Twelve years after a state law gave tax breaks for keeping bees on at least five acres, people are still getting into the trade — or throwing in the towel and hiring professionals to do it for them.
There Are Many Different Kinds of Love, Brethren Arise, Candlepower, Cylinder Five, God Be With You Till We Meet Again, I Am Running Down the…, I Dont See the Branches I See the Leaves, I Want to Fall in Love on Snapchat, Out of the Skies Under the Earth, Take off and Shoot A Zero, The House Glows with Almost No Help, There Are Many Different Kinds of Love, all by Chris Zabriskie are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/vendaface/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Should I try to verify a doctor’s note if it looks fake?
I’m a manager in a service industry establishment where daily attendance is very important because of the nature of the job. Obviously people get sick or have legitimate reasons that prevent them from coming to work – I expect this! However, I am currently dealing with an employee who is beginning to have a serious pattern of poor attendance. I don’t want to be a one-size-fits-all type manager, so I do take into consideration people’s circumstances when it comes to disciplining or firing due to attendance. Our attendance policy is a three-strikes-in-30-days policy, in which you get a written warning after three instances and then escalating disciplinary warnings for subsequent infractions. I actually find the policy quite lenient for most responsible people – most people are not getting sick three times in one month, and each illness counts as one instance – if you are sick with the flu for three days, that counts as one strike. I do not require a doctor’s note or any other type of proof, but if you provide me with one, I will take that into consideration to delay a written warning if it seems like circumstances were really outside of your control.
All that being said … this employee’s most recent attendance infraction was going to result in yet another written warning, quite possibly the last one before termination. So I suggested that she provide a doctor’s note, since she had informed me that she went to urgent care the day before. Well, the doctor’s note looks … exceptionally fake. Since this is already an employee with poor attendance, do I have an obligation here to try to verify the doctor’s note? Obviously if it is fake, that is a fireable offense for the deliberate dishonesty. I really try to treat people like trustworthy adults (when it seems like the industry standard is to treat people like children and “write them up” for the slightest infraction). I don’t want to be the type of manager who’s going to assume your doctor’s note is fake! But … it really is most likely fake. And if I were to go about trying to verify a doctor’s note, how do you even do that?
Employers are legally allowed to verify doctor’s notes by asking the doctor to confirm the note’s authenticity. The doctor shouldn’t disclose the employee’s medical information, but they can confirm they issued the note or tell you if they didn’t. If it looks exceptionally fake, I’d call and find out, because forging documentation is a big deal (much bigger than simply faking sick).
For what it’s worth, that three-strikes-in-30-days policy is a bad one. It’s true that people don’t usually have three separate instances of sickness in one month, but sometimes they do — think flu, sprained ankle, and a sick kid. It’s not going to happen a lot but it will happen sometimes, especially for people with kids or other dependent family members. I understand that the policy is better than most in your field, but just so you don’t let your norms get all messed up, please know that is still a bad policy, and it’s treating employees like they can’t be trusted, and it’s treating managers like they can’t manage or exercise any discretion. It also incentivizes employees to come in when they’re sick, thereby infecting other people. It might be a good policy for your industry, but it’s bad in general.
2. How can I be sure I’m not biased toward my top candidate?
I am currently hiring for a role on my team — a business analyst who will work with our internal customers. They need to be qualitatively-inclined, great with large datasets, and comfortable with specific programs, but also extremely effective communicators and influencers. So far I have interviewed seven people: two external and five internal candidates. Of these candidates, two are of the same gender and race as me. The other five are either a different gender, different race, or both.
I was able to rule out two people quickly as they don’t have the experience/skills I’m looking for. Then there is the middle group: four people who seem perfectly competent and capable but didn’t “wow” me. Last, there was one candidate who stood out among the crowd and really did impress me, as they had a nuanced understanding of many of the intricacies of the job, and was really excellent in their communication skills during the interview.
So what’s the problem? This top candidate is one of the ones who is the same race and gender as me. I’m worried that I’m being unconsciously biased in selecting them because of this. I’ve been asking myself, what made them stand out above the others in the middle of the pack? Part of it is, I think, their personality. On the one hand, this is important for this role: as I mentioned, they will need to communicate and collaborate effectively with people across our organization, and a warm, friendly and pleasant personality is critical. On the other hand, how much weight is okay to give to someone’s “personality” being likeable? I’ve read some of your columns on watching out for people who remind you of yourself in hiring, and I’m worried that’s what I may be doing.
How can I parse this out? I want to hire the best person for the job, and I also want to be fair to all candidates.
Two things: you need to get as objective as possible about the criteria you’re evaluating all your candidates on — so not just “pleasant” or “good personality,” but what that really means for this specific job. Is it the ability to quickly establish rapport with new people? Is it leaving people feeling listened to and welcomed? Staying warm and professional and not becoming flustered or impatient? Saying no in a way that leaves people still feeling good about the interaction? Whatever it is in your context, spell it out as explicitly as possible because you can’t assess it clearly if you don’t define it clearly; “I just know it when I see it” is dangerous if you want to fight bias.
Second, however you define it, you presumably want to ensure they connect with others and quickly build trust across all demographic groups, not just with you. So you could have other people meet with your top two or three candidates and ask them to assess them on specific criteria too. (Of course, you need to do this in a way that doesn’t tokenize your colleagues. Ideally you’re working somewhere diverse enough that you can easily assemble a diverse panel without tokenizing anyone. If you’re not, this is trickier.)
3. Employer is dragging out the hiring process without answering my questions on salary
I am currently in a job application process that began seven months ago. Following the initial resume and cover letter, I have had (1) a half-hour introductory call with the internal recruiter, (2) a half-hour call with the hiring partner, (3) a one-hour in-person interview with two people from a different team, and (4) a second call with the hiring partner plus another partner in a different team. There have been roughly six weeks between each of these steps.
The whole process has been quite disorganized, and has so far given me precious few details about either the company or the role (mainly because all the interviewers apart from the recruiter are brand new to the firm).
During the last call, the hiring partner seemed keen to proceed, but suggested I have a fifth meeting, this time with a partner who just relocated to my nearest office (all my other interviewers have been based at the company HQ). This local partner also sits within an unrelated department, so again, is unlikely to be able to provide details about my potential role.
I had previously been told that the fourth meeting would be the final one. I see the value of meeting the leader of the local office, but I am reluctant to invest the time for this without more knowledge of the basics, such as salary. When the recruiter asked me for my availability for this fifth meeting. I replied that I would check my upcoming availability and come back, but that in advance of that, I did have some practical questions that we had not yet had a chance to discuss, such as salary, and I asked: “To make sure that we are on the same page ahead of this next meeting, are you please able to advise me of the salary range that is in mind for this position?”
The recruiter replied the next day, with: “Thank you, [Name].” That was it — no reference at all to my question about salary. That was a couple of weeks ago.
I think I know enough now to say that this isn’t the role or company for me. But I don’t have any other job offers, so it feels uncomfortable withdrawing. That said, it seems that if there was still a viable role, it wouldn’t be taking this long (I suspect the lack of urgency is down to the immediate need for support being supplied by other teams). I keep bouncing between the following options:
1. Emailing the recruiter to withdraw my application, “to pursue other roles that are more in line with my current goals.”
2. Emailing the recruiter as above, adding some reference to either my outstanding question around salary or the protracted recruitment process.
3. Pretending I’m still invested in the process and emailing a reminder about my outstanding question.
That’s way too many interviews and way too many months — especially when you don’t even know the salary. It could turn out to be wildly below anything you’d accept, so it doesn’t make sense to move forward without getting some answers now.
Since your alternative is simply withdrawing, you might as well bump the question for the recruiter: message them again and say, “Are you able to give me an idea of the salary range before we move forward? I’m reluctant to schedule another meeting without making sure we’re in the same ballpark.”
If they ignore you again, I’d hold firm on not investing more time in yet another interview until they’re willing to give you the basics. If that kills your chances, that’s a sign that there’s no great loss here. (If there even is a job here! Right now the opening doesn’t seem particularly concrete.)
My husband is a salaried employee at a business and has only received one paycheck since the middle of March. He has not received four regular paychecks. He did receive one regular paycheck on May 3. None of the other members of his team have been paid either, so this is not just an individual issue. Obviously this is illegal and should be reported to the state labor board where we live. However, my husband is afraid of retaliation since the industry is fairly small (which is also illegal, but they don’t seem to care much about that). His boss is dodging everyone who has pressed the issue, and upper management just keeps giving empty promises about how it will be deposited next week, but they’ve said this every week. He is frantically job hunting and has had multiple good interviews and requests for second interviews but it’s a slow process. Do you have any advice?
What specific kind of retaliation is he afraid of? “After they didn’t pay us for several months, we asked the state for help getting the money we were owed” isn’t really retaliation material since anyone who hears that is going to be on your husband’s side. And sure, they could badmouth him to others in the field — but if word gets out that they haven’t paid employees for months, criticism from them isn’t going to carry much weight. He can also neutralize a lot of it if he and other coworkers act as a group; that way, the employer can’t single out any one person.
He really should file a wage complaint with the labor board; this kind of thing is generally taken seriously, and he’ll get his overdue wages and in some states they’ll have to pay him additional penalties too. You could point out to him that it’s important to take action while they still have the ability to pay him. If he waits and the business never recovers, his chances of being able to recover that money go way down.
5. We won’t get severance if we don’t return to the office two days a week
I’ve been remote since the pandemic, and our parent company may soon require us to be hybrid (roughly two days a week in office). In one of the communications, they mentioned that those who failed to meet minimum in-office requirements each month might be subject to lose certain benefits, including severance. Can a company deny you severance based on an in-office attendance policy?
Yes. No law requires employers to offer severance, so they can attach conditions to it like that if they want. (One exception: The federal WARN Act requires most employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 days notice if they’re laying off 50 or more people at once or pay the equivalent amount of time in severance.) In theory, they could also offer different classes of benefits to different classes of workers — so they could offer X vacation days to remote workers and X + 5 vacation days to hybrid workers, etc.
As you step through the threshold of this charming starter home, be prepared to confront the echoes of past transgressions and the shadows of remorse. Each of the fully furnished rooms resonates with the cries of the damned. Price negotiable.
It occurs to me that I didn't actually draw any Pokemon in this Pokemon comic, so it may not be clear that it's about Pokemon. Make no mistake: the Pokemon are all standing just out of frame.
PLAINS, GA—On the heels of Donald Trump receiving guilty verdicts on 34 felony counts in New York, Jimmy Carter became the second president ever convicted of a crime Friday after a jury found he broke numerous laws while sticking up a Waffle House near his home in Georgia. “Today’s verdict shows that the rule of law…
Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying documents to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star during the 2016 election, becoming the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. What do you think?
Nikki Haley recently came under fire for a photo that has surfaced from her trip to Israel in which she can be seen writing the words “Finish them! America <3 Israel” on an artillery shell. Here are other things the former South Carolina governor and former presidential candidate wrote on Israeli missiles.
NEW YORK—Baffled by the woman’s sway over her millions of acolytes, sources confirmed Monday that local cult leader Taylor Swift, 34, was not even charismatic. “Typically, the cult leaders I study are highly persuasive individuals with magnetic personalities—Ms. Swift, however, presents a unique case,” said cult…
A man in Michigan who was charged with driving with a suspended license joined a Zoom call for his court hearing about those charges while apparently behind the wheel of a car, prompting the judge to revoke his bond and order that he turn himself in at the county jail. What do you think?
Enlarge (credit: Digicom Photo/Science Photo Library via Getty)
The US government is nearing an agreement to bankroll a late-stage trial of Moderna’s mRNA pandemic bird flu vaccine, hoping to bolster its pandemic jab stockpile as an H5N1 outbreak spreads through egg farms and among cattle herds.
The federal funding from the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, known as BARDA, could come as early as next month, according to people close to the discussions.
It is expected to total several tens of millions of dollars and could be accompanied by a commitment to procure doses if the phase-three trials are successful, they said.
SAN FRANCISCO—In an effort to better cater to its target market, telehealth company Hims has reportedly begun selling bags of chips for depressed, impotent losers who are also hungry. “Experiencing anxiety? ED? A rumble in your tummy? Hims can help,” says a voiceover in the company’s latest ad, which touts the…
Here's the footage pic.twitter.com/FzE1uwItrz— Dax McCoy (@daxgotfacts.bsky.social) (@DaxGotFacts) May 28, 2024 Jade Moreau only recently joined KFDM 6/FOX 4 KBTV Beaumont as an investigative reporter, but learned while covering the contentious Texas House District 21 run-off with photographer Shadéra Moore, that there can always be some pushback.In this case the Golden Triangle TV news crew
I am the person who kept having to watch over their manager’s kid during my shift (from this post). I appreciate everyone’s input, and I wanted to thank you for your advice. When I said I was “in my 20s,” I meant very early 20s. I’d had only one job before this one, and it was arguably even more dysfunctional, so all the feedback really opened my eyes. Even with the limited information I gave, it was so obvious to others that I needed to quit, but doing so felt like a death sentence to me.
I want to say that I have never gotten any inkling that “Ripley” was in danger. I know some people were worried about that. I kept a close eye out for concerning comments/behavior, but there was nothing that alarmed me. I just think the kid was bright but woefully understimulated and didn’t know how to get the attention they needed. I did start taking a firmer approach to their behavior, though it didn’t change much. I also took a stab at your advice on broaching the subject with my manager. I was met with a serious hostility, and then she started cutting my hours. I don’t envy her position, and I understand why it was easiest for her to lash out at me, but I was still pretty angry.
I spent a few months applying for jobs and ended up getting a new job in a completely different field. The hours are terrible, the pay is terrible, and I really like it anyway. I think this is what I’m meant to be doing. I’m planning on going back to school so that I can progress in this field. I really feel like I have direction for the first time in my adult career!
Last I heard, my former boss abruptly quit and sent a cryptic apology before removing herself from the group chat. My 18-year-old former coworker took on her position.
Today is my last day with my current agency. I work in government, and am switching to a different agency as of next week. I’ve had a new supervisor since late October, who is very sweet and tried to do what she could to help, but the fact is that my team is so dysfunctional that she and I both think my leaving is the best option for me, and she’s very happy for me. I’m working with her before I leave to try to write up what my job description really should be so she can work on that for hiring my replacement so the same problems don’t happen again, and I know she plans to have a serious talk with the rest of the team about how to treat team members moving forward and she does not intend to have the same problem again. I’ll still work with them a little bit as our agencies collaborate from time to time, but that’s totally fine with me!
I’ve worked with most of the people on my new team in some capacity and every single one has been very nice and given only good vibes. They all seem excited for me to come join! I’ve also only heard good things through the government rumor mill about this team, which is awesome. And I get my own office! For the first time!
I’m close friends with the people I was going to talk to, but I so rarely go down to their office anymore, even when I’m nearby collaborating with other teams. I’m only moving down the street from the building I’m in now, so we still plan to get lunch :) the problem was really my team and my stroooooong desire to stay far away from them (I share a small office with the worst offender).
I’ve already had my exit interview, which was extremely satisfying. The person who does it is the head of a team I’ve worked with a ton, so he knows me well and is sad to see me go, especially as he now got to hear all the details of why. He said I’ve been set up to fail here since day 1, and he’s very sorry that that had happened, and he wished he could have done more (he personally couldn’t have). I’ve come to realize that for most of my tenure here, I had a really terrible manager in addition to a bullying team. It was hard to see because my manager was so nice, but really, we had so many talks about what was happening and absolutely nothing was done. I never even got a job description after specifically asking for one, and telling him I was doing nothing pretty much all day. So I’m trying to make sure I keep an eye out for those signs moving forward as well!
I appreciated your advice and the input from your readers. Going through the comments made me realize how frustrated I really was. I decided not to lay any of this out for my boss and instead made a general comment after returning from vacation that the break had been good timing since I’d been feeling burnt out lately. Imagine my surprise a few days later when in a department-wide meeting my boss made a joke about how burnt out I was!
This helped me realize that my boss was probably not the person that I should turn to with doubts about the company, my career, or my specific role. That combined with some of the feedback from your post made me take a long, hard look at what I really wanted to do next. I think I’d been assuming that my career trajectory had only one path to one type of success and I was kind of freaking out about why that wasn’t making me happy. I’ve since started a new, lower-level role at another company — no reports and focusing on my favorite part of my old job. The pay is less, but the annual salary is nothing to complain about and I now work 100% remotely.
I did realize that my boss had no idea how unhappy I was. I think I had mentally checked out long before I wrote my letter. I’m glad I didn’t get into this topic with my boss because I truly couldn’t have imagined myself staying. Now, I’m hoping that I’ve found a place I can stay for the long haul, and that I’ll be more comfortable advocating for myself in this environment.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
A few weeks ago, my boss mentioned that she’d been hearing rumors about herself and said if I was the one spreading them, I could just come to her and talk to her. I assured her that I’m not spreading rumors about her or gossiping about her. Because I’m not.
Earlier this week, she accused me of frequently sharing looks with another coworker in our team meeting and asked if we were mocking her or had some sort of hidden animosity towards her. This person and I often sit across from each other (for some reason we all always sit in the same places for our team meeting). I admitted maybe I looked at this coworker because of where we sit, but I promised that there’s nothing like mocking or inside jokes or anything like that going on. Because there isn’t! I don’t think my boss believed me.
I don’t know how to handle this. Selfishly, I’m concerned that my boss’s insecurity is creating some sort of narrative about me in her head and that this is going to affect my career and/or my standing at the company. She mentioned the rumors right after telling me that she’s not putting me forward for a promotion this year. I’m also just worried about her. I’ve only recently been reorganized under her, so I don’t know if this level of insecurity is normal or in reaction to something else.
Before you ask — no, she’s not a new leader. She’s part of the senior leadership in a company that has more than 1,000 employees. Any ideas?
Oh noooo, that’s not good.
Mentioning that she suspected you of spreading rumors about her right after telling you she wasn’t recommending you for a promotion sure as hell sounds like those two things are connected. Maybe only unconsciously for her, or maybe explicitly. Either way, it’s not good.
Honestly, I’d try to get out of there as quickly as you can. Can you transfer internally? Or, any chance you were thinking about looking around outside your company sometime soon anyway? If so, this is the time to do it. If not, this may still be the time to do it.
Working under a manager who’s not only insecure but who’s apparently convinced that you personally have set yourself up in opposition to her — and that you’re mocking her and possibly spreading rumors about her! — will harm you professionally. There’s no way around that. You need a manager who trusts you, feels reasonably positively toward you, and is willing to champion you and your work. You have the opposite of that. (Also, what are the rumors that she thinks you might be spreading?! Please find out!)
To do damage control for whatever amount of time you’re stuck staying, you could try going out of your way to cater to your boss’s very fragile ego: make a point of being warm and friendly to her, and really try to make it hard for her to see you as anything but an ally. Switch up where you sit at team meetings so you’re not always across from the coworker who she thinks you’re mocking her with (which is silly to have to do, but might be worthwhile anyway). You could even go back to her and say, “I thought about our conversation, and I’m really taken aback that you’d think that about me. I want to make sure you know that I have nothing but respect and good will toward you, and if there’s anything I’ve done that’s given you a different impression, I’d want to remedy it.”
If you have really good HR, maybe you could talk to them about what your boss has said and ask for their help navigating it. They should be alarmed to have a manager making such odd accusations to team members … but whether or not they’ll intervene in an effective way is very much a crapshoot. It wouldn’t hurt to try if they’re generally trustworthy, though.
But longer term, this sounds like someone with a very shaky sense of self and an inclination to believe others are out to get her — and who has already put you in the “possible adversary” camp. This is bad, and it’s not something you can fix on your own. I would get out.
MANHATTAN, NY – With Donald Trump becoming the first president in United States history to be found guilty of criminal charges, observers note that this felony conviction is also the first instance of Trump earning anything in his entire life. “In all senses of the word, this is unprecedented,” explained Sherman Werner, a leading presidential […]
NEW YORK CITY, NY – Former US President Donald Trump has won 100% of the vote in his hush money trial as a jury reached the unanimous verdict of guilty on all 34 charges. Trump has been convicted of falsifying records of payments to hide sexual activity that could potentially be damaging to his electoral […]
A new Louisiana law will criminalize going within 25 feet of any police officer “engaged in law enforcement duties” if an order is issued to stand back, with opponents of the law saying that the measure will hinder the public’s ability to record officers’ actions and hold them accountable. What do you think?
WASHINGTON—Casting blame on his wife for the controversial flag that flew outside his home, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told reporters Thursday that he tried to take it down, but Martha-Ann Alito, 70, hit him, and she hits him “every night.” “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but she said,…
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