Ask Bing: Lending money to co-workers

I work for a major financial company. There was a delay in processing checks to be printed out. Employees who were set up for direct deposit got their payment, but the other employees who were not, got delayed by five days.

Meanwhile one employee needed his money right away so he asked his supervisor what he could do. The supervisor told him to ask me to lend him the money until his paycheck arrived. I like my co-worker, but I felt I was put into an awkward situation having to lend him money. He did pay it back, but I don't like being put into that situation.

Do I confront my supervisor about that or just tell my co-worker I can't lend him the money? It's hard to say no when the co-worker presents a desperate situation.

Wow, I've heard of creepy bosses, but this one takes the cake. What is he? A total tyrant? He's the supervisor! If he wanted to help the guy, he should have taken out his own wallet. Hell yeah. Tell this guy that's the last time you'll be lending anybody money and the next time you'll just refer the problem back to him. I take it from your letter that this supervisor is not YOUR supervisor, so just tell him and be done with it.

There is one other possibility of course. It is just barely possible that you're not being completely forthcoming with your problem. Perhaps the real situation is that the checks of employees not signed up for direct deposit are often "delayed by five days" - a whole work week last time I looked. I wonder whether this has happened before, in fact happens quite a bit when the corporation is having just a wee bit of trouble making its end-of-the-month numbers, say, and so the senior management "mistakenly" delays payment of those it can. I just wonder.

If such is the case, you can understand the supervisor, confronted with an employee in need, sending you a little message about what he thinks of the way Payroll is conducted. Is that possible? Is there a message YOU should be getting about the way your large financial institution deals with its people? Just asking.

I work in a very small office, four to be exact. When I was first hired years ago I didn't know the industry very well and had to learn fast and hard from my coworkers. Fast forward to today and I'm responsible for a large chunk of the growth over the past year.

In that same time I've watched one of my coworkers sort of fall off and over the edge. Shoddy work, missed deadlines and disappointed clients. It only gets worse when my boss leaves on a business trip for a few weeks. Then the noon arrivals and 5pm departures are regular for said coworker.

I've had to pick up his slack, doing his work as well as my own in order to compensate. I know my boss must know I'm doing more work because I've seen my salary double in less than a year.

My coworker has a giant financial problem (bad mortgage, credit card debt, student loans etc.). I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. How do I let my boss know without getting myself in a heap of trouble or looking like an instigator? Sorry for such a long winded question.

I'm having trouble finding a real problem here. You're more competent than your co-worker. He's a mess. He's falling apart. He will eventually implode. In the meantime, you are nicely taking up the slack and your salary has doubled because your boss knows that you're the good one. Hello?

Believe me, your boss also knows that your colleague is in trouble. You don't need to rub his nose in it. And you... would you like to be responsible for this poor guy losing his job at this point in his life? If you were being underpaid and under-appreciated, if your additional work amounted to the enabling of a loser to continue exploiting the system and you, then I'd feel differently. But right now you have a wounded wildebeest limping along after the herd. In time, a lion will come and eat him. Be patient.

I love my job and our customers love us. Despite all the hurdles and challenges, we continue to deliver and keep our customers happy. We are ready to take it to the next level but cannot break the ceiling.

Our regional bosses are constantly fighting with each other. Our immediate Sales Director never meets with customers, and simply demands revenue every week, especially at the end of the month. Our Operations Manager does not want to face the problems or improve our process so we can deliver faster and generate more revenue.

The same bottlenecks resurface in every weekly staff meeting. They want to play the "teamwork" game and continuously blame each other. We do have a good chance to win more customers and we have proven ourselves, but our internal problems keep holding us back. Recently, our only Sales Manager left to join a competitor. I am the only person responsible for Technical Sales and I'm thinking of leaving the company for good.

Well, what's stopping you? The place sounds like a total nightmare. I'd start shopping around immediately. Life is too short. Don't be a dummy and quit first, of course. Just take your time. Find a place where a sane life can be conducted. And get out of there.

On the other hand... "Despite all the hurdles and challenges, we continue to deliver and keep our customers happy." So something is working, huh? You're in the middle of a thoroughly dysfunctional family that gets the job done. You have to recognize that it is not IN SPITE OF the madness that the place works so well. It is BECAUSE OF IT.

This is an organization, like many others, that runs on a fuel mix of hatred, competition, backstabbing and negative energy. I wish I could say it's unusual. It's not. Pleasant, however? No.

The question is, can you take it? My suggestion, if you want to stay and thrive in a culture like that, is to become insane. Grow a temper. Don't hesitate to use it. Play both sides of any argument to your benefit. If a back shows itself to you, stab it. Without these talents, you won't make it very far in this kind of company, and you'll end up with an ulcer or a heart condition. If you can become more crazy, however, who knows? The sky may be the limit. Good luck.

I believe that the answer you gave regarding salary is wrong. While such evasions for DESIRED salary are a good idea, there is a flat out "no" that can be given for CURRENT salary: "I'm sorry, but that is company proprietary data." It does two things, it shuts down the line of questioning, and it shows that you keep company secrets.

I got a lot of HR types writing to me about this issue after I told somebody that they shouldn't reveal their current salary in a job interview. This one was pretty typical. I don't agree with it.

I continue to believe that a flat-out NO when an interviewer asks you your current salary shows a) a lack of subtlety and b) a refusal to follow orders from the get-go. Neither is a recommendation. I think an artful dodge is always better, as long as it basically adheres to the truth. "I'm in the mid-five-figures," is better than, "I make about $45 grand."

The real question is what you're looking for. They're trying to pay you less than they did the predecessor in that job. You want to be treated fairly and be paid what the job has paid in the past, if not more. If you're too specific about what you make now, it may hurt you. Why should you hurt yourself? Give them the tool by which they can screw you? I just don't think so.

I believe the proper answer to "What do you make now" should be something like: "I'm looking to get into the low six figures," or whatever you want, calibrated by the fact that nobody who is now making $30K should be looking for $200K. That's a political answer, in that it responds to a question that wasn't asked. It's a time honored technique that seems to be working quite well for all the candidates who are on their way to the White House, as well as its current resident.

I am a US citizen working in a technical department of a major corporation. Recently there have been cutbacks - hiring freeze, longer hours to do the work of a group that got laid off, no group outings, etc. It has become excruciating, so I started looking around for a new position.

Fortunately, I found a better job and am about to go to my manager and give notice. However, most of the other people in my group, having employer-sponsored visas, are unable to leave like this. I want to tell my manager (whom I do get along with), now that I have some immunity, how difficult the work environment has become. I feel like I should speak up for people who cannot - yes, it is that bad where I really want to do this. How wise is this move?

Congratulations on your new job. And yes, what you are describing is called an "exit interview," and is often conducted by responsible organizations looking to improve themselves. They do these interviews, write up their findings and then put them in a file cabinet, where in about ten million years, they will turn back into the dust from which all atomic particles are made. Go for it. Tell them what's wrong with them (as if they didn't know), and best of luck in your new gig. You sound like a nice person.