Reference told me that the job was beneath the candidate. I’m in the middle of re-staffing my office for a new program. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. submitted an expense report late and now can’t get reimbursed for thousands of dollars. work for a big company that you’ve heard of — we bounce in and out of the Fortune 500 depending on various market conditions. work remote from about 1500 miles away so it’s not like I can walk over to somebody’s desk to see what is up with this. failed to submit my expense report for several months. MORE

For example: “I’m ready to take on a new challenge! I was brought in to set up a new team selling teapots to the Pacific Northwest. I’ve spent the last three years getting that team off the ground — staffing, developing our strategy, course-correcting once we saw what worked and what didn’t work. A reader writes: When being asked by a hiring manager “why are you looking to leave your job,” one of the common advised response is “I’m looking to take on a new challenge.” ” And that’s basically fine. But you need to say more than just “I’m looking for new challenges.” MORE

You may also like: staffing agency told me to pay for resume help before applying how long can your resume be? A reader writes: I have been out off work for three years. have sent out a lot of resumes and filled out a bunch of job applications, but I have not received any calls back. I was talking to a friend about it and they suggested that I get my resume done professionally. I’ve checked the price for this and it is not cheap. So I was wondering, will having my resume professional done worth the price or will it be waste of money that I honestly don’t really have? resume MORE

Staffing agency re-listed my new job. have the position through a staffing/temp agency. I’m working directly under the company’s CEO for this special project. received a call from my contact at the staffing agency. The position I have now was re-posted by the staffing agency the Saturday after my first day. Is the staffing agency just covering their butts and trying to have a pool of candidates in reserve? It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My coworker is constantly coughing and blowing her nose. Both VERY LOUD. Am I being petty? MORE

” Alternately, if you don’t even want to get into all that, a different option would be to just say, “This is a very large project and we don’t have the staffing we’d need to be able to complete it for you. I’m sorry we’re not able to help!”. 3. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My friend doesn’t approve of my work and is about to become my new boss. We’re going through major restructuring at work. My friend and I are both in positions with a reasonable amount of responsibility but are currently peers and have different managers. She recommended me for the role. MORE

Another employee, who was not his direct report, has been job searching and my supervisor has been contacted multiple times from his staffing agency looking for a reference. Every time, my supervisor just laughs and ignores it. I’ve told him to fill out the reference form for the sheer fact that they will stop bothering him, but he was always a fan of this employee and they are still friends so I think it’s kind of rude he keeps rejecting it. I’m not sure if this is because the reference is requested by a staffing agency but it worries me a bit. Well, yes. MORE

The plan had significant staffing cuts in some areas and we had heard nothing about it. Well, December is here … and the company is now saying that they can’t let me go due to a myriad of reasons, including being short-staffed, rolling out a new HRIS (in which I will be taking on some additional work), the tight turnaround for three-day pay periods in December, and any month/year end recon that I need to do will have to be done in a two-day timespan. My It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. found my company’s layoff plans on the copier … and distributed them. MORE

The budget is tight and I am short-staffed. For 90 days, he was great – fast learner, very motivated, put in extra effort, reliable. I was happy he was working so well and my bosses were happy that they approved my staffing proposal. A reader writes: I’m a manager at a large nonprofit. finally was approved to open up a position with the understanding that it would be a 90-day trial period and at the end of that period the organization would evaluate how well it worked and then decide whether or not to make that person permanent, non-exempt. Should you be mortified? MORE

There might have been questions about the structure of the role that arose late in the game based on late-emerging factors you don’t know anything about (staffing changes, client issues, budget questions, etc.). A reader writes: I would love your input on a job interview process I have recently experienced. little backstory – my wife and I are expecting child #2 in the next few months. We have decided to try to move closer to my family (about three hours away) so they can assist with child care while we work, which will greatly alleviate the expense of paying for child care. MORE

Most of the jobs that I am applying for go through one of three different staffing specialists. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. only invited some of my employees to my birthday party, and now I’m in trouble. I had a birthday part and invited some of my direct reports. I was later asked by my boss whether I had a birthday party and invited direct reports and whether the party was discussed. When I responded that yes, I had a party and that it may have been discussed as far as the venue and the dress I was wearing, she stated that could be seen as favoritism. MORE

For example, he believes he is a strong team player when he has left other members of the department in the lurch on multiple occasions, forgotten when he agreed to switch shifts with a coworker, missed appointments with customers, and scheduled appointments when we are short-staffed. A reader writes: I am a new supervisor and I am in the process of doing an annual evaluation for one of my employees, I’ll call him Carl, who has been with the company for about a year. We did a six-month evaluation at the end of his probationary period and it did not go well. good management MORE

This makes scheduling very difficult since public service points have to be staffed during all open hours. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. Employee takes a vacation day every week. I’m hoping you can tell me if there is anything that can be done about an employee who had admitted to taking one vacation day a week each month so that he is working only four days a week most months of the year! He has told me that this is exactly what he intends. He’s an exempt employee and receives a very good vacation package. But I wonder. ” 2. Is this legal? MORE

He’s very well paid, there’s weekly free lunches for the entire staff, a fully staffed (and free!) It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. Should I ask my coworker why she didn’t hire my son? My son recently graduated college and applied for a job in a different department at the same company where I have worked for 35 years. He had a lengthy phone interview and an even longer in-person interview with several managers, and then they declined to make him an offer with no explanation. That’ll undermine him and make him look like a weaker candidate. said yes. MORE

Last week, I was notified by a staffing agency that I was selected for a customer service position they had with one of their clients.  I started on a Monday, but on Wednesday my recruiter at the staffing firm notified me that that she received some negative feedback, and that the client had chosen to end my assignment. I had forgotten to check my email before I started making calls that day, and there was an email with some very important information regarding what we tell customers. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. ” What is the purpose of this? MORE

that I need about a week to adjust staffing assignments during vacation time. Presumably you want to make sure you’re not caught short-staffed, having deadlines missed, or having to reshuffle your entire day. A reader writes: I am a manager in a small office (me, my boss, and my three direct reports), within a very large organization. The size of our office is a bit unusual; most departments have 50+ employees, and many are 100+). As a result, many of our HR policies are set up in an extremely structured way. have explained (with words! repeatedly!) MORE

You may also like: ask all your questions about the new overtime law here my coworker makes more money than me, but we do the same work my employer makes you wait 3 years for a raise and is staffed by lunatics the new overtime law means I’ll be earning the same as much more junior people was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: Last year I used a job offer to negotiate for a promotion from teapot coordinator to teapot manager, and a pay raise. This frankly is making me very angry and demoralized. salary MORE

staffing agency told me to pay for resume help before applying a professional resume writer told me my resume is “awful” — is it? A reader writes: I have been following your blog for more than a year now and I must say that it has been an invaluable source of advice and inspiration. Following your advice, I got interviews with every company I have applied to and received an offer. I am currently preparing to apply for a rotation graduate program which I feel I could really excel in. ” His main arguments are a lack of personality and awkward phrasing. That’s it. MORE

This manifests mainly as getting a little overly familiar (draping an arm around people) and sometimes being loud/voluble. I am often staffing these events, while he is there in more of a networking capacity, but I’m worried it reflects poorly on our office. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My boss gets drunk at department events. work at a university, and our department will have events every few months with an open bar (wine and beer only). My supervisor likes to take advantage of these and will get drunk basically every time. Any advice on how to phrase that? MORE

She’s upset and crying, so we send her home immediately and work the rest of the night short-staffed. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. I’m worried about our pregnant bartender. I own and operate a busy nightclub, and one of my bartenders is six months pregnant. She was pregnant last year as well, but miscarried four and a half months in (this detail is relevant). asked the bartender, let’s call her Trudy, a few weeks back how long she’d like to keep working, and she said she’d like to work right up to the due date. How do I approach this? MORE

We were discussing resumes today during a meeting, and someone mentioned that the current trend is now a one-page resume. I am having a hard time fathoming such a thing – it was hard enough to bring my four pages to two for a staffing agency. A one-page would make it difficult to put anything more than my address, phone number, work history and competencies. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My office smells like a corpse. My office is an older building and half of it is up on a small crawl space. And then the smell begins to permeate the office. What are our options? MORE

There was also a law library where the computers and typewriters were, which was also staffed by a handful of inmates. Recently, a commenter, Oryx, mentioned that she used to work as a prison librarian, and I wanted to learn more. She graciously agreed to do an interview for us, and here’s the Q&A. How did you end up in the job? And how long were you there? answered an ad I found through Indeed.com, but which was originally posted on my state’s job board (even though I worked for a for-profit prison that was not managed by the state). It was all-male, minimum security. MORE

It sounds like you’re lowering your staffing by one-third during this time; is there really no more work that will fall to them? It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. As an April Fools prank, I said I was quitting my job. I may have put myself unintentionally on the bad side of a few of my coworkers, as well as possibly my supervisor. Just recently was April 1st, and for some humor (or so I thought), I figured I’d pull a prank by announcing on Facebook that I have taken a new job. Since it was April 1st, I thought that everyone would get it right away. thought wrong. MORE

But this is indeed part of staffing this event, and we do need the client to be able to reach you in case of emergency.” It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. If you go to a good college, do you still need to get work experience while you’re in school? recently had a dispute with my younger brother, a senior in high school. suggested that when he goes to college, he should take advantage of connections through the school to get an internship or two over the summer, for the experience and flesh out his resume, since degree =/= job in this day and age. ” 4. MORE

So at this point, if it’s a priority for us to provide this kind of support, we need to add staffing to make it possible.”. A reader writes: I’m the head of IT for a company of just over 100 people. I’ve been at this company for three years. When I started, the company was about a third of our current size. feel like we have a de facto IT process of “check with Bob,” which is inefficient, takes time away from higher priorities, and doesn’t scale to our size. And frankly, lots of the questions I get each day are stupid. And I like my colleagues. Also: 1. MORE

And candidates are under no obligations of any kind to use recruiting/staffing agencies to go to an employer. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. Employee wants to retract his resignation — but we don’t want him to. We have an employee who resigned by email two weeks ago. He sent the email to our office manager, the head of HR, one of the VP’s, and the president of the company. Our office manager did not get it because the employee sent it to the wrong address, but everyone else got it. Fast forward to last week, when the employee told us that he wants to stay. be hired. MORE

The overtime to pull off some of these tasks on very short notice is killing my group’s morale and the next-day shipping on materials is killing my group’s budget. I’d love to get everything done, correctly and on time, and to do that I need advance knowledge when possible along with accurate deadlines so that I can make sure to have the staffing and materials available to handle it. A reader writes: I’m a new manager who heads up a team of 12 employees, and I’m having an issue with the other groups that we work with. What are your thoughts? being the boss MORE

Everyone in my office is stumped on what to try next — or if this is just part of the territory when you’re staffing positions in tricky locations. A reader writes: I work for a contractor; our primary industry is providing professional staff at locations around the globe. One of the locations where we have staff is something like the the Wall in Westeros — it’s a far-away military installation, and it has an incredibly strong reputation as a place where you don’t want to get sent. Alison, if you were in our shoes, what would you be looking at? sort of way. MORE

have been through four or more staffing agencies, but cannot hold a job long enough to get on through the companies in which they had me work. I am unable for re-hire through two of these staffing companies. A reader writes: I am a 24-year old in need of serious job advice. have short work histories with previous employers (10 or more in 7 years). The longest I’ve worked for a company has been about year and a half: Dairy Queen when I was working in high school. The second longest is a year and a month, 2012-2013 for a security company. But let’s back up. job searching MORE

You may also like: we’re not allowed to exercise while staffing a conference, employer wants my high school diploma, and more congratulations, you’ve won the chance to promote online diploma mills! hate my school’s registrar’s office, and my diploma hasn’t left its packing tube left so I opted to bring that along. know it’s silly, but hey, they wanted original proof! handed it over (and the woman was amused by my choice), and then she left to copy it. When she came back, she asked if I had a translation of my diploma. For my diploma! Poetry in motion. MORE

Basically, they fill in for our required commitments when we’re short-staffed. Just focus on being clear and direct about what you need from her, and about what you can and can’t accommodate without being unfair to the other student worker or leaving yourself short-staffed. A reader writes: I am a new supervisor and have an issue with a current employee. This employee is an hourly graduate student who mostly works nights/weekends when our full-time employees do not. ” So far, I’ve allowed this to happen without questioning things, as grieving is tough and takes time. MORE

That seems like a level of investment in (and bending over backwards for) a non-stellar employee that isn’t smart for a small business that presumably has limited staffing resources. (I’d argue it isn’t smart for any business, but it’s especially critical that small businesses make sound staffing decisions.). A reader writes: I own a small sports and recreation business. We have a young employee (let’s call him Bill) whose responsibilities include, among other things, oversight of our customer service desk and associated administrative tasks. MORE

If the issue is with doing it June — if that’s a busy season or if you’re short-staffed that month — that’s more reasonable. I’d get clarification about that by asking, “Do you mean that you’ll never want me to take a full week off, or that June is a bad time to do it?”. It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…. 1. Was my vacation request unreasonable? We are a very small company, and I understand that this would possibly be hard, but I am still unhappy about the decision. Was my request reasonable and is there something I should have done to push for additional time? MORE

My sister is still actively looking for a new job, as she has real doubts that an organization staffed with Jane’s sycophants is salvageable (or if it is, she may not want to be the person to save it). Remember the letter-writer whose sister managed someone who kept having  inappropriate emotional responses  like “I should not have to tell you what’s wrong if you don’t know” and who was sending her abusive text messages like “I think I need to know if you get the depth of how betrayed I feel” and “I am so hurt that I want to destroy you”? Here’s the update. MORE

Over the past couple years, our office has become increasingly short-staffed due to a hiring freeze. understand the frustration of dealing with staffing issues in an office that is already short-staffed, but these people have documented major health conditions and are protected under FMLA. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. I’m being fired and don’t know why. After three years of working at my company, I was told “we are not a good fit” and my last day will be July 1. They will be paying me through August 15. But what do I say? Is that normal? MORE

When I got here, I noticed a lot of staffing changes. A reader writes: I just started a new job about six months ago. Apparently the company has had a high turnover of both firing and people leaving after only a year or two. Subsequently, I have gone without direct supervision, since my boss resigned after hiring me. applied right away and thought, “What a great opportunity.” How can I get more insight on why people left this role (assuming the rumor they were fired is true)? And if I am offered the job, and don’t want it, how can I respectfully decline? Just bad at hiring? MORE

You may also like: what relocation help can I expect, explaining a tiny raise, and more my employer makes you wait 3 years for a raise and is staffed by lunatics update: should I have to take vacation time for this day when I regularly work extra hours? A reader writes: I manage a team of 12 IT staff. Over the last year, we were responsible for an extremely large project working long and hard hours. The cost savings to the company was supposed to be in the millions. Well, now it’s time for pay raises and was told I am being given $5,000 to split between the 12 staff. MORE

You may also like: awkwardness over paying the bill at a dinner with coworkers it’s time for a job-seekers’ bill of rights our office is having a water cooler emergency and is staffed by loons coworkers didn’t leave enough money for the bill after a group dinner was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: Last night, a group from my department went out to celebrate another employee. It was a happy hour/dinner at a karaoke bar. There were seven of us total from my dept. Four people left the dinner early and left money for the bill. Thanks!” MORE

Staffing agency contacted me after nine years. received an email from a staffing agency. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My company has an exclusive sports team that’s causing bad feelings. work for a company that sponsors various sports teams throughout the year – all coed and open to anyone who wants to play. Once a year, there is an industry-wide tournament with some very competitive teams and a bit of prestige on the line. Do you have any suggestions on how this should be handled going forward? Are these sorts of details usually written into offer letters? MORE

The staffing for the sites can vary, and staff are assigned on a weekly basis to the various sites. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. My manager said the wrong number when giving me a raise. I’m not even sure where to begin on this one. recently had my one-year evaluation with my manager. To thank me for my good work, my manager said I would receive a raise and it would go into effect in the next pay cycle. Instead of phrasing the new salary in terms of the increase (like “your salary will increase this much”), she said the actual new salary amount. MORE

Recently, we have run into a perfect storm of changes with our staffing levels and more limited availability from staff who usually help out. I am a manager, so finding coverage for these events usually falls to me, and I am always willing to step in to cover if no one offers to do so. A reader writes: I’m a department manager for a small public entity that specializes in education and recreation. We have a small staff (less than 20, and most are part-time). My department coordinates our outreach efforts. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find coverage. good management MORE