Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Uncategorized”
I clearly remember a time in my career when I tried to act like I had way more experience than I really had. “Oh yeah, I’ve been doing HR for ten years!” Assuming you count four years of experience I had working part-time service jobs in college as “HR” experience. Then one day you wake up and someone is reading …
Confession time…I have never been and will never be a 30 year employee. 3 yrs, 5 yrs, 10 yrs…I can hit those milestones. But beyond that, fat chance. My career has been guided by gut and need and not always in that order. Why by gut? Work should be fun. You should love what you do and where you are and …
Because I’m reaching the “vintage” where the most junior employees I work with are now the ages of my own kids, I’m now recognizing this management phenomenon in the workplace more than ever before. Do you treat your employees like your own kids? On the surface it sounds preposterous. But then again, I treat my own kids pretty well. I …
CEO’s are only human. They have a tough job with high stress. Naturally, there are going to be times where their judgment will lapse, even to the point where they may do “terrible” things. But how do you, HR pro, manage that? A few days ago I read a fascinating article in Vanity Fair called “I’m a Terrible Person”: Behind …
I encountered an employee of the Millennial persuasion in the copy room in a state of panic. He was working feverishly to reduce and scan a near mural-size floor plan that had been requested by an executive who sat two floors above ASAP. He was having trouble figuring out how to reduce and email the document expeditiously. With each passing …
Need a conversation prompt? Just say, “I hate my boss.” Add a swear for emphasis, some name-calling if that makes you feel better. That phrase usually starts an echo around a table or at a bar. A lot of “me too” and “oh, you should meet mine.” Then everyone starts to recite all of the oh-so-obvious ways that their managers …
Management fads come and go, but one thing never changes — the fact that that most management fads don’t seem to last. That’s why I was surprised when I saw this recent Wall Street Journal article touting “agile management” as the hot, new management trend. My doubt was fueled by the third paragraph of the Journal story that openly admitted …
I attended an awards luncheon where the nominees were asked the question, “What would you have expected to have given up by now?” Answers involved a lot of childhood sweets, biting nails and imaginary dogs (that was not mine). Slap that question on the HR profession and I have a few ideas around the answers. Some are common sense and …
Have you ever noticed that as soon as you believe your organizational dysfunction has reached a peak, you always can find another organization that takes it one step further? We love to think that our “Sh*t Show” is the worst, but we always know it’s not. Recently, I was speaking with some colleagues about some stuff going on and I …
As I survey the employee/employer relationship landscape, I really never see a great story. Oh, sure, there are good “anecdotes” here and there of some company (typically privately held, startup-mentality, uber-cool) doing something unique and interesting enough to get into INC and Forbes. These stories are the bloody chum consultants tweet, retweet, post and build models around (until the next …
