be honest about employee problems

Do you have an employee whose performance you're unhappy with? Tell them.

Do you have an employee who you strongly suspect isn't going to work on in the long-term? Tell them.

All too often, managers avoid being candid with employees about concerns over performance or fit. They want to avoid a difficult conversation, or they don't believe the person can fix the problem, or they're hoping they can ignore it a little longer.

This is horribly unfair to the employee, who deserves the chance to know about the issues, and it's unfair to your company, which has hired you to, in part, address employee problems head-on.

Yes, a conversation about performance problems isn't pleasant. It sucks for anyone on the receiving end, and it sucks for the manager who has to deliver it. But it is far, far worse to be an employee whose boss doesn't care enough to speak candidly with her about areas in which she needs to improve in order to do well.

Even if you're convinced such a conversation would be fruitless and the employee can't change, she deserves to know. She deserves to know because maybe you're underestimating her, or maybe it would be useful for her to understand the ways in which she's a bad fit for this work, or maybe she just deserves a chance to see the writing on the wall so she can start looking for other positions.

The worst thing you can do when you're unhappy with an employee is stay quiet. Tell the person, and tell them now.

I've been tagged

I have been tagged by The Ethical Slut.

The rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So let's see.

1. I own three copies of Pride & Prejudice. I keep one at home, one in my desk at work, and one in my car. The last two are in case I ever get caught somewhere without reading material. It can be opened to any page and immediate literary bliss will result.

2. I know all the words to all the songs from the musical "1776."

3. I am a terrible driver. Yet oddly, I am an excellent parallel parker. Once I was so proud of the extremely tight space I parallel-parked in that I took a photo of it on my cell phone, showing the mere half inch between my car and the cars in front of and in back of me. I spent the next week insisting that people admire the photo.

4. In high school, I was the editor of the school newspaper AND the underground newspaper. Which is weird, since the whole point of an underground newspaper is supposed to be to go head-to-head with the legitimate one. Yes, I am that much of a dork.

5. I once appeared in public naked, in Aspen in 12 degree weather.

6. My new favorite charity is The Innocence Project. I think they're amazing.

I hereby tag The Career Encouragement Blog, HR Wench, and the Evil HR Lady, who I fear is tagged way too much.

Carnival of HR

The Carnival of HR is up over at 8 hours & a lunch.

you need to wear a suit

Yes, you have to dress up for the interview.

I don't care if the office where you're interviewing is business casual. You can wear business casual when you're working there, after you impress them in the interview where you wore a suit.

I don't care if you don't feel suits reflect the "real you." I would wear head-to-toe fleece to the office if I could get away with it. But I can't.

I don't care if you don't like arbitrary rules like this. I'm not thrilled with them either, but I don't make those rules. I just want to know that you know what those rules are.

You need to slap on the suit and look professional. It signals that you take the job seriously. Sure, you might get hired if you wear a sweater and pants instead; I've hired people who wore that to the interview. But why wouldn't you want to play it safe and wear the suit? It's like thank-you notes -- if you're the right candidate, I'm going to hire you even if you didn't send a thank-you note after the interview. But if it's a close call, why wouldn't you want to do everything possible to give yourself an edge?

Just wear the suit.

(Disclaimer: This doesn't apply in certain fields, often tech-related ones. If you won't wear the suit, maybe that's the field for you.)

train people on day one

I recently had a new employee comment that he was pleasantly surprised by how prepared we were for him on his first day -- that we gave him the materials and training he needed to be able to jump right in. I knew exactly what he meant, because our preparation stems from having worked for too many companies that do the opposite -- the many companies that tell new employees, "Oh, you're here today? Sit over there and read these brochures for a few hours to familiarize yourself with our company while we figure out what to do with you."

This is a ridiculous approach. Not only is a waste of the employee's time (you're paying this person now), but it sends a terrible message about the company culture. The message you want to send from day one is that you're organized, efficient, running a tight ship, and care about using employees' time effectively.

So in order to never be that company that leaves a new employee feeling unwelcomed and sitting around wondering when the work will begin, we have managers create training outlines for each new employee. The training outline lays out what will be covered, in what order, during the person's first week. And the new employee gets a copy of the outline so that they know what to expect.

In addition to job-specific information, our training outlines usually include things like:

- an overview of the department the person is in (what the department does, how they do it, and who does what)
- any recent history of the department they should be aware of
- the specifics of each component of their job
- tips they should know about working with other departments
- how to handle particular personalities outside the office they may have to interact with and things to be sensitive to
- how to locate important files
- what kind of communication is expected and how often
- what they do and don't have the authority to do on their own
- types of emails and phone calls they're likely to receive and how to handle them
- common problems they'll encounter and how to handle them
- what to do if deadlines can't be met
- what to do if they need help
- expenditure authority and approval

... and much more.

It's often good to spread this out over a couple of days, since most people can only retain so much their first day on a job, when everything is new.

Doing this has revolutionized our training of new employees (and I suspect the impression we make on them as well). I can't recommend it highly enough.

the ethics of editing writing samples

My cousin gave me pause today when he asked me to edit the writing sample he's sending to a prospective employer.

I know, of course, that job applicants -- the good ones -- get their materials edited by other people all the time. It's part of showing due diligence in making sure you don't have typos, etc. But somehow writing samples feel different, and as a manager, I felt obligated to say: No! Do not do this. Your writing sample should reflect your writing, not writing that has been edited by others. Otherwise a hiring manager can't make a good decision about whether your writing is the right fit for the job (and ultimately, even though you want to get the job, it's more important to get a job that you're the right fit for).

But as his cousin, I want him to get the job. So ultimately I said the above to him, and then sent him my edits.

leaving Hooters off a resume?

A reader writes:

I have been in the job market for about 6 months now. The most recent interview turned out to be horrible due to the fact that I worked at Hooters for two years. The man interviewing me sexually harassed me and just degraded me to no extent. It seems the only reason I was asked in was because I had worked at Hooters and not that I have a degree in Mass Communications and was an ideal candidate for the job I was applying for.

Since then I have left Hooters off of my resume. I find that I may not have been put into an "interview" pile because of it or that I was only put into that pile because of it. It was my last job in college so the "gap" in my resume just makes people assume i didn't work for those two years.

I have now made it to the next round of interviewing for a job I really want. They want me to fill out an employment history for the past 7 years. Do I add it in there? I would feel awful if I left it out. Would they be understanding to the situation? Thanks for your help.

What a horrible experience! I'm sorry to hear that.

The vast majority of interviewers aren't going to see this as a factor one way or another. But since you're concerned about it, there are some precautionary measures you can take for the tiny fraction who might be asses. (And that guy who interviewed you was the ass of all asses.)

It's ridiculous that you would have to do this, but rather than having a gap, can you simply put "waitressing" for that period, without specifying the employer? If you're not applying for jobs where those skills are relevant, chances are good most people won't ask where you were waitressing; they'll just be satisfied to know you were employed during that period and roughly what you were doing. Especially because it was while you were in college, this isn't likely to be a major factor in assessment of your resume.

Regarding the employment history form you have to fill out, you could likely take the same approach.

For this record, it isn't fair or right that this is posing this sort of issue for you, but it's also likely the most practical way of handling it.

Good luck!