hiring without interviewing, have to use up 10 weeks of sick leave in a few months, and more

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

1. Offering the job to the first person who meets minimum requirements, without interviewing

It’s been a tough year for federal employees in every agency, and VA employees have just been thrown another curveball. Due to a push to speed up hiring times, much of the hiring process is being restructured away from managers and over to separate HR. This includes many steps of the screening process, but there is one change in particular that seems bananapants to me: For housekeeping and food service staff, managers will no longer be allowed to interview candidates, or even screen resumes themselves. As I understand it, HR will simply extend an offer to the first applicant who meets minimum requirements.

While these are entry-level positions, they are important jobs! Without these workers, you would have hungry patients in unsanitary hospitals! It seems to me that this would result in high turnover, since managers and employees both miss the chance for the clarifications that happen in an interview. Is there some value I’m not seeing that would make this change worthwhile, or a way to mitigate the effects?

This civil servant is tired.

Yeah, it’s absurd. Among any group of applicants who meet the minimum job requirements, you will have some who are head and shoulders more promising than others — and some who are head and shoulders less promising (maybe that should be knees and feet?). Among entry-level candidates without experience to look at, that can be based on things like communication skills, organization, professionalism, interest in the job, reliability, follow-through, judgment, and on and on.

This rule is the rule of someone who doesn’t care about the quality of hires they’re making and is just doing the bare minimum themselves.

2. I suddenly have 10 weeks of sick leave to use up in a few months

I’m a state employee at a university, and I and a bunch of others were accidentally classified wrong when we were onboarded, and thus built up a large bank of sick-leave over the course of the last five years. My bank is currently sitting at 415 hours, or just over 10 weeks. But here’s the catch: I’m a professor on a nine-month contract. That contract only covers the fall and spring semesters, and does not cover the summer, so I am technically currently off contract, although I remain an employee of the university. And it’s sick leave specifically, not personal time, or vacation time.

All employees who were processed under this glitch have been told we have until the end of the year to “spend” our sick leave bank, and I’d love to figure out how to do this without actually going on leave. I can’t just drop a semester’s worth of classes, that would affect so many other things in my work-life. But I also don’t want to sit there with 10 weeks of unpaid-out leave, knowing it’s about to disappear. Ten weeks of leave is a LOT of money!

I don’t see how you can. You can’t take off for 10 weeks over the course of a single fall semester — or anything close to it — without failing at your actual job, particularly given that you teach and there’s no one to fill in for you.

Since this was a mistake, it’s bizarre that they’re leaving you with a huge amount of leave that you were never supposed to earn in the first place (although I suspect it’s because it took them years to catch it, and they don’t want to deal with the outcry if they just unceremoniously yank it without warning). But you’re better off just knowing that this was never supposed to be part of your compensation and there’s no practical way to take real advantage of their mistake. You could certainly take a day here and there, but you’re not going to be able to use up anything approaching most of it in a single semester.

3. Is this consulting firm just using me?

I’m an independent consultant who works with nonprofits and about 1.5 years ago, I decided to start trying to expand my client base, as I had more room in my schedule.

Through a LinkedIn connection, I got a message from the owner of a consulting firm who was very interested in adding me to their list of associates (all contractors). They send out opportunities via email to associates with the appropriate expertise when RFPs come up they want to respond to, and anyone interested can send a pitch to the firm. They then select a person or team and use the pitches to write their own proposal to the potential client. So it would be a bit of work on the front end with no payment or guarantee of success, but I thought could be a good pipeline of work.

Their onboarding process involved me asking three clients/former bosses to fill out long written reference forms (they wouldn’t do calls, I asked) and doing a bunch of paperwork. They gave me an email address, onboarding docs, access to a shared drive, etc. I had to send a bio and head shot for their website, and they made an announcement on LinkedIn that I was joining the team.

Then, crickets. One potential opportunity that would have been a good fit for me came through, and I spent a lot of time on it. They put me forward for the project and then they didn’t get it. Fine.

Only a week or two after giving me the email address, they shut it down, saying they only keep emails active when associates are working on projects for them. Weird, but okay. Another opportunity came through, the owner encouraged me to go for it, and I declined, as it really wasn’t a fit for my skills (which should have been obvious to her, but okay). Then nothing for a month or two. I got busy and didn’t notice, but when I reached out to them, they said, “Oh, haven’t you been getting the emails? We’ve had tons of projects lately!” No, I hadn’t. They said I’d accidentally dropped off the list and fixed it.

To date, I’ve supposedly been part of their team for 10 months and have maybe gotten four opportunities, none of which were suitable for me other than that first one. I emailed today to check in and the owner said that lately they have been sending projects to specific people, rather than putting them out to the network.

In the meantime, I’ve gotten some new clients so I’m not desperate for work, but the situation irks me. I looked at their site and there are 110 of us listed as “associates.” I have to wonder, is she just using most of us as props to make her firm look much bigger than it is? At a certain point, should I ask her to take my photo and bio down and sever the relationship, just on principle? I don’t think it’s anything more nefarious — they seem to be legitimate, the RFPs I’ve seen from potential clients are real, and they didn’t ask for my bank account or my firstborn child or anything. What’s your take?

Yes, she’s probably using most of you to make her firm look bigger than it is. Not necessarily in a deliberately sketchy way — and there are other firms that run this way — but they’re certainly representing themselves as a lot bigger than they actually are.

In your shoes, I’d have a conversation with her, say you feel odd being listed on their website when it’s been 10 months and you haven’t worked with them yet, and ask for her sense of how likely they are to approach you with work like XYZ. That might give you further clarity … but either way, if a few more months go by with nothing, it’s reasonable to give up on them and ask to be taken off their site. (You could also do that now, but I’d be curious to see if the direct conversation bears any fruit.)

4. Hiring manager accidentally cc’d me on an email about me

I am young and entering the workforce and looking to relocate to a close metropolitan city from a rural area.

I had an interview with a large healthcare system that I was excited to maybe begin working with. I am waiting to accept a job offer before selecting an apartment, and I shared this during my interview.

I then received an email from the hiring manager I interviewed with, addressed to the HR person who did my original screen, and I don’t think I was supposed to receive it. The hiring manager told the HR person that the interview went well, but that I’m not sure when I’ll be moving and the hiring manager’s gut feeling was that I will not accept, but that she’s okay with offering me the job.

It has been three working business days, and I have not gotten an official offer letter following the accidental email or any follow-up. I am hesitant to accept the job now since they have acted semi-unprofessionally and revealed that their pay is not great (which I kinda already knew). However, we are all subject to human error, so I think this is a forgivable mistake.

Do I respond to the accidental email? If so, how? Do you recommend accepting the job if they send an official offer letter? If I decide to decline their offer, do I need to include reasoning as to why?

When you first received it, you could have responded with something like, “I don’t think I was intended to receive this!” It was also fine to just ignore it and pretend you didn’t see it. I wouldn’t respond at this point, since some time has passed. But if you’re still interested, you could do a regular follow-up (not as a reply to this!) saying that you’re very interested in the position and look forward to hearing back from them.

This isn’t a reason not to accept the job; as you say, everyone makes the occasional mistake. (But for the record, if you do decline a job offer, you never need to explain why. It’s enough to simply thank them and say you’ve decided it’s not quite the right fit.)

5. Organization only pays 50% of health insurance costs

I have long been eyeing positions with a nonprofit that I would really like to work for. So many things about them attract me, but the one thing that holds me back is their health insurance policy. Despite the fact they emphasize employee well-being, they only pay half of insurance premiums (for the employed person — no clue about spouse/family) Their pay range is reasonable, but not exceptional for either exempt/hourly.

I am currently working for a nonprofit in a similar industry, but in a totally different geographic area which pays well above the industry/area pay grade and also pays 90% of health insurance. I can’t help but question this other organization and the fact that they’re only paying 50% of insurance. Thoughts?

Yes, that’s a crappy policy, unless their salaries make up for it — which I’m guessing they don’t since it’s a nonprofit. In fact, it’s the absolute bare minimum that most commercial health insurance providers require the employer to pay in order to qualify for a group plan at all.

I’d pass unless you can afford the financial hit.