how do I get out of a mandatory lip sync battle, employee can’t touch-type, and more Ask a Manager

how do I get out of a mandatory lip sync battle, employee can’t touch-type, and more

Posted: 23 Jun 2019 09:03 PM PDT

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

1. How do I get out of a mandatory lip sync battle?

My employer is having a mandatory spirit week with a summer camp theme next week. Each day we are to participate in "voluntary" camp activities with our assigned "cabin mates" for the week. The week culminates in a lip sync battle with our cabin mates in front of 100 other employees here at our headquarters and will be recorded for our international staff. Our top three executives are going to be judges. I am very uncomfortable with this.

Normally, I would have no problem simply not participating. However, the entire week is a graded assignment in which our participation and level of enthusiasm is awarded or punished with points for the team. For example, Monday is 80's fashion day so each cabin mate that isn't dressed in 80's style loses a point for the team. The lip sync battle will be graded on us all participating, having matching costumes, and the level of "spirit" displayed in our performance. Some of my cabin mates are really into this camp week while some of us are dreading it. I'd hate for their reputations to be damaged by my lack of participation. Some of the activities are manageable but pretending to sing while dancing in front of people is not.

How do I approach this while protecting my colleagues?

I despise your employer. And I will never understand why some employers think forcing people into activities they feel publicly humiliated by is good for "spirt" or team building.”

I would consider having a terrible illness or injury that day. Possibly you are severely allergic to how asinine this is.

But if you must be physically present … does it really matter if you team loses points because you don't participate? As long as these points aren't tied to performance reviews or raises, go ahead and lose points. Unless you work in an incredibly toxic and dysfunctional office, it’s not going to affect your team members' reputations; they're not responsible for you. Say, "This really isn't for me and I'm sitting it out" and deal with the lost point. If you're pressed, say, "No, it's not up for debate. I'd be glad to cheer you on, but I won't be up there.” Feel free to cite the privileges of being an adult who's not actually at camp, and encourage your team mates who are dreading it to do the same thing. People pushing back and saying "no, this isn't something I'm going to do" is a good thing.

2. Employee can't touch-type

I'm a manager for a customer support team, and a couple folks have noticed one of our support team members types with two fingers (one finger on each hand, with his head looking down at his keyboard). He does great work and is hitting his KPIs, but my manager thinks we should say something to him — like offer typing lessons — to see if this would improve his productivity further. I'm hesitant to say anything, as this isn't his first job working in front of a computer and don't think it's necessary if he's meeting expectations. I also don't want to hurt his feelings if this is just the way he likes to and has always typed. Thoughts?

Lots of people type like that, and plenty of them do excellent work. Even some prolific journalists type that way! If his work is fine, there's nothing to fix here.

You could certainly make the offer of typing classes, as long as you're clear that it's just an offer and not a requirement and that he's free to decline it without any kind of penalty … but if his work is good and his speed isn't a problem, this isn't something that requires fixing. (Also, you might show your manager that there’s research finding that people who peck like your employee can still type quite quickly.)

3. My boss's boss is faking our numbers

I work at a small, local nonprofit that runs mostly on the work of volunteers. My job is to get more volunteers to sign up and have them run our programming. I am one of our many recruiters and we all work individually over several areas. Our jobs are a composite of three jobs that were lost to restructuring, meaning we have the responsibility of all three jobs and only the time for one. We are responsible for recruiting, getting money (it’s a $50 a year membership), organizing events, and whatever else needs to get done. Needless to say, we have been struggling to hit quotas because we are pulled in so many different directions. Recently we had to hit a certain number of volunteers to get Mondays in the office off for all departments. Since we are understaffed, we asked all of the other departments if they could assist in recruitment efforts as we help them often. No one helped and the goal was not reached.

This is where the problem starts. Despite not hitting goal, we still got Mondays off. At first I thought that maybe we hit close enough for it to count. When I asked for the number we hit, it was revealed that we were far, far, FAR from goal in actual numbers. My boss’ boss had gone into some local phone records and enrolled people using their name, phone number, a fake email, and the funds typically used to enroll individuals with an inability to pay. I found out because people were calling our office, irate, that they had never joined our organization and were getting telephone spam from us. When I asked what was going on, I was told that my boss had done this before and been reprimanded for it, but he was promoted to his current position soon after anyway. I was then told to "not look a gift horse in the mouth.”

I’m new to the job market (recent grad) so I was wondering if this was normal? Everyone seems pretty chill about falsified numbers, so what do I do?

No, that's not normal. It's fraud! Depending on the details, it might not be the type of fraud that the law would care about it, but it's certainly internal fraud that your organization shouldn't tolerate. No decent organization wants their employees deceiving them about their results (they can't run well when they don't have reliable data about what's actually happening in their programs). And in fact, it sounds like your boss has been told not to do this, knows it's not okay, and is doing it anyway.The fact that people around him are tolerating that says there's something really rotten in the culture.

This is a small organization that has already cut jobs, is struggling to meet its metrics (but for some reason is giving people 20% of the work week off), and is tolerating fraud. I would be job searching.

4. My coworker asks if I’m coming to work almost every day

I work in a very small office, and a couple people (including my direct manager) have let me know that another of my coworkers asks almost every day if I’m coming into work. I start about an hour later than she does, but my schedule is consistent (and I put it on the office calendar if anything changes on a particular day). This person is senior to me and I work closely with her, but she is not my boss. My other coworkers say that they remind her every time what my hours are, but somehow she just keeps asking! I know it annoys them to keep answering this question over and over again, and she may just be awkwardly looking to make conversation, but on some level it feels like she’s passive-aggressively critiquing my schedule. At least once or twice when I’ve gone out to lunch she’s asked if I’m coming back!

I’d like to say something to her, but the fact that I’m hearing about it second hand makes it tricky. Thoughts on what I might say? Or should I just leave it be, since my actual bosses are happy with my work and my hours?

You could just leave it alone since it doesn't sound like her constant questioning about your schedule is giving anyone else the wrong impression — but in your shoes I'd say something since I'd want to get to the bottom of what's going on. Is she truly incapable of remembering that you start later than she does, or does she have some sort of agenda (which is what it sounds like)?

You could say this: "I've been told you're often asking when I'll be in or if I'm coming back after I leave for lunch. I want to make sure you know what my schedule is. I come in at X, an hour later than you do, and I work until Y. If you don't see me during those hours, I'm probably at lunch or away from my desk. Is there anything I can clarify about my schedule for you?" And if it keeps happening after that: "Do you have a concern about my schedule or my availability? I'm getting the sense you're concerned when you don't see me here."

Who knows if this will change anything, but I’d want to just address it head-on.

5. Is it a red flag that a job was posted three times in 14 months?

Approximately 14 months ago I saw a job advertised. It was for a retail management position in the town I work in. Then about six months ago, I saw the same job advertised. And I have just seen the exact same job advertised. Now, the company in question is a national company, but the actual physical store in question is quite small and the role is very specific to that store. So specific it would only have that one position. Although I want to apply for the position, there are a few red lights going off — mainly that the same advert has been posted three times in 14 months. And each time it's been spaced far enough apart that it is unlikely that they are simply re-advertising due to not getting a suitable applicant. Should I be cautious about this role?

Yes. There are some jobs where this wouldn't be a red flag, like at organizations that have multiple slots doing the same work, or are growing and continuing to add positions, or with jobs that are legitimately hard to fill or always open because they'll take good people whenever they can find them. But for a job where you're sure it's the same one slot being advertised this many times in 14 months, that's a likely indicator that for some reason they can't keep people in the role.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't apply, but it does mean that if you get an interview you should ask a lot of questions (including how long the previous people held the job and why they left) and go in with a fairly high degree of skepticism.

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