updates: my boss made me verify that I’m really exercising, the work meeting in a church, and more

Here are three updates from past letter-writers.

1. My boss made me verify that I’m really exercising (first update)

A happy update. Today we had our spring quarterly all-staff meeting, where HR announced the return of the flex-time exercise program. Two changes were made to the program:

1. Structure around verification requests, include who may request verification and why. (Only your direct manager may initiate the request, which must be routed through human resources.)
2. A “exercise program log” is now the only document that we must produce for a verification request. This is a spreadsheet provided by HR that we can complete electronically or by hand, and simply includes the date and a brief description of the activity.

Our executive director remains, but his one-year contract is up early this summer. Last year, I found it notable the management board’s renewed his contract for one year when the standard for his position (the only contract position in the organization) is two years. He spoke at length today about how important family is, so we are all hopeful he will opt to “spend more time with his family” instead of pushing for another contract renewal.

2. Our next work meeting is being held in a church (#2 at the link)

Thank you all so much for responding regarding the church meeting space. I wanted to provide more context and an update.

I should have written that this meeting was going to be the second one in that particular space, and I did attend the first. It is located more in the community hall than the sanctuary as commenters specified. There was some religious signage, mostly unobtrusive. After that first meeting, I learned that one of our leaders is a member there. I chalked the location up to being the best they could do on short notice, and moved on.

For me, the issue is that after 3-4 months they didn’t bother to ask about the venue or look for other options in that time. This was going to continue indefinitely unless someone said something. So I wrote here, and then I wrote to HR asking for some guidance.

It was my first experience with my HR and it was a positive one. I was mostly expecting that, best case, future meetings would be changed and wrote off this one, but they intervened and with even shorter notice (literally 2 days) we met on a local university campus. It felt like a normal meeting. And I’ll give credit to my leadership team and HR for making that happen.

Thank you again for all of your insights on this.

3. How should I explain why I’m leaving my job? (#5 at the link)

Your post went up after I gave notice but I did game plan it out with my therapist, who had much the same advice — don’t over-explain. I was hoping I could somehow give notice without anyone being upset, but their feelings are not mine to manage.

I did end up being a bit more forthcoming about the fact that my new position was a step back in responsibility, and that is what is best for me and my family. That felt right to me as a way to model that different choices outside of the constant grind up the ladder are valid. I also acknowledge that I am in a privileged position to be able to take that step back without taking a pay cut, which often isn’t the case — but for anyone feeling trapped by their salary, don’t let that stop you from looking, because you never know. Thanks for publishing and for those who responded in the comments!

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