HR BESTIES - HR Besties Happy Hour - Does HR Make You Miserable?

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

Welcome back to another Happy Hour, Besties! We’re sure as hell glad it’s Friday. In this Happy Hour: Shoutout Leigh's backpack Does HR make you miserable? Find your people Let go of toxic relationships Friday Feel Goods Your To-Do List: Grab merch, submit Questions & Comments, and make sure that you’re the first to know about our In-Person Meetings (events!) at https://www.hrbesties.com. Follow your Besties across the socials and check out our resumes here: https://www.hrbesties.com/about.  We look forward to seeing you in our next meeting - don’t worry, we’ll have a hard stop! Yours in Business + Bullsh*t,  Leigh, Jamie & Ashley Follow Bestie Leigh! https://www.tiktok.com/@hrmanifesto https://www.instagram.com/hrmanifesto https://www.hrmanifesto.com Follow Bestie Ashley! https://www.tiktok.com/@managermethod  https://www.instagram.com/managermethod https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyherd/ https://managermethod.com Follow Bestie Jamie! https://www.millennialmisery.com/ Humorous Resources: Instagram • YouTube • Threads • Facebook • X Millennial Misery: Instagram • Threads • Facebook • X Horrendous HR: Instagram • Threads • Facebook Tune in to “HR Besties,” a business, work and management podcast hosted by Leigh Elena Henderson (HRManifesto), Ashley Herd (ManagerMethod) and Jamie Jackson (Humorous_Resources), where we navigate the labyrinth of corporate culture, from cringe corporate speak to toxic leadership. Whether you’re in Human Resources or not, corporate or small business, we offer sneak peeks into surviving work, hiring strategies, and making the employee experience better for all. Tune in for real talk on employee engagement, green flags in the workplace, and how to turn red flags into real change. Don't miss our chats about leadership, career coaching, and takes from work travel and watercooler gossip. Get new episodes every Wednesday and Friday, follow us on socials for the latest updates, and join us at our virtual happy hours to share your HR stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy Friday. We made it. Woohoo! We made it. Some of us did. Oh man. I know. Barely. I'll be honest. Present and accountable. Raise your hand. Raise your hand if you're here. Right. Oh my gosh. I'll just do a half-phrase there. I'm still in recovery from New York City because there's a lot of people there. So that's hard. It's sensory. It's sensory overload.

It's very people-y there. Yes. Love it. It is so people-y. It's extra people-y. So, whoo, gosh. Did you make it, besties? I hope you did.

If you're listening to this, you did. If you're listening or reading the transcript, I wish you are, but one or both. But I will give Lee an A plus for the stories. She did a great job. Great job. Putting the content out there. I know. Were you, how did you think about that?

Did you see us? Did you see us visibly on your shoulder, Lee out there. I know. Were you, how did you think about that? Did you see us? Did you see us visibly on your shoulder, Lee? Yes, I did. And then I had people like reply to the stories. Yay, good job. Like people are like, yay, the stories you promised. Yay, more stories. Like you said. That's so funny. So I did feel the pressure, which was fine, but you all didn't see it all. I couldn't keep up with everything that I did, but I tried. I did better than usual. How about that? You did a great job.

Your backpack was a huge hit, not only with Mama Manager method, but a lot of besties. They were like, drop the link. Oh yeah, I need to do that. I'll put that in your story and then we'll put that in the HR besties story. But I tell you, nobody can move more swiftly than mama manager method. When she sees a purchase, she immediately, can you ask Lee where she got that backpack from? Lee drops it. I mean, within about, what was it? Like 97 seconds. She's like, done. I got it in black. Lee's was in white. And then the next day she had it. Like it was great. I was still on vacation and she's like wearing it too. You know, she's going to show up in Times Square.

Look, I got your backpack. It's cute. Now I'm here so I can see it. I can, backpack, backpack. It's cute. Now I'm here so I can see it and I can tell you in person. It's a cute bag. I can give you all the descriptions. So it's great. Exactly. Well, I hope she enjoys it and whoever else.

I got lots of messages on it. So yeah. Oh gosh. I don't try to be a clothes or beauty influencer, but man, people all the time and my DMs ask them for stuff. I know. And of course I hear, you know, I'm not trying and my DMs ask him for stuff. I know, I know. And of course, here, I'm not trying to keep it to myself. Oh, same.

But I'm like, y'all don't understand how cheap I am. My bag is $30. You want the link? Hell yeah, Walmart. Well, I need to figure out my bag situation. And my bag situation. My bag right now is not like a travel backpack. It's like a work backpack.

Lee has seen my travel backpack. It's like a satchel that I wore to Sherm that I will wear to HR Tech because it holds my HR Besties and Manager Methods separate business cards. It has at least a couple of pockets, so I don't mix business and pleasure. But a funny thing, so when I worked at McKinsey Consulting Firm, you could get a discount on ToMe bags. But it wasn't just a... Ooh, nice. Yes. But those that are listening, and I have former colleagues, including my friend in Amsterdam, who was there for my destruction of company property.

They know this. The link that we sent was not like a to me website. It was like a suspicious, you think it's like a phishing attempt. I reported it for phishing. It's not. And so even when you buy it, it's like, it's not going to show up on your credit card as like anything. It's like, you know, Joe's discount, whatever.

It was like the funniest, the funniest thing. And I have mentioned this to a few people, as you can imagine, I tend to bring up topics that I work on. Like, did you order that discounted product? And people are like, oh my God, it's, I thought I was getting, I literally thought my credit card had gotten stolen. But no, I have a, I do have a cute, like a Toomey bag from, from that. So it did arrive, but anyway. It was real. Well, it's, it's a, yeah, yeah, I was gonna say it was it a dupe

I could I luckily it might be I don't know the difference I think I think Lee has probably a discerning eye and would be able to tell the difference I can't and so it's fine by me has a lot of nothing's frayed as of yet. So there we are It's all to me with like a accent Fumi sure is with like an accent. What's that? Is that foomy? Sure is. Exactly. Foomy. Foomy. What?

Foomy twice, okay? Foomy, foomy, foomy. Got my credit card details on the dark web. Exactly. Exactly. Foomy brand. I love it. Oh gosh.

How to stop losses work on Kraken? Let's say I have a birthday party on Wednesday night, but an important meeting Thursday morning. So sensible me pre-books a taxi for 10pm with alerts. Voila! I won't be getting carried away and staying out till 2. That's stop loss orders on Kraken. An easy way to plan ahead. Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be.

Non-investment advice. Crypt and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice, scripted trading involves risk of loss. See kraken.com slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. So what is going on from a happy hour perspective? Anything going on in the world of HR? I say that kind of cheeky.

There's always some shit in there. Oh, we're drama filled. I know. What has been up with us lately? What's up? Tell us Ashley. Well, I got sent an article and I love this. You know that a love language can be sending videos and articles. Then we got sent this article from the New York Times. It was over the weekend. And the digital article, and I'll say that because there were two different names in the digital and the print version, the digital website, I mean, version was, so human resources is making you miserable. But the print version had its name changed to, exasperated by human resources, get in line. So I guess that's

kind of like an AB. The funny thing I had was when I first read it, I thought it was going to be about people annoyed by human resources. I didn't realize it was about HR professionals that are like fed up. Yeah, same. I mean, with a title like that, I think it's not the perspective of HR. That's why they made it that title so everyone read it. Yeah, exactly. And I too had several, actually friends send it to me as well. It starts with like show of hands who's fed up with human resources. But then quickly the point of it, it gets to, okay, if you're tired of HR, guess how

people in HR feel. They feel like everybody hates them. And that's a short summary of the article. You can read it for yourself. But we had that sent by a lot of people. And so we were texting amongst ourselves. And so ladies, what do you think as far as does HR make you miserable, either as an HR person or do other HR people make you miserable? I know both, actually. Both qualify. Yeah, I mean, look, I've been doing this for 21 years, and I can say that since 2020, HR

has really changed. And it's been different. And frankly, I've been burned out. Now, do I think that HR are the only people burnt out since 2020? Absolutely not. No. I do see the profession has changed though, a lot since then. I mean, in 2020, you know, granted I was in healthcare, so maybe my perspective is a little different. But, you know but I went from literally overnight having to worry about the safety of my employees and checking the CDC website every day and trying to understand the new guidelines and how I was going to protect the staff and just like the constant worry of making sure I was keeping people safe. Um, and then, you know, then the whole shift to remote, right?

So once again, healthcare, uh, for the last 11 years of my career, when you can be shifted to remote and then moving to fully remote and just, then the push from, from C-suite to be back into the office for quote-unquote collaboration. But I, you know, it's not something that HR per se is even agrees with, but we have to push out the messaging, right? So then we're hated for pushing the messaging of the C-suite. So it's like, I can understand the article. But HR is a very thankless career.

I mean, you know, I've experienced this all 21 years of my career. It's thankless. People don't like you for no reason. People don't actually have any idea what the fuck we do. Even in a video I posted last week, the trending of the woman in the music, and she's moving every which way. And I put all the things that HR does and people comment underneath it like, HR doesn't do any of that. They're useless.

And I'm like, see, this is what I'm talking about. No one actually outside of HR truly understands what HR does. Yeah. I think there's a lot of truth to that, but going back to something you said, lot of truth to that, but going back to something you said, how, wow, ever since 2020, I remember it was March 2020, and the shit's hitting the fan globally. I'm in a boardroom with executives, and they're like, what are we going to do? I am not kidding. Every single person turned to me. I'm an epidemiologist. I work for for the CDC, like I went to medical school. And I'm like, these are our people. These are our people to care for. I know as

much as you all do when it comes to COVID and everything that's going on right now in the world, right? Exactly. COVID and everything that's going on right now in the world. Right? I mean, this is not all my responsibility and my team's responsibility. And I'll tell you what, I had kind of that foreboding feeling because what I realized very, very quickly is that the pandemic absolutely exposed the lack of investments companies have made in health and safety,

EHS, whatever you call it. No healthcare, no health services, no understanding. And here we are, right? To where what happened? A lot of that fell onto HR. And so, fuck yeah, like totally burnt out and exhausted, like having to not only be responsible for the employee experience, but now what their lives because the company doesn't have like EHS and because hello pandemic like, wow, that was a lot going on, right?

Yeah. But for me, well, it's no question that I'm that I'm burnt out in multiple ways, just due to the shifting expectations of employers on HR, right? Rightly or wrongly. So huge, huge shifts. A lot of sentiment in the article talked about that. And I think some of the things coming from, whether it's post-pandemic or generally are, right, people don't know what HR does, but it's one of those professions where pay tends to be lower than a lot of other functions because it's a cost

center and so you're not generally making revenue. And so, but you're expected to be perfect, which can feel really intimidating and exhausting. And so a lot in the article talked about that, you know, people are talking with each other, venting about that. But one thing I think it missed out a bit is yes, HR can be hard because you have to be there at employees hardest moments sometimes you have to be the messenger to explain no in whether depending on where you are our our country's laws our companies or organizations policies you're not entitled to payment for this you're

entitled to unpaid leave I understand that and so good HR can then be a conduit to the leadership to say these are the impacts things have on employees this is how we could shift them to be more supportive. And it can be really hard to deliver the message and try to manage up. But what I think the article was missing a bit was some of the really beautiful aspects of HR. We talked, Jamie and I are part of,

whether it's private Facebook groups or us amongst each other, sometimes you'll hear from employees of the things that you're doing, like real gratitude. And sometimes people will share those anonymously and say, I heard this today and this reminded me of why I continue to be in it. And so the disheartening aspect, and we posted, so on our HR Besties Instagram,

we'd posted some of the snippets from the article, including ones that talk about a lot of the work HR does is invisible. And so people don't see the work that people do. But so many of the comments, my God, were like, one was almost verbatim, like, I don't care about HR's feelings because they don't care about anybody else. And so they need to learn to stop being shills and only care about the shareholders. I mean, I can tell you the HR employees, when they show up to work every day and when they go home and are still thinking about work, they are not thinking about shareholders. They are thinking about people and really bearing the weight of that. And so those are

the common and also things that just paint everybody as one. We've talked about this, you know, there's functions that are great. There's functions that are terrible, individuals So the common and also things that just paint everybody as one. We've talked about this. You know, there's functions that are great. There's functions that are terrible individuals that don't have training that should not be HR for a robot company. But there are people that really care. And so by putting these messages out there saying I've had this, you know, one experience, and so this is how everyone must be.

Exactly. That's, I think, what drives me nuts is like, just because one person's had this experience, that means everyone's had this experience. And that's just simply not true. Yeah. Yeah, I think what's definitely just compounded the stress of being in a field like human resources,

post-COVID pandemic is just the constant change, all of the unknowns that have happened, just the fear, just so much drama right over the last handful of years and things shifting and changing to where the need for employee messaging has just been through the roof. And guess what? A lot of times it's HR that's delivering those toughest messages to the people. And when it's not, it's typically leaders fucking it up. To be honest, that's a lot of the headlines that you see. You know what I mean?

It is, you know, a CEO went off and said X, Y, and Z, and then their HR and comms leader left because they never even knew they were going to say that or whatever. There's all sorts of examples of that. But that, in my opinion, is the big part of the burnout is just, wow. We are, as a business community, having to be more nimble than we've ever had to be and respond to so many changes in laws or changes in just workplace issues, workplace conversations. I mean everything, right? It's just hitting us all at once these last few years. Us trying to navigate that plus advise leaders plus care for employees.

Oh my gosh, to be stuck in the middle like that, it hurts. It physically and mentally hurts. It's incredibly exhausting. Right? So, oh. It's why these happy hours are happy. Getting together is super important. And so if you have within your HR team, sometimes we just had an article or episode last week on work friendships and how HR can be challenging, but finding your people. And if you are, whether it's an HR team of one or a really lean team, but it's finding some of these is just knowing that there's others like you that are going through these and you're certainly not alone and you do need support. But also some of the comments I saw were people saying,

wait, I've actually really thought about getting into HR. Is that a bad idea? And we see comments, we certainly don't go and respond to every comment because we got to live our lives and get our work done. But some of those comments, if you have an inclination to want to get an HR, two things. One is, please, please, do we want,

any job needs people that want to be there. But it's understanding what it's really like. So question is, okay, what are the aspects like? If you don't want to be working as a generalist or as a business partner where you're navigating some of these people be people and issues, then there's tons of more technical aspects of HR. So even if you want to move into that, but the field needs people that want to be there,

that get the resources and training and support. And so a lot of it is finding the organization where you can really be planted and grow and not just feel like a commodity. Yeah, I love that sentiment that's like, hey, find that support system and that support network and lean on them. But I also would make the case for an argument for remove yourself from people that are pulling you down, holding you back, that are negative. I've worked in incredibly toxic HR teams. I

mean just horrific places. You know that if you've watched my content, you know, it's all based on my reality and experience. And that's why I actually am not working in corporate currently. I think I did 19 years in HR and I hope to never return to corporate HR to be quite honest with you because I think I did 19 years in HR, and I hope to never return to corporate HR, to be quite honest with you, because I think those are dog years there. I've done about 100 years worth of corporate in Fortune 100s.

But I think that there's a case to be made for, hey, if you aren't finding joy in your current situation, it's not necessarily the field of HR, perhaps. It's maybe the environment, the industry, the team itself, the people you surround yourself with, right? So go try and find a fit and seek that support network and team that Ashley speaks to because it's so important. Do you all know how HR got started? No.

Military. Yeah, like tell me. Well, so this was in the article and I was not familiar with this. And of course, this made me want to get a book on the origins of HR, which there we are. But it was that the founder of National Cash Register, which is more notably called NCR now, but how he had the founder or CEO had been like, this is 100 years ago, convicted of like Sherman Act violations, like a bad boss, like a Luke, you may say, if you've ever watched a manager

method video, but really treated people like commodities. And he had served a year in prison for some of his tactics. And then he saw they had $50,000 worth of returned equipment, which I don't know what that would be in today's, a lot of money in today's days. But he took the tactic that said, well, if all this has been returned, that shows that people don't feel like they're taken care of. So they don't care about what they're putting out. And so he changed his tactics and ended up creating, having, whether it was like daycare, he wanted to humanize, he put his desk on the floor, so he wasn't separated out from the people

and tried to humanize it. And I know there's criticisms about even the term human resources, but often people will comment and see, you know, HR has only been invented and only to combat solely unions. And I'm sure there's probably more to the story that I'll tell you in my book club, my HR Besties full book club when I read the treatise.

But that was one aspect of the article that I found interesting, that it was someone taking that recognition, that when you have shitty business conditions, like a bad product, that that might be that your people don't care because they don't feel like they're something you can care of. And so that's my constant answer when people say, HR only cares about the company, the shareholders, we say this, everybody works for the same organization. But even if you walk down that line,

an organization isn't gonna do well if your people are treated terribly and don't feel like they're seen or anyone cares about them. And so even if you look at it solely to like maximize productivity and product and output, et cetera, treating people well tends to do that. And so if that's how you have to learn

that it actually feels good and you can sleep better at night by valuing people as humans. But that was an aspect of the article that I thought was interesting. That's very interesting. Like, hey, I fucked up majorly. Maybe, maybe if I wasn't such an asshole, I have to have a babysitter in here with my hand. Well, that was my, I was like, that's why when I read this, I thought to myself, there's got to be a little more to this side of the story. Yes, I need to know more. But I do like this. And that's just something constantly the three of us trumpet and we talk about on this podcast, but this aspect

of, even if you and your leadership team have to be convinced that treating people well is good for business, if that's how the angle that you have to get there, which to Lee's point, you can be right or you can be happy. Yes, it is a good thing to treat people like humans, but you may be happier if you use some of this business data. When I get this book, I'll share some of the synopsons so you can have a PowerPoint deck and put that in your next presentation. Maybe sprinkle it with some animations.

Some clip art. Yes. Definitely. I always love the phrase, like how you treat your employees is how they'll treat your customers. Yeah. I mean, it is too true. You know, having seen that played out just a million times over. Well, and that's, I know I've said this before on the pod, I think it was season one, but

I worked for Marriott pretty early in my career. And that was Bill Marriott's whole thing is like, you take care of your employees and they'll take care of your customers and your customers will keep coming back. And so I learned that early on. And that's actually where I got all of my like manager and management training was through Marriott and you when it's ingrained in you, that doesn't ever leave you. And so I feel like that's why there's companies that are successful and they actually do care about the employee. Because it is true, you're going

to take care of your people, they're going to take care of your people, and they're going to keep coming back and then there's a loyalty. So not all HR people are bad. Fuck off. I refuse to accept that misery must exist in the workplace. And I don't pretend like that's not the case for many, many people right now. And that's not the reality in organizations or with certain colleagues or managers. But I truly believe it is possible, whether you want to find super joy at work or whether you just want to go someplace and feel like you're treated like a human, that is a life-changing experience. And it's the people

that have never seen that, that I think run to the comments and just try to tear down other people and speak in absolutes. This never happens. No one ever cares. None of this. When you have that experience and you, especially working with a manager who creates that environment for you, ooh, it is lightning in the bottle. Yeah. I always feel sorry for the people that leave those comments to that exact point, Ashley. Like, God, they've never experienced a you know, a great environment or a great leader, and that sucks. Like, oh, you know.

So if you look on our HR Besties, our post, we did a post about it the other day, and there's a lot of comments across the board on that. And so go in and check those out. We'll put it back in our stories, right, when the happy hour pops up. So add your comments and look at it and just think about what you can do. You can't control everything, but you can do things to create a different experience for those team members that have to see it to believe it, to believe that you care about them.

Yes, and one for yourself too, right? So don't stick around in a miserable environment if you do not have to, that is for sure. You do not have to, is the point. When you're faced with a challenge, you don't back down. So when it comes time to level up your financial game, you know what to do. Rise to it and reward your good financial habits with the new BMO Eclipse Rise Visa card, the credit card that takes you from bill payer to reward slayer. Get rewarded

for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Terms and conditions apply. Click the banner or visit bmo.com slash rise to learn more. Oh gosh, the happiest happy hour talking about misery, misery in the field. But it is quite the conversation though. I mean, talk about just a lot going on in the function, right? Any good news? Any good news to end on? Any fun things to share? Oh, I got one. I got one. Oh, Jamie, all yours, please. Feel good Friday. My kids went back to school this week. Oh, congrats.

Yay. God, I love them. But I'm telling you, when school hits, it's like, oh, yes, structure. Yeah, routine, right? Oh, my gosh. It's like a relief. You survived. Yes, I survived. You survived the summer. Sorry, teachers, but Ty, you're it. Now let me ask you this. Have you ever been a room parent or the more colloquial term room mom? Have you ever filled that role? No. No. I mean, I don't. And look, if I didn't have 18 full-time jobs, maybe, but I do like to volunteer. So like I've probably at least once or twice a year, I'll like go read a book or, you know,

help out the PTO, but I am definitely not on the PTO or a room mom. Happy to help. Or even Venmo, the teacher for supplies. Right? There you go. There you go. But that's about it. Which as a daughter of a teacher, I know they appreciate that. Exactly.

A bit in a way. Yes. And I actually, you know, and I'm going to do it. I was thinking about doing it this year. I think that I'm going to use my platform, probably on Humorous, that if a teacher, if you know a teacher that is in need, I think weekly I'll post their Amazon wishlist. Oh, that's nice. I think I'm going to do that.

I love that. I've been wanting to do it and you know what? Fuck it. I'm announcing it right now, so I'm going to. Humorous, I love that. Send teachers my way with their Amazon wishlist. Humorous underscore resources. Yep.

That's awesome. Love that. I love that. That's so great. Love it. Ashley, you got any good news? Yeah, we've said we've... See, family, I came down to the villages for to see family remotely.

Florida. Yeah, Florida. The Hurricane Debbie did not hit as badly as we thought, so. Thank goodness. That's been nice. We did bring Rosie the dog on the road trip. That was an adventure.

I thought one or more of us may not survive this. My husband, Mr. Manger Method, Dan is not the biggest dog person in the world like I am. And so his interest in hearing my dog whine, because she can't be more than four inches away from me. But I also, I'm going to get some good karma because I decided not to connect Lee to my hater that let me know a few criticisms, including that they didn't like the podcast. And we talked about setting up the script of justice for Lee to set up a call.

In the poll, people did, people did in the poll more than not wanted that to happen. But I feel like we talk a lot about respecting people's time. And I feel like that would be inviting, that would not be inviting nice karma. Although I have spent a lot of time visualizing what that would be like, and I've gotten a lot of chuckles myself. So that's my collection of good things for the week. Lee? Well, that's good.

No, it definitely would have been a waste of my time. So I appreciate that. I mean, I would have enjoyed it. I would have fun, but I got all that out in New York City last weekend. All those little street fights and whatever, you know, like all those little people run ins, the impromptu things. Throwing bows.

Oh damn, oh man, like the guy in the theater on his phone on full brightness while they're performing. Oh my God. And I'm like, turn it off. I was scared of, he didn't come back after intermission. He sure didn't, he sure didn. I was scared of, he didn't come back after intermission. He sure didn't. He sure didn't. He did not.

He ran. Well, hell yeah, he did. Because that is so freaking disrespectful. And that shit's expensive. You know what I mean? And for him to just be in a baseball hat, short, he did not want to be there. So bitch, don't be here. You know?

Like, come on, turn it off. I'm that person. I like those Broadway seats that have the booster, the booster in them. I had to use them. Well, because somebody probably your height sat in front of me. Man, that wasn't you. And I was like, God. And so I was there with my daughter.

But so I've used I've used a booster before, so shout out to Broadway. And then the person behind you has two boosters and then the person behind you has three boosters. It just all gets, everyone gets boosted. It's like Caps for Sal or that kid's book with his stag. Yes, yeah. Exactly, exactly. Oh gosh.

But you had a good trip. I mean, it looked like it, right? Yeah, no, absolutely. But you had a good trip. I mean, it looked like it, right? Yeah. No, absolutely. It was hot as hell, though. You know? Jamie, I know last week you talked about not having been to New York City yet. I mean, it is uncomfortable. That's about as close as you're going to get to that European feel, like just the creature comforts of living in a place where, like,

you have your own car and you can easily get into it and you can get somewhere quickly. You know what I'm saying? It's different. You're walking everywhere. It's hot. It's steamy because the buildings, there's not a lot of AC. They don't really like to use it. You name it. It's just an older city that's really congested. I love it. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. I've been there tons of times.

I continue to go back. I enjoy food and art and museums and all that. I'm just saying, when you come home, it's like, ha! Let me take a real shower and a big shower with a big fridge and I have air conditioning and ice. We'll go in the fall, I think the fall. Yeah, the fall's lovely. Let me ask you this, if you all saw this this week, did you see this story about RFK Jr.

and the bear? Do you know what I'm talking about? No, I hadn't seen this. What is it? Enlighten us. We are going to link this on our Insta story. So I guess like 10 years ago, there was a dead bear found in Central Park. And somebody on Twitter, which is Twitter, X, whatever, is kind of funny. Someone almost 10 years ago had written who the F hits a bear with their car likely by accident, but leaves it in Central Park. Anyway, this week it came out. There is an interview and it's RFK Jr.

talking to Roseanne. I swear. I don't understand. I don't know what the... And it's like a filmed video. I'm sure it's something to this political campaign and we're certainly not going to get political on this. I watched this thing. It's like three minutes long. I will link to it in HR Besties source. He talks about how they were driving and hit a bear driving and they put it in the van. They put it in the van and they didn't know what to do with it. And he got into New York City and realized he had dinner reservations at Peter Lugar steakhouse. And then he had a flight the next morning and so he's like, what are we going to do? He's like, I guess this is the redneck in me, which I didn't think the Kennedys had much of that in him.

So as a Kentucky and I respect that. But they dumped it. So he dumped, the bear had been, I think had been dead at this point, but dropped it in Central Park. I mean, what? It was, it was this. That checks out for New York City, honestly. What?

Yeah, it totally checks out though. Why would you put it in the car? I mean, though, the best, but the best is Roseanne's facial expressions because you see them and he's like, I wasn't drinking. And you can see she's like giving him the question. Really look. Are you on crack cocaine? It's the strangest three minutes I've ever seen of a video.

And so it was like one of those like poetry, word poetry. Like if you were going to put random factoids together, it's very strange. So we'll link it. If you haven't seen it, that is New York. That's New York. Like Mad Libs. Yeah, yes.

Yeah, yeah, spot on. Oh, God. So that was it. Oh, God. That's New York. Yeah, now we'll go. Besties bash. Okay, in the fall.

Oh, gosh. No bears. There is a bear in Central Park, but it's alive. It's in the zoo. Yeah, a caged bear. A caged bear intentionally. This is why intentionally. Intentionally placed in Central Park, but it's alive. It's in the zoo. Yeah. A caged bear. Intentionally. Intentionally placed in the liver, not in the back of a van. Yes. Yeah. Not tossed out or whatever.

So sketchy. Just put roadkill. You should just kept driving, right? What? Yeah. Yeah. I know. Why do you put it in your va- Oh,pe? Oh anyway, he probably wanted to stuff its head or something If I had a guess, you know what I mean? I think it I do feel like I think I do feel like and I'll need to Re-watch it again. I watched it like a couple times and was so baffled. I couldn't even testify to all the Aspects of it because it was just oh my god blowing my mind

But I do think I do think that part talks about it a little bit. Maybe we would skin it. And, mm, still weird, but OK. Well, but he talks about Peter Luger's steakhouse, which, Lee, I don't know if you've ever been there. I went there once. Fun fact, it's a steakhouse that you could only pay in cash. I believe that's still true. That's some New York stuff right there, too.

Huh. Huh. Oh, gosh. Well, on that note, have fun if you're going to New York City this weekend. No matter what you're doing, enjoy. Please take a break. Besties.