Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here. It’s anonymous!
Dear Good Job,
My current job sucks. It’s inconsistent, exhausting, and often involves lots of unpaid work that can push your per hour earnings below minimum wage. In an effort to ameliorate this situation, I recently began taking on some small administrative work for the company under the promise that it would be more consistent and less time intensive.
Recently, we’ve had a huge increase in the amount of applications to our company, and my bosses have made clear that they expect everyone to hear back within a week, even though that takes exponentially more time than the “couple of hours a week” I was promised when I first took on this administrative work. They have no plans of hiring more people to help, and now everyone I meet with is mad at me because they’ve been waiting for an interview for weeks! I want to get out of here as soon as possible.
The problem is that every waking moment that I’m not at school or working on schoolwork is spent trying to keep up with my job and not get fired. I am trying to apply to other roles, but each job application takes at least six hours with best practices to tailor my resume, avoid automated filters, write a good cover letter, etc. I have maybe six free hours every two weeks! If I lose my current job, I won’t be able to buy groceries until I get a new one, but I also can’t take the time I need to apply to new ones without getting my performance criticized at my current role. How do people do this?
—Recruiter Seeking to Be Recruited
Dear Recruiter,
It sounds like you are an “exempt” employee who is paid a salary and unable to claim overtime pay. The Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to hire people as exempt rather than hourly workers if they make at least $684 per week (about $35,500 per year). If you make less than that measly sum or are an hourly employee, you could have a legal remedy, but I’ll assume you’re making just enough to be stuck.
Have you told your bosses about the massive increase in applications? It’s possible they don’t know—bosses miss a lot, intentionally or not. If you can estimate how many applications you received each month last year compared to this, the magnitude of the change might grab them. And of course, that number may grow as people continue to struggle on the job market and the Trump administration keeps firing people. Say you’re bringing the increase to your bosses’ attention so they know your organization is getting noticed more than usual. Ask them if they have ideas for how to handle the influx of applications. Or suggest your own solutions. You mention automation in the jobs you’re applying for. Can you recommend ways to automate your employer’s application systems? (You don’t have to mention that you’re encountering filters in your own job search.) Can you post a notice on your jobs board that responses may be slow? Can you stop accepting new applications for each opening after a shorter period of time? Would someone in another department be willing to help out? The obvious remedy is to hire enough people to do the recruiting job properly. You say they had no plans to do so, but they are posting other jobs, and your feedback might help them realize that they need to hire people to hire people.
If they’re jerks about it and perfectly happy to have you work unpaid overtime, prioritize accordingly. It’s fine to half-ass this job while you look for a new one and focus on your own school work and career.
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Dear Good Job,
I’ve had incredible annual reviews and received generous raises during my last five years of employment, where I have worked hard to create processes and have put in lots of extra hours to make an impact. My boss has noted that I am “self-aware” of my areas of development opportunities. However, things have recently taken a turn, and newer co-workers that I don’t know well have shared that I come off as abrasive and rude. This shocks me because I try my hardest to be kind to all of my coworkers!
I have ADHD, and I think this could be the root cause of my struggles. At this point, I’m in trouble and am not sure how to approach this. Do I request an accommodation? Or do I accept that I have been wrong about my people skills for the last five years?
—Socially Inept?
Dear I Don’t Think You’re Inept,
One of the many ways work can be dehumanizing is how it turns differences into “areas of development opportunities.” It must have been difficult to be in a conversation with your boss and learn that your tattle-tale colleagues think you’re rude. I’m sorry; that’s unsettling, especially if you’re not used to criticism. But the fact that your boss shared this information with you shows that they respect your self-awareness and ability to solve problems.
You can improve your relationships with your new colleagues in a few ways. You probably know a lot more than they do about your work processes, and you can volunteer to help explain them. The trick is to sound like you want to be helpful rather than like you’re humble-bragging or questioning their abilities: “You’ve really picked up on these processes quickly! I’m so glad they’re helpful. Just let me know if I can explain any of the quirks or if you see anything we could improve.” You can ask them to do you a favor, which makes people like you more, a phenomenon known as the Ben Franklin effect. You can share that you’re trying to improve your people skills, because being vulnerable and honest can be disarming: “I know I can come off as gruff sometimes, and I’m working on that. Please let me know if I say something that sounds rude—I don’t mean to.” Praise your colleagues’ ideas (if they’re any good), ideally in a group setting; ask them for advice; thank them for whatever they contribute to a project. When new people get hired, meet with them one-on-one to introduce yourself and offer to help them figure out all the new acronyms, processes, and ways things work.
Your excellent reviews and raises suggest that your boss knows you’re a valuable employee, but bosses miss a lot. If you’re not doing so already, keep track of your contributions and share them with your boss, both at regular check-in meetings and at mid-year or annual reviews. Bosses tend to notice things that are current problems, rather than problems that got solved. Toot your own horn a bit more, including by telling them how you’re working to improve relationships with your new colleagues.
If there are accommodations that would make it easier to manage your ADHD, do feel free to start that conversation with human resources. It can be a complicated process, and you should find out what your options are. But I wouldn’t blame yourself. This situation sounds like basic, neurotypical office drama.
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Dear Good Job,
Three years ago, I left my administrative support role at a specialized non-profit. While filing paperwork during my last week, I saw a report from the board of directors. It said that in 2027, the board would decide if they needed in-house admin support or if it could be outsourced. I said nothing to my fellow admin supporters because I felt guilty for having read the report and I figured none of us would still work there in 2027.
I’m still good friends with a former fellow admin supporter. She told me she plans to stay until retirement (she’s 40) because there are so few jobs in this specialized field in our area. Do I tell her about the report and worry her for potentially no reason? If I do, how do I say, “Sorry I’ve sat on this for three years while you could have been looking for a better job”?
—Friend With a Guilty Conscious
Dear Friend,
Before we get to your question, I have a message for your 40-year-old friend: Please do not expect your job to last until retirement. You can be the most productive, collaborative employee, exceed all expectations, and still lose your job. Organizations fail, employers make dumb staffing decisions, or the president could send his minions to destroy your agency. You can love your job but your job won’t love you back.
It sounds like you don’t have to worry about any non-disclosure agreements or other business-confidential pinkie-promises from your former job. That’s good, because confidentiality can perpetuate power imbalances and harm people who could be helped by knowing the information. The board gave itself five years to make this decision but will presumably give the laid-off employees a few weeks’ notice.
Do tell your friend, but ask her to keep the source of the information to herself. If your former employers find out you shared the board’s plans, they could retaliate in some way, especially if you need a reference from them in your next job search. I suspect your friend will be more upset about the possible loss of her job than the fact that you found out about it three years ago. If she’s any friend at all, she will appreciate your sharing what you know and will understand that you didn’t do so earlier because the plans seemed so far-off when you first saw them. If she panics about potentially needing to leave the job where she planned to spend the rest of her career, it might help her to hear more about your transition and why you left (and are glad you did, I hope?).
Finally, a side note to employers who may be reading this: Stop laying off people who know a lot more about your organization than you think they do. Even the most involved board of directors spends only a few weeks a year going over your books and strategic plan. The members typically serve for only a few years and don’t work closely with staff. You know who may have a better understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats than your board? Your administrative staff. Listen to them.
—Laura
Classic Prudie
I work in a large, diverse organization. I have age-related hearing loss and wear hearing aids but nobody knows (I think) because of my own anxiety about ageism. I have to attend lots of meetings. One staff person is still wearing a mask because of their own health conditions. This is absolutely fine except for one thing: They are not a native English-speaker and have a very heavy accent.
