Human Resources from a minion's point of view. I enjoy working in HR and in pursuit of learning more, entering into conversations with others about HR, and occasionally blowing off some steam, I have decided to add my own unique voice to the blogosphere. Have I piqued your interest?
Carnival fun!!!
So it’s been a week of revealing in the coolness that is being the power behind the Carnival of HR and I figured I should really get to work.
First up, it has come to my attention that the more successful Carnival’s tend to be the ones where the host sends out an email to the usual suspect contributors as a reminder.
New carnival of HR… and a slightly awkward announcement
There is a great new Carnival of HR up now at Fortify your Oasis and Rowan Manahan is your gracious host! There are a lot of participants and a lot of great posts so be sure to head on over there to check it out!
Mixed Emotions
As some of you may already know, (if you follow me on twitter) today I was told I would be “released” from my contract at the Buy More. As of June 12th I will be set adrift anew.
Honestly though, I’m not as upset as I could be. Sure, I don’t want to be out of work right now, but I wasn’t as attached to this job as my last one. Don’t get me wrong, it was great experience, pay, and I really liked my co-workers. But I knew it wasn’t something I would do long term.
Another post of shameless self-promotion
So just a couple bits of self-promotion before we fully head into the weekend. They are pretty cool so it’s worth it, I promise.
First up, one of my favorite companies, Threadless, is conducting a vote on twitter for which tweets should become T-shirt’s! What’s really awesome is that @coffeeebuzd submitted one of my past tweets as a possible winner! Vote for me! I promise kick backs in chocolate covered macadamia nuts if I win!
Where is the line?
I’m a little late to the game on this one, my Google Reader got backed up for a while, but I recently read this post by Kerry over at her blog Clue Wagon.
Now this may not be true, but basically this guy wanted to get a leg up on his competition so he put out an ad for a job similar to the one he wanted and solicited resumes, with salary information, in order to find out who his competition was. It turns out he did get the job.
Be a F**cking person
Saw this clip The Daily Show that aired last night and it should hit home for every HR person. Go ahead, watch the clip, I’ll wait
HR Minion, now in shirt form!
Oh yeah, you know you want it.
Ben Eubanks of Upstart HR has put together some awesome HR T-shirts that all you dedicated HR pros out there are so going to want. Well, you can’t wear it to work surely, that’s not professional. But now those people in your yoga class or the strangers in the cereal aisle who won’t make eye contact with you will now know that you are one HR Ninja not to be trifled with.
Saving Face
I am sometimes floored by how many managers seem more concerned with maintaining their employees’ perceptions than with doing the right thing. It seems like whenever I come across a manager who doesn’t have enough cause to terminate an employee, the first thing they fall back on is “What will my other employees think?” You know what? I. Don’t. Care. Not in the slightest.
I remember the first time I got my own cubicle. I was a junior in college and was working as a peer adviser for the College of Liberal Arts. As such, I would frequently need a semi private area to meet with students. I can’t stress how happy that cubicle made me. I felt like an adult. Any time I was on campus and not in class or my boyfriend’s (now husband’s) dorm room, I was in my cubicle, even when I wasn’t working.
I’m Certified , Baby!
This last month I’ve been fairly stressed out about taking the PHR test so it’s not surprising that I almost cried in relief when I got this:
I don’t know what I would do if I had to wait a few weeks for the results. As it was I resented taking the survey at the end of the test before knowing my results.
Somebody Hates Me
Throughout the day, I like listening to my iPod, because after you’ve typed up your 6th witness statement you need something to keep you going. Oddly enough, I’ve gotten into this weird habit of only listening with one ear bud in. I like having one ear free for the phone or if someone tries to get my attention. I startle easily, and when I’m focused, I lose track of my surroundings. Let’s hope I don’t go deaf in one ear though.
Guilty Minds
You know, you do Employee Relations long enough, you start seeing patterns of behavior emerge. One thing I’ve started to notice is specific behaviors that keep popping up when dealing with employees who have done something wrong and know it. Symptoms of a guilty mind, you might say.
So, what are these behaviors, you might be asking yourself? Well, here you go:
1. Denying guilt but promptly quitting. It’s the whole, why-are-you-running-away-if-you-aren’t-guilty kind of thing. I know guilt isn’t the only reason someone might quit as soon as their manager asks them to write a statement, but you have to admit it’s very suspicious. Funny how I only get this behavior from the employees we can prove did something bad.
2. Calling in an unfair job action before the investigation has finished. Many red flags go up when I see an employee start saying they were fired unfairly, even before they were fired. They know they were wrong, they know it will be found out, and they are already switching to plan B.
3. Refusing to put anything in writing or make a statement. It’s the “you can’t use someone’s words against them if they never talk to you” kind of mindset. It’s funny how many employees simply refuse to write their statement down. It’s so much easier to change it that way, after all. At least most are still willing to talk to me, after I tell them that I’ll make a recommendation with or without it, that is.
4. “I don’t remember”. The old fall back for the guilty, if they “can’t remember” what happened, they can’t be forced to commit to a story, and they can’t be caught in a lie. Doesn’t matter if you are asking about something that happened two weeks or two days ago.
5. Unsuccessful and inconsistent lies. Often, I will see an employee lie about one part of a situation but tell the truth for the other part. They admit they were late, but minimize how late they were. They admit they misused their discount, but it was for their “common law spouse”. And so on and so forth. Funny enough, this strategy more often backfires than not because they don’t know what they should be lying about. I’ve covered why you shouldn’t lie before.
Here’s the moral of the story: You are not as smart as you think you are if you make it to the point where I’m getting involved, so just stop it. Stop it right now.
Stress: The way I get things done
So I ways thinking about all I’ve been doing this month, all the things I need to do yet this month, and all the pressure I’m under. It’s kind of been one of those days. I dodged a layoff today and even one of the heels on my boots broke. But I’m still smiling. Stress has a way of motivating me to get my shit together and get things done. It’s at times like this that I like watching the clip below.
Maximizing your Carnival of HR
As I mentioned last week, the newest Carnival of HR is up now at the Maximize Possibility Blog. Really good stuff to be found so be sure to stop by and check it out here!
I will be your wonderful and gracious host for the next Carnival coming up on April 29th so be sure to get me those submissions by Sunday, April 26th. If you’re a little late that’s okay, I’m susceptible to bribery.
Entitlement
Usually one of my biggest complaints about high maintenance employees is that they have a sense of entitlement. They expect the world to bend to their needs and get whiny when it doesn’t. They expect to be treated like superstars for simply doing their jobs, never mind going above and beyond. And no, I’m not ragging on Gen Y. I’ve meet many Gen X and Baby Boomers who fall into this mentality as well. The worst offenders are the ones who actually do good work most of the time, which unfortunately only reinforces their perception of being special.
