HR

Give me a break

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It’s that time of year again when we’re all starting, or thinking about starting, our Christmas break. The jumpers have been worn, the sherry drunk and the Christmas misdemeanours almost, ALMOST forgotten. It’s time for a break. A well earned rest.

And yet, whilst we all yearn for a break, I’m not so sure we give each other the same respect.

Meetings scheduled for the first couple of days back, reports sent on the last day before the holidays, actions completed and requirements passed on.

Because we need to get this off our list, off our backs and settle down for a Christmas break.

The thing is, have you thought about the person that you’re sending that email on to? The one that receives that report the day they are due to go on holiday, or has an important meeting land in the diary for their first day back?  Is this about getting things off your list, or do things really need to happen?

Are you making sure that those around you have a decent break too?

And it isn’t just about our work. What about those people working in the shops, for the courier firms, keeping our transport system going, our lights on and our internet working? Answering our calls and dealing with our queries, helping us to…..well switch off.

As you go away for your well deserved break, ask yourselves what you could do to give other people a break. At work, at home, when you’re out shopping, or dealing with that last minute issue. How do you want them to feel over the holidays, how do you want them to wake up on Christmas day?

Respect isn’t a once a year phenomenon, but once a year we can focus on how we can do more.

Enjoy your break and let other people around you enjoy it too. They may be working, but it doesn’t mean you have to make their lives harder. They may be off, but it doesn’t mean you need to make sure they’re thinking about the return.

Take a break and give others a break too.

It’s what we all deserve.

I’ll be back in the New Year with more ramblings and general grumpiness. Until then.

Peace out.

Reflect and review

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In the same way that you can guarantee that @FlipChartRick will tell you that there are bad times ahead, that @SukhPabial will make you feel frivolous and you’ll never get to the end of one of @KateGL’s musings. You can guarantee the next few weeks will be full of blog posts on reflection and review.

And that’s all very well and good.

If you’re only interested in the past. Which I’m not.

There is a truth in the fact that our expectations are based on experience. But our goals should be based on the future, on exceeding and going further, on pushing things harder and achieving bigger and better.

It doesn’t matter which base we are working off, how one person might be further ahead than another. How one organisation might be in a different place to another. That is, in every way, irrelevant.

It doesn’t matter what bigger, or better means to you. Just that you have ambition.

The question is, how could you go further?

HR as a profession is notoriously unambitious, insipid and timid. It has developed an institutional need to seek permission. Often without asking, just waiting.

So my challenge to you is this.

What are you going to do next year to move yourself and your organisation forward? What commitments are you going to make to achieve and deliver more? How can you push the envelope that little bit further to create something that amazes and excites?

Reflect by all means, but remember that you’re only as good as your last performance. You’re judged by recent experience of you. And people are looking for you now and not then.

Because the past is exactly that. It has gone. And it isn’t a place we want to live in.

“Commitment is an act, not a word”

So what’s next?

Why Christmas sucks for #HR

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1) Pay Review – You know it is coming up. You know that you’re not prepared. You know that every single manager will be telling you why they are an exception. And you know that they’re right. It’s the ultimate annual clusterf**k of a personnel process. And it’s all yours baby. Happy Christmas.

2) Holidays – Where the hell is everyone? Christmas shopping days? School plays? Cheeky drinks with a supplier? Don’t you know we’re against a deadline people? Organising any sort of meeting suddenly becomes a Herculean feat yet everyone is rushing to get things off their desk before the holidays. I mean, seriously….

3) Recruitment – We need that vacancy filled now! But we won’t be able to interview until January. And we have no budget to spend. That’s ok. Right?

4) The Christmas Party – You’re in HR, you can’t enjoy it. You won’t enjoy it. But if you’re not there, then you’re a corporate disgrace. It’s the perfect example of inclusion/exclusion working in harmony. With fancy dress, optional. And….

5) Alcohol – Yeah. You know. You and me both. We’ve all dealt with far too many sad cases. It’s Christmas, it’s time to relax. But that never means forgetting where the line is. Be responsible people, the last thing you want is a grumpy HR Director on your case.