interns want to break social distancing guidelines, cockroach etiquette, and more Ask a Manager

interns want to break social distancing guidelines, cockroach etiquette, and more

Posted: 09 Aug 2020 09:03 PM PDT

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

1. My fellow interns want to break social distancing guidelines

I am working remotely on a summer internship with a group of about 25 other students. They want to meet up in person, as a group, by the end of the summer. Meeting in such a large group would break local social distancing guidelines and would not be safe. Our employer is not aware of these plans, and company policy is that employees are not allowed to have in-person work meetings. Should I claim to be busy, or should I be frank and tell them it is unsafe? Should I report them to authorities? Our employer? I am worried that speaking out could harm my working relationships, especially because some of the other interns are senior to me.

Speak up and tell them it's a violation of local health guidelines as well as company policy! You could add something like, "I know we all want to make a good impression on (company) and I think it would reflect badly on us to organize something that's explicitly against their rules." If someone tries to tell you company rules are irrelevant since this would be outside of work and on your own time (which someone is almost definitely going to say), you can respond, "I’m pretty sure the company would be concerned about it since it would still be organized as a thing for our work cohort. I think we should check with (manager) to see if that's right or not."

And if you do check with your manager, know this isn't "tattling" (which people sometimes worry about); it's genuinely asking your manager for advice about how to handle something within your intern cohort, which managers will generally be very glad to advise you on.

And if they go ahead with it anyway, you don't need to go! You can bow out and explain you're just being really careful. There's a good chance one or more other people in the group will feel more comfortable protecting themselves once they see you doing it. And it shouldn't affect your relationships as long as you're polite about it (you can still be direct while being polite)!

2. Cockroach etiquette

Some time ago I attended a two-day technical seminar at another company. I was one of the most junior people in attendance and spent the seminar mostly silent while taking copious notes.

During the first day, I went to grab a coffee from the office Keurig during a break — and when I opened the basket to add a pod, a cockroach climbed out. I removed and disposed of the cockroach while internally screaming and avoided the Keurig for the remainder of the seminar. I did not, however, alert anyone else — no one else was in the area, there was no obvious admin or other person I could alert to the invader, and the woman running the seminar was engaged with other participants and I really didn’t want to kick up a fuss since I was so junior compared to others.

In hindsight, I should have said something, but how on earth does one address this without causing a huge interuption or seeming unprofessional? I’m hoping it never comes up again but I’d like to be prepared if it does!

Oh noooo. Although there was no obvious admin around, was there anyone around from the company holding the seminar? I think you could have approached anyone who worked there and said, "I'm sure this isn't your job, but could you point me to the right person to alert about a problem in the kitchen?"

If there was no one around, your options were more limited — but it even would have been okay to stick a sign on the Keurig saying "do not use — found roach inside." That would be an alarming sign to come upon, but less alarming than the experience you had.

3. Should I pay for a certification from a course on teamwork and communication?

I lost my job, and essentially my career, to Covid. I was a successful costume designer in theater, and since it will be years before I can work at the same level as I was before, I found a job that I can work from home and it uses some of the skills I cultivated as a costume designer, though it is unrelated. It is much more corporate than I am used to, but it pays well and I am enjoying it so far.

They are having us take these online courses through Coursera. The first one is teamwork and communicating effectively in groups. The course is free to audit, but if you pay a fee ($50) you get a certificate that shows you completed the course. We are being paid for the time we use to take it, and I understand why the company doesn’t want to pay to get the certificate, but should I personally pay the fee to get the proper certification? Will it add anything to my hiring appeal? I am thinking that it might be years before I return to theater work, if ever, and I want to make myself as appealing to businesses as possible, as I spent the last decade outside the business world (I am taking online classes to get a business degree). Is it worth it for the certificate, and can I put it on my resume that I have a certificate in this training?

Definitely do not pay the fee. Some certifications are worth paying for, but definitely not one on teamwork and communicating effectively. That's soft to the point of being utterly mushy as far as weight with employers is concerned. Employers do care about teamwork and communicating effectively, but they won't care if you've taken a class in those things; they'll only care if you can show evidence of those traits via your actual accomplishments. I wouldn't bother putting it on your resume for the same reason. (That doesn't mean you won't find value in the class, though.)

4. My office is only paying for the time I spend on assignments

I work for a smallish firm, less than 40 people, and have worked here for about 3.5 years. When I started, I worked full-time, but over the last year and a half, I’ve been trying to phase in my retirement. What I really want to do is work three days a week. After many starts and stops, I was just settling into my new schedule when the pandemic hit. I’ve been working from home ever since.

When the pandemic first hit, I told my firm that I would be happy to work five days a week but only report the hours I actually “worked.” This worked pretty well at first as it gave me time to adjust to working from home, which I had never done before. In the office, I sat at my computer for 7.5 hours a day, asking people if they needed any help and waiting for work to come to me. And I billed for 7.5 hours a day. Now, I don’t just sit at my desk, I roam around my house and yard and wait to hear that “ding” that means someone needs my help. So some days, I have one, two, three, whatever hours of work. But I still am on that leash! It’s not like I can leave my house and go to the beach! I’m available when needed. Is there some other way to do this? What’s fair for them and for me?

They shouldn't be paying you this way, because you're what the law considers "engaged to wait" — meaning they have hired you to be available during those 7.5 hours and to wait for work to come in, which you'll then take care of. When you're "engaged to wait," your employer is required by law to pay you for that full time (since, as you noted, your time is not your own — you can't leave and go to the beach, etc.)

Say this: "I've just learned that the arrangement I originally proposed, where I'd only log time when I actually performed work, is putting us in violation of the law. It turns out that because I'm what the law calls 'engaged to wait’ and can't leave and do other things with my time, we're required to treat it the same way as when I was in the office, and pay me for a regular workday. I’m sorry I didn’t realize that when I first proposed this!” (You don’t really need to apologize; it’s their job to know labor laws, not yours. But that language will probably make this feel easier to broach — although feel free to remove it if you don’t think you need it.)

Presumably you'd then want to propose that you return to your three-day-a-week schedule so all the work is contained within those days.

5. A job I was interviewing for has re-opened; how do I reconnect with the recruiter?

A few months ago, just as we were working to schedule an final interview, the internal recruiter for the company let me know they were no longer sure when they could hire for that position due to COVID and would not know until after a certain date.

I checked in with the recruiter again after that date and was told there hadn’t been any movement on the position and that they would alert me when they knew more. Fast forward a month to now and I get an alert for the job from Linkedin. I’ve also confirmed that it’s live on their website.

Now I’m in a pickle. I feel like if I bring up the posting to the recruiter, I’m essentially saying “you didn’t do the thing you said you would do” regardless of how polite the wording is. It also seems strange to resubmit my application without a word when I have been in contact with this recruiter and had two interviews for the position already. What is the most skillful and professional way to handle this?

Contact the recruiter again and say, "I saw the X job has been reposted and I'd love to reconnect with you about the role. I'd interviewed with Jane Valentine in February and we were working to schedule a final interview in March, but then Covid put everything on hold. Would it be possible to formally throw my hat back in the ring if things are now moving forward?"

You don't need to worry about the subtext being "you didn't do the thing you said you'd do." Recruiters don't bother to get back to people all the time; it's practically an operating norm of the profession. Or she's just been overloaded but you're on her list and she'll be glad you initiated the exchange so she doesn't have to. Just be matter-of-fact about wanting to move forward and it won't be weird.

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