candidate lied in their interview, negotiating beyond the top of the salary range, and more

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

1. Candidate lied to us in their interview

I was recently involved in interviews for a promotion in my department. We interviewed three internal candidates, so we were familiar with each candidate’s work.

The interview team consisted the hiring manager (Fran), Fran’s boss (Tom), and me. I report to Fran, as would the newly promoted employee.

One of the candidates blatantly lied about their past performance. For example, they said that they are in regular contact with an important client, but Tom knows that is not the case. Additionally, this employee’s work is lower quality than we would expect from the successful candidate.

Naturally, we moved forward with one of the other candidates. My question is whether the lies should have been addressed during the interview, afterwards, or not at all? How would you have handled this if you were Fran or Tom?

Ideally Tom would have brought it up right in the interview. For example: “You mentioned that you’re in regular contact with Client X, but I lead that account and haven’t seen you involved in that way. Can you tell us more about what that contact has been?” (So you’re not saying “this is a lie” — you’re allowing for the possibility that there’s something more to it or that it’s a misunderstanding of some sort … but by asking for more info, you’ll figure out what’s really going on.) If the person then blatantly lies and Tom is confident about that, he could say something like, “I want to be transparent: that’s not lining up with my own knowledge of the project, and that’s raising some concerns for me.” (Or at that point he could just drop it, although personally I’m inclined to just name what I’m seeing.)

All that said, it can be tough to know how to navigate that kind of thing on the spot, so if it wasn’t addressed in the interview itself, it’s also fine to follow up about it afterwards using similar language.

2. Baseball labor and job responsibilities

I have a theoretical question for you based on the news. There is an ongoing dispute between the Boston Red Sox and Rafael Devers, their star and highest paid player. The Red Sox signed another player over the off-season who took Devers’ normal position (third base) and Devers was assigned a new position (designated hitter). He was exceptionally unhappy about this because a prior general manager had promised he would stay at third. Since then, the Red Sox have also needed a first baseman due to injury and Devers’ (explicit, said out loud to media) position has been, “They took my position away from me one time already so I don’t want to.”

Moving to first base is a huge change in job responsibilities and arguably in baseball terms would not be an “other duties as assigned” job change the way moving to designated hitter is. A couple former major leaguers have gone on the record saying this is an unremarkable situation managed remarkably poorly by not including Devers in finding a suitable solution and instead just telling him “you’re going to do this now.” But there is something to be said for the fact that when you’re on a sports contract, you are at the mercy of the team you play for, and many other players have done what was asked of them without complaint “for the good of the team.”

This has sort of turned into a Rorschach test in baseball world but I am curious for your take. What should Devers or the team have done differently?

I know absolutely nothing about baseball or sports or anything whatsoever having to do with this situation, but in purely management terms: if you have a star employee who’s your most valuable team member, it’s generally not a good idea to just tell them you’re making a dramatic change to their job without seeking their input or having a conversation with them about whether it’s something they’d be open to. That’s a very good way to make your star employee start looking elsewhere for a company that will let them do the work they want to do.

3. Negotiating beyond the top of the salary range

I was just given a verbal offer for a role. During the initial screening, we discussed a salary range. I said it would need to be at least $X. The verbal offer I was given is $3,000 above the $X we discussed. During the verbal offer, they said $X was the top of the range, and so the $3,000 is above the normal range but wanted to offer me a bit more. However, I was under the impression that X was a starting point. Why would I not assume there was room to negotiate? I also was careful to say “at least X.”

The problem is, while I’m excited about this role, this offer isn’t enough to make a switch for my current role worth it. What are my options? Did I mess this up? If I negotiate 10% above their offer, which already more than they said the range should be, am I going to look greedy or out of touch? I don’t want to start a potential new job out on the wrong foot.

Yeah, you kind of messed up by naming a number that actually wasn’t enough to get you to leave your current job. (Although maybe at the time you thought it was, and since then you’ve learned things that have changed your mind.) It’s certainly reasonable to say, “Now that I’ve had a chance to learn more about the role, I’d be looking for $Y to make the move.” But since they’re already telling you that they’ve gone $3,000 above the top of their range, I’m not sure you have much room to negotiate for more (and especially not 10% more, which is a big jump).

That said, if you wouldn’t accept the current offer anyway, you don’t have much to lose by asking for the number that it would actually take to get you to leave your current job. Just make sure you’re being honest with yourself about what that number is and not just negotiating for the sake of negotiating at this point. And if you actually would take the existing offer as is, I definitely would not ask for 10% more (unless you can back that up with persuasive market data and an explanation for what changed your number, and even then I’d be pretty wary) because you risk them saying that you’re clearly too far apart on salary, best wishes, etc.

Related:
can I ask for a higher salary if I agreed to a lower range at the start of the interview process?

4. Resigning when it’s just me and the boss

I’ve started work in a two-person company (me and the boss), and even though I’m early in my probation period, I know it’s not a good fit for me and I can’t see myself staying long-term. When I took the job, I saw some red flags, but I told myself I can handle it. It turns out I can’t, and I feel like I’m letting everyone down.

I am looking for another job, but I’m dreading resigning when the time comes. It will be awkward during the four-week notice period with no other coworkers to act as buffers, and the boss will have to start training someone new from scratch or go back to handling everything on his own. (Four weeks is standard in my country, and it’s specified in my contract.)

What should I do? Do I need to let him know I’m job seeking so he’s not blindsided when I resign? Should I try to stick it out a bit longer and see if I get used to it? What do I even say to him if I do resign?

Nope, you don’t need to let him know you’re job-searching, and it’s generally not in your interests to do that since it means you may be asked to leave before you’ve found a new job (particularly since it’s so early on and he may figure it doesn’t make sense to keep training you). When you resign, you’ll simply say that another opportunity fell in your lap that you can’t pass up, and you apologize for the inconvenience, but your last day will be X. If you want, you could add, “If it makes sense for me to wrap up sooner than that since I’m still pretty new, I can of course do that too.”

Alternately, if there’s a reason that’s easy to give (like “you told me the job was X, but it’s been primarily Y”), feel free to explain that. Otherwise, the other opportunity is simply one you can’t pass up.

It might be awkward between you after that, but I actually wouldn’t assume it will be! It certainly doesn’t need to be. On your end, you should simply continue doing your work and leaving things in as good shape as possible (with documentation of where things stand, etc.). If your boss feels awkward about it, so be it.

Related:
should I work for a tiny organization?

5. My boss told me to re-take a week-long training, solely to take notes this time

My employer recently paid for a virtual continuing education week-long course, to be completed on our own time. I completed it and have been emailed a certificate from the international organization that I am certified with, showing that I completed it.

My employer is now requesting that I turn in my notes on this course. I didn’t take notes, and she is requiring that I go back and take notes to hand in, outside of work hours. Is this allowed? There was no official written communication before the course that these notes were required. There was a group text message sent on a Friday night after work hours from my manager asking for these notes.

Is this allowed? I told my manager that I am happy to write a summary of what I learned during work hours. They are refusing this.

Well, that’s absolutely ridiculous. What if your notes read as gibberish to anyone but you, as many people’s do? And now she wants you to redo a week-long course solely to produce notes? For what possible reason?

In any case, are you exempt or non-exempt? If you’re non-exempt, they need to pay you for the time spent retaking the course (and also probably for the first time you took it too), as well as for any time you spend writing notes. You should go over her head, point that out, and ask how you should handle it. (If you’re exempt, this is moot.)

Either way, it seems to me that you have suddenly discovered that you did in fact take several pages of notes (which you can create right now from memory, without explaining that’s where they came from) and here they are.

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