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I am in a bad work situation and looking to leave my current employer. I followed-up with a recruiter after passing a phone screen and phone interview with the hiring manager for a company in a city I want to move to.
Back in december I wrote a post about whether I should quit without another job lined up. Well, this opportunity looks promising, and I feel that all I need to do is make it to this interview, and (fingers-crossed) I will hopefully have an offer by the end of the month. I think my interviewing skills are decent, as I've had many in the early stages of my career.
My question is, should I be honest with my manager that I need to travel out of town to attend this interview? It's too late to request a random vacation day. I guess I could call out sick, but usually the expectation is that I will be working from home or something. Also, I am coming off a couple of days out of the office that were planned in advance.
My manager has asked me about whether I want to stay on the team, and it is a good fit, but of course I said YES-- I need to stay employed! But now that a new opportunity might be on the horizon, I want to ensure that I make myself available b/c I want that job more than this one.
Should I just call out sick, or make up another excuse?
I am in a bad work situation and looking to leave my current employer. I followed-up with a recruiter after passing a phone screen and phone interview with the hiring manager for a company in a city I want to move to.
Back in december I wrote a post about whether I should quit without another job lined up. Well, this opportunity looks promising, and I feel that all I need to do is make it to this interview, and (fingers-crossed) I will hopefully have an offer by the end of the month. I think my interviewing skills are decent, as I've had many in the early stages of my career.
My question is, should I be honest with my manager that I need to travel out of town to attend this interview? It's too late to request a random vacation day. I guess I could call out sick, but usually the expectation is that I will be working from home or something. Also, I am coming off a couple of days out of the office that were planned in advance.
My manager has asked me about whether I want to stay on the team, and it is a good fit, but of course I said YES-- I need to stay employed! But now that a new opportunity might be on the horizon, I want to ensure that I make myself available b/c I want that job more than this one.
Should I just call out sick, or make up another excuse?
No, sorry, but honesty is not always the best policy. In fact there was a thread here about a month or so ago about this very same situation, and the guy found this out the hard way. Lie and hope you don't get caught. Make it a good lie, and don't answer any of their phone calls while you're away either.
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Depends on the boss. Some may insist on the details of the reason and force you to lie. When someone asks me for a day off on short notice I am happy to let them off with something like "taking care of some personal business" and do not question it further as long as they are using PTO and I have no urgent deadline to be met.
Just take a personal day or two. Need to attend to some personal business.
This. And if your boss pushes further, just say something like "I'd prefer not to discuss it". They probably won't push if you just state it, without question "I need a personal day to take care of some personal business".
Back in december I wrote a post about whether I should quit without another job lined up. Well, this opportunity looks promising, and I feel that all I need to do is make it to this interview, and (fingers-crossed) I will hopefully have an offer by the end of the month. I think my interviewing skills are decent, as I've had many in the early stages of my career.
I'm just going to comment on this part.
I wouldn't COUNT on it.
Back when the economy was better, I used to get 3 interviews and 3 offers. If it was set up through a temp recruiter, I was almost assured of an offer.
In the past few years, I could ace the interview and walk out feeling like I had the offer in hand, and nothing.
I'm not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic. Continue to work at your current job with the mentality that it is your job until you actually have a hard offer in hand. Beyond that, you might totally show up and hate the office place or boss, or at least be wary of it. To go from one bad situation to another is not what you want.
This is definitely an occasion where honesty is not your best policy.
If it's too late to request a vacation day, I think your best option here is to say something about personal family business. When you go to your boss to ask, make sure you are also armed with all of your tasks that will need to be covered while you're out, and your plan for coverage. Examples: "I have that report due Friday, but I will have it to you Thursday before I leave" or "I have a conference call scheduled with this team, but I spoke to Lisa and she's up to speed and able to handle it." That, coupled with the hopeful fact that you have sufficient vacation days available, should be okay unless your boss is completely unreasonable.
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