CAREER COACH
GO TO GREG
My employer switched to an unlimited time off policy this year and my manager just denied my vacation request for the summer. He said it was too much time to take off. How can they have an unlimited vacation policy and then say I’m asking for too much time?
What, did you ask for the entire summer off? “Unlimited” is a misnomer. Employers don’t really mean take as much time as you want — they mean they aren’t going to prescribe a specific number of days that you are entitled to take. This is for several reasons. First, they don’t have to pay you for unused days that you have accrued when you leave the company. Second, they relieve themselves of the administrative burden of keeping track of everyone’s days, which no company does well. And lastly, it offers employees more flexibility and potentially more time than they would receive under a conventional plan. This also assumes great performance, delivering your job at the expected level.
I joined a Zoom meeting after it had started and wasn’t aware that it was being recorded for distribution to others. Had I known I was being recorded, I wouldn’t have said some of the things that I did. Don’t I have a right to ask that the video not be distributed?
Yes, you do have the right to ask that the video not be distributed. You can explain that since you joined the meeting late, you weren’t aware that it was being recorded and that you would have filtered your comments accordingly. You can also explain why you think it wouldn’t be beneficial to the business to share the video. You have all of those rights. What you can’t do is prevent anyone from using the recording if they need it. One compromise would be to edit the recording, if possible. And in the future, always assume that public comments in meetings will be repeated, even if not recorded. So unless you are talking to your close friends only, don’t say anything that you wouldn’t want repeated.
Gregory Giangrande has over 25 years of experience as a chief human resources executive. Hear Greg Weds. at 9:35 a.m. on iHeartRadio 710 WOR with Len Berman and Michael Riedel. E-mail: GoToGreg@NYPost.com. Follow: GoToGreg.com and on Twitter: @GregGiangrande