¶ Challenges and Frustrations in HR
Had you actually read the email , you would know that the podcast you are about to listen to could contain explicit language and offensive content . These HR experts' views are not representative of their past , present or future employers . If you have ever heard my manager is unfair to me .
I need you to reset my HR portal password , or can I ride up my employee for crying too much ? Welcome to our little safe zone . Welcome to JDD HR .
So welcome to JDD HR , the podcast by two HR professionals who want to help you get through to work day by saying everything you're thinking , but say it out loud . I'm Warren and Feathers is back . Yes , feathers is back .
I don't know , where I've been , but I've been somewhere .
Okay , the pokey , we weren't going to say anything . No , no , that's a joke , but anyhow , or maybe it's not- We'll talk about my EEOC case later .
I'm just kidding .
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I know that Google plays like number five on the list of podcast players of people use the listen to us . So I use Pocket Cast . I love it , but don't get any money from them yet . So , anyways , I've got three stories today and you know what time it is . It's that most wonderful time of the year when we do our Christmas song .
And before we get to the Christmas song , I'm going to say I was going a completely different direction for months and months and then this just popped in my head and in and I finished it in like in two days after this one popped in my head . So I like it a lot better .
But anyways , uh , I wanted to talk about the hardest things about being in HR , since we are J to show in . So many of the shows lately haven't been to J did at all . They're like you know .
uh , I don't know , get off message . We're going to get back on message . Get back on exactly .
We fucking hate people .
Dear job , don't be an asshole . There we go , yeah .
All the above . Well , I I had a talk with a HR friend of mine and they they were not a happy camper because they just had to process a batch of bonuses for a department in their company that botches things up all the time . They're famous for passing the buck and then apparently blaming HR when things don't go well .
But the HR team had to process these bonuses and HR hasn't received a bonus in quite some time . This person told me they think that the new manager of that department is using the bonuses to buy the team into liking them , and this person has been at their job for over 10 years and is now thinking of making a move away just because of this .
And when talking to them , their voice was literally shaking , literally shaking . They were so angry . You know how people's voice gets when they're they're just on the cusp of losing it , that's . That's how pissed off they were and it was .
And you know , I haven't had that exact experience in my life , but I can definitely know where they're coming from with that .
But you know , that's one of the things about being in HR we get exposure to a lot of sensitive information salaries , bonuses , things along those lines and through the course of my career I've worked at places like CPA firms , law firms , engineering firms , things like that , and I see these people salaries and you know , do I get jealous ?
No , not really , because I'm not an engineer , cpa or lawyer and I had the opportunity to go to school and learn one of those skills and become higher paid . So I do look at that information as data . I try not to get pulled into the I don't know the oh , that person doesn't do shit . Why do they ? You know this .
This entry level engineer is making , you know , puku dollars . And here I am with 25 years of my experience because , honestly , hr has a different value in the mind place than people who produce .
And until you get to one of those big big companies that has thousands of employees in a CRO that's making big , big , big bucks , it's , it's HR is not where you go to get paid , but you know that . That's one thing that I've just been able to deal very well within my career .
But my company we're currently in we're currently in the middle of the fourth quarter of our review season .
The fourth quarter is review time for everybody , and this happened to me at a prior company once upon a time and as HR , one of our jobs were to the HR generalists or business partner , whatever you want to say for that group , would read all the reviews for their group just to make sure there's nothing you know .
Read no red flags or anything stupid written on a review or anything like that . And once upon a time I read a review of an employee and if I were to say this employee was inferior , that would be extremely generous . They , they , they took up space very well . That's what I could compliment them on .
You took up space very well over the past quarter of this year .
We do not have to correct you for wearing deodorant or not .
We're putting a good spin on this shit sandwich here . But but this person they effed up so many different things . We had to correct their problems and what everything they did seems to make everybody's job more difficult . I really don't know what value they ever brought to the company . And they were .
This person was one of those people that would CC the whole world , including and I know this first hand because I was both the recipient of being CC'd and I was the subject of it . But if something goes wrong , they CC the entire world on it , including HR .
And you know , like I said , I've been the reported , a mistake maker and I've been the CC person with it . And , like I said , if they just disappeared off the face of the earth , I wouldn't have known what Change to expect . But anyways , going to getting a sidetrack there , I read their review . There they were in my , one of my divisions .
I had to read the review for and all four . When it's review time , that's the time to pat yourself on the back , as long as you're in the realm of reality with that and and it's a good time for that . But this was a fairy tale that Walt Disney couldn't have come up with and I some of the things in the review .
I could actually pull up facts and say , no , you're wrong , false , false , false . But to make it worse , they had to nerve in their review to say they deserve a huge raise . I forget what percentage they were asking for , but it was a huge percentage .
I was like , yeah , right , because of all the extra work they do and all the things they do , like no , I don't know what that is . And their manager , who I to this day I still think very , very highly of , said went along with the whole thing . Should .
The manager she just drank the Kool-Aid in Mass and Like said that was a new manager , had a reputation for being a no-nonsense manager , a good manager , and that would just . That just made me sick to see someone like that . It's like that's when . That's only time .
I think having access to sensitive , quote-unquote HR information has really ticked me off To a certain degree . And why should it pick me off ? I don't know the . The person was useless and what's a matter if they get more money or bigger raise . I think they shouldn't have really had a job .
But anyway , yeah , have you had any experiences where you've the , the sensitive HR information you're interested to sort of Burn your biscuits .
Simple answer is yes , that's the only time I can think of . It's .
I always find it fascinating when you have access to that kind of information , when it's like budget season or like we're talking about , like promotions or merit increases or equity , and you be across the board and while , yes , we can encourage Holistically from my experience , and not decision-makers we can influence , but we , we don't have the final say .
So , yeah , sometimes really pisses me off . But what's your point earlier ? I mean , clearly we chose this profession , but we chose this profession Because we hate people . How ?
my people person yeah , yeah now .
So no , I mean , I mean you've you said it very well . I mean we I tried to understand this data points as well , but it's really tough when you see Things , you just shake your head like I can't understand why this person is either making X or getting X or being promoted to , why , yeah , it can be a pain in the ass sometimes .
Yeah , yeah , and maybe there's more to the story . I don't know , but the story that I do know or have known in the past and things like that it's just said no , no , everything's wrong with this situation .
Well , speaking of , everything is wrong with the situation , this came from the source I found it on was Dextro dxtrocom , a story on November 24th by Michael William . So there was a tiktoker and I don't know I doubt you've seen the video , but he works , worked past tense at home depot and I'm not going to use his handles .
Probably everybody's seen this , all right , but he made a clip about his customers wanting to beg , begging him to buy this grand duchess Christmas tree display , and if you haven't seen the grand duchess Christmas tree display , it's a beautiful tree and it it went viral on tiktok and you can't find it anywhere now .
And this guy did a video wearing what appears to be his home depot smock and While possibly being in in home depot , he didn't talk , it was just words going across his smug face about it . But the text read the next person that calls asking for the grand duchess Christmas tree , he's going to get a crowbar to their kneecaps and so guess what ?
That did not set too well with the home depot management . Uh , so he was get this . He was fired and then he
¶ Challenges of Working With Gen Z
did . His next video was a video of him doing he called it the walk of shame and he was showing his termination paperwork as he's being led out the front door . But that video he said he was going to continue making videos spiting the store and that customers don't need to buy everything a white girl on tiktok told you to buy .
So you know In his name is his real name is on here , so everybody knows who he is . So it's not like he's going to go to Lowe's across the street and I'm like , fuck you , we're not hiring you . You're going to do the same thing here . And what the hell are you doing , visibly making tiktok videos while you're at work ?
I mean , there's no , no two ways about that . But Insighting violence or threatening to hurt your customers is Is not a good way to keep your employment . And but he got a lot of people like Encouraging which it's social media . You know , hey , I'm gonna , you know , stick my tongue in a toaster and I want to watch and everybody's good .
Yeah , yeah , go for it . You know , whatever stupid thing people are doing and but I'm a firm believer in Darwinism .
Let him do it .
But yeah , I wonder what's gonna happen to this guy , where he's gonna be next . So he's not . I don't . I hope people are doing social media checks at least properly do them . You don't want your manager's doing a social media check on their potential employees is that's very bad .
But having a HR person or someone a recruiter doing Social media check on these people and this guy's made himself virtually unhirable , I think , with his , his actions , but we shall see . But some people are more forgiving than I am as well . So the last story of the day I found it today .
David Miclus , who was a guest on the show once upon a time , put this on LinkedIn and I followed the link . It was actually published in May , may 15th , and it was from resume builder . Resume builder . Resume builder finds that three and four managers find it difficult to work with Gen Z . So we are .
This segment once again is let's shit on Gen Z , because that's what this whole article is about it . So resume builder surveyed 1344 managers and business leaders and found 74 percent Believe that Gen Z is more difficult to work with than other generations . 49% say it's difficult to work with Gen Z all or most of the time .
The top reasons they feel that Gen Z is difficult to work with is they lack the technological skills , effort and motivation . 65% say they more commonly need to fire Gen Z years than employees of other generations . 12% have fired a Gen Z year in less than one week of their start date .
And One of the top reasons for firing Gen Z year because they're too easily offended . You don't have that safe space for them . Adam Garfield , who is the marketing director at Haribo I shall love their gummy bears . Compared to other generations , he says . I find Gen Z to be highly innovative and adaptable .
They're not afraid to challenge status quo and bring new ideas to the table . They also value authenticity , transparency and expect companies to be socially responsible and ethical . However , one area where I believe Gen Z could improve in the workplace is their communication skills .
While they're proficient with using digital communication tools , they may lack some of the interpersonal skills required for face-to-face interactions . Gen Z years could benefit from developing their communication skills to build stronger relationships with colleagues and clients . Let's say more . More stats from the their survey 34% say they prefer to work with Millennials .
30% prefer to work with Gen X , which that surprised me , as I'm thinking most of the people in the management world right now , or either your older Millennials or Xers , but the poor boomers only 4% would prefer to work with boomers and those are probably boomers themselves .
Four Millennials managers think that Millennials are the Most productive and I'll have the best technological skills , which , overall , I can't disagree with . And then , right behind them were Gen Xers . They feel they are the most honest 46% and most productive . 42% felt they were most productive . And yeah , gen Xers were honest .
We're gonna tell you fuck down , we don't . We don't have those filters or safe spaces . But my whole point in this , this article , is you know Gen Z ? They and you know what . Before I get too far , I think it's people like Maybe not me specifically , but the Xers who are the parents of these Z's that are causing problems .
They all got their participation awards and they all got sold . You know you . You struck out because umpire was bad . No , you struck out because you suck at baseball . They were never told hey , maybe baseball isn't the right sport for you . Have you ever tried ? Thought of chess or Something like that ? Nobody would tell them no and set boundaries for them .
So they had these . They've never been given realistic expectations and now they're . And add to that Covid , where they were doing their assignments and turning things in online and didn't have to interact with people and Didn't really develop those social skills at those key years .
You know , think you're , you're in high school or early college and you're not having the interaction with other people your age . I , you know , I don't want to truly give them a scapegoat , saying it's Covid , but the covid's gonna play a part in it the pandemic and being isolated during those , those key years .
And , like I said , they're now entering the job market and that's just crazy . You know , when you do someone's I9 I still do all of our employees I9's and and sing these people with their birth years and they're like , oh my god , I was married and had kids before you . My kids are older than you . It's , it's really , really crazy . So , yeah , that .
That concludes this episode of shitting on Gen Z , unless you got some bad .
No , I just have to probably agree with every most things I'm hearing .
Yeah , and it's sad because you would think like my next generation I . I , as an excerpt , can agree that millennials , they're pretty damn good at virtually everything . They , they , they do work hard overall . You know it's pain with this broad brush that they work hard overall . They know their technology , they , they have the interpersonal skills .
I think they're , they're , you know , not too far off of Xers , but then you go to the Z . It was like what the fuck happened . So , anyways , so at long last we are prepared . Get yourselves prepared for the 2023 Christmas song by Jaded HR .
All right , if you , if you're new to the show and you haven't listened to look around November , december , each year , in the back episodes of episodes , we either have a song or a story . I did , I did , I did . It was the night before Christmas once upon a time .
But the others are songs and we'd like to put a nice little HR spin on your favorite Christmas song .
So so before we get into it , let's just point out one thing Merry Christmas Cause . The rest of that political crap bullshit I hate .
Yeah .
I'm like . I'm like a true Jaded person .
Like you know and you know , if you're you're not , I have a new one , oh hold on , hold on .
I have a new one . This is something that I brand new , that I heard for the first time . I was now a wish a happy fall holiday and not happy Thanksgiving holiday .
Okay .
You know , I had nothing . I was like did I just get wished a happy fall holiday ? I did . Okay , I had to text people and be like is this the thing ? Did I miss this ? Is this my ? Am I not supposed to say Thanksgiving anymore ? Like I know some Native Americans and they don't care .
The Native American that I think you're thinking about doesn't give a rad test about much .
No , I mean , I know , I know a couple of them and they're , they're all like um , okay .
Thanks yeah .
Like whatever we at corn do , like you know it's .
You know , as I will speak as a non-Christian person , if someone says Merry Christmas to you , I'll just say thank you , I don't , you know , you didn't hurt my . You're wishing me well , you're giving me good vibes , whatever it is , I would just say oh , thank you . Move on , you too , whatever .
You don't need to make a oh my God , you know , that's not my culture , that's not my upbringing , that's not my whatever . You're imposing your belief system on me .
What was the ? What was the line in ? I was always thinking about stripes like call me psycho . Lighten up . Francis . I lighten up Francis , like get the fuck over it .
Yeah , stripes . You know , I've rewatched that movie not that long ago and it just I didn't laugh as much as I thought I would be . It was I don't know . It's you're becoming older and unjaded you just like I can watch airplane and I've watched oh , I watched the Christmas vacation or the vacation marathon , all of them on Thanksgiving Day .
I can laugh at those .
So airplanes , great . What's up ? I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue .
Yeah .
Yeah .
Yeah . All right , that's what they do . Let's , let's butcher the shit out of this .
OK , I never came up with the title of this , so I'll just call it a Jingle Bells parody . So who knows how many takes it's going to take us to get through this thing ?
So we have three . I'm looking at , but it's bourbon , so Jack Daniels , ok , yeah , yeah .
OK , ready , yeah . One , two , three Dashing through the halls trying to get away , dodging sales calls , getting through the day with my eyes rolling at employees not so bright , oh , but I can only dream of getting home tonight
¶ Surviving HR WTF Moments
. Oh , what the hell , what the hell . Seems all I ever say , struggling not to be so snob . But bourbon will say the day hey , what the hell , what the hell seems all I ever say Struggling not to be so snob , but bourbon will say the day . If I'm asked again , where's my W to ? I'll just have to grin Bend over , I'll show you .
You ask this every year . Will you ever learn what the fuck is wrong with you ? You make my stomach turn . Oh , what the hell , what the hell seems all I ever say , struggling not to be so snob . But bourbon will say the day hey , what the hell , what the hell is all I ever say Struggling not to be so snob but bourbon stays today .
Jimmy has to go Is all I have to say . He really has to know you can't behave that way this year . His little trick after a drink or two he whipped out his little dick and started chasing Sue . Oh , what , the hell , what the hell seems all I ever say . Struggling not to be so snob . But bourbon will say the day hey what ?
the hell , what the hell seems , all I ever say . Struggling not to be so snob . But bourbon will say the day .
That's great , that's great .
Yeah , as I mentioned earlier , I was going a whole nother route and I don't know something . So no change course , so hopefully one take .
We nailed it . We nailed it . One take . We're not going to put the lyrics in the show notes .
Copyright 2023 JTHR . So hopefully that made your day a little bit better . Our best practice be , when you , when you get a little down and out , when you are exposed to sensitive HR data , just think what the hell , what the hell .
And have a bourbon . I'm probably going to have a bourbon after this .
Well , thanks once again . Please be sure to leave a review . Share with your friends . We'll let the whole world know about . Know about us , as always . Oh , like I say , the intro and outro music is the underscore orchestra , double to double , and the voice artists doing the intro is Andrew Culpa , and now I can say , as always , I'm Warren .
And this is feathers .
And we're helping you survive . Hr won . What the fuck moment at a time .