It’s 5 solutions to 5 questions. Here we go…
1. My finest friend is dating my worker
I personal a small cocktail bar in a small city and not too long ago considered one of my oldest and finest pals, who is additionally a common patron, began dating considered one of my workers. (He gave me a chance to weigh in beforehand, however I instructed him I had no proper to intrude in my workers’ relationships, so to proceed if he needed to. Whenever a patron begins dating an worker, there is danger, however it additionally goes with the bar territory.)
It looks like it is going effectively for them, so I had a chat with my friend, clarifying that I didn’t count on our friendship to divide any loyalties or something dramatic, or count on him to share issues with me that she had instructed him about work, or something like that. He mentioned he assumed that however it was good to listen to me say it.
Should I’ve a related dialog with her? On the one hand, speaking to an worker about her personal life looks like an overreach (though she has introduced up points with previous relationships earlier than), however on the different, she may additionally be relieved if I spelled out that she doesn’t have to fret about me leveraging my friendship in a problematic approach. And this is a friend that I often journey with, together with his previous companions, so there could also be additional mandatory boundary conversations in the future in the event that they develop into a actually critical merchandise.
Err on the facet of being clear about the place you stand, so she doesn’t must guess. Spell out that you simply acknowledge the potential landmines (that are more dangerous to her than anybody else) and plan to keep up a firewall with your friend, and — most significantly — if issues finish with him, it gained’t have an effect on her standing at work. (You should imply that, although! If they break up and your friend tells you horrible issues about her habits as a girlfriend, it’s essential be dedicated to not letting it influence the way you deal with her as an worker.)
You additionally should be dedicated to defending her work atmosphere if it turns into mandatory. If they break up and he’s mooning round the bar making her uncomfortable, you’ve acquired to be keen to deal with it the similar approach you’ll if he had been some other buyer, not your finest friend. And whereas it would really feel bizarre to spell that out for her whereas they’re blissful, it’s most likely price saying … as a result of if sooner or later she does need to finish issues with him, you don’t need her having to fret about whether or not it’ll make issues bizarre for her at work.
2. “Gentle reminders”
Is anybody else irritated by the phrase “gentle reminder” in emails? It appears to virtually at all times be adopted by some form of passive/passive-aggressive assertion. Why can’t we simply be direct and say “reminder, X event is happening” or “reminder, please do ABC”? Is it an overreaction to folks trying to be overly well mannered in emails since tone is arduous to convey in the written phrase? Am I utterly neurotic for being irked by this language (and related language)?
“Gentle reminder” is my primary e-mail pet peeve! It’s like asserting “I think you are very delicate, and I am going to softly tiptoe up next to you and whisper in your ear because otherwise you might be offended by a routine workplace interaction” — ugh!
People aren’t delicate flowers and they will deal with matter-of-fact work communications! Why are the “gentle reminder” folks labeling that approach? (In reality, why are they labeling all of it? Just give the rattling reminder and let your recipients resolve whether or not they assume it’s mild, or aggressive, or routine, or no matter. Stop telling them the way you need them to really feel about your e-mail.)
3. Is it unlawful to reassemble a laid-off group earlier than a yr has handed?
In January, my complete group was laid off, with the official cause being that our positions had been eradicated. We had been a group of 4, and there have been no different layoffs or positions eradicated at the moment. Cutting the complete group meant there was nobody left doing the type of work we did.
I nonetheless have pals at the firm. They let me know that many individuals had been voicing issues about my group’s operate being lower. In response, they had been instructed that legally, as a result of our positions had been eradicated, they couldn’t resurrect that operate with a new group – nor might they re-hire any of us to carry out that operate – for a yr.
I did a fast search looking for any legal guidelines that utilized and got here up empty. My finest guess was that they’d been instructed that in the event that they allow us to go by “eliminating our positions” and then quickly after employed a bunch of, say, younger white males to do these jobs, they’d be open to claims of discrimination. But that doesn’t account for them saying they had been legally not allowed to rent the authentic group again.
Now, 9 months later, they’re in actual fact resurrecting our operate beneath a completely different division. I hear that the first query from people nonetheless there was, would they be re-using the supplies my group had created? And once more, they had been instructed that there are authorized restrictions, on this case stopping them from utilizing these supplies.
Of course, it’s not my problem in the event that they don’t need to use our previous supplies, for no matter cause. But it’s such a unusual excuse to provide! We had been salaried workers creating work-for-hire – they clearly personal it and can use it any approach they like, as I perceive it.
This (most likely) has no bearing on my present or future work life, however I’m curious – are there some legal guidelines round this that I’m unaware of? Are they in actual fact legally barred from rehiring any of us for the similar job inside a yr? And/or legally barred from utilizing the supplies we created whereas working for them? (We’re in the U.S.)
No regulation prevents firms from re-filling positions that had been beforehand lower earlier than X period of time has previous, both with new workers or the previous ones. Some firms have inside insurance policies about it to assist keep away from the look that they laid folks off for unlawful causes (which might appear to be the case if the new hires are all in several demographic classes than the individuals who had been lower — for instance, in case you eradicate a group the place everybody is over 60 and then three months later reassemble it with a bunch of 30-year-olds, that’s going to lift issues). But that’s an inside coverage, not a regulation. (It additionally doesn’t clarify why they wouldn’t rent the similar folks again, though some firms have that coverage too.)
What’s actually weird, although, is their insistence that they couldn’t use any of the supplies your group created. As you level out, they personal that materials and there’s no authorized cause they couldn’t. Either your organization is getting actually odd authorized recommendation or that they had different causes for wanting to begin from scratch that they’re not sharing with your previous coworkers (or one thing simply acquired misplaced in translation as this made its approach by way of the grapevine, which generally occurs).
4. My boss and I’ve the similar facet hustle — can I promote his work?
My supervisor and I occur to each pursue the similar artistic work outdoors of and in a completely different discipline from our day jobs, and we each have large new initiatives on this outdoors artistic discipline popping out this winter (assume guide illustration or graphic design, the place it’s project-based).
My supervisor has been extraordinarily supportive of my outdoors work and talked about that he can’t wait to advertise my upcoming mission on his social media, brag about me to his contacts, and many others. I’m so flattered that he desires to take action! However, I’m undecided how, if in any respect, I ought to reciprocate. I often promote my pals’ work on this artistic discipline on my social media accounts however it feels completely different when it’s my boss. But at the similar time, I’m additionally very impressed with his work and assume it’s price selling — if he wasn’t my boss and was simply a friend or a colleague, I’d be shouting about it from the rooftops. But due to the energy dynamics, I’m hesitating. Am I overthinking this? If I acknowledge the relationship in my posts (“this is my boss — isn’t his work amazing?”), does that make it higher or worse? And if my boss posts about my work and I keep silent about his, is that a dangerous look?
Since you genuinely like his work and need to put it on the market, go forward and try this! I do assume you need to point out the relationship only for transparency’s sake (I’d body it as “I get to work with the artist, Burt Burtlebot, in my day job” however that’s actually private desire). It would solely appear bizarre if he had been getting a disproportionate share of your focus relative to different stuff you put up about.
But in case you didn’t need to advertise his work, it could be okay to remain quiet about it. If I had been in your boss’s footwear and you weren’t selling my work, I’d simply assume it didn’t happen to you to or would write it off to energy dynamic weirdness (as a result of it’s inherent in our respective work roles that I’ll champion your work as your boss and not essentially vice versa). But because you’re captivated with it, go forward and share that enthusiasm.
5. Gift playing cards from the firm didn’t work
This week my customer support group obtained items of $25 pay as you go bank cards from higher-ups through e-mail. However, we work remotely in Canada, and these playing cards solely work in the U.S. I introduced the problem as much as my group and mentioned we must always discuss to our boss about it subsequent week, who is at present away on trip.
I’m hoping our firm does the proper factor and replaces the principally ineffective items. I’m a little disillusioned/irritated this occurred and they didn’t do higher oversight on the items. Is this a large deal? Am I overthinking it?
Sometimes errors like this occur, and it could be straightforward to happen if the individual ordering the playing cards is based mostly in the U.S. and hasn’t dealt with this internationally earlier than.
Your firm will virtually definitely change the playing cards with working ones as soon as they’re knowledgeable of it. If they don’t, you’d be proper to take problem with that (not solely did they not get the reward proper however they couldn’t be bothered to repair it as soon as they knew?!) however it’s actually unlikely to play out that approach. I feel you’re being untimely in being irritated, and are in actual fact borrowing hassle! Give them a probability to study the error and treatment it.
