My Question of the Day: When you’re at work, and lunchtime comes around, do you try to make it a habit to get away from the job and have your lunch, or do you just get your food and keep working at your desk while you eat?

My 2 Cents: Most of the time I eat at my desk, if I have lunch at all. Sometimes I just have to get away from the office, or I’ll let everyone pull me in million directions because sometimes lunch is the only time others can make their requests. When I’m teaching, I’m off limits, and lunch is when the floodgates seem to open and everyone wants to call, email or stop in my office. Ugh. I’m not complaining. I understand why they do it, but if I want to have peace during lunch I have to leave the office.

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The commentary doesn’t have to end!

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My Question of the Day: Todd works for a very non-conventional company, where personal and professional seem to cross more often than to which he’s accustomed. For example, his supervisor, Gordon, expects that Todd will socialize with him and other employees after hours, and Gordon has a habit of calling Todd at home or on his cell during his off-time to discuss things he’d like Todd to do when he’s next at work.

It was very difficult for Todd to adjust to all this when he first started working for the company, but the salary, hours and benefits are amazing, including free, catered lunch daily, a car service to and from his home and 30 days of vacation each year. Now that Todd has been with the company for several months, he’s learned to live with the relaxed environment.

One evening, during his four-day vacation and while he is at a family outing at his oldest brother’s home, Todd’s cellphone rings. He looks at the display and sees that it’s Gordon. There’s a lull in the family activities, so Todd decides to take the call. Gordon has had a brainstorm, and he wants to share it with Todd before he forgets. After sharing his new idea, Gordon asks Todd to implement it when he comes back to work from his vacation. Todd agrees to make it happen, ends the call and dashes across the lawn to play soccer with his nephews?

About two weeks later, Todd is at work and Gordon storms into his office with a scowl on his face. Todd is shocked and can’t imagine why Gordon is so angr. Gordon launches into a tirade about how Todd has cost the company several thousand dollars because he didn’t implement Gordon’s idea as Gordon had asked him to. At first Todd is confused and doesn’t know what Gordon is talking about, and then he remembers the phone conversation with Gordon while he (Todd) was on vacation. Gordon tells Todd they both have to meet with the company president about this situation, so Todd follows Gordon out of the office.

When they’re in the company president’s office, Gordon is allowed to speak first since he is Todd’s boss. Gordon lays the entire blame on Todd, never mentioning how and when he informed Todd of the task. Todd is livid, but he keeps his face calm, and he doesn’t interrupt Gordon’s version of the incident. When the company president asks Todd for his version of the incident, Todd is torn about what he should say. Should he explain that Gordon called him during his vacation time, but didn’t follow up with any kind of email or memo as a reminder, or should he just take the blame, even though he believes Gordon is in the wrong, since Todd knows he has to continue to work under Gordon? After some thought, Todd begins to explain his version of the incident…

Who do you think is in the wrong?

(this question inspired by @nurkirk; thanks!)

My 2 Cents: They should both share part of the blame. Gordon should have followed up with an email, and Todd should have set himself some sort of reminder. Gordon shouldn’t have called Todd during his vacation, and Todd should have let the call go to voice mail if he was aware that Gordon might be calling about work-related stuff. Since neither of them seem to have used good judgment, it’s unfortunate for Todd that Gordon is the boss and the President will probably defer to Gordon, since Todd did take the call and failed to complete the assignment.

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The commentary doesn’t have to end!

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RULES FOR COMMENTS

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3. Please keep your comments respectful. We can agree to disagree without attacking each other.

My Question of the Day: Two coworkers, we’ll call them Andrea Vincent and Brian Paulson, are both up for the same promotion. So far, both employees have been performing at the same outstanding caliber of productivity. Their supervisor decides to have each of them do a 5-minute presentation on the company’s future success to determine who will get the promotion. They have two weeks to prepare.

Even though Andrea and Brian are neck and neck for the same promotion, Andrea is aware that Brian and her supervisor are friends from college, and they spend a lot of time together during off hours playing golf, hiking and attending sporting events. Although Andrea hasn’t witnessed her supervisor showing favoritism to Brian, she’s concerned nonetheless.

While the employees are preparing to give their presentations, Andrea receives a startling email that was sent to her by mistake. It just so happens that the president of the company is named Andrew Vincent (no relation), and the person who was trying to email him inadvertently sent the information to Andrea.

What’s startling about the email is that the information, if included in her presentation, will give Andrea the exact boost she needs to literally guarantee her the promotion over Brian Paulson.

What should she do?

My 2 Cents: The fruits of ill-gotten gains are usually never as sweet as we’d think they would be once we’ve bitten into them.

There’s no question in my mind that Andrea’s integrity is on the line with this one.

She should not use the information.

She should report the incident to her supervisor, so that he will know that she had the opportunity to win with an unfair advantage but she chose not to. That may win her favor when it comes to the promotion.

From the scenario, it sounds like her boss is fair-minded. If he weren’t, he’d just give the promotion to his college friend and that would be that.

Integrity is what we show, even when no one is watching. However, it’s been my experience that someone is always watching; always.

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The commentary doesn’t have to end!

Please feel free to continue to add your comments below.

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RULES FOR COMMENTS

1. DO NOT include links in your post. There is a place for you to include one link when you’re filling out the Name/Email/Website information. Comments that include links will be deleted.

2. If your post is obviously irrelevant to the question at hand, it will be deleted. This is a tactic spammers use to simply show up on blogs.

3. Please keep your comments respectful. We can agree to disagree without attacking each other.

My Question of the Day: You and a coworker are attending a conference. The company has booked a two-bedroom suite for you and your coworker to share for the week. Company policy is to reimburse you for expenses, but you must pay up front. Your coworker has a friend who is attending the conference also and who asks if s/he can bunk with you all after hearing that you have a sleeper sofa in your suite. You agree to this since your coworker’s friend has agreed to pay 1/3 of the suite cost. About a week before the conference is to begin, you receive a call from your coworker who tells you his/her friend will not be attending the conference but your coworker has told someone else s/he can take the spot on the sleeper sofa. You don’t know this person, and with a little probing you find out from your coworker that s/he doesn’t know this person that well either. Your coworker really wants you to agree to allow this other person to take his/her friends’ place because the new person is also willing to pay 1/3 of the suite expenses. What do you do?

(this question was submitted by @tclarkusa; thanks!)

My 2 Cents: This is too easy. I tell my coworker that s/he and the other person can have the suite and work out the expenses amongst themselves.

I get my own room and fill out my expense report to receive the amount the company has agreed to reimburse and write off on my personal taxes what the company will not reimburse.

I’m not sharing a room with someone I don’t know. Knowing me, I would already be reluctant to share a room with a coworker. Truth be told, I don’t know really know my coworker either.

My safety isn’t worth saving a few dollars.

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The commentary doesn’t have to end!

Please feel free to continue to add your comments below.

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RULES FOR COMMENTS

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2. If your post is obviously irrelevant to the question at hand, it will be deleted. This is a tactic spammers use to simply show up on blogs.

3. Please keep your comments respectful. We can agree to disagree without attacking each other.

My Question of the Day: We all had to start somewhere. Think back to when you first started in the workforce. What was a job you did as a teenager that you wouldn’t want to do now?

My 2 Cents: Thanks to my Daddy getting me involved with computers when I was in middle school, I didn’t really have a horrible job as a teenager that I wouldn’t want to do now. I worked at a few pizza joints as a waitress, but I didn’t mind that much at all. The tips allowed me to have money in my pocket at all times. That was cool.

When I got older, I did a lot of temporary work in offices, so that wasn’t bad either. When I was in college, I took a job as a hotel maid, and that’s something I’d prefer never to have to do again. However, if a push came to a shove, I’d do it and feel fortunate to have the money.

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Take a few moments to check out the tweets from Twitter on this subject:

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DerekIsNormal My first job at a Grocery store and I was a bag boy at $5.20 an hour. I would NEVER wish that type of torture on anyone!

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The commentary doesn’t have to end!

Please feel free to continue to add your comments below.

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RULES FOR COMMENTS

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2. If your post is obviously irrelevant to the question at hand, it will be deleted. This is a tactic spammers use to simply show up on blogs.

3. Please keep your comments respectful. We can agree to disagree without attacking each other.