Dear Liz,

Eight years ago, when I was graduating from college, I found my way into a bad job-offer situation.

I interviewed with a company for what they called a marketing job. I interviewed with them three times before they sprung the information on me that the job was a straight-commission, heavy-pressure, cold-calling sales job. I felt duped and backed out of the deal.

Now I'm in a strange situation again with a job offer and I don't want to make the wrong move. I've interviewed twice with a reputable company in town (for a real marketing job, at a decent salary). Just today, the HR manager called me to talk about some details, and two of the things he told me made my antennae go up.

The first is that in this company, everyone works on weekends. It is expected. You work for four to six hours either on Saturday or Sunday, every week -- in the office, not at home.

The HR guy said, "We let you choose which day" -- like that was a huge favor. If you have plans to go out of town for the weekend, you have to apply for time off like you would for a vacation.

Secondly, in this company, when you travel (and there will be a lot of travel in the job I'm applying for) you don't get to keep your frequent-flier miles.

The company takes them. Is this common?

Am I being paranoid, or are these two tidbits causes for alarm?

Thanks,

Jerry

Dear Jerry,

The great thing about our instincts, aka guts, is that when they have something to tell us, they don't give up. They sit there gnawing away at us until we start listening to them.

Your gut is screaming, "Why?"

Why did you have to interview twice with this company before they clued you in on the extra workday that falls every single week?

Why did they find it relevant to call you up and tell you that they confiscate the frequent-flier miles you earned by planting your tush in all those airline seats, by spending all those tedious hours at airports and away from home?

They told you because if you're going to bail, they'd rather have you bail now than after they've trained you. They know their "deal" is on the chintzy side. Your gut is wise.

These are two big red flags.

It is unfortunately common for employers to steal their employees' airline miles. I don't approve of the practice, as you can tell. You earned those miles. It's not the mark of a top-drawer employer.

The mandatory Saturday or Sunday work is a new one on me, and a bad one. Do they hire people who are inexplicably incapable of completing their work during the week, not just sometimes but always? Unlikely.

They're trying to shove 10 pounds of compost into a 5-pound bag -- at your expense.

Run away, Jerry. There are better employers out there. Tons of 'em.

Cheers,

Liz

Liz Ryan is the CEO of Ask Liz Ryan, a Boulder human-resources and organizational strategy consulting firm. She can be reached at liz@asklizryan.com.