The Associated Press called it an “extraordinary request,” but it’s certainly not extraordinary. In fact, it’s incredibly ordinary for employees to report what they are working on. And, from an HR perspective, I love it. Mostly. Here’s why: 1. Knowing what your employees do is necessary for success How
This morning, I needed to make two vet appointments for my cats. I’m an American in Switzerland, so that means I need to make a phone call in German. No problem. I’ve lived here for almost 16 years and I have a B2 German certificate. A B2 means—or should mean—that “I can interact
I’ve always hated the terms “work wife” and “work husband.” They imply a level of intimacy that you should not have at work unless you work with your spouse to whom you are legally and lawfully wedded. I also don’t think it’s a harmless joke. I’m not the only one. Blonde
Why is child of the “just say no” generation sponsoring a webinar on the devil’s lettuce? Boy have times changed! I was born in 1973, which means Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No!” campaign was in full swing during my school years. And boy, did we mean it. We
I need to encourage a manager to accept a religious accommodation request, as it is reasonable, in my opinion. The employee, who is Balinese Hindu, has requested a 10-minute prayer break at noon as part of her religion. The manager says no, as this is during a lunch
What unexpected thing do both President Donald Trump and Google have in common? They both offered “buyouts” to current employees for the same reasons—to cut headcount and strengthen company and agency mission alignments. Trump’s “Fork” memo offered federal employees the chance to resign between January 28 and midnight, February
In addition to being an HR professional with 25-plus years of HR experience, I’m an improv comedian who performs at corporate events. While our improv ensemble likes to keep things clean in general, we know that if we are on a corporate stage, the humor tolerance is much lower.
I teach improv comedy classes. It’s just regular improv comedy–no HR included. (I also teach improv for leadership development, but this story isn’t about this.) Monday is my favorite class: The final performance. Classes are 4 weeks long, and on the last night, we set aside 30 minutes
A study by the UK advocacy group Age Without Limits found that it’s not just a few people who think older people aren’t worth hiring. Fully 24 percent believe this. And 22 percent of respondents think it’s a waste of time to train someone older than 50, and 32 percent
Last Week Was a DEI Whirlwind Trump promised to do away with DEI in his campaign, and by golly he’s keeping his promises. For HR people, our own opinions don’t matter at work when it comes to compliance. We must understand what is happening and translate that into
