Outdated contact info on my resume

I’m freaking out – I’ve been applying for jobs for the past six months with updated work experience, but I neglected to check and update my contact info (cell phone number). No wonder I haven’t been hearing anything back – would it be okay to look up contact info for the recruiters for jobs I’ve recently applied to on LinkedIn and email them with my correct contact info?

Not really. That just looks odd and might even take you off the recruiter’s “to contact” list. I’d chalk it up to lessons learned and double/triple check info before sending it out next time.

I’m embarrassed to tell coworkers what my husband does for a living

I have been in management for the past few years and newly promoted into a VP role. It’s a long way from where I started as a receptionist, and I’m proud of how far I’ve come. My husband works in facilities at a school – a janitor. They are unionized, so the wages and benefits are great – he’s been with them for over 15 years, and is stable and will retire with a full pension. All these are great and our marriage is wonderful. The only issue is that when coworkers ask me what my husband does, I’m not quite sure how to respond. He is the greatest person I’ve ever met, and I know that the first impression of his job title isn’t a good one.

Coworker dressing in appropriately for the office

I have an older colleague who is in great shape for an older lady, knows it, and likes to show it. She’s always wearing miniskirts, sheer clothing, and low cut tops. We work in a professional environment, and it’s simply not appropriate, particularly as part of her job is reception, so she’s the first one clients see when they walk in the door. Her work is exemplary, so no issues there, but the clothing just isn’t going to work. I’m worried about saying something and having it being taken the wrong way. Is there a right way to go about this?

Timesheets are never completed on time

This is a job specific question:

I am a timesheet administrator for my entire region, which comprises of several hundred people. In our company if someone doesn’t complete their timesheet by the deadline, we can’t process for the entire company. Because a lot of what we do is project-based, it’s not as easy as entering time on a single line. There are lots of older staff who don’t feel like they need to follow the deadline, and while I have repeatedly told them that it needs to be completely entered, a good part of my day on timesheet days are still spent chasing people down, but since I’m ultimately responsible, I am the one getting nasty emails from corporate when it’s not done. How can I get them to pay attention?

Martyr coworker

There’s an employee on my team who really stepped things up when others in the group left (one voluntarily, the other involuntary). She was singlehandedly keeping the department going, and we were all impressed. With that said, since she was the only one doing the majority of the work, the focus was mainly on the core responsibilities (getting invoices out, invoices paid, etc). All the other tasks we usually manage fell by the wayside, because there simply wasn’t enough time, and we were okay with that. 

That was two months ago. Since then, we’ve hired several new staff, and the workload is more evenly distributed. However, she still doesn’t feel that she has to attend meetings or respond to emails with report updates in a timely manner (if at all). She’s always sighing very loudly at her desk, complaining how busy she is, how late she stayed the night before, and that she came in on the weekend. We’ve sat her down in meetings and told her that we need to reset expectations now that we are properly staffed, but things don’t seem to be changing much. She’s still working late, but with 1/3 of the prior workload, it’s just odd. Frankly, it’s gotten to the point where everyone wonders what she is actually doing. What to do?

Teambuilding during work hours

Are teambuilding events held during work hours mandatory? My manager is requiring us to go bowling during work hours and calling it teambuilding. I know if this was held after hours, it would be optional to attend, but quite frankly, I hate my coworkers and don’t want to go. I shouldn’t be required to fraternize with coworkers I can’t stand. Can I opt out and stay in the office and work instead? 

As we spend so much of our lives with coworkers and at the office, if you dislike your colleagues so much, maybe there is a larger issue at play here, and you need to step back and take a hard look at why you feel so strongly about not going, and if you aren’t part of the problem.

Breastfeeding coworker comes into my office to pump and chat

Lots of pregnancy/motherhood/mommy questions lately! 

One of my coworkers recently came back from maternity leave and has decided that she’s comfortable enough with me to park herself in my office, close the door, and pump away, all the while chatting with me. (We do have a “mother’s room” set up, so it’s not like she doesn’t have a place to go). It’s awkward, to say the least. I’m a mother too, so it’s not so much grossing me out, but very intrusive. Not to mention distracting! I don’t really need to see that.

Should I keep interviewing at 5 months pregnant?

I’m five months pregnant and due to unforeseen circumstances, desperately seeking a new job. I’m in California, so have already made peace with the fact that I likely won’t quality for FMLA if I start now. My immediate concern is the actual process of interviewing while pregnant! I’ve just begun to show, and have already been on an interview where both the hiring manager and other senior manager I met with were 
looking at me suspiciously. Not a word was said, but I’m sure they were all thinking the same thing. Is there a way I can address this up front and tell them that I’m prepared to take time off without pay and will return to work after one month before they ask?

My employees won’t leave the office until I do

I am a new hire at my company, and in an managerial position. It’s a fairly high volume, stressful work environment, and my predecessor had a breakdown and left. (I didn’t know all this going into the job). Apparently, he used to run his team pretty hard and would expect them in at 7 am and work until 8-10 pm in the evenings, and some weekends. No other departments in this company work the same way, it’s just the culture of this group. So I have a team who is terrified, works incredibly hard, and has been conditioned to live and die by their manager’s work schedule. There have been several instances where I know they don’t have much to do and it’s 7 pm, but they are all still here. I’ve tried telling them that as long as their work is done, I prefer them to leave on time, but the message is not getting across.