By: Liz Ryan Contributor
A job interview process and the subsequent job-offer negotiation is a delicate tango. The job-seeker wants the job, or s/he wouldn’t have remained in the process. The employer wants the job-seeker to take the job, but doesn’t want to pay a fortune or deviate too far from the organization’s standard procedures.
Everybody involved is on his or her best behavior. I hope they are! If you don’t get treated well at the critical juncture when somebody is trying to hire you, run away fast! If they don’t love you then, it’ll never get better.
These days savvy job-seekers know they have to ask questions. They can’t view their interview process this way: “I hope they like me! I hope I get the job!”
They have to remember that if they get the job, they’ll regret not having negotiated terms that make sense for them.
We hear from people every day who took new jobs without thinking carefully about the terms of the deal. Now they’re regretting having leapt into the new situation.
They say “Why didn’t I ask about vacation time? I shouldn’t have assumed I was going to get three weeks of vacation a year. In my old job I got four weeks. Now I have two weeks a year, and my daughter is getting married in August. That will use up six out of my ten days of vacation. So much for R & R this year. I should have asked more questions!”
Karyn told us “It never occurred to me to ask anyone about a little bit of flexibility in the working schedule. I have to arrive at work half an hour late on Wednesdays, because I drop my granddaughter off at preschool that day. My daughter is a nurse and she starts work at six a.m. on Wednesdays.
“I never dreamed that it would be a problem for me to get to work thirty minutes late one day a week, especially since I normally stay at least 45 minutes late every day and I take work home. My manager is sympathetic but he says “We don’t have flexible hours for anyone.”
“I’m a Marketing Manager, for Pete’s sake. I’ve never heard of a company so strict about attendance for white-collar employees!
“I know I have to change jobs again, and I’m only a few weeks into my new position. At least if I would have asked questions about the work schedule, I would have known better than to accept the job offer!”
The interview question nearly every job-seeker avoids and doesn’t ask is “What are the working hours here? What sort of wiggle room or flexibility is there in that schedule?”
This is a great question to ask even if you don’t have a special circumstance like Karyn does. It’s incredibly important to know the cultural norms around arriving at work and going home. If your manager has it in his or her mind that you’re going to be available most weeknights to stay late and handle special projects, you’d better know that up front!
People get used to the workplace cultures they know. Your manager may very well never mention during three or four interviews that the team regularly comes to work on the weekends to get important projects done. That may work for your lifestyle, or it may not.
You don’t want to get bushwhacked on a new job when you’re packing up to go home at 5:00 p.m. and somebody says “Staff meeting tonight! What kind of pizza do you like?”
We had a client, Peggy, who was hired as the Controller for a biotech startup. Everything was great for Peggy’s first three weeks on the job. On the Saturday morning after Peggy’s third week on the job, her mobile phone rang. Peggy was folding laundry in her laundry room. Her three-year-old son was playing with his trucks. Peggy’s boss, the startup’s CFO, was on the line.
“Do you have time for coffee tomorrow morning?” he asked her. Peggy was startled. “I’m sorry, I’m booked tomorrow morning,” she said. “Anything in particular we need to talk about?” Peggy had seen her boss shortly before leaving the office on Friday afternoon. He hadn’t said a word about getting together on the weekend.
“I’d just like to synch up with you, and get clear on your ninety-day goals,” said Peggy’s boss. “I’m very busy this coming week.”
Well ain’t this something! thought Peggy. You’re busy — too busy to sit down with your new hire and the only other manager-level person in the Finance group, to talk about goals?
“If tomorrow morning is no good, let’s do it tomorrow afternoon,” said Peggy’s boss. Something clenched in Peggy’s stomach. She looked at her little son and thought “This stops here.”
“Honestly, I’m at your service during the week and certainly available to pitch in for an emergency on the weekends,” said Peggy, with more resolve in her voice than she actually felt. Peggy told us that her voice was shaking, but she plunged ahead. “I can sit down with you to talk about goals any time during the week between 8:30 and six p.m.”
There was silence on the line. “I don’t know if this is going to work out,” said Peggy’s boss. “Our company is a startup.”
“To be completely frank with you, I haven’t heard you mention a goal-setting meeting before, I haven’t prepared ninety-day goals yet, and this feels quite abrupt,” said Peggy. “I understand emergencies, but I don’t understand why this conversation is so urgent, or why if it is so urgent it doesn’t warrant moving one of your other appointments during the coming week.”
The CFO excused himself and hung up. Peggy stood up and dusted off her jeans. “Oh well,” she said. “Guess that was supposed to happen!”
Peggy met with her boss on Monday morning and told him she’d be happy to do the job he hired her for if they could agree on the definition of a working day. Her boss didn’t have much to say. Peggy called the headhunter who’d placed her and explained the situation to him. “Let me call your CFO and straighten this out,” said the recruiter. “That’s okay,” said Peggy. “God sends us messages, and I got mine.”
Peggy packed up her stuff, stopped into the CFO’s office to offer him two weeks notice, had her offer refused and headed out to her car. She gave a little hug to the front-desk receptionist, Margot, who’d been so friendly to Peggy in her three weeks on the job. “Oh shoot!” said Margot. “Not you too!”
The CFO had had trouble hanging on to his employees, as you will be shocked to hear.
Peggy got a CFO job herself and the biotech startup was out of business six months later. In this new workplace, we are on our own. Groveling and begging for a job won’t help you, but knowing your value and setting appropriate boundaries will. Peggy grew her muscles through her three-week mini-job and used her new strength to negotiate like a champ the next time around.
As a job-seeker or as a manager, never forget to talk about working hours and expectation on both sides. Never leave the critical question “When is the workday done?” to chance.
Think about it this way: if you ask the question and get an angry look, you already know something important. You know that if you brought yourself to this job all the way, you might ruffle feathers. You might find yourself pushing a cultural rock uphill. Who has time for that? You have bigger fish to fry!