Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues—everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.

Here’s a roundup of answers to three questions from readers.

1. Will my employee be blindsided by an improvement plan?

Over the past year, I have been coaching my employee “Mike” on various issues, and it has gotten to the point that we need a formal performance improvement plan. I don’t think this should be a surprise to him, but I’m getting the impression that he does not really understand how serious the situation is.

We have very different communication styles. I prefer to be direct and detailed. Mike tends to use generalizations and can take a long time to think and gather his thoughts before answering a question. I’ve been working on softening my approach and asking clarifying questions to make sure we are on the same page, but things still get lost in translation sometimes.

I have a great manager who is working with me on the PIP and helping to coach Mike. She is incredibly encouraging and took the lead on the conversation to let him know we were going to make a plan. The thing is, I’m worried that he only heard that we want to work with him to get him whatever tools he needs to be more organized and additional training. I have not noticed any improvement or efforts to find solutions from Mike, and I don’t want him to feel blindsided and shut down when we deliver the actual plan and deadlines.

Are these conversations usually positive? I was expecting to go back over where his performance is falling short and ask what would help him so we can set up an achievable plan. Should I check in with him or just wait?

Green responds:

It’s good to be positive and supportive when you’re coaching an employee, but there’s also a point where you need to be clear that the issues are serious ones and could jeopardize the person’s job. At a minimum, the improvement plan itself should do that; both the written plan and the conversation surrounding it should include language like, “If we don’t see these changes by [date], we would need to let you go.” But you also don’t want that to be the first time the person realizes things are serious, so ideally your recent conversations with him would have been increasingly serious in tone as well. You can be supportive and kind while still using language like, “I want to be clear that these issues are serious ones and to succeed in this role, I’d need you to show significant improvement in the next few weeks.”

If you have been emphasizing the “let’s find you whatever tools you need” side of things without also being explicit about the “these are serious issues that could jeopardize your job” side, I think you’re right to worry about blindsiding Mike. It could help to have one more conversation pre-PIP in which you’re explicit about the seriousness of the issues. (That said, it’s also true that some people really don’t read the writing on the wall about this stuff and will feel blindsided no matter how explicit you are. I’ve said things like, “If I don’t see XYZ by May 20, at that point I would need to let you go” and still had the person shocked when they got fired on May 20.)

2. A job candidate didn’t turn his camera on

I was conducting a video interview the other week and, to my surprise, when the candidate logged in they didn’t have a camera. I wasn’t the hiring manager, so I don’t know how the setup for the interview was conveyed. I did ask the candidate if he had a camera, and he said he didn’t want to do the interview on his work laptop and he had no other computer. I just rolled with it and conducted the interview as normal, but afterward I was wondering if I should’ve required a camera. Obviously, not everyone has the same access to technology. I also hadn’t thought about potential conflicts with using a work laptop. But it ended up feeling more like a phone screen instead of a second round interview as this was.

Green responds:

If he didn’t have a camera, he didn’t have a camera. You shouldn’t penalize people for not having the same access to technology as other candidates. Throw in that you don’t even know if he was asked to use a camera ahead of time, and rolling with it was 100 percent the right move.

If a video interview is really important to your ability to assess him correctly and he’s still in the running, you can ask him if he has a way to set up a video conversation (giving him advance notice, of course). And there are jobs where it would matter (for example, if he’s applying to be a trainer and you need to physically see him function as a trainer), but there are a lot of jobs where it really wouldn’t. So I’d ask whether you wanted him on video just because that’s what you were expecting and are used to, or whether you actually need it to proceed.

3. Do I really need to take calls from work on my honeymoon?

I’m getting married this weekend! Yay! I’m taking two weeks off for the honeymoon. However, some big changes loom at my company that are all very hush hush right now. I only know because of my position. I wear a lot of hats at this small company—IT, budgets, office management, contracts, vendor management, marketing, and other responsibilities. I am very involved in this hush hush big change, and I know that things can’t just be put on hold because I’m not there.

I’ve done everything I can to prepare for the two weeks: given account access to other senior people, written up detailed documentation, and talked through items that might occur until I’m blue in the face. But I’m being asked to promise that I’ll be available if “something comes up.”

I’m going to be on my honeymoon! I have had this time off planned for months. But with everything going on with the business, I don’t know how hard of a line I can draw. All information that would be needed is filed so those with access can see it, so I am not needed to actually access any info, but I am likely to know more easily and quickly what that info is or where it’s located or which vendor to reach out to.

Do I tell them that if it’s an emergency they can text, and I’ll get back when I can? Do I say I won’t be available at all?

Green responds:

You’re going on your honeymoon and the time off has been set for months. Say you won’t be available at all. If it helps it go down easier, say you and your fiancé(e) have promised each other for months that you’ll turn off all devices and be unavailable during this time. (You shouldn’t have to say that, but sometimes that kind of thing can help.) You can also say if it were anything other than your honeymoon you’d find a way to be flexible but it’s not possible for this.

If you anticipate a lot of pushback, it might be more effective to be vaguer: “I can’t promise anything, we’ll probably have our phones off most of the time … ” and then keep yourself unavailable. Change your outgoing voicemail message to say, “I’m on my honeymoon and unavailable until [date] and will get back to you then.” And then just don’t respond.

This doesn’t sound like a situation in which you’re the only one who could help in an emergency; it sounds like it would just save them some time and energy, and that doesn’t meet the bar for making you work on your honeymoon.

Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.

The super early-rate deadline for the 2025 Inc. Power Partner Awards is Friday, May 30, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.