can I refuse work on ethical grounds, being asked to schedule other people’s meetings, and more

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Can I refuse certain projects on ethical grounds?

I have been working at my current company for a couple of years and was originally hired to assist with projects where the client was a private big box store. However, due to my previous experience, I have been asked to lead efforts on numerous federal projects. I have an ethical issue with working on facilities that house munitions and prisons, and some of the jobs we get are for munitions and prisons.

I had a conversation with my boss and the project manager explaining that I am not willing to work on these types of jobs. My boss has expressed understanding. Talking with the project manager led to a conversation with my boss where he said I can’t bring this up to the PMs and to let him handle it.

I continue to be asked to work on these projects. The way I have handled it is to forward meeting invites and relevant information to my boss and let him know that these are not jobs I can work on, but A and B, other qualified employees, should be assigned to it. The project managers for these jobs are upset that I’m not attending the meetings.

Is it considered unacceptable to refuse certain types of work for ethical reasons? Should I just be looking for a different job? I would not be surprised if my boss is busy and communicating about this isn’t a priority, but it is a priority for me. I like many other aspects of working at my current company. It feels wrong to be confronted about refusing work that wasn’t originally in my scope when I was hired.

Whether you can refuse to work on certain projects depends very much on your employer and your boss, and in many cases on how much capital you’ve built up. If you’re valued and they have other people they can assign to the work, in many cases that will be fine. In other cases, it won’t be.

In your case, your boss has told you it’s fine but hamstrung you from telling anyone else about it, which is understandably leading to issues. Go back to your boss and say, “You asked me not to talk to the PMs about this, which I’ve respected, but they keep assigning me these jobs and getting frustrated when I’m not at the meetings for them. What’s the best way to handle this — should I start responding to the initial assignment and let the PM know that I’m not available but they could check with A and B? Or that we’ve taken me off projects related to C? Or is there some other way you want me to handle this? I think we need to change something because right now they’re expecting me to do the work and not realizing they need to reassign it.”

It’s possible that you’ll find out your boss wasn’t really committed to keeping you off these projects and was just kicking the can down the road when he originally told you he’d handle it. Or not! But have the conversation and find out where this really stands.

Related:
how can I refuse to work for a customer I have moral objections to?

2. I get asked to schedule other people’s meetings

Other people within my organization (especially newer ones) are coming to me asking about my boss and other peoples’ schedules and then asking me to send an invitation for their meeting. I work for the CEO so I’m pretty busy and I feel that once I provide his availability, the requesting party should send the invitation (sending invitations on behalf of others is not in my job description). Am I wrong? If not, how should I respond?

You’re not wrong, but if you manage the CEO’s schedule people may not realize it’s not appropriate to ask. You just need to let them know they should do it themselves.

Be matter-of-fact about it: “Oh, you should send the invitation for your meeting yourself — that’s not part of what I do.”

3. How bad is it to look for a new job right after starting one?

I very recently — just under two weeks ago — started a new job. I wanted to transition into a new field, and while this role isn’t exactly where I ultimately want to be, it felt like a step closer.

However, it’s not a perfect fit. I’m not especially interested in the topic area, it was largely a lateral move in terms of pay and responsibilities, and I’m not sure my working style will mesh well with some of my colleagues. Nothing is terrible right now — I could see myself staying for a year or more — but I’m already wondering whether I should keep applying to roles that might be a better fit, with the possibility of leaving within the next several months.

I stayed at my last job for almost six years and the one before that for three, so I don’t think my resume generally suggests that I’m a flight risk.

How bad does it look to keep searching so soon after starting a new job, and potentially leave within a year? At what point do you think a better opportunity is worth the risk of leaving a new job so quickly?

Keep searching. If you get a new job quickly, you can leave this one off your resume entirely and, as far as your resume goes, it’ll be like this one never happened. If it doesn’t happen quickly and you’re there long enough that it makes sense to leave it on your resume, that’s fine too — short stays are generally only a concern when they’re a pattern. When they’re an anomaly, they’re much more easily explained (“they brought me on to do X but it turned out they needed Y instead,” “I had a great offer to do Z that I couldn’t pass up,” etc.). Just make sure to really do your due diligence about the next one to minimize the chances of it happening twice in a row.

More here:

how bad is it to leave a job after less than a year?

how soon is too soon to leave a panic job?

4. What should I do when my references are hard to reach?

I recently read one of your posts that said recommendations from past managers are more powerful than peer references, and I found myself wondering what is best practice as my former managers start to retire or become less reachable.

I’ve typically stayed in roles for two to five years, so I have multiple potential references who are recent enough. However, many of my former managers have either retired and fallen off the map or have moved organizations, sometimes to foreign countries in very inconvenient time zones. I could imagine that few would respond in a timely manner. Is there some best practice for noting this when I provide references? Would it be a sound strategy to provide extras in a non-managerial relationship, noting the reason why?

You can still provide them, but include a note about the potential difficulties reaching them so the employer has context if they don’t respond as quickly as expected (or at all). For example, you could include a note like, “(Currently lives in Spain and is six hours ahead of us)” or “(Retired, may need additional time to respond).” If you have more than one like that, tell them you’re happy to provide additional references if they want them (or just go ahead and do it rather than asking).

For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t assume time zones will be an issue; the reference-checker may contact them by email instead (so make sure to provide an email address). And if they’ve just moved to a different organization, that shouldn’t be an issue. But you can provide notes for anything that you think might be an obstacle. And if you haven’t been able to reach someone yourself or know that they’re unavailable for a time (or forever), take them off the list entirely and substitute someone else. If that leaves you with no/few managers, you can explain the circumstances.

Related:
what to do if your references aren’t available

5. A success story

My wife and I had been looking to relocate somewhere new with colder weather for quite some time. Her resume and cover letter were good, but she had no luck with securing any interviews. She needed to try something new, so she revamped her resume and cover letter using the advice from your archives. Thank you so much for the roundups — it was very helpful to have all of the advice in one location.

After she updated her resume and customized a cover letter for each position in the location we wanted to move to, my wife received interviews at all but one place she applied. She was pretty selective in applying to positions where she expected to be a good fit, but none of them extended an offer. She decided to submit one last application, but resigned herself to the fact that we might be stuck where we were for a while longer.

One day in June, she received an offer to interview. In under a week, it went from an interview to a job offer. It was pretty surreal. The compensation was a lot more than she was expecting, along with a pretty nice schedule. We coordinated a cross-country move with a young child and a dog in under a month. It was quite the whirlwind! My wife has been with her new employer for three weeks and she loves it so far.

Thank you for all of the resources and your insight. Our move would never have happened without your archives and the experiences of others.