A new employee missed work on day 4, no reason given

Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues—everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.

Here’s a roundup of answers to three questions from readers.

1. A new employee missed the fourth day of work, saying “something came up”

I had a new employee start on a Tuesday. That Friday, I woke up to a text from my new hire from the night before, saying that she would not be in on Friday, that something had come up and she would see me on Monday.

This is an in-person job in a corporate environment. I fully respect a person’s right to take a sick day and I feel nobody is obligated to share personal details, but I also don’t feel like “something came up” quite cuts it, especially on what would be your fourth day on the job.

I’m looking for some guidance on where to set my expectations (regardless of this person working out or not). Am I out of line to feel “something came up” is inadequate when calling out as a brand-new hire?

Green responds:

You’re not wrong! “Something came up” is strangely cavalier. “I’m sick” or “I have a family emergency” (without giving details beyond that) would both be fine, but “something came up” sounds like it could be “my sister called and I feel like talking to her” or “someone invited me to play tetherball.” It also sounds like she doesn’t think calling out on her fourth day of work is a big deal, when that’s normally something people would really try to avoid unless they truly couldn’t.

“Something came up” might be fine from a longer-time employee who had a track record of reliability (although it would still be kind of weird), but it’s pretty alarming from someone in their first week.

2. Scheduling a Zoom call to reject a job candidate

My friend has been applying for jobs and made it to the final round for one position. She didn’t hear back on the timeline they had mentioned on the last interview, so she assumed they passed on her and moved on. But she got an email from them recently asking to schedule a Zoom the next day. Feels promising, right? Wrong. She hops on the Zoom (with video) and they immediately tell her, “You are great, but we went with another candidate and they accepted.” End of meeting.

Is it appropriate to schedule a Zoom call just to reject someone? I feel like that’s really overkill and sort of the equivalent of asking someone to come into the office just to reject them. At the most, I felt like this could have been a quick phone call instead of going through the rigamarole of being on video. I also felt like scheduling the Zoom gave her the impression they would be making a formal offer, so it was doubly painful to get rejected in this manner because she got her hopes up.

Green responds:

Yes, this is not good! I’m sure they didn’t intend it to be awful for her, but this takes all the problems with phone call rejections (the person gets their hopes up, and then has to respond graciously on the spot to what might be crushing disappointment) and adds a horrible video twist (the person probably took time beforehand to ensure they looked professional, maybe put on makeup, all to get a rejection that could have been delivered over email).

When companies do this, they think they’re being courteous and respectful. “She invested the time,” the thinking goes, “and we owe her the courtesy of a real conversation.” Some candidates really do prefer rejections that way … but so many people find it upsetting that it’s really better to stick to email. You can send a very gracious, personalized email rejection. You can even add a note that you’d be happy to talk on the phone if the person would like feedback, if that’s something you’re willing to offer. But making someone get rejected face-to-face on video is not kind, no matter what the intentions.

3. How to tell my network about a job opening

My company is trying to overcome some issues we’ve had in the past with hiring gaps — too many people promoted from within into roles that needed more experience. I’ve been asked to reach out to people I’ve worked with previously whom I would recommend in this role.

It’s a public posting and I’m happy to do that since so many people are un- or underemployed. But I’m hung up on the awkwardness of it. “Hi! We haven’t talked in literally five years, but I wondered if you’d be interested in this job that’s far below your skill set since it’s better than where you are now? Look at this posting, let me know if you or these other guys I’m not in touch with but you are might be interested?” Could you please suggest a better script for cold-calling a request to apply?

Green responds:

The easiest way to do it is to just say, “I’m trying to circulate the job posting to people who might be interested themselves or might know people who would be.” (This is also the best way to do it when you’re hoping the recipient themselves will apply, but you want plausible deniability with their manager that you didn’t try to recruit them away, if there otherwise would be potentially awkward relationship ramifications.)

And as for not having talked in five years: It doesn’t really matter! Professional relationships don’t have the same rules as social relationships. In a professional context, it’s perfectly fine to contact someone you haven’t talked to in years because you need a reference, think they might be interested in a job, or so forth. It’s not considered rude just because you haven’t stayed in touch in the interim.

Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.

—Alison Green

This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister site, Inc.com.

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