“Your Work Coach: Direct employee toward work”

Your Work Coach: Direct employee toward work

Posted: 12 Sep 2010 07:47 PM PDT

QUESTION: Whenever one of my employees, "Gina," has personal problems, she describes them to everyone in excruciating detail. Then she calls her friends on the phone to talk about them some more. Gina does a good job, but these conversations take up a lot of time.

Recently, a friend of Gina's passed away very suddenly. I am certainly sympathetic about this tragedy, but she continues to relive the event with her co-workers over and over again. How can I put a stop to this without seeming hard-hearted?

ANSWER: To avoid appearing insensitive, view this as a two-part intervention. First, to resolve the immediate issue, gently encourage Gina to curb her repetitive recounting of the friend's untimely demise.

If Gina continues to obsessively ruminate about the problems in her life, you will need to discuss the issue in more general terms. Explain that she must reduce the amount of time spent on personal conversations and that you will be tracking her progress.

Also, since people seldom keep talking unless others keep listening, you may want to communicate some general office standards to everyone. When any discussion becomes too lengthy, co-workers should feel free to excuse themselves by saying, "I'd love to keep chatting, but unfortunately I have to get back to work."

QUESTION: I want to know whether I can omit my most recent job from my résumé. For three years, I worked in a toxic organization with a controlling, verbally abusive boss. Her manager was just as bad.

Any reference from these two would not be accurate, so I'd prefer not to mention this job at all.

Instead, I would like to tell potential employers I was staying home with my children during those three years. If the truth was discovered later, would that be a problem?

ANSWER: If your horrific job had lasted only a couple of weeks, there would be little harm in leaving it off. But you were in this position for three years, which makes it a significant part of your work history. Omitting this fact would indeed be risky.

Instead of concocting a lie, prepare to give a truthful explanation for your job change that won't raise a red flag. To do this, you will have to remember there can be many different honest answers to the same question.

Marie G. McIntyre is a workplace coach and the author of "Secrets to Winning at Office Politics." Send in questions and get free coaching tips at www.yourofficecoach.com, or follow her on Twitter.

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