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It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. How to respond when coworkers talk about God
What is the best way to respond when coworkers talk about God? I have a couple of colleagues who will say things like, “I only pray on it and leave it all up to God, you know? ” I’m a fairly agreeable person, so I’m typically gesturing along with all of this. Plus, I genuinely understand their position and have no issues with it.
But, I’m a non-believer myself and definitely sounds like I may be giving off the impression that I am coming from the same home. I’m not offended. I only feel a little awkward. And maybe I feel a little misunderstood too, because it’s harder to casually mention my own non-belief and feel considered to be in the same way they seem to.
Nodding politely when a person citations their religion doesn’t have to convey “Yes, I share your religious belief.” It can simply transmit, “I hear what you are saying.” But if you feel weird about it( which is understandable ), it’s also okay to say, “That’s great that has already been that faith”( said sincerely) — or you can skip any reference to faith at all and am saying, “Well, good fortune with( the problem they’re praying on) ” or “I hope it works out soon” or so forth. Those are all responses that work just like if the person had said,” I take comfort in nature” or “It helps to talk to my spouse.”
2. My company sent employees a sham email about a celebrity fatality to see if we are to be able click on it
I work for a large, publicly-traded company. Periodically, a bunch of us get the same phishing email, apparently as a test to see whether we will click on it. I think this has happened at least four times in as many months. It’s often enough that people around the bureau talk about “the[ company called] phishing test.” Sometimes everyone seems to get a phishing email on the same day, with everyone getting one of two or three different messages.
Yesterday, a cluster of us got a fake email that looked like it had come from a major report store, reporting that a celebrity just died at a reasonably young age. I don’t know whether anyone I work with fell for it, but there was some discussion about that particular phishing test being in very poor taste.
First, is regularly sending employees phishing tests actually a thing, or is it merely my employer being weird? Second … What the heck? Sending employees an email that falsely says someone has died? Especially since we are a media company, so a sham narrative like this could end up being reported as actual news? Is this as bizarre as I think it is? If it is, should we as employees try to address it?( I don’t conceive any of us know who is actually in charge of these phishing exams, since we are in a satellite bureau rather than headquarters .)
Company-wide phishing experiments are actually a thing that cybersecurity experts recommend! Typically you’re supposed to firstly instruct everyone on how to spot and eschew phishing emails, then tell them you’ll be running some phishing tests, then send the fake phishing emails, then report on the results and do whatever retraining might be necessary( and then recur the process sporadically; it’s not supposed to be a one-time thing ).
So that part isn’t weird. But creating a fake email about a real person dying is in bad taste, and it would be reasonable for you and your coworkers to point that out. The response might be that a lot of real phishing emails is precisely that kind of content, and that’s why they experimented it that way … but it’s still a reasonable thing to raise if you want to.
3. Should I report a coworker from the company I left 2 years ago?
I modified occupations 2 years ago, after 15 times with my prior organisation. I have many friends from my day there who I am still in contact with, who work across different bureaux within one of the great splits.( An office is 50-100 people and the division is around 500 -7 50. So they don’t all work together daily, but their bureau heads do .)
Everyone I am in touch with from then has shared( complained, lamented, ventilated) about one of the role administrators( male, married, late 40 s) who is having an affair with a staff member from another office( female, single, late 20 s ). It is impacting his concert most acutely, to the point where he will disappear for periods of time , not show up to meetings, or( recently) have a work trip canceled and then only not come to work that week without telling anyone, and only later when multiple people question where he is, he says he took vacation instead … and she’s also out the same week. This is having a huge impact on morale, as well as decision making. Everyone is afraid to report it for horror of being “that person” who told. Everyone is frustrated, but no one wants to set their career on the line to say something.
So I’m wondering … could I saying anything? And by “say ,” I entail call the company’s hotline or mail an anonymous letter to their IG? I worked with this director before, and over its first year he’s become more and more checked out. His inability to manage this mid-life crisis is now impacting my friends and their coworkers, and if I still operated there, I probably would have called the hotline.
I’m just rend between( a) I don’t work there, therefore it’s none of my business,( b) if it was really an issue, person there would have reported it, and( c) everyone is afraid of repercussions, so I could be that neutral third party that helps alert the authorities. Do I do something, or nothing?
This isn’t yours to get involved with anymore. The people who still work there are just as capable of contacting their IG anonymously as you are.
If you’d just recently left — like within a few months — there would be more of an contention for you to report it, since sometimes it can take a little time being out of a work environment before someone feels safe reporting. But you’ve been run two years! Reporting on your friends’ behalf, and about something you’ve only heard about secondhand from them, wouldn’t be that different than when reporting this kind of thing to a company where you’d never operated at all. Plus, most of this is about a checked out, under-performing director — not something so urgent that someone outside the company needs to take action.
By all means, encourage them to report it! But it’s not yours to act on.
4. Can I forward a candidate to my old-time bos?
About a year ago I property a new job I adore, in part thanks to your book! I’m heavily involved in hiring, as I was at my last-place position. I’m not the hiring manager, but I( along with other colleagues) am working on most interview panels, give input to the hiring manager, and can veto bad candidates.
We recently interviewed an entry level nominee who I thought was perfect. The remainder of the panel passed on him though, because he was missing one very narrow area of technical skills. I know these are abilities my former bos is happy to teach on the job for new college graduates, and I am about 85% confident that my old-fashioned squad would have extended him an offer. Would it be weird for me to introduce the candidate to my old manager? If so, do you have a script I can be utilized?
It’s not bizarre at all, but check with them each separately first. Check with the candidate because you don’t want to out someone’s job search without their permission.( You never know, perhaps he’ll say your old manager is married to his current boss, who doesn’t know he’s searching — it’s unlikely, but still good to check first — or perhaps he has an ethical objection to that company, or who knows what .)
Checking with your old manager is slightly less necessary( people forward resumes of people they think are promising all the time ), but it’s good manners and it’ll give you a chance to explain what you thought was great about the candidate. You’d say something like, “I recently interviewed Cecil Warbleworth, who wasn’t quite right for us but I supposed might be exactly the profile you’re often looking forward to.( Insert info about why .) Would it be okay in order to be allowed to connect him with you? ”
5. Starting a new job just before I’d planned to take a week off for Christmas
Today I interviewed for a job and it proceeded really well, in large place thanks to your advice! The hiring director shared that they have a fairly aggressive timeline and are hoping to get someone on board ASAP, so potentially, if I get an offer, I could be starting by mid-December.
I have read your advice seeing negotiating strategy trip-ups/ vacation time in the give stage, but I’m wondering if it’s any different for time off around the holidays when you won’t be traveling? I have family coming into town the week of Christmas and had been strategy on taking the whole week off to visit with them( they will not be staying with me though, if that matters ).
If I receive an offering, should I has indicated that I will have family in township that week and had been scheming on taking it off, and see if that works for them? I really really don’t want to offer to take the time unpaid, but I would be willing to do that if it was the only option.
Unless you’re in a very senior or hard-to-fill role, it’s somewhat unlikely they’ll want to give you a paid week off immediately after starting.( If I’m understanding accurately, we’d be talking about … your second week on the number of jobs .) It’s most likely they’d want to set your start date for after that week or have you take the time unpaid. It’s also possible it could be complicated by coverage issues; if it’s a undertaking where only a certain number of people can be out a time, it’s likely that those( very popular) dates have already been claimed. It’s possible you’d be too brand-new is a matter of any help then, but if they just need figures, possibly not.
In any case, if you get an offer, say something like this: “I have pre-planned commitments for( dates) and had been planning to take that week off. Is that something we could work around? ” They might intimate a later start date or say you’d need to take the time unpaid, or they might express concern about you taking that week at all.
Because of that last part, I’d start thinking now about whether you’re willing to be flexible on the dates. Does it have to be the whole week or could it be only a few cases days( which could be an easier sell )? If they want you there and working, are you willing to lose the offer over that? It’s good to figure that out now, so that you can indicate how flexible or not flexible you are when you talk with them.
You are also welcome to like: when your references are intentionally lukewarm as a “strategy”invasive pre-employment medical questionnaireyour email does not require a special font
how to respond when coworkers talk about God, corporation direct us a sham email about a luminary, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
Read more: askamanager.org
