It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…
1. Does it look uppity to list languages on my resume?
I currently list four languages on my resume and am working on my fifth. I tend to pick ones that a large number of people speak and where I know/have a positive relationship with at least one native speaker, usually friends or colleagues. I have been careful to only list the languages that I can speak fluently, and it hasn’t been commented on during interviews in the past.
However, we recently got a new sous chef. He apparently looked through our resumes as a way to learn about us/gauge our experience. Yesterday, he made a point of pulling me aside and telling me not to bother putting all the languages I speak on my resume as, “You’re a chef, not a f***ing translator and it makes you seem like an uppity bitch.” I was pretty shocked and just replied that it’s a useful skill and makes you a better communicator. I’ve been trying to avoid being alone with him since then as there’s been other issues with him (unwelcome sexual/sexist comments, hands “accidentally” brushing against you, trying to pull you in for a “chat” in the walk-in) that all of us female staff have been dealing with.
The thing is, I’ve spoken other languages at work quite often. Hospitality is a very multicultural industry and in past jobs it’s been seen as an asset or at the very least has come in handy. I’ve filled in as an emergency translator during meetings for deaf coworkers and I’ve worked in plenty of kitchens with ESL speakers. I also use it as a way to connect with coworkers, swapping new words/phrases (especially swear words!).
But I’m now second guessing whether I should include it on my resume and whether it might actually hurt my chances in the long run with getting jobs. I confided in one of my older coworkers/mentors about it and she said that it seems like a grey area as it could be seen as beneficial and might show dedication/motivation. But it’s not really relevant to how I do my job.
I’m currently job hunting as my job has been becoming more and more soul-destroying over the past year. A lot of my ESL coworkers have left the restaurant recently, mostly due to poor treatment/bad management from the new owners. (Well-respected family business taken over by the completely inexperienced next generation who seem to be actively trying to bankrupt their parents.) I know the best thing is for me to leave, and I am desperate to escape. But I’m really worried about ruining future job chances or coming across as uptight/arrogant to potential interviewers.
This guy is an asshole on multiple fronts and you shouldn’t give any weight to his opinion about your resume (or much of anything else, probably).
Fluency in other languages doesn’t make you look uppity! It’s a useful and relevant job skill (as you’ve found repeatedly yourself) and it belongs on your resume.
2. People think my name is AI
Like you, my name starts with the letters AL. I’m a cis woman with a feminine name, but it’s much more obscure than yours: hard to spell and harder to recall. I’m also not very feminine. So I’ve always preferred to be called Al.
Which was fine until artificial intelligence became the bane of modern existence. Now people read my email signature or video conference ID incorrectly, presuming my name is “a.i.” rather than “al.” To be clear, my name is Al, not AI.
Currently I’m using lower or upper case, and/or writing “Alison (Al),” which people currently ignore, and/or adding “that’s Al, not a.i.” to the end of my name/ signature line, and/or correcting people in chats. Sometimes none of these work.
I welcome any and all suggestions to get people to say my chosen name correctly the first time!
Yeah, it’s tricky because in most fonts the lowercase L looks just like the uppercase I. Can you use a font in your email signature that differentiates between those, like a swash tail font? If not, then I think your best bet is to write it in all caps so it’s clearly an L.
(But also, are people assuming your name is a.i.? Or that you’re an AI bot who’s there to transcribe? If they’re assuming it’s your name, that’s very odd!)
3. What do I do if my company changes my remote status?
My previous job was fully remote, so when I was first hired for my current role, I asked if I could continue to work from home. My manager at the time said that while my role would be marked as hybrid in the system, I could come to the office on an “as needed” basis.
A few months later, we merged with another company, and we were warned some changes might be coming. During my performance review, I specifically requested that my position be marked as remote, so that if any new HR decisions about remote work were made, I would still have the flexibility I currently enjoy. My manager told me that it would be easiest to make this change a little later in the year when they updated job descriptions and promised to update my status then.
Fair enough, I thought at the time, but now the HR decisions have gone into effect cracking down on remote work and my boss has warned me that they might not be able to make this happen. What do I do if my remote status gets denied? I really like my job, but this would be a major change to my work life balance that I would really struggle to accept.
You’d need to decide if you still want the job under those new conditions or not. It’s very common for remote work agreements to change after a merger … or even without a merger, lots of companies are rethinking on-site requirements. It sounds like your boss is telling you pretty clearly that there’s a good chance that’s going to happen here, and so you’ll need to decide if the job still works for you or not at that point.
4. How to be less jumpy at work
Do you have any suggestions for how to be less startled at work? For some reason, when someone opens my office door suddenly, I oftentimes jump noticeably in my chair. I even shrieked on one occasion, which was embarrassing. Sometimes I find myself staring at the door as someone walks by so that I can avoid being startled when/if they come in.
For what it is worth, I do not typically get noticeably startled in other contexts, just at work. Any suggestions on how to solve this?
Is it always when someone is opening your door? If so, is it practical to keep your door open more often, or even just ajar?
But I am also someone who can be easily startled (I have shrieked many times when my husband, who could definitely be a cat burglar, appears out of nowhere to say hello) and I have found it best to just embrace it and laugh about it.
Since that is the extent of my advice and it’s not very helpful, I’m going to throw this one out to readers.
