It’s time for a new series here on FOT: you know you’re a secretary if…
Go ahead, go ahead. Get angry. I know that my pal, the HR Capitalist, had some folks {word of the day alert!} unfriend him with the claim that if you won’t/don’t recruit as an HR pro, you’re really just a secretary. Harsh? My feeling is… don’t hate the player, folks. Hate the game. So, here’s another one for you. If you plan the office holiday party? You’re a secretary. BAM. Okay, or maybe you’re a rookie still.
Now, before you pitch a fit, in my first HR gig, party planning duties fell upon me. Before me, it was called the “Christmas Party.” And then when I took it over, it became the “Holiday Party.” And finally, to appease everyone and make it as agnostic of an event as possible, and out of my desire as a growing HR pro to please everyone and still be as “compliant,” it became the “Year End Party.” Christmas offended the non-Christians. The holiday reference offended I can’t remember who… and so it became the year-end party. Bah humbug. But that’s not the point of this post. Planning the Christmas, Holiday Year End Party is for secretaries and rookies because surely, there are better ways to spend your time as an HR pro, right?
Yet, I still see HR pros being polled about the office holiday party. Given the recession, are you cutting back on the holiday party? My answer? ASK SOMEONE ELSE. We (should) have better things to do. And from there, I then see reports out on the state of holiday parties. My response? REPORT ON SOMETHING ELSE.
Now, I agree that the role of an HR pro is to champion an organization’s culture. It’s why I’m in love with the fact that organizations like Zappos and Rackspace and DAXKO have culture vultures as part of their HR teams. But planning a party doesn’t really speak to culture, especially not a holiday party. And granted – I learned some great skills in having to do some party planning earlier in my career. You learn to manage a budget. You learn to manage outside vendors. You learn to not get sloshed at your own company’s party, because you’re fretting about the execution of every little detail and meanwhile, everyone else gets trashed and then you get to see how folks act-a-fool which results in learning to not ever be “that” person who calls the HR lady a cross-dresser. (True story! And you know who you are with that one. 
That was a first…) But those skills can also be learned elsewhere.
So here’s the deal. You’ll stop getting asked to plan the holiday party – OR, you’ll delegate it and no one will ever question it – when it’s so clearly obvious that you have better ways to spend your time. Spend your time working with a manager to develop an up and comer. Spend your time working on evangelizing your organization’s employment brand. Find some ways to cut some costs from someone else’s budget by re-engineering a process. Re-jigger an HR process that will cut steps out and save employees time and therefore money. No one will ask you to plan a holiday party or summer picnic when it’s clear you add value in so many other ways. Believe it. Happy year-end!
You didn’t piss me off! Party planning…Chrismas, YearEnd, Summer, Fall…doesn’t matter…it is not the responsibility EVER of the HR team! And if you are an HR professional and you take responsibility for the ‘party’ you may or may not be the secretary but I know this for sure: you helped undercut the value HR brings to the organization as talent brokers, talent champions, drivers of the business…so stop today…declare HR the party planning free zone!
If we take the lead from Michael Scott (The Office) then having a party planning committee maybe the way to go. Then you can take away productivity from many departments instead of just one!
I know a lot of companies are either not planning a holiday party or are really scaling back. The economy has changed this once big-time event.
Either way, it is something nice for your culture but is it really going to enhance your company? I agree with your suggestions as to better utilize your time and in turn help the company.
Great post Jessica!
JLee,
I love this topic, because I think HR Pros get way to worked up over this, and the ones that get really worked up are probably the ones I would call “secretaries”!
The fact of the matter is this, I don’t calculate my value as a HR Pro based on whether I plan a office outing/party/etc. But if I gain some leverage with the senior team, because I can take something off their plate and make it a non-issue – than I win, because my relationship is better with the powers that be.
HR Pros, get a grip – if your asked to plan the party, plan it and make it the best damn party they ever had. If your asked to take out the garbage – do it with a smile. Get over yourself. We, including senior partners in ops, finance, etc. are all asked to do things we don’t care for – but the difference between high performers and low performers – is we don’t let these things define us.
So, go plan the party and shut up!
Unfortunately for me (ego-wise), Jessica, you’re right. If I ultimately had way more important stuff to work on that summer party never would have been my baby.
Given that the party question was my question, I have no problem responding.
Point blank, what department is still doing Holiday party planning? Whether it is a rookie, a secretary or a true HR pro, it is still HR. And the status of parties and other optional gratis are sometimes the best indicators of financial health of the organization. You have to justify spending money on the party when other areas are possibly suffering.
If HR is still doing it, then the question is still applicable. As you say: hate the game, not the player Jessica.
Does this whole debate over secretaries seems mundane to anybody but me? It is the wrong question. A true capitalist would only care about one thing: does an employee add value to the company? I’ve known secretaries that add more value than directors.
I’ll add something else here: How often does planning the party fall to a man? I’ve NEVER seen it happen, although I’m sure it must some places. But seriously, this is almost like women being asked to get coffee in meetings. Let a man do it for once.
@lance…
i agree – the status of parties and such is an indicator of the financial health of an organization – so ask a CFO about that. beyond you, there are others reporting on the issue and polling HR folks. it’s great if as an HR pro you can justify spending and speak to the health of the org’s finances but the reality is when it boils down to who is responsible for planning the party? i don’t want for an HR pro to be stuck with it or seen as the right person to plan it. i don’t even want us to be seen as the audience to go to when asking questions about the party.
as for the debate over secretaries… it’s not a debate. it’s a joke. but to speak to your point, i don’t see it as mundane if you care about the health and direction of the future of the HR profession.
chances are, most HR pros would be slightly annoyed or upset if they knew they were seen as the equivalent of a secretary. that’s not to say that secretaries don’t add value though – it’s just in a different way. however, that kind of value, in my humble opinion, is probably not in the way most HR pros think they add value. i’d venture to say most HR pros are in their game (and are not applying for and taking roles as admin or exec assistants) for different reasons and see it as a profession with upward mobility and career growth and the opportunity to make an impact to the people side of the business.
what do you think? am i getting too big for my britches in thinking i’m better than that?
@AAM
I am a man, I plan the ‘End of Year Party’. It takes me about two hours total, including going to vendors and getting donations for door prizes.
I might add that I’m not a secretary, but I do have some administrative tasks. Just. Like. Everyone. Else. Seriously, ‘Are you a secretary?’ has got to be high on the list of pointless questions.
If you have enough time to worry about it go doing something productive instead.
CFO isn’t planning the party so he or she will likely only see the impact after the fact. The fact is, HR is still largely planning or coordinating. Even if it is an admin in HR. I’ve seen a couple companies that rotate it through divisions. That still seems rare. And it seems strange to ask someone else to change that perception for HR. If HR no longer becomes the answer, we will stop being asked about it. Until then, they make the most sense.
Finance has a significant and unquestioned strategic value but you don’t see them arguing that they shouldn’t be in the business of doing AP/AR. That AR person has a lot of value to the company and to the function of the finance department.
I just think it is the wrong focus personally. I want the kick ass AR person, HR admin, etc and I want to empower them to feel like they make a real impact on the organization (because they do). I want great strategic thinkers too. Neither one of those people can thrive without one another.
@Jessica
The whole ‘secretary’ question just feels like a drawn out way of saying ‘That’s not in my job description!’ That’s the last thing I want to hear from anyone. As commented above, everyone does jobs they don’t like or are ‘small’.
Not to mention, in some companies organizing an event isn’t a dump job, it’s important and a sign of trust.
I don’t like spending so much time creating a box of who I am and what I will do. My objective is to make the company more profit by making employees and systems more powerful. I’ll clean the toilets if that’s what I need to do to get that done.
@tim + @bodhan -
here’s the reality. on a day to day basis, in my day-life and job as an HR pro in a corporate setting, i roll my sleeves up and do pretty much anything asked of me. it’s a fault of mine – i am a “yes” girl. and i over commit. it’s probably also what has made me successful.
that being said, when i look at the HR profession on a very macro level and step away from the day-to-day… i believe that there’s a lot that needs to be done to define what the HR role should be, shape it and position it in order to move it forward. this is why, even jokingly, i bring these issues to light and have made a call to action, so to speak, to my fellow HR pros. i know, it seems trivial to talk about who’s a secretary and what activities make you a secretary – but it’s part of a much larger picture for me. putting my head down and doing good work as an individual isn’t enough. i think we need to continue to have these conversations on a broader scale.
thanks for swinging by and leaving your thoughts on this. as long as we continue the conversation, that’s all i care about.
I need to know who Tim Sackett is because this is the best damn thing I’ve read on the party debate in a long time.
The fact of the matter is this, I don’t calculate my value as a HR Pro based on whether I plan a office outing/party/etc. But if I gain some leverage with the senior team, because I can take something off their plate and make it a non-issue – than I win, because my relationship is better with the powers that be.
HR Pros, get a grip – if your asked to plan the party, plan it and make it the best damn party they ever had. If your asked to take out the garbage – do it with a smile. Get over yourself. We, including senior partners in ops, finance, etc. are all asked to do things we don’t care for – but the difference between high performers and low performers – is we don’t let these things define us.
So, go plan the party and shut up!
In a smaller company, you can bet it will be HR planning most parties, I know ’cause I did for 5 years. I was damn good at it – we had some great ones.
You want to know how NOT to be next year’s planner? Plan a great party, and have an unavoidable event wreck it. True Story: I planned a festive Holiday cruise on the harbor, to follow the Christmas boats and tour the waterfront. It was nicely catered, had dancing, and very dressy. Well the night of the cruise we experienced 30 mile winds and 4-5′ swells. The Captain had never seen anything like it. Speaker towers were tipping, food platters were falling, and many stomachs turned green. More people got sick than at a 5 cent beer night.
Even though I had no control over the weather, guess who never got askedto plan a party again?
The counter-argument to the whole “pitch in and do it with a smile” argument is this: Work should flow downward to the lowest level person who can do it well, so that at non-junior levels, people are spending their time on things that only they can do. I want to see my people being discriminating about how they spend their time, so that we’re getting the biggest bang for our buck out of each person.
So I actually don’t want my finance director taking out the trash or my lobbyist planning a staff awards ceremony. And I like it when they show that they’re rigorous about making good decisions about where their time goes too.
Ask someone else to plan the party? WHO? There’s no HR Team. There’s just me. There’s really no admin staff at this point either. It is a problem if people only view HR as the party planner, but if you’re proving your awesomeness in other strategic areas that matter to the business bottom line, who cares if you plan the party? When the economy was booming, we had a fun committee planning all these things, but that went away when the layoffs started over a year ago. Only three people in my company don’t require purchase approval for anything and still have credit cards: the CEO, the CFO, and me. So I don’t mind doing the Costco run and making sure the beer is cold. I’d rather have that level of trust with the company funds while we’re in survival mode than say it’s not my job.
@amy_said + @steve… agreed that in smaller companies, perhaps you don’t have a choice. and that’s the reality of working in a smaller org. i guess i should have caveated that there are no universal rules in this whole “you’re a secretary if you…” argument.
do it with a smile for as long as you have to – but you can’t doing it forever otherwise, it’s a waste of your skills. truly.
@ask a manager – holy crap that’s the best response i’ve seen in a bit. ding! ideally people should be spending their time on things that only they can do and we should be getting the biggest bang for our buck out of each person. i LOVE that. it is totally about making good decisions about where one’s time goes. as my manager’s manager said to me recently… if you’re asked to get involved and it’s really not your place – inform the strategy and then let someone else execute and run with it. i guess the same applies here as well.
Ok, there are many sides to this issue. That’s easy to see from all the posts. I am speaking as a person with over 17 years of HR experience, which inlcudes management (though now I am doing generalist work…by choice). When my company’s “fun committee” was proving problematic (mainly because they were from many parts of the company with no real leadership), it was moved under the HR umbrella. While parties aren’t my thing (entertaining just ain’t my bag), I was asked to handle this while our HR dept. was cut back and they needed a detail oriented, responsible person to lead the group (yeah, I took it as a compliment). So I tell you all that to say….
What is wrong with all of us??? Have we forgotten that Human Resources STARTS with Human??? Sure, all the things that Jessica listed in her post are important…we MUST do those things. But, at what point did we forget that getting out there WITH the people who are really running our business (NOT The CFO, CEO, or any other C + ), was “beneathe” us???? When did we start thinking we were too “good” to keep in touch with people? If party planning were just about scheduling the food, then I would agree….but for me, it ISN’T! I’m able to work with MANY workers I wouldn’t otherwise….AT ALL LEVELS. And that is how you REALLY learn about your company and can make those fundamental changes as an HR person and department. After all, if you are relying on either upper managment or employee surveys to give you the scoop, then you really have lost touch.
SO, if you are looking for a way to really take the pulse of your company…how about you roll up your sleeves, smile, have fun, show others you can have fun, and plan a party with some of your co-workers…like, say, the secretaries!! Then, you can find out how you can spend the rest of your time so that HR has a full strategic, bottom line effect on the company….which is what we all want!
Great post, Jessica, and this is no hit on you…JUST the perspective of someone using what had to be done as a way to move the company forward. As an HR person, I try to use any opportunity to look for a way to learn, connect or help. That’s all I’ve tried to do with this new responsibility…and I believe I’ve been able to do all three. And, by the way, if it ISN’T HR’s responsibilty to do that with the people of an organization….who in the world’s is it???
Yes Lance, it is getting quite mundane.
Plus I find it to be deconstructive to the field of HR. Calling other HR colleagues names like, “secretaries” accomplishes what? It was an offhand comment made on HR Happy Hour. Now it’s a debate? A series on FOT? An attempt at humor?
How does name-calling build up our profession? I don’t agree that it does. It’s crass. It makes people feel ashamed and it separates us into classes.
There are a wide range of HR jobs out there. Not everyone can be a Senior Manager or a Director. I think starting this series is an unfriendly gesture to those in HR doing the best they can with what they are given. Those folks in HR who are unable to add value, that want to, are not helped in any way by other HR people calling them “secretaries.” For some people during this hard economic time, there are not always a large number of choices. The job they have maybe the only one they can get right now.
I think the way to help the HR field is show us as a unified front and do more to help those who want a better HR profession. I don’t believe this series is going to accomplish that. It will just keep some people down and feed the egos of others.
Am I mad? A little. Disappointed? Quite. Do I plan the Holiday Party? No. But I wouldn’t care if I had to. If it brings value to my organization, which it does, I would be proud to do it.
Call me what you will.
I don’t know about you all…but TONIGHT…I’m gonna party like it’s 1999….
Good debate folks—-
Your HR team needs to meet the strategy of your organization—so….
If the strategy in 2010 is for your HR to connect, engage, boost morale, make ees happy so they make customers happy… then maybe the party host ain’t so bad for your HR cred. If it’s not part of the corporate strategy and you do it because it’s time filling, easy admin, “fun”—then you, my friend, are a company mooch. Time to move on.
Gee people get a grip! I know I add value to my company as an HR Professional. So if we plan the annual parties – so what? So much of what we do in HR can be bad news – why not do something that people enjoy. I don’t think it’s beneath me. When we become so concerned about our image, it’s time to take a good look at our profession. I can do wonderful things for our company PLUS plan a party.