Are Crude Jokes Acceptable in the Office?

Evil HR Lady,

I started my current job about 6 months ago, and I have a slight problem: I can’t really respect my colleagues. I’m not talking about “treating them with respect”, as I try to treat everyone with respect. I’m talking about an honest and genuine feeling of respect.I did work for quite a number of companies over the years, and I could always respect my mates for being professional, compassionate, nice, or whatever.

While my last company was in banking, my current job is at a university, so it’s possible that I’m being too uptight, since this is a pretty laid back place.

I’m not too fond of the daily farting contests, or routine rude jokes that people play here, but I could still respect these guys if they were hardcore professionals, which they are not. They are likeable, but that’s it.

With all that said, I can work with them without problems, so is it important at all to honestly respect each other at the workplace?

For full disclosure, I’m being paid well over the national average here, so I don’t really want to change jobs at the moment. And yes, I work in the IT department.

To read the answer click here: Are Crude Jokes Acceptable in the Office?

You Can't Make Someone Salaried to Avoid Overtime Payments

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I am wondering if you can help me with a question. I am an office manager and am considering moving several hourly employees to salary, me included. We are a small law firm and are trying to avoid the cycle of having to send people home early on Friday to avoid overtime and yet having work that still needs to be done.

My concern is that hourly employees accrue PTO and get Holiday pay. Is there a way you can be a salaried employee and still receive those benefits? If so, how do you figure out how to apply them etc?

To read the answer the question that should have been asked, but wasn't, click here: You Can't Make Someone Salaried to Avoid Overtime Payments

Why Your HR Manager May Hate You

So, hate is a strong word, and of course your HR manager doesn’t hate you. You are a model employee. But, your coworkers–that’s a different story. Your HR manager most likely hates them. The reasons are quite plain–HR is tasked with both helping the business through recruiting, retaining and developing the best employees and with making sure the company is in compliance with hundreds, if not thousands, of laws and regulations around those employees. Sometimes those two tasks can be in conflict and it seems like the very people we are tasked with helping to succeed are trying desperately to destroy the company as fast as they can.

To read more click here: Why Your HR Manager May Hate You

Plus, here is an interview I did on this very topic on the Cranky Middle Manager show.

Resume T-Shirt? Good Idea or Sign of Desperation?

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I’m a recent college graduate and have been actively job hunting for about 6 months. As the number of resumes I’ve sent out approaches 300, I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong and how I can stand out among the hundreds of other applicants I’m competing with. After Googling “creative ways to get hired”, I came across the idea of wearing a t-shirt with my resume on it. My dream job is to do PR in the racing industry. I’m attending two races in the coming months and I am contemplating doing this in order to get the attention of some race teams and potential hiring managers. Would you recommend wearing a resume t-shirt or does it come across as too desperate?

To read my answer click here: Resume T-Shirt? Good Idea or Sign of Desperation?

And this questioner also asked this to Ask A Manager as well, so click here if you want to read Alison's answer: Should I Wear My Resume on a T-Shirt?

Want to Increase Jobs? Eliminate These Laws

Politicians are always proposing new laws to fix problems. But what if we eliminated laws instead? What laws would you get rid of to decrease the unemployment rate?

To keep reading click here: Want to Increase Jobs? Eliminate These Laws

Scientific Proof That Micro-Management is Bad For Your Company (And How to Fix It)

When you are being micro-managed it's annoying, but when you are the manager, you see why it's necessary. Except that the newest science says it's actually lowering your employees' performance.

Scientific Proof That Micro-Management is Bad For Your Company (And How to Fix It)

Why You Should Accept a Lower Level Job

You're unemployed but finally have a job offer--a lousy one. Do you take it?

To keep reading click here: Why You Should Accept a Lower Level Job

Should I Fill a Vacant Position?

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I recently fired an employee that was not showing up to work and when they did show up, they mostly avoided work. Now my decision is whether or not to fill the position. Our department is fairly small, 9 people with 5 assigned information technology service calls and projects. Of the four team members still here, all work well together and like to be challenged to do new things. When the other person was here, they helped a little bit but didn’t really make a difference in workload.

Our workload is steady and mostly busy. Revenues have been down, but the workload hasn’t changed too much, in fact we have more business changes and improvements to deal with now than when revenues where higher.

I have noticed more collaboration since the 5th started to slack off from their duties. However, I am a little worried that we may become a little burned out if we increase the workload on a constant basis. Should I hire someone or not? Any suggestions?

To read the answer click here: Should I Fill a Vacant Position?

10 Tips For Salary Negotiation

Salary negotiation is the last step before accepting your new job. If you are someone who dreads the negotiation, here are 10 suggestions to help you be successful.

To read, please click here: 10 Tips For Salary Negotiation

Why You Should Stop Being a Wimp

Success does not get handed to those who sit around and keep their heads down, waiting for good things to come. Those are wimp behaviors and they are not successful. Here's why.

To keep reading click here: Why You Should Stop Being a Wimp

Am I Too Young to be Hired?

Dear Evil HR Lady,

You’ve written a lot about being too old to get hired, but I have the opposite problem–I look too young. I have about 15 years experience in industry, with a strong record of progressive promotions due to a lot of hard work and some shrewd career choices. I ace the phone interviews because I can rely on my experience and relevant examples to outline my credentials. However, in the past, once we get to the face-to-face interview, you can see the bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifody language of the interviewer shift, and I end up losing out to someone with more (never expressed as better) experience. I’ve got an interview for an executive position that I’d be perfect for, but am afraid I’ll lose out on because I look too young.

Aside from the standard advice to rely on examples, re-frame weaknesses as strengths, and hit all the relevant pain points of the interviewer(s), what can I do to push aside the age issue? I need to solve this, or I will have to conclude I wasted a lot of my 20’s working on my career when I should have been partying…

I’m not above brushing in some “just-for-old-men” to grey up…

To read the answer, click here: Am I too Young to be Hired?