Lets say you have a job interview

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
18,433
Location
Castle Rock, CO
Display Name
Display name:
Everything Offends Me
How would you go about getting out of work to go to it? The obvious answer is to call in sick, but lets say that you wanted to be on the up and up about it?

What would you do?
 
If you really want to be up and up tell your employer you're looking and why. Otherwise, just like the man said. Sick day or vacation.

The down side to that is if it does get back to your boss. Depends on the size of your metropolitan area and your field of employment.
 
Really?

You are proposing to be truthful with your current employer about taking time away to look for a better one?

Is that like being truthful with your girlfriend, to inform her that you are having lunch with a new girl, but you're really going to go and see if her tatas are worth trading up for?

Really?

If you're gonna be truthful, just say "I have an interview", and the current employer will either pony up cash and prizes to keep you, or they'll expedite your departure as a "favor". Things will not remain unchanged.

When I played those games, I waited until I had a competing offer in my hand before clueing in the boss. Then the bidding war could begin in earnest. Anything less is called a "bluff", and has all of the risks of same :D

Only my $0.02.
 
Take a personal day - and don't fell compelled to tell the manager why

A manager that gets bent out of shape by an employee looking for another
job isn't worth working for in the first place. But there is no point in
telling your manager why and baiting the bear.
 
schmookeeg said:
Really?

You are proposing to be truthful with your current employer about taking time away to look for a better one?

Is that like being truthful with your girlfriend, to inform her that you are having lunch with a new girl, but you're really going to go and see if her tatas are worth trading up for?

Really?

If you're gonna be truthful, just say "I have an interview", and the current employer will either pony up cash and prizes to keep you, or they'll expedite your departure as a "favor". Things will not remain unchanged.

When I played those games, I waited until I had a competing offer in my hand before clueing in the boss. Then the bidding war could begin in earnest. Anything less is called a "bluff", and has all of the risks of same :D

Only my $0.02.
Click to expand...

One can either truthful or not. There is no middle ground. This is how I did it once upon a time, and it worked out fine. I prefer honesty. It can work out poorly in the short term, but always works out well in the long term.
 
steingar said:
One can either truthful or not. There is no middle ground. This is how I did it once upon a time, and it worked out fine. I prefer honesty. It can work out poorly in the short term, but always works out well in the long term.
Click to expand...

There is honesty and there is "none of your busisness". What I do in my time off is of no concern of my employer. Take a vacation day or personal day and be done with it. I would not take a "sick" day unless it is truely labled as "personal" time not "sick" time.
 
SkyHog said:
How would you go about getting out of work to go to it? The obvious answer is to call in sick, but lets say that you wanted to be on the up and up about it?

What would you do?
Click to expand...

I'd e-mail in sick, using my hotmail account! :D


Trapper John
 
Not to open up an ethics debate, but in this case, I see no problem with the "Lie by omission", because it is not the current employer's business (yet) that an employee is interviewing. I do think the key would be to ensure it was done on your own time (ie "take a personal day"), and that your answer was that it was "a personal matter", and leave them wondering, rather than an out and out lie.

In an ideal world, an employer would encourage such things.

In the real world, all of my employers have acted like jealous sows when they learned I was shopping. As a result, I no longer feel compelled to "state my business" when it comes to job shopping.

But, then again, I have been freelance for 8 years now, mainly to avoid these and similar issues which were not interesting to me -- so what do I know, I'm armchair quarterbacking here. :D
 
Does your boss really demand an accounting of your activities to justify every personal/vacation day you take?

Taking a sick day should not be one of the choices, by the way.
-harry
 
schmookeeg said:
When I played those games, I waited until I had a competing offer in my hand before clueing in the boss. Then the bidding war could begin in earnest. Anything less is called a "bluff", and has all of the risks of same :D

Only my $0.02.
Click to expand...

That only works if you are worth keeping. I had one of my employees try that with me. He thought he was a better employee than I did, I told him I would consider that his 2 weeks notice and wished him the best at his new job.
 
I say go ahead and tell em' - I don't hide it when I am having interviews to replace employees!
 
if I'm looking for another job, it's because I no longer want to remain where I am, so don't bother with a counter-offer ... personal/sick/vacation/comp day for the interview.
 
Vacation day. Only ethical choice, and if the new folks (with whom you're interviewing) ask you about it and you tell them, they'll appreciate your character more.

This I know from personal experience.
 
steingar said:
One can either truthful or not. There is no middle ground. This is how I did it once upon a time, and it worked out fine. I prefer honesty. It can work out poorly in the short term, but always works out well in the long term.
Click to expand...
It reality it depends on your employer and the culture of the organization.

I am currently pursuing some opportunities, and by boss is an understanding professional who has had some mobility in his career. I told him when I started discussions with a couple companies, and he is supportive.

The prior Chief (and prior City Manager) were not such people. If they caught wind you were looking, they would start pushing you out. So, no talking to them.
I even worked in one company where if you gave your two weeks notice or if they learned you were looking, they would fire you and walk you out of the building that minute. Bad bad.
 
PilotAlan said:
It reality it depends on your employer and the culture of the organization.
Click to expand...
This is true. It also depends on whether your job is normally seen as a stepping-stone or if it is expected that you would stay there over the long term. I would just take a personal day. If you feel you need to say something say you have an appointment. That could be anything from a doctor's appointment to an an appointment with a lawyer to an interview. I'm also in the same boat with Greg K. When I decide I want a new job and I get an offer I don't play games with counter offers. By then it's too late.
 
PilotAlan said:
I even worked in one company where if you gave your two weeks notice or if they learned you were looking, they would fire you and walk you out of the building that minute. Bad bad.
Click to expand...

Some companies do that on the theory that you might do something bad during that time. Of course, if you were going to do something bad, you'd do it before giving notice. My previous employer kept me busy until the end of the last day. My current employer keeps me busy, too. :D

Oh, and take a vacation day. It's the right thing to do.
 
I ask applicants if they used a sick day to come to the interview. If the answer is yes, or if they say no, and I find out in the background check that they lied to me about it, they are not the quality of applicant I'm looking for. Instant disqualification.

I've also had employees come to me and ask for personal days to go on job interviews. I don't hold that against them (everybody pays better than the State, so who could blame them!), but I don't pry what the reason is if they ask for a personal/comp/vacation day without an explanation either. My advice would be to take the personal day. The decision on whether to tell your current employer why would depend on what kind of relationship you have with them.
 
my current employer's policy has recently lumped sick, floating holiday and other days into a general category of "Personal Days" ...
 
gkainz said:
my current employer's policy has recently lumped sick, floating holiday and other days into a general category of "Personal Days" ...
Click to expand...
That's my employer's policy too and it has been since I started working here. It's called PTO, paid time off.
 
Tell them it's health-related. Don't bore them with the details that you are sick of working there.
 
If you are really in that much demand, schedule the interview for after work or something. The last job interview I had, I had the job interview after hours with the owner of the company. Hashed things out, made a deal, told them when I could start (which was going to be more than 2 weeks away because of a quarterly bonus that was coming) and then let the current company know. The current company management really really wanted to keep me, but upper management couldn't justify the 20% pay increase. They also paid me the 1/4ly bonus (even though the check was cut AFTER I left) and let me use the rest of my vacation, because I didn't call in to take a day for a job interview.
 
Vacation day or personal day off.

I wouldn't discuss it with your current employer until it's time to pull the plug. Or you may be involuntarily looking for a job - and it is far, far easier to find a job when you are already employed. Some employers will not even consider folks that are out of work.
 
BTDT. Vacation or personal day, not sick leave, unless you don't mind defrauding your current employer. And I'd keep my current employer entirely in the dark until I had an offer and decided to make the leap. In fact, that's just what I did -- as soon as I could after making the decision. If you don't get an offer or get one and decide you're better off where you are, your current employer never needs to know you were looking elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
As has been said before, personal day, whatever, but not "sick day" if they are so specifically categorized. Always be scrupulously honest in business dealings, it does pay in the long run. One of the primary things that landed me this job was I pulled out three credit cards from my wallet that didn't have my name on them (the named parties are all listed in my references) and when they were called, they all said they trusted me implicitly with them. One even said "Might as well let him have it, he spends my money better than I do". This level of trust is gained by being honest about everything, even the little things that can be embarrassing or bigger mistakes. People want to know they can trust you. If you walk in to your boss and say "I need a personal day" and they say "ok", then that's the end of it. If they ask "why?" though, tell them that you have an attractive offer from another company and you want to check it out to see if it's someplace you'd like to work and think you can fit in at. It's business, and an attractive offer is an attractive offer, everyone understands that. It also says that quality of the workplace is important to you and that says by default that your current employer is providing you with a quality workplace, so that's a compliment to them, and most importantly, it shows that you respect them enough to be honest with them, and that's not so damned easy to find.
 
What to do here REALLY depends on the relationship you have with your superiors, and the type of person they are.

If they are about having happy employees, people who REALLY want to be there, and are interested in employees making the best of themselves professionally, they will be supportive. I have had this sort of boss twice. I am starting a new job with the first one this monday as a nurse manager over two floors in a hospital, a big step up for me.

If you have someone as a boss who is controlling, or takes your leaving as a personal attack, the less said the better. I would not automatically discount someone who has a 5 day a week job taking a "sick" day to interview for me. I took two 'sick' days for personal reasons in the past two years, and know that sometimes you just need a day off. If they are an attendance problem, well, that will show up over time, and that can be managed.

Most recently, at the job that I was leaving, it was an open secret in the dept that I was looking elsewhere and when my director asked me to orient a new employee, a 12 week process, I bit the bullet and told her that I was willing to do so, but I could not guarantee that I would be around the full 12 weeks, if she was worried about continuity of training/mentoring.

That was 10 weeks ago. I worked hard for her up until quitting time on quitting day, and ended up mentoring an experienced new employee in that period of time. She did not enter into a bidding contest to keep me, because her hands are tied from above, due to regional payroll practices with that regard, but did encourage me to stay, to apply for a departmental educator role, etc. We discussed my plans for leaving, and how they weren't a reflection poorly on her, but an opportunity for me (I was actually recruited cold-call for this role by my old boss).

To keep the options open, I stayed on her schedule very part time and offered to remain on the emergency callout roster (I'm leaving an interventional cardiac catheterization laboratory, that deals with heart attacks overnight on a callout basis). That offer is unprecedented in the history of that lab and its departing employees.

So.. its all about your relationship with your boss. If you have one of those rare, fabulous bosses who do the right thing not only by the company but by the employee, you can be honest, and perhaps you can even get the time off without a big fuss.

If you have someone who is all about power, then you have to make the call that discretion is your better choice.
 
Well, I did interview today. Expecting a job offer early next week. Good job, good money, phenomenal benefits (can you say free health and dental?? Pension and a 401(k)?)

Good stuff.
 
Well- good luck!

Did you call in sick or take a personal day? :)
 
SkyHog said:
Well, I did interview today. Expecting a job offer early next week. Good job, good money, phenomenal benefits (can you say free health and dental?? Pension and a 401(k)?)

Good stuff.
Click to expand...

Staying in Albucrazy?
 
Wow....this was a really interesting read.

So - what I did was this: I called my old boss and said "I need half of a personal day." He responded with "What, do you have a job interview?"

Was a tough spot to be in. I had to lie and tell him 'no,' but that's because it would have been an immediate death sentence if I said yes. I told him it was "personal" and I didn't feel comfortable going into details. That seemed to be ok.

So - once I got up to Santa Fe, my job interview was neat. I wanted to share this now, because my life has changed so drastically (in a positive way) since this interview.

Once I walked into the heavily secured building and talked to the receptionist, I was lead into a fancy room that was called "The Red Room," with all red furniture, oriental artwork all over the walls, and a giant Hookah sitting in the corner. I thought it was a lamp at first, until I saw all the hoses....so weird.

Well, my future boss walked in with a very defined purpose. He was obviously a very busy man, and had just come from something pretty stressful. He reached into hit pocked, pulled out a pack of cigarettes and asked me if I wanted one.

"No thanks, I have my own," I said. Then it blew my mind, I figured we would be walking outside to smoke instead of starting the interview, but instead, he lit his cigarette up right there, and handed me an ashtray and a match.

Whoa....this place is unique...

So, about an hour later, we finished up our part of the interview, and he said he wanted t introduce me to the IT team (at that time, everyone was still IT, not IM). I met everyone on the team, and my future Boss's Boss talked to me in an office for a bit, as a mini-second interview. That went really well also, and we then proceeded to go to talk to the Senior Director of IT, and he suggested they take me out to lunch, and then have me meet with HR.

Well, I knew I had the job at this point, so I was enjoying this. We went out to lunch, and we talked about a lot of different, non-work related things over Green Chile Cheeseburgers and a beer. Wicked cool. Conversation topics spanned: Motorcycles, Flying (my future boss wanted to be a pilot, and being from South Africa, he had a lot of friends that were), Chicks, Beer, and a few other things.

This was, by far, the most relaxing and laid back interview I had ever been on. I should note that my suit was overkill, since everyone was wearing jeans and t-shirts.

Well, after the entire experience, it was like 2:30 or 3:00, and I still had an hour drive back to Albuquerque. Ooops....the day went a lot longer than I planned. I returned to my old job and my old office at about 4:00, stuck around for an hour or two, and went home. My old boss never went into the office that day, so he never knew whether I was there or not. Oh well.

I got a call and an offer about 4 or 5 days later, and I accepted.

And that, my friends, is how I wound up on a crazy ride that took me to North Carolina and through an acquisition in which I am one of the only two people from the old office that survived. That's a really good story too, but I don't think anyone really wants to hear it right now...something tells me no one cares about "How Nick became successful." lol.
 
Ron Levy said:
BTDT. Vacation or personal day, not sick leave, unless you don't mind defrauding your current employer. And I'd keep my current employer entirely in the dark until I had an offer and decided to make the leap. In fact, that's just what I did -- as soon as I could after making the decision. If you don't get an offer or get one and decide you're better off where you are, your current employer never needs to know you were looking elsewhere.
Click to expand...

-edit

Didn't notice the date...
 
SkyHog said:
How would you go about getting out of work to go to it? The obvious answer is to call in sick, but lets say that you wanted to be on the up and up about it?

What would you do?
Click to expand...
Calling in sick is not obvious to me; it's lying.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top