It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Is someone pretending to be my remote coworker?
I am working from home (like so many of us) and relatively new in my position (less than two months). The past couple of days, a coworker who has been doing this same job since May starts asking questions in our team chat that make me suspicious that it isn’t actually my coworker behind the keyboard. Questions that we were trained on day one. Questions about basic things we do every single day.
Yesterday, after a slew of questions through the day and my coworkers and I answering them, another comes in about a process we deal with daily and my boss chimes in, “You would do this, just like normal.” “Coworker” replies, “Oh okay, thanks” and then a few minutes later replies again, “Yes, just following procedure like normal, thanks.” Today this person asked in the team chat again what to name a file (that we deal with daily) and our boss replies with what to name it.
I am wondering if I’m the only one who has noticed this, if my boss has noticed this, or if I should say something.
This … is a big leap! I mean, it’s certainly possible that this person isn’t really your coworker, but it’s far more likely that she’s just forgetting things. I get that it’s notable that all these questions just started (as opposed to your coworker having basic questions all along), but there are so many possible explanations for that — for example, maybe she was recently chastised for not following correct procedures and so now is making sure she’s doing things correctly. Or hell, who knows — maybe it’s her teenage son or an imposter she’s hired to do the work or an alien who has replaced her. We can’t know for sure. (That’s true of all of our coworkers now that so many of us are remote! Anyone we’re talking to virtually could be an imposter. Or an alien.) (I realize you’re not proposing aliens, but I am.)
Anyway, the good news is, you don’t have to solve this. If your boss thinks it’s odd, she can address it. You’ve been there less than two months and you don’t manage this person; this is 100% not your job to care about or figure out.
2. I agreed to talk to prospective interns for my old employer — but it’s too much
I’m a graduate student in my second year of a three-year program. This past summer I interned with a great – but very new and very small – organization and had a very positive experience. I was one of only a couple interns because of the newness and smallness, but now they’re expanding and are in the process of interviewing and hiring multiple staff members and interns for next semester and the summer.
A couple weeks ago, my former internship supervisor reached out to me (and probably the other former interns, too) to ask if he could share my contact info with prospective hires for them to ask about my experience working for this org if they requested it (a common request in my field). I said yes right away, because I was happy to share my experience and I really want to maintain a positive connection with this supervisor/organization in case I want to return after I graduate. I expected to get a couple inquiries, but it turns out they’re hiring a lot more people than I thought. I’ve already done six phone calls in the past week (they’re hiring a lot of people for next summer), and I’ve gotten two additional eager and sincere emails from prospective hires asking to speak with me sometime this coming week.
Frankly, I’m burnt out on sharing my experience and answering questions and really don’t have the time to do more of these conversations, but I also don’t want to alienate/disappoint this organization or be the reason that their prospective interns turn down the job because they couldn’t get their questions or doubts answered by an alum. To complicate matters, one of the people I spoke to last week mentioned that one reason she felt it was so important to talk to me was because her interview was so short that she barely had time to ask questions. I kind of want to tell my former boss to stop giving out my name and number, but I know it’s really helpful to them – an overworked and underpaid team doing wonderful things for their community – and there’s a decent chance I will try to return there. I also think there’s a chance this is a short-lived phase while they’re in interview season, so maybe it’s not worth complaining if there will only be a couple more. Can I take back my offer to talk to prospective hires? What do you suggest?
You can absolutely set limits on what you’re able to do. Normally when you agree to an offer like this, you’d assume you’d be talking to two or three people — not six going on eight, with more maybe still to come! If they envisioned giving your info to this many people, they should have told you that clearly up-front. It’s entirely reasonable for you to pull back now that you realize what the commitment is.
You could contact your former manager and say something like, “I wanted to let you know I’ve done six phone calls with candidates this week, and I think it went well. I hadn’t realized the volume would be so high! Since this is a busy time for me, I won’t be able to do any more calls in this hiring round, but I hope I was able to help with the six I spoke with.” (And then if they ask you again in a future round and you’re willing to do it, you could say, “My schedule makes it tricky, but I could talk to one or two people if that would help.”)
You could also email those remaining two back and say something short but positive like, “Unfortunately my schedule is crammed right now so I can’t schedule a call but I can tell you that my experience was XYZ (fill in with some relevant details that you think would be useful for them). I’m sorry I’m not being available to talk more.”
3. Is my ex-boss snooping in my old accounts?
Six weeks ago, I got a wonderful new job. My director at my previous employer, a large nonprofit, is well known as a lurker and for being sneaky — at one point she was logging into other people’s budgets and removing data — and seems to love nothing more than being the holder of information (even if she doesn’t do anything with it). She’s BFF’s with a very lazy and power-hungry VP, who is only too happy to leave everything to the director while she’s busy writing blogs and posting on Twitter.
When I left six weeks ago, I completed the HR exiting process, which included returning equipment, losing access to my email and the network, etc. Since then, I have received two emails from my ex-boss regarding emails that were sent to my account after I left and read by her. I asked some friends to check, and it turns out that both my email account and my Microsoft teams account are still active, so I am still included in groups and chats that she would not have been part of before, and the information is being read regularly by my ex-boss.
I understand that this is a work account, so any information is owned by my ex-employer and I have no issue with that. However, given that I am no longer there, it feels unethical, especially after six weeks, and I can’t discount the risk that emails or messages could be sent, seemingly from me. I have contacted IT and HR, but no response. My friends and family are encouraging me to continue following up, but I am wondering if I am just being paranoid because my ex-boss is so fundamentally untrustworthy and sneaky. What do you think?
Warn the people you’re still in touch with at that job that your old account is still subscribed to group chats and your former boss may be seeing anything sent there, and then let it go. If you’re right that she’s intentionally lurking to read messages that aren’t intended for her, that’s shady AF … but there’s also nothing you can do about it now that you no longer work there (especially since you tried contacting HR and IT and they haven’t responded, which isn’t that surprising).
It’s possible that she’ll send messages as you, but fairly unlikely. It’s more likely that she’s spying on people and you can undo some of that by tipping people off. Beyond that, though, the best thing (and really, the only thing) you can do is move on; that organization is not your problem anymore.
4. Pre-employment credit check when I have a bankrupcy
I’m interviewing with a company whose application states that they may run background/credit checks as part of the hiring process. If I get an offer and they run the check, they’ll see that I declared bankruptcy earlier this year, and I’m really worried about addressing this with them. Should I be proactive and give them a heads-up before they even run it? Or should I say nothing in hopes that they won’t care? The reason for my bankruptcy relates to a severe depression that left me unable to do much work for a long time so debt piled up (it’s a long story why going on disability wasn’t an option). For obvious reasons, I’d like to avoid disclosing my depression, but I also don’t want to lie about the reason for my bankruptcy. So if they ask me about it (or I give a heads-up), how do you recommend addressing it? If it makes a difference, this is a very large American corporation, the position is a professional position at the senior individual contributor level, and it’s not a finance or accounting role.
Credit checks are usually only done for positions that handle money, although some employers use them more broadly. (And at least 11 states prohibit employers from running credit reports or limit how they can use them in hiring decisions.) But often standard employment paperwork will include a mention of a credit check, even if they’re not actually going to run one for your position, because they run it for other roles and want to be able to use the same paperwork for everyone, or because they haven’t revisited their boilerplate language in a decade, or because they want to preserve the option even if they’re unlikely to use it. So there’s a decent chance that this won’t come up at all.
If it does turn out that they plan to run your credit, it’s useful to give a heads-up at that point, but you definitely don’t need to before the finalist stage of the process. You won’t need to get into the details; you can simply say, “It was related to a medical situation that has since been resolved.” (And even if they run it without warning you, they’’ll come back and ask you about it, not just instantly reject you over it. So you’ll have an opportunity at that point to explain.)
5. Interviewers who want to meet in-person
I am in the midst of a search, and I have had it mentioned to me twice that the next round of interviews may be in-person. I was quite surprised to hear this suggested. My local public health unit is suggesting most people continue to work from home unless essential. Our city even cancelled Halloween and team sports recently.
Based on this, how much room to push back do I have about wanting these interviews to be virtual? Honestly, I don’t think I will move forward in the process if this is insisted upon.
Try saying this: “Would you be open to doing a video meeting instead, since the city is still advising people to conduct business from home unless being in-person is essential? I’m trying to be very careful about my risk level.”
Their response will tell you a lot about how this company is handling the pandemic, and that’s hugely valuable info for you if you’re screening for employers who take safety seriously.
is someone impersonating my remote coworker, ex-boss snooping in emails, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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