The Boundary Archives - Page 2 of 3

Off the Clock, Off Limits

New York Labor Law § 201-d protects a worker’s life outside the job. An employer may not discriminate against an employee for “political activities outside of working hours.” The same applies to “legal use of consumable products” and “legal recreational activities.” The law gives examples of recreation, “including but not limited to sports, games, hobbies, exercise, reading.”

The protection has conditions. The activity must take place outside work hours, “off of the employer’s premises and without use of the employer’s equipment or other property.” In daily life, this means a New York employer generally cannot fire a worker for an unpaid weekend hobby or for campaigning for a candidate on a Saturday.

New York legalized recreational marijuana in March 2021. Since then, with limited exceptions, most employees cannot be disciplined for using it off the job and off the employer’s property. An employer can still act if a worker shows signs of impairment at work or if federal rules require it.

It’s Not Personal

In Nora Ephron’s film You’ve Got Mail (1998), Joe Fox’s family runs the Fox Books chain. A new Fox Books store puts Kathleen Kelly’s small bookshop, The Shop Around the Corner, out of business. Joe borrows a line from The Godfather: “It’s not personal, it’s business.”

Kathleen rejects it. To her, the phrase means only that it was not personal to him. “But it was personal to me,” she says. A few lines later she adds: “Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”

Questions Not Asked

Employers in the United States are told not to ask job applicants whether they are married, have children or are pregnant. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that questions about marital status and children “are frequently used to discriminate against women.” It also lists questions about pregnancy, marriage plans and “child care arrangements.”

Federal law does not ban these questions outright. But an employer who asks them before hiring may find the questions “regarded as evidence of intent to discriminate.” After a job offer has been made and accepted, an employer may ask such questions, for example for insurance purposes.

Fired for a Relationship

On November 3, 2019, McDonald’s announced that its board had removed CEO Steve Easterbrook. He had had a consensual relationship with an employee. The board said he had “demonstrated poor judgment” and broken company policy. The policy bars employees who have a direct or indirect reporting relationship to each other from dating.

Easterbrook wrote to staff: “This was a mistake. Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on.”

Work Friend

American English has a set of words for friendships that belong to the job.

Work friend. This is a friend at work, and not necessarily anywhere else.

Work wife and work husband. This is a close partner at the office, with no romance.

Work bestie. This is a best friend at work.

Former coworker. This is often said of someone who was once a daily contact.

A Sports Team, Not a Family

The culture page of Netflix says the company models itself “on a professional sports team, not a family.” It explains: “Families are about unconditional love.” Sports teams instead focus on “picking the right person for every position,” even when that means “swapping out someone they love for a better player.”

Leaders apply what Netflix calls the keeper test. They ask: “if X wanted to leave, would I fight to keep them?” If the answer is no, the company believes “it’s fairer to everyone to part ways quickly.” The page says the team is driven by performance, “not seniority, tenure or unconditional loyalty.”

Constructive Confrontation

Andy Grove was president of Intel from 1979 and its chief executive from 1987 to 1998. He shouted at employees, often in front of others. He called this tactic “constructive confrontation.”

Grove’s stated aim was to “attack the problem not the individual.” The writer Betsy Corcoran was not a fan. She wrote that “too frequently the ‘confrontation’ could overwhelm the, ah, ‘constructive’ parts.”

Bring Your Whole Self to Work

“Bring your whole self to work” became a corporate catchphrase. Pamela Paul of The New York Times called it “a certified buzzphrase at Google.” One advocate, the author and speaker Mike Robbins, said that it “isn’t about over-sharing, complaining, or making excuses.”

In September 2022 Paul argued against it under the headline “Do Not Bring Your ‘Whole Self’ to Work.” “For some people, a private life is actually best when it’s private.” She proposed, “Let’s all bring only — or at least primarily — the worky parts.”

Topics for Small Talk

JobTIPS, an online guide to job skills, tells readers that “Small talk is a normal and expected thing that happens in almost every work environment.” Good topics include what you did over the weekend and television shows, movies or music.

Topics to avoid include politics, religion, salary, personal financial problems, personal questions about relationships and personal health issues.