CUBE LIFE! Office Etiquette

[The Sybian]

So I get to layoff my first person on Thursday. Good times.

If it makes you feel better, I’m dealing with laying off 50 last week, 45 more in two weeks and another round or two by January. All while working on the 20 lawsuits and state agency charges from the 500 layoffs before I joined. Have I mentioned how much fun the new job is?

[Nonlinear FC]

Question for the group:

Today is National Boss Appreciation Day (or whatever) and the management support guy (pretty casually, no real pressure) asked if folks wanted to chip in and get our boss a gift card.

My immediate response was "fuck nah." And I actually like this guy, that's not the issue.

Getting a gift for your boss is kind of bullshit, no?

[A_B]

I used to get my boss a christmas gift. It wasn't much. A mug or a gift card to a restaurant in their town (I've worked for supervisors outside my location for 12+ years) but I haven't done it in a bit. Rather spend that on someone else these days.

[rass]

Word out of New Jersey is that every day is Boss appreciation day

[mister d]

Getting a gift for your boss is kind of bullshit, no?

Gifts sent upward that aren't a one-time, everyone gets it deal like a baby shower are bullshit.

[DaveInSeattle]

Question for the group:

Today is National Boss Appreciation Day (or whatever) and the management support guy (pretty casually, no real pressure) asked if folks wanted to chip in and get our boss a gift card.

My immediate response was "fuck nah." And I actually like this guy, that's not the issue.

Getting a gift for your boss is kind of bullshit, no?

Yes. Fuck that...even if you are friends with your boss, there's no reason to get them anything.

And...(getting on my soapbox)...all of these "national" days are bullshit too. I saw all of these "National Daughter's Day" posts on social media a while back. When did that become a thing? Screw that noise...

[Giff]

So I get to layoff my first person on Thursday. Good times.

Ugh. General layoff, or is that a euphemism for firing someone?

Strictly budgetary. Like if someone else in my department quit, she'd be my first call. Her last day won't be until 11/15, and a big reason for that is to allow them to look for other jobs within our larger company (I work for Wolters Kluwer that has numerous BUs and companies, so she can search for a job within the company for a month or so). It just made the most sense because her position was created fairly recently, and the work can be divvied back up between several people. While I know my team will be both scared and disappointed (we're a tight-knit group, many of us working over a dozen years together), what I'm really worried about is her husband is in another department, but within the same org structure. So there's going to be that relationship to worry about, but I couldn't take that into account when making the decision on who to choose. If that would be a deciding factor, then IMO, you shouldn't hire spouses.

[Giff]

So I get to layoff my first person on Thursday. Good times.

If it makes you feel better, I’m dealing with laying off 50 last week, 45 more in two weeks and another round or two by January. All while working on the 20 lawsuits and state agency charges from the 500 layoffs before I joined. Have I mentioned how much fun the new job is?

Yikes, that's rough man. The HR rep said they've done this 100s of times over the years and that it never gets easier, and if it does you need to quit.

[Nonlinear FC]

It is driven by social media. We didn't have to deal with any of this shit 10 years ago.

[Steve of phpBB]

Question for the group:

Today is National Boss Appreciation Day (or whatever) and the management support guy (pretty casually, no real pressure) asked if folks wanted to chip in and get our boss a gift card.

My immediate response was "fuck nah." And I actually like this guy, that's not the issue.

Getting a gift for your boss is kind of bullshit, no?

Yes. Fuck that...even if you are friends with your boss, there's no reason to get them anything.

And...(getting on my soapbox)...all of these "national" days are bullshit too. I saw all of these "National Daughter's Day" posts on social media a while back. When did that become a thing? Screw that noise...

Our secretaries used to do a potluck for us (which they ate also). This year they ordered pizza for everyone.

That works for me.

[The Sybian]

So I get to layoff my first person on Thursday. Good times.

If it makes you feel better, I’m dealing with laying off 50 last week, 45 more in two weeks and another round or two by January. All while working on the 20 lawsuits and state agency charges from the 500 layoffs before I joined. Have I mentioned how much fun the new job is?

Yikes, that's rough man. The HR rep said they've done this 100s of times over the years and that it never gets easier, and if it does you need to quit.

Termination meetings are the absolute worst. At least I don't do the meetings in this job (so far), I had to join the manager in all terminations in my last job, and it really sucks. They were very clear when I was interviewing here in telling me about the previous layoffs and letting my know a big part of my job would be cleaning up the mess afterwards. And on my first day they told me there was going to be 3 or 4 more rounds in the Fall/Winter. There was a merger of two companies almost 3 years ago, and most of the layoffs are redundancies and dropping failing products and ending R&D projects that aren't going to be profitable.

I was part of a huge RIF in the previous job, and didn't realize the extent of my PTSD from being blindsided. I was part of the planning for a potential RIF when I first started there, but they were able to avoid the RIF. I was in a planning meeting where they announced they were removing layoffs from the plan, but according to my boss at my termination meeting "something major and unforeseen happened last week and we had to do this incredibly fast." What really sucked is I was just moved from HR to the General Counsel's Office, with a team of 3. The GC, Assistant GC and me. Every team had to be impacted, so I had to go. If I stayed in HR, there were 25 or so employees. Anyways, I was supposed to be part of the approval committee for selecting employees for the RIF here. The date got closer, and I never got emails or meeting invites. I was waking up at 2:00 most mornings with a terror that I wasn't included because I'm on a list. It would make absolutely no sense, and they are leaving me solely involved in major long-term projects like redoing our entire policy handbook and representing the company in lawsuits (along with outside counsel). I finally asked our GC why I'm not in on these meetings, and he just laughed and said, "my bad, you need to be in on these."

[A_B]

I had to look up why you were so interested in the Reading is Fundamental initiative at your job. I had not seen that as an abbreviation.

[mister d]

I think its better if you don't know that acronym.

[Giff]

I shat four times before 7:15 and want to throw up.

[mister d]

Reduction in Feces.



(Sorry, this sucks.)

[elflaco2]

running ops in mainly transactional business.. its part of the job. Never easy and Keeping it confidential.. ugh.. just keep the execs out of it. they have the worst leakage.. unfortunately as all the kpis are shared.. sooner rather than later skip levels are filled with related questions.. and when the time comes those folks who asked and you danced around or flat out lied look at you and just give you that look... ugh.

[HaulCitgo]

Just drink heavily to avoid the smell of your soul rotting. Didnt they teach you anything in college. Or is that what professional school is for?

[elflaco2]

my blackened soul is perfectly fine, thank you for asking.
we are just cogs in the machine

[Shirley]

Question for the group:

Today is National Boss Appreciation Day (or whatever) and the management support guy (pretty casually, no real pressure) asked if folks wanted to chip in and get our boss a gift card.

My immediate response was "fuck nah." And I actually like this guy, that's not the issue.

Getting a gift for your boss is kind of bullshit, no?

If any of the folks on my team bought me anything for Boss Appreciation Day, I would feel very uncomfortable with it. And I like my boss a lot, but I wouldn't consider buying her something for that. I've sent her a bottle of Scotch before, but that was in appreciation for something (I forget what. It was a few years ago.)

[Shirley]

Just drink heavily to avoid the smell of your soul rotting. Didnt they teach you anything in college. Or is that what professional school is for?

It's a required class when you get your MBA.

[Giff]

Question for the group:

Today is National Boss Appreciation Day (or whatever) and the management support guy (pretty casually, no real pressure) asked if folks wanted to chip in and get our boss a gift card.

My immediate response was "fuck nah." And I actually like this guy, that's not the issue.

Getting a gift for your boss is kind of bullshit, no?

If any of the folks on my team bought me anything for Boss Appreciation Day, I would feel very uncomfortable with it. And I like my boss a lot, but I wouldn't consider buying her something for that. I've sent her a bottle of Scotch before, but that was in appreciation for something (I forget what.... as......s....)

[Shirley]

Question for the group:

Today is National Boss Appreciation Day (or whatever) and the management support guy (pretty casually, no real pressure) asked if folks wanted to chip in and get our boss a gift card.

My immediate response was "fuck nah." And I actually like this guy, that's not the issue.

Getting a gift for your boss is kind of bullshit, no?

If any of the folks on my team bought me anything for Boss Appreciation Day, I would feel very uncomfortable with it. And I like my boss a lot, but I wouldn't consider buying her something for that. I've sent her a bottle of Scotch before, but that was in appreciation for something (I forget what.... as......s....)

No, she gave me a bottle of scotch for that.

[A_B]

Why does she think she's so ugly?

[A_B]

Anyone do any hiring? Just wondering what employers are looking for these days in terms of interview questions. I haven't been on this side in a bit and all my experience is with college kids looking for internships which is different than what I'm doing.

Had an opportunity come my way that I owe it to myself and family to check out.

[Giff]

It's hard for me to say because I'm typically hiring for an entry-ish level position and what I'm just trying to discern is if they seem like they're smart enough to learn something new. I haven't interviewed for a job since my promotion to manager which they didn't interview anyone else, so I'm not much help here. That said, good luck homie!

[GoodKarma]

Anyone do any hiring? Just wondering what employers are looking for these days in terms of interview questions. I haven't been on this side in a bit and all my experience is with college kids looking for internships which is different than what I'm doing.

Had an opportunity come my way that I owe it to myself and family to check out.

Good/smart interviewers should ask you "what would you do" type-situational questions. Something like...tell me about a time where you faced a particular type of challenge and how you overcame it; what would you do if a customer did x; or how would you get a customer to do x. If it's a management position the situations might be "how did you handle when employee did x", etc.

[HaulCitgo]

Agreed. And then they keep putting you in front of people with limited interviewing experience and you just have to run it for them. My favorite is when you can't figure out when to start talking cause they pause for long periods. Gotta turn your head diagonally a bit and stare at them with one eye til you're sure they're done.

[Nonlinear FC]

Where I work, we have to ask the exact same questions of each candidate. Can't follow up, can only re-read the question.

But, yeah, part of the questions should get at showing your expertise in your field. Part of them should be situational (like GK said). And if the role has management responsibilities, there should be some style/situational stuff covering that aspect of things.

[mister d]

Biggest change is that nudity is no longer required or even expected, but if you think it gives you an advantage you can show the initiative and really shine.

[The Sybian]

Biggest change is that nudity is no longer required or even expected, but if you think it gives you an advantage you can show the initiative and really shine.

Yeah, my hog always gets me past the first round, then you need better chemistry than the other candidates.

[A_B]

I'ma start calling it The Initiative.

[EnochRoot]

Anybody got any recommendations for a good book on managing a remote team (workers)?

Wife just got a promotion and will have three employees under her early next year. The entire company is remote (Healthcare IT consulting for CMS).

[Shirley]

Anybody got any recommendations for a good book on managing a remote team (workers)?

Wife just got a promotion and will have three employees under her early next year. The entire company is remote (Healthcare IT consulting for CMS).

I have Remote on my bookshelf. I think I read it a number of years ago. It's probably outdated now. It's premise was that it's a good idea to build a full-remote company. Hardly a novel idea anymore.

I have three remote folks on my team. I don't know if I have any secret tips. I like having a weekly 1:1 with everyone on my team plus my boss and a few other people I work regularly with. You have to work to maintain contact since you don't bump into people in halls.

That said, I think any advice will be very job-specific. Use Slack liberally. She'll probably end up with a lot of meetings on the calendar. It's a downside to remote work.

[EnochRoot]

Anybody got any recommendations for a good book on managing a remote team (workers)?

Wife just got a promotion and will have three employees under her early next year. The entire company is remote (Healthcare IT consulting for CMS).

I have Remote on my bookshelf. I think I read it a number of years ago. It's probably outdated now. It's premise was that it's a good idea to build a full-remote company. Hardly a novel idea anymore.

I have three remote folks on my team. I don't know if I have any secret tips. I like having a weekly 1:1 with everyone on my team plus my boss and a few other people I work regularly with. You have to work to maintain contact since you don't bump into people in halls.

That said, I think any advice will be very job-specific. Use Slack liberally. She'll probably end up with a lot of meetings on the calendar. It's a downside to remote work.

Thanks. She’s been working remote with this company the past 5 years (they’re fully Slack-integrated with much, if not all of their workflows). She’ll be bringing on a new team (not existing employees). FWIW - she’s not new to mgmt - she has 10 yrs exp running a training dept for the U of MD Medical System.

[elflaco2]

communicate, communicate, communicate

6 directs - all over the country and time zones
weekly 1o1s
weekly team meeting (most of it is just fun stuff, 'personal' catch up)
all the work stuff is documented.. minutes, agendas, follow up emails - no surprises
lots of interactions on Teams -
on cam as much as possible - or at least for the team meetings
my teams chats are as close to irl if in the office - just ongoing
try and get everyone together a couple of days a year

[Shirley]

Yes, I'm a proponent of cameras on as much as possible in meetings to. It helps with the impersonal nature of remote work. That said, don't push on people who are adamant about not going on camera. Some folks have a sort of phobia about it.

[A_B]

My interview got canceled. In their defense my company is one of their clients and he didn’t want to poach. But he had my resume so it was surprising to get it canceled about three hours in advance. And he went on to say I was a really good fit based on experience and resume but he just couldn’t risk it. Oh well.

[cerranoredux]

My interview got canceled. In their defense my company is one of their clients and he didn’t want to poach. But he had my resume so it was surprising to get it canceled about three hours in advance. And he went on to say I was a really good fit based on experience and resume but he just couldn’t risk it. Oh well.

Pull a Milton Waddams, and boom, problem solved!

[mister d]

Yes, I'm a proponent of cameras on as much as possible in meetings to. It helps with the impersonal nature of remote work. That said, don't push on people who are adamant about not going on camera. Some folks have a sort of phobia about it.

Some of us don't feel like showering in the AM for no solid reason.

[EnochRoot]

communicate, communicate, communicate

6 directs - all over the country and time zones
weekly 1o1s
weekly team meeting (most of it is just fun stuff, 'personal' catch up)
all the work stuff is documented.. minutes, agendas, follow up emails - no surprises
lots of interactions on Teams -
on cam as much as possible - or at least for the team meetings
my teams chats are as close to irl if in the office - just ongoing
try and get everyone together a couple of days a year

Thanks for this. Much appreciated!