Re-entering the workforce after absence
Hi HR Guy,
Any advice for re-entering the workforce after an extended personal leave (medical and personal in my case)? What’s the best approach for the tough interview questions regarding the time out of the work force?
This can change depending on the type of industry you are in but generally speaking, you’ll want to be as honest as you can without going too much into details. I want to know that the leave was legitimate and not some sort of criminal or psychological incarceration. I know, I know, even if it were, they may not be able to discriminate based on that (depending on the state) but hiring managers may publicly say they won’t discriminate based on that, they often times admit that they do in private.
Also, there may be some low grade discrimination along the grounds that you may have a more balanced view of work than others in your field (i.e. if you need time away from work, you take it).
Since that will likely be the case, regardless of industry, the best way to address it is to mention the leave (again, being honest but brief) and focusing much more on what you have done while on leave to enrich yourself in a way that a professional may see value (reading books, following industry news, continuing to hone skills, studying for a certification). If the answer to what you have done to enrich yourself professionally is zip, zero, or nada, there is no real easy way out of this. Talking about how excited you are to re-enter the workforce may help but it may still be up to how you compare with the rest of the applicants that makes the difference.
Top 10 Short Job Descriptions
Like many people out there, I like Scott Adams and the Dilbert blog so it is no surprise that I found one of the funnier pieces of content from his readers. JobMob has compiled a list of 50 top short job descriptions and I’ll reprint the top ten:
- Help people hate each other: Divorce Lawyer
- Stand on a field and get yelled at for hours: Baseball Umpire
- Talk in other people’s sleep: College Professor
- Call people who know what they’re doing and ask them what they’re doing: Incident Manager
- Show people how beautiful the Earth would be without them: Mountain Landscape Photographer/Climber
- Make people feel bad about their work: Quality Assurance Tester
- Repeatedly fix what you repeatedly break: IT Director
- Clean up an animal that makes more money then me in a year: Assistant Horse Trainer
- Write words that no one wants to read: Technical Writer
- Make food that is as healthy before it goes in your body as when it comes back out: Fast Food Employee
My short description varies but I think it probably goes along the lines of “Helping people who ignore me do their job better.”
Vault Post Round Up
Here are this week’s posts over at my blog on Vault:
When to follow up after the interview - A person writes in asking how they should follow up with a big Fortune 500 company.
Social networking brings minor gains - Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn…how it all doesn’t matter if you don’t have all those people. The dynamic of networking hasn’t changed for hundreds of years (you still need to connect with people and those connections need to be genuine), only the modes have changed.
HR isn’t simple - Surprisingly, blogging makes you apt for generalizations and easy fixes. This is why good blogs are hard to find: solutions are rarely easy but easy solutions make easy reads.
Are you watching MySpace or the stock market? - Is one better than the other? I would argue yes but it is probably the one that is more acceptable to monitor at work.
You’ll find physician jobs on The Recruiter.com.
Liability when the boss doesn’t do anything
Here’s one from the mailbag:
I am a supervisor in a manufacturing plant. There is an hourly employee who drives a forklift. He was caught sleeping on the job (not by me) and was suspended.
Upon returning to work, his first night back 2 hourly employees saw him sleeping on the forklift. The 2nd night back 4 hourly employees say they caught him sleeping. I spoke to the employee who did not admit to sleeping, but did admit he was tired. I brought this situation to HR and upper management. HR and other upper management had a meeting (I have not been informed what was discussed), but this employee is back working on the job. In the future if he hurts or actually kills someone, could I as the supervisor be held liable at all?
Good question, probably more of a legal one than an HR one but I will try to answer as best as possible.
I can’t say, for sure, that you wouldn’t be held liable for what happen. What I will say is that you have gone through the right steps to reduce your liability as best you can. And that is part of what HR is about: risk mitigation. You have alerted the company’s upper management and HR department and they have taken action that you (probably) can’t reverse. What I would recommend is that you continue being diligent in your duties, continue reporting instances to your superiors and continue to do what you can, within your duties, to protect all of your employees.
Why is this guy on the job some may ask? There are a few reasons actually. Some companies might not take action based on non-supervisor reports. This is also a manufacturing plant so it might be unionized which offers greater protection for workers. It could also be a recruitment issue (if this person is working a swing or graveyard in a critical role, it could be tough to replace). Ultimately though, it would be difficult for me to understand not firing a person who sleeps on the job multiple times.
For all of your employment screening needs, visit crimcheck.com
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About
Your HR Guy is a Human Resources Generalist practicing in the field. But don't let that fool you, this isn't a boring blog. I seek relevance and humor in a place we will spend much of our lives. Everything from workplace issues, job seeking and terrible bosses. Read more...
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