July 31, 2025 • 53 mins
Ever had a cringeworthy moment watching people behave badly in public? Warren returns from Costa Rica with hilarious and sometimes disturbing people-watching stories that perfectly illustrate workplace dynamics. From the mother directing her son to take sultry photos of her on a public beach to the nightmare tour group member who almost ruined an excursion, these real-life observations reveal surprising truths about how group composition affects our experiences.
The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the viral Coldplay kiss cam incident that exposed a CEO and his Chief Human Resources Officer in a compromising position. Warren and Ceecee explore the spectacular irony of the two people in a company who should absolutely know better getting caught in such a public way. They unpack the power dynamics at play and the swift professional consequences that followed, noting how leadership positions demand higher standards of integrity.
Between tales of crocodile encounters, volcanic explorations, and delightfully unprofessional Southwest flight attendants, the hosts weave a narrative about how the quality of people around you can make or break your experience—whether on vacation or in the workplace. The stark contrast between Warren's two excursion groups perfectly illustrates how team composition affects outcomes, with one group filled with difficult personalities and another creating a supportive, enjoyable atmosphere.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is how these entertaining travel anecdotes serve as perfect metaphors for workplace dynamics. The airport meltdowns, airplane etiquette failures, and tour guide interactions all mirror situations HR professionals encounter daily. By examining these behaviors in non-work settings, we gain fresh perspective on how to create more positive environments wherever we find ourselves.
Want to share your own workplace stories or people-watching disasters? Reach out through our social media or leave us a review. Your experiences might just inspire our next episode as we continue helping you survive HR one "what the fuck" moment at a time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Had you actually read the email, you would know that
the podcast you are about tolisten to could contain explicit
language and offensive content.
These HR experts' views are notrepresentative of their past,
present or future employers.
If you have ever heard mymanager is unfair to me.
I need you to reset my HRportal password, or Can I write
(00:24):
up my employee for crying toomuch?
Welcome to our little safe zone.
Welcome to Jaded HR.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome to Jaded HR, the podcast by two HR
professionals who want to helpyou get through your workday by
saying everything you'rethinking, but say it out loud.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
My name's Warren.
I'm Cece.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
All right.
So we took a week off and I wasby the way for the audience.
This is take two.
We had a little technical issueon my fault, so take week.
So thank you very much.
I love seeing things like that.
(01:28):
People go into our back libraryand downloading things, or
maybe you've shared it with afriend that decided to listen
and download some episodes.
So keep up the good work onthat.
I did not get a chance to lookat if there were any new reviews
, but please, if you do have areview, put it out there, let us
know.
I will read it.
Good, bad, indifferent.
(01:48):
So go to your favorite podcastplayer, preferably apples.
They use the.
They're the, the almighty ofpodcast reviews.
But if you have something else,I'll try and find it there too.
So I know good pods.
We have a couple of pod friends.
There's a review on there andthings but.
But of course the worldrevolves around Apple.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So I was on vacation.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I'm playing my Apple watch on the screen.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, I've only had one Apple product in my life.
But yeah, we took the week offas I was on vacation and I went
to Costa Rica and had just anincredible time.
Everything was so great,Everything was nearly perfect.
I got a couple of stories, Ithink, out of it from people
watching, essentially, and Ireally couldn't ask for anything
(02:36):
better.
It all went perfectly theactivities, the weather, the
excursions, the people we met,everything it was just.
It was all perfect.
I would have liked to see morewildlife, but you can't really
pick and choose when animalsappear.
We did get to see everybodywants to see a sloth when you go
to Costa Rica and we got to seemore than our share of sloths
(02:59):
and for me, I like snakes.
So I got to see the mostvenomous snake in Costa Rica and
I forget its name, but I guessit's a relative of a rattlesnake
, and we saw it from the safetyof our van.
How?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
venomous.
Are we talking?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
How venomous are we talking?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I don't know.
But the other venomous snake wesaw was called eyelash viper
and if you check those outonline they're really cool
looking and they're not that big.
They're like a foot or two long.
But we were getting this closeto it and it didn't care.
It really just it was chill, itdidn't care, got some good
pictures of that.
I only got to do the red-eyedgreen tree frog I forget what
(03:43):
its name is the green treefrog-eyed green tree frog.
I forget what its name is, thegreen tree frog, I think, but I
wanted to see other frogs, likethe poison dart frog, the blue
jean frog, and I made a list ofall these animals I I was hoping
to see.
We saw monkeys.
We saw howler monkeys and thewhite face monkeys and and
crocodiles.
We saw crocodiles and thingslike that.
So it was, the wildlife wasreally good.
(04:03):
I didn't see a toucan.
I wanted to to see a toucan.
We saw all sorts of other birds, but nothing really.
You know, no Froot Loops oranything like that.
That's awesome, though, like.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I'm so jealous hearing about this experience.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It was.
It was great.
I can't wait to go on our nextvacation.
My wife and I are alreadystarting to think about where
we're going next year.
So cool.
And for those of you who arelike me, speak very, very little
Spanish, it is so Americanfriendly.
I had one person I interactedwith who spoke the amount of
(04:42):
English that I speak Spanish,and we were able to get my Uber
driver one day.
He didn't speak much English, Ididn't speak much Spanish, but
we got through and I got.
We actually were able toconverse at a very minimal level
, but it was.
It worked.
So, if you're like me, costaRica is a very native English
speaker friendly area to go to,and even not in, as we were on a
(05:04):
resort and we went to a touristtown.
But also we went to.
My wife and I went to a towncalled philadelphia, which
spelled with f, not a ph, and itis not a touristy town, and
still people there spokebeautiful english and things
like that, and everybody was sonice it was.
It was a great experience Ilove that so how about you?
(05:28):
what did, what did you have forthe last week?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
nothing crazy.
I mean, I was kind of in the Iwas trying to get this project
over the finish line, which Ithink I did.
It's tomorrow, so I think I did.
Anyway, I'm doing an internalpodcast, so for, like one of our
learning initiatives, we'redoing a podcast, so did that,
(05:52):
and the first episode airstomorrow.
So the past, like week, hasjust been very work focused.
And then we had a friend fly inthough from Florida and he came
like stayed with us and we likewent to the pool and it was
just fun.
I want the baby, you know lowkey.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Nice, I really want a low key.
I've just been so busy thiswhole summer.
Every weekend I've hadsomething going on and up and
through, like the third week ofAugust, the third weekend of
August.
It's hard to believe it'salmost August.
I will launch this on Thursday.
Most of you probably listenedto it on Thursday or Friday and
(06:29):
that's August 1st.
Crazy, the year is poof goingby?
I'm really not happy about itNext thing, you know, we'll be
talking about how instead of howhot it is, how cold it is and
the snow and that sort of stuffagain.
So I'm sort of stressing aboutthe holidays like, oh my god I
did see a countdown to tochristmas already on one of the
(06:55):
social media sites, but I had togo to home depot the other day
and they've got their halloweenstuff already all out at Home
Depot and HomeGoods has it outtoo.
I'm like, really I don't likethat.
It's July and you're doingHalloween.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, we went to the liquor store the other day and
they had pumpkin beer outalready.
I'm like it's July, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Slow down.
Yeah, that's one thing.
I drink local beers in CostaRica, the Imperial one as the
big name brand.
It's pretty good.
I couldn't distinguish it fromthat and say I don't even know
what type it was supposed to be,if it was a lager or not, I
(07:43):
think it was.
Then they had a brand namedpilsner which was like five,
five, no, five percent alcoholand it was that was actually my
favorite beer.
Then on one of my the tourguides, we were talking about
drinks and stuff like that.
So we're on the excursion andyou have a driver and there's
only like 10 people in the van,a driver, the tour guide and
(08:06):
we're talking about drinks, andhe just pulls over, has us go to
this convenience store in themiddle of nowhere seemingly, and
he's talking about differentdrinks and I went in.
I got a Cuba Libre, which is acanned rum and Coke.
It wasn't that good.
It wasn't Coke, it was a cola,it was like it was your generic
(08:27):
cola versus a coke and I don'tknow I didn't care for it.
It was only eight percent, soit it left more of a bite than
most eight percent drinks.
I think would leave a bite, butit was good and, like someone
else got this cucumber or spritwhich they just loved.
They said they're going to takea 12-pack back to America with
them.
So yeah, that was a little funlittle side adventure that we
(08:51):
did so well, the one thing that,because we didn't record, we
missed out on being sort of ontop of the story was the
Coldplay Kiss Cam, and I saw thearticle like I forget the day
after it happened and I sent youthe link immediately and said
we've got to talk about this.
(09:12):
But then I had no idea it wasgoing to blow up the way it did.
And I will tell you also inCosta Rica, like my Spanish is
very, very poor, I'm like apre-kindergarten vocabulary
level or something like that.
But I'm sitting there waiting inline for the restaurant and
(09:34):
someone beside me is on one ofthe social media networks and
they're seeing the thing aboutthe Kiss Cam and they're talking
about it in Spanish and thingslike that.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this islike got worldwide appeal on
that's awesome this cam and it,yeah.
So what I?
(09:56):
I don't want to cut, I halfway,don't want to cover it too much
because it's it's been, it'sbeen covered, it's been covered,
it's been covered, it's beencovered, it's been covered.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I just want to say like I feel bad for the families
and this was very entertaining.
Both things can be true.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
But I was just so.
It took me a couple daysBecause I'm like ha ha, like the
CEO and the CHRO are likemessing around.
And now they got busted in themost ridiculous way and oh,
Chris Martin even called it out.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I thought that was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Like all these things .
It took me a solid couple daysand I'm embarrassed to admit
this.
It was like all of a sudden Ilike popped out of bed in a cold
sweat or something and I was.
I just said, oh my god, thepower dynamic it's, it's her
boss.
And then from there on out, Iwas like that makes it even more
layered.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
If they just gave each other a little peck?
No, the world would never know.
Their spouses would never know.
No, whatever happened.
I don't know where the concertwas Was it in Vegas?
Whatever happened at theColdplay concert would have
stayed at the Coldplay concert.
Right, it was their reaction.
It's not like they're puttingit on cnn at that point.
(11:28):
It probably made its way ontocnn at some point and actually I
read that the man, what is hisname, andy byron, is now
contemplating suing coldplayover to kiss cam and he might
actually have some legal ground.
I'm like dude, you got busted.
It's not cold place fault soreddit went deep.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Apparently I don't know if he has a case, I think
he's just talking big, butapparently, like in fine print,
there's an agreement that byattending the concert, like
you're forgo, like you're givingthem the permissions to like,
record and use commercially andyada, yada.
So yeah, I don't think there'snot, there's not a lawsuit there
(12:13):
at all.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Like, dude, you got caught, you got caught, just
take the l and slink away andthe thing is he's not gonna be
able to get another job and,honestly, neither is she and I.
I saw something on social mediaand it might have been from
something like a tmz orsomething like that, but she was
spotted the other day notwearing her wedding ring.
(12:37):
So, yeah, so yeah yeah, it's,that's just.
But was their reaction?
But the power dynamic youmentioned of the two people in a
company that should know betteris the, the director of HR, the
chief people officer and theCEO.
You, you have to, you have to.
(12:58):
You know, of all the people,those are the two that should
not be having this issue with.
So, yeah, that was interestingand they're getting roasted
every which way on every socialmedia site, everything like that
.
But I got this from?
Was it Yahoo News?
(13:21):
I didn't get the.
I didn't take the.
Usually I like to give creditto it, but it says Cabot, his HR
chief, joined the company onlymonths ago.
So this is a.
You know, somebody moved veryquickly in this.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Or it's been happening before.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Or maybe he brought her in, Maybe they had a prior
thing going on.
Maybe they had a prior thinggoing on, but her LinkedIn
profile she describes herself assomeone who, quote wins the
trust of employees of all levels, from the CEO to managers and
assistants.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Winning trust, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And you know, like I said, I do feel for the families
, but all the ridicule thathappens here is only going to
get their spouses more money inthe divorce.
You know the humiliation factorand whatever.
Yeah, it's going to beinteresting.
(14:17):
Now I saw something.
Now Gwyneth Paltrow is now aspokesperson for the company, or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I'm like so they hired her, I think they hired
her.
I'm like, so they, they hiredher, I think they hired her.
I'm afraid to say anything.
Is anything real or is it allAI anymore?
But I did see the video and itwas it's her.
And she just starts explaininglike oh, we're so glad that
you're interested in thiscompany and just has spikes and
(14:44):
she kind of talks very tongue incheek and cute about it.
But it's just funny that it'sher with the Chris Martin
connection.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Oh, does she have a Chris Martin connection?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
They used to be married.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh, okay, see, I never.
I'm not good at any of thatstuff, so that's funny.
Oh, and does she have a chrismartin connection?
They used to be married.
Oh, okay, see, I never.
I'm not good at any of thatstuff, so that's funny yeah yeah
, and with paltrow she's a wholeanother type of special of her
own in her you know what I'msaying?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I think it's, I think it's layered, because they were
married and I think ch Martincheated on her.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Oh really.
So I think, that is like thereal punchline in that PR thing.
I've seen all the memes thatare actually quite funny that
you know Coldplay hasn't made asingle in 20 years and they made
two in one night.
Oh my gosh, yeah hasn't made asingle in 20 years and they made
(15:40):
two in one night and thingslike that it was.
Some of the memes were justeither brutal or hilarious.
And also when I was in costarica, our tour guide, his
facebook page, he took someone,made it the, the man holding a
sloth, and then it saidunderneath reminder don't get uh
, don't get caught touching theanimals is apparently you can
get fined or things like that.
(16:01):
Before, but I it just seemedthat people putting that
everywhere on everything andthen you know, mimicking the,
the faces, putting in otherpeople's faces, and they're like
dwight and angela.
I saw one that was Dwight andAngela.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So good.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
And things like that.
So it's yeah, this is going tolive on for a little while until
the next big thing sort oftakes it off the front.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Honestly, it's kind of starting to cool down.
I'm just nosy about what'shappening next, but I think
they're all slithering into theabyss.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And it's going to give the hr haters out there
just another piece of ammunition.
Yeah, they're going to dislikeon hr4, so yeah it's.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I mean, that is, let's be honest she was very,
very much biased to thecorporate side.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
She was definitely there for the company took one
for the tea, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So uh, just messy, messy.
Just don't be messy about it.
You're not happy in yourmarriages, you just get a
divorce and go your separateways and then you do whatever
you want.
It's very weird, the wholebehind people's backs very messy
, and I'm like that's why Idon't really feel bad that they
got caught yeah, yeah, like allthey had to do was give each
(17:23):
other a little peck on the kisscamp.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Nobody would have ever known, it would have just
disappeared.
But to act that way, and thenchris martin call them out and
say something like uh, they'reeither camera shy or having an
affair, or something like that,that just made it even better,
apparently.
And so, yeah, hr is going totake the lumps on this one for a
little while at least.
So, yeah, fun, fun, fun.
(17:47):
But let's see here, okay,before I get to my other topic,
this, the week before I went onvacation was a very unique week
at work because we had moredrop-in, unannounced solicitors
at my office than I can remember.
(18:10):
Actually, we have conferencerooms in office, but they don't
hold more than like a dozenpeople.
So if we do something big, wejust do it in the lobby, and we
just happen to be doing myrecruiter's five-year
anniversary award plaque money.
So we did that and we're all inthere and the president of the
company is there and a copymachine salesperson comes to the
(18:34):
door and it's a secure building, so they have to be buzzed in.
And the person closest to thedoor, and it's a secure building
, so they have to be buzzed in.
And the person closest door was, of course, our president.
You know he's like trying to beall cool.
Oh, all this for me, you know.
And he said, well, I'm withwhatever copier company, nope,
we're not interested.
Thank you, goodbye.
And it was.
It was great.
That's really the second time ithappened.
(18:57):
Our receptionist was out of theoffice and I just happened to
be getting ready to start ameeting and I'm going to the
conference room and somebody'sat the door so I go into the
door to answer it, and it justhappened to be a payroll company
doing door to door.
I was like nope.
I said first I said, well, heasked to speak.
(19:18):
I was here, I wanted to speakto Warren and I said, well, I
just happened to be Warren and Icould see the name of the
payroll company on his shirt.
I said, look, I'm getting readyto go in a meeting.
I have zero interest inchanging any payroll companies.
And I said it's just not periodgoing to happen.
(19:39):
And I I said, but I've reallygot to go.
And he handed me a card andgave me a lottery ticket, which
I haven't scratched off yet, tosee if I get anything out of it,
but I just the drop inunannounced solicitors.
I just that's such poor taste,I, I feel aggressive.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I don't like it.
I don't like it when peoplecome unannounced at my home oh
yeah, text before you come over,but yeah, you're at work like
it when people come unannouncedat my home oh yeah, text before
you come over.
But even at work it's just so.
You're going about yourbusiness, you're running into
meetings, you're trying to, andsomeone just shows up and it's
just rude.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I understand they're trying to do their job and
that's what they do and thingslike that, but that just I have
not seen.
You know, aflac used to be theworst when it came to
door-to-door sales business forat least HR-related stuff, and
then some of the temp agenciesfollowed behind Aflac and but I
(20:29):
hadn't seen any in forever and Ido our office manager.
She sits at the front desk.
I think she does a good job ofshooting them down, so I don't
even know.
A lot of them come by, but shesays it's been busier lately
again Anyhow, and as you know, Ideeply despise solicitors.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Oh, as your LinkedIn profile says, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yes, yes, so my my top.
Another topic I had for todaywas some of my people watching
experiences while I was in CostaRica.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
That is my all time favorite hobby.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
My wife and I lived in the DC area.
This was before children time.
We would actually take ourbikes, put them on the metro
drive into the downtown mallarea of DC just to ride our
bikes around and people watch.
This was pre-9-11.
You could ride your bike prettymuch anywhere.
At that time there alwaysseemed to be protests at the
(21:34):
International Monetary Fundbuilding so we'd always make
sure that was on our route andthings like that and just the
people watching was very muchtop notch in the DC downtown DC
area.
But now you know, living in thesticks there's not as much, but
going on vacation, there'salways something going on for
people watching.
But this vacation offered mesome really eye-openers.
(21:59):
I'm gonna try some of them.
I'm not gonna be able to relateto hr, I just think they're
funny as hell and I want toshare the story.
A couple of them.
I want to relate to hr in someway, but here's the the most
disturbing people watching uh,my wife and I experience and I
can't relate it to HR, so thisis just a funny story.
So all the beaches in Costa Ricaare public.
(22:21):
There's no private beaches.
Your resort doesn't have itsown private beach or anything
like that, but the beach that myresort is on only has two
entrances the resort entranceand a public entrance which is
50 yards north of the resortentrance and a public entrance
which is 50 yards north of theresort entrance.
So my wife and I, you go downand we got our place on the
(22:42):
beach and it's a wide-open beach.
There's not that many people.
We went like 100 yards awayfrom the resort entrance, the
main entrance, to get away frompeople, just be able to sit
there and enjoy ourselves andhave some drinks and watch the
ocean and things like that.
Go swimming, enjoy ourselvesand have some drinks and watch
the ocean and things like that.
Go swimming.
(23:07):
Well, a couple comes and sowe're a hundred yards from the
main entrance, we're probably 50yards from the next closest
group of people, and thenthere's hundreds and hundreds of
miles, like in North Carolina.
The beach goes on forever.
There's rocks and cliffs andthings, but it goes on for
several hundred yards beyond uswhere there's absolutely nobody.
But this couple comes and, Ikid you not, they're like 20
(23:28):
feet in front of us and it's amale and female and they are
she's like directing the guy totake these pics and she's like I
mean they no nudity, but shewas making some very sultry type
(23:51):
positions and facialexpressions and she took, like,
the bikini top off and wascovering herself and doing these
little positions and she'sdirecting the guy who's taking
the pictures oh, get higher, getlower.
She was not wearing a thong.
But she pulled her whole bikinibottom straight up her ass to
make herself have a thong.
(24:11):
And she's like getting on herall fours once again, bathing
suit, bikini undone and coveringwith one hand.
And she's telling get behind me, get this angle, get that.
And she's going to town and mywife and i're like looking at
our which she could have goneanother 100 yards this way, we
would have never seen them.
But and they had to know we'rethere, we're 20 feet from them
(24:33):
and she's just going on and ondirecting him and and so on, so
forth, and it was just, it wasawkward for us.
Like we're on our towelssitting here on the beach, are
we going to get up and leave, orit was just, it was just
incredibly uncomfortable, it wasit was just like over, just jaw
(24:54):
dropped there and I feel
Speaker 3 (24:56):
like for minutes I feel like this is a real life
situation.
Um, I don't know if you've everbeen on the reddit instagram
versus real life or instagramversus reality or something and
it's like I wonder what herfinal instagram or tiktoks were
like the fully edited one,versus what you were seeing, the
chaotic behind the scenes thatwas to get there.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
And I will say and I'm not trying to be mean I
think the man might have hadsome developmental disabilities,
judging by some of hismannerisms and behaviors and
things like this.
And anyways, my wife and I wedidn't know what type of
relationship they had.
She was obviously older thanhim.
(25:39):
We didn't know if it was one ofthose whatever you call it
spring winter relationships oryou know where there's a big age
difference or anything likethat.
So well, the next night they'resitting near us at dinner on
the resort and we paid for.
They had three levels of Idon't know what you.
(26:02):
They have standard, deluxe andVIP.
We got the deluxe, so we gotpreferred seating in the
restaurants and things like that, which was actually great.
But we got to sit outside onthe patio and for dinner at this
restaurant but they were likeon the other side of the wall
and window from us.
So the first thing that happensas they sit down, the lady gets
(26:27):
extremely rude with the waiter.
And she had the same waiter wehad and he was fabulous.
He was awesome.
I had no complaints with any ofthe service I received anywhere
the whole time, but he wasabsolutely fabulous.
But she just says and when hecomes to take her order.
Well, I didn't bring my glasses, so you're just going to have
to read the whole menu to me.
And my wife and I sort of lookedat each other and like, yeah,
(26:48):
you can do something rather thanthis.
And he played.
He was very, and because it'sall inclusive, you don't there's
no tips or anything like that,and in Costa Rica tips are built
into your bill.
Anyways, when we went off theresort to go to dinner, I
actually wanted to give thewaiter a better tip than the
(27:09):
inclusive one, but it didn'teven give me the option.
There was no option to give himand I didn't have any cash,
either Costa Rican or US, on meat the time, so I did kind of
feel bad, but anyways, I waslike that man deserves a bigger
tip from her In some way.
She was just so rude and whathave you?
Well, later in the meal wediscovered their relationship
(27:32):
was mother-son and she, oh yeah,and she, oh yeah, and she.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Oh, he was taking the pictures of his mom.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
He was taking the pictures of his mom.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, there's the twist, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
It took me a second.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
It was a mother-son and we figured it out.
Now the restaurant is a smallrestaurant.
It has maybe 12 tables in it,not a huge restaurant, so you
can hear everything that's goingon in there.
She yells at this.
He has to be over 18.
It was an adults-only resort.
(28:09):
But he goes.
Stop being such a dumb ass likeyour father.
I'm like oh, yells at him.
I couldn't hear anything hesaid or did.
I don't know what caused that.
I was like that's where welearned what the relationship
was and my wife like oh my god,we kind of thought it was, but
judging by the pictures, Ithought okay, maybe it's a big
(28:31):
age discrepancy.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
It sounds super healthy yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well, so that night goes.
Then a third night we'rewaiting for our reservation at
the resort steakhouse and we'rejust sitting fully dressed in
our street clothes at the pool,people watching and things, and
they come.
As we're sitting there, theycome to get in the pool.
(28:57):
It's like nighttime, it'sstarting to get dark, and what
happens in the pool?
She's asking him to take morepictures and she's like you know
, at dark the pool has lightsand she's getting in front of it
and she's like make sure youget my boobs.
And then I was floating andlike get my ass too.
(29:18):
And she's talking to her son inthis way.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I'm like if this is what they're doing out here.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I don't want to know what's going on in that.
I wanted to like, like I said,I think the boy was
developmentally disabled in someway.
Just observationally, he didn'tseem all the way there and I'm
like what?
the hell's going on dynamic yeah, that was, I was someone.
Is this something we should bereporting to somebody?
(29:47):
Because it was weird and it'sjust that.
Oh, it was weird and we like,if we saw them, we sort of
started heading the other way.
We didn't have any other dinnerreservations at the same time
they did, thankfully, and thingslike that.
That was, that was real weird.
Also at the resort, the, thepeople in the room next to us.
(30:08):
My wife gets mad at me.
There's a redeveloping trend ina lot of the stories of my wife
getting mad at me.
But I call people that are mykids' age and younger, little
boys, little girls, andobviously they're over 18 if
they're at this resort andthings.
But the people and I call themlittle boy and little girl in
the room next to us, they looklike they're 15.
(30:29):
I wouldn't have believed thatthey were 18.
Girl in the room next to usthey looked like they were 15.
I wouldn't have believed thatthey were 18.
But anyways, they were thereand they're very young.
They were actually in the poolenjoying the pool.
They're in the pool too andthey're walking around together
and this guy comes up and hestarts to talk to him.
I don't know, it didn't seemlike they knew him before and
(30:51):
you could see they're trying toget away.
They're sort of scootingbackwards trying to get away and
he's following.
They did like a whole circlearound the pool.
Then they get out of the pooland said well, we have to go,
we'll talk to you later.
And I was like he seemed like astalker.
Part of me wanted to ask him iseverything okay?
Do you need help in any way?
I didn't, because they seemedto get out of the pool and sort
(31:15):
of got out of the area quickly.
But that is another thing.
But those are the two stories.
I can't really relate to HR, butI got two people watching
stories.
I can definitely relate to HRand I did two different
excursions while we were inCosta Rica.
(31:35):
The first excursion, the firstday, my wife and I being in our
50s we were the youngest peopleon this excursion and there were
some very interesting otherpeople on this excursion.
It's only a group of 10 peopleis the maximum size of these
excursions, so it was a smallgroup of people.
(31:56):
You're in a van going fromplace to place together, so
you're on the van, probably atotal of three, maybe as many
four hours together as you'regoing place to place and things
like that.
And the tour guides wereawesome and they would sort of
you know, do hey, where are youfrom and what do you do for a
living?
Why are you here?
What do you want to do in CostaRica, what brought you to Costa
Rica, and things like that.
(32:16):
So we got to know people.
We had some very interestingpeople One guy who claimed he's
a lawyer.
He said he did real estate andcriminal defense and I was like
that's a weird combination but Iwouldn't let him get me out of
a parking ticket or close on adog house for me.
He was.
He was a very interestingperson.
And another another gentlemanwas just one of the excursion we
(32:40):
were on.
The main event of the excursionwas a river cruise to see
wildlife up and down the riverand he was nearly in tears
because the boat we were on didnot have life vests and he
wanted a life vest and he wasliterally on the verge of tears
about not having a life vest andit's the law, it's the law,
(33:01):
it's the law.
And I was waiting for a veryinteresting lawyer friend to
chime in then and I'm like yougot to remember you're in Costa
Rica, not the United States, andtake a ferry across.
We've got ferries in my area.
You don't have to put on a vestto go on the ferry and things
like that.
But anyways, he'd been gettingon my nerves before that point.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Wait, was he upset that you weren't being handed
life vests?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, there were no life vests on the boat, that at
least you could see.
But he wanted to be wearing oneand anyways, and I said well,
why don't we find you a lifevest?
That way, if the boat goes over, you can be floating crocodile
food, while my wife and I safelyswim away.
And my wife punched me in theribs.
I probably still have a bruisefrom that one because I was just
(33:49):
sick of him by then.
So, like, not that.
Much later the the cruise boatpulls up, we're on the side of
the river, five feet from acrocodile that's sunning on the
on the bank, and we're alltaking pictures and ooh, and
things like that.
And he goes on.
Oh, I think this is a doll,this isn't alive, it's not
moving.
And the tour guide is like, ohwell, they're cold-blooded and
(34:11):
they, after they eat, they needto sit on the sun to help them
digest.
Yada, yada, yada and thingslike that.
Then, all of a sudden, thecrocodile decided he didn't want
to be near the boat anymore andhe turned around and slid back
in the river.
This man practically shithimself trying to get out of it
was just so crazy and soridiculous.
And the lawyer person wantingto ask you know, where are the
(34:35):
hippopotamus?
Where are the tigers?
I'm like we're in Costa Rica,there's no hippopotamus.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Now I know from watching Narcos You're an old
man.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, from being in Narcos watching Narcos, I know
there are hippopotamus inColombia, thanks to Juan Pablo
Sandoval, but I don't thinkthere are any hippos in the
river in Costa Rica.
But my point, to tie this backto HR in some random, strange
way the quality of the groupyou're around really impacts
(35:05):
your experience.
We got everything we wanted outof the tour.
We saw monkeys, we sawcrocodiles, we saw, we saw the
jesus christ lizard now, hewasn't running across the water
or anything like that, but wesaw one I don't know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Now I'm like the what and I'm like, oh, the little,
yeah, he runs across the water.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
We saw him sitting on the shore and the boat driver
stopped and was trying to likerev up the engine of the boat to
sort of scare him to see if hewould run across the water.
He wasn't doing it.
He wasn't having any part of it, but we got to see that.
But that excursion we had agreat time still and none of
these people were going to ruinit for us.
But the next day we went on avolcano and rainforest tour and
(35:48):
we were a different group and inthat group.
We were probably the oldest mywife and I of people there, but
it was a cool, fun group, a lotof interaction, a lot of fun.
Uh it was.
It was night and day differenceand the experience was better.
Going through the rainforesttour, we got to see a few snakes
(36:12):
which I love snakes and we gotto see the sloths.
We saw plenty and plenty ofsloths and then some birds.
I didn't get to see a toucanour entire trip.
I really wanted to see a toucan, but being with that group was
just such a night and daydifference.
They were fun and jovial andthey were making fun of me as I
was.
I was like getting close to thesnakes and like you can have
(36:34):
all the snake pictures you wantand get a up, because I don't
know that, yeah, this one'spoisonous but it's not
aggressive, and I'm looking atit and and the tour guides, yeah
, you can get close, you caneven get closer.
I'm like I'm, I'm at my comfortlevel now of this snake and
that was the eyelash viper.
And then the other one I don'tremember its name but it's the
most poisonous snake in costarica and it was about five feet
(36:57):
long.
But we saw it from the comfortof our, our van, and they
started making money.
You want to get out and playwith this one?
I'm like, no, I'll keep mydistance.
It right here, as I was reallyinto the, the snakes we saw, but
you know, everything else beingthe same, the, the, the, the
group of people, and it hasnothing to do with their age.
(37:17):
I was just deprecating that Iwas the youngest in one group
and the oldest in the othergroup, but it was.
it's like a work groupessentially.
You spent especially the secondday.
It was a two and a half hourdrive each way to.
So we were staying in thenorthwest corner of Costa Rica
(37:38):
and we were going basically tothe northeast corner, and so
it's like four plus hour drive.
You're in the van with thesepeople and you know you're
stopping here and there anddoing some other things before
that, but it was you get to knowthese people and doing some
other things before that.
It was you get to know thesepeople and it was a much better
environment.
You know, even if we now Idon't think my wife would have
(37:59):
been happy if we didn't see anysloths.
That's half the reason shewanted to go to Costa Rica was
to see sloths, but we saw slothsin mass.
I love it, yeah, and it wasgreat.
So the group dynamic reallymade the difference and tying
that back to HR.
But the other people watchingevent I had well, yeah, the only
(38:22):
other one I'm going to talkabout is flying back on Sunday
evening.
Everything in the southeast waslike thunderstorms everywhere.
Our, our pilot told us as we'reflying back, so I had to fly
through the main hub ofbaltimore.
Uh, hey, we're taking adifferent route.
It's going to take us 20minutes longer, we're going to
be 20 minutes delayed, but we'regoing to be avoiding all these
(38:42):
storms and turbulence andeverybody will have a better
ride.
So we did that, and I wasmentioning even coming from
costa rica.
We almost made it.
I'm a nerd when I'm on a planeand my another thing my wife
hates about me I like have mygoogle maps open the entire time
so I can see exactly where weare, and so trying to look out
(39:03):
the window oh yeah, look at thewind.
We flew going down.
We actually flew coming out ofBaltimore down to Costa Rica
directly over Greenville, northCarolina, and from 36,000 feet.
I also have my app on my watchthat tells us our altitude and
all that other fun stuff.
My hiking app does that and Iwas like, oh, we're about,
between Google Maps andeverything, we're about to fly
(39:25):
over Greenville.
So I'm like, oh my gosh,there's Dowdy Ficklin Stadium
where the ECU Pirates playfootball.
So I got a picture of it from36 000 feet, but anyways, that
was the way down.
On the way back our flight wewere about 20 minutes late, like
the pilot said, getting there.
But we get to baltimore and myreturn flight to norfolk,
virginia beach, uh, had beendelayed because of the
(39:46):
thunderstorms in the area, andokay, fine.
And each time it got delayed,our gate changed, so we're at
whatever gate.
And then they say the flight'sbeing delayed by an hour and a
half and now you'll be catchingit at this time at this gate.
So like the whole group sort ofgets up and meanders over
together and our flight gotdelayed twice.
But while we're waiting thesecond time, some flights across
(40:11):
from us, across the corridorfrom us, got canceled and this
one dude just completely losthis shit in the airport yelling
and cussing.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
What's in that airport that people forget how
to behave like humans?
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Oh, the airplane too.
Oh, okay, I'm going to tellthis story too.
It's not HR related, but to thepoint, security had to come and
escort him away and I'm justlike he was just yelling and
cussing, like, like I almostsaid, little girls don't would
hate me.
But the lady at the at theticket counter, the gate there,
(40:47):
she has zero control of theweather.
And at the airport many of thearrival departure boards, they
have weather maps of the wholecountry there and you can see
the whole Southeast is lit upand there's more red and orange
and there is green and yellow ina lot of these maps.
And I was telling my wife, oh,our flight's going to get
canceled too.
Luckily for us it wasn't, butit was just severely, severely
(41:12):
delayed and we spent like sixhours in the Baltimore airport
versus like two, but it was.
But like what?
I leaving on the day I sawsomeone from work.
She's actually taking the sameplane from Norfolk, virginia
Beach.
I was to Baltimore but she washeading out elsewhere and we saw
(41:33):
her in the airport.
But what if you never I've beenin airports and places you never
think you're going to be like?
I've been in Montana and oh,I'm running into somebody I know
in an airport.
What if you run into a coworkerthat just sees you losing your
shit?
I don't know, I would.
I sort of think that personbecomes unemployable at that
point If you can't handle.
(41:54):
I know flying and traveling isa stressful situation,
especially for a lot of people,but you know, it's, it's life,
you know, go to the ticketcounter, get your voucher for a
hotel and they'll get you on theflight sometime.
Another flight sometimetomorrow.
And yeah, yeah, life suckssometimes but the lady at the
ticket counter can't controlthat.
(42:16):
The flight cancellation, theweather, anything like that, and
to lose your shit like that wasjust so stupid.
It's so stupid, but here's thestory.
I was not going to tell, but itpopped my head.
So the airport in costa rica welanded out it's liberia airport
and it's a tiny airport.
It's only got like six gatesand one of them you actually
have to popped my head.
So the airport in Costa Rica welanded out it's Liberia Airport
and it's a tiny airport.
(42:36):
It's only got like six gatesand one of them you actually
have to walk out on the tarmacto get on and off your plane,
which we didn't have to do.
Thankfully it's only got onerunway that doesn't have any
separate taxiways or anything.
So there's one runway whereplanes are both landing and
taking off and there's no othertaxiways or anything.
So we're in line, so we'reperpendicular to the runway now,
waiting for other planes toland, and then the captain gets
(42:59):
on the microphone and saysunfortunately we're not going to
be able to taxi for departure,we're going to have to miss our
window.
Somebody is in the laboratoryand we cannot taxi with somebody
in the laboratory.
And I'm just like, becausewe're 90 degrees degrees, I can
look at.
I had a window seat, I couldlook out and I could see there's
like four, when there's fourairplanes waiting to depart
(43:20):
behind us.
So this person who couldn't holdtheir stuff together for to get
into the air is not onlydelaying us, but they're
delaying four other airplanesand I'm going to watch these
other planes land.
And it's not only delaying us,but they're delaying four other
airplanes and I'm going to watchthese other planes land and
it's not like there's room forthese other planes to pass us on
the way to get onto theairfield.
So that was something else.
(43:42):
I'm going to tell them stories.
I'll go ahead with one Ourflight attendant who gave the
announcements?
It was Southwest Airlines washilarious, going between
Baltimore and Norfolk.
It's a 25-minute flight and hesays, because of the turbulence
and the length of flight, we'renot going to release the
(44:03):
unbuckles, the laboratories willnot be open, we're not doing
refreshment services or anythinglike that.
And he's doing it all funny, heis drop-.
Hilarious.
And he goes and if this, ifthis flight to norfolk should
turn into a cruise, he says,girlfriend, I quit.
But he says but the otherflight attendants, they will
(44:24):
assist you in getting the lightvest from under your vest and
things like that.
And but also, when he wastalking about the the
laboratories being closed, hesays so that means no getting
naughty in the potty today,people.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
No, getting naughty in the potty, what else?
Speaker 2 (44:39):
He was saying so many oh.
And he says, because of theshort flight and everybody's
going to need to remain buckled,he goes don't even bother
pushing the blue light over yourhead.
No, that no.
Girlfriend quit last week andhe was just going.
I was almost in tears listeningto him.
You know, because I'veeverybody's heard the, the
announcements a hundred times.
(45:00):
And you know, don't put yourmask on the baby first.
You know everybody's heard this.
He made it fun, he made itinteresting.
I just wonder how muchsouthwest would condone.
Oh, and as we were landing.
We know you have lots of placesto choose when you make your
flight arrangements, but justremember Southwest is the
(45:20):
airline that the only thing theylove more than you is your
money.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Oh my gosh, and he was just going off and things
like that he was.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
he made you know after being in the airport it
would end up being six hours.
He made the 20 some odd minuteflight.
Just hilarious and great.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
That's awesome.
Well, southwest was the onethat like, wasn't that the one?
That big case study of likethey had an employee do that and
then they had some people.
It was almost like thisgrassroots of they would just
employee do that and then theyhad some people.
It was almost like thisgrassroots of they would just
have fun with thoseannouncements and they were
known for that.
And then the was it corporate?
Tried to like make it mandatoryoh and that was like it lost
(46:08):
the sauce when they tried tolike mandate it.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Because some people can't do that.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
Some people just can't, and it's fine, but yeah,
they're kind of known for that.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
See, I've flown Southwest.
They're one of my first choicesbecause of the cost and up
until recently, you get two bagsfree and we booked our flight
so we got our two bags free eachand things like that.
But another employment-relatedtest People putting away and
getting out their carry-onbaggage oh my gosh, that's like
(46:41):
an IQ test for people.
It was very much frustrating tome.
And oh, the girl crossed theaisle and once again she wasn't
a little girl, but the guytaking his suitcase out, like
lost control of it and smackedher in the head with it.
And I was like don't be sostupid people.
(47:02):
But yeah, I was just that thatthat annoys me people in their
carry on.
I don't, I carry my backpack asmy personal item and I stow it
under the seat and things likethat and I check everything else
.
I don't want to deal with that,but it takes 10 minutes longer
to get off the plane because allthese intellectually challenged
(47:22):
people getting their bags inand out of the carry-on.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
See, there's a system you put the carry-on a couple
seats before your seat and thatway when you get out of your
seat to exit the plane, it givesyou room to take step, step,
grab your bag and go, instead ofif everybody put behind you and
then you're holding up the line.
(47:46):
It's very awkward.
You got, that's my method.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Oh, I like that, If you are permitted to carry,
carry on baggage my wife and Iwould we carry our book bags has
a change of clothes, just incase our bag we make it and our
bags don't.
It has our phone chargers, ithas snacks in it, it has just
the bare minimum stuff you needif something were to to happen,
(48:13):
but that's all.
I've literally had this bookbag.
It's since before my daughterwas born.
I know I just remember havingit up in DC before she was
around and things like that.
It's been everywhere with meand yeah, that's the way I
prefer to travel.
Just check the damn bag.
I've never had one of my bagsget lost.
(48:33):
I hear horror stories about ithappening.
But, like I said, I've got achange of clothes, I've got my
phone chargers, I've got thethings I absolutely need are
right there and the airline willget me my luggage tomorrow,
most likely if it were lost.
You know, I just don't see theneed of of this.
So anyways, yeah, yeah.
(48:55):
So not a too much of an HRrelated episode, more more me
venting and telling stories thananything else.
But we did cover the cold pay,cold play, kiss cam.
So that yeah it.
It'll be interesting to see howthis all plays out.
You know he was.
He resigned like the next dayor day two after this.
(49:18):
I'm sure the board told him oh,by the way, you are resigning
yeah you're.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
You are resigning like we're telling you to leave,
but making you feel like youhave a choice in the matter
exactly, and I'm sure the samewent for the, the hr director,
I'm sure, officer she's dpl youknow my opinion on hr titles are
are just useless.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
But anyways, yeah, I I do want to see what happens
with them and I know not thatI'm going to pay that much
attention.
But if, if the ceo gets anotherjob anywhere, he won't just
like that cole ceo who you knowgot busted cheating after only a
few months on the job as welland anyone's gonna be like, oh,
like I don't want to hear, likewhy should he get like fired for
(50:04):
his personal life or anything?
Speaker 3 (50:06):
now, that's your integrity if that's how you
behave.
If that's how you behave inyour personal life, then how are
you behaving as the leader of amultimillion dollar, billion
dollar, whatever organization?
Speaker 2 (50:23):
And every article mentioned that they're both from
this company called Astronomer,so the company's name is
absolutely tied to the story,and so he made the company look
bad.
So, yeah, I just want to seemore of the fallout of this.
And whether they ever get jobs,we'll probably never know.
(50:45):
And if this guy's lawsuitagainst Coldplay goes anywhere,
I really, really doubt it.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
I am sorry, sir, you are not a victim in this
situation.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
And then I see all the things.
Of course, I do feel bad forthe other spouses and children
that are involved.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
But you know people are.
You need to stop sharing thisvideo because there are children
involved.
I'm like, oh, you know it's outthe door now you can't unring
that bell.
Yeah, so crazy, crazy stuff.
So let crazy stuff.
So, uh, let's see, in two weekswe'll have another episode and
at the end of August we will doa office for episode four, which
(51:28):
is gosh, what is that?
So it's a it's a hot girlAlliance.
Oh, the Alliance, the Alliance,yeah, it's the Alliance.
So, yeah, we'll have fun withthat.
Yeah, that's going to be a goodone.
So, anyhow and it sort of fallsinto what I was saying about
the team you're on and the groupyou're working with makes all
(51:50):
the difference.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
There you go.
That's a case study.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
A case study.
So anyways, so anyways.
Well, I do want to put out ourthank yous to Hallie, the
original Jaded HR Rockstar, billand Michael, who support us on
Patreon.
Follow the links in the shownotes.
You can support us there too.
You can leave us a text.
There's a link to leave us atext.
I'd love to hear from you Getyour ideas.
You think we suck, we thinkwe're stupid.
(52:14):
You think you got an idea for ashow.
You know that's.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
We're awesome.
Don't put those ideas in theirhead.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
That's how Cece and I met.
She contacted me some way onceupon a time, but first time she
was a guest on the show.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
I was like oh okay, that's true.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Get online with us and interact.
Speaker 3 (52:32):
Who knows what will happen, that is true.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
We should really capitalize more on that story.
I'm gonna have to dig up thatemail or dm or something is.
I don't delete anything.
I've got like a hundredthousand emails in my gmail
account and things like that,but it was just a call for
guests and I was like I'll be onand then that was it here we
are.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Maybe we should do something like that again yeah,
so, but I'm.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
I don't want you to go anywhere as I've lost.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
No no.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
For good reasons.
Both of them were good reasons.
You know, having children andother responsibilities in life.
So, yeah, that's, that's good.
So, anyways, thank you to allof them.
Leave us a review, contact uson our social medias.
I'm not going to get any moreactive on social medias things
are about to start getting busyagain, but maybe I'll try every
(53:24):
once in a while.
I don't know when we made ourlast, we'll do our best oh, the
underscore sort of does thetheme song devil to devil, and
then I'll say, as always, I'mWarren.
I'm Cece and we're here helpingyou survive HR one.
What the fuck moment at a time.
Had you actually read the email, you would know that
the podcast you are about tolisten to could contain explicit
language and offensive content.
These HR experts' views are notrepresentative of their past,
present or future employers.
If you have ever heard mymanager is unfair to me.
I need you to reset my HRportal password, or Can I write
(00:24):
up my employee for crying toomuch?
Welcome to our little safe zone.
Welcome to Jaded HR.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome to Jaded HR, the podcast by two HR
professionals who want to helpyou get through your workday by
saying everything you'rethinking, but say it out loud.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
My name's Warren.
I'm Cece.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
All right.
So we took a week off and I wasby the way for the audience.
This is take two.
We had a little technical issueon my fault, so take week.
So thank you very much.
I love seeing things like that.
(01:28):
People go into our back libraryand downloading things, or
maybe you've shared it with afriend that decided to listen
and download some episodes.
So keep up the good work onthat.
I did not get a chance to lookat if there were any new reviews
, but please, if you do have areview, put it out there, let us
know.
I will read it.
Good, bad, indifferent.
(01:48):
So go to your favorite podcastplayer, preferably apples.
They use the.
They're the, the almighty ofpodcast reviews.
But if you have something else,I'll try and find it there too.
So I know good pods.
We have a couple of pod friends.
There's a review on there andthings but.
But of course the worldrevolves around Apple.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So I was on vacation.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I'm playing my Apple watch on the screen.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, I've only had one Apple product in my life.
But yeah, we took the week offas I was on vacation and I went
to Costa Rica and had just anincredible time.
Everything was so great,Everything was nearly perfect.
I got a couple of stories, Ithink, out of it from people
watching, essentially, and Ireally couldn't ask for anything
(02:36):
better.
It all went perfectly theactivities, the weather, the
excursions, the people we met,everything it was just.
It was all perfect.
I would have liked to see morewildlife, but you can't really
pick and choose when animalsappear.
We did get to see everybodywants to see a sloth when you go
to Costa Rica and we got to seemore than our share of sloths
(02:59):
and for me, I like snakes.
So I got to see the mostvenomous snake in Costa Rica and
I forget its name, but I guessit's a relative of a rattlesnake
, and we saw it from the safetyof our van.
How?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
venomous.
Are we talking?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
How venomous are we talking?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I don't know.
But the other venomous snake wesaw was called eyelash viper
and if you check those outonline they're really cool
looking and they're not that big.
They're like a foot or two long.
But we were getting this closeto it and it didn't care.
It really just it was chill, itdidn't care, got some good
pictures of that.
I only got to do the red-eyedgreen tree frog I forget what
(03:43):
its name is the green treefrog-eyed green tree frog.
I forget what its name is, thegreen tree frog, I think, but I
wanted to see other frogs, likethe poison dart frog, the blue
jean frog, and I made a list ofall these animals I I was hoping
to see.
We saw monkeys.
We saw howler monkeys and thewhite face monkeys and and
crocodiles.
We saw crocodiles and thingslike that.
So it was, the wildlife wasreally good.
(04:03):
I didn't see a toucan.
I wanted to to see a toucan.
We saw all sorts of other birds, but nothing really.
You know, no Froot Loops oranything like that.
That's awesome, though, like.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I'm so jealous hearing about this experience.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It was.
It was great.
I can't wait to go on our nextvacation.
My wife and I are alreadystarting to think about where
we're going next year.
So cool.
And for those of you who arelike me, speak very, very little
Spanish, it is so Americanfriendly.
I had one person I interactedwith who spoke the amount of
(04:42):
English that I speak Spanish,and we were able to get my Uber
driver one day.
He didn't speak much English, Ididn't speak much Spanish, but
we got through and I got.
We actually were able toconverse at a very minimal level
, but it was.
It worked.
So, if you're like me, costaRica is a very native English
speaker friendly area to go to,and even not in, as we were on a
(05:04):
resort and we went to a touristtown.
But also we went to.
My wife and I went to a towncalled philadelphia, which
spelled with f, not a ph, and itis not a touristy town, and
still people there spokebeautiful english and things
like that, and everybody was sonice it was.
It was a great experience Ilove that so how about you?
(05:28):
what did, what did you have forthe last week?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
nothing crazy.
I mean, I was kind of in the Iwas trying to get this project
over the finish line, which Ithink I did.
It's tomorrow, so I think I did.
Anyway, I'm doing an internalpodcast, so for, like one of our
learning initiatives, we'redoing a podcast, so did that,
(05:52):
and the first episode airstomorrow.
So the past, like week, hasjust been very work focused.
And then we had a friend fly inthough from Florida and he came
like stayed with us and we likewent to the pool and it was
just fun.
I want the baby, you know lowkey.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Nice, I really want a low key.
I've just been so busy thiswhole summer.
Every weekend I've hadsomething going on and up and
through, like the third week ofAugust, the third weekend of
August.
It's hard to believe it'salmost August.
I will launch this on Thursday.
Most of you probably listenedto it on Thursday or Friday and
(06:29):
that's August 1st.
Crazy, the year is poof goingby?
I'm really not happy about itNext thing, you know, we'll be
talking about how instead of howhot it is, how cold it is and
the snow and that sort of stuffagain.
So I'm sort of stressing aboutthe holidays like, oh my god I
did see a countdown to tochristmas already on one of the
(06:55):
social media sites, but I had togo to home depot the other day
and they've got their halloweenstuff already all out at Home
Depot and HomeGoods has it outtoo.
I'm like, really I don't likethat.
It's July and you're doingHalloween.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, we went to the liquor store the other day and
they had pumpkin beer outalready.
I'm like it's July, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Slow down.
Yeah, that's one thing.
I drink local beers in CostaRica, the Imperial one as the
big name brand.
It's pretty good.
I couldn't distinguish it fromthat and say I don't even know
what type it was supposed to be,if it was a lager or not, I
(07:43):
think it was.
Then they had a brand namedpilsner which was like five,
five, no, five percent alcoholand it was that was actually my
favorite beer.
Then on one of my the tourguides, we were talking about
drinks and stuff like that.
So we're on the excursion andyou have a driver and there's
only like 10 people in the van,a driver, the tour guide and
(08:06):
we're talking about drinks, andhe just pulls over, has us go to
this convenience store in themiddle of nowhere seemingly, and
he's talking about differentdrinks and I went in.
I got a Cuba Libre, which is acanned rum and Coke.
It wasn't that good.
It wasn't Coke, it was a cola,it was like it was your generic
(08:27):
cola versus a coke and I don'tknow I didn't care for it.
It was only eight percent, soit it left more of a bite than
most eight percent drinks.
I think would leave a bite, butit was good and, like someone
else got this cucumber or spritwhich they just loved.
They said they're going to takea 12-pack back to America with
them.
So yeah, that was a little funlittle side adventure that we
(08:51):
did so well, the one thing that,because we didn't record, we
missed out on being sort of ontop of the story was the
Coldplay Kiss Cam, and I saw thearticle like I forget the day
after it happened and I sent youthe link immediately and said
we've got to talk about this.
(09:12):
But then I had no idea it wasgoing to blow up the way it did.
And I will tell you also inCosta Rica, like my Spanish is
very, very poor, I'm like apre-kindergarten vocabulary
level or something like that.
But I'm sitting there waiting inline for the restaurant and
(09:34):
someone beside me is on one ofthe social media networks and
they're seeing the thing aboutthe Kiss Cam and they're talking
about it in Spanish and thingslike that.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this islike got worldwide appeal on
that's awesome this cam and it,yeah.
So what I?
(09:56):
I don't want to cut, I halfway,don't want to cover it too much
because it's it's been, it'sbeen covered, it's been covered,
it's been covered, it's beencovered, it's been covered.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I just want to say like I feel bad for the families
and this was very entertaining.
Both things can be true.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
But I was just so.
It took me a couple daysBecause I'm like ha ha, like the
CEO and the CHRO are likemessing around.
And now they got busted in themost ridiculous way and oh,
Chris Martin even called it out.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I thought that was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Like all these things .
It took me a solid couple daysand I'm embarrassed to admit
this.
It was like all of a sudden Ilike popped out of bed in a cold
sweat or something and I was.
I just said, oh my god, thepower dynamic it's, it's her
boss.
And then from there on out, Iwas like that makes it even more
layered.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
If they just gave each other a little peck?
No, the world would never know.
Their spouses would never know.
No, whatever happened.
I don't know where the concertwas Was it in Vegas?
Whatever happened at theColdplay concert would have
stayed at the Coldplay concert.
Right, it was their reaction.
It's not like they're puttingit on cnn at that point.
(11:28):
It probably made its way ontocnn at some point and actually I
read that the man, what is hisname, andy byron, is now
contemplating suing coldplayover to kiss cam and he might
actually have some legal ground.
I'm like dude, you got busted.
It's not cold place fault soreddit went deep.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Apparently I don't know if he has a case, I think
he's just talking big, butapparently, like in fine print,
there's an agreement that byattending the concert, like
you're forgo, like you're givingthem the permissions to like,
record and use commercially andyada, yada.
So yeah, I don't think there'snot, there's not a lawsuit there
(12:13):
at all.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Like, dude, you got caught, you got caught, just
take the l and slink away andthe thing is he's not gonna be
able to get another job and,honestly, neither is she and I.
I saw something on social mediaand it might have been from
something like a tmz orsomething like that, but she was
spotted the other day notwearing her wedding ring.
(12:37):
So, yeah, so yeah yeah, it's,that's just.
But was their reaction?
But the power dynamic youmentioned of the two people in a
company that should know betteris the, the director of HR, the
chief people officer and theCEO.
You, you have to, you have to.
(12:58):
You know, of all the people,those are the two that should
not be having this issue with.
So, yeah, that was interestingand they're getting roasted
every which way on every socialmedia site, everything like that
.
But I got this from?
Was it Yahoo News?
(13:21):
I didn't get the.
I didn't take the.
Usually I like to give creditto it, but it says Cabot, his HR
chief, joined the company onlymonths ago.
So this is a.
You know, somebody moved veryquickly in this.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Or it's been happening before.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Or maybe he brought her in, Maybe they had a prior
thing going on.
Maybe they had a prior thinggoing on, but her LinkedIn
profile she describes herself assomeone who, quote wins the
trust of employees of all levels, from the CEO to managers and
assistants.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Winning trust, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
And you know, like I said, I do feel for the families
, but all the ridicule thathappens here is only going to
get their spouses more money inthe divorce.
You know the humiliation factorand whatever.
Yeah, it's going to beinteresting.
(14:17):
Now I saw something.
Now Gwyneth Paltrow is now aspokesperson for the company, or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I'm like so they hired her, I think they hired
her.
I'm like, so they, they hiredher, I think they hired her.
I'm afraid to say anything.
Is anything real or is it allAI anymore?
But I did see the video and itwas it's her.
And she just starts explaininglike oh, we're so glad that
you're interested in thiscompany and just has spikes and
(14:44):
she kind of talks very tongue incheek and cute about it.
But it's just funny that it'sher with the Chris Martin
connection.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Oh, does she have a Chris Martin connection?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
They used to be married.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh, okay, see, I never.
I'm not good at any of thatstuff, so that's funny.
Oh, and does she have a chrismartin connection?
They used to be married.
Oh, okay, see, I never.
I'm not good at any of thatstuff, so that's funny yeah yeah
, and with paltrow she's a wholeanother type of special of her
own in her you know what I'msaying?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I think it's, I think it's layered, because they were
married and I think ch Martincheated on her.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Oh really.
So I think, that is like thereal punchline in that PR thing.
I've seen all the memes thatare actually quite funny that
you know Coldplay hasn't made asingle in 20 years and they made
two in one night.
Oh my gosh, yeah hasn't made asingle in 20 years and they made
(15:40):
two in one night and thingslike that it was.
Some of the memes were justeither brutal or hilarious.
And also when I was in costarica, our tour guide, his
facebook page, he took someone,made it the, the man holding a
sloth, and then it saidunderneath reminder don't get uh
, don't get caught touching theanimals is apparently you can
get fined or things like that.
(16:01):
Before, but I it just seemedthat people putting that
everywhere on everything andthen you know, mimicking the,
the faces, putting in otherpeople's faces, and they're like
dwight and angela.
I saw one that was Dwight andAngela.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So good.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
And things like that.
So it's yeah, this is going tolive on for a little while until
the next big thing sort oftakes it off the front.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Honestly, it's kind of starting to cool down.
I'm just nosy about what'shappening next, but I think
they're all slithering into theabyss.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And it's going to give the hr haters out there
just another piece of ammunition.
Yeah, they're going to dislikeon hr4, so yeah it's.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
I mean, that is, let's be honest she was very,
very much biased to thecorporate side.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
She was definitely there for the company took one
for the tea, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So uh, just messy, messy.
Just don't be messy about it.
You're not happy in yourmarriages, you just get a
divorce and go your separateways and then you do whatever
you want.
It's very weird, the wholebehind people's backs very messy
, and I'm like that's why Idon't really feel bad that they
got caught yeah, yeah, like allthey had to do was give each
(17:23):
other a little peck on the kisscamp.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Nobody would have ever known, it would have just
disappeared.
But to act that way, and thenchris martin call them out and
say something like uh, they'reeither camera shy or having an
affair, or something like that,that just made it even better,
apparently.
And so, yeah, hr is going totake the lumps on this one for a
little while at least.
So, yeah, fun, fun, fun.
(17:47):
But let's see here, okay,before I get to my other topic,
this, the week before I went onvacation was a very unique week
at work because we had moredrop-in, unannounced solicitors
at my office than I can remember.
(18:10):
Actually, we have conferencerooms in office, but they don't
hold more than like a dozenpeople.
So if we do something big, wejust do it in the lobby, and we
just happen to be doing myrecruiter's five-year
anniversary award plaque money.
So we did that and we're all inthere and the president of the
company is there and a copymachine salesperson comes to the
(18:34):
door and it's a secure building, so they have to be buzzed in.
And the person closest to thedoor, and it's a secure building
, so they have to be buzzed in.
And the person closest door was, of course, our president.
You know he's like trying to beall cool.
Oh, all this for me, you know.
And he said, well, I'm withwhatever copier company, nope,
we're not interested.
Thank you, goodbye.
And it was.
It was great.
That's really the second time ithappened.
(18:57):
Our receptionist was out of theoffice and I just happened to
be getting ready to start ameeting and I'm going to the
conference room and somebody'sat the door so I go into the
door to answer it, and it justhappened to be a payroll company
doing door to door.
I was like nope.
I said first I said, well, heasked to speak.
(19:18):
I was here, I wanted to speakto Warren and I said, well, I
just happened to be Warren and Icould see the name of the
payroll company on his shirt.
I said, look, I'm getting readyto go in a meeting.
I have zero interest inchanging any payroll companies.
And I said it's just not periodgoing to happen.
(19:39):
And I I said, but I've reallygot to go.
And he handed me a card andgave me a lottery ticket, which
I haven't scratched off yet, tosee if I get anything out of it,
but I just the drop inunannounced solicitors.
I just that's such poor taste,I, I feel aggressive.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I don't like it.
I don't like it when peoplecome unannounced at my home oh
yeah, text before you come over,but yeah, you're at work like
it when people come unannouncedat my home oh yeah, text before
you come over.
But even at work it's just so.
You're going about yourbusiness, you're running into
meetings, you're trying to, andsomeone just shows up and it's
just rude.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I understand they're trying to do their job and
that's what they do and thingslike that, but that just I have
not seen.
You know, aflac used to be theworst when it came to
door-to-door sales business forat least HR-related stuff, and
then some of the temp agenciesfollowed behind Aflac and but I
(20:29):
hadn't seen any in forever and Ido our office manager.
She sits at the front desk.
I think she does a good job ofshooting them down, so I don't
even know.
A lot of them come by, but shesays it's been busier lately
again Anyhow, and as you know, Ideeply despise solicitors.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Oh, as your LinkedIn profile says, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yes, yes, so my my top.
Another topic I had for todaywas some of my people watching
experiences while I was in CostaRica.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
That is my all time favorite hobby.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
My wife and I lived in the DC area.
This was before children time.
We would actually take ourbikes, put them on the metro
drive into the downtown mallarea of DC just to ride our
bikes around and people watch.
This was pre-9-11.
You could ride your bike prettymuch anywhere.
At that time there alwaysseemed to be protests at the
(21:34):
International Monetary Fundbuilding so we'd always make
sure that was on our route andthings like that and just the
people watching was very muchtop notch in the DC downtown DC
area.
But now you know, living in thesticks there's not as much, but
going on vacation, there'salways something going on for
people watching.
But this vacation offered mesome really eye-openers.
(21:59):
I'm gonna try some of them.
I'm not gonna be able to relateto hr, I just think they're
funny as hell and I want toshare the story.
A couple of them.
I want to relate to hr in someway, but here's the the most
disturbing people watching uh,my wife and I experience and I
can't relate it to HR, so thisis just a funny story.
So all the beaches in Costa Ricaare public.
(22:21):
There's no private beaches.
Your resort doesn't have itsown private beach or anything
like that, but the beach that myresort is on only has two
entrances the resort entranceand a public entrance which is
50 yards north of the resortentrance and a public entrance
which is 50 yards north of theresort entrance.
So my wife and I, you go downand we got our place on the
(22:42):
beach and it's a wide-open beach.
There's not that many people.
We went like 100 yards awayfrom the resort entrance, the
main entrance, to get away frompeople, just be able to sit
there and enjoy ourselves andhave some drinks and watch the
ocean and things like that.
Go swimming, enjoy ourselvesand have some drinks and watch
the ocean and things like that.
Go swimming.
(23:07):
Well, a couple comes and sowe're a hundred yards from the
main entrance, we're probably 50yards from the next closest
group of people, and thenthere's hundreds and hundreds of
miles, like in North Carolina.
The beach goes on forever.
There's rocks and cliffs andthings, but it goes on for
several hundred yards beyond uswhere there's absolutely nobody.
But this couple comes and, Ikid you not, they're like 20
(23:28):
feet in front of us and it's amale and female and they are
she's like directing the guy totake these pics and she's like I
mean they no nudity, but shewas making some very sultry type
(23:51):
positions and facialexpressions and she took, like,
the bikini top off and wascovering herself and doing these
little positions and she'sdirecting the guy who's taking
the pictures oh, get higher, getlower.
She was not wearing a thong.
But she pulled her whole bikinibottom straight up her ass to
make herself have a thong.
(24:11):
And she's like getting on herall fours once again, bathing
suit, bikini undone and coveringwith one hand.
And she's telling get behind me, get this angle, get that.
And she's going to town and mywife and i're like looking at
our which she could have goneanother 100 yards this way, we
would have never seen them.
But and they had to know we'rethere, we're 20 feet from them
(24:33):
and she's just going on and ondirecting him and and so on, so
forth, and it was just, it wasawkward for us.
Like we're on our towelssitting here on the beach, are
we going to get up and leave, orit was just, it was just
incredibly uncomfortable, it wasit was just like over, just jaw
(24:54):
dropped there and I feel
Speaker 3 (24:56):
like for minutes I feel like this is a real life
situation.
Um, I don't know if you've everbeen on the reddit instagram
versus real life or instagramversus reality or something and
it's like I wonder what herfinal instagram or tiktoks were
like the fully edited one,versus what you were seeing, the
chaotic behind the scenes thatwas to get there.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
And I will say and I'm not trying to be mean I
think the man might have hadsome developmental disabilities,
judging by some of hismannerisms and behaviors and
things like this.
And anyways, my wife and I wedidn't know what type of
relationship they had.
She was obviously older thanhim.
(25:39):
We didn't know if it was one ofthose whatever you call it
spring winter relationships oryou know where there's a big age
difference or anything likethat.
So well, the next night they'resitting near us at dinner on
the resort and we paid for.
They had three levels of Idon't know what you.
(26:02):
They have standard, deluxe andVIP.
We got the deluxe, so we gotpreferred seating in the
restaurants and things like that, which was actually great.
But we got to sit outside onthe patio and for dinner at this
restaurant but they were likeon the other side of the wall
and window from us.
So the first thing that happensas they sit down, the lady gets
(26:27):
extremely rude with the waiter.
And she had the same waiter wehad and he was fabulous.
He was awesome.
I had no complaints with any ofthe service I received anywhere
the whole time, but he wasabsolutely fabulous.
But she just says and when hecomes to take her order.
Well, I didn't bring my glasses, so you're just going to have
to read the whole menu to me.
And my wife and I sort of lookedat each other and like, yeah,
(26:48):
you can do something rather thanthis.
And he played.
He was very, and because it'sall inclusive, you don't there's
no tips or anything like that,and in Costa Rica tips are built
into your bill.
Anyways, when we went off theresort to go to dinner, I
actually wanted to give thewaiter a better tip than the
(27:09):
inclusive one, but it didn'teven give me the option.
There was no option to give himand I didn't have any cash,
either Costa Rican or US, on meat the time, so I did kind of
feel bad, but anyways, I waslike that man deserves a bigger
tip from her In some way.
She was just so rude and whathave you?
Well, later in the meal wediscovered their relationship
(27:32):
was mother-son and she, oh yeah,and she, oh yeah, and she.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Oh, he was taking the pictures of his mom.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
He was taking the pictures of his mom.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, there's the twist, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
It took me a second.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
It was a mother-son and we figured it out.
Now the restaurant is a smallrestaurant.
It has maybe 12 tables in it,not a huge restaurant, so you
can hear everything that's goingon in there.
She yells at this.
He has to be over 18.
It was an adults-only resort.
(28:09):
But he goes.
Stop being such a dumb ass likeyour father.
I'm like oh, yells at him.
I couldn't hear anything hesaid or did.
I don't know what caused that.
I was like that's where welearned what the relationship
was and my wife like oh my god,we kind of thought it was, but
judging by the pictures, Ithought okay, maybe it's a big
(28:31):
age discrepancy.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
It sounds super healthy yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Well, so that night goes.
Then a third night we'rewaiting for our reservation at
the resort steakhouse and we'rejust sitting fully dressed in
our street clothes at the pool,people watching and things, and
they come.
As we're sitting there, theycome to get in the pool.
(28:57):
It's like nighttime, it'sstarting to get dark, and what
happens in the pool?
She's asking him to take morepictures and she's like you know
, at dark the pool has lightsand she's getting in front of it
and she's like make sure youget my boobs.
And then I was floating andlike get my ass too.
(29:18):
And she's talking to her son inthis way.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I'm like if this is what they're doing out here.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I don't want to know what's going on in that.
I wanted to like, like I said,I think the boy was
developmentally disabled in someway.
Just observationally, he didn'tseem all the way there and I'm
like what?
the hell's going on dynamic yeah, that was, I was someone.
Is this something we should bereporting to somebody?
(29:47):
Because it was weird and it'sjust that.
Oh, it was weird and we like,if we saw them, we sort of
started heading the other way.
We didn't have any other dinnerreservations at the same time
they did, thankfully, and thingslike that.
That was, that was real weird.
Also at the resort, the, thepeople in the room next to us.
(30:08):
My wife gets mad at me.
There's a redeveloping trend ina lot of the stories of my wife
getting mad at me.
But I call people that are mykids' age and younger, little
boys, little girls, andobviously they're over 18 if
they're at this resort andthings.
But the people and I call themlittle boy and little girl in
the room next to us, they looklike they're 15.
(30:29):
I wouldn't have believed thatthey were 18.
Girl in the room next to usthey looked like they were 15.
I wouldn't have believed thatthey were 18.
But anyways, they were thereand they're very young.
They were actually in the poolenjoying the pool.
They're in the pool too andthey're walking around together
and this guy comes up and hestarts to talk to him.
I don't know, it didn't seemlike they knew him before and
(30:51):
you could see they're trying toget away.
They're sort of scootingbackwards trying to get away and
he's following.
They did like a whole circlearound the pool.
Then they get out of the pooland said well, we have to go,
we'll talk to you later.
And I was like he seemed like astalker.
Part of me wanted to ask him iseverything okay?
Do you need help in any way?
I didn't, because they seemedto get out of the pool and sort
(31:15):
of got out of the area quickly.
But that is another thing.
But those are the two stories.
I can't really relate to HR, butI got two people watching
stories.
I can definitely relate to HRand I did two different
excursions while we were inCosta Rica.
(31:35):
The first excursion, the firstday, my wife and I being in our
50s we were the youngest peopleon this excursion and there were
some very interesting otherpeople on this excursion.
It's only a group of 10 peopleis the maximum size of these
excursions, so it was a smallgroup of people.
(31:56):
You're in a van going fromplace to place together, so
you're on the van, probably atotal of three, maybe as many
four hours together as you'regoing place to place and things
like that.
And the tour guides wereawesome and they would sort of
you know, do hey, where are youfrom and what do you do for a
living?
Why are you here?
What do you want to do in CostaRica, what brought you to Costa
Rica, and things like that.
(32:16):
So we got to know people.
We had some very interestingpeople One guy who claimed he's
a lawyer.
He said he did real estate andcriminal defense and I was like
that's a weird combination but Iwouldn't let him get me out of
a parking ticket or close on adog house for me.
He was.
He was a very interestingperson.
And another another gentlemanwas just one of the excursion we
(32:40):
were on.
The main event of the excursionwas a river cruise to see
wildlife up and down the riverand he was nearly in tears
because the boat we were on didnot have life vests and he
wanted a life vest and he wasliterally on the verge of tears
about not having a life vest andit's the law, it's the law,
(33:01):
it's the law.
And I was waiting for a veryinteresting lawyer friend to
chime in then and I'm like yougot to remember you're in Costa
Rica, not the United States, andtake a ferry across.
We've got ferries in my area.
You don't have to put on a vestto go on the ferry and things
like that.
But anyways, he'd been gettingon my nerves before that point.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Wait, was he upset that you weren't being handed
life vests?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, there were no life vests on the boat, that at
least you could see.
But he wanted to be wearing oneand anyways, and I said well,
why don't we find you a lifevest?
That way, if the boat goes over, you can be floating crocodile
food, while my wife and I safelyswim away.
And my wife punched me in theribs.
I probably still have a bruisefrom that one because I was just
(33:49):
sick of him by then.
So, like, not that.
Much later the the cruise boatpulls up, we're on the side of
the river, five feet from acrocodile that's sunning on the
on the bank, and we're alltaking pictures and ooh, and
things like that.
And he goes on.
Oh, I think this is a doll,this isn't alive, it's not
moving.
And the tour guide is like, ohwell, they're cold-blooded and
(34:11):
they, after they eat, they needto sit on the sun to help them
digest.
Yada, yada, yada and thingslike that.
Then, all of a sudden, thecrocodile decided he didn't want
to be near the boat anymore andhe turned around and slid back
in the river.
This man practically shithimself trying to get out of it
was just so crazy and soridiculous.
And the lawyer person wantingto ask you know, where are the
(34:35):
hippopotamus?
Where are the tigers?
I'm like we're in Costa Rica,there's no hippopotamus.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Now I know from watching Narcos You're an old
man.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, from being in Narcos watching Narcos, I know
there are hippopotamus inColombia, thanks to Juan Pablo
Sandoval, but I don't thinkthere are any hippos in the
river in Costa Rica.
But my point, to tie this backto HR in some random, strange
way the quality of the groupyou're around really impacts
(35:05):
your experience.
We got everything we wanted outof the tour.
We saw monkeys, we sawcrocodiles, we saw, we saw the
jesus christ lizard now, hewasn't running across the water
or anything like that, but wesaw one I don't know what you're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Now I'm like the what and I'm like, oh, the little,
yeah, he runs across the water.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
We saw him sitting on the shore and the boat driver
stopped and was trying to likerev up the engine of the boat to
sort of scare him to see if hewould run across the water.
He wasn't doing it.
He wasn't having any part of it, but we got to see that.
But that excursion we had agreat time still and none of
these people were going to ruinit for us.
But the next day we went on avolcano and rainforest tour and
(35:48):
we were a different group and inthat group.
We were probably the oldest mywife and I of people there, but
it was a cool, fun group, a lotof interaction, a lot of fun.
Uh it was.
It was night and day differenceand the experience was better.
Going through the rainforesttour, we got to see a few snakes
(36:12):
which I love snakes and we gotto see the sloths.
We saw plenty and plenty ofsloths and then some birds.
I didn't get to see a toucanour entire trip.
I really wanted to see a toucan, but being with that group was
just such a night and daydifference.
They were fun and jovial andthey were making fun of me as I
was.
I was like getting close to thesnakes and like you can have
(36:34):
all the snake pictures you wantand get a up, because I don't
know that, yeah, this one'spoisonous but it's not
aggressive, and I'm looking atit and and the tour guides, yeah
, you can get close, you caneven get closer.
I'm like I'm, I'm at my comfortlevel now of this snake and
that was the eyelash viper.
And then the other one I don'tremember its name but it's the
most poisonous snake in costarica and it was about five feet
(36:57):
long.
But we saw it from the comfortof our, our van, and they
started making money.
You want to get out and playwith this one?
I'm like, no, I'll keep mydistance.
It right here, as I was reallyinto the, the snakes we saw, but
you know, everything else beingthe same, the, the, the, the
group of people, and it hasnothing to do with their age.
(37:17):
I was just deprecating that Iwas the youngest in one group
and the oldest in the othergroup, but it was.
it's like a work groupessentially.
You spent especially the secondday.
It was a two and a half hourdrive each way to.
So we were staying in thenorthwest corner of Costa Rica
(37:38):
and we were going basically tothe northeast corner, and so
it's like four plus hour drive.
You're in the van with thesepeople and you know you're
stopping here and there anddoing some other things before
that, but it was you get to knowthese people and doing some
other things before that.
It was you get to know thesepeople and it was a much better
environment.
You know, even if we now Idon't think my wife would have
(37:59):
been happy if we didn't see anysloths.
That's half the reason shewanted to go to Costa Rica was
to see sloths, but we saw slothsin mass.
I love it, yeah, and it wasgreat.
So the group dynamic reallymade the difference and tying
that back to HR.
But the other people watchingevent I had well, yeah, the only
(38:22):
other one I'm going to talkabout is flying back on Sunday
evening.
Everything in the southeast waslike thunderstorms everywhere.
Our, our pilot told us as we'reflying back, so I had to fly
through the main hub ofbaltimore.
Uh, hey, we're taking adifferent route.
It's going to take us 20minutes longer, we're going to
be 20 minutes delayed, but we'regoing to be avoiding all these
(38:42):
storms and turbulence andeverybody will have a better
ride.
So we did that, and I wasmentioning even coming from
costa rica.
We almost made it.
I'm a nerd when I'm on a planeand my another thing my wife
hates about me I like have mygoogle maps open the entire time
so I can see exactly where weare, and so trying to look out
(39:03):
the window oh yeah, look at thewind.
We flew going down.
We actually flew coming out ofBaltimore down to Costa Rica
directly over Greenville, northCarolina, and from 36,000 feet.
I also have my app on my watchthat tells us our altitude and
all that other fun stuff.
My hiking app does that and Iwas like, oh, we're about,
between Google Maps andeverything, we're about to fly
(39:25):
over Greenville.
So I'm like, oh my gosh,there's Dowdy Ficklin Stadium
where the ECU Pirates playfootball.
So I got a picture of it from36 000 feet, but anyways, that
was the way down.
On the way back our flight wewere about 20 minutes late, like
the pilot said, getting there.
But we get to baltimore and myreturn flight to norfolk,
virginia beach, uh, had beendelayed because of the
(39:46):
thunderstorms in the area, andokay, fine.
And each time it got delayed,our gate changed, so we're at
whatever gate.
And then they say the flight'sbeing delayed by an hour and a
half and now you'll be catchingit at this time at this gate.
So like the whole group sort ofgets up and meanders over
together and our flight gotdelayed twice.
But while we're waiting thesecond time, some flights across
(40:11):
from us, across the corridorfrom us, got canceled and this
one dude just completely losthis shit in the airport yelling
and cussing.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
What's in that airport that people forget how
to behave like humans?
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Oh, the airplane too.
Oh, okay, I'm going to tellthis story too.
It's not HR related, but to thepoint, security had to come and
escort him away and I'm justlike he was just yelling and
cussing, like, like I almostsaid, little girls don't would
hate me.
But the lady at the at theticket counter, the gate there,
(40:47):
she has zero control of theweather.
And at the airport many of thearrival departure boards, they
have weather maps of the wholecountry there and you can see
the whole Southeast is lit upand there's more red and orange
and there is green and yellow ina lot of these maps.
And I was telling my wife, oh,our flight's going to get
canceled too.
Luckily for us it wasn't, butit was just severely, severely
(41:12):
delayed and we spent like sixhours in the Baltimore airport
versus like two, but it was.
But like what?
I leaving on the day I sawsomeone from work.
She's actually taking the sameplane from Norfolk, virginia
Beach.
I was to Baltimore but she washeading out elsewhere and we saw
(41:33):
her in the airport.
But what if you never I've beenin airports and places you never
think you're going to be like?
I've been in Montana and oh,I'm running into somebody I know
in an airport.
What if you run into a coworkerthat just sees you losing your
shit?
I don't know, I would.
I sort of think that personbecomes unemployable at that
point If you can't handle.
(41:54):
I know flying and traveling isa stressful situation,
especially for a lot of people,but you know, it's, it's life,
you know, go to the ticketcounter, get your voucher for a
hotel and they'll get you on theflight sometime.
Another flight sometimetomorrow.
And yeah, yeah, life suckssometimes but the lady at the
ticket counter can't controlthat.
(42:16):
The flight cancellation, theweather, anything like that, and
to lose your shit like that wasjust so stupid.
It's so stupid, but here's thestory.
I was not going to tell, but itpopped my head.
So the airport in costa rica welanded out it's liberia airport
and it's a tiny airport.
It's only got like six gatesand one of them you actually
have to popped my head.
So the airport in Costa Rica welanded out it's Liberia Airport
and it's a tiny airport.
(42:36):
It's only got like six gatesand one of them you actually
have to walk out on the tarmacto get on and off your plane,
which we didn't have to do.
Thankfully it's only got onerunway that doesn't have any
separate taxiways or anything.
So there's one runway whereplanes are both landing and
taking off and there's no othertaxiways or anything.
So we're in line, so we'reperpendicular to the runway now,
waiting for other planes toland, and then the captain gets
(42:59):
on the microphone and saysunfortunately we're not going to
be able to taxi for departure,we're going to have to miss our
window.
Somebody is in the laboratoryand we cannot taxi with somebody
in the laboratory.
And I'm just like, becausewe're 90 degrees degrees, I can
look at.
I had a window seat, I couldlook out and I could see there's
like four, when there's fourairplanes waiting to depart
(43:20):
behind us.
So this person who couldn't holdtheir stuff together for to get
into the air is not onlydelaying us, but they're
delaying four other airplanesand I'm going to watch these
other planes land.
And it's not only delaying us,but they're delaying four other
airplanes and I'm going to watchthese other planes land and
it's not like there's room forthese other planes to pass us on
the way to get onto theairfield.
So that was something else.
(43:42):
I'm going to tell them stories.
I'll go ahead with one Ourflight attendant who gave the
announcements?
It was Southwest Airlines washilarious, going between
Baltimore and Norfolk.
It's a 25-minute flight and hesays, because of the turbulence
and the length of flight, we'renot going to release the
(44:03):
unbuckles, the laboratories willnot be open, we're not doing
refreshment services or anythinglike that.
And he's doing it all funny, heis drop-.
Hilarious.
And he goes and if this, ifthis flight to norfolk should
turn into a cruise, he says,girlfriend, I quit.
But he says but the otherflight attendants, they will
(44:24):
assist you in getting the lightvest from under your vest and
things like that.
And but also, when he wastalking about the the
laboratories being closed, hesays so that means no getting
naughty in the potty today,people.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
No, getting naughty in the potty, what else?
Speaker 2 (44:39):
He was saying so many oh.
And he says, because of theshort flight and everybody's
going to need to remain buckled,he goes don't even bother
pushing the blue light over yourhead.
No, that no.
Girlfriend quit last week andhe was just going.
I was almost in tears listeningto him.
You know, because I'veeverybody's heard the, the
announcements a hundred times.
(45:00):
And you know, don't put yourmask on the baby first.
You know everybody's heard this.
He made it fun, he made itinteresting.
I just wonder how muchsouthwest would condone.
Oh, and as we were landing.
We know you have lots of placesto choose when you make your
flight arrangements, but justremember Southwest is the
(45:20):
airline that the only thing theylove more than you is your
money.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Oh my gosh, and he was just going off and things
like that he was.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
he made you know after being in the airport it
would end up being six hours.
He made the 20 some odd minuteflight.
Just hilarious and great.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
That's awesome.
Well, southwest was the onethat like, wasn't that the one?
That big case study of likethey had an employee do that and
then they had some people.
It was almost like thisgrassroots of they would just
employee do that and then theyhad some people.
It was almost like thisgrassroots of they would just
have fun with thoseannouncements and they were
known for that.
And then the was it corporate?
Tried to like make it mandatoryoh and that was like it lost
(46:08):
the sauce when they tried tolike mandate it.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Because some people can't do that.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
Some people just can't, and it's fine, but yeah,
they're kind of known for that.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
See, I've flown Southwest.
They're one of my first choicesbecause of the cost and up
until recently, you get two bagsfree and we booked our flight
so we got our two bags free eachand things like that.
But another employment-relatedtest People putting away and
getting out their carry-onbaggage oh my gosh, that's like
(46:41):
an IQ test for people.
It was very much frustrating tome.
And oh, the girl crossed theaisle and once again she wasn't
a little girl, but the guytaking his suitcase out, like
lost control of it and smackedher in the head with it.
And I was like don't be sostupid people.
(47:02):
But yeah, I was just that thatthat annoys me people in their
carry on.
I don't, I carry my backpack asmy personal item and I stow it
under the seat and things likethat and I check everything else
.
I don't want to deal with that,but it takes 10 minutes longer
to get off the plane because allthese intellectually challenged
(47:22):
people getting their bags inand out of the carry-on.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
See, there's a system you put the carry-on a couple
seats before your seat and thatway when you get out of your
seat to exit the plane, it givesyou room to take step, step,
grab your bag and go, instead ofif everybody put behind you and
then you're holding up the line.
(47:46):
It's very awkward.
You got, that's my method.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Oh, I like that, If you are permitted to carry,
carry on baggage my wife and Iwould we carry our book bags has
a change of clothes, just incase our bag we make it and our
bags don't.
It has our phone chargers, ithas snacks in it, it has just
the bare minimum stuff you needif something were to to happen,
(48:13):
but that's all.
I've literally had this bookbag.
It's since before my daughterwas born.
I know I just remember havingit up in DC before she was
around and things like that.
It's been everywhere with meand yeah, that's the way I
prefer to travel.
Just check the damn bag.
I've never had one of my bagsget lost.
(48:33):
I hear horror stories about ithappening.
But, like I said, I've got achange of clothes, I've got my
phone chargers, I've got thethings I absolutely need are
right there and the airline willget me my luggage tomorrow,
most likely if it were lost.
You know, I just don't see theneed of of this.
So anyways, yeah, yeah.
(48:55):
So not a too much of an HRrelated episode, more more me
venting and telling stories thananything else.
But we did cover the cold pay,cold play, kiss cam.
So that yeah it.
It'll be interesting to see howthis all plays out.
You know he was.
He resigned like the next dayor day two after this.
(49:18):
I'm sure the board told him oh,by the way, you are resigning
yeah you're.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
You are resigning like we're telling you to leave,
but making you feel like youhave a choice in the matter
exactly, and I'm sure the samewent for the, the hr director,
I'm sure, officer she's dpl youknow my opinion on hr titles are
are just useless.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
But anyways, yeah, I I do want to see what happens
with them and I know not thatI'm going to pay that much
attention.
But if, if the ceo gets anotherjob anywhere, he won't just
like that cole ceo who you knowgot busted cheating after only a
few months on the job as welland anyone's gonna be like, oh,
like I don't want to hear, likewhy should he get like fired for
(50:04):
his personal life or anything?
Speaker 3 (50:06):
now, that's your integrity if that's how you
behave.
If that's how you behave inyour personal life, then how are
you behaving as the leader of amultimillion dollar, billion
dollar, whatever organization?
Speaker 2 (50:23):
And every article mentioned that they're both from
this company called Astronomer,so the company's name is
absolutely tied to the story,and so he made the company look
bad.
So, yeah, I just want to seemore of the fallout of this.
And whether they ever get jobs,we'll probably never know.
(50:45):
And if this guy's lawsuitagainst Coldplay goes anywhere,
I really, really doubt it.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
I am sorry, sir, you are not a victim in this
situation.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
And then I see all the things.
Of course, I do feel bad forthe other spouses and children
that are involved.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
But you know people are.
You need to stop sharing thisvideo because there are children
involved.
I'm like, oh, you know it's outthe door now you can't unring
that bell.
Yeah, so crazy, crazy stuff.
So let crazy stuff.
So, uh, let's see, in two weekswe'll have another episode and
at the end of August we will doa office for episode four, which
(51:28):
is gosh, what is that?
So it's a it's a hot girlAlliance.
Oh, the Alliance, the Alliance,yeah, it's the Alliance.
So, yeah, we'll have fun withthat.
Yeah, that's going to be a goodone.
So, anyhow and it sort of fallsinto what I was saying about
the team you're on and the groupyou're working with makes all
(51:50):
the difference.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
There you go.
That's a case study.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
A case study.
So anyways, so anyways.
Well, I do want to put out ourthank yous to Hallie, the
original Jaded HR Rockstar, billand Michael, who support us on
Patreon.
Follow the links in the shownotes.
You can support us there too.
You can leave us a text.
There's a link to leave us atext.
I'd love to hear from you Getyour ideas.
You think we suck, we thinkwe're stupid.
(52:14):
You think you got an idea for ashow.
You know that's.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
We're awesome.
Don't put those ideas in theirhead.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
That's how Cece and I met.
She contacted me some way onceupon a time, but first time she
was a guest on the show.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
I was like oh okay, that's true.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Get online with us and interact.
Speaker 3 (52:32):
Who knows what will happen, that is true.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
We should really capitalize more on that story.
I'm gonna have to dig up thatemail or dm or something is.
I don't delete anything.
I've got like a hundredthousand emails in my gmail
account and things like that,but it was just a call for
guests and I was like I'll be onand then that was it here we
are.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Maybe we should do something like that again yeah,
so, but I'm.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
I don't want you to go anywhere as I've lost.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
No no.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
For good reasons.
Both of them were good reasons.
You know, having children andother responsibilities in life.
So, yeah, that's, that's good.
So, anyways, thank you to allof them.
Leave us a review, contact uson our social medias.
I'm not going to get any moreactive on social medias things
are about to start getting busyagain, but maybe I'll try every
(53:24):
once in a while.
I don't know when we made ourlast, we'll do our best oh, the
underscore sort of does thetheme song devil to devil, and
then I'll say, as always, I'mWarren.
I'm Cece and we're here helpingyou survive HR one.
What the fuck moment at a time.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.