Speaker 1: Hi, it's our Ask Me Anything segment where we answer
Speaker 1: a work-related question that you have sent it to us.
Speaker 1: Please continue to send. I like them. They give me
Speaker 1: very good food for thought and we hope that we
Speaker 1: have helped you a wee bit in your work week.
Speaker 1: Today's question is sent in by Shaan. Now Sean's question
Speaker 1: is about how to ask or get time off to
Speaker 1: go and do interviews when you are juggling an existing job. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure many people are interested right now.
Speaker 1: Well this is especially for interviews where you don't know
Speaker 1: if you're going to be successful and there are multiple rounds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Sean says taking leave for every interview is not feasible,
Speaker 1: especially when you have to save some for other users.
Speaker 1: I resorting to taking medical leave more recommended or more
Speaker 1: common in the workplace where leave approvals are not required
Speaker 1: or can be requested at the last minute. OK, this
Speaker 1: is a tricky situation, Sean, but how do you go
Speaker 1: for these multiple interviews without
Speaker 1: Raising the question with your boss that, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: this guy is taking a lot of leave, huh, and
Speaker 1: also I just want to caveat. I'm asking for a
Speaker 2: friend. OK. Should you use medical leave for this? Please don't. Please, please,
Speaker 2: please don't lie. Don't abuse and mistrust because people are
Speaker 2: going to figure out how come you always fall sick
Speaker 2: and you don't really look sick and if it gets
Speaker 2: found out, it's really, really going to look very bad
Speaker 2: on you.
Speaker 1: So trust is
Speaker 1: going to be an issue.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes. So don't abuse the benefit of medical leave
Speaker 2: for job interviews. So with that out of the way.
Speaker 2: then how do we get through the multiple rounds of
Speaker 2: interviews if you're not going to use this. Actually, I
Speaker 2: feel like most of us, we somehow have our own
Speaker 2: way of figuring it out, navigating it, so there isn't
Speaker 2: that one fixed answer. Maybe those who are listening, maybe
Speaker 2: you can also drop in your comments on what you
Speaker 2: have done. The legit good ones, OK, not the illegal ones,
Speaker 2: but one thing is during the interview process, it's important
Speaker 2: for you to ask the recruiter how many rounds uh
Speaker 2: can you expect. Sometimes they say 2 to 3 rounds
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 2: a sense over the next couple of weeks, uh, if
Speaker 2: things go according to plan and you get caught up
Speaker 2: for subsequent rounds then how many days of leave you
Speaker 2: need to take. You might not want to take full
Speaker 2: day leaves.
Speaker 1: If you have the option of taking half day, right?
Speaker 1: You can take
Speaker 2: half days. You could also ask some of these interviews,
Speaker 2: are they online, offline, right? I know some of the
Speaker 2: people are going to wonder, hey, but if you are
Speaker 2: online and then your boss calls you or rather your
Speaker 2: working hours and isn't this like eating into the company policy,
Speaker 2: you're not being a good employee, taking
Speaker 2: Time off, I mean, this is where the gray area happens. Ideally,
Speaker 2: the new company will be nice enough to ask you
Speaker 2: to maybe come down during lunch hours or after office
Speaker 2: hours for an interview, and that's a possibility as well.
Speaker 2: If that's an option, you can consider it, but as
Speaker 2: a job seeker, right, I'll be wondering whether the person
Speaker 2: has eaten lunch. Why
Speaker 1: should
Speaker 2: you
Speaker 1: career
Speaker 2: hungry person interviewing you
Speaker 1: it's not it's gonna make proper assessment because not enough
Speaker 1: blood sugar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so usually if it was up to me, right,
Speaker 2: I would probably say maybe just after lunch hour.
Speaker 1: Food coma, no,
Speaker 2: then it's for you to impress the person to keep
Speaker 2: the person awake during that time or maybe just before lunch,
Speaker 2: just before that, I think it'll be OK, but if
Speaker 2: it's right smack in lunch hour, people might not like
Speaker 2: it very much. But I do know companies HR and
Speaker 2: the supervisor are willing to meet people during lunchtime. It's
Speaker 2: possible as well.
Speaker 1: So if it's outside of
Speaker 1: the lunch hours, you still have to take like a
Speaker 1: half day leave and everything. So you still have to
Speaker 1: pace out, I guess Sean probably has to pace out
Speaker 1: the leave quota that he has because he might want
Speaker 1: to use all the other days to go and travel
Speaker 1: with his family, do his own travels and things like
Speaker 1: that,
Speaker 2: right? Yes. Honestly, I don't think it will take a
Speaker 2: lot of days, right, unless you're aggressively being sought after la.
Speaker 2: But generally, you know, if you are.
Speaker 2: while you're still being employed. The leave days is not
Speaker 2: going to be significantly a lot, honestly speaking. But you
Speaker 2: do need to manage if today you are really saving
Speaker 2: up that leave for other things, then you do need
Speaker 2: to plan a little bit. And what we said earlier,
Speaker 2: asking for the number of days, number of rounds that
Speaker 2: you need to have, that you can do it online,
Speaker 2: can do it after office hours, during lunch breaks. I
Speaker 2: think these are some of the advice that I will
Speaker 2: give that you can try.
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe we'll hear a lot more from
Speaker 2: our listeners in terms of what they have done,
Speaker 1: what are some of the good tips that they can
Speaker 1: give to somebody like Shawn. So yeah, Sean, wish you
Speaker 1: all the best in your job interviews. I hope that
Speaker 1: you don't have to go through that many, many rounds,
Speaker 1: but in a nutshell, don't lie, get creative and you
Speaker 1: know I'm hearing this for the first time trying not
Speaker 1: to do a lunchtime interview, so yeah, let's try and
Speaker 1: avoid that.
Speaker 1: If like Sean, you have a work-related question, do send
Speaker 1: it to us. We are at CNA podcasts at Mediacorp.com.sg.
Speaker 1: We're also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Me Listen, and YouTube
Speaker 1: where a video version of this is at.
Speaker 1: The team behind the Work It podcast is Junai Johari,
Speaker 1: Joanne Chan, Saye Win, Alison Jenner, Shahzad Dalia, and Christina Robert.
Speaker 1: Video by Hania Ahmed. I'm Gerald and I'm Tiffany. Have
Speaker 1: a good work week ahead and I hope you have
Speaker 1: an understanding boss.