Laurie Ruettimann
Laurie Ruettimann is a punk rock, Human Resources professional with extensive Fortune 500 experience. She writes about business trends, employment, Corporate America, and permanently opting-out of the rat race. She also believes you should spay & neuter your pets.
Customer Service & Ice Cream
My first job wasn’t very fancy. I was fourteen years old, I had just moved in with my father, and I scooped ice cream for $2.35/hr.
The pay was below minimum wage, but the owner of the ice cream store didn’t question my age and I didn’t question the cash payment every Friday afternoon. It was a simple arrangement and I needed the money. I hustled like hell to earn it.
I worked about 20 hours/week at the ice cream store. It was a sweet job, both literally and figuratively, but I dealt with all kinds of customers in very weird situations. For example, we didn’t have a public restroom.
The Candidate Experience & Hiring Process
I am very passionate about improving the candidate experience and implementing ‘common sense changes’ to the hiring process. Unfortunately, I am no longer a Human Resources practitioner and the hiring process is full of stupid hurdles and shenanigans that I cannot change.
I received a press release, last week, that said, “Sixty percent of job seekers can expect to participate in three or more interviews with prospective employers before getting an offer, according to a survey of more than 2,000 individuals by Right Management.”
Bullying at Work
I believe that bullying at work can be traced to bullying during childhood. Employees and leaders who bully their colleagues and subordinates don’t just spring up over night. These complex and anti-social behaviors are tolerated and (sometimes) encouraged over a lifetime of experiences.
My heart breaks for the family of Phoebe Prince. She is a fifteen-year-old girl who killed herself after being bullied at school. News broke, this week, that nine kids have been charged in connection with this death. I’m more interested in the things that weren’t done to avoid this nightmare. Behaviors were allegedly ignored. Cues were missed. Requests for intervention may have been ignored or dismissed.
Employee Engagement
I can’t take it anymore.
I need to tell you something.
I don’t believe in employee engagement.
I know, I know. You’re shocked.
Let me tell you something simple: I don’t think it’s the responsibility of an organization to ensure that the employees are engaged. This isn’t preschool. We’re all adults. We have college degrees, mortgages, and children. Responsibilities.
EFCA: It’s Back
Here’s some news that most of America doesn’t care about.
President Obama made a few recess appointments to fill vacancies in his administration.
Seriously, I ask myself, who cares? We have bigger fish to fry with bombings in Russia and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Haiti.
Unfortunately, plenty of people care. Like Republicans.
The Unemployment Conundrum from Karla Porter
Depending on your situation, it could be cause for merriment and celebration and send you lunging for your résumé, or feelings of inadequacy for not being able to find one of them despite your relentless search. In either case, it would at least leave you with a glimmer of hope that recovery is well under way, right?
Actually, it’s not really very exciting news at all. Despite the worst recession in the past 30 years, the number of available jobs in the U.S. has remained fairly steady with roughly 2.7 million jobs available for the past 12 months.
So, what’s the deal? How can there be so many available jobs with employment at 9.7 percent?
Apart from the 1.2 million discouraged workers not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them, here’s a thought from Jonas Prising, President of Manpower North America, “From our research it is clear that across the country employers are experiencing a mismatch between the talent their businesses need and the skills and abilities potential employees possess.”
Punk Rock HR Question: Looking for a New Job/Tell Boss?
She has a question about when to tell her new boss that she’s interested in another internal opportunity.
Started my job at a new company less than 6 months ago. Primary role is essentially as an assistant. I have been doing side projects, with my direct boss’ blessing, involved in other areas of the company. I am pretty good at the projects I have been working on, and I really enjoy it.
A little birdie told me the corporate office (we are a branch) is hiring someone for a full-time role, doing what I have been working on, and suggested I throw my name in the hat.
My question: should I tell my boss I am interested prior to even talking to the guy who is posting the job? I don’t want to be sneaky, I feel I have earned his trust. ( also he is a top dollar producer and NO one wants to piss him off).
What do you think?
Punk Rock HR Question: Students, Likability & The Future of HR
For the record, I’m speaking to HR students at SHRM10 in San Diego. I still don’t know what I will say.
Hey Laurie,
This has been bugging me for awhile, and you seem like the kind of person who’d know something about this. I’m currently a student, majoring in HR. Whenever I tell someone this, they get this weird look on their face, and sometimes even flat out say “Why? You hate people.” Okay, I’ll admit I’m not the most social person, and I don’t go work actively trying to be BFFs with everyone in the office. I don’t like schmoozing people, and I hate office fakery and other various forms of BS. But I do have a strong sense of right and wrong and fair and unfair, and I thrive under the weight of legalese and sifting through resumes and reading whether or not someone is trying to smooth over a shaky past in an interview.
Job Do-Overs
I worked for a VP of HR who was losing his job in a company-wide reorganization program. I had one foot out the door, too, and there was no love lost between the two of us. I spoke my mind. He spoke his. It was a sad level of dysfunction, and I never missed an opportunity to be a bitch for the sake of keeping myself entertained.
When it was confirmed that the VP of HR was scheduled to leave, one of my colleagues asked me to take a professional portrait as a gift to the VP. My picture would be included as part of a larger departmental gift of some kind.
I said no.
Just like that.
My colleague, who was a nice guy, wouldn’t let it die. I walked into his office in midtown Manhattan and he told me I was being ridiculous and immature. I was. He insisted that I have my picture taken. I said, fine, you want me in the picture? Take it now. I was wearing the ugliest wrinkle-free gray pants and a black cardigan from Talbots, very little make-up, and my hair was in a ponytail. I took my hair down. This is how I looked.
Performance Reviews & Assessments
Some of you will hear bad news. You didn’t meet expectations. You failed to achieve your professional goals. You won’t qualify for a merit increase, and let’s be honest: most people see their worth and contribution to the company reflected in the annual pay raise.
Here is my simple request. I am asking you to NOT freak out.
I know, I know. It’s tough.
As your friendly HR advisor, I want you know that you cannot re-litigate 2009. It is pointless to write a legal brief that defends your behavior and makes people see you in a different light. You can appeal your performance review and ask for more money, but it rarely ends in your favor. It makes you look punitive and vindictive. People will say, “He just doesn’t get it.”
Social Recruiting Metrics & Measurements
When I talk to HR professionals about social media tools and social recruiting, I’m always asked, “What should we measure?”
Back in the day, I learned about corporate recruiting from HR professionals who were rooted in the manufacturing industry. Recruiting was an extension of the supply chain. Demand planning principles were invoked. We used math. (Well, they used math.) Some forecasting involved. Recruiters worked like cost accountants and forensic scientists to understand how headcount was tied to the business. A workforce plan was created, and it was aligned with products and services. No one assumed that headcount lasted forever. You weren’t entitled to replace an employee who left your department. You budgeted for your headcount like you budgeted for the cost of paper, chemicals, and supplies. Then entry-level Corporate Recruiters, like me, would have to fill openings that were approved through the workforce plan.
Punk Rock HR Question: Ass Muscles
From a reader with a sore ass — due to HR.
It could be you.
Over the last 4 weeks I have been experiencing pain in one of my hip flexors. My doctor has sent me to physical therapy to treat it. After the physical therapists tested out different stretching and strength tests, she informed me that the reason that I am experiencing pain is that my gluteus muscles have atrophied and other muscles and tendons are overcompensating when I work out. In other words, from sitting on my ass for 12 hours a day between my commute and the need to be at my desk for the majority of my day, my ass muscle has shrunk and it is effecting the rest of my body. Technically, I think this could be considered a workers’ comp issue, but I am not going to push it. Feel free to share this story if you like as another “HR can suck” story.
I have to tell you something: I personally went through a similar situation except that my my hip rotators were so sore that I felt pain in my butt, my thighs, and my pelvic floor. That’s right. My sedentary lifestyle hurt my hips, my ass, and my ladyparts.
I’m not proud to admit this, and it feels quite odd to write about it, but the doctor reassured me that pelvic floor pain is a common condition in women who work in offices or sit on their butts, all day long. I don’t doubt this for a minute, but women never talk about it. I was sent to physical therapy. Have you ever gone to physical therapy for pelvic pain? There’s nothing more humbling than being in your early 30s and sitting in a waiting room with women who sneeze and pee. They all had the same look on their faces, too.
Punk Rock HR Question: The Good Ol’ Boys Club
From a Troubled Reader.
She needs advice on how to deal with The Good Ol’ Boys Club — and she came to the right place.
Hey Laurie, I need your help with something. I know I should be happy that I have a job in these troubled times etc. etc., but this is really eating at me.
My workplace has been short staffed by various illnesses and incidents for nearly two years. I have gone home way past sundown and come in on the weekends. A promotional opportunity has come up and instead of opening it up to everybody, the powers that be have decided to award it to the lowest-level employee in our office, no interview required. He never stays late, comes in early, or does more than the bare minimum of what’s required. He plays golf on the weekends with a VP of our corporation. I can think of at least fifty of us, with advanced degrees, experience, women, minorities, and individuals over forty that would have qualified for and put in our dues for such a position.
I guess what I want to know is, as a woman, and a minority: how do you cope when you work twice as hard to get half as far?
Bigotry and sexism are intolerable. I’m so sorry to hear that you’re dealing with this, and I have a million suggestions for you. Unfortunately, none of the solutions are easy because this situation isn’t easy. In order to affect change in your organization, you need to speak up, ask questions, and demand accountability. In the best economic times, it’s tough. In the middle of a recession? It can mean career and financial suicide.
Punk Rock HR Question: Career Transitions
From a regular reader who is awesome. I’m not sure she knows this about herself, which makes her like most women around here. WTF, ladies?
About 3 1/2 years ago, I quit one job, which I had spent 3 years at, and took another opportunity. After about a year and a half, I quit that job as well, because I was still really unhappy even though the job was better and didn’t have the same obvious pressures of the first one.
I was always overwhelmed and anxiety-ridden by the belief that I was terrible at my job — despite the fact that I have always gotten along well with coworkers and superiors, gotten very good reviews, etc. so it would at least superficially seem that I am OK — so I thought I would try and get into an arena where I have more natural talent, such as graphic design or computer/database-related work, in the hope that I could get past this self-doubt.
What It Means: Job Dissatisfaction and The Conference Board Numbers
Everyone has heard that US workers are dissatisfied with their jobs, but I think many analysts are missing the point. It’s not the recession. The survey reflects the overall decline of the employee/employer covenant during the past twenty years.
Listen up, employers.
- You asked us to accept 3% merit increases.
- You told us we would have company-sponsored health care.
- You changed our retirement plans and offered us a new pension that had the potential to earn more money as the stock market did better.
- You said unions weren’t in our best interests.
- You said that it was okay to create a knowledge-based economy and move our manufacturing jobs to China and India.
Hmmmm. I wonder why American workers are dissatisfied with their jobs?
