CAREER COACH by Joyce Russell

Career Coach Joyce Russell answers questions from readers, dispensing advice to new graduates ready to enter the world of work.

Bad language at work

Q: I work in an office which is one large floor with approximately 40 staff in “cubes”.

Three weeks ago, our section was startled to hear a male voice screaming obscenities, and hearing noises that sounded like books being thrown or furniture being knocked over. I was very upset, as well as a few others on our row. I thought an employee was being treated this way by a supervisor. It turns out an employee was speaking to his ex-wife on the phone in a closed room!

This person has a temper “dealing with work issues, too”. I find these loud, angry outbursts quite disturbing, but he doesn’t work for my agency (we have three agencies on our floor).

To whom should I take my complaint? My boss or his boss?

A: I can imagine this has to be upsetting. The workplace is supposed to be a professional place. I would definitely raise this with your boss first, perhaps also get counsel from an HR person if there is one in your company. Definitely you should feel comfortable speaking up about this.

Moving up

Q. Because of various circumstances, I had to make a lateral move in my organisation when I should have gone upwards. I feel very underused and am not sure how I can move up in my workplace or in others. I’m afraid people will look at my résumé and see my titles and not my work experience. How do I get them to move past the “administrative” stuff to the more substantive work I’ve done?

A: It depends on how your résumé is structured. Do you describe your work experience in more detail? If you are looking for another job, do you explain your experiences in a cover letter which can detail more about the depth of your experiences? As you consider other jobs, make sure to show exactly how your skills match what they are looking for. Don’t just send a résumé. Your cover letter will be very important to highlight what you want them to know about your experiences.

Job hunting

Q. I’m in the world of designing training programmes. Potential employers often want me to submit samples (which is reasonable) and also create something short for them. Sometimes they give a topic, sometimes it’s my choice. They have specific requirements, so I can’t really reuse things. I find that I bust my butt and spend a lot of time creating something and then never hear from them. Is there a polite, reasonable way to inquire if a company has a real opening or is just fishing?

A: You could give them a sample of your more generic work early on (to preemptively address this), and let them know that if you are chosen as one of the finalists (eg, final three or so), that you would also be happy to provide a more specific training programme example. That might meet their needs.

New supervisors and hours dilemma

Q. I work in a position that requires a lot of interaction with the community, so that means being available for evening and weekend meetings and events. When I was hired, my supervisor made it clear that within a 40-hour week I had flexibility with my hours, so if I had to work five hours on Saturday then I could not work five hours another day during the week as long as I wasn’t missing important meetings or deadlines. Due to a reorganisation, I have a new supervisor, and their policy is that you work eight hours a day Monday through Friday, and since working weekends and nights is an expectation of my job, then I also need to do that, but there will be little flexibility with the other hours. I’m an exempt employee, so it’s not illegal, but do you have any suggestions of how to approach my new supervisor? I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to get out of work, but the prior flexibility was important in maintaining a work/life balance.

A: Where did you get the idea that there would be little flexibility in taking time off during the week? Was this from your new boss? I ask since sometimes we make assumptions which may be based on something they said or what we think they might say.

If your new boss did say this, then you will need to chat with him/her about the job expectations. Maybe you can do this in the context of priorities and goal-setting. “I really want to be successful in this job. I am happy to work evenings and weekends, and in the past we were able to then use some day time to address various family issues (doctor’s appointments, picking up kids, etc). That works really well for making sure everyone is most productive at work. So, I want to make sure we are still able to do this.”

You may need to assure him/her that it won’t be all the time that you are taking off. Do you have any data whereby you can say, “In the past, this meant every two weeks needing to leave early ...”?

Also, is this an issue for your boss? If it affects you, it must affect them as well. Maybe you can raise this in a nice way.

Joyce Russell is vice-dean and director of the Executive Coaching and Leadership Development Programme at the University of Maryland’s Robert H Smith School of Business. She is a licensed industrial and organisational psychologist.