“employee is pushing for a job she’s not qualified for, my boss sent me a job posting from another organization, and more” plus 3 more Ask a Manager

employee is pushing for a job she’s not qualified for, my boss sent me a job posting from another organization, and more
I don’t have enough work for my employees and it’s stressing me out
the lazy coworker — with Han and Matt Know It All
my coworker rejects any ideas that aren’t her own, then suggests them herself

employee is pushing for a job she’s not qualified for, my boss sent me a job posting from another organization, and more

Posted: 11 Jul 2018 09:03 PM PDT

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

1. My employee won't stop pushing for a job she's not qualified for

My boss, who oversees the entire division, is hiring for an opening on another team. "Elizabeth,” an employee I manage, wants the job. She has no experience and doesn’t have the education or certification required for it. If she were given the job it would be like hiring a person who never went to law school, never passed the bar exam, and never set foot in a law firm to be a lawyer. My boss is looking externally since no one who works here is qualified. The job wasn’t posted internally but Elizabeth still applied for it and she also emailed her resume and cover letter to my boss and HR. She was immediately rejected since she isn’t qualified. HR explained why she wouldn’t be considered for the job. She emailed HR telling them she disagreed with them and she has emailed my boss asking him to reconsider. She thinks showing initiative and being a quick learner is enough when it isn’t. Besides an internship when she was in university, this is her first job.

I’ve tried explaining to Elizabeth why she can’t have the job but she still wants it. My boss is getting fed up with her badgering him and he wants me to make her stop it. I don’t know how since she won’t listen to anyone who says she can’t have the job. It may seem obvious but I am out of ideas.

"I know HR explained to you that you don't meet the minimum qualifications for this job. Bob is on board with that decision as well. That's not a decision that's going to change. You've continued to raise this despite that explanation, and it's becoming a distraction from our work. You can't continue to approach Bob or anyone else about this, and I need to know you understand that."

If she pushes back, say this: "Continuing to push after you've been told this isn’t a possibility is raising pretty serious concerns about your judgment. This isn't something we can continue to spend time on. If I hear that you've continue to approach people about the job after this conversation, I'll consider that a pretty serious problem.”

Also, how's her work and her judgment aside from this? This behavior is weird enough that I suspect this isn't the only sign of trouble with her, and you might need to take on any other issues with her more head-on as well.

2. My boss sent me a job posting at another organization

I've been working at an arts organization for 4.5 years straight out of college. The workplace is somewhat dysfunctional, but we're fundamentally a small family. Yesterday my boss asked if I would be interested in what is essentially a dream position at a much larger and well-known arts organization, and of course I said yes.

She said it was in no way an indication that she wanted me to leave, but I'm not so sure. I have doubts that I would even be the most qualified person for the job, so if I don't get it, I'm worried that I would need to find a new place to work anyway. Additionally, the person my boss sent my CV to is her friend, so in the event I do get the job, I wonder if there would be any issues negotiating salary, etc. since she can easily ask my current boss about what I'm making here. I know it's bad practice to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I can't help but feel like I should have declined. Is this a common practice? How do people deal with this sort of thing?

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if it’s a nice way of telling me she wants to fire me. When I sent her my CV, she responded with some tips on how to make it better for the future. I know that it could genuinely be her looking out for me, but it seems really weird! Am I crazy for being so sketched out?!

This isn't that weird!

It's possible that it's your boss trying to push you out, but that's pretty unlikely. It sounds like she's just looking out for you — she learned about an opening that she thought might interest you and she told you about it. Some managers do that, and it doesn't mean they're trying to get rid of you; it just means they're not territorial about you, and that's a good thing.

There's no reason to think you'd need to find another job if you don't get this one; you can just tell her that it didn't work out, but you're okay with it because you're happy where you are. She's not going to assume you were actively seeking to leave, because she knows that's not how this came about.

As for negotiating salary, it's possible that the new employer could get info on your current pay from your manager, but you shouldn't let that freak you out. It might not happen, and regardless, you can negotiate based on the market rate for the new job, not what you're getting at the old one.

3. Is it normal to advertise for a replacement before someone knows they're being fired?

I have a question about the act of firing someone. I am a copywriter for a small agency and there is a trend in my office that disturbs me. My boss has repeatedly put up hiring ads to replace my coworkers without telling them that he’s planning on firing them or giving any warning. Thrice my coworkers have found the job postings online and were horrified and devastated to realize they were being replaced. Every time I believed my colleagues were hard working and of good character, and were being blamed for other flaws in the business.

I find this extremely heartless and sneaky. However, this is my first job out of college so I’m not sure what’s "normal.” Is my boss a snake? Or is it normal to quietly try to replace your employees while they’re still working for you? I find it weird that he tries to overlap so that there’s no time with someone empty in my coworker’s seat. I feel on edge like I could be next any minute, that if I googled the company name I’ll find an ad for a copywriter job. Am I overreacting, or is this business?

You're not overreacting. This is a underhanded way of going about replacing people, and it's not the norm. It's unfair to the people being fired, and it's generally going to seem shady to the people applying once they realize the entire interview process has to be kept under wraps. It's an excellent way to destroy trust with his other employees too, since they'll see this happening and realize that it could happen to them at some point.

And it’s even worse if your boss is gearing up to fire people without having had straightforward conversations with them about his concerns about their work, and without conveying to them the seriousness of the problems and what they needed to do to improve. It's possible that he does have those conversations since you wouldn't necessarily know if he did, but I'm inclined to think that he doesn’t, based on the rest of this and the fact that he seems overall quite cowardly.

4. Our coffee system is stressing me out

I work in a small office of between 10-15 people, and somebody is always getting Starbucks, or ordering lunch, etc. It’s been the custom to ask around the office if anyone else would like a drink or food, even if that means the asker is collecting eight or more coffees at Starbucks and bringing them back for distribution. Most people offer to go and collect food as often as they ask someone else to grab something for them, so it’s a fair system. Sometimes we order delivery using an app — free to download and easy to use, and no one has to leave the office and struggle back with a bunch of orders.

Here’s the issue: it’s getting out of control. When I pick up a coffee for myself before work, there’s semi-joking, semi-serious talk of “Where’s my coffee?” as though I’m selfish for getting coffee just for myself. If I run to the corner store for a soda, I hear cries of “Why didn’t you ask me what I wanted?”

Additionally, there’s one woman in the office who doesn’t have a driver’s license or a car, so she can’t offer to pick anything up, but she is always eager to have people get her something when they go and never offers to help collect the drinks/food. She often goes office to office asking what people are doing for lunch, and immediately asking them to bring her something if they say they’re going out.

Today she came to my office asking if/where I was going for lunch. I replied that I was going out to grab something, and she “put in her order” as expected. I offered for her to come with me and order her own food; she said that she couldn’t afford the time away from her desk. That’s fine — I was going anyway and I know she’s busy. She leaves my office … and returns shortly with other orders from other people. She had asked several other coworkers if they wanted anything, although she had no intention of coming with me and hadn’t asked me if I was willing to order for the office.

Am I being oversensitive? I hate being volunteered for things without being asked; I already know that it’s a sore spot for me. I don’t want to be rude, but it seems like some people feel increasingly entitled to delivery service. Is there a nice way to say “I’m going to grab lunch, and I’m not taking orders"?

I don't think you're being oversensitive, but it also sounds like this is just the culture of your office. It sounds like the chore is more or less being shared, and there's nothing inherently wrong with having this system; it just doesn't work well for you. (The exception is your non-reciprocating coworker, who we'll get to in a minute.)

In response to the "why didn't you get me anything?" chorus, you can just say, "Sorry! I was in a hurry!" or "My hands were pretty full." Don't treat it like it's a big deal or a serious complaint. That will probably go over fine.

But unlike everyone else, your non-reciprocating coworker isn't putting in her share of labor, so I'd handle her differently. When she tries to give you a lunch order without you offering, it's fine to say, "Oh, I can't bring anything back today." You don't need to give an explanation for that, but if you want to, you can say, "I've got to do some other errands afterwards" or "I need to get back ASAP" or "I've already got more orders than I can easily juggle." You could also pointedly add, "But you can come with me and help me carry things if you want."

And at some point, you should try, "Hey, could you be the one who goes today? I've been getting it a lot and I think it's your turn." (That won't work if she's senior to you, but if she's not, have at it.)

5. How much editing should I do?

I’ve recently started a six-month rotation at a new office as part of a fellowship program I am in. The job is mainly data analysis and visualization, and my coworkers are mainly people who focus on data analysis and web development. I like the job and my coworkers, and am looking forward to this six month stint. I might even try to turn it into a permanent position, though that is not my main goal at the time.

One of the first tasks I’ve been given is to do a final edit on a report that we will be publishing soon. The instructions were to do a thorough proofread for grammar, typos, spelling, make sure all the numbers match the results, and check language and tone consistency. I’m doing this, and making edits based on those instructions. However, the writing style is one that I find quite poor. I have a lot of writing experience — I have an PhD in a social science field, and my previous jobs included writing long reports. My writing style has been complimented by all of my previous supervisors, and my most recent supervisor turned to me for all writing-related questions. But my writing skills are not what I was hired for in this job, and I don’t know how much style editing I should do. Even if I simply limited the edits to fixing places where the style made the substance less clear, it would be a lot of changes. I don’t want to start out this job by being the person who tells her colleagues their writing style is poor.

Should I just stick to proofreading and basic editing, or should I also suggest edits to style?

You should ask! Some people will welcome style edits and some people won’t. But it's a reasonable question to pose to whoever assigned you the work. You could also do style edits on one or two pages and use that as an example of what you're asking about, saying something like, "I made some suggestions on these pages, but didn't want to do it throughout before I knew if you'd want those sorts of edits as well.” That's particularly helpful because it can be hard for someone to say "yes, do more editing" without first seeing if they like the types of edits you'd be making.

But if for some reason you can't ask — if the person is unavailable all week or something like that — then stick to just the literal instructions you were given and skip the style editing. In that case, it’s better to err on the side of just following the instructions rather than do something they might not want.

Last week I suggested we make a process more efficient by dividing it into two steps. This change was implemented, and she called a meeting two hours after the change was in effect to explain what a hot mess this change had caused. I suggested we revert to the previous process and troubleshoot what the hot mess was. The two-step process fix was halted, and the troubleshooting instead was determined to be the initial problem with the first process.

I am writing to you right now while on a conference call with her where she just brilliantly suggested that our solution should be dividing the process into two steps. Her language was different (“two macro pools”) but it means exactly what I had initially suggested. There was a long silence and then she asked me if I was aligned, and I said I was. Someone else in the room not aware of the previous process change I had suggested actually called her a “hero” for this suggestion. Meanwhile, I got a bunch of texts from direct reports saying, “Didn’t she shoot you down when we tried this thing last week?”

I did not do anything beyond say, “Yes, that works for me.” Because this is NOT the first time this happened with her and I have seen her do everything she can do to block ideas she didn’t come up with and didn’t approve. Part of me wanted very much to say, “Hey, I am totally aligned because that’s the suggestion I made last week that you shot down!” But I know that if I did that, it would end up derailing what actually would result in change for the company that would benefit everyone involved. (The “hot mess" two-hour thing was not something I’m sure we should have pulled the plug on in the first place because I am still not certain it was hot, it was a mess, or that it had anything to do with the process change.)

Then again, I don’t want to seem like a pushover to my team. And I don’t want to BE a pushover. Any suggestions for dealing with this?

When she proposes things that you'd already proposed yourself earlier (and had her shoot down), one option is to react the way you'd react if you were assuming good faith on her part — which might be honest confusion and/or the assumption that you might be missing some key difference in what she's proposing versus what you proposed.

For example:

* "I think that's actually the same as what we tried last week. But I wonder if you're proposing something slightly different and I'm just missing that?"

* "That's really similar to what I was suggesting earlier, but I think you had concerns about X when we talked about it?"

These have to be said in the same tone you'd use with a colleague who you liked and respected — meaning calm, not defensive, and genuinely curious — since otherwise they'll sound snarky. Snarkiness wouldn't be unwarranted, of course, but (a) this is more professional and (b) this might actually get under her skin in a more satisfying way.

It’ll also be quite satisfying to the other people in the conversation, but that’s just a side benefit.

There's a chance that if you do this a few times, she'll get the message that you're calling her out on what she's doing and she might back off. But assuming that she doesn't, the other option is to talk to her about it privately. You don't want this to be a big confrontation because you have to work with her, but you could approach it from the perspective of "I'm genuinely confused about why this keeps happening" (as opposed to "you are ridiculous and possibly delusional"). For example, you could say something like: "We've had some weird miscommunications lately and I'm trying to figure out if there's anything I can do on my end to help stop them. Quite a few times lately, I've proposed an idea and you've argued that we shouldn't do it but then later proposed the same thing yourself. For example, it happened with X and with Y. It's making me wonder whether I'm not being clear enough what I'm proposing, since you're reacting to it one way when I suggest it and a totally different way when you propose it. Clearly there's a disconnect somewhere, and I'm trying to figure out how it's happening."

The point here isn't necessarily that you genuinely think there's a disconnect; it's to name what's happening and let her know that you see it, which may make her less inclined to do it.

If you had good rapport with her, you could just point out the whole dynamic — "I don't know if you've noticed this, but you tend to argue really hard against ideas that aren't your own" — but I'm betting you don't have the kind of relationship where that would go over well.

In fact, I'm not even sure it's worth having the private conversation with her above. It's an option, but it might not be one that gets you anywhere, so whether or not to bother is a judgment call based on what you know about her.

But if you have any kind of line to her boss (or if your own boss does), it's worth pointing out this behavior to her. This is really something where a manager needs to step in and address what's happening, and tell her to cut it out.

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