Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/08/asking-an-employer-to-cover-weight-loss-drugs-how-to-hire-a-manager-who-wont-be-awful-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=32769

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Asking candidates whether their religious beliefs will impact their work

I manage recruitment at my small company in the entertainment industry. We came across an issue just over a year ago that I’m wondering if we could’ve handled it better. One of our previous coordinators held pretty strong Christian beliefs, to the extent that she wouldn’t work on any project that conflicted with them, including in one instance not coordinating a (short) project that centered on teaching kids about evolution. This worked out fine a lot of the time; we were doing a kids’ show that was pretty tame and didn’t come into any conflict with her beliefs, and we were able to provide cover on the few occasions they did (someone taking on one small part of her workload for let’s say a week, which people were usually happy to do and it only happened once or twice a year).

As work on that show slowed down and other more adult projects came up (think adult humor, but also some romantic/sexual content), it was no longer practical for her to skip out projects she deemed inappropriate so after some tough conversations, she decided to move on. She was really well-liked and I don’t love that she ended up leaving, but I also see that practically it wasn’t possible to maintain this stance.

Was there a better way to handle this? We are a small organization that now only has one coordinator, and we have our fingers in a lot of different pies with very different content types. Also, when candidates mention their religious beliefs in their resume or cover letter (maybe they volunteer at a church), I would never screen them out but is there any way to ask, “We do a lot of different types of work, is there anything you’d have issues with working on?” Or not without asking everyone? I’m based in Canada but I think religious discrimination is pretty universally covered in employment law.

It’s actually a good question to ask everyone! You might discover that someone objects to working on a particular type of project for reasons that have nothing to do with religion. And if someone does have religiously-based objections, they won’t necessarily have anything on their resume that makes you think to ask. It’s a better practice to ask everyone across the board (and give them some examples of the types of projects that could come up so that they’re not having to guess).

2. Asking my employer to cover weight loss drugs

I recently tried to get a weight loss drug approved by my employer-provided insurance. First, it was denied when my PCP sent the request. Then I had more tests done, and saw a specialist, who put a request in a different weight loss drug, which was also denied, and the original weight loss drug, which was denied again.

I did some digging and it looks like my insurance will cover the drug but only under certain plans, which my company doesn’t offer. I’ve talked to some family and friends about how discouraged I was, although I am making lifestyle changes to help with the weight loss, obviously having a version of the drug would be extremely helpful. Several of them brought up talking to my employer about our health plan and seeing if they can make changes next year to cover it.

I’m not sure if this is a great idea. I work for a company on the smaller side (about 200 employees), and while our HR team will always say they’re open to questions and feedback, it feels awkward to bring this up and I’m not sure what I would even say. Is this something worth asking the HR team about? And what would be the best way to frame it if I do?

You can, although I don’t know how realistic is. Insurance plans are currently moving away from covering GLP-1s for weight loss (assuming that’s what we’re talking about) and even if your employer did change their plan, there would be a risk that the new plan would stop covering the drug the next time the plans renews. That said, there’s value in employers hearing from employees when their insurance isn’t meeting their needs. All of which is to say — talk to them, but be prepared for it to continue to be an issue, unfortunately.

3. How to hire a manager who won’t be awful to work for

My work is trying to hire someone to manage our data science team, which is at present just one other developer and me. They would also need to do some independent contributor work since the team is so small. What are good interview questions to ask someone who would become my manager?

The last time I was involved with hiring a more senior person, I got totally scammed by someone who seemed pleasant, laid-back, and competent and turned out to be horrible: micromanager, didn’t listen, inflexible, and made inappropriate remarks to female subordinates. It took two years before he was fired as part of a larger layoff, and he got promoted before that. He ended up as the manager for several friends of mine, and I felt awful because I pushed for him to be hired when others weren’t sure. I’m anxious to not have that happen again, especially since this person would be my manager. The other person on the team had the last terrible hire as a manager before he left, and she’s also very nervous because during the hiring process he fooled her as well. What are good questions for my potential manager (so I don’t hire another asshole)?

You want to get them talking in detail about how they’ve managed in the past — using real-life past situations, not hypotheticals (because it’s really easy for someone to bluff their way through a hypothetical, whereas when you probe into real situations they’ve faced and how they navigated those, you learn a lot more and with much more nuance). Here are some questions you can ask when hiring a manager — but don’t just ask the ones listed here and then stop. You also want ask follow-ups about their answers, because that’s often when the most interesting things come out (for example, “it seems like X would have been hard — how did you approach that?” … “what happened after that?” … “was it successful?” … “what would you do differently if you were doing it again?” …etc.).

Keep in mind, too, that people tend to be haunted by their last bad hire — meaning that the next time they hire, they get disproportionately focused on avoiding whatever the problems were with the last person, often at the expense of screening for other important things and thus missing new and different ways the next person could be a problem.

It’s also essential to check references when you’re hiring a manager, and include in those references a couple of people who they’ve managed in the past so you can hear from people who actually worked for your top candidates what they were like to work for.

All that said, hiring is never a perfect science and if you do enough of it, you will make mistakes at some point. So it’s also really important to work for an organization that’s willing to address problems forthrightly and take action when needed, without letting things drag out.

4. My coworkers didn’t acknowledge my family emergency

I’m hoping for some perspective on a recent situation. My young daughter was unexpectedly hospitalized and needed emergency surgery. During that time, I was out of work and focused on getting her the care she needed. While a few colleagues asked how things were going in passing, I noticed that—unlike in other similar situations on our team—there wasn’t a group gesture like a card, meal, or small show of support. We’ve done those things in the past when others have faced family emergencies, so I’m feeling unsure about whether this was an oversight or just a shift in how people are handling things now.

Is there any way to bring this up that wouldn’t seem like I’m expecting something, or is it better to let it go and adjust how I show up for others in the future?

The most likely explanation is that it was an oversight — that the person who normally organizes that stuff was out or distracted or swamped, or misunderstood and thought someone else was handling it, or just messed up. It’s very unlikely that it was intentional, and most likely they’d feel horrible if they realized you felt stung by it.

You could speak up, but unless it’s part of a pattern of people being treated differently when they shouldn’t be, I’d try to figure it was just an oversight and let it go. If it is part of a pattern, though, then it’s worth pointing out that it’s not good for morale when some people’s life stuff gets a lot of attention and other people’s doesn’t. That would be less about “this wasn’t done for me” and more about “we are being inconsistent on this stuff, me being just one example, and we need a better system so we’re not overlooking people.”

I’m sorry that happened, and I hope your daughter is okay!

5. Resume title after an unusual career detour

I’d love your advice on how to represent a role on my resume from a timeframe that was a total shitshow.

I joined a tech company a few years ago in a role I loved. I was laid off seven months later as part of a broader reduction because they expanded way too fast … unfortunately, just before I had a baby.

A few months after that, the company (specifically, my awesome boss) asked me to return. The only available position was a temporary role with an intern title. I accepted, thinking it would be a short-term bridge … but shortly after returning, I broke both of my wrists (yeah, it was a time), which derailed my job search. I stayed in the role for most of the year, and received an amazing promotion beyond my prior title.

The work I did in that temporary role was substantive, but I’m struggling to find the right job title to list on my resume. I want to be accurate and honest, but putting “intern” on my resume in the middle of my career seems like a fast lane to the trash, especially in a type of role that has a very typical titling scheme almost everyone uses. Do you have any guidance on how best to approach this?

Since the intern role was a temporary position, can you just put “contractor” for that period? That would look better than “intern” if there’s any way it remotely applies.

The post asking an employer to cover weight loss drugs, how to hire a manager who won’t be awful, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/08/asking-an-employer-to-cover-weight-loss-drugs-how-to-hire-a-manager-who-wont-be-awful-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=32769