“our remote staff want the same perks we have at the office, crappy LinkedIn tips, and more” plus 3 more Ask a Manager

our remote staff want the same perks we have at the office, crappy LinkedIn tips, and more
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our remote staff want the same perks we have at the office, crappy LinkedIn tips, and more

Posted: 21 Jun 2018 09:39 PM PDT

It's four answers to four questions. Here we go…

1. Our remote staff want the same perks we give in-office staff

I work for a company that has both in-office employees and work-from-home employees. When we plan events in the office such as chair massages and catered lunches, we offer work-from-home employees the opportunity to work in the office and participate in whatever event we are having, though they rarely come in for them.

More often then not, I get a lot of emails from work-from-home staff complaining that we do lots of events for the office staff but we don’t have events that work-from-home staff can do remotely.

I feel that is part of working remotely. I personally can’t come into the office in a tank and knickers, yet they can answer calls in whatever they want to wear at home. That is part of working in the office. They are given the opportunity to come in and work in the office if they want to participate.

When asked, they suggest the company just offer them gift cards to restaurants when we cater lunch and gift cards to massage locations. Do I need to cater to them if they don’t come into the office?

No.

As you point out, they get many benefits from working from home that in-office staff don't get — but yes, sometimes there might be something going on at the office that they'll miss out on if they don't choose to come in for it. This is part of the deal with working from home versus in the office.

I'd say, "It's true that we sometimes do events at the office, and if you'd like to participate in them, you're welcome to work from the office during those days. But working from home full-time is a significant benefit that offers a lot of perks that our in-office staff don't have access to, and our goal isn't to try to make each set-up perfectly mirror the other." I'd be tempted to add, "Should we talk about whether you’d prefer to work from the office rather than remotely?" but that would be snarky, so I would repress the urge.

2. Are these LinkedIn tips crap?

I'm an intern at a pretty prestigious laboratory this summer, and today we had a seminar titled "Winning at LinkedIn" where the presenter gave us tips on how to curate our personal brand and become a thought leader in our professions. That's the exact wording he used. However, I'm not sure how much of his advice relates to what hiring managers actually look for — he highly recommended we use the endorsements feature, which I know you've spoken out against in the past. He also told us to post two blog posts each month, share an update on our or our colleagues’ careers each week, and to possibly post a video to make ourselves stand out. He said that all of this was necessary to differentiate ourselves from the other thousands of people in our professions. What do you think about all of this? It feels like a little too much to me, but I'm also just an intern.

Ignore everything he told you, because sadly this advice is so awful that it means none of what he told you can be trusted. Endorsements carry zero weight with hiring managers (you can endorse anyone for anything, whether you've ever worked with them or not; it's a ridiculous feature), very few hiring managers will bother watching videos or reading a bunch of updates on your or your colleagues' (?!) careers (and even if they did, that’s not what’s going to make you a strong candidate), and blogs rarely make compelling reading when you're just doing them to be attractive to employers. Your presenter seems to have a profound misunderstanding of what makes a strong candidate.

You stand out by being a highly qualified candidate with a track record of accomplishment and writing a strong cover letter that doesn't simply regurgitate your resume. No gimmicks involved.

3. Should we tell a client their employee has applied for a job with us?

An employee of a client has inquired about a position that is open with us and has interviewed for it, but cannot commit until they resign from their current job. But they have requested that the current employer not be informed about their search and possible move for fear of being terminated immediately before they decide to move or stay or just retire.

Should we inform the client anyway? We want to preserve the privacy of this employee however, as a vendor of this client, do we owe a fiduciary obligation to break a privacy rule with this employee who might lose their job before they make a final decision?

No, you do not have a fiduciary obligation to violate this candidate's privacy and inform your client, possibly putting the person's job at risk. And under no circumstances should you put someone's job at risk that way — that would be an unforgivable breach of trust.

If you decide that you don't want to risk upsetting the client if they feel you hired away their employee, that's your prerogative, but in that case, you should let the candidate know that you can’t proceed with them without their employer's okay — and leave it up to them to decide if that's something they want to pursue or not.

4. Can I ask interviewers if they value loyalty over competence?

I’m job searching right now, partially because my current employer seems to value loyalty to the point where people who are terribly incompetent in their positions are kept on and encouraged due to their (perceived) loyalty to the company, and I am Over It.

My thought is to ask the following: “As a manager, which do you value more: loyalty, or competence?” However, that doesn’t seem to quite get at the heart of what I want to know. Any thoughts on how to word this?

I wouldn't ask that, because I don't think you're likely to get a truly honest answer — not because interviewers want to lie to you, but because people are really bad at self-assessing this kind of thing. Also, few managers are likely to come out and tell you they value loyalty over competence; you're more likely to hear that both are important or some other kind of pablum that won't help you avoid what you want to avoid.

Instead, the way to learn about this thing is do due diligence that I talk about here — especially, if possible, talking to people in your network or in your network's network who know the inside scoop on the company and manager. That's much more likely to get you the lowdown.

First of all, a huge thanks to you and the commenters for the support and confirmation that I wasn't thinking that my coworker was overstepping his bounds with the comments about my diet soda habit. Unfortunately, there are a lot of politics in play in my office and I couldn't be as direct with my responses as what was listed, but I was able to adapt some of them successfully! I didn't state it in my letter, but I am a contractor and half of my job is to provide administrative support for the department, so I do have to tread lightly with a lot of things (especially upper management).

After my letter was published, things actually calmed down with the coworker and he didn't make any comments or statements for several weeks. I was surprised, but it did eventually come back around. Once he did, I didn't engage. I mostly ignored his comments with pointed silence, but If I did respond, it was with a simple and stern "yes" to his "still drinking diet soda?" It didn't leave any room for conversation and it only took a few rounds of this before he stopped entirely with the nagging about my drink choice.

There was one additional comment that came several weeks later that surprised me… At our year-end party in January, he peeked over my shoulder while I was eating my lunch and said, "That doesn't look gluten free!" For context, at the time he was eating gluten-free and I believe he practices veganism with his family, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that he said something. Instead of laughing it off like I would have done before, I turned to him and responded "Nope, it's not. I don't eat a gluten-free diet." and I continued eating. He didn't say anything after that, and it's been five months since! I think he's finally realized that I don't want or appreciate his advice on my food or drink choices.

Now that it's stopped, I realized that his comments before were making me dread interactions with him and I would actively avoid any conversations where he was involved. Our work relationship is much better now and working with him has gotten a thousand times easier since I'm not always on the defense around him. Thanks again for all the advice and support!

2. I slept through an entire day of work

Two months ago I wrote to you in a panic after sleeping through a day of work

After months of doctor’s visits, it turns out I have been suffering from Crohn’s disease and fibromyalgia. I just wanted to say thank you, because the advice from you and your readers was the first step in normalizing what felt like a shameful experience. Rather than view myself as a slacker or screw up, I felt encouraged to address my fatigue as a real issue.

Things are still tough, trying to manage chronic illnesses with a new and demanding job, but I’m really grateful that you chose to answer my question.

3. My boss has phone sex with his girlfriend with his office door open

I was determined not to send in an update until I had a happy one. And the only happy one would be me getting the hell out of there….I'm happy to say I am finally gone after a very, very, very long job search.

I'm still in shock my boss was nominated for worst boss of the year in 2015. It’s such an honor that other's recognized his craziness and also deflating that I was stuck with him for what seemed like forever.

After I wrote to you the multiple times a day calls from the girlfriend stopped completely. I was starting to wonder if either he found out I wrote into AAM or he and his girlfriend broke up. Turns out they didn't break up, I think she just got a new job and didn't have time to call him all day. He on the other hand still had plenty of time to make other loud personal calls all day and do no work. But that's a whole other issue. I could write a novel on him and that place.

Shortly before I quit we were at our company picnic. He came solo and drank heavily. Someone asked him where his girlfriend was. He replied that she was waiting at home for him. The person said something like, "oh yeah, sure." He said, "she really is, look!" That is when he pulled out his cell phone and began showing everyone indecent pictures of his girlfriend.

I really wanted to call his girlfriend and let her know what her man was really like. But I've read AAM enough to know my time would be better spent job hunting. I'm happy to say so far at my new job I have not heard anyone have phone sex, already a step up!

I'm an avid reader of your blog, even though I haven't had a standard office job in about a decade. I've been a freelancer/independent contractor all that time, in a competitive, creative industry. My work is fascinating and fulfilling; working at home on my own time maximizes my strengths while minimizing my professional weaknesses; and I'm happier doing this than any other kind of work I've ever tried. I'm nearly 50 and have worked in four different professions, so I'm glad to have found the right track for me.

But the one big downside is the uncertainty. I hate not knowing when work will come, or precisely what money will be coming in at any given time. (My quarterly taxes are an exercise in amateur soothsaying.) This means that when I have multiple offers, I take them all and work myself ragged. Then I tell myself I won't do that again—and I hit a brief dry spell, which fills me with financial terror. Sometimes it feels easier to be a workaholic than to deal with the anxiety. Budgeting only gets me so far, as my income varies widely, and quarterly taxes therefore become a huge variable. (In my best year I made mid-six-figures; in my lowest year, mid-five-figures. At the start of each year, I have only a rough idea where I'll be on that continuum.) I bought a house I can make payments on even at the lower end of my range—but it's the not knowing that drives me batty. I can't stop thinking that this is the year it all falls apart. Sometimes I think of getting a day job again, but I never did any better at that than my lowest earning freelance year, and I genuinely love the work I do.

I would love to hear your advice (of the other readers') for dealing with freelancer job anxiety, particularly in creative fields. Unless it's just "Xanax."

Yes to Xanax.

For years, I dealt with this by taking on as much work as I could humanly do, which meant that I was often working nearly all of my waking hours and rarely seeing friends and family — and was still living in fear that it could all change in an instant and I could be penniless and homeless. It sucks to live that way! (Your line “Sometimes it feels easier to be a workaholic than to deal with the anxiety” captures exactly how I felt.)

I eventually decided that there’s a certain point where one has been successful enough at one’s chosen work that it’s reasonable to trust that you’ll continue getting work and it’s okay to turn things down and make room in your life for non-work things, and it’s so much better … but I still always have that fear in the back of my head, and maybe all freelancers always do.

The best thing to soothe that fear that I’ve found: savings. In your good years, pile all that extra money into savings. Then you can look at your finances and tell yourself things like, “If I stopped getting any work tomorrow, I could still live just fine for X years/months, and that would be plenty of time to find a regular job if I needed to.”

That doesn’t mean that you have to live at the income level of your worst year, but I’d look at what you make most years, and then live around that level (while keeping things like your mortgage payment affordable for your worst years too, as you’ve done).

Also: Have a plan! You keep thinking that maybe this will be the year it will all fall apart. It probably won’t, but who knows, maybe it will be. What would you do if that happened? Gaming that out and knowing that you have a plan in case that happens will probably help you feel more comfortable.

I also think one of the hardest things about working for yourself is that there’s no ceiling on what you can make. You could potentially earn way more than you ever could at a normal job. So even if you’re making enough, you have to wonder if you should spending more time working so that you earn even more (to safeguard yourself against future leaner times, or just because you love money, or whatever). But that’s how people end up working around the clock — so at some point you have to decide what else you want from your life, and how you want to balance that against the money piece.

Readers who work for yourselves (or have in the past), what’s your advice?

Rapitful Shqip

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