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Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues--everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.
Here's a roundup of answers to four questions from readers.
1. What gifts do employees actually want?
I'm always struggling to figure out gift ideas for employees. What do employees actually want on holidays? If everyone is being honest, do people really just want gift cards or cash?
Green responds:
Most employees want money or more time off. If you can give that, do.
Otherwise, gift cards can work well -- just be sure that they're from a merchant people will use. At this time of year, my mail is always full of letters from people annoyed that their employer gave them a gift card to a steakhouse when they're vegetarian or to a fancy restaurant where any meal will cost at least twice the amount the gift card is for.
2. How to ensure a religious new hire won't proselytize at work
I just completed a second interview with a job candidate who is looking like a great fit. However, she doesn't have much recent job experience, so has used her demanding and rigorous volunteer work with her religious organization very heavily to highlight her strengths and flexibility. While I am impressed, some of my fellow managers have reservations about whether she might proselytize at work or be intolerant of co-workers who are gay or atheists or otherwise not in line with her belief system. I haven't seen evidence that that would be the case with her. Plus, people who don't talk about religion during interviews can still turn out to be zealots, so her candor isn't something that is a red flag to me.
I know that it is illegal and wrong to consider her religion or religious activities during hiring. That being said, if we make her an offer, is there a discussion we should have preemptively (i.e., here is your employee handbook, which by the way states that we are a diverse workplace and respect and dignity in the workplace for all employees is taken seriously) or should we wait and see what happens? All of my employees deserve to have their workplace be one of respect and dignity, and that will include her if she is hired. I want her to be happy and feel welcome, and I know that singling her out for her religion is not the way to do that. Am I overthinking this?
Green responds:
Unless she said things in the interview process that sounded intolerant or you've seen other evidence of that from her (like a social media account that's full of bigotry, for example), you shouldn't assume she'll proselytize or be intolerant at work. It doesn't sound like she brought up religion inappropriately in the interview; it sounds like she appropriately referred to volunteer experience, which just happened to be for a religious organization. (You also didn't note that the religious organization itself is known for intolerance, so I want to flag that the mere fact of it being religious in nature is not equivalent to it being one that promotes intolerance.)
So absent something specific that she has said that gave you pause, it doesn't sound like there's a need to bring it up preemptively. If you see or hear anything concerning after she starts working for you, definitely address it swiftly at that point, but I wouldn't assume you need to preemptively fend it off.
3. Etiquette when people borrow my office
In my office, most employees get low-walled cubes. But a few people in management have offices, including me. I am very frequently in meetings away from my office. Several times a week, I come back to my office to find one or more people using it. I don't mind this at all. (Yes, I'd like my office back, but sometimes it isn't urgent.) Because we don't have many private spaces, I think it's totally fine for someone to come in and make a call or get in some quiet time.
But what's the etiquette here? I don't want to chase someone out if they're on a call (particularly a personal call, since again, there are very few places to call your doctor or spouse, for example), or if there's a small group of people having a meeting. But it also feels awkward to stand around outside my own door and wait (plus, they can see me, so they usually scramble to leave, thinking I'm about to kick them out).
Green responds:
If you don't want them to scramble to leave, I think you've got to say that explicitly -- since otherwise their scramble is actually the polite thing for them to do. If you want your office back but it's not urgent, try saying something like, "Let me give you a few minutes to wrap up -- I'll come back in five minutes." (Or 10 minutes or however much time you're willing to give them.) And then really do go somewhere else for that time, since if you're standing by the door, that's going to read as pressure for them to vacate right now.
And, of course, when you do need your office back right away, it's OK to say that, too.
4. Do I need to train students to answer the phone professionally?
We employ college students to do a lot of "frontline" work in our office, including answering phones. I love these student workers and think many of them are more than competent and go above and beyond. So in designing their training, I did not think to include a large segment on answering the phone. We have talked to them before about using a greeting, how to transfer calls, and basic things one might need to be shown. Have I assumed too much, or do I really need to tell people how to take messages accurately, or how to try to answer a question when someone asks for a person who isn't in, or even to push the mute/hold button when you're talking to me about the person who is still on the phone? I know people use the phone less these days (especially college students), but we already train students on helping people face-to-face. Do I really need to do a separate training for how to do this same interaction on the phone?
Green responds:
Probably, yes! Phone usage has changed so much that some of this may be brand new to people (like taking a message, which they may never have had to do before if their family didn't have a landline, which most people now don't). And some of it is stuff that students needed training on even before our phone norms changed so much. Some of your students will indeed need to be told things like how to answer a question or that you should put the caller on mute before talking about them. So, yes, I would say train them on all of it! And if you're worried it will feel obvious or remedial to some of them, you can frame it at the start as, "Some of this may be obvious to you and some may not be. We've found that people bring different levels of comfort with phone work, so I'm going to cover everything."
Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.
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