HR BESTIES - HR Pet Peeves

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

Today’s agenda:  Corporate tipping Cringe corporate speak: across the finish line Hot topic: HR pet peeves Clothing complaints Showing appreciation goes a long way Meetings without purpose Deflecting monkeys Questions/Comments  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

So, you know now when you go to a restaurant or order something at the grocery store, they'll turn that screen around and it's like tip them out. And you get to pick it's 20, 25, 75%, you know, whatever. Pretty much. Right. And you get it because often people in those roles also may have to work multiple of those to just afford to live. But then business owners will put the cost on customers, but it creates that pressure. Have you ever heard of tipping in a professional office

environment? No, but I'd like to. I'd like to learn more. I want to screen. I'm going to put a tip jar on my desk. I mean, I work from home, but you know. Like in a gate jar, you help an employee think through advocating for a pay raise. They get through and then they get it, giving them that portion of it, right? Well, so I had this happen to me in my first corporate job out of college that I've talked about some. That was corporate sales. In my role was what they now call a BDR, Business Development Representative.

I'm cold-calling at the time, Fortune 1000 CFOs to schedule appointments for somebody else, who had a variety of real and made-up titles that we made sound very, very important. I think the official title was Associate Director internally. I think extra would be like, my super- duper galactic amazing wizard is coming to town. Like, would you like to have the pleasure? So in that we were paid like on a salary basis that I think changed over time. I think that role did get reclassified potentially as eligible for over time. But that's another story.

But we got paid on a salary basis, and then we did have bonuses. We had bonuses by the companies. But also, I found out at the end of the year, we were at lunch with friends at our happy hour. This person was like, what did your... They called him a marketer. They're like, what did your marketer that you were assigned to, because it was a dotted line, they weren't your boss, but you were assigned to them, what did your marketer give you? What are you talking about? Like a holiday gift? No, like a bonus. What do you mean? We got the salary, we got bonuses from the company, but I found out some of these different marketers who

had these goals, and of course, it depended on them, they would give ranges to their person that was scheduling appointments for them, just out of their own pocket. Oh, hello! Smart. Not mine! So, I was like, what? Right. So there's a reason I asked, what are you talking about? Because I didn't know. And I was a little like bug because I'd been working there and my marketer ended up meeting

and exceeding their goal. And I, not surprisingly, worked my ass off to like help that happen. And I got like at the time, like I got what I was paid by the company. So like no objections there. But I remember kind of being like, oh, and this created a whole then buzz between the marketers and whether this is right or wrong. Because I knew some people got thousands of dollars, literally, from their person. So one day I'm at my desk and my marketer comes over and says, and I didn't say anything,

because also I'm not going to be rude about it, but I in my mind was like, oh man, all right, now I'm bugged. But they came over and they're like, okay, like apparently some marketers are supposed to be like giving money to their, we were called MAs. Like here you go. You want my two cents? Here's my two cents. And put two freaking pennies on my desk. Shut up. You motherfucker. There's a reason that sticks out to me two decades later.

And actually I liked working with this person generally, like interesting, pretty, like a good working relationship. We switched territories next year so we didn't work together anymore. I was so offended. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I was, I was 22 and so I certainly didn't have the like, well not certainly, I personally didn't have the like fortitude to be like, oh, that's kind of fucked up. Like, that makes me feel really less than

you could have just said could have just said nothing. But the two pennies on my desk, I remember I in those like I can visualize them right now. And I remember I in those and just being so offended by that. So anyway, that is why tip culture and professional organizations, maybe not the best idea. What a bitch. That is so rude. Like I'm just sitting here mouth agape. Like that is so rude. It was a guy too, wasn't it? Yes, it was. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. Petty bitch.

Tell me you work bare minimum. Tell me you just worked enough to keep your job. I wouldn't be going above and beyond for that motherfucker. For the holidays, no. We switched and I went to somebody else and I continued to work above and beyond. Did you get your marketer bonus that time? I was an MA. Yes, I got my monthly MA bonus, which was a lot smaller than the marketers were getting as well. There was a reason these marketers were giving pretty big ones. Sometimes we'll talk about this, the things that happen to you, they feel really shitty at the time.

You can use those to shape the kind of professional that you want to be. And so I eventually got promoted to become a marketer and I had MAs and I always treated them well. But it was anyway, it was- Oh my gosh. Rude. Yeah. Two cents flick right there.

Real funny. Yeah. Oh man. Rude. Rude. Rude. Yeah. Two cents flick right there. Real funny. Yeah. Oh, man. Rude. Rude. Rude. I'm going to be thinking about that later. Gosh, I'm all mad in my chest.

You know what I mean? I can feel it. That is so rude. I want to tell them off. Are you connected with him on LinkedIn? Jamie wants revenge. I don't know about LinkedIn. I am on Facebook.

Okay. Give Jamie the name. Ken, you know about LinkedIn. I am on Facebook. Okay. Give Jamie the name. Can you share this? Yeah, I will. I'll share this one. You're going to sign him up for all sorts of bad listservs. My horns are coming out. I got you. Yeah.

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We're going to start with some cringe corporate speak, and that is going to be brought to us by Jamie today. Thank you in advance, Jamie. And then we are going to shift into our hot topic of this meeting, and it is HR pet peeves. We're going to share it all, people. We're going to share it all or what won't get us canceled. And then of course, we're going to have Qs and Cs at the end. We're going to save room for some questions and comments.

Jamie, what do you got? So today's Corporate Speak is cross the finish line. And of course, it's very fitting right now, right? Olympics. We got the Olympics going on. Typically, I've heard it used in maybe you're working on a project and when is it going to be done? When is it going to be completed? When are we going to get this across the finish line? I'm pretty sure I've used this too. I'm pretty sure I have. And I probably used it in the last month. Oh God, I hate myself.

There's almost like this desperateness about it. Like, gosh, like everyone's so fresh. We have just got to get this across the finish line. Like this needs to end. This torture for all of us needs to end. Can we just get this across the finish line? And across the finish line generally does not mean the person with like the arms back proud of it. It's like the person that stumbles and falls immediately after is like wrapped in the aluminum blanket like, oh, I need fluids to survive. Electrolyte.

Also, when we cross the finish line, we're not receiving a gold medal. No, no. Exactly. We just literally get to market off of our to-do list. It's a participation trophy. And at work, generally, when you finish something, you cross and you're like, whew! And then they're like, no, get up, get back to that start line. Exactly. You have a marathon coming up, the next race is starting.

Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry, what? You have the next project. It is. And so, it's like that saying of, you know, adulting is constantly saying, after the end of this week, things are really going to calm down and over and over again until you die. So cute of us.

Oh, gosh. I know, gosh. So do you say, across the finish line? If not, try saying it at work today. Bring it up and then giggle and... Exactly. I don't think I say that, but I've certainly heard it. I don't think that's in my repertoire. Sure, I've said it and I haven't meant it because like anything,

most of the things I'm going to be crossing, I'm just going to be picking back up. On to the next. I know. As one boss once told me, which I laughed long ago, sometimes you just got to put on the ripped hose and the broke ass heel and get back out and make it work. I was like, okay, you know what? I appreciate that level of candor.

When you're feeling rough, just take messy action. Oh man. Yeah. Let's get it across the finish line, just like this meeting. Let's get this across the finish line, ladies. So shifting gears, let's move on to our hot topic of this meeting. And I think this was inspired by a follower. Is that right, Ashley? Another great topic idea.

Yes, we had a follower that reached out and said, would you mind sharing some of your HR pet peeves? She's like, I'll go first. Mine is, and we'll start it off with this, we'll do some lightning round questions. She's like, I have it when someone comes to me to report a fellow co-worker's dress code violation. And I chuckled at that. I am not the fucking fashion police. Thank you. Yes. Yes. I don't care. Yeah. Are they doing their job? Cool. Have you all had those?

Yes. Of course. And it's always the go and have this conversation and then like, oh, I'd like this. Yeah. And it's usually the manager. The manager can't like, I was going to say sack up, but I don't want to. Oh, gosh. Wow.

Yeah. Vag up. Exactly. Junk up to be inclusive. It's usually the manager and it's a male manager and they don't want to approach their female about their bra strap showing or something. I'm like, give me a fucking break. It's only ever been women that have been critiqued to me. Yeah.

Like too much cleavage, that's a big one. Flip flops, spaghetti straps. Yeah. I've even had that and I don't have, I'm not well endowed. You've gotten that feedback, Jamie? Yeah. This is actually a really funny story. So it was my boss from hell.

It was a company I was out with for five years and I worked in the corporate office and the majority of the people I dealt with were all in the field. So it was all actually over phone because this was, we're talking like pre zoom days. Like we weren't, we weren't zooming. Um, so it was all pretty much over the phone or like webinars. So I had a, and y'all know, I don't show my, my boobs that much. Like I'm not out and about with them, but my boss would come over to me and she would, in my cube, and she would like stand above me that she could look down my shirt. And she said something to me. I literally said to her, I was like, with all due respect, I was like, no one comes in my cube because

they don't. They didn't. We were a pretty small corporate office. There's only about 30 of us. No one came to each other's cube. I said, with all due respect, you're the only person that comes to my cube. And I was like, and you have an angle that you were, cause I was like done. Like she picked on me. She was one of those. But yeah, jealous. I remember just being like, I remember crying later that night because I was so upset. And then I'm like, and then I was like, uber conscious of everything I wore. Of course. Like, oh my God, am I, Is this one just a little too low? Do I need to not wear this?

And because, you know, my VP of HR or whatever her title was, was looking down my shirt and critiqued me on it. To me, that's like literally sexual harassment. You're coming into my personal space. You're looking down. Like, that is creepy. She also brought up my appearance once in a performance review as well. And it was, my oldest was pretty young, so I wasn't sleeping. So I didn't look the best I could look, but I still...

Like you were self-conscious. I also had to be there at seven in the morning. So it was an hour away from where I lived. And so I was getting up at like 440. So like my makeup and hair was done, but like I looked tired to be completely honest. And this was prior to me getting Botox. And so I remember her thinking that. And also that really hurt my feelings, but also I was thinking, fuck you. You know, I have an infant. Oh yeah. You know, I'm like pumping and pumping and pumping in this baby. You know, like, you know, my commute, you know, no one, Oh my God. Yeah. Like, you know, I'm like pumping and pumping and pumping in this baby, you know, like- You know, my commute, you know, no one- Oh my God.

Yeah, my commute, I'm getting up at 4.45 in the morning just to be here at seven on the dot and yeah. So she was, she was wretched. Oh man. Well, yeah, that's a pet peeve. Damn. I know. God.

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Portfolios managed by Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. Custodial services provided by Apex Clearing Corporation. All investing is subject to risk. Terms apply. Learn more at meetfabric.com. Okay, let me drop another one in here. In Bestie. Learn more at meatfabric.com. Let me drop another one in here. Investy Sarah, thank you for that one. As she said it, nothing makes her eyes hit the back of her skull faster than when someone comes in to co-report something

to have her fix that. I was thinking, what about in HR when you do something nice? You try to bring in food or something like that and not as a replacement for compensation, but try to plan and bring something in and then people start shit on it. You start to totally shit on it. Oh yeah. That drives me nuts too. Oh yeah.

Well, I wish you would have got or this happened a lot actually in the hospitality industry. Ironically. So in hospitality, we had a lot of different cultures. So a lot of times what I would do is I would take a survey because there was some that were fasting or some could only eat certain foods or like no pork, for instance. So I was always very thoughtful about how I planned meals out specifically in my roles in hospitality. And I'm telling you, no matter how much thought in planning and sitting with our executive chef to plan these things, I had the most complaints. And it was always

so upsetting. I'm like, so do you'd rather me just order 50 Domino's? I don't know. I put together this fancy menu and you're complaining because... And this is why you get pizza people. Because it's just the easiest thing. It always hurt my feelings, especially how much planning went into it and like the poll and sitting with the chef. The people that have needs really appreciate it. It's the people that have the preferences. It's like the personal preferences that'll be like, I don't like that. Yeah. I've cut out this for my diet, but you know, it's not like a medical thing or whatever, you know? Yeah. I just don't like that. My trick on this, randomly, I know we're not trying to solve things here per se, but I

just order what I want to eat and I make sure it doesn't run out. I order 25% more because that's where the most complaints come from. It ran out. I didn't get some, so I make sure people get to take stuff home. Because like you, Jamie, you try, you try, you try. All these good intentions and it was just constant bitching. Oh man. So then I'm like, eh, you're welcome. Oh damn. You got another pet peeve question, Ashley. I do. This would be the meeting without a real subject line or purpose, especially, let's say, one that's set on a Friday for a Monday morning. And so you have employees

that are coming to you as a truck. And you're often not even involved in it. But people will come and it's like, is something going on? My boss just sent me this meeting for Monday morning. And it's because that boss didn't give the context. And so now you're in the middle trying to solve for this and calm people down and tell the manager, no, this isn't a snowflake. They just, they are genuinely are like worried about what's going on and you're putting them on the edge. And so thoughts? Yeah. Am I getting fired? Yeah. Is it a layoff meeting? I had a direct report that this happened to and she came to me and she's like, so and so put a meeting on my calendar. What do I Was it a layoff meeting? I had a direct report that this happened to.

And she came to me and she was like, so-and-so put a meeting on my calendar. What do I do? And I was like, there's nothing about it. And so I'm reaching out to the person because she's terrified. And I'm like, give her some dang context. She's thinking she's getting fired. Was she fired though? No, she wasn't. She was not.

Because sometimes that does happen a little more. She got asked to participate in a big project, but in it was kind of under lock and key. So there was a level of confidentiality, but I feel like you also could have said, Oh, yeah. We're talking about a project, a new project. You don't have to say, don't have details in writing. Yeah. Yeah.

And if that happens, do you just ask the person, oh, hey, how can I prepare for this? And then give me some insight on what to do. And that's a way to get some deets on what the hell it is, just in case that happens. But that's annoying. Okay, Lee, what are your thoughts on if someone's hiring for position and they're like, you handle the whole hiring process for me, entire process for me. HR. Nope. I won't do it. I won't do it. I got out of that game. Yeah, but no, I really pushed that back, the responsibility back on the hiring managers. When I was working corporate, because I just, I left corporate America at the beginning of this

year to work for myself full time. But after nearly 20 years in corporate, it was 18 and a half, three quarters years, whatever the hell it is. But I learned to not take on people's monkeys, because people are always slinging monkeys off their backs and onto yours. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Exactly. Shifting their responsibilities onto you. And everyone tries it.

We all try it. Everyone does it, right? Because your plates are full, you're busy, right? So anything you can kind of shift or delegate, you know, you will. And if someone allows you, you keep doing it, right? So it's good to teach people how you want to be treated. So I mean, I push back, you know, actually, this responsibility is yours. You're the hiring manager, the... But biggest pet peeve, and it's hard to stand up and do that. Thankfully, I'm not a people pleaser. And thankfully, it's easy for me to have

like a direct, like on the spot coaching conversation to deflect a monkey. But boy, do our managers, I'm talking as an HR person, boy, do they love to push everything as much as they can. And it would really piss me off because it was a lot of admin stuff, it felt like. And it's like, dude, I went to business school. What the fuck? Are you serious? I make more than you do.

That's what I'd always want to say. I make more than you do. I would not say that. No, I wouldn't say that. But I'm thinking, wait, wait, what? Are you kidding me? People don't have, either they don't understand what's in tail or they do understand and they want to put it on you.

And so it really is a partnership. HR has a role in creating, okay, here you go. Here's to set you up. Here's questions for interviews. How's you structured them? This is once you've identified it, these are things to be mindful of. These are examples of interviews so you can be mindful of candidates. Teaching those best practices, but having them handle the whole thing. Or like, oh, can HR just get all of the resumes for this and pick everybody?

And especially if you don't have recruiting, HR has more than a full-time job generally. And so adding this on top of it and the sorting, then that's just, there's literally not enough hours in the day. Jay? Yeah. And like in onboarding, I don't, truthfully, I think that after day one, that's the hiring manager. Like I understand day one because you need to know where the bathroom is. You need to know where parking is, where, you know, when you get paid, when your benefits are, when you're eligible, I get like all of that or I nine, you know, all the, the administrative stuff. But really after that, that's it's, that's the job training. There might be some compliance training or maybe some, you know, training in the LMS system that they need to complete. But really, that's

on the hiring manager after that. Yeah, I agree. I mean, people, God bless it, most people don't want to be hanging out with HR at work. We can try to make it so you can, but being that playwright, not being the best lead or supporting actor or actress, but being the playwright. Yes, that is the job that I fervently believe HR can really do to help people and help, but it is that partnership, not just doing it all for you and turning it over perfectly like a wizard. Okay, maybe we'll do one or two others, but one is when you're trying to explain something like something in the US and around the world often is accommodations. So someone is eligible for an

accommodation. At times that can be based on medical, religious, any things. And the manager says, well, everyone else is going to want it too. So I can't, I can't, we can't possibly do that because then everybody else is going to ask for it. That's... I think it's shitty. I mean, right? TLDR is shitty because of equity. There's that E again. I think a recent story that had come up, I don't remember, but I know that we were talking about this offline, like within our chat group or something, was a pregnant woman who requested talking. That was closer. Pregnancy recognized in the US as a legit disability. Well, under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, that's new. That was closer. Pregnancy recognized in the US as a legit disability. Well, under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, that's new.

That was not part of the ADA, but yes, which is being challenged in court, but we won't talk about that. But still, it's like a thing, right? And anyone who's ever been pregnant knows it feels like you're diseased. For real. I mean, everything hurts. It's hard to breathe. I mean, you name it, right? All the things. And, you know, they were granted the accommodation

of the closer parking spot. People complain because they're assholes and they revoked it. That is so fricking rude. And she pointed that there was like reserve spots for motorcycles. And she also had the video where she's like, she, from her new far away parking spot, walked past the reserve spots and there were like empty ones. And you're like from a common sense. And this was recent. Ashley and I both covered it on, on TikTok about it. And it's like the heat of summer and just so disappointing. And you know, what needs to happen is someone comes and complains to you.

You, as the HR professional says, hey, they have these rights, we granted them rights, end of discussion. Mind your own business. Yeah. Not everyone's pregnant. I mean, what the heck, you know? I mean, I think I said in that video, and again, every once in a while we'll give you little snippets that basically summarize our podcast in seconds. So they're, you know, really cheat sheets. But if someone's doing something at work and you can think to yourself,

that would sound weird if somebody talked about that on social media, then use your HR voice and make it, and make it not happen. I do think, actually do think an episode that we could do would be the flip side of this to say pet peeves that people have about HR, rightfully in some circumstances. So things not to do in HR that cause people to come on our social media and be like, all HR is evil. So we'll put that as a separate episode that's a don'ts list that becomes a do because why

people hate HR. That's a good one. Yeah. Why HR sucks. But it is. And that's, and again, that doesn't mean you're often an evil person. It just means me not know better. So that's what it hurts your credibility. It does. Oh my God. And ours. So, oh my gosh. So if you have more that you've thought of when you're in HR, send us those. We'll put some of those

on our, on our socials, but we will also give the flip side as a nod to those that are listening, saying, let me tell you, HR, what my pet peeves are. We'll talk about them. So, there we go. So when it comes time to level up your financial game, you'll 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

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ultimate self-care, and BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with affordable online sessions you can do from anywhere. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com. I have a pet peeve. People thinking HR means ER, like emergencies. So, you know, one thing I've always said is I, if someone is hurt or if something happens, either call the police, call the ambulance, call mommy and daddy. Like there's not much I can do. You know what I mean? Get them safely somewhere they need to be or, and then I will, you know, I will handle it or deal with it or, you know, whatever that level is. There's really not many quote unquote emergencies in HR.

Exactly. Literally someone's having a heart attack. They call me. Yeah. Don't call me. Oh my God. Hurry. Hang up. Call 911. Call 911. I've had people like faint and hit their head. I'm like, have we called an ambulance? No. We called you first. What the? Why are you calling me? Hang up and call the- Don't put blood on my hands. Or it's when the real emergencies that happen at like, let's say 7 45 p.m. on Friday. And then by emergency, I mean somebody else told somebody else they would do something by end of week. Oh yeah. Manufactured urgency.

Manufactured. So it's like a payroll thing. We need to put this person on a performance plan at 7.45 PM on a Friday. You don't? Again, that would be weird. That's a Monday thing. Let's revisit that on Monday and go about our weekend in moderate peace. Yeah. I received a phone call once at three in the morning that two cooks had gotten to a fes-fi. This is when I worked in hospitality And I was like, okay, you split them up, you sent them home. Okay, why are you calling me? I can deal with this in the morning. That's why I turned my ringer off. Thank you.

Yeah, I know. I'm DND. I have parents. I'm worried about them. One of my biggest pet peeves as an HR pro is when a manager comes to me and says, God, I got to fire this person. Yeah. Okay. First, do you've ever mentioned anything? Like, what did they do? Oh, they're just not performing. Oh, God. So it's not even a behavioral thing or... Right. Nothing happened. It's been happening. Nothing happened, right? It's been happening for years as persons that's never been able

to do their jobs. But you just rated them above and beyond last year and you've never mentioned this. You have no paper, nothing. Wait, didn't we just give her employee of the month? Yeah. Well, they were buying a house. I wanted to help them out. They're real. No, literally. No, literally. Too real. I mean, actual examples. These are real. It's too real. It, literally. No, literally. Too real. I mean, actual examples. These are real.

It's too real. It's too real. I mean, you want to commit mortgage fraud by talking about their things? Okay. And I always say back, well, I can't fire them because they're my best employee. And they're like, what are you talking about? I was like, they have a perfect file. I mean, it's a beautiful file.

So it's time to start doing your job, leader. I'm not going to be your henchman here. HR is slowing us down. Right? I mean, and so it's like then you had to go through the coaching with the leader on, okay, so here's how to be a manager. You know, like have you had any conversations, anything with this person? Okay, well, let's start there.

Because we don't want to just blindside people with performance improvement plans because that's a dick move. But that sucks when people just kind of just lay that turd on your HR doorstep there because they want you to do their evil acts. Countless times. What about you, Ashley? Any big pet peeves? Big HR pet peeves?

Probably when HR's title and reporting structure is just not commensurate with the rest of the organization. It's an afterthought. And you just say, okay, well, this is... What message does that send to the rest of the organization? A bad one. And so it's just, it really is frustrated and nonsensical, candidly. And I've been there because I've been at Department 01 many times and I've held director level titles where I was sitting in the office C-suite reporting to the CFO. All the BP's, C's titles. It's very frustrating and especially when I want to grow with a company and then my resume doesn't have maybe what all I was doing or what level I should have really had or the title I really had.

Another huge pet peeve for me, because I'm kind of in the thick of it right now, but it's when you send out numerous communications. I'm in open enrollment right now. That's why this is relevant. I know I'm reading them. I know it. I know it's coming. So whether it's open enrollment or performance review or, or, you know, whatever it is, the

anonymous engagement survey, wink, you know, it's the numerous ways that we try to communicate. So I try to be very thoughtful about it. I don't want to bombard your email. So I might put it on a newsletter and then I might put it somewhere else. And then I might send an all teams email or I try to be thoughtful about it to make sure you're getting it. But then a month from now, someone's going to be like, Oh, hey, was I supposed to sign back up for benefits? When was that? And I'm like, oh, you mean the 38 fucking emails I sent you about this?

Yeah, that's a big HR pet peeve. See, you can tell that really is a pet peeve for me. That's excused. That's excused. Self-defense. Exactly. Well, then on that note, that's a wonderful time to pivot over to questions and comments. Any questions and comments, ladies? I have a comment that I could roll

into if you'd like me to start the Qs and Cs. It's another pet peeve. I'm like, I'm not done bitching. But this one isn't just about HR. This is just like general work life. The bus thrower underers. Oh my gosh, and see this does happen to HR a lot, right? Where we're the fall guys and gals for like all decisions in the workplace. And of course, as good stewards of the organization, we don't throw you all under the bus, like our managers and it's very rare

that I've seen HR people do it. We just take the heat and we're like, fuck, you know, you're just going to keep hating me. It's fine. But really 98% of the decisions are made by your leadership team, FYI, not HR in a vacuum. But those bus throw renders, man, damn, there's a special place in hell for that shit. You know what I mean? Well, and it doesn't come across like, you know, they may do that to like a client, like

a third, like some third party. It just makes you sound like an asshole. And you don't you really you don't to have the, you know, the ownership of it and you'll figure it out internally. But like, yeah, no, thank you. Yeah. Oh, I got to get this across the finish line. But yeah, yeah, question or comment.

I did want to say another pet peeve. This is not necessarily HR related either, but I think it might be actually HR related. But like, if I have my purse, my water bottle and my keys and my arm, and you're bombarding me with a question when I'm trying to open the fucking door to get into my office. Fuck you. Like, give me a second. Let me put down my emotional support water bottle. Mm-hmm. Give a bitch a chance here.

Yeah. Like, fuck. That is so true. That is so true to the visual. That is so specifically true. Because it's happened so many times. And sometimes it even happens in the parking lot. Yes.

Coming and going. Oh, my God. Like, I haven't even got out of my goddamn car, Larry. Knocking on the window. Yeah. Like I'll walk out with you. Oh, the guy that's the worst. Let's not.

Oh my God. I wanted to pick my podcast I was going to listen to. What? Okay. I actually sprint to my car, Larry. Can you keep up? Pretend I'm on the phone. Buy, sell, buy, sell.

I'm going to stop at the bathroom. Oh, I'll wait. Yeah, I'll wait. I'll wait. I'll just come in with you. What? People, come on. Time and place. No, no, no, no, no. It's just everyone thinks their shit's urgent and none of your shit's urgent. But anyway, Ashley, question or comment? OK, I'll ask a question. If you were going to compete in the Olympics, what sport would you want to compete in?

Breaking now that I can. Oh yeah, the break dancing, which is now, right? Breaking is now an Olympic sport. Just kidding. I can like barely stand up or walk. So I could not do that. Broken dancing? Yeah, broken, broke ass, broke ass dancing. That's what I do for real. You know, I just do the kind of the little, you know, little Bob thing, you know. But anyways, but yeah, that would be fun. If I could, I would.

And figure skating. Like if I could have any talent, holy shit, man, those people. Brilliant. I would make up a sport and it would be making memes. You would win at it from a quality and a quantity. Yeah. Gold medalist. Gold medalist.

I got to cross that finish line. There you go. Ashley, what would you do? I mean, golf, you know, love golf would be happy to be good enough to be a professional golfer. I would enjoy that. But also then that steeplechase one, where you step, but I think you have to step in the water. I'd like to jump over the water, but have you seen

the one? Yeah. I actually wouldn't. I'd strike that. I don't want to run with a wet foot. Soggy socks. Pole vaulting. Yes. I think that would be. What's the, what's the ball thrower? I think of trunchbulls. So I can't throw the hammer. What is that? Something like that. The ball thrower. I have this. I have, I literally, you know, in the small world type thing, I have someone I graduated college with who's a very famous romance author, not under her real name. And I'm Facebook friends with her under her name. And her daughter is exceptional at that. And she posts these things.

Shot put. Sorry. Shot put. And so she'll post the good pictures and videos. And I do not know her child only know that, you know, on the internet. But like, I love to watch these videos because like, it makes you think of like, I want to do it. And so my daughter did track in middle school. And they did, they had that and I just picked it up one day. I mean, I couldn't throw that thing. Jiminy Cricket's like two and a half feet. So it is impressive. I wish I could be fast.

Yeah, I'm pretty fast. I'll give you that. No, but you're not like Olympic fast. Well, I mean, okay, there's like two hour marathon fast is what I'm talking about. You know what I'm saying? Well, there's no such thing as a two. Is there two hour marathon? Yes, there is. Did someone finish that in the sub two? Yeah. Yeah. Just that in the sub two?

Yeah. Yeah. Just barely with the shoes. Remember, it was a Nike experiment and all of that. I always feel like, and my parents listen to the podcast, I always worry that I'm a bit of a disappointment to my parents because I'm fast at sprinting. I can sprint pretty fast, but I'm slow. My dad is a big marathon runner. He ran right at three hour marathon. He's run the Boston Marathon many times. He's also like a foot tall. He's like taller than Leigh. He's like Leigh's height.

But I always wanted to have, I wanted so badly to have that. Like I've run a number of half marathons. Just I am slow as shit in that. So you're right. See, that's what I'm saying. Doesn't that sound exciting? Like being fast? Yeah.

Like when you watch the athletes, you know, it's like just neat. Me? I'm fast. Fuck, no, you're not. I know. Literally. I was like, you ain't fast shit. I'm talking Olympic ass fast. You know? When we do the next Adrian Basties meetup, we're going to do a foot race. Oh, fuck that. I ain't doing that shit. You gotta see who can lose. You gotta get some drinks in me first.

Yeah, Jamie, you've done it. I was like, y'all forget when I raced that child and I didn't let that fucker win. Yeah, you beat him. Oh, that's right. You beat him. You beat down that kid. But we haven't raced each other. So that's coming up.

I'm going to train for it. Oh shit. Well, God, on that note, damn, we're going to have our own HR besties Olympics. That's right. You can put money on this. That'll be great. We'll let you know when that goes down. The feedback loop.

Exactly. The feedback loop. Exactly. Championships. Drinking the most white cloths. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would be to have an HR Olympic? I mean, people would get, be like, this is exactly what I would think it would be. It'd be like, feedback loop Olympics. Oh, I know. Just have drinking and other-

Killer content for social though. That is a good point. Yeah. We'll think of some events. we'll think of some events. We'll think of some events next time we're together and we'll do that. But gosh, let's get this across the finish line, shall we? Hey. Thank you so much for joining this meeting. I hope everyone wrote down their action items. Damn, Jamie already left. Yeah. Ding. You heard me sign off. Jamie's out the door. Exactly. Ding! It drops. I gotta drop for another meeting.

Bye! And on that note, bye!