It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. What should you do to fill the time when you don’t have any work?
A coworker and myself are arguing about this. Our boss doesn’t really care, as long as all the work gets done in the day. Here’s the hypothetical situation: you are on the clock for your nine to five job. Part of your job requires you to sit in a seat waiting for another person to finish their task so you can do yours. There is no work you can do untill your coworker has finished their task. Here’s the question: what should you do to fill the time?
Read a book, crossword puzzle, mess around on your phone (not against policy to use your phone during working hours), talk with your coworker, take a nap, maybe do a little workout routine? Other options? And most importantly, are any of these options ethically wrong?
It depends 100% on what your workplace and your manager are okay with you doing with that time. There are some workplaces where it would be fine read a book, take a nap (less of them but they exist), or do a workout routine (same), and there are some where that would be really out of sync with what’s expected there. So if this comes up more than very occasionally, the best thing to do is to talk with your boss and find out how they feel. (You say your boss doesn’t care, but for a lot of bosses that could mean playing on your phone is fine but visibly sleeping is not. It’s smart to confirm.) If your employer is fine with it, there’s no ethical issue.
That said, there are a lot of jobs where being done with all your work … doesn’t really mean there’s literally nothing work-related you could do. Often you’d still be able to do something useful, like filling out expense reports, organizing your files, reading field-relevant publications, doing some optional check-ins with clients, brainstorming ideas for next quarter’s projects, cleaning out your email, and so forth. Ethically (and reputation-wise), you’re better off doing things like that before you consider reading a book or napping. But if there’s literally nothing you could be doing that’s work-related, then we’re back to: know your office, and know your boss.
2. A recruiter asked me to lie
I’ve been out of work for a couple of years now, after a layoff that I dealt with (or failed to deal with) by plunging into a serious depression. I’m doing much better now and finally looking for work, but I’ve been living off my 401(k) for too long and the money is nearly gone. I’m a little desperate.
A recruiter called me about a contract job earlier this week that seemed like an okay fit, so I agreed to work with her. She must have messaged or called me 10 times that day, asking the same questions about my availability and experience again and again. Several times she called to ask for the number of years of experience I had in various areas listed on my resume, and then she would ask me to update my summary with that area and the number of years. I think all told I updated my resume four separate times.
The last time she called, she asked about a technology I had never used, although it’s a common, open-source platform that is not difficult to learn, and I have used other similar systems. I told her I didn’t have that specific experience, but that I would be happy to learn it. She kept pressing me for a number of years with that technology. It was so weird! I kept saying, “No, I actually don’t have experience with X, but I do know Y, and they are similar, and I’d be glad to jump online today and teach myself X really quick because it’s not difficult.” But she seemed frustrated and I got the feeling she wanted me to give her a number of years of experience with platform X! If it hadn’t been a common, fairly intuitive thing, I wouldn’t have agreed, but I said that since I had used this other platform that was similar, we could say that I had one year’s experience with X. She then said, “Do you have two years of experience with X?” It was so weird: she was asking me to lie without actually saying it. Thinking that this was a small thing to get my foot in the door, I updated my resume to list two years of experience with technology X and sent it along. Immediately afterward I went online and familiarized myself with X, which is not difficult. Seriously, if I told you what it was, you would laugh.
The whole thing has made me so uncomfortable, though. I removed the reference to X from my resume on LinkedIn the next day. (I mean, it took me 10 minutes to figure it out, but it’s not real experience that should be on my resume!) Should I withdraw my candidacy with the recruiter because of her shady actions? Should I tell her why? I’m ashamed that I went along with the lie at all. And I really am desperate for work, but she flat-out required me to lie … and about such a stupid thing! If I were to get the interview, I think I would confess that I actually know the other technology, not the one she required me to add.
Yeah, she’s really sketchy! She’s sketchy both in asking you to lie and in the way she went about it. I mean, I’d still be uncomfortable if she’d said something like, “I know you don’t have a year of experience with this but I agree with you that it’s easy to learn and this client is really rigid about seeing it on the resume, so would you be up for adding it because of that?” But at least there she’d be being open about what she was doing, versus the silly game she played with you instead. So yeah, sketchy.
i don’t think you have to withdraw your candidacy though, not unless you want to. You should of course keep an eye out for other shadiness from her and will need to assume that you can’t fully trust what she tells you, but it’s okay for you to stay in the running for this job if you’re interested in it (especially given that you really need a job right now). Just know you’ll have to verify with the company anything she tells you that’s really important to you (about the job, benefits, etc.), rather than taking her word for it.
3. I’m really easily startled
My job recently moved offices. The new workspace is more open, and I’m in a low-walled cube where before I had an office with a door. An issue that’s starting to come up is that I’m very easily startled, to the point where it’s almost impossible to approach me at my desk without me at least jumping and gasping. Since we moved, I’ve found that I can’t wear headphones or listen to anything at my desk now, because I need to be able to hear if anyone’s coming up behind me. The rare times I do listen to something, someone inevitably walks up and surprises me. The way it’s laid out, people can approach me from multiple directions, which I think adds to my jumpiness.
My reactions seem stressful for my coworkers who try to talk to me, and I don’t want to be weird or disruptive. I’m worried that one day I’m going to scream or something! I’ve conveyed to people, usually after the fact, that it’s something that happens to me periodically and that they aren’t doing anything wrong.
How should I handle this? Should I keep addressing it in the moment? Is there anything I can proactively do? I think a “please knock” sign next to my cube wall would both be ignored and be out of sync with the office as a whole (and I’m not sure knocking would help, anyway!). I feel like I’m working very hard to mitigate this and it’s getting me absolutely nowhere.
I’m assuming there’s no way to change either your desk or the way your desk is positioned? If either of those is possible, that’s your best solution. And you could frame that to your manager as, “I’m finding I’m so regularly startled by people approaching me without warning that it’s distracting me and making it hard to focus.”
But if that’s not possible, you might be able to minimize some of this with carefully placed mirrors. It’s not uncommon to use small mirrors to deal with colleagues approaching from behind, and you’d just need a few more of them than most people do … which yes, might look a little odd (or like you adored your own image and wanted to see it from multiple angles) but might be preferable to the current situation.
Alternately, yeah, I think you’re looking at giving up headphones or just continuing to explain, “Sorry, I’m easily startled” (which is fine to keep doing, if that’s what ultimately seems easiest).
4. My boss asked me to do a task I’ve already been doing
My boss emailed me asking me to do a task, but my problem is that i already have been doing this simple task since I started working here. How can I tell him I’ve been doing this task since the beginning without coming off rude and arrogant?
Think of this as information exchange, not correction, and you’ll probably feel better about it.
Just be matter-of-fact and cheerful: “I’m on it! I’ve actually been doing it monthly” (or whatever).
5. Putting sexual identity in a design portfolio
My sibling recently graduated with from college and put together an online portfolio of their design work. I noticed in their “About Me” section they put “I am an LGBTQ+ designer” as the first sentence. My immediate reaction was to recommend that they remove that entirely from their portfolio; my thinking is that is definitely information hiring managers would not care to know about (just like they don’t want to know a person’s religion or age). I understand this is a big part of their identity but it seems like sharing in this way will only hurt their chances. What do you think?
If this were a resume, I’d agree with you. But an online bio is different. It’s not uncommon to have more personal information in those. They’re more informal and they often contain information about who the person is, beyond the strictly professional. So I think your sibling is fine! (And yes, it’s possible it could hurt their chances with LGBTQ-unfriendly employers, but I’m guessing that’s intentional.)
filling the time when you don’t have any work, a recruiter asked me to lie, and more was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.
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