It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…
1. My new job has so much drama it made the local news
I started a job as an accounting manager less than a month ago. I had been out of work for a while. I was let go at my previous job, I think because my boss didn’t like or need me. I’m a quiet, anxious person and she was the opposite. I was still on probation there and it was a shock.
So, I’ve been looking for a new position but also working contract and doing well. I interviewed for one particular job I thought was a good fit. The hiring manager and I hit it off right away. I felt she was an empathetic, kind leader. She offered me the position, but I also received an offer from the company I was contracting with (for more money). I’ve been in some really bad work situations in the past, and I have a bit of trauma from it.
I declined the job with the contractor and accepted the other one based on my rapport with the boss and the mission of the organization, which appealed to me. On my first day, my boss was working from home. Then the rest of that week, she worked from home. I finally asked her about it, and she said there had been some accusations of a “toxic workplace” towards her and her boss and she was working from home for her “protection.”
One night shortly after I started, I was watching the news and there was a news story about the accusations of toxicity and mishandling of clients from nine of the 15 or so workers in my organization. They were interviewed anonymously on the news.
I’m wondering if I should just start looking elsewhere? I fear my boss, whom I still like, will be fired. Knowing she is mostly the reason I took this job (and a pay cut) what do you think would be my best option?
Whoa, I can see why you’re alarmed! But before you decide on any action, ideally you’d get a lot more information. Luckily, there are a lot of people you can talk to, and none of them are going to be even slightly surprised that you want to; if anything, they assume it’s coming. Talk to your boss! Talk to your coworkers! If there are other senior leaders besides your boss, talk to them too. All you need to say is, “I saw the news story and hadn’t known anything about the situation previously. Can you fill me in on what’s going on?”
Take everything you hear with grains of salt, since everyone will have their own agendas — but ask people to share their perspectives with you.
What you know so far sounds pretty damning — but it’s possible there’s more to it that would paint a different picture. Then again, even if the people making the accusations are off-base, the organization is likely in for a rocky road for a while as it works through whatever is going on.
If you think you’d want the other job you were offered, you can reach back out to that company and ask if the offer is still available. The sooner you do that, the higher the chances of it still being open … but once you do that, you should be ready to take it.
(Also, never take a job based just on a good feeling about the hiring manager. This is true for everyone, but especially since you’re someone who’s actively trying to avoid another bad situation. Managers can come across very differently in interviews than what they’re actually like to work for. Here’s some advice on how to spot bad jobs ahead of time.)
2. Working from home while men’s bathroom is out of order
If a company allows its male employees to work from home for a couple days while the men’s restroom in the office is closed for repairs, but does not offer a similar benefit to female employees (because their restroom still works), is this gender discrimination? Ordinarily, allowing men to work remotely but not women obviously would be very illegal, but in this case there’s a very good reason to allow the men to (in fact, forcing them to come in to the office when the bathroom is broken would probably violate OSHA) that doesn’t apply to the women.
You’d need an employment lawyer to tell you for sure, but I wouldn’t think the company has much legal risk, given the set of facts. The remote work on those days isn’t being offered as a perk; it’s in place because there will be no available bathroom facilities for those employees.
The most likely risk to them would be if they have denied intermittent work-from-home as a disability accommodation and claimed that it’s not possible for any of these roles; since it’s apparently possible when they see it as useful, this would be fodder for anyone who wanted to push back on that.
3. I get flooded with canned LinkedIn messages every time I post a job
I lead a recruitment team in a mid-sized manufacturing firm. We are inundated with resumes for almost every role (which is a good problem to have!), but I dread posting IT openings, even though that is my favorite area to recruit for. Within minutes of posting developer roles, I will get 50+ canned LinkedIn messages that all say the same thing: “My X experience at Z makes me a great candidate for this role! Are you open to a call to discuss how I can help your company?”
In fact, I am NOT open to a call. I have 400+ resumes sitting in our ATS to sift through and my limited interview spots will be given to candidates who have taken the time to apply online so that I can review their resume/application. I have always made a point to respond kindly to every LinkedIn message (other than spam) because I know how difficult and demoralizing a job search can be, but I am finding myself increasingly frustrated.
How can I respond kindly in a way that lets them know that while they think they are giving themselves an edge by approaching recruiters with a canned message, 400 of their competitors have completed online applications for my recruitment team to review? To be clear, there are some occasions where I welcome these messages, such as roles that require a unique skill set or if they are having difficulty with the application, etc. These are not that. Suggestions?
Relieve yourself of any feeling of obligation to respond to those messages and just delete them. They’re the hiring equivalent of spam and, just as you don’t reply to spammers to explain why their approach is ineffective, you don’t need to reply to these messages either. If you really want to reply, you could say, “Please submit an application on our website and we’d be glad to consider you” — but frankly I wouldn’t even do that, as it increases the likelihood that they’ll continue to use LinkedIn messages to try to pitch themselves outside of the system you’ve set up for considering candidates.
You’ve told people how to apply. The ones who want to will follow those instructions. You don’t need to spend extra time funneling people over there when they’ve ignored that.
4. HR hasn’t kept up with local employment regulations
I work in the New York office of a consulting company with 1,000 employees across more than 30 locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. At the end of December, I saw an article about how all private employers in New York, regardless of size, will be required to offer at least 20 hours of paid prenatal leave to all employees as of January 1, 2025. I had heard nothing about an update to my employer’s leave policies, so I emailed the HR department to ask how much paid prenatal leave the company would be offering, as well as more granular details about the policy’s implementation. The HR department replied saying they had no knowledge of this state regulation and would have to look into it. I was quite surprised by their admission of ignorance. They are now working on updating the company’s policies but told me it won’t “go live” on our internal site until February.
HR has also consistently dodged my questions about how they are going to make people aware of this new policy, instead deflecting by saying they’ll update the internal policy site. I don’t think anyone is regularly checking that site, so I assume they are intending for this benefit to slip under the general radar.
Is it reasonable to expect an HR department to (1) ensure the company is compliant with the laws of the places where it does business; (2) ensure that employees are made aware of updates to employment policies? I’ve never been impressed with our HR department – in my time at the company, they’ve been generally obstructive, misinformed current employees on immigration matters, and protected illegal behavior. I know all of that is coloring my view of their competence and of this particular interaction. But it seems wild that I should be informing HR of how to remain in compliance with state regulations!
I’m also wondering how much I can do to make sure my colleagues – not only in New York, but also in other U.S. locations – are aware of this policy. I’ve been keeping my cohort informed, but would it be out of pocket to send an email with a link to the new policy (whenever it goes live) to my whole office if HR won’t?
It is reasonable to expect an HR department to ensure the company is compliant with the law in the places where it does business. That is, in fact, a key responsibility of HR. It’s also reasonable to expect that they will share changes to employment policies.
That said, it’s surprisingly common for companies to miss changes in employment law that will affect them, particularly if they have employees in multiple jurisdictions. It shouldn’t be common— at a minimum, there are subscription services that will alert employers to legal changes in the states where they operate, and any company with employees in multiple locations should be using those if they’re not monitoring on their own — but it happens way more than it should. Regardless, once your company became aware of the new requirement, they should have acted with more urgency; the law went into effect January 1, not a month later.
A “good news — new benefit for New York employees” message to your coworkers wouldn’t be out of line.