their manager tested positive for covid about a week ago (mild symptoms) and is still in isolation per CDC guidelines. This person sent an email to their manager today with some work questions, and their manager replied to that email letting the person know that their last day would be tomorrow and they would get paid through the end of the month if there were no “challenges or complications.” (The manager has barely been communicating with person the last few weeks, ignoring emails and calls and avoiding speaking with person when in the office). The manager then told other employees that this person’s last day would be the next day before receiving any acknowledgement from said person (which person found out from a subordinate). Are the rules of firing a person in person (or at least over the phone) just out the window in pandemic times?
No, firing someone over email is still a crap move. Even when everyone is working remotely, you pick up the phone and call and have a real conversation. You don’t use email for so many reasons, including that it makes you look like an enormous coward and it’s tremendously jerky to put your own comfort ahead of the person who’s being fired, who deserves a real conversation (about logistics if nothing else). Plus, if you use email, you don’t know when the person will see the message — or even if they’ll see it. What if it gets accidentally deleted and they have no idea they’ve been fired? It’s BS. (I once worked for someone who fired someone in a voicemail — which the person didn’t hear, and so they showed up for work the next day. This isn’t any better than that.)
2. Should I tell my boss I’m thinking of resigning over an ethical conflict?
I work for a business where ethics are at the heart of everything we do. We’re for-profit, but our ethical stance is incredibly important to our reputation and our staff.
My boss wants to offer a new service which doesn’t match with our ethics at all. Think akin to an animal rights charity holding a hunting contest to raise money, except it’s for profit since we’re not a charity. I joined this business because it matched my ethics and I am firmly against offering this new service.
I’ve done everything I can think of from your playbook — I’ve spoken up, I’ve joined forces with coworkers, I’ve gathered outside opinions to support my stance. We’re going ahead with the service anyway.
I’m thinking of resigning due to this as I don’t feel I can be part of offering this service. My mom thinks I should tell my boss I’m thinking of quitting so they know how serious I am. I think that comes across like I’m threatening them, and I need to make this decision for myself. What do you think? Should I tell my boss before I quit, if I do come to the decision that I can’t continue working for the company while we offer this service? Or if I’m going to quit, should I just quit and explain why?
It depends on how much capital you have and how likely you think it is to change their mind. If you have a ton of capital there — if you’re incredibly valued and respected and key to their operations — and you think hearing they’ll lose you over this could have an impact … well, maybe. But based on everything you’ve already tried, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to change their minds. And even if they did, you’re working for a company whose values are very different than what you thought when you came onboard.
Given that, I’d just decide if you want to stay or not — and if you do decide to resign, explain why at that point.
3. I don’t want my home address sent to everyone in my company
We’ve all had a ton of adjusting to do during quarantine, and obviously a ton of that has to do with remote workplace. We have a managing director at my job who is big on having everyone’s addresses available in case she wants to send gifts or pick-me-up’s out. That’s nice, if not totally necessary.
The issue comes with my discomfort with my workplace (other than HR) having my address. I made my peace with giving it, especially because I knew I’d be leaving my apartment soon anyway. Now I have moved to a more permanent address. In the interim, the director has periodically asked for updated addresses given the nomadic nature of some people during COVID. This wouldn’t be the biggest deal except for that the assistant at work keeps sharing a full document of everyone’s addresses, from the boss to the assistants, with everyone in my division.
I specifically and politely asked that this not be done the first time it happened, but it just happened again. I raised the issue with the assistant again, and she said she didn’t want to send out 50 separate emails confirming addresses. I feel this is absolutely what she should have done, despite the inconvenience. The first time it happened, colleagues immediately started googling and Zillowing everyone’s addresses and commenting on the photos and prices, etc. This is exactly what I was afraid of, and so I am absolutely loath to share my new address for fear people will do the same thing to my now forever home.
Should I raise this as a privacy concern with her boss, to avoid this happening again? Am I overreacting? I feel like home is more important than ever in COVID, and I want to protect it from being gossiped over and dissected, as well as having colleagues have a knowledge of my income or spending power.
Yes, raise it with her boss. There’s no reason everyone there needs everyone else’s address, even if this weren’t a group that would immediately head to Zillow to check out people’s homes (WTF?) — but that certainly underscores the need not to do it.
Point out that it’s a privacy concern and say that if it’s not possible for the assistant to stop circulating the list, you’d like your info to be removed from it.
4. Rescheduling things when you get an unexpected week off
I work for a small nonprofit, but in my day-to-day work I am embedded within a larger, separate organization. Thus, my schedule and responsibilities often differ from those of my peers in our main office. The board chair of my nonprofit just gave the whole staff the entire week of Thanksgiving off, paid. This is amazing, except as part of my work within the larger org, I have things already scheduled for that week. Is it appropriate to just … reschedule them because I have been given the time off? If so, what language should I use?
Yes, unless doing that would cause major problems for people or projects. If what’s on your calendar is relatively non-urgent, go ahead and reschedule, saying something like, “I’ve just learned Org will be closed the week of Nov. 23 so I’ll be out. Could we move this to (date)?” Or if you want to be vaguer, you could say, “It turns out I’m going to be away from work that week. Can we move this to (date)?”
5. How long are references good for?
I’m a recent grad and my current short-term campaign position is about to wrap up, so I’ve been pretty aggressively job searching. I have a solid list of people who have agreed to be references in the past, but some of them agreed a while ago (at the end of my internship last summer, for example). I gave them a heads-up about two months ago that I’m job searching and confirmed that they are still willing to be references, but I’m not sure how often I have to check in now, if ever.
I’ve recently gotten a bunch of interviews and am there’s a decent chance my references will be contacted soon. Should I let them know that? Or is an agreement to be a reference just understood to be ongoing? Is it okay to list the same people over and over (what other choice do I have?) even if it means they might be contacted quite often?
If you know an employer is about to check references — or even if you’re just at the finalist stage — it’s smart to check in with your references if you haven’t talked to them in a couple of months, just to let them know they might get contacted soon. That way it’s on their radar and they might pay more attention to calls, etc.
It’s okay to list the same references for many different jobs. Most employers don’t check references until the very end of the process and often not until they’ve selected the person they want to hire, so your references are unlikely to be flooded with calls (i.e., they’re going to get a call for every job you apply for).
is it OK to fire someone over email, resigning over an ethical conflict, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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