127
An interview is a two way street. They checked you out. You checked them out. It seems their normal day to day operations is doing their jobs in environments full of distractions. I would not want to work there. You probably don't want that either. Good thing you had this interview, so you can put that application away and focus on the other ones.
It might ...
69
this would be a male manager speaking on behalf on a female shop-floor worker.
Absolutely, as a manager you back up your workers regardless of their gender or anything else. You don't let people tread on them, especially if they're not present.
I would have answered along the lines of.
'There's only one person not present and they had prearranged leave.' ...
67
Continue as if nothing had happened.
Panel interviews are one of a variety of legit interview formats and they don't really need or are expected to get your permission ahead of time for it.
You might want to instead show interest in what the format, participants, and content of upcoming interviews are by asking the person organizing them instead of assuming ...
54
I have been to a lot of job interviews in my life. Sometimes the interviewers said weird things during the interview, and sometimes the interviewers had not read my CV beforehand. However, never was I denied the common courtesy of being interviewed in a quiet room with only me and the interviewers present.
To deny you such a thing, I think, is just flat out ...
48
It's not even a matter of racism/politics/etc.
When you see a wholly factually wrong statement, correct it firmly.
Name actual names and don't beat around the bush.
Steve, ah, you may have missed an email. Biff is on holiday. Biff had already arranged their holiday months before this meeting. The meeting accidentally included Biff, even though Biff is on ...
29
I think you are placing too much emphasis on the fact that the employee was a "minority or otherwise marginalized individual", and that is leading you state the following:
However, I am wondering if I should step in or not. I am the archetypal white-cis-middle-aged man, and some would say it is not my battle to fight, as no one has done me any ...
23
If the employee is responsive to communication and is fulfilling their obligations according to deadlines then this is a non-issue. Ignore it and move on.
If they are not responsive or if they are not fulfilling their obligations, then that is what you raise with your manager.
Slack status indicators are red herring.
18
It's not high school.
Just state the facts making no judgements and absolutely no emotional aspect.
Something like
I requested that the maintenance department deliver the boxes to my room. They haven't been delivered yet. I have followed up with them and am waiting to hear back.
In a work environment, never ever "don't tell on" someone, it would ...
18
Having an interview in an unusual setting is not necessarily a bad thing. I landed one of my most fulfilling jobs through an interview ad-lib conducted in public.
I was scheduled for a job interview at a school in a foreign country. Travel arrangements were made. At my arrival and due to unforeseen circumstances, the headmaster was unable to conduct the ...
11
Because companies can't afford their systems to be down for 16 hours (or 2.5 days if things fail at 5 PM on Friday). If that happens, the company goes bust and then nobody has a job.
Sure, there are bad ways to do on call, but if it's done right then:
The on-call team are only notified for things which are actually a critical issue.
On-call time (and in ...
10
I have a member of my team who is always set to "offline" on Slack, who is our Principal Engineer. When I send him a message, he responds within 2 minutes. It's a red herring, move on.
The real indicator is if this person is not getting their work done. If the work is not getting done, then you have reason to be suspicious.
9
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
The person making that statement may just have missed or misinterpreted the facts. Or maybe you are the one who did.
Start by trying to clarify things with them. Probably through a more "personal" way of communication, such as face to face, or a phone call, or a chat message, ...
9
Last interview I had, there was a panel of 7, then a “chat” with the team, then lunch with another part of the team and a final chat with most of the panel.
Took my original certificates as they had had copies just so they could check.
Told it started at 09.00 for the day, lunch provided. No other info about how it would work, whether other candidates would ...
8
There seems little point in continuing to push after a refusal like that. Obviously they don't believe you're suitable and according to your question they probably never will give you an opportunity.
You may be too valuable in your current position or any number of reasons, but they're unlikely to be resolved in your favour any time soon.
It's sometimes ...
6
Let me analyze your quote of the consultant.
Some shop-floor workers have not attended the workshop.
Stating a fact.
This resistance and disdain can be understood as mistrust of their own abilities to contribute to a long-term reflexion ("glass-ceiling")
Stating an ideological opinion, which can also turn out to be wrong, as it has not been ...
6
(When) should you step in to defend a minority or otherwise marginalized individual?
The same time you'd step in for any other coworker.
Let me flip this one on you.
I have a hearing impairment, should I, as a hearing impaired individual, step in for a coworker who is bothered by another coworker who is very loud and making noise that is keeping him from ...
6
Does this reflect badly on the company or individual
Bad here is entirely subjective; that's rather the crux of the issue.
You seem to be approaching this from the angle of "I didn't like aspects of how they conducted this interview. Should I have expected them to explain or apologise for these aspects?".
Consider another angle: "The ...
5
Stating the facts isn't snitching. What else would you do? Make up a lie?
I requested that the maintenance department deliver the boxes to my
room. They haven't been delivered yet. I have followed up with them
and am waiting to hear back.
4
I fail to see what this has to do with defending "a minority". If you reread the question you asked carefully (and yes I checked the revision history to make sure it wasn't lost in an edit), you will see that nowhere even in your own question did you even make mention of the fact that this person was a minority, except at the very end where you ...
4
Rather than focusing on the specific employee with the pre-approved vacation, I would question the overall legitimacy of a consultant that would draw such a conclusion from someone not being present at a workshop.
Remind them that besides pre-approved time off, there are things such as emergencies, being sick,...etc that would prevent an employee from ...
3
To be honest, it seems you're fixated on this methodology, when it appears it's long been cast aside by those in upper management and instead you're just left with bog-standard under-resourcing (and yes, just general mismanagement).
I think it's time you just make the assumption that whatever remnants of that organisational structure that remain are no ...
3
There really are "people who are better with technology," and "people who are better with people," and in my experience these two dynamics usually don't mix well.
For instance, you might excel as a "lead technician" or "internal technical subject-matter expert." And, in that position, make a very valuable contribution....
2
Here's what helped me in a similar situation:
Cultivate a list a small project ideas, make a habit of taking the time to regularly come up with new ideas.
When you have a sizeable list, pick two projects that sound both achievable short term and exciting to you. Ideally these should also involve technology that you don't use at your job (to add some variety)...
2
Get an accountability partner who is trying to do something similar. You can meet over Skype or Hangout and share each other's screen. That person doesn't even need to be a software developer. They could just be a writer trying to write their next novel.
Only focus on completing 10 minutes of coding a day. You'll probably end up doing a lot more than 10 min ...
2
It's not high school.
This is trivially resolved.
Message the person:
Hey Steve. Your Slack indicates you are "away" all day. Why is that?
It's that simple.
Any normal employee in a business environment, should be able to answer this simple direct question with no issues or stress. (Even if the question comes from a more junior person.) It's ...
2
It may be that they don't use slack on their computer but rather are just responding via their phone - since they're remote, do they use a vpn / RDP to a virtual machine to do their work, from one of their own computers? If so, and if they don't need to communicate on slack very often, they may not use it on the desktop very often vs just having it on their ...
2
I agree with @Kilisi that it's sometimes easier to get promoted by changing companies, and it doesn't have to be that way.
I much prefer to take a proactive approach. I maintain a list of all of my accomplishments while I'm in a position. I call it my "I love me" file. You can read about it more in one of my other answers on StackExchange.
Whenever ...
2
I would never try to couch actions in terms of defending any person. I would recommend simply stating my desired outcome: e.g., "Dear Strategy Consultant taking minutes, Please amend the minutes to strike the following sentence: This resistance and disdain can be understood as mistrust of their own abilities to contribute to a long-term reflexion (&...
2
I believe you overestimate the size of the problem.
I've worked in this business for 35 years, for 9 companies on 2 continents and none of those companies have had an actual "on call" policy in practice. There were only 1 where I was ever presured to work extra hours for more than an evening or two, and that was for a company-survival-level ...
2
Adding to the other answers, there may have been some PhD specific issues at play. In your previous interviews, where you where asked if others could join, you may have been applying to work specifically with one individual. In which case those extra people where there to help the main person decide whether to hire you. While your latest interview it was ...
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