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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Should You Have to Cover Those Tattoos For a Job?

A British woman was told to put a bag over her head, due to her piercings and tattoos, before applying for a job. Is your appearance really that important?

Should You Have to Cover Those Tattoos For a Job?

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Is It HR's Job to Protect Employees...or VPs?

Just why didn't HR step in a fix a problem manager? The answer lies in priorities and responsibilities. You may be surprised as to where HR's priorities really lie.

Is It HR's Job to Protect Employees...or VPs?

Monday, September 27, 2010

How Do I Compare Two Job Offers?

When you're looking at two different job offers (or even trying to decide if you should leave your current job for a new one), salary is only one thing. Here are 10 things to help you decide.

How Do I Compare Two Job Offers?

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

How to Escape the Family Business

Joining a family business is like getting a tattoo. It certainly seems like a good idea at the time, but it's awfully difficult to get rid of. Here are some ways to make a graceful exit.

How to Escape the Family Business

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

My Best Hate E-mail yet

One of the problems of having a presence on the web with an easily accessible e-mail address is that you sometimes get creepy or weird e-mails. I'm not talking about all the Nigerian Princesses who need help getting their $10,000,000 or something. I'm talking about men who send me their opinion about my picture (umm, thanks?), and other such things.

Well, I got this fabulous e-mail that I thought I would share with y'all. I presume it was in response to this article, Swearing at Work, although the writer did not provide a link or the title in the e-mail.

It had a "few" naughty words in it that I've helpfully change to "squid lips" so as to maintain the G rated feeling of this blog.

First off you are flat out wrong. You don't swear, that's great. However, you do not see me passing judgment on your intelligence now do you? Do you see me going; "Oh such a clean mouth I bet she high maintenance or stuck-up."

I swear all the squid lips time and guess what; many people consider me intelligent. Are you seriously going to attempt to tell me that I don't have a rich vocabulary because I use words like "squid lips", "squid lips", "squid lips"? How about you fix your lack of understanding; I don't give a squid lip which words I use no matter how rich my vocabulary is. It's really that simple.

You need to educate yourself; your puritan belief system is nothing but non-sense.


Isn't that an awesome e-mail? I think the squid lips adds to it. And for the record, yes I think you've got problems. Anyone who doesn't "give a squid lip" when picking their words is going to end up looking silly. Sure, lots of intelligent people swear. A lot of intelligent people also do a bunch of other things that aren't that bright.

Go ahead and swear all you want, just don't expect me to be impressed or cowed into changing my opinion.

(Oh, and by the way, comments with bad words in them will be deleted. I only have the option to delete or keep, not edit, so if my e-mail writer comes to defend himself/herself please feel free to use squid lips instead of whatever word you don't think about, since word choice isn't important to you.)

I Built a Network--Now How Do I Use It?

I’m looking to make a career move and am thinking about contacting the HR representative from an internship position I once held. She now works for another company, and it’s a place I’d like to work. What is the etiquette for contacting her? When I began the internship, we quickly found out that we had lived in the same dorm in college, and we’re now “Facebook friends.” But the fact is, we haven’t spoken since my internship ended.

What is the appropriate way to contact someone that previously hired you?


I Built a Network--Now How Do I Use It?

Friday, September 17, 2010

My Boss Picks on Me

I am considered to be an exempt employee for a small company (family owned) with less than 25 employees. I have been working for them for over 10 years now. The original hours worked and paid time off has changed several times over the years but nothing was ever put in writing such as a employee handbook.

The owner wants to deduct for 1/2 day for vacation time for doctors appointment when I left at 2 pm! 1/2 day would be 12 noon not 2 pm. Besides, the time was made up by working late and not taking lunch (I kept personal track of it). He doesn’t treat other employees the same way, which is not right especially since I am the highest paid employee in the company and also bring in the biggest revenues.


My Boss Picks on Me

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

6 Ways to Give Feedback to Your Boss and Coworkers

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I recently started a new job at an amazing company. It’s a really open culture and it feels as if my opinion counts more here than it has before.

My boss often asks for my feedback on how things are going. I have a ton of ideas that I think would be really helpful to my boss and our team. If I share too much feedback privately will my ideas simply make him or colleagues look good and keep me in the shadows? Will sharing too much feedback hold me back?


6 Ways to Give Feedback to Your Boss and Coworkers

Monday, September 13, 2010

Are Company Sponsored Fitness Programs Good or Bad?

A recent company initiative has me feeling a little uneasy. HR introduced a wellness program at the beginning of the year, administered by a third-party company, that gets you discounts on health insurance premiums. That’s cool. But then there have been challenges throughout the year that are administered by people in the office and are starting to seem potentially unhealthy. The latest challenge is lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Aside from the fact that the people running this aren’t health care professionals, is it legal to offer your employees money to lose weight? Also, some recent ways to motivate yourself to exercise that were posted on the intranet were rubbing me the wrong way, like posting about weight loss on a blog, read fitness magazines, and take pictures of yourself. Some of the advice is triggering for people with eating disorders. Is it just me, or is this all weird?
Are Company Sponsored Fitness Programs Good or Bad?

Friday, September 10, 2010

Should I Stay or Go? 5 Ways to Improve Your Current Job

So, here are the 5 way. If you want to read the details, you'll have to go read Should I Stay or Go? 5 Ways to Improve Your Current Job

1. Tell your boss you want a promotion.
2. Pretend you’ve changed jobs every two years.
3. Think sideways, not upward.
4. Make your own opportunities.
5. Ask for more money.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

SR: Paternity/Maternity Leave

Dear Evil HR Lady,

My company does not have enough employees to qualify for FMLA. However, they are generously letting me take 14 weeks of maternity leave (2 weeks paid, the rest unpaid). We are in a highly male dominated industry. There are several male employees who’s wives are due to have children around the same time as me and the company is only allowing the male employees to take a maximum of 2 weeks PTO. While I can see the difference in these situations (especially being the female and the one actually giving birth!), I’m concerned that this could be viewed as a discrimination issue, since we are treating male and female employees differently and we aren’t having to abide by any federal legislation. Thoughts?


I don't know for sure what the legal ramifications of this are. Surely allowing women to take the 6-8 weeks off is okay because giving birth necessarily means you are "disabled" for that time period. But, allowing more time where you aren't "disabled" and making it based on gender could be problematic.

If it were me, I'd allow both male and female employees the 12 weeks of leave. Chances are, very few men will take the leave, so the company doesn't lose anything and they are protected from a potential discrimination lawsuit. Of course, someone will pipe up that men in Sweden all take time off now, but they also get paid leave.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

I Hate My New Job

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I recently accepted a job in an industry I had no interest in. I knew it would give me valuable experience and allow for me to start my career on a good note. I was only hoping to stay with this company for 1-2 years. After 1 month, I have already had enough. I am working from 8 AM to 7 PM and I have no work/life balance. There are days when I come home and cry. My boss gives me nothing but negative feedback and I feel as though I am failing. I am desperately trying to find a job in my dream field (HR or OD) but I am afraid that companies will have no interest in me since I just started this job. Due to this, I have a variety of questions:

1) What is the best approach to my job search given this situation?
2) Do I include this current position on my resume and applications?
3) How do I emphasize to employers out of state that I am willing to relocate? I never seem to get calls from them.
4) Did I screw myself for taking this job?
5) Am I feeling overwhelmed since this is my first full time job?

I Hate My New Job

Monday, September 06, 2010

Did I Ruin My Chance to get My Dream Job?

Dear Evil HR Lady.

There has recently been a posting for a position in my company that I am thinking about posting for. I sat down with the hiring manager (informally) in order to discuss not only the position, but also the department and how she views the company as a whole. I told her that I had some concerns about the position being too much of a side step for me, even though I am very interested in learning new things and thought that the direction the department was going was very interesting to me. I also asked her about other departments within the company and when she mentioned knowing someone involved in the decision making process for another posting I was interested in, asked her if she would be willing to let her know I was interested in speaking to her about it. I felt like the conversation went well, and she gave me a contact of another person in her department to talk to in order to help me make my decision on whether I wanted to move to that department.

All this happened before I found out that I am actually being considered for an assistant supervisory position in that department which I would ABSOLUTELY be interested in. I feel like had I known that that position even existed (it hasn’t been posted yet) let alone that I was being considered for it, I would have framed that conversation completely different. I certainly wouldn’t have asked her about the other position in a different department! What should I do!? Did I completely blow it?
Did I Ruin My Chance to get My Dream Job?

Friday, September 03, 2010

Illegal Discrimination in Tech? Hardly

I have an overwhelming theme in the advice I write–and that is, stop whining and blaming others and take responsibility for your own choices. So, when I hear women whining about being discriminated against I always have to stop and wonder, is it illegal discrimination or different choices?

Most of the time, all the signs point to…drum roll please…different choices. Everyone wrings their hands and frets, “what can we do about the inequality in X?” Well, first stop and see if people are making different choices.

Illegal Discrimination in Tech? Hardly

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Should I Accept a Job I Don't Want?

Dear Evil HR Lady,

Do I stand any chance working a different job than the one I was offered and accepted? I interviewed for a position at a prestigious financial firm in a dream location with great people and did exceptionally well. I’m expecting an offer soon.

The bad news? The position is a software engineering role. And I hate software engineering. Hence my dilemma. Unfortunately, I’m a good programmer and it’s what I’ve been doing for 10 years. It’s not that hard for me to get offers. The problem is I’m burnt out: I can no longer stand doing the coding part of the job anymore. I desperately need more people-oriented work, for my own sanity. But I don’t have the financial luxury of taking the time to go to business school.

This firm is small, but growing quickly. There will be many new positions soon. Once employed, do you see any chance of working my way into one of these positions sooner rather than years down the road? I feel like I could only stand programming again for 6 months at most. What I’d like to do is somehow work my way into a different division that can still make use of my technical skills, such as business analysis, operations, sales, etc.

If I make myself well-liked and indispensable in the original role, would it be crazy to inquire, subtly, about a new (but related) role as soon as possible? I believe I could make my case if they were receptive to it. But if I let the cat out of the bag that I’m not satisfied with my current role, are they going to be disappointed and fire me? I feel like I may never come across such a great company any time soon.


Should I Accept a Job I Don't Want?