It's not just CEOs.

It's pretty unusual for anyone in a leadership position to step down and take a lower role in that organization.

To start with it usually makes for a strained relationship between the former leader and their new peers.

If someone didn't get on well with the former leader they may try to take some sort of revenge now they are equals.

Or simply decline to cooperate.

Or other bad things.

Secondly if makes things awkward for the new leader.

It can make for problems to have someone around who knows the organization better than you, who people are used to taking orders from and to whom the team probably owes a lot of loyalty.

It's also going to make it harder for the new leader to make significant changes to how things are done.

CEOs in particular are often fired because the company wants a major change of direction.

In the worst cases where there is a lot of politics (very frequently true at the C-level) a newly fired leader may try to actively sabotage the new leader in the hope of getting their job back.

Also, CEOs rarely have difficulty in finding new jobs, and usually at better pay than they would get in a lower position, so there isn't much incentive to stay.

At any career level, having someone replace you, and then having to witness daily how that new person performs at your previous the job (either better or worse than you), would be extremely frustrating to most folks.

Further, the new boss doesn't want to deal with the baggage and office politics of a disgruntled employee who has been demoted.

Finally, as you might imagine, CEOs are incredibly career motivated.

They probably wouldn't even consider stepping down - it would be step back in their career.

Better for everyone to just part ways.

In most cultures/organisations, demoting is extremely rare, except perhaps as a step towards dismissal.

Demoting someone is extremely demotivating, the assumption is that this person will be resentful, have trouble accepting instructions from people who were once peers or subordinate, will have no reason to assume they have a shot a promotion, etc.

Whether for a CEO, a middle manager or just an individual contributor, it's much more common to be dismissed, to be put under pressure or to be deprived of meaningful assignments to provoke a resignation or to be “promoted” to a well-paid but less strategic position where your career will stall than to be demoted.

The competition at that level is incredibly fierce and, in order to win one of these coveted positions, it's generally not enough to be good at your job.

You have to play a lot of dirty politics which often involves stabbing people in the back.

If a CEO were to get demoted and he opted not to leave the company, there's simply no way his successor would be able to trust him to be loyal and to respect the new hierarchy.

He would do everything he could to consolidate power, and force his way back up to the top.

The company could end up split into warring factions which would be disastrous for all involved.

I would risk to say the job of some CEOs is being fired in the end.

I have been at least in two organisations bought by a larger one, that when they wanted to pass unpopular measures/fire multiple people they hired a CEO for them to be the face of those measures.

And in one of them, the actual interim CEO, a partner, stepped down and went to his former role.

Question: Rather than firing a CEO, he may do a good job as CTO or CFO or even a General Manager(GM). Why is it always 'get out' for CEOs?

Why are CEOs generally fired rather being demoted?

Demoting someone is extremely demotivating and the new boss wouldn't want to deal with a disgruntled and frustrated employee. CEOs rarely have difficulty finding new jobs so there isn't an incentive to stay.

Demoting a CEO is likely to be a very risky decision for the company. Demotions are very de-motivating and, as well as creating a motivated employee, it is also possible that such a move will create tension at work and lead to further internal problems. CEOs for their part probably want to continue forward in their career and are unlikely to take a step backward.

Internal work politics most likely making demoting a CEO a very risky move, since it is likely to create tension and internal problems within teams when there is a change in the hierarchy.

Demoting a CEO can have a negative impact on internal relationships within a team

CEOs are normally ambitious and rarely have difficulty finding jobs, so it's likely to be better for their career to simply leave.

In most cultures or organisations, demotions are very rare as they are quite de-motivating for the individual.


(Knee-jerk reaction) Get this request in writing, and forward it to your company's IT information security group.

If IT won't let them have it then

neither should you.

I've never worked for any company of decent size that allowed this, most if not all of them have annual training that covers this, and per that training password sharing is a major breach.

This seems very out of the ordinary.

Why does your manager want your email password?

If he doesn't have a good reason, this can be an example of toxic micromanagement, where your manager wants to snoop into every little thing you're doing, and that's bad.

Another reason why you shouldn't give him your password is because, in the event something goes horribly wrong at your job and you find yourself in need of legal assistance, most of the documentation your lawyer will need will probably be in your work email, which your boss (likely the defendant, or at least a defendant, in any such situation) now has the ability to go in and delete without your permission.

DO NOT give your boss your email password.

Or, if your boss won't take no for an answer, give him your email password and immediately stop using your work email for anything of even any remote importance, and then start looking for a new job.

This sort of micromanagement is not healthy and can be dangerous.

EDIT: Just noticed that the boss already went to IT

and IT said they won't let him have your passwords.

You should immediately go to IT yourself and let them know your manager is putting pressure on you to give him your passwords directly to go around IT, and see what they say.

It's possible your company has some sort of internal measures of what to do in case a manager tries to go around company protocols in this way.

NEVER give passwords out.

People who need to see password protected information won't need your password to do it, and if they can't get that clearance, then you shouldn't give the information out.

If you deliberately give or reveal your password to your manager (to anything, not just email), then you're as guilty as he is if that information is misused; in extreme cases, you could both be fired.

In this case, because the IT department has said no, you should also say no, and redirect him to the IT department if he keeps pressing.

Do not - under any circumstances - give out your password

There are dangers to this that haven't been fully addressed by the other, admittedly mostly very good, answers.

Shared passwords with other (non-work) accounts

- We all know we shouldn't do this

but the reality is the majority of us do.

If you have shared your password for this account with other accounts (say, your personal email account), your manager now has that password too.

There is NO legitimate reason for this.

At all.

If he wanted to audit your stuff, there are ways to do that without giving him your password.

Same for sending stuff on your behalf.

Same for just about any administrative/managerial task you can think of.

You are responsible for anything done while logged into your account.

This can include legal if the boss decides to use your account for illegal activity.

The legitimate way to go about the items in #2 leave forensically traceable logs pointing back to him.

Logging in as you does not.

There can only be a BAD reason for this.

The fact that he has gone to IT, got rejected and is trying to bypass them speaks volumes to the fact that your boss should not have the power he is asking for (see number 3).

Contact IT and HR immediately.

workplace.stackexchange.com/users/77409/520 says Reinstate Monica

If you have the right relationship with your boss, first step is to explain why this is such an awful, terrible, no-good, very bad idea.

Whatever he thinks he wants to solve with this can very likely be done more securely or is more nefarious than what he should be doing.

I'll also parrot that getting these requests in writing and working with your IT, compliance and/or HR departments to make the case should be considered.

This is a red flag on your boss.

It may be for the best of intentions, perhaps coverage in case someone is out or other innocuous reasons.

Even that is a terrible idea if you work in any industry that gets audited.

He's demanding that his team loses accountability and placing security information in a place where attackers have easier access.

This demonstrates both a lack of understanding of the climate of security and a lack of problem-solving and interaction by your boss.

Coverage, for example, could be simply done with shared inboxes/distros or a host of other collaboration tools.

From there, the story just gets worse.

He may be wanting to audit all of your interactions or maybe even use your accounts to do things you would not want to be blamed for.

Question: My manager told all of us today (~10 person team) to make a paper list of our work email passwords for him. Someone else told him he can get it from IT, and he said IT wouldn't let him have them. How should I/we proceed with this?

Manager is demanding everyone's email passwords - how to proceed?

You should never give your email password to your boss. You should contact HR and the IT department and explain that your manager is putting pressure on you to do this.

Firstly, do not provide your boss with your password under any circumstances. To deal with this, if you have a good relationship with your boss, you may want to politely explain to them why this is a bad idea. However, failing this, you might want to report the incident to IT or even HR.

You should never provide your passwords to anybody.

If you have a good relationship with your boss, you may want to try and explain to them why this is not a good idea.

You might want to consider reporting this request to the IT department or HR.


Is this misconduct on his part?

Surely he shouldn't be saying that.. Don't know if "misconduct" is the word but surely this is something unprofessional to do.

However, I fear that the point here is that you were hinted that you may be getting fired soon, so I would be preparing my resume and start applying to jobs ASAP .

Is this misconduct on his part?

Yes , it is.

He most certainly should not be discussing that with his subordinates.

But at this point does it matter for you ?

Surely you will be fired regardless if the information being shared with you

is accurate ...

My advise to you would be to ask your line manager directly , without revealing your source.

If you are not 100% comfortable with the response given, then it is time to find a new job immediately .

Based on the OP's comment below, I would look for a new job regardless of what is said ASAP .

While I agree with some of the other answers that depending on the situation it would be wise to start looking for other work opportunities, I would like to address another point that you have in your question.

Keep in mind

this will depend on your organization's culture and structure, so you will have to judge that for yourself.

You say he has been verbally warned about spreading rumors about you.

If this was from his boss, he may very well not have the authority to fire you.

If you report this to the people who reprimanded him, there is a possibility that he will be the one who is let go, or one of you will be moved to another department.

If he is clearly out of line, and has a history of similar behavior that is not accepted from his superiors, then it may be in your best interest to report this to them.

Is this misconduct on his part?

Surely he shouldn't be saying that.. This all depends on whether or not your colleague will be taking on your responsibilities after you are let go.

I have seen many cases where managers will speak to employees directly affected by a firing before the soon to be fired knows.

Sometimes it is to get ahead on knowledge transfer while other times the colleague has a more direct role in your firing ( e.g. they are tasked with locking your account ).

Now, if your manager simply told a colleague and your being fired has no direct effect on them

I would agree that it is definitely unprofessional behavior.

Regardless, you should polish up your resume and start looking for a new place to work.

Yup, totally unprofessional and in many cases consideration for constructive dismissal - in that he expects you to find out and resign, saving the company the trouble of firing you or his personal preference to get rid of you without any means of firing you.

So, start keeping a diary of all the times he has been like this, all the things you've heard or been told.

Then go to HR with this evidence (even if it feels circumstantial and hearsay to you) and demand something be done to stop it now, and stop it in the future.

Take someone with you to act as a witness, and HR will understand you are serious (and they also give you "got your back" support that really helps deal with a HR who will want you to just go away and stop giving them a hard time) HR will instantly recognise this as a serious legal problem for them, and their job of protecting the company will ensure they deal with it

(this applies even if you have no intention of going down the legal sue-the-company route, just leave that hint hanging)

Working in a place where your manage is undermining you will cause a great deal of stress, you don't need that.

Don't think it'll sort itself out, it'll only get worse if unchecked.

Question: My line manager has told one of my colleagues that I am going to be fired soon.    This manager has already been verbally warned about undermining me and spreading malicious untrue rumors' about me and things I apparently said, which cause major arguments within the team. I have plenty of witnesses who can vouch for the fact he has been trying to drive me out.  Is this misconduct on his part?

Manager told a colleague of mine I was getting fired soon

This is a very unprofessional thing to do and could be considered for constructive dismissal.

Most people would agree that this is highly unprofessional, but it is unclear whether this amounts to misconduct or not. Some people may even see it as reasonable grounds for dismissal.


Admit your mistakes quickly Explain what you did wrong Explain what you will do to fix them

Explain how you will make sure this will not happen again

Don't make the same mistake again.

How should a leader behave when he misses deadlines himself?

Leaders need to be held accountable just like anyone else.

If they missed a deadline they should: Admit to missing the deadline Apologize for missing the deadline Explain the reason(s) for missing the deadline Explain the steps that they will take to prevent this from happening in the future.

They need to set the example of how things should be done by actions.

Under no circumstances should they keep quiet.

All the other answers are great, but nobody gave what is in my opinion the most obvious answer:

How do you expect your subordinates to react if they miss a deadline?

Whatever your answer is, do that.

Admit your mistake Admit your mistake.

That's the most important part.

Do not excuse it Do not explain it.

Do not justify it.

Do not give out reasons.

There are exceptions to this rule.

But for now, I won't go into them.

99% of the time, it's just better to not give out any.

Do not promise that you won't do it again If you want people to trust you, do it with your actions, not your words.

A promise made (under the stress of having broken an earlier one) is not built on a good foundation.

It can be seen as a very empty gesture.

If you find yourself in front of a police officer, or a judge, or facing a very serious situation, yes, by all means, promise all you want, but in most other cases, it's just better that you continue feeling bad about you did, or didn't do.

Feeling bad will motivate you to figure out ways to mitigate such problems in the future.

How should he react now?

Since you said your friend a leader, the leader does not react...

Shall he give an explanation for the missing deadline?

Or just keep quiet and try to build a better reputation next time by being in-time?

An apology & an explanation is appreciated and will be seen as your courage for acceptance of failure.

An explanation will help followers with clarity of the situation and avoid a fuss.

Keeping quiet will harm his reputation.

Leaders take failure as opportunity/learning and do like the following: Analyze the cause of failure and come out with better strategy to avoid such failures in future Allow others to take chance next time if they have better plans If a group of teachers are not motivated, find other ways/technique to make them motivated Plan with reasonable more time in a deadline for such tasks in future (since now you know that previously planned duration is not enough) Shall not express disappointment and try inspiring/motivating followers for better luck next time on success

A very big answer can be written for "what next...

" but above shall be helpful.

How should he react now?

He should apologize and make sure it doesn't happen again.

All of the other answers are good.

But I think it's worth thinking about it another way as well.

How do you, as a leader, think a team member should behave if they miss a deadline?

I think a leader should behave basically the way they WANT a team member to behave.

And do it in front of the whole team.

Question: As a leader in an organization, one has to set an example by being disciplined. But sometimes even leaders can commit a blunder, be it a consequence of workload or anything else.  My friend (we are based in India) is mentoring a group of teachers who are not motivated at all.  Now this leader missed a deadline. How should they react now? Should they give an explanation for the missed deadline or just keep quiet and try to build a better reputation next time by being in-time?

How should a leader behave when they miss deadlines themselves?

Admit the mistake and apologise. Explain how they will prevent this from happening again.

Most people would agree that the most important way to respond to such a situation is to admit the mistake, apologise and ensure that it doesn't happen again. There is no exact answer as to how much you should attempt to explain yourself, and some people would argue that there is no need. Ultimately, as a leader, you should aim to behave the way you expect your team members to behave.

Most people would agree that the first course of action in such circumstances is to admit to your mistake.

Some people would not advocate going into further detail or explanations.

A leader should generally be a role model for their team and behave how they would expect their team members to behave.

It's very important not to repeat the mistake.

Some people believe that giving explanations is important


Just say that you have a prior engagement that you can't decline, and that you're unable to accept this invitation.

It won't be taken badly, and won't have an effect on your career progression in this company.

It's accepted that event dates or times might not suit everyone.

I've seen a number of questions lately that seem to be almost self-answering, if you follow one simple guideline: Unless you have a very good reason not to, simply tell the truth with respect and politeness.

This isn't just a guideline for this particular question; it's a good mode of thought going forward.

In this case?

Your boss wants to throw together a dinner for the team, but you can't make it because you have swim coaching classes at that time?

Then simply say: "

Hi - I want to go, but I can't at that time.

I've got swim coaching classes every Friday at 6 PM."

Usually, team dinners aren't mandatory.

They're great for team building but you're not forced to go.

You can politely decline explaining that you have other engagements or personal constraints.

But, if you are available another evening or on week-end, you can ask to change the date:

Thanks for the invitation but due to personal constraints, I'm unavailable after work.

Can we reschedule on a Saturday evening ?

The only time this would be unacceptable is if you knew prior to being a coach that you had this dinner.

But if you are already a coach, and this dinner came up, simply say you have prior obligations and cannot make it.

If asked, just be honest and say you are a coach for a swim team.

I think the answer to this question depends on what line of work you're in and how high in the hierarchy you are, as well as whether you are hoping to get promoted or not.

To be clear: if you are an hourly worker, there is typically a low expectation for putting in unpaid hours.

You would be completely in your rights to declare all unpaid time yours and act accordingly.

However, if you are in a profession, or simply a salaried worker, declaring that your job stops at 5:01 each and every night is short-sighted and likely to lead to (at a minimum) being passed up for promotion in favor of someone who is willing to go the extra mile at least occasionally.

So, while I agree that a simple statement of truth like "I have other obligations every night after work" is the best way to get out of a team dinner meeting, if the question behind your question is really "should I do this/

can I get away with it," think hard about your work culture as well as your 18 month and 3 year goals.

Is there a pattern?

I tend to end up on multiple team dinners/events in a year (especially counting leaving drinks etc.).

I have missed plenty and at everyone I have attended there are people missing for one reason or another.

I can't see an issue with missing one.

If you miss all of them

I could see it being an issue.

It won't be taken badly.

Just say you have a prior engagement or even that you have coaching lessons and that you hope to make the next one.

Question: I am being invited to a team dinner which I won't be able to attend as I have to go for swimming coaching classes every evening.   I don't know how to decline the invitation and also politely tell them that I am a team player but I have personal issues and cannot attend evening engagements?

How to decline invite to team dinner when I have a prior engagement?

You should politely decline and say that you have a prior engagement that you can't decline. If asked, you can be honest about the swim coaching.

The best course of action in this situation may depend on the company, your position and your work aspirations. However, most people would probably agree that honesty is the best policy and that you should simply explain that you have a prior engagement and will not be able to attend.

Most people would agree that honesty is the best policy and you should simply explain that you have a prior engagement and will not be able to attend.

The answer to this question may depend on your company, your position and your aspirations within the business.


Most of the time, the nicest way is to be straightforward.

If this happens in middle of a running conversation, just say: Excuse me if you got confused by the tone of the voice, but I'm Mr. X here, not miss X. Another way, lead the conversation by saying: "

Hello, Mr.

X here / speaking" include the salutation on purpose so as to leave no room for interpretation.

[Clarification after the comments]:

Based on culture, the X can be your firstname, lastname or full name, whichever does not sound egoistic and rude and super-arrogant.

I'm trans

so I have special experience here, I guess...

Whenever I get misgendered

I have three options: 1)

Say nothing.

2) Immediately correct them.

3) Correct them if they continue to do it.

You have to figure out how much it bothers you.

Usually if I'm say... talking to a vendor that I'll never speak with again, I just ignore it.

It's not worth the bowing and scraping and apologizing that follows.

If I correct people right away I usually say something like "Actually, it's ma'am.", or just interject "She" right after they say "He" or whatever.

I have yet to have a single person say anything beyond "Oh okay sorry"... if they start falling over themselves to apologize excessively I usually add "Don't worry about it, it happens all the time, its no big deal." to put them at ease.

My goal is to clearly communicate my expectations without placing blame on them.

Sometimes I'll decide to say nothing, but it will keep coming up in the conversation and I will decide to correct them.

This is usually the most awkward way to go about doing it - there's always a pause where they count up in their head

how many times they misgendered me already.

I try to stick to the same non-confrontational attitude with this, but it's always at least a bit awkward.

So I'd say either correct them right away politely and try to downplay it (after all, they're not trying to insult you or anything) or don't say anything if it isn't worth the effort.

workplace.stackexchange.com/users/81084/Monica Apologists Get Out

I'm assuming here that these are one-time failures by people you don't know to correctly identify you, and not coworkers calling you incorrectly on a repeated basis or with intentional rudeness.

For one-off mistakes, an immediate, quick, but casual correction is usually effective.

Try not to dwell on it, and if the caller apologizes, make your response to that polite but brief as well and try to move the conversation on to reduce embarrassment for both parties.

For example:"Sorry--

I go by Mr. X""Oh

, I am so sorry!""No problem.

You were saying...?

I agree that Sourav Ghosh's idea of getting ahead of it by introducing yourself as Mr. before the caller has a chance to make assumptions is a good plan as well, unless your company culture on usual phone etiquette discourages such formality.

Why do you need to correct them?

I have the same problem--my phone voice sounds female enough that I will generally be assumed to be female even when they don't know my name (I have the male spelling, the female Lauren is far more common.)

Unless there's some reason they need to know my gender

I just let it be.

It's not worth trying to correct people.

When this happens on the phone, and someone calls you "Miss" or "Mrs." your reaction shouldn't be "please address me as..." but "I am ...".

You are Mr. Dhammika.

You don't want to be addressed in some special way, you want to be addressed in the correct way, according to who you are.

So if someone guesses incorrectly that you are female based on your voice, you should say "I'm not Miss Dhammika, I am Mr. Dhammika".

That clarifies who you are.

How they address you is then up to them.

(For example Mr. or Sir).

Now if they didn't address you as "Miss / Mrs." but as "Ma'am", in that situation they guessed wrong, and if they had guessed correctly, they would have addressed you as "Sir".

In that case, you can say "It's not Ma'am, it's Sir".

Most people will now address you correctly.

If they don't, you stop them and say something like "Excuse me, but I said it's Mr., not Miss".

Another thing to try could be to explain Hi ...

btw.

I know some people think I a woman when on the phone

but I am male, just to add...

That's an interesting option in situations like a first business call where you want to avoid expecting upcoming embarrassing situations for both of you.

Question: Naturally in my native language my voice over the phone is sometimes closer to a female voice. But my natural voice is sounding completely normal.  The problem is the listener in the other end of the phone will misunderstand and address me with  "Miss" . I always want to tell him/her, hey please don't address me as "Miss" , call me "Sir/Mr/or name". What are polite and nice ways to bring my point across?

What is a polite way to clarify my gender in phone calls?

The best way is to immediately correct them so they don't make the same mistake again. You could also introduce yourself with the right title at the start of the call. If it is someone you probably won't speak to again, then just ignore it.

It is generally agreed that a short, polite correction at any point during the call is perfectly acceptable. However, if the call is with someone that you're unlikely to speak to again, or it is a one-off incident, you might want to simply ignore it. One way to potentially avoid this situation would be to introduce yourself first when answering the phone.

One way to avoid this situation could be introduce yourself as "Mr" when answering the phone.

The general consensus is simply to correct them in a short but polite way and not dwell on the matter.

If you're unlikely to speak the person again, or it's a one-off mistake, you may decide to simply ignore it.


Having your period is part of being a woman and completely normal.

There is nothing to be ashamed of.

If you feel uncomfortable taking out single pads from your bag bring a small purse that holds your pads in your bag.

You can also consider placing a box of pads in the bathroom with a sign that reads Emergency stock.

Help yourself and consider filling it up if empty or something like this for all women in the office space.

I bet some of them will be really thankfull if their period hits unprepared.

To include the suggestion from the comments, if there is no space available to put a box of pads, you could request a shelf or something like this from your management or facility management.

As a side note: there are ways to manage the flow that don't include pads that need to be changed regularly.

A cup just needs to be emptied once in a while (up to 8 - 12 hours if I remember correctly) and that can be done in the bathroom without carrying anything.

There are also period panties one can wear if the cup is not enough.

I think small metal boxes are available at most apothecaries to store and carry pads.

I use them and they are quite practical.

But, seriously, there's nothing embarrassing in having the period.

If a group of grown men are feeling awkward for this reason, it's definitely their problem, not yours

I personally use a small, decorative travel makeup bag that holds my sanitary supplies and some single-use packs of Advil.

I fill it at home and take the whole pouch with me to the restroom, so there's no smuggling supplies from one bag to another or into my hand.

In the fairly unlikely chance that someone even notices what I am carrying, it can easily be assumed that it's just to freshen up.

Even though I don't usually wear makeup at work, I doubt the men in the office overthink me sometimes entering the restroom with a travel makeup kit.

Talk to your office manager to organize sanitary packages for the bathroom.

That should include things like disposable tooth brushes, antiseptic mouthwash, pads, toilet disposable wet naps (alternative to dry toilet paper), etc.

Having those things in the bathroom is not only a great convenience, but also a subtle way to remind everybody about hygiene.

Now, despite people telling you to "not be embarrassed," the reality is that the human brain is a bit more complex than that.

Trying to simply overcome something you're uncomfortable with doesn't happen by sheer brute force.

While I don't have to deal with it with pads, somewhere around spring and fall, I usually have a couple of weeks (perhaps due to temperature changes) where I have a perspiration problem.

Imagine wearing a t-shirt in the cold and still having sweaty armpits.

It can be really annoying and embarrassing.

If somebody tells me that I shouldn't be embarrassed about it because it's a normal human reaction, it's not just going to make it not embarrassing.

I have to take my medical-grade antiperspirant, walk myself to the bathroom and apply it out of sight.

So if you don't think you'll simply become the brave person that everybody says you should be (like I'm not), then feel free to adopt some strategies: Put it in your jean pocket; if you have a switcher with pockets, use those pockets.

Proceed to the bathroom.

You could treat them as what they are: Normal hygiene items.

Just put a Box on the toilet.

I know a lot of people doing that already, in the guest toilet, as well as restaurants/cafes having those available for their guests.

If you have female visitors/clients on site, they might appreciate it in a time of an emergency.

Get one of those larger handbags for work, put your personal stock in there as well as other toiletries you might need (comb, toothbrush etc.).

Make a habit out of it to carry this bag to the toilet with you.

Question: How to take my pads with me to the toilet subtly?  I work in an all male office/open space and everytime I get my period I go through the awkwardness of trying to take them out of my bag and put them in my pocket an go to the toilet. I can't really take my whole bag, nor can I carry all the pads I need in my pants during the day.

How to take my pads with me to the toilet subtly?

You could bring a small bag with some emergency supplies that you can carry to the toilet or leave a box in the bathroom.

If you want to be subtle, you could simply get a small purse or make-up bag which you routinely take with you to the toilet. Alternatively, you could leave a supply in the toilet at all times.

You could acquire a purse or make-up bag that you get into the habit of always taking with you to the bathroom.


NO This is a bad idea which could get you in trouble.

The way to handle it is to go back and say something along the lines of sending an email to your current manager, copying in anyone appropriate asking for approval to share the document.

Update from comments:

I want to make it clear that there should be no doubt in your mind that sending the document is a bad idea.

Ensure your boss knows that you know that and that you never would without express permission.

You can even mention you are concerned it is a phishing attempt.

If you want to keep yourself out of it, you can just forward the email onto your boss.

It may be completely innocent and all above board, or it may be dodgy but you'll want written permission by someone with the authority to give it.

Treat all company documents as company property (because they are)

this isn't really your decision to make.

If your ex-manager chases in the mean time you can just say: "I'm just waiting on approval for your request".

If he kicks off, you know something fishy is going on.

No, you should not share your company documents with people who are not working for your company and/or don't have written permission to access them.

so my ex manager who left our company recently called me up a couple of days back to share a document.

Are you someone who makes decisions for your company on what documents to share with outsiders?

If not, then this is a red flag.

However, im confused whether or not I should share it as he could have easily copied it and taken it while he was working here or in his notice period

but he is asking me to do it now.

Most contracts have clauses saying that if you leave the company you're not allowed to take company documents with you.

If he'd copied the document during his notice period, he would have been liable.

This is somewhat a confidential doc you can say as its related to sales.

Sales documents aren't just "somewhat" confidential; most companies consider them key competitive/strategic information.

He said his new company where he is working is different and does not have any similarity to us however he wants this document just for reference.

Doesn't matter.

He's not with the company, he doesn't have any right to company confidential data.

Even if you don't know about any bad thing he might do with them.

They're confidential, that's all the reason you need to deny him.

I find it a bit fishy

and im worried if this might affect our business or Im I just overreacting?

He's asking you to do something now, that if he had done himself back then, could have gotten him sued.

Right now, it could get you fired and/or sued.

Yeah, it's fishy.

As an aside: what constitutes confidential data?

As a rule of thumb, any data not available to the general public.

Sales prices for consumers: not confidential.

Sales prices for business customers who are getting a special discount or have some kind of cheap grandfathered contract: confidential.

The real prices at which you purchase stock (perhaps with a discount because you're a big buyer): confidential.

Which products are going on sale next month: confidential.

Which products are on sale right now: not confidential.

Current sales figures: confidential.

Sales figures published in a press release: not confidential.

You should consider whether you should warn your current manager that your former manager is snooping around and asking for this document.

If he gets hold of it, perhaps from someone else careless, suspicion might fall on you (since you have access and knew him).

This person is trying to steal confidential information by spear phishing .

Report this behaviour to your superior immediately.

The fact that he does not have access to this document is intentional.

If your company wanted ex-employees to be able to access documents, it could easily set this up.

Your ex-manager doesn’t work at the company anymore and has no rights whatsoever to these documents.

Tell him as politely as you like that you are not going to send these documents to him.

If he tries to reason with you tell him as politely as you like that you are not going to send these documents.

Also inform your manager and HR about the request, in case he approaches others.

Do NOT tell that you thought about sending these documents for even a second; sending them would quite likely get you fired on the spot.

Question: My ex manager who left our company recently called me up a couple of days back, and asked me to share a document. This is somewhat a confidential doc, as it relates to sales.  He could have easily copied it himself before he quit, but he is asking me to do it now. He says he wants this document just for reference.   I find it a bit fishy, and I'm worried if this might affect our business. Am I just overreacting?

Should I share a somewhat confidential document with my now ex manager? (They had access before leaving the company.)

You should not share company documents with someone who doesn't have permission to access them. It could get you in trouble.

You should definitely not share any confidential documents with ex-employees, regardless of who they are.


Should I write Brainf*ck in my CVs?

If you have absolutely nothing else going on for you, then sure, because you would be rejected anyway.

This way at least your CV will be passed along as a joke across the office first.

If you have something to offer though, write about that instead.

When hiring developers you are seeking dozens of CVS every day, and the random strings of characters (as I won't bother to decipher what that means before deciding whether to call you or not) will at best be ignored, at worst seen as not bothering to even proof-read the PDF you've sent me.

The magical world where including BF in your CV is the difference between being hired or not is naive at best.

Sorry.

Put that effort into getting a buffy GH portfolio instead.

I wouldn't even put it under the skill list, as it has zero practical use and, again, a beefy practical GH portfolio will get you much further.

Or extra line describing your previous actual experience.

NB:

This answer tries to answer the more general question, rather than specifically "BrainF*ck"

I'm not sure if the question is about using a profanity or just if adding this language is beneficial.

The latter will depend on the type of job you are applying to but as a general rule of thumb (assuming you're a programmer of some sort): If it's a language that is a bit different and

you are proficient in

(i.e. makes you stand out) add it.

To address the other question: Is it ok to use a profanity in a CV if it's the name of a Language / Company / Website (etc.)?

I don't see any issue in this, although of course it will vary from country to country, company to company and person to person.

Provided it is clear what it is, it adds to your experience, (and that you're not using just to say "f*ck" on your CV)

then it's ok.

Personally, I'd use it as in the title of this post

(UK based, tend to apply to more casual small companies).

Follow your nose with this one though - judge based on the type of company.

BF is probably ambiguois.

For companies you want to avoid swearing go with BrainF. Final thought

As many of the comments mentioned, listing Code Golf as a hobby would generally look pretty good on a resume and this is a fairly well established term.

Unless you're a complete whizz, specifically at BrainF, just list that.

To those of us that are actually familiar with brainfuck .

Including it in your resume would send the wrong message.

Not because it's a profanity, but because it's a purposefully obtuse and unreadable language designed to show off more than anything else.

And for software development, I would want to hire the opposite kind of developer for my team.

I would want the kind of developer that values communication and readability over his own ego or clerverness.

So for that reason, I would only advertise code golf in your hobby section, not brainfuck.

Now, should they ask, what languages did you use when code golfing?

Then, I would tell them all the languages I used, including brainfuck.

I think that would be fine.

I would suggest not including it, unless it's relevant for a specific type of job.

There are probably more relevant things you can include and draw attention to.

Also, a lot of people haven't heard of it, including programmers.

You don't want to be screened out potentially by a non-technical person or recruiter just for the sake of listing this.

Profanity on a CV looks unprofessional and (most) employers don't want to read that, even if it's the name of a product or technology.

BrainF sounds okay, but I don't think it's worth listing on a CV.

I don't see how this can add value to your resume.

It's like saying you can solve a rubix cube within seconds.

I'm saying this because when I was younger I could solve the rubix cube within seconds and I add this in my firsts resumes, and a lot of interviewer said "I don't care!".

Specially nowadays, all this side-skills doesn't matter anymore... it would be much more valuable for your resume to say you gave lectures for a large audience (meaning that you are able to speak in public and comunicate) or something like that.

If I will read such a CV and nothing else will attract the attention, but it would more or less conform to a job description, I would invite the person even out of the interest to talk.

However, if the person possesses multiple years of experience and still writes that, the question would rather be if he/

she is (over)enthusiastic or (extremely) bored.

//you can't imagine things I read last year hiring Java developer...

oh dear...

It would be more than sufficient to list CodeGolf as a hobby and esoteric languages as a skill.

I would probably provide a brief description on what these concepts are, because even among programmers its a pretty unknown practice.

I think esoteric programming languages with some description what that actually means would be enough.

I think what it comes down to is this -- Nobody is hiring Brainfuck developers.

So specifically calling it out as a skill wouldn't do you any favors.

But what provides value to you is not the specific language you use, but rather the proficiencies that using such a language has developed in you.

That should be the key takeaway, not the specifics.

Hell, a good option might just be putting a similar language down that has a less offensive name.

Its a safe bet that no interviewer is going to say "oh you know , go ahead and show me how you would implement X with it for me", but it would get the same message across.

Question: Should I write Brainf*ck in my CVs?   I know this is a weird question, but maybe the interviewer thinks "Hmm, this kid writes esoteric language."  Or as an alternative, I would say  BF  or  BrainF  instead of Brainf**k. What do you think about it?  Note:    Brainf*ck is an esoteric programming language notable for its extreme minimalism.  Edit: I found a Brainf*ck library named  BrainF.Net . So I decided to pronounce like BrainF.

Should I Write Brainf*ck in My Resume? If so, How Should I?

It's probably not worth listing this on a CV unless it's relevent for a specific job, but it will depend on the company and the country.

The answer to this question is subjective and may depend on your country or the company in question. However, many people would consider that it is not worth including this on your CV unless it's highly relevant to the vacancy that you're applying for. As for how to write it, the way it is written in the question is probably acceptable.

Many people would consider that it is not worth including this on your CV unless it's highly relevant to the job in question.

The precise answer will depend on the company or country.

Writing it as written in the original question will likely be fine.


Only your reporting manager/HR can answer this Would likely differ on a case-by-case basis

You should consider consulting your reporting manager/boss on this.

Depending on the work culture and your roles/responsibilities, HR personnel may need to be consulted/involved in the decision making too.

By leave, a general understanding is that you would be taking a day (possibly paid) off.

The number of leaves you'd take would also need to be in line with the total allowed number of days of leave in a given period (month/year) as per the norms defined by the company for your role.

The exact answer would also vary depending on the leave type.

For example, if it's a festival/national holiday in the company's country of operations, it would be a day off, and you'd not be expected to work.

But it it's a festival/holiday in your country of work/residence, you'd have to request a leave explicitly (if needed).

A general advise when confronted with such a situation is to discuss the same with your manager well ahead of time, so the necessary action could be planned appropriately.

Ask your manager .

The two companies will have these things set out in the contract.

If they don't, your manager is still the one to figure this out.

It happened to me once.

I asked the company at home and the guys I worked with for four weeks in the foreign country.

We decided that what makes most sense is working the same days as the people you are currently working with (I wouldn’t have been able to work in an otherwise empty office anyway), and your amount of available holiday is calculated based on the rules at home.

Whether that’s legal or not, I have no idea, but everyone involved thought it was reasonable so that’s what we did.

If you are forced to take a holiday you didn’t want to take, you need to discuss this with your manager or HR at home.

This is something which has no clear answer but needs to be clear from the start, so if you want to settle this right, you do this before you start working for the company in your contract negotations.

In these negotiations you can see what the company expects from you and at which days they expect you to work and at which days they don't expect you to work.

You on the other hand, you can tell them your requirements: what salary you want, and what holidays you really can't miss.

After negotiating, you and the company reach a deal and that's when you know which days to work and which days

you are free.

Don't leave these things implied.

The correct way is you take your leave based on the norm there = for example in the UK Scotland and Northern Ireland have different public holidays.

All the answers don't seem to realise that if you working in country

A you have to follow that countries rules

- we do this at my place with teams working in the UK, Russia and Ukraine

Question: Which countries bank and public holidays do I observe if I work remotely in one country for a company in another country and where both countries do not have identical holidays? Do I observe the holidays for the country I live in or the country the company is based in?

Observing bank and public holidays while working remotely for a foreign company

You should consult your manager and it should be clear in your contract from the start.

The answer to this question will depend on company policy, so you should consider asking your manager or the HR department for clarification.


Should the person be blocked?

If she wants to stop their behavior on social media then yes the person should be blocked.

If the person speaks to her about it at work, she needs to respond with something like: I am not going to discuss non work related matters with you, please do not speak to me about this again.

If the person persists, she should report this employee to HR or whomever is responsible for harassment.

Should the person be blocked?

Yes.

Her social media should also be set to private so that only her name and profile picture can be seen by outsiders.

Personal information should be set to private or friends only such as her age, location, etc.

Should I talk to him?

No.

Should she talk to him?

No.

Yes, she should block him, but she should also email him using work email saying:

Hey Bob, Just to be clear, I'm not interested in you, nor am I interested in being friends with you.

If you try to contact me one more time outside of work, I will report you to HR for harassment.

Do you understand?

It's important to do this in writing,

this way she has a time-stamped written record of her request with him.

This answer is partially based on a previous answer I gave to a slightly similar question.

On a side-note, blocking him on Facebook/Instagram won't remove his existing likes on her posts/pictures, but it will prevent him from seeing her posts/pictures on his timeline from then on, so it will ultimately prevent him from adding future likes/comments on her stuff.

Should the person be blocked?

Yes she should do this if she doesn't want any more insinuations from this colleague.

If this starts to cross the thin line of harassment, she could also consider reporting the user.

Additionally, it is usually recommended to keep separate profiles for your personal and professional network users, so incidents like these don't happen (or at least happen less often).

This man is harassing your girlfriend.

He keeps ignoring boundaries.

She should tell him verbally to stop contacting her on social media.

Once and once only.

She should not attempt to explain, justify, negotiate nor argue with him.

That opens the door for him to use DARVO .

This is where the offender attempts to Deny the behavior, Attack the victim and reverse the roles of Victim and Offender.

If he refuses to stop, document each and every time he attempts to contact her.

The diary she keeps these details in need to leave the office every day with her.

The best way to handle this is in stages.

First, she should talk to him.

The message should be clear (and kind).

If that does not work, she should block him.

If it comes to that, Stephan's suggestion of mentioning a report to HR is a good idea.

But hopefully, the first step is all that would be needed.

It is how most people want to be treated anyway.

Question: My girlfriend gets multiple friend requests, messages(emoji only) and likes on Facebook and Instagram from a colleague at work. The person is so assertive that after an unfriend, he continued with this behaviour even more agressively.   Should the person be blocked?  Should I talk to him?  Should she talk to him?

What to do when a work mate is unpleasantly pushy on social media?

She should start by talking to him. If they persist, then report them to HR. Document every time he tries to contact her and then block him.

The first step should be for your girlfriend to speak with the colleague in question and ask him to stop contacting her on social media. To escalate matters further, she may want to report him to HR or block him on the site in question. Recording every attempt to contact her may also be useful when filing any reports.

First, your girlfriend should speak to the colleague in person and ask him to stop contacting her on social media.

If the problem persists, you girlfriend should report the issue to the HR department or consider reporting the user to the social network in question.

Your girlfriend should keep a record of each and every time her colleague attempts to contact her.

Your girlfriend may want to consider blocking her colleague.


but I definitely feel like I shouldn't be here.

Then don't be there, burn the rest of your sick days and vacations if needed.

Anything else you decide to sacrifice your health for saving holidays/sick days/whatever, and that's just not a great idea.

Ideally, I'd like two or three days to recover before jumping back into work

Unless you are a medic you are not in a position to determine the days off

you should need to recover from a concussion (nor to determine it was a "mild" one)...

It would be better for your health to consult a Medic and let them determine the days you really need , and actually take them.

As other answers say, your health is paramount and sacrificing it for saving holidays is not a good idea.

This is probably country specific but in the UK you should be able to take the time as sick leave for however long you need, provided you have a doctors note.

"Taking Sick Leave (.gov)"

The idea of having a limited number of sick days has always seemed ridiculous to me, but I'm guessing

that's sick days you don't have

a doctors note for

so I would suggest you get a GP to sign you off from work.

If you need more days for a different illness later in the year do it again.

Assuming you're US: In the US, there is no requirement that businesses offer paid sick leave to their employees.

The only thing they must do (provided the business employees more than 50 employees) is to allow staff unpaid time off for medical leave, or to care for a family member.

How does sick leave work in the US Which would imply that your company can't stop you taking time off if you are unwell, you just may not be paid.

How many days of paid sick leave is an American worker entitled to Concussion can be really serious and if you are still experiencing the effects days later

then I would suggest seeing a doctor in any case.

You should follow medical advice for recovery.

The timeline may be more than a couple days, and it might involve not looking at screens or reading (including using Stack Exchange!).

You should look into short term disability insurance.

It might be included in your employment benefits.

If not, consider buy accident/injury/disability insurance to protect yourself in the future.

You should use whatever options are available for paid time off, including vacation.

Your company may require that you exhaust all those options before taking unpaid time off.

The separate of sick leave and vacation leave is inconsequential when you need time off for your health.

At some companies, those two categories are combined anyway.

You should probably not be reading and writing things on the computer when you have a concussion.

This can hinder your brain's healing and make the situation much worse, for much longer.

Restated from #1 because it's so important.

I’ve been through this exact scenario in Canada - mild concussion.

Don’t rush back, it’s probably worse than you think.

I talked to my employer, they were nice enough to give me a week off full pay and then a week off half pay.

The alternative is to apply for short term disability if your insurance has this.

That’s kind of a pain, as you need a bunch of paper work and stuff that you really don’t want to have to think about when you have a concussion, but it will provide a portion of your pay while you recover.

The extension of that would be long term disability - which if your insurance covers it would cover you if you were out for a few months.

The uninsured option would be unpaid Ed leave.

Talk to your employer, they will likely be understanding and work with you to help you recover.

Check your benefits plan, you might have options there.

If not take unpaid leave and recover properly.

Even mild concussions can have weird side effects and issues if not cared for properly.

Don’t push it!

Hope you feel better soon!

By 'outside of the workplace' do you mean you were walking into work from the parking lot, and got an injury?

If that's the case that's a workplace related, depending on jurisdiction.

It may be covered under your companies policies.

If however you mean you got a concussion at home, haven't seen a doctor, and need to know what to do

, I think you've proven you need to go see a doctor because you're not thinking straight.

Question: I've had a relatively mild concussion (outside of work). Ideally, I'd like two or three days to recover before jumping back into work, but I've already burned most of my sick days and would like to save my vacation.  It's been a day or two since the injury; I am at work, but I definitely feel like I shouldn't be here.  What's the best way to handle this?  Note: Company is 50 or more employees.

How to handle an injury that happened outside the workplace?

You shouldn't be at work and should use any options for time off you have available.

The first step should probably be to discuss the matter with your employer as they may be able to help. You should definitely seek medical advice to ensure that you make a full recovery, and if you need time off work, then be prepared to use whatever means you have at your disposal. Details in your benefits or contract may be able to help you further.

It is generally not advised to be using a computer after suffering a concussion.

Check what benefits you have, as there may be one that could help you address this situation.

Don't go to work and use whatever means you have at your disposal, whether it be sick pay or holiday.

Consult a medical professional to determine how much time you really need off work.

Talk to your employer, they may be able to help.


What was the purpose of a question like that?

These questions are trying to pull out of you if your are passionate about [insert subject here] in your case data.

They wanted someone who is passionate and has an opinion rather than someone who answers "it's just my job

I don't really care".

Were they looking for data-driven individuals?

See above they were looking for your to have an opinion and start talking passionately about data and you views.

An example where would be maybe talking about privacy and some of the changes to the data laws in the EU.

What was the purpose of a question like that?

Were they looking for data-driven individuals?

That's an unknown.

What you did miss is what would have given you the answer to this question right there during the interview.

You didn't ask for clarification.

If a question is too broad or you don't fully understand it ask for clarification.

This is simply a discussion starter question that opens up a given topic .

The interviewer asks you to define a core element of a topic area they wish to check your familiarity with.

It's typically not about providing an exact match for their internal definition, but to show that you are familiar with the term and have some grasp on it.

In some cases it might also be about how you think about certain topics

- are you more a theoretician who defines the word with a set of mathematical lemmas and theorems or are you more a practical person who will lead the discussion towards systems or tools that you are familiar with and that have something to do with the topic at hand etc.

What does data mean to me ?

Data on its own is usually just numbers, held on a system.

Data can be interpreted to show truths or facts about a companies performance, but this requires integrity, as statistics can easily creep in to form truths from peoples perceptions.

Data can be used to form charts and trends which can be relayed to a specific audience to create a visual picture of how a company is performing.

That's what data mean to me personally.

I have never actually been asked a question like that for any data analyst role.

I'm guessing the hiring manager like rhetoric, and likes to know how their employees think.

Your type of answer could show your passion towards working in a an analytical role.

There is no correct answer to a question like that.

It is more about how you come across, but this is true for any type of interview question anyway.

How to answer the question “What does data mean to you?”

In a Toastmasters public speaking club I was in

, we used to practice impromptu talks by pulling a random topic out of a tin can, then we had no more than 2 or 3 seconds to think of what to say before we spoke on that topic for a full 2 minutes.

One trick we used was to structure our talk with some kind of chronology.

For instance, if we pulled the topic "lampshades" (and yes, we actually used generic boring topics like "lampshades").

We would talk about the lampshades of the past, the lampshades of the present, and the lampshades of the future.

Now if we applied the same kind of trick to the question you were asked.

That means you could have spoken about the role of data in the past (let's say in Roman times, or perhaps in the 1980s.

The exact timeframe is your choice), the role of data in the present, and the role of data in the future (or at least your opinion of where that field was going).

Or if you prefer, you could have spoken about the role of data from your perspective as a child, your perspective as a college student, and your perspective as a new professional preparing himself to enter the workforce.

What was the purpose of a question like that?

The question was unusual and open-ended.

Unusual questions are more difficult to have prepared answers for.

Open-ended questions also tend to reveal a lot about potential candidates.

In other words, they were probably looking for a candidate who could think on his feet, who was articulate, passionate, appreciative of his field, a self-starter, self-motivated (not just from money), curious, knowledgeable, organized in his thinking, and possibly even insightful.

At the same time, they were also looking for any potential red flag.

If you ask enough open ended questions, an interviewee could accidentaly betray himself/herself while trying to answer such questions.

Interview questions are not always meant to be literal.

Long answers are not always necessary.

The purpose of these questions are to see if and how a candidate stands out.

If you take a literal interpretation of the question, you might miss the point and talk about data and schema too much.

For example, if you were to look at the question What does data mean to you?

differently, you could answer with one word to separate yourself from the pack.

Opportunity.

You could then talk about opportunities you have found in data that was not realized before.

Think about what is important for the organization first.

Often, this is not a technical answer, but more about adding value to the organization.

Answers that address adding value often blow the mind of the one asking the question.

For example, at one organization, the CEO asked me of my philosophy of IT.

I answer with, "IT should not be a cost center but a profit center.

" I then rattled off some ways the organization could make a profit with its IT infrastructure and personnel while serving the organization better with expertise and opportunity at a minimal cost investment.

The CEO handed me a blank check, literally, and told me to make it happen.

And so I did.

The organization grew exponentially and began buying large properties in and around Washington D.C. making it one of the most wealthy and most influential organizations in town.

We became the go to experts in using technology, expertise, and personnel to create opportunities and capitalize on opportunities.

We taught what we learned by doing.

Question: Recently I interviewed with an organization for a data analyst role.  A question was asked  What does data mean to you?  What was the purpose of a question like that? Were they looking for data-driven individuals?

How to answer the question "What does data mean to you?"

This is a question to see if you are passionate about the topic. It is a starter question. It also allows a candidate to stand out from the others.

It is impossible to know with any certainty what the purpose of this type of question is. However, open-ended questions like this could well be used to generate conversatoin, assess how you think and identify what you're passionate about. Asking open-ended questions is also a good technique for assessing whether someone is being honest or not in their responses.

These questions might be used to see if you're really passionate about the work.

This question might be a simple open-ended question to get the conversation going.

It's impossible to tell what the purpose of this question is.

These question could be designed to identify a candidates particular qualities.

These types of question might be used to assess how you think rather than what you think.

If you ask enough open-ended questions, it's quite possible for a candidate to contradict themselves if they're not being straight-forward.


At this time of coronavirus it's valid for a company to look at alternatives to keep afloat, reduced hours is one, redundancy is another, shutting the company completely is yet another.

It's important to keep in mind that we in the UK are going to go through a very hard time, obviously this is speculation, but given past events and what's currently happening with financial markets it's not hard to come to this type of conclusion.

Between on-going Brexit issues and now coronavirus we're going to be hit hard.

Some companies have already planned redundancy exercises based on "weathering the storm" of Brexit, now this will no doubt push others to have to do the same.

Even after the virus is gone companies will still have to try and recover for the huge financial losses they'll no doubt take.

Remember though, the grass isn't always greener - and at a new employer your legal rights revert to practically nothing.

You'll no doubt have a probation period, and even then it's 2 years continued service before you'd have redundancy rights against discrimination (as an example)

should that happen between now

and then, your sick leave would be back at the starting level (albeit with certain government provisions in place - for now).

It's a gamble to leave, it's a gamble to stay.

Ultimately you have to weigh up the pros and cons that are personal to you.

On the point about working full time hours but half day wages - a company can request this during this situation, however it should be deemed as overtime which you would be entitled to be paid for (catch 22 there).

The only way I'd be willing to do

that is if I believed the company could come out of this intact and with written and signed guarantees that this money would be paid back, or holidays given of equal value, after it turns around - don't get this verbally, as you most likely wouldn't see it.

Also don't forget that your holiday pay is based on hours worked, so working reduced hours will reduce your yearly holiday entitlement - and after an Employment Tribunal last year holiday pay is also to be given for overtime, which you would miss out on if you work hours for free.

Bad situation.

If you accept then make sure that you don't lose anything (beyond the salary).

Negotiate with the boss.

Reasonable terms would be a contract that says: This is a temporary change of your salary.

It will return to the full salary as soon as the crisis is over.

Any redundancy payment will be calculated based on the original, full salary.

Same terms for everyone, including management and owners.

Someone with experience in these matters finds out what state benefits you might receive based on the lower salary and how to apply for them.

What's slightly to your advantage is that your tax payments and NI contributions will fall by more than 50%.

Depending on your financial and family situation, you may get some more advantages, like getting child tax credits that you might not have received at the old salary.

Go to a tax calculator website and run the numbers.

PS.

If the employees agree on this, then the company has the choice of accepting or going bankrupt - while the whole point of this is avoiding to go bankrupt.

Severance pay would be based on what your contract says.

Update: The chancellor has announced that they want to substantially subsidise wage payments to employees.

One plan would be that employers wouldn't have to pay income tax and NI contributions.

If my employer took what they have to pay for me (net wage + my income tax + my NI contribution + employer NI contribution) and were to pay 50% of that directly to me, then I wouldn't be too bad off.

In this scenario, if you accept those conditions you'll be effectively subsidising your employer's business, in the form of the withheld salary you won't be receiving by working part time for a full time job.

You have a few ways of responding: one way would be asking for a written commitment from your employer to pay you later a bonus in proportion to the amount of "extra part time hours" you will be working. if the company is a startup, you might ask for (more) equity, as a replacement for the funding you are indirectly providing to the company.

if the employer is only "taking" and is not negotiating bonuses or equity as future compensation, then you have to decide your alternative scenarios: can you find another job now?

Can you find another later?

How valuable is this job for you, given the circumstances?

And if you change job, what are your "transaction costs"?

Ultimately you'll need to put a number on your various options, depending on the job market and your priorities, considering the contingency (beginning of a global recession).

The UK Government has announced that it will pay 80% of wages for those not working in coronavirus crisis.

( https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/20/government-pay-wages-jobs-coronavirus-rishi-sunak )

So I think the answer now is to see what your boss says on Monday

Honestly, yes.

Given the economic reality we're now in, it's both fair and reasonable.

Many companies are going to be doing even worse.

Doesn't mean you can't negotiate though.

I'd recommend negotiating for (temporarily) reduced pay, at full hours, in return for additional Paid Time Off next year.

Half pay for (say) 3 months would equate to an additional 6 weeks holiday.

This way, the company saves the cash they definitely need, while you still get paid your full amount (in holiday rather than cash), in a way where they still owe you the full amount (I think) if they make you redundant in future.

I don't know the specifics of UK labor-laws, rights and regulations, however are you sure any (temporary) employment benefits you are entitled to are not more than 50% percent of your current salary ?

If so, this proposal sounds like a terrible deal.

Especially if your company goes down in a few months anyway, in which case you still lose your job and have far fewer benefits.

Question: My employer's main clients are unable to pay their bills to us, as they cannot work at this time. Therefore my boss is offering me 50% wages until the coronavirus goes away (technically for part time hours, but it's been intimated that there'd be an expectation to work regular hours unofficially to help the company "weather the storm") or paid redundancy.    I have been searching for a new job since hearing this, but I want to understand if my employer's offer is fair/legal.

Offered 50% pay cut or redundancy due to coronavirus. What are my options?

In the current economic climate this is a fair proposal. Negotiate and make sure you are not losing out. If they ask you to work normal hours then you would expect to paid overtime or a bonus later on. You will have to weigh up the pros and cons of both options that are personal to you.

The answer to this question will be subjective and entirely depend on your personal circumstances. However, it is perfectly reasonable for a company to consider this option given the situation. You may want to try and negotiate with your boss to ensure that you don't lose anything beyond and salary or even if you might be entitled to benefits in the future when the situation improves.

You should be prepared to negotiate with your boss so that you don't lose anything beyond the salary.

It is entirely acceptable and reasonable for a company to examine this avenue given the present situation.

You might want to see if you can negotiate later recompense for the sacrifice that you're about the make in the form of other benefits.


Keep it simple and get the questions on a side channel , for instance email,slack or SMS, when it is time for a question read out loud for everyone to hear it and answer it.

This way there will be no wasted time switching presenter, having problems to unmute the microphone or having a voice which no one can hear.

Since it's on Skype, use the instant messaging channel on the conference for questions.

Somebody can then pick and choose which to ask.

Doing a Q&A without preparation can be very inefficient.

A Skype call with 30 people is VERY expensive.

A good way to get this done is: share a document with the proposal or topic of discussion to all 30 people, beforehand give all 30 people a time limit to read the document and send questions to you

use the call for your answers.

Control the time allowed by prioritising the questions you received, and make it clear that some extended discussions will be taken offline.

If people come up with new questions, go for a second iteration.

This will help the whole team participate in a scalable way, giving you control of how time is spent in the "big call", while making that time useful for your team.

Lots of video conferencing apps actually have a "raise your hand" function.

Someone clicks on "raise my hand" in their window, and the presenter sees it and can stop or not, as they choose.

I have had good luck with having people ask questions on https://cardboardit.com/ or another similar product.

It seems to get the best result if the person moderating the questions is "off camera".

Since we have a distributed team we would introduce the questions the way they did on the show Frasier.

This was useful when we needed to "prime the pump" with questions because we would have planted questions we could use if we did not have any from the group, or we wanted to reiterate an important point.

"John from the 6th floor break room asks; Can you clarify the new break room clean your own mess policy?"

Question: Due to COVID-19, the plenary meeting of our ICT department (30 people) will be on Skype.  How do we effectively organise the question and answer part ?   What is the best online equivalent of raising your hand?  How to avoid people interrupt each other (voluntarily or not)?  If you ask people to submit their questions in writing, should you still involve them in the discussion?  etc.

How can we effectively organise Q&A in a teleconference?

Use instant messaging or email for questions. You could share a document beforehand and ask for questions in advance.

Firstly, it's important to control the time allowed for Q&A and be prepared to take longer discussions offline. You may want to consider asking people to submit their questions in writing either in advance or using a separate platform, like Slack or Cardboardit.com

You could consider using a separate platform for submitting questions, such as Slack or Cardboardit.com

You could consider asking people to submit their questions in writing prior to the meeting.

Be sure to control the time allocated for questions and answers and take longer discussions offline.


There are multiple ways you can handle this.

Direct confrontation.

Reply to that email, copying HR, saying that you do not consent to this.

Indirect confrontation.

If you have a manager/superior you trust, ask them to intercede.

This is something that a good leader would fight on your behalf.

Anonymous confrontation.

Anonymously email HR saying that this is not ok and they need to not do this or it will be reported to legal authorities as it is theft.

Skip trying to handle it internally and just report it to legal authorities Don't do anything and be taken advantage of.

Not one I would normally pick, but sometimes you're not in a position to risk losing employment or causing problems at work

I would print the email (being sure that my name doesn't appear) and mail the printout to the state's Attorney General office anonymously with a printed note that this is illegal.

On the letter I would note CC of the appropriate labor board and the company's HR department.

I would mail the CC copies anonymously too.

Then I would drop the matter.

(I assume that you don't have a Union...)

If the manure does hit the rotary oscillator, you want to be as far away as possible.

HR is not your friend.

Your coworkers may pat you on the back for creating a stink about the matter and getting their $11 back, but upper level management doesn't like this sort of attention.

If it was discovered that you started the brouhaha then you would have cut your throat.

I would reply with: "

No thank you".

Simple, polite, and if they do garnish your wages

then you have a clear case of theft/fraud.

If it is a dumb joke from pay roll, then you called their bluff.

If you get serious back lash, you can say you were going planning to buy it yourself already (a lie, to give you time to find a job with a less toxic ceo)

Considering the amount of money its costing I would personally go with a soft protest and have some fun with it to raise employee spirits and create some camaraderie about it.

One idea already suggested is to read the book in work time.

Other things could be: Get as many employees as possible to to give it a 1 star review on Amazon (Anonymously).

You could even explain in your review what the author/

his company has done Use it around the office for menial/trivial things e.g. using it as a notepad to take work notes, tearing out pages to wipe a spill etc Send out a bulk email asking all employees if they want to buy a copy of your book (or a variation of that e.g. buy something of yours from etsy/buy cookies from your child etc), since the company has set a precedent for it now.

There is a response that everybody forgets, which is "talk to your colleagues".

If enough of you refuse to buy the book and threaten court action then seriously, what is the company going to do?

Fire everyone?

Forcing employees to by a book is essentially withholding wages, which is illegal in pretty much every jurisdiction.

Since it is so important to the company that you buy this book, you are likely expected to read it at work time.

I think the CEO would be really pleased that all 250 employees read his book carefully.

Question: My corporation just sent out an email that they will be deducting pay from everyone's paycheck for each of us to purchase a copy of our CEO's book, since his sales have been down lately. It's only $11, but it's really bothering me since it's $11 * 250 employees, or $2750 being stolen from the staff, and none of us consented to this. How would you recommend pushing back against this?

Company is taking money out of our paycheck to buy the CEO's book

You should talk to your colleagues and discuss options or ask a manager to intercede. You anonymously email HR or even the Attorney General as this is illegal.

There are number of ways you could deal with this. You could start by discussing the matter with your other colleagues or boss to try and resolve the issue peacefully. Failing this, you could then contact HR, informing them that you do not consent to this. Then finally, you may want to report the matter to the relevant legal authorities.

You may want to speak with your colleagues or boss to see if you can resolve this peacefully without any official complaints.

You may want to contact HR to tell them that you do not consent to this.

You could even consider reporting this to the authorities.


Don't send any reply.

They told you they received your application and will contact you when they're ready.

There's nothing for you to say, and any email you send with a non-message will just clutter their inbox and waste their time.

Unless you have something of substance to say or a question you need answered, don't send them anything.

Don't send anything.

They have explicitly told you that they will contact you.

They are not expecting an acknowledgement.

They do not need an acknowledgement.

If you didn't get their email, they would expect you to follow up, so

the assumption is you received it, until you prove otherwise with a follow up email.

Some may say that it's always a good idea to acknowledge communication.

It's true where there may be concern from the sender that the message has not been received, or an acknowledgement has been asked for.

It is almost completely inconsequential if you didn't receive their email, but the consequences of them not receiving your email are far far greater.

Which is why it was acknowledged by them.

File it away - either in your trash can or, if you are closely tracking the status of all your job applications, in a relevant folder.

If the "thank you for your application" message was the first e-mail they sent you, it is worth replying to confirm round-trip communication.

It can be a very simple quote of their message with "Thank you" added.

If you have already established that the secretary is sending to the right e-mail address do not clutter their mailbox with a message that adds nothing to their information.

You are not mandated to send any response, however, a thank-you response does not harm.

You can reply with something like Dear XXX, Thanks for the acknowledgement.

I will wait to hear back from you.

Meanwhile, if you need any further information, I'd be happy toprovide the same.

Regards, Rishab.

It is important to note that in most cases these days "thanks for your application" messages are automated emails generated by the company's online hiring portal.

That email is just to confirm that the hiring portal worked as intended and that the company is now able to review your application when they get to it.

Not only do you not need to respond to it, but there is a good chance that if you do respond that your message will go to an unmonitored email address and never be read.

If you need to follow up with the employer, make sure not to rely on that email's reply address to establish a point of contact.

Instead see the job listing itself for if it contains contact info.

Question: I sent my application to a Professor for a PhD position. His secretary replied:   Dear Mr Singh,  Many thanks for your application.  We will be in contact with you in due course.  Yours sincerely,  XXX XXX   What reply should I give to the secretary?

How should I respond to a potential employer thanking me for my application and telling me they'll be in contact?

There is no reason to reply and you risk cluttering their mailbox. You could send a simple thank you or an acknowledgement that you received their message.

Sending an e-mail to say "thank you" for their message could do no harm, but it's generally considered that there is no need to reply to this type of e-mail.

Many people would consider that it is not necessary to respond as this is simply a confirmation of receipt.

Sending a response to say "thank you", could do no harm.


Of course you can.

The easiest method is save the whole site into a folder (e.g. mirror it with some command line tool like wget - it is available on Windows too - or Httrack ) zip

the folder send the zip to your device via Amazon e-mail solution.

Here's the official Amazon page documenting this feature.

If it's not what you want, you can use Calibre to convert HTML to various ebook formats, here is the official documentation .

And even more, you can download the official Kindlegen Linux CLI tool from Amazon and hand tailor the downloaded HTML with your favourite editor then convert it.

(And you can download the official Python docs in EPUB format which Amazon happily convert for you (the mailing method), and every other conversion option I had mentioned above will work with the EPUB too.)

I prefer Calibre solution.

Debian Calibre package come with ebook-convert utility.

Grab HTML files from site by:

$ wget

-r

-np

-nc

-k -c http://...

Locate your main HTML file (usually book.html or index.html ) and convert to MOBI: $ cd dir-with-index$ ebook-convert index.html book.mobi$ ebook-convert index.html book.fb2

$ ebook-convert index.html book.epub

I had the exact same problem for a long time.

You can produce good results with Calibre, but I found the process was a bit involved.

Instead I created a way to do this much more easily.

It's a browser extension called EpubPress ( https://epub.press ).

All you do is: Open the webpages you want to save in different tabs.

Open EpubPress Select all the pages you want in your ebook Download

The content from the pages gets extracted and stitched together into an ebook.

Hope that helps!

One thought is the Sigil e-book-building software.

It's available for Linux

and I believe it would do what you need although there is some manual manipulation involved.

I went nuts figuring this out.

Developed mile long Xpath strings and what not.

Then it turned out to be ridiculously simple.

I am ignoring op systems in this answer...

(a) for the conversion to epub use Calibre.

It imports as a zip file.

No need to make a zip file beforehand.

Then you convert the zip to ebook in Calibre.

(b) spider the web site:

Cyotek WebCopy or HTTrack Website Copier will do just fine.

This will create a browsable mirror of the web site on your local device.(if the web has an index page or site map listing the pages, your job is easy.)

(c) Take the site map or index or whatever page that does the best listing of what's in the web.

Copy it, naming it "Table Of Contents".

Edit it and change title to Table Of Contents.

Change (or make one if there is none) the first header to h1>Table Of Contents.

If needed, make your additions to the links in this file.

( I am assuming this file is the parent to all links.

If other files refer back to this file, see if you can just use the original parent file without changing its file name as the "Table Of Contents" file.

Just change its html title and header and see what happens.)

(d) to set up calibre, go to "preferences" ==

Common Options.

Untick everything in the "Heuristic processing" and "Structure detection" pages.

On the "Table Of Contents" page tick "Force use of auto generated Table Of Contents and Do not add detected chapters.

ToC Level thingies should be blank also.

That is it.

(d) Click "add book" button in Calibre and select your "Table Of Contents" file.

Calibre will create the book in zip format.

Then select your book and click "convert books".

You have your ebook!

(e) if you want to make changes in your ToC after making the epub, it is easier with Sigil.

Load your book in Sigil.

go to tools==>Table Of Contents==>

Edit Table Of Contents.

Table Of Contents editor probably has what it takes to make the changes.

the tutorial site is very well organized.

so here is another way to go about it.

You need to download the web contents with an app like httrack.

You can download httrack from https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/precise/webhttrack/

The best way to go may be to use Calibre to create an epub,and then convert it to mobi again with calibreYou can download Calibre for Ubuntu from https://calibre-ebook.com/download_linux or https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/lucid/calibre/ The tutorial @ https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html is already well organized

so it is doable.

Here is one way of going about it... after you download it set up Calibreclick preferences -> common options select structure detectionin

Detect Chapters at xpath expression blankpaste: //

[((name()='h1' or name()='h2' or name()='h3') and re:test(., '

\s ((chapter|book|section|part)\s+)|((prolog|prologue|epilogue)(\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter'] select Table of Contentscheck Force use of auto-generatyed table of Contentsfor ToC level 1 select h1 with magic wandfor ToC level 2 select h2 with magic wandfor ToC level 3 select h2 with magic wand

That's it for Calibre setup

Now you can click the add books buttongo to your download folder

go all the way in to the tutorial folderand select index.htmlcalibre will create a book in zip format select the book and click convert books button you will end up with an epub with an acceptable ToCto clean up

the ToCyou can click edit book -> select table of contents and editthen you can convert to mobi sorry about the bold.

I could not get rid of it.

Another option is https://dotepub.com , which does not require the installation of any additional programs, works across all platforms and is free.

Question: I'd like to create a  .mobi  file from a website like the  Python Tutorial , to read on my Kindle.  Is it possible to do it on Ubuntu?

How can I convert an HTML site into an ebook?

You can do this. Try Sigil or dotepub.com.

It is perfectly possible to build an e-book from an HTML site, but you may also want to try Sigil or dotepub.com

It is possible to convert an HTML site into an e-book using Ubuntu.

You could consider using dotepub or Sigil as a way of building an e-book.


To convert a .docx file to another format, you should download a program called Calibre

First you must add the .docx file to your Calibre library

Then you need to select the book, and click on Convert books Select your output format (for Amazon Kindle, select AZW3 ), and click OK.

After it has completed, the newly converted ebook will appear in your Calibre library folder

There is a very easy way to do this with no extra software required .

Since you asked about the Kindle specifically, you can just let Amazon take care of the conversion for you automatically.

Fist

there is one time configuration.

From the Amazon website, load up Manage Your Kindle .

From there find Personal Document Settings in the menus.

The first heading on the page should be a list of your Kindle devices and their settings.

Identify which device you want to read your documents on and note the email address that has been assigned to it.

Also make sure lower down that any and all addresses from which you might wish to send yourself documents are in the approved senders list.

With that out of the way, you have to do is send an email!

Address it to your Kindle's address.

Attatch the DOCX 1 file.

Set the subject line to "convert" Make sure you are sending from an address you have authorized.

Presto, the document will be converted to the native Kindle format and sent to your device using Wispersync.

If you fail to use exactly that subject line, you will only get the file in its original format.

By using the word "convert" in the subject you trigger Amazon's servers to convert it to a more usable format for you.

This trick also works for PDF and a number of other formats.

The usability of the results do depend on how cleanly formatted the original document was.

According to the Calibre supported formats list , .docx is one of the supported input types.

For the Kindle, you probably want to use AZW as the output.

So you should go to the Calibre website , follow the links to download the appropriate version, install it, and follow the directions on how to add your .docx file to your library and then convert it to AZW.

I'm very comfortable with reading PDF documents on my Kindle Classic (I'm using landscape mode).

I'm converting Office documents to PDF using OpenOffice.

Current version of OpenOffice can convert also docx documents into PDF, so this is the way I'd recommend for you to consider.

As far as I am aware, PDF files work fine on the Kindle and can be converted to that form directly from Microsoft Word.

As shown below, when you go to save the Word document, you can choose to save it as a PDF.

I would recommend saving as a DOC/DOCX file before you do this, so that you have a backup in case anything goes wrong.

You would then just transfer the newly created PDF file over to your kindle via the USB cable and it should open perfectly fine.

My brother used to do this for his university reading.

Disclaimer:

I work for Nevron Software.

PDFs are not a good option to export ebooks as they cannot be reflowed.

As a consequence text may not be readable on smaller devices.

I work for a company that created a small text editor similar to MS Word which supports reading and writing of EPUB, Rtf, Docx, Html and PDFs files.

You can view it here: http://www.nevronoffice.com .

The free online version (requires Silverlight) can be used to convert your document from DOCX to EPUB.

Another option would be to save your .docx file as html and use Kindle Gen from Amazon to convert to .mobi.

Another service which works quite well and does the job online is the following one: https://ebook.converter.page .

It supports all common ebook formats and is available for free.

Question: I downloaded a very important document in  .docx  format (Microsoft Office Word format).   Is there a way to convert it to an ebook page by page to read on a Kindle?

How do I convert a Word document into a page by page Kindle ebook?

You can find ebook converters online or Kindle Gen from Amazon. Pdf files should work fine on a kindle.

There are multiple different programmes availabe that can convert your docx file into an ebook, including Calibre, ebook.converter.page, Kindle Gen. You could also simply the convert the file into a PDF.

You could simply convert the file into a PDF.


Tesseract is an open source OCR engine that gives fairly good results.

It's my understanding that Google use it for Google Books .

OCRFeeder is a project for document layout analysis that works as a nice GUI for Tesseract.

Ocropus is another known open source OCR system.

For commercial software you could try ABBYY

FineReader or alternatives , or Omnipage or alternatives .

Both can output in Searchable PDF format, which is useful because if you use OCR on books you will never get 100% the right content without proofreading.

ABBY Finereader to a text file proofread text file against images use NoteTab Pro to HTMLize the text create ePub structure in Oxygen , cut and paste HTML into ePub files view with Calibre and Adobe Digital Editions check with ePub Validator ( http://validator.idpf.org/ )

If you don't proofread, you're going to get scannos (equivalent of a typo, resulting from imperfect optical character recognition of a document digitized with a scanner; source ).

BTW, I have many disintegrating SF novels, from the 50s onwards, that I fully intend to scan and save ...

when I get a round tuit.

Scan Tailor is software that helps optimize the images resulted from scan of books and it is free.

Its features include: Fix orientation Split pages (very useful when you scan two pages at once and want to make a single page view ebook)

Deskew Select content (can be used to remove the pagination and any other content that do not make sense in flowable ebook formats)

Change margins Erase spots If you also want to convert these books to epub or similar format, you will need a OCR software and some software like Calibre to transform the result text and images into the ebook file.

Scanned texts are most efficiently stored in the DJVU format, if lossy compression is acceptable (if not, use a multi-page format like TIFF).

If you convert scans to the DJVU format with OCR recognition enabled, you can extract the OCR-ed text and use if for EPUB generation.

On Linux you can do so using djvutxt to get the text and convert that to EPUB.

A more comfortable way of extraction/conversion is using Calibre to convert the text in the DJVU file to EPUB, this works on Linux and Windows.

The Linux version uses djvutxt to extract the text if available, if not it falls back to Python based extraction of the (non-standard compressed) text stream.

Windows always uses the slower Python based extraction.

(This is a shameless plug for the calibre plug-in that I wrote a few years ago for exactly this purpose).

The point of failure in all these toolchains is the OCR.

It is well worth the time spent tracking down clean, undamaged,unfaded, non-yellowed copies with a good-quality print impression,if this is at all possible.

If you can, get a local craft bookbinder to trim the spine off thebook with a power guillotine, and then use an autofeed scanner onthe sheets, so that every page image is exactly upright.

This maximises the chances of getting a very low error rate in character recognition.

Time spent up front saves time spent later making corrections.

Here is a project that handles every step of the process.

There is an open source project called Homer that installs a suite of software to help with this including ScanTailor and tesseract-ocr .

The final result is a searchable PDF.

You can copy the text layer from the pdf (or the related html file created in the process) and paste it into an editor like Sigil to create an epub.

Then, if you want mobi, convert using Calibre .

And there is a paper I wrote that explains the software in more detail.

Question: I have some old sci-fi novels that are out of print and the rights owners are not creating them in ebook form.  Is there any software that facilitates scanning and conversion of these paper books into ebook format?

Is there any software that facilitates scanning of a paper book into an ebook?

There are several software options such as Tesseract, ABBYY, Finereader, Scan Tailor or Homer that are all good and mostly free options.

There are range of software options available to convert paper books into ebooks, including Tesseract, FineReader or Calibre.