October 23, 2025 • 43 mins
A Halloween throwback with teeth: we revisit the moments that make HR feel haunted and explain how to handle them without losing your cool. We kick off with a real company memo that tied election outcomes to potential layoffs and unpack where employer speech ends and voter intimidation begins. The difference between context and coercion matters, so we walk through how to communicate policy risk without turning paystubs into campaign flyers or unraveling trust.
From there, we shift to the customer side and the Expensify CEO’s mass political email. Using a product mailing list to advocate a candidate is a masterclass in how to torch goodwill. We talk data stewardship, opt-in norms, and the reputational cost when brands push beyond the purpose of their channels. Then we lighten the mood with remote Halloween ideas that don’t create HR nightmares, and we draw hard boundaries around costumes that cross into racism, sexual content, or glorified violence. A little guidance in advance can spare everyone a lot of pain later.
We also roll up our sleeves for real management work: coaching a leader through their first termination when a remote contractor misses deadlines, hijacks meetings, and submits shaky timesheets. You’ll hear the exact steps we use to document performance, run a clean meeting, and close the loop when someone “resigns” after being let go. And yes, we poke at HR’s own monsters: job titles that confuse more than they clarify. Fun is fine, but titles should map to market norms so candidates, comp, and compliance stay on solid ground.
If you enjoy candid HR insights, practical scripts, and a few spooky laughs, hit follow, leave a review on your favorite podcast app, and tell us your best workplace costume disaster or haunted-office prank. Your stories might make a future show.
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email: feedback@jadedhr.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey y'all, this is Warren.
Unfortunately, due to the AmazonWeb Services downtime earlier
this week and a heavy dose ofreality, we were not able to
record an episode this week.
But I pulled up this oldHalloween episode from season
one, so we'll take you back to2020.
Please enjoy this encoreepisode, and we'll see you in
(00:22):
two weeks.
SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
Had you actually read the email, you would know
that the podcast you are aboutto listen to could contain
explicit language and offensivecontent.
These HR experts' views are notrepresentative of their past,
present, or future employers.
If you've ever heard, my manageris unfair to me, I need you to
reset my HR portal password orget rid of my employee for
(00:48):
crying too much.
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Welcome to our little table.
SPEAKER_03 (01:16):
Podcast by two former human resources coworkers
who just want to help you getthrough the workday by saying
all those things you arethinking, but say it out loud.
I'm Patrick Concilis.
And I'm Warren Workman.
And welcome to our spooky HRepisode.
SPEAKER_00 (01:31):
Yeah, spooky and scary.
We're going to actually delve alittle bit into politics, which
we avoid on this podcast likethe plague or like COVID-19.
SPEAKER_03 (01:40):
Spooky.
HR spook tacular.
Oh my gosh.
I did want to say one thing.
So peek inside my kimono alittle bit.
First started this podcast, Istarted labeling things.
I think the first episode juston my random notes, I labeled it
Jaded HR episode 0A.
Okay.
You know, I did an episode onejust because, you know, episode
(02:02):
0 to me was like The throwaway.
We're just starting.
I don't know what this is goingto be, what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
And it still hasn't been aired.
SPEAKER_03 (02:09):
But then it became 0A, and then it was 0B, then it
was 0.
So I just I went through theentire alphabet.
So we're actually, we justreleased our 26th episode, I
believe, last episode.
So I I guess I really just wantto kind of say thank you.
Like we've done 26th episode andwe haven't gotten a whole lot of
feedback, but we're seeingpeople download and people are
listening.
So we just started on epit thisis my episode 1A.
(02:33):
So uh that we're recording rightnow.
So yeah, we've gone through thealphabet.
Just wanted to say a quick thankyou at the start of the episode
that to people that havedownloaded, we still would like
your your lovely feedback.
Absolutely.
But we know you're out therelistening.
I hope that we are providingsome some lovely value for you.
Yes.
So I just want to say that.
And then another quick thank youalso to Andrew Quopa for
(02:56):
recording that amazingdisclaimer at the start of our
episode.
You can find him at uhInstagram, I believe at
AndroidQopa.
SPEAKER_00 (03:05):
It'll be in the show notes again.
SPEAKER_03 (03:06):
I put it in last week's.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, Andrew.
I didn't I'm trying to do thisoff the top of my head.
I should have had your emailalready.
I'll give you another shout outat the end of the episode with
some of your projects.
I said I was gonna do that lasttime and I didn't.
So yeah, so Warren, do you wantto start us off?
SPEAKER_00 (03:20):
Well, here we are, a week until the big election.
And so we're gonna get intopolitics, but we're not gonna
get political.
But there's a there was a story,and like all good stories, this
one comes from Florida, but Iactually read about it John
Hyman's Ohio Employment Lawyerblog.
But this company, DanielsManufacturing Corporation, are
(03:42):
based in Orlando.
The news article that was linkedto it was very sure to state
that they had a Trump flag infront of their building.
But anyways, uh the president ofthe company attached a memo to
all employees' last paystatement.
And it reads, quote, If Trumpand the Republicans win the
election, DMC will hopefully beable to continue operating more
(04:05):
or less as it's been operatinglately.
However, if Biden and theDemocrats win, DMC could be
forced to begin permanentlayoffs in late 2020 and or
early 2021.
And obviously, this causeduproar.
It made some local news.
Obviously, the uh OhioEmployment Lawyer Ball blog
picked it up and and that'swhere I found it.
(04:26):
And uh so it it it caused anuproar.
But my question is does this inyour mind cross the line of what
an employer can and can't do?
SPEAKER_03 (04:37):
For me personally, yes.
Because it's likescaremongering, I I feel.
SPEAKER_00 (04:42):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (04:43):
I I think if you have if you have a very strong
uh business case, I guess foryour business, and you want to
just float it out there and say,hey, this is how the election
could potentially affect ourbusiness, I I guess that's okay.
I still think you're drawing theline as far as campaigning goes
(05:04):
and threatening your employeesgoes, because no matter what,
those those memos are alwaysgoing to draw the line one way
or the other in trying to leadyou in one certain direction.
So But that particular case,just th you're threatening your
employees.
If you vote this way, you'regonna potentially be laid off.
And with Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:23):
Oh, well, I I was thinking of it, I I didn't quite
seeing as that crossing the linebecause I read it as more of a
factual statement.
Based on what they said here, Imight be forced to do layoffs
and based on things they'vesaid.
And now the I was I read the youknow, in the Ohio Employer Law
blog, they they did cite the lawthat basically says it's illegal
(05:45):
to coerce, intimidate, threat,threaten, or threaten people to
vote or not to vote in certainways.
And I don't it definitely don'tthink rose to that level.
But I I have some other friends.
SPEAKER_03 (05:55):
I see it as minor intimidation.
Yeah.
If you're threatening your job,because if you the vote goes
this way, this is how it's gonnaaffect your job negatively.
SPEAKER_00 (06:03):
That's fairly threatening.
I want to know is what industryare they in?
Because the industry could bevery specific because um some
employment industries orcompanies in general are more
susceptible to politicalchanges.
And I one that came to mindimmediately for me was the coal
(06:23):
industry.
The the candidates have verydifferent views on coal
industry, and he's in Orlando,Florida.
I don't believe there's a lot ofcoal going on in Orlando,
Florida.
Uh to the best of my knowledge.
But yeah, i i I I would want toknow a little bit more.
Is it something that, you know,uh is it an industry type thing
that one of the candidates ismore pro their industry than the
(06:45):
other?
I I don't know enough to know.
SPEAKER_03 (06:48):
So Yeah, I I can agree with that, but either way,
it's it's each individual'sright to vote however they want.
And if your employer ispotentially threatening in a
very roundabout way your job, ifyou don't vote one way, that's I
think it's a little bit crossingthe line, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00 (07:06):
Yeah.
And I I have sort of experiencedthis in the past, an employer I
once upon a time worked for.
He sent out an email, not withany veiled, well, I don't know
if you'd say veiled threats oranything along those lines, but
he basically put out a thingduring this particular election
that candidate A stands for ourindustry in XYZ ways, and
candidate B uh was a total trashjob on candidate B because they
(07:31):
hate our industry in theseparticular ways.
And it was it was factual.
You obviously knew which waythey were saying, but they in my
mind and trying to remember fromyears ago, it it went out as
we're you know, this is for ourindustry, not for our personal
gain and and things like that.
And I it maybe if that was theperson's intent over there at
(07:53):
the Daniels ManufacturingCorporation, it maybe it wasn't
done well.
But what do you what do youthink of that type of situation
where they specifically say,here's what candidate A has said
about our industry, here's whatcandidate B said about our
industry?
SPEAKER_03 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean, it's still again a i they have every
right to send that memo, but Istill don't necessarily agree
with it.
But I have another another storyon another side of a let's say
business campaigning towardstheir customers.
Have you heard about this?
No.
Are you familiar with Expensify?
(08:28):
No, I'm not familiar with them.
If you just Google Expensifyright now, you're gonna get your
Google results will be ExpensiveCEO email, Expensify Biden
email.
Uh oh.
Expensify is like areimbursement travel cost
software.
They might do other things.
But their CEO decided to send anemail to 10 million customers, I
(08:50):
believe.
So if you had an employee intheir database, so you know,
their customers are startingbusinesses, and then any
business is an employee had anemail registered with an account
on their software, got an email,because their emails are part of
that software, right?
But got this long, verypro-Biden email.
(09:13):
There's so if you look atthere's a lot of reactions out
there, very negative reactions.
But yeah, I think it was around10 million emails went out of
this whole tirade about how avote for Trump was a vote
against democracy, and justvery, very pro like he was not
hiding anything.
SPEAKER_00 (09:28):
Well, I now that that in my mind does cross the
line.
If I was a customer ofExpensify, and you know, maybe
my company uses we I I we Ibased what it sounds like our
company uses a different programfor expenses and travel and
things like that.
It might be something like that.
But if if this company sent outan email to me trying to
influence my vote, I wouldbecome a little irritated.
(09:52):
I don't want my solicitationemails to begin with, and B, I
don't want you soliciting avote.
That would that would make mewant to not use your your
service pretty quickly,regardless if I agree with them
or not.
SPEAKER_03 (10:05):
Exactly.
So this wasn't like threateningor anything like that.
It was just here I'm here arehow I feel the facts are and
this is how I feel it's gonnago.
But for me it crosses a line ofalmost like a personal data
breach where you're using mypersonal email to be just
because I'm a user of yoursoftware, you can email me these
political facts.
(10:25):
Whether I agree with them ornot, doesn't matter.
Like it's I definitely felt likethat was a breach of kind of
customer client data.
SPEAKER_00 (10:34):
Yeah.
You can't do that.
Just because I have a a clientlist of you know, 10 million
people, I'm not gonna send itout with something along those
lines.
You know, if I'm on that list, Iwant to get updates about the
product, maybe, uh, or you know,whatever I'm needed for use of
the product, but I don't wantyour your political garbage any
(10:54):
more than I want anybody else'spolitical garbage.
SPEAKER_03 (10:56):
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, that was um when I sawthat on your notes, I was like,
oh yeah, I wonder if you've seenthis.
No, I I missed that.
I don't uh all you gotta do isdo a quick Google.
It's it's all over the place.
I saw it on Reddit, I saw iteverywhere.
It was uh good good times.
People are doing a lot of stuff.
Technology is great, but peopleare finding more and more ways
(11:17):
to I think take advantage ofsome of these things.
SPEAKER_00 (11:20):
Exactly.
I w uh have you heard anythingabout the CEO or president,
whoever it was that sent theemail or facing repercussions?
SPEAKER_03 (11:27):
It was a CEO, and I'm sure we stepped down or
asked us.
I don't think so.
Not that I'm aware of, but Iimagine because he I think
claimed that you know he ran itby his employees and ran it by
people, and they thought it wasa good idea.
But yeah, I mean I know somecompanies are probably not using
that software anymore.
Wow.
(11:48):
So yeah.
Well So I I wanted to go just adifferent route real quick.
And we'll go uh we'll go a morefun route.
Gotcha, fun.
And one of the things I wasthinking of is Halloween.
So Halloween, costumes, parties.
I kind of got into a party.
SPEAKER_00 (12:10):
I saw, yeah, from your notes.
SPEAKER_03 (12:12):
Yeah.
So I found an article, it wasfive five COVID-19 Halloween
ideas for your next officeparty.
SPEAKER_00 (12:21):
So sexy nurse, sexy doctor.
SPEAKER_03 (12:25):
Well, that that is another discussion for I guess
inappropriate um what or whatcounts as an appropriate work
costume, but you can have a ZoomHalloween costume party.
Okay.
So if we all wanna want to gettogether and show off our
costumes.
SPEAKER_00 (12:40):
Ooh, that that that screams danger, Will Robinson,
danger.
SPEAKER_03 (12:46):
Yes.
A scary movie Netflix party.
I guess you could all like, Idon't know, watch Netflix
together.
I don't I kind of like this one.
A Halloween dec Halloweendecorating contest.
So like you can kind of decorateyour work, your work from home
space, and do like a little kindof a fun like morale booster, I
think.
Around this time of year.
Probably more fun for like aChristmas decorating contest,
(13:08):
but people are gonna have morestuff for that.
A COVID-19 masquerade ball.
Okay.
Can wear an eye mask, atraditional masquerade ball mask
to ensure everyone's oh that'sthat's not even a Zoom one.
Alright, these are like stupidoffice parties.
Another one was um actuallysending your coworkers like
candy.
There's um some companies thatdo like candy delivery.
(13:30):
Oh, candy gram, yeah.
Yeah, so I thought that's kindof a cool that'd be kind of a
cool idea.
I don't know.
I probably won't do them.
I'm not that f for thinking toolate by now nice to my
co-workers, but yeah, just somelittle party ideas.
But then on another side ofthat, I found an article that
was talking about is a declinein office parties, a red flag.
(13:53):
So this is uh uh from Reddituser Deadpool Designer, and they
said, I've worked at thiscompany for around six years
now, and there seem to be lessemployee activities every year.
We used to have monthly birthdayparties, Halloween costume
contests, holiday lunches, happyhour drink, so on, so on, so on.
I realized when an employeeasked if there was more to this
(14:14):
job than work, I couldn't thinkof anything in the recent years.
So this just kind of it perkedmy interest a little bit because
we come from a company that dida lot of parties and celebrated
birthdays and did things likethat.
But if you notice those thingsstarting to, I guess, drop off
and not be as common, would thatbe kind of a red flag that your
time is nearing an end at thatemployer?
(14:37):
I would office parties that bigof a deal.
SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
No, they I think they are a pretty big deal.
Unfortunately, my company madethe announcement today that uh
we're canceling our Christmasparties because of COVID.
We can't have gatherings of morethan however many people.
SPEAKER_03 (14:54):
And you know, if we can't do it, I will say this is
from two years ago.
This is a pre-COVID.
This is this is from the beforetimes.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Oh apocalypse.
SPEAKER_03 (15:03):
This year, obviously, there's no parties
going on, but uh just kind of asa hypothetical of in general,
would you say?
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
In general, maybe.
I w I would hope because partiesare fun, there's something
people look forward to, and Iknow people are ups upset right
now, given the currentsituation, can't have parties.
We have our our company, we douh bi-monthly birthday parties,
so we do like August andSeptember birthday parties
together in between the two andhave a little thing for
(15:31):
everybody.
And uh we used to do that.
We do employee breakfasts andand things like that, and we we
aren't doing things like thatanymore just because not that
you can't, but it's justprobably not best practice at at
this time.
SPEAKER_01 (15:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:47):
But if you're talking, you know, pretty if if
those things are starting toslide, you might want to ask
why.
Is it budgetary limitations?
I mean, or maybe there's newleadership that the people who
put it together are no longerthere, nobody had picked up the
ball.
There's there's a lot of reasonswhy.
It wouldn't start.
SPEAKER_03 (16:03):
That was probably one of the number one Reddit
comment was most likely thepeople that organize those
things just aren't thereanymore, so no one thinks to
send out the email or send outthe invitations or whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (16:15):
That's what I've personally seen when you have uh
an event like that and that it'sall of a sudden, oh my god, we
didn't do it.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (16:21):
Uh because you know Patrick's birthday was two
months ago.
Oh well, we'll get him nextyear.
You know, we we'll we'll hidehis card for three months and
then give it to him.
SPEAKER_00 (16:29):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm guilty as charged.
That's uh I don't know if we'vetold that story on the on the
show yet.
SPEAKER_03 (16:36):
No, probably not.
I'm still bitter about it.
SPEAKER_00 (16:38):
It's still bitter three years, four years later.
SPEAKER_03 (16:40):
Warren hid my card from me under his keyboard for
three months.
Yes.
Didn't give it to me, andeveryone wrote me nice messages
that would have helped me getthrough the day.
That would have helped me getthrough hard times.
SPEAKER_00 (16:49):
Well, in my defense, my desk is always a fire hazard.
It's not that I hid it, it'sjust that it got somewhere under
the bottom of the palm.
One day I actually cleaned mydesk.
I was like, oh, look at this.
It was signed by people whohaven't been here in three
months, but that's okay.
(17:12):
But no, yeah, that that was me.
I'm the person who who did itand uh found it later.
So you know, make sure you putit in my hand and not just on my
desk because otherwise it justfalls into the the abyss of
things.
So no ask questions, find out.
Yeah, everybody loves to gettogether.
Uh I when we worked together, wewere doing potlucks and cooking
(17:35):
things.
It seemed like at least everyother month, if not more
frequently, we'd do things andeverybody looked forward to it.
SPEAKER_03 (17:42):
So I mean anytime you can you can have an excuse
to not work and enjoy someyummy, some yummy munchies.
SPEAKER_00 (17:48):
Yeah, no, exactly.
So now I I don't think there'sanything to be alarmed about,
but just ask the questions.
Figure out, and hey, if it's notif that person's left, you pick
up that ball and you go aheadand run with it and say, I'll be
the party planner now.
SPEAKER_03 (18:02):
Fair point.
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
So uh well, I don't have anything really fun.
I have something.
SPEAKER_03 (18:09):
I mean, this is jaded HR.
That was just taking off thejaded hat a little bit.
It's all good.
SPEAKER_00 (18:14):
Well, we're going straight down the jaded hole
right now.
I received a friend, an emailfrom a friend, and they they
CC'd mean about six or eightother people on this, and their
only comment on this email thatthey forwarded to us was I wish
there was a dumbass vaccine.
So I read the entire thread ofthe email.
(18:34):
I took out some highlights.
So start with uh so starting atthe bottom, I highlighted some
things here.
You know, blank companies,please don't know that once
again we'll be holding a fluvaccination clinics at each of
our locations for all of ouremployees, both full or
full-time, part-time, andinterns.
Remote employees are welcome toschedule a vaccination at nearby
company location, company namelocation there.
(18:57):
We are also able to continue tooffer flu vaccines to immediate
family members of our employees.
If you have health insurancethrough company name or
elsewhere, there should be nocost to you.
So be sure to bring your healthinsurance card.
It gives then it gives a link toschedule for an appointment and
it talks about socialdistancing, and guidelines will
be posted at each location forsocial distancing.
(19:20):
And then the last two lines ofthe email, if you're unable to
attend one of our clinics, weencourage you to get your
vaccination.
With any health insurance plan,it should be at no cost to you.
And vaccinations are generallyavailable at many pharmacies.
If you would like assistance inscheduling a vaccination at one
of our locations or help findinga nearby location offering flu
(19:42):
vaccinations, please contact andit gives a person's name.
So face value, awesome email,engaging.
SPEAKER_03 (19:49):
Yeah, I was gonna say that's that's pretty cool,
especially if they do uh familymembers too.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I I've never been with a companythat offers it to family
members.
I know when we worked together,the company put together
vaccination clinics and andthings like that, but no, I
don't think I don't recallfamily members being invited.
Well, then comes uh part of thatis the reply to that email.
(20:13):
So a certain employee replies,hell no.
As a retired sailor in the Navy,I had my fill of mandatory, in
quote, vaccinations, and beingthe government's goddamn guinea
pig.
You'll have to fire me beforeyou make me get, once again, in
quotes, vaccinations.
And when you do, you'd betterknow to expect the biggest
(20:33):
goddamn lawsuit you've everseen.
I know my rights, and theConstitution guarantees me the
right not to be forced intothis, once again, in quotes,
vaccination.
I'm not a constitutional expert,but I don't think it talks
anywhere about flu vaccinationsin there.
I I I just I I I replied, Ihaven't heard a comment, I've
(20:56):
replied to her and saying,really, tell me the rest of the
story, what happened after this?
And I I don't have an answeryet.
But just sounds like anothercompany just being
unquestionably shady and youknow, doing this a convenience
to uh to have a flu vaccination.
Uh I tried to put one on where Iworked, couldn't gather enough
interest.
(21:16):
I put a poll out there uh uh onthe employee portal, and you
have to get X amount peoplebefore the company will come out
to you, and I couldn't get thatnumber.
But uh, you know, it it it's oneI think that's a nice little
perk if it accompanies.
SPEAKER_03 (21:29):
Yeah, I missed the part of the email where it said
it was mandatory.
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
Ah, you're going so I wrote down what my ideal
response to this email would befor our little shits and
giggles.
So if if that were me and I hadto complete reign and control,
this is how I'd handle thesituation.
I'd I'd call the employee intomy office and I'd give them a
copy of the email for them toread aloud and then ask them to
tell me exactly where it said,this is mandatory.
(21:54):
My next statement would be, onceI can't do that, is to tell them
today is their last day ofemployment, not because of their
refusal to get thisnon-mandatory vaccine, but you
know, the email's completelyinappropriate and we can't
employ people to make such poor,rash decisions.
Bye-bye.
That was my my Warren's idealclient.
SPEAKER_03 (22:15):
If we lived in your ideal world of being able to do
whatever you wanted as an HRperson trying to purge.
SPEAKER_00 (22:20):
So I but I asked about I asked my friend if we
get a if I get a response, I'llI'll I may post the update what
what happened, what how who saidwhat and anything come out of
it.
But you know, employees whoabuse HR or you know make these
knee-jerk reactions and rantlike this, that nothing ever
becomes of it, and it's like, ohwell, you know, who knows what
(22:42):
their the the cover-up will be,and nothing gets done.
SPEAKER_03 (22:46):
It's someone that is just a very angry person and was
looking for an excuse to blowtheir top shed some light and
blow their top on somecontroversial topic they feel is
just, and yeah, he took a swingand sad to say he missed.
SPEAKER_00 (23:03):
Yeah.
Strike three, you're out.
SPEAKER_03 (23:06):
So yeah, I knew as soon as you said flu vaccine it
was gonna be some anti-vaxxemployee dumbass.
SPEAKER_00 (23:11):
And it wasn't really well, I guess it is anti-vaxxer.
I don't want to get into it.
Yeah, he's an anti-vaxxer.
He was the goddamn governmentguinea pig or whatever he said
up there.
SPEAKER_03 (23:20):
Uh yeah, so he's uh yeah, the 5G microchips that the
Bill Gates wants to giveeverybody in, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:27):
Oh yeah.
Sit in a corner with your tinfeel tinfoil height, please,
buddy.
Yep.
Let the rest of the world moveon.
Ah, so but I guess that sort ofcould lead into my my next
topic.
Uh I recently had to coach amanager through their first
termination.
And it was interesting.
(23:48):
I I hadn't coached somebodythrough it in a long time.
And I tell you, I love thismanager.
I don't report to her, but we'reon a couple of committees
together, so I we haveinteractions.
And my time where I've been,I've never heard a peep out of
her, her employees.
It's been like the set it andforget it department because
nothing ever goes wrong.
Well, they're working on a verylarge project, and they had to
(24:11):
hire a particular subjectmanager expert to fill in some
knowledge gaps to help us out.
So uh I recruited, found someonepart-time temporary to get us
through this project, and heworked remote, everything was
going fine, just like it alwaysdoes.
Things go fine until they don't.
So he'd be late for meetingsthat he would schedule.
(24:33):
He would, when he got tomeetings, he wouldn't be
prepared.
He came in late to one meetingwith a client on the line once,
and then overtook a meeting thathe hadn't been party to the
first half of and took tried totake it a whole different
direction.
Didn't provide deliverables ontime.
And then what I thought when Iheard the story should have been
the final straw, told themanager he wasn't going to do
(24:54):
something because it's not myjob.
And uh that's always uh a nicething.
But he kept it going.
But there was more and it missedsome due dates, but final straw
ended up being this person'stimesheet did not equate the
amount of work they wereclaiming done.
So uh we had some theories.
He we knew he had a full-timejob when we hired him, and uh he
(25:15):
said that we were only lookingfor 10 to 20 hours a week uh
reviewing and adding things toour information in his subject
area of subject matter.
So we our theory was during thepay he was recently we he told
us he was recently told he wouldbe returning to work to his
office at full-time.
So we're thinking he was sort ofbilking his full-time employer
(25:37):
while doing our work on theside.
And then when he got back to theoffice, he had supervision and
uh couldn't bilk his employeranymore and had to, and then
tried to bilk us for it.
So but going back to thetermination, you know, I I did I
did talk to her and say, hey,termination should never be an
easy task.
She was really struggling withthe the whole process, and I
(25:59):
coached her through it.
I even volunteered, hey, youknow, I I'll do it if you'd
prefer.
If it if it's just and she saidit's her responsibility, and I
agree, but uh, you know, she'ddo it.
So he was terminated.
A week later, we received anemail, and let's see, he CC'd
the email to his manager and tome and things like that.
(26:20):
Now, this email came from aGmail account, but he put his
work signature like cut andpaste it into this Gmail
account.
So it's it was really bizarre.
But he wrote to us I haven'theard a status or update
regarding my contributioncontributing to the blank
project for at least a week.
This hasn't been the case overthe past couple months.
(26:40):
It appears there's not enoughwork for me to stay on board and
contribute to this project.
Therefore, I'm resigning from myposition effective immediately.
Boy, reading's not my strongskill today.
Thank you for the opportunityand best of luck on this
project.
I mean, he was terminated.
I I went and talked to thementor.
I said, You did talk to him, andshe said, Absolutely.
And you know, you resigned aweek after you got canned.
(27:04):
That's good, I guess.
I don't know when that was justso bizarre.
unknown (27:11):
Bizarre.
SPEAKER_03 (27:11):
What would happen in a situation like that?
And I'll apologize to all the HRprofessionals, you probably know
this, but like let's say thisperson was terminated, and then
with that came unemployment orseverance or something like
that.
But then for whatever reason, aweek later he he resigns.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
I I don't know.
I would just say you wereterminated and you you know, in
this case for cause termination,so you're not going to qualify
hopefully for unemployment.
That's a whole nother entireshow on itself.
But you you wouldn't qualify asit's for cause.
And and he had been warnedpreviously.
SPEAKER_03 (27:44):
So didn't know if there was ever a situation where
someone was terminated and theydecided randomly to like just go
ahead and resign, but then theycanceled any kind of benefits
they would get out of beingterminated.
SPEAKER_00 (27:55):
Yeah.
I don't know.
But uh that that person was avery special person, apparently.
And like I said, I I recruitedhim and everything was going
fine at at first, and even toldme that hey, I have a full-time
job, I'm working from home, butI can give you the 10 to 20
hours a week you're looking for,and it was that's all we we
really wanted out of him, but itjust didn't work out.
SPEAKER_03 (28:16):
Well, speaking of stupid people, can I jump back
into Halloween?
I'll ask you a question first.
You can think just off the topof your head of any have you
ever had to deal with aninappropriate Halloween costume
at work?
SPEAKER_00 (28:29):
No, I don't think I have.
No.
I I think I've heard whispersand complaints, but never ever
ever anybody saying, Warren, youhave to investigate this
inappropriately.
SPEAKER_03 (28:39):
I'm trying to think, I don't think I've ever worked
for a company that really didlike allowed legit Halloween
costumes.
SPEAKER_00 (28:46):
We worked together, there were some uh Did we do
some Halloween?
We didn't necessarily, but therewas a department that was on our
floor that really went all outsometimes.
And some of them werequestionable judgment.
SPEAKER_03 (29:00):
Any any day of the week, a Tuesday might be
questionable.
Yeah.
But yeah, unfortunately I didn'tI couldn't think of any, but I
did find um an Ask HR fromReddit user Sydney2030.
They're actually in Australia,which I thought in Australia
this is a really interestingcostume choice, but said we had
a ha our Halloween party in theoffice, and a lot of staff
(29:21):
dressed up.
However, our state manager worea KKK costume, complete with
hood and that funny red crosssymbol, and seemed to find it
funny that everyone wasuncomfortable and no one wanted
a photo taken with him.
And they go on and on and onabout talk about this, but Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:35):
That is a extreme lapse in judgment and uh Yeah,
that that's terminable.
Yeah, I I there should be zerotolerance for that.
SPEAKER_03 (29:46):
That's the person that was complaining here
because it was a m very muchlike an old school mentality,
old basically old white manhierarchy in the organization,
so people just thought it wasfunny and this was a higher
level manager.
So from an HR standpoint, likehow do you even how do you
approach that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:05):
That that's something you just rip off the
band-aid and say, you know, heyWarren, that costume is not
appropriate in any way, shape,or form.
We can't have that in what itrepresents in our company.
I'm sorry, we you're you'regone.
That's really how the the theconversation should go.
(30:25):
Same thing if you you want to beuh you know a Hitler or you know
any of these other peoplenotoriously.
SPEAKER_03 (30:34):
It is the some of these people just go for like
the shock value, but man, doingthat at work is such like a it's
work I mean it's work suicide.
Like if you're trying to getthis weird shock out of people,
but man, like that is just notthe way to do it.
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
No, no.
Go for the creepy gory costume,go for other things, uh but it's
something that's so you know, Idon't know.
SPEAKER_03 (30:55):
There was like there was a list as I was doing some
research for the episode, it waslike ten ten costume ideas to
avoid at the workplace, andcreepy gory was one to avoid,
you know, all the all the sexythings.
Um anything that was raciallyinsensitive, like this one.
SPEAKER_00 (31:11):
Yeah, going in blackface, you know.
I don't know there's I seem toremember once upon a time
somebody, uh a white guy doingblackface dressing as uh Barack
Obama once upon a time andgetting that made some stories.
Yeah, I think it made somestories a few years back.
SPEAKER_03 (31:26):
Uh probably on things like that Okay, this
wasn't a personal story.
SPEAKER_00 (31:30):
Okay.
But we did have that that skskeleton costume uh or mummy
cost poster on the wall at work.
And I brought my son to work oneday and he points it out, and I
probably still have a picture ofit on my phone.
He said, This poster looks justlike Barack Obama.
And after I looked at it, Icould never look at it again.
It was a mummy.
(31:51):
I'll I'll I'll have to forwardthat to you.
But we also know how my sonlikes to compare things to
Barack Obama, or used to, atleast back in the day.
SPEAKER_03 (31:59):
That is true.
SPEAKER_00 (32:00):
So that was that was but after you know, after I
looked at it that way and I saw,wow, that that the mummy does
sort of look like Barack Obama,and I could never look at it
again without and it wasn't, youknow, what I'm sure it wasn't
intended to, but it just it wasjust the eyes and the facial
features.
I was like, wow, that I couldn'tlook at it again that way.
SPEAKER_03 (32:21):
One more funny note, this is a hypothetical I have,
and I just thought this was a agood timing for for our spooky,
not so spooky, spec sp not sospooky spectacular.
So this is from Reddit userWeezy Runner, and his
hypothetical is you are now it'sjust kind of a morbid question,
but we're gonna we're gonna getto we're gonna do the fun bit of
it, not to think about thecircumstances of our current
(32:43):
situation.
You are now a ghost, and ghosthigh command has assigned you to
haunt your former workplace.
How do you mess with your formercoworkers?
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
Well, first you'd have to pick a workplace.
I mean, I guess you haveinfinity times, so you you can
go to all of them and and hauntthem.
SPEAKER_03 (33:02):
So uh I know a certain person who would never
be able to find their chapstick.
SPEAKER_00 (33:08):
Yeah, I think just randomly screw with people all
the time.
SPEAKER_03 (33:13):
Yeah, some of the comments were try to make the
toilet seat warm all the time.
SPEAKER_00 (33:17):
Uh that you know, that's one of my pet themes of a
public recipe going in and theseat is warm.
That just makes me cringe.
SPEAKER_03 (33:25):
Yeah, in a public space, it's the worst.
Yeah.
I liked um just constantlyadjusting the thermostat up one
degree just throughout the day.
And all of a sudden everyone'sjust melting.
SPEAKER_00 (33:35):
Uh yeah, I I would I would screw with people's work,
like uh edit people's emailsthat they uh before they send
them, or or yeah, put put somemacros in their outlook, so with
that every time they typed inlike the company name, it
changed it to a different likecompeting company.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Do do fun do some fun thingsjust to screw with people, no
matter where you are.
SPEAKER_03 (33:55):
Yeah.
I actually did that.
I back when I worked for UPS, Ia co-worker of mine we used to
prank each other a lot.
And I researched, I spent waytoo much time researching how to
put a macro on someone'scomputer, but it was and I don't
remember how to do it now, butevery time we typed UPS, it
changed it to FedEx.
Oh.
But he ended up sending an emailto our our HR regional manager.
(34:17):
Just full of fun.
Yeah.
We had to stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00 (34:23):
Oh, and I would be I would be awful.
I'd find the people that Ididn't like working with and
for, and oh, they're I'd makesure they got their ass fired or
you know, went crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (34:32):
I swear.
You don't want to do firingstuff, you just want to do like
annoying things, like hide atimer somewhere like in the in
the ceiling tile that just wouldgo off randomly.
Randomly throughout the day whenyou couldn't find it, you didn't
know where it was.
SPEAKER_00 (34:44):
And move it randomly.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:46):
Yeah.
It's gotta move every day.
SPEAKER_00 (34:48):
Oh man, that's I'm that's a good one.
I'm gonna have to remember thatlittle timer.
SPEAKER_03 (34:53):
Yeah, so shoot us uh shoot us a message on Twitter or
Facebook.
What how would you haunt yourcoworkers?
Oh that's your homework for thisweek.
SPEAKER_00 (35:01):
Homework assignments, ooh.
Well, I'll I'll I'll go uhanother thing I have the HR
nightmares since we're beingscary and things like that.
SPEAKER_03 (35:12):
Stay with a theme.
SPEAKER_00 (35:13):
Well, HR as its own worst nightmare.
And uh so for a long time, HRhas been looking for that quote
unquote seat at the table, youknow, and HR does deserve it.
And for a lot of companies, thepandemic gave them that sort of
right to the seat at the table.
But once again, sometimes HR canbe its own worst nightmare.
(35:35):
And I'm thinking specificallywhen it comes to job titles.
And I don't know if it was thelast episode or the episode
before that, I made a jadedcomment.
As soon as you mentioned aperson's title was the chief
people officer, I I sort ofscorned it, but it turned out I
agreed with everything that theythey did.
But uh so I know I'm going tocontradict myself here, but uh
(35:57):
I'm just gonna throw it outthere.
Anyways, uh this can also bevery dependent on the culture of
the company.
If you're one of those trendytechie firms, you know, that
does things differently, thenyour titles can be a little bit
you have a little more leeway tobe a little crazy with your
titles.
But overall, I I think that whenI looked at a job title, I
should be able to look and seeyour job title and know have a
(36:18):
very good idea of what you dowithout having to think about it
too much.
But so here's some doing someresearch, I found some HR titles
out there and some other titlesas well.
So I found People Evangelist.
And what do you think that wouldbe?
SPEAKER_03 (36:34):
People evangelists?
Yes.
I a recruiter.
I don't even know.
Oh gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:41):
I I I didn't write down the name for that company.
I some of these I've writtendown names of the company or
typed down the names of thecompany that did it.
Chief Chief Happiness Officer,that was the HR D at uh Google.
And a couple other companies hadthat.
SPEAKER_03 (36:55):
I like Chief People Officer, Chief Chief Happiness.
Officer.
SPEAKER_00 (36:58):
The Culture and Geek Resource Manager was a title for
HR manager, and I once again Ididn't write down the name of
that company.
The head of optimistic people,that is their HR director with
Life is Good.
The Chief Vibes Officer.
That's the Witch Witch SandwichShop.
(37:19):
Speaking of which, they'reopening one.
Apparently, I saw a sign in uhright up the road from you,
looks like.
The chief heart officer, and I'mgonna butcher the name of this
company, but Vanner Media, I'mgonna go with.
(37:47):
Now, here's one I foundinteresting.
SPEAKER_03 (37:48):
I kinda like that one.
It's like uh, you know, guidingexp guiding a company to their
to reach their highestpotential, reach their peak, the
pinnacle.
I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (37:58):
Okay.
Well, here's a title from Googlethat might be just a little bit
sexist.
It is the security princess.
And what if they don't what ifthey identify as a male?
And then that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03 (38:12):
That would be a security princess.
That sounds kind of cool.
SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
But what would be the general neutral title for a
princess or a prince?
Uh I I thought I spent too muchtime thinking about that and I
did not come up with an answer.
They they they there.
But uh, I do have one personalexperience with a a stupid
(38:36):
title.
I was working at a CPA firm, anda senior partner sends me a
resume and said, Hey, we'rehiring this person.
And after I sent me, and theysent me a lot of information.
The only thing they reallydidn't send me that I needed to
get the person set up and hiredwas a job title.
And I read the person's resumeand I I replied to them
something to the effect of, hey,I'm great to help you make this
(38:59):
happen.
I need a little bit moreinformation and reading the
resume.
I don't know if they fit inbetter as position A or position
B.
And the reply was they'll justbe a utility infielder.
Like in baseball, you might havethat guy who can play all the
infield positions.
Uh, after a little back andforth, we ended up sticking with
(39:19):
the titled Utility Infielder.
They had business cards made,utility infielder, and uh, we
created that in our HRS systemas well.
So that was like I kind of likethat.
Yeah, uh, I mean, you know, onceagain, uh going back to my
theory, when I look at your yourjob description, I should know
exactly what you're doing.
And if you're at a CPA firm andyou're a utility infielder, I
(39:43):
don't know.
SPEAKER_03 (39:43):
I always create Jedi Knight in the HRS HRS systems
that I manage, and I always justwant that to be my my title.
Or I could just change my titleto like I don't know, HR
firefighter.
I spend a lot of time justputting out little fires here
and there.
SPEAKER_00 (39:59):
Caused by other people.
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
Sometimes caused by myself.
But you know, and still stillfighting the fires.
SPEAKER_00 (40:05):
Yeah.
So no, I I I'm I just I loveseeing some of these.
I both love and hate, I shouldsay, seeing some of these
employee job titles that theyhave and and people get.
You know, some of them arereally cool and creative, some
of them are really stupid, andI'm not going to get my um you
know, we're all wound up oversanitation engineer or sandwich
artist or something stupid likethat.
(40:26):
Everybody knows.
SPEAKER_03 (40:27):
I feel like we can probably do that could be like a
topic every episode of just likehere's the top three job titles
I found this week or somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Yeah, no, you look around LinkedIn, there's all
sorts of uh great job titles,and I I did some other research.
Uh so yeah, I could fill up uhuh Tune in next week.
What is our new favorite jobtitle of the week?
SPEAKER_03 (40:47):
Well, I don't know about that, but I do know we
need to tell the people what wewant them to do for us as we
start this new new alphabetchapter.
SPEAKER_00 (40:56):
All right.
I'm only gonna ask for twothings, people.
I I really, really want to seesome reviews.
It's been a while uh since we'vegotten a review.
That was Chris up in Canada, sothank you, Chris.
SPEAKER_03 (41:06):
But we still think about you every night.
SPEAKER_00 (41:10):
Maybe, maybe not.
That might be a little ooky.
But uh, anyways, I do uh one Ido want some reviews, go to your
favorite podcast player.
Most of them now allow reviews.
Give us your feedback, tell usyou love us, tell us you hate
us.
Give us your feedback.
What would make it better foryou?
But uh uh we will respond to anyany feedback you give to us if
(41:31):
we're able.
We uh can't access iTunes Canadato get into and respond to that,
Chris's.
But we've now acknowledged youon the the show a couple times.
But the other thing, just engageus on social media, follow us on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
SPEAKER_03 (41:47):
We'll and we'll try to engage you as well.
SPEAKER_00 (41:48):
Yeah, we'll we'll try and engage you.
We're getting better.
I'm getting better.
You are, you are.
I am horrible.
I'm I'm trying my hardest as I'mI'm and it's the strange thing
is I'm getting personallyfurther away from social media,
but at same uh but yeah, workingon this.
So that's what we're looking forfrom our our lovely listeners.
So just keep spreading the word,uh, give us some reviews, and
(42:11):
we'll talk to you all very soon.
SPEAKER_03 (42:13):
Absolutely.
And I'll say uh quick thank youto the underscore orchestra for
the use of their song Devil withthe Devil that we use for our
intro and outro music.
SPEAKER_00 (42:21):
And we'd also like to give a thank you to Kyle
Rhode of the HR Rebel podcast.
He had us on as a guest, and theepisode will be airing on his
podcast on uh October 27th.
So this will already be this itwill come out before this
episode, but we'll also berebroadcasting it as one of our
(42:42):
bonus episodes sometime in thenot terribly distant future.
SPEAKER_03 (42:45):
And we always like to leave you all with a best
practice to uh take with you forthe week.
And Warren, what do you have forus tonight?
SPEAKER_00 (42:53):
I want you to randomly select any employee
mailings that you you send outand put glitter bombs in a
certain percentage of thembefore you you mail them out.
Your employees will love it,promise you.
SPEAKER_03 (43:06):
Yep, spread the joy.
Yes.
With that, thank you all so muchfor listening to another episode
of Bookie HR.
I'm Patrick and Tillis.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
And I'm Warren Workman, and we're helping you
survive HR one what the fuckmoment at a time.
Hey y'all, this is Warren.
Unfortunately, due to the AmazonWeb Services downtime earlier
this week and a heavy dose ofreality, we were not able to
record an episode this week.
But I pulled up this oldHalloween episode from season
one, so we'll take you back to2020.
Please enjoy this encoreepisode, and we'll see you in
(00:22):
two weeks.
SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
Had you actually read the email, you would know
that the podcast you are aboutto listen to could contain
explicit language and offensivecontent.
These HR experts' views are notrepresentative of their past,
present, or future employers.
If you've ever heard, my manageris unfair to me, I need you to
reset my HR portal password orget rid of my employee for
(00:48):
crying too much.
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Welcome to our little table.
SPEAKER_03 (01:16):
Podcast by two former human resources coworkers
who just want to help you getthrough the workday by saying
all those things you arethinking, but say it out loud.
I'm Patrick Concilis.
And I'm Warren Workman.
And welcome to our spooky HRepisode.
SPEAKER_00 (01:31):
Yeah, spooky and scary.
We're going to actually delve alittle bit into politics, which
we avoid on this podcast likethe plague or like COVID-19.
SPEAKER_03 (01:40):
Spooky.
HR spook tacular.
Oh my gosh.
I did want to say one thing.
So peek inside my kimono alittle bit.
First started this podcast, Istarted labeling things.
I think the first episode juston my random notes, I labeled it
Jaded HR episode 0A.
Okay.
You know, I did an episode onejust because, you know, episode
(02:02):
0 to me was like The throwaway.
We're just starting.
I don't know what this is goingto be, what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
And it still hasn't been aired.
SPEAKER_03 (02:09):
But then it became 0A, and then it was 0B, then it
was 0.
So I just I went through theentire alphabet.
So we're actually, we justreleased our 26th episode, I
believe, last episode.
So I I guess I really just wantto kind of say thank you.
Like we've done 26th episode andwe haven't gotten a whole lot of
feedback, but we're seeingpeople download and people are
listening.
So we just started on epit thisis my episode 1A.
(02:33):
So uh that we're recording rightnow.
So yeah, we've gone through thealphabet.
Just wanted to say a quick thankyou at the start of the episode
that to people that havedownloaded, we still would like
your your lovely feedback.
Absolutely.
But we know you're out therelistening.
I hope that we are providingsome some lovely value for you.
Yes.
So I just want to say that.
And then another quick thank youalso to Andrew Quopa for
(02:56):
recording that amazingdisclaimer at the start of our
episode.
You can find him at uhInstagram, I believe at
AndroidQopa.
SPEAKER_00 (03:05):
It'll be in the show notes again.
SPEAKER_03 (03:06):
I put it in last week's.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, Andrew.
I didn't I'm trying to do thisoff the top of my head.
I should have had your emailalready.
I'll give you another shout outat the end of the episode with
some of your projects.
I said I was gonna do that lasttime and I didn't.
So yeah, so Warren, do you wantto start us off?
SPEAKER_00 (03:20):
Well, here we are, a week until the big election.
And so we're gonna get intopolitics, but we're not gonna
get political.
But there's a there was a story,and like all good stories, this
one comes from Florida, but Iactually read about it John
Hyman's Ohio Employment Lawyerblog.
But this company, DanielsManufacturing Corporation, are
(03:42):
based in Orlando.
The news article that was linkedto it was very sure to state
that they had a Trump flag infront of their building.
But anyways, uh the president ofthe company attached a memo to
all employees' last paystatement.
And it reads, quote, If Trumpand the Republicans win the
election, DMC will hopefully beable to continue operating more
(04:05):
or less as it's been operatinglately.
However, if Biden and theDemocrats win, DMC could be
forced to begin permanentlayoffs in late 2020 and or
early 2021.
And obviously, this causeduproar.
It made some local news.
Obviously, the uh OhioEmployment Lawyer Ball blog
picked it up and and that'swhere I found it.
(04:26):
And uh so it it it caused anuproar.
But my question is does this inyour mind cross the line of what
an employer can and can't do?
SPEAKER_03 (04:37):
For me personally, yes.
Because it's likescaremongering, I I feel.
SPEAKER_00 (04:42):
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (04:43):
I I think if you have if you have a very strong
uh business case, I guess foryour business, and you want to
just float it out there and say,hey, this is how the election
could potentially affect ourbusiness, I I guess that's okay.
I still think you're drawing theline as far as campaigning goes
(05:04):
and threatening your employeesgoes, because no matter what,
those those memos are alwaysgoing to draw the line one way
or the other in trying to leadyou in one certain direction.
So But that particular case,just th you're threatening your
employees.
If you vote this way, you'regonna potentially be laid off.
And with Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (05:23):
Oh, well, I I was thinking of it, I I didn't quite
seeing as that crossing the linebecause I read it as more of a
factual statement.
Based on what they said here, Imight be forced to do layoffs
and based on things they'vesaid.
And now the I was I read the youknow, in the Ohio Employer Law
blog, they they did cite the lawthat basically says it's illegal
(05:45):
to coerce, intimidate, threat,threaten, or threaten people to
vote or not to vote in certainways.
And I don't it definitely don'tthink rose to that level.
But I I have some other friends.
SPEAKER_03 (05:55):
I see it as minor intimidation.
Yeah.
If you're threatening your job,because if you the vote goes
this way, this is how it's gonnaaffect your job negatively.
SPEAKER_00 (06:03):
That's fairly threatening.
I want to know is what industryare they in?
Because the industry could bevery specific because um some
employment industries orcompanies in general are more
susceptible to politicalchanges.
And I one that came to mindimmediately for me was the coal
(06:23):
industry.
The the candidates have verydifferent views on coal
industry, and he's in Orlando,Florida.
I don't believe there's a lot ofcoal going on in Orlando,
Florida.
Uh to the best of my knowledge.
But yeah, i i I I would want toknow a little bit more.
Is it something that, you know,uh is it an industry type thing
that one of the candidates ismore pro their industry than the
(06:45):
other?
I I don't know enough to know.
SPEAKER_03 (06:48):
So Yeah, I I can agree with that, but either way,
it's it's each individual'sright to vote however they want.
And if your employer ispotentially threatening in a
very roundabout way your job, ifyou don't vote one way, that's I
think it's a little bit crossingthe line, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00 (07:06):
Yeah.
And I I have sort of experiencedthis in the past, an employer I
once upon a time worked for.
He sent out an email, not withany veiled, well, I don't know
if you'd say veiled threats oranything along those lines, but
he basically put out a thingduring this particular election
that candidate A stands for ourindustry in XYZ ways, and
candidate B uh was a total trashjob on candidate B because they
(07:31):
hate our industry in theseparticular ways.
And it was it was factual.
You obviously knew which waythey were saying, but they in my
mind and trying to remember fromyears ago, it it went out as
we're you know, this is for ourindustry, not for our personal
gain and and things like that.
And I it maybe if that was theperson's intent over there at
(07:53):
the Daniels ManufacturingCorporation, it maybe it wasn't
done well.
But what do you what do youthink of that type of situation
where they specifically say,here's what candidate A has said
about our industry, here's whatcandidate B said about our
industry?
SPEAKER_03 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean, it's still again a i they have every
right to send that memo, but Istill don't necessarily agree
with it.
But I have another another storyon another side of a let's say
business campaigning towardstheir customers.
Have you heard about this?
No.
Are you familiar with Expensify?
(08:28):
No, I'm not familiar with them.
If you just Google Expensifyright now, you're gonna get your
Google results will be ExpensiveCEO email, Expensify Biden
email.
Uh oh.
Expensify is like areimbursement travel cost
software.
They might do other things.
But their CEO decided to send anemail to 10 million customers, I
(08:50):
believe.
So if you had an employee intheir database, so you know,
their customers are startingbusinesses, and then any
business is an employee had anemail registered with an account
on their software, got an email,because their emails are part of
that software, right?
But got this long, verypro-Biden email.
(09:13):
There's so if you look atthere's a lot of reactions out
there, very negative reactions.
But yeah, I think it was around10 million emails went out of
this whole tirade about how avote for Trump was a vote
against democracy, and justvery, very pro like he was not
hiding anything.
SPEAKER_00 (09:28):
Well, I now that that in my mind does cross the
line.
If I was a customer ofExpensify, and you know, maybe
my company uses we I I we Ibased what it sounds like our
company uses a different programfor expenses and travel and
things like that.
It might be something like that.
But if if this company sent outan email to me trying to
influence my vote, I wouldbecome a little irritated.
(09:52):
I don't want my solicitationemails to begin with, and B, I
don't want you soliciting avote.
That would that would make mewant to not use your your
service pretty quickly,regardless if I agree with them
or not.
SPEAKER_03 (10:05):
Exactly.
So this wasn't like threateningor anything like that.
It was just here I'm here arehow I feel the facts are and
this is how I feel it's gonnago.
But for me it crosses a line ofalmost like a personal data
breach where you're using mypersonal email to be just
because I'm a user of yoursoftware, you can email me these
political facts.
(10:25):
Whether I agree with them ornot, doesn't matter.
Like it's I definitely felt likethat was a breach of kind of
customer client data.
SPEAKER_00 (10:34):
Yeah.
You can't do that.
Just because I have a a clientlist of you know, 10 million
people, I'm not gonna send itout with something along those
lines.
You know, if I'm on that list, Iwant to get updates about the
product, maybe, uh, or you know,whatever I'm needed for use of
the product, but I don't wantyour your political garbage any
(10:54):
more than I want anybody else'spolitical garbage.
SPEAKER_03 (10:56):
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, that was um when I sawthat on your notes, I was like,
oh yeah, I wonder if you've seenthis.
No, I I missed that.
I don't uh all you gotta do isdo a quick Google.
It's it's all over the place.
I saw it on Reddit, I saw iteverywhere.
It was uh good good times.
People are doing a lot of stuff.
Technology is great, but peopleare finding more and more ways
(11:17):
to I think take advantage ofsome of these things.
SPEAKER_00 (11:20):
Exactly.
I w uh have you heard anythingabout the CEO or president,
whoever it was that sent theemail or facing repercussions?
SPEAKER_03 (11:27):
It was a CEO, and I'm sure we stepped down or
asked us.
I don't think so.
Not that I'm aware of, but Iimagine because he I think
claimed that you know he ran itby his employees and ran it by
people, and they thought it wasa good idea.
But yeah, I mean I know somecompanies are probably not using
that software anymore.
Wow.
(11:48):
So yeah.
Well So I I wanted to go just adifferent route real quick.
And we'll go uh we'll go a morefun route.
Gotcha, fun.
And one of the things I wasthinking of is Halloween.
So Halloween, costumes, parties.
I kind of got into a party.
SPEAKER_00 (12:10):
I saw, yeah, from your notes.
SPEAKER_03 (12:12):
Yeah.
So I found an article, it wasfive five COVID-19 Halloween
ideas for your next officeparty.
SPEAKER_00 (12:21):
So sexy nurse, sexy doctor.
SPEAKER_03 (12:25):
Well, that that is another discussion for I guess
inappropriate um what or whatcounts as an appropriate work
costume, but you can have a ZoomHalloween costume party.
Okay.
So if we all wanna want to gettogether and show off our
costumes.
SPEAKER_00 (12:40):
Ooh, that that that screams danger, Will Robinson,
danger.
SPEAKER_03 (12:46):
Yes.
A scary movie Netflix party.
I guess you could all like, Idon't know, watch Netflix
together.
I don't I kind of like this one.
A Halloween dec Halloweendecorating contest.
So like you can kind of decorateyour work, your work from home
space, and do like a little kindof a fun like morale booster, I
think.
Around this time of year.
Probably more fun for like aChristmas decorating contest,
(13:08):
but people are gonna have morestuff for that.
A COVID-19 masquerade ball.
Okay.
Can wear an eye mask, atraditional masquerade ball mask
to ensure everyone's oh that'sthat's not even a Zoom one.
Alright, these are like stupidoffice parties.
Another one was um actuallysending your coworkers like
candy.
There's um some companies thatdo like candy delivery.
(13:30):
Oh, candy gram, yeah.
Yeah, so I thought that's kindof a cool that'd be kind of a
cool idea.
I don't know.
I probably won't do them.
I'm not that f for thinking toolate by now nice to my
co-workers, but yeah, just somelittle party ideas.
But then on another side ofthat, I found an article that
was talking about is a declinein office parties, a red flag.
(13:53):
So this is uh uh from Reddituser Deadpool Designer, and they
said, I've worked at thiscompany for around six years
now, and there seem to be lessemployee activities every year.
We used to have monthly birthdayparties, Halloween costume
contests, holiday lunches, happyhour drink, so on, so on, so on.
I realized when an employeeasked if there was more to this
(14:14):
job than work, I couldn't thinkof anything in the recent years.
So this just kind of it perkedmy interest a little bit because
we come from a company that dida lot of parties and celebrated
birthdays and did things likethat.
But if you notice those thingsstarting to, I guess, drop off
and not be as common, would thatbe kind of a red flag that your
time is nearing an end at thatemployer?
(14:37):
I would office parties that bigof a deal.
SPEAKER_00 (14:40):
No, they I think they are a pretty big deal.
Unfortunately, my company madethe announcement today that uh
we're canceling our Christmasparties because of COVID.
We can't have gatherings of morethan however many people.
SPEAKER_03 (14:54):
And you know, if we can't do it, I will say this is
from two years ago.
This is a pre-COVID.
This is this is from the beforetimes.
SPEAKER_00 (15:01):
Oh apocalypse.
SPEAKER_03 (15:03):
This year, obviously, there's no parties
going on, but uh just kind of asa hypothetical of in general,
would you say?
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
In general, maybe.
I w I would hope because partiesare fun, there's something
people look forward to, and Iknow people are ups upset right
now, given the currentsituation, can't have parties.
We have our our company, we douh bi-monthly birthday parties,
so we do like August andSeptember birthday parties
together in between the two andhave a little thing for
(15:31):
everybody.
And uh we used to do that.
We do employee breakfasts andand things like that, and we we
aren't doing things like thatanymore just because not that
you can't, but it's justprobably not best practice at at
this time.
SPEAKER_01 (15:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:47):
But if you're talking, you know, pretty if if
those things are starting toslide, you might want to ask
why.
Is it budgetary limitations?
I mean, or maybe there's newleadership that the people who
put it together are no longerthere, nobody had picked up the
ball.
There's there's a lot of reasonswhy.
It wouldn't start.
SPEAKER_03 (16:03):
That was probably one of the number one Reddit
comment was most likely thepeople that organize those
things just aren't thereanymore, so no one thinks to
send out the email or send outthe invitations or whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (16:15):
That's what I've personally seen when you have uh
an event like that and that it'sall of a sudden, oh my god, we
didn't do it.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (16:21):
Uh because you know Patrick's birthday was two
months ago.
Oh well, we'll get him nextyear.
You know, we we'll we'll hidehis card for three months and
then give it to him.
SPEAKER_00 (16:29):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm guilty as charged.
That's uh I don't know if we'vetold that story on the on the
show yet.
SPEAKER_03 (16:36):
No, probably not.
I'm still bitter about it.
SPEAKER_00 (16:38):
It's still bitter three years, four years later.
SPEAKER_03 (16:40):
Warren hid my card from me under his keyboard for
three months.
Yes.
Didn't give it to me, andeveryone wrote me nice messages
that would have helped me getthrough the day.
That would have helped me getthrough hard times.
SPEAKER_00 (16:49):
Well, in my defense, my desk is always a fire hazard.
It's not that I hid it, it'sjust that it got somewhere under
the bottom of the palm.
One day I actually cleaned mydesk.
I was like, oh, look at this.
It was signed by people whohaven't been here in three
months, but that's okay.
(17:12):
But no, yeah, that that was me.
I'm the person who who did itand uh found it later.
So you know, make sure you putit in my hand and not just on my
desk because otherwise it justfalls into the the abyss of
things.
So no ask questions, find out.
Yeah, everybody loves to gettogether.
Uh I when we worked together, wewere doing potlucks and cooking
(17:35):
things.
It seemed like at least everyother month, if not more
frequently, we'd do things andeverybody looked forward to it.
SPEAKER_03 (17:42):
So I mean anytime you can you can have an excuse
to not work and enjoy someyummy, some yummy munchies.
SPEAKER_00 (17:48):
Yeah, no, exactly.
So now I I don't think there'sanything to be alarmed about,
but just ask the questions.
Figure out, and hey, if it's notif that person's left, you pick
up that ball and you go aheadand run with it and say, I'll be
the party planner now.
SPEAKER_03 (18:02):
Fair point.
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
So uh well, I don't have anything really fun.
I have something.
SPEAKER_03 (18:09):
I mean, this is jaded HR.
That was just taking off thejaded hat a little bit.
It's all good.
SPEAKER_00 (18:14):
Well, we're going straight down the jaded hole
right now.
I received a friend, an emailfrom a friend, and they they
CC'd mean about six or eightother people on this, and their
only comment on this email thatthey forwarded to us was I wish
there was a dumbass vaccine.
So I read the entire thread ofthe email.
(18:34):
I took out some highlights.
So start with uh so starting atthe bottom, I highlighted some
things here.
You know, blank companies,please don't know that once
again we'll be holding a fluvaccination clinics at each of
our locations for all of ouremployees, both full or
full-time, part-time, andinterns.
Remote employees are welcome toschedule a vaccination at nearby
company location, company namelocation there.
(18:57):
We are also able to continue tooffer flu vaccines to immediate
family members of our employees.
If you have health insurancethrough company name or
elsewhere, there should be nocost to you.
So be sure to bring your healthinsurance card.
It gives then it gives a link toschedule for an appointment and
it talks about socialdistancing, and guidelines will
be posted at each location forsocial distancing.
(19:20):
And then the last two lines ofthe email, if you're unable to
attend one of our clinics, weencourage you to get your
vaccination.
With any health insurance plan,it should be at no cost to you.
And vaccinations are generallyavailable at many pharmacies.
If you would like assistance inscheduling a vaccination at one
of our locations or help findinga nearby location offering flu
(19:42):
vaccinations, please contact andit gives a person's name.
So face value, awesome email,engaging.
SPEAKER_03 (19:49):
Yeah, I was gonna say that's that's pretty cool,
especially if they do uh familymembers too.
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I I've never been with a companythat offers it to family
members.
I know when we worked together,the company put together
vaccination clinics and andthings like that, but no, I
don't think I don't recallfamily members being invited.
Well, then comes uh part of thatis the reply to that email.
(20:13):
So a certain employee replies,hell no.
As a retired sailor in the Navy,I had my fill of mandatory, in
quote, vaccinations, and beingthe government's goddamn guinea
pig.
You'll have to fire me beforeyou make me get, once again, in
quotes, vaccinations.
And when you do, you'd betterknow to expect the biggest
(20:33):
goddamn lawsuit you've everseen.
I know my rights, and theConstitution guarantees me the
right not to be forced intothis, once again, in quotes,
vaccination.
I'm not a constitutional expert,but I don't think it talks
anywhere about flu vaccinationsin there.
I I I just I I I replied, Ihaven't heard a comment, I've
(20:56):
replied to her and saying,really, tell me the rest of the
story, what happened after this?
And I I don't have an answeryet.
But just sounds like anothercompany just being
unquestionably shady and youknow, doing this a convenience
to uh to have a flu vaccination.
Uh I tried to put one on where Iworked, couldn't gather enough
interest.
(21:16):
I put a poll out there uh uh onthe employee portal, and you
have to get X amount peoplebefore the company will come out
to you, and I couldn't get thatnumber.
But uh, you know, it it it's oneI think that's a nice little
perk if it accompanies.
SPEAKER_03 (21:29):
Yeah, I missed the part of the email where it said
it was mandatory.
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
Ah, you're going so I wrote down what my ideal
response to this email would befor our little shits and
giggles.
So if if that were me and I hadto complete reign and control,
this is how I'd handle thesituation.
I'd I'd call the employee intomy office and I'd give them a
copy of the email for them toread aloud and then ask them to
tell me exactly where it said,this is mandatory.
(21:54):
My next statement would be, onceI can't do that, is to tell them
today is their last day ofemployment, not because of their
refusal to get thisnon-mandatory vaccine, but you
know, the email's completelyinappropriate and we can't
employ people to make such poor,rash decisions.
Bye-bye.
That was my my Warren's idealclient.
SPEAKER_03 (22:15):
If we lived in your ideal world of being able to do
whatever you wanted as an HRperson trying to purge.
SPEAKER_00 (22:20):
So I but I asked about I asked my friend if we
get a if I get a response, I'llI'll I may post the update what
what happened, what how who saidwhat and anything come out of
it.
But you know, employees whoabuse HR or you know make these
knee-jerk reactions and rantlike this, that nothing ever
becomes of it, and it's like, ohwell, you know, who knows what
(22:42):
their the the cover-up will be,and nothing gets done.
SPEAKER_03 (22:46):
It's someone that is just a very angry person and was
looking for an excuse to blowtheir top shed some light and
blow their top on somecontroversial topic they feel is
just, and yeah, he took a swingand sad to say he missed.
SPEAKER_00 (23:03):
Yeah.
Strike three, you're out.
SPEAKER_03 (23:06):
So yeah, I knew as soon as you said flu vaccine it
was gonna be some anti-vaxxemployee dumbass.
SPEAKER_00 (23:11):
And it wasn't really well, I guess it is anti-vaxxer.
I don't want to get into it.
Yeah, he's an anti-vaxxer.
He was the goddamn governmentguinea pig or whatever he said
up there.
SPEAKER_03 (23:20):
Uh yeah, so he's uh yeah, the 5G microchips that the
Bill Gates wants to giveeverybody in, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:27):
Oh yeah.
Sit in a corner with your tinfeel tinfoil height, please,
buddy.
Yep.
Let the rest of the world moveon.
Ah, so but I guess that sort ofcould lead into my my next
topic.
Uh I recently had to coach amanager through their first
termination.
And it was interesting.
(23:48):
I I hadn't coached somebodythrough it in a long time.
And I tell you, I love thismanager.
I don't report to her, but we'reon a couple of committees
together, so I we haveinteractions.
And my time where I've been,I've never heard a peep out of
her, her employees.
It's been like the set it andforget it department because
nothing ever goes wrong.
Well, they're working on a verylarge project, and they had to
(24:11):
hire a particular subjectmanager expert to fill in some
knowledge gaps to help us out.
So uh I recruited, found someonepart-time temporary to get us
through this project, and heworked remote, everything was
going fine, just like it alwaysdoes.
Things go fine until they don't.
So he'd be late for meetingsthat he would schedule.
(24:33):
He would, when he got tomeetings, he wouldn't be
prepared.
He came in late to one meetingwith a client on the line once,
and then overtook a meeting thathe hadn't been party to the
first half of and took tried totake it a whole different
direction.
Didn't provide deliverables ontime.
And then what I thought when Iheard the story should have been
the final straw, told themanager he wasn't going to do
(24:54):
something because it's not myjob.
And uh that's always uh a nicething.
But he kept it going.
But there was more and it missedsome due dates, but final straw
ended up being this person'stimesheet did not equate the
amount of work they wereclaiming done.
So uh we had some theories.
He we knew he had a full-timejob when we hired him, and uh he
(25:15):
said that we were only lookingfor 10 to 20 hours a week uh
reviewing and adding things toour information in his subject
area of subject matter.
So we our theory was during thepay he was recently we he told
us he was recently told he wouldbe returning to work to his
office at full-time.
So we're thinking he was sort ofbilking his full-time employer
(25:37):
while doing our work on theside.
And then when he got back to theoffice, he had supervision and
uh couldn't bilk his employeranymore and had to, and then
tried to bilk us for it.
So but going back to thetermination, you know, I I did I
did talk to her and say, hey,termination should never be an
easy task.
She was really struggling withthe the whole process, and I
(25:59):
coached her through it.
I even volunteered, hey, youknow, I I'll do it if you'd
prefer.
If it if it's just and she saidit's her responsibility, and I
agree, but uh, you know, she'ddo it.
So he was terminated.
A week later, we received anemail, and let's see, he CC'd
the email to his manager and tome and things like that.
(26:20):
Now, this email came from aGmail account, but he put his
work signature like cut andpaste it into this Gmail
account.
So it's it was really bizarre.
But he wrote to us I haven'theard a status or update
regarding my contributioncontributing to the blank
project for at least a week.
This hasn't been the case overthe past couple months.
(26:40):
It appears there's not enoughwork for me to stay on board and
contribute to this project.
Therefore, I'm resigning from myposition effective immediately.
Boy, reading's not my strongskill today.
Thank you for the opportunityand best of luck on this
project.
I mean, he was terminated.
I I went and talked to thementor.
I said, You did talk to him, andshe said, Absolutely.
And you know, you resigned aweek after you got canned.
(27:04):
That's good, I guess.
I don't know when that was justso bizarre.
unknown (27:11):
Bizarre.
SPEAKER_03 (27:11):
What would happen in a situation like that?
And I'll apologize to all the HRprofessionals, you probably know
this, but like let's say thisperson was terminated, and then
with that came unemployment orseverance or something like
that.
But then for whatever reason, aweek later he he resigns.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
I I don't know.
I would just say you wereterminated and you you know, in
this case for cause termination,so you're not going to qualify
hopefully for unemployment.
That's a whole nother entireshow on itself.
But you you wouldn't qualify asit's for cause.
And and he had been warnedpreviously.
SPEAKER_03 (27:44):
So didn't know if there was ever a situation where
someone was terminated and theydecided randomly to like just go
ahead and resign, but then theycanceled any kind of benefits
they would get out of beingterminated.
SPEAKER_00 (27:55):
Yeah.
I don't know.
But uh that that person was avery special person, apparently.
And like I said, I I recruitedhim and everything was going
fine at at first, and even toldme that hey, I have a full-time
job, I'm working from home, butI can give you the 10 to 20
hours a week you're looking for,and it was that's all we we
really wanted out of him, but itjust didn't work out.
SPEAKER_03 (28:16):
Well, speaking of stupid people, can I jump back
into Halloween?
I'll ask you a question first.
You can think just off the topof your head of any have you
ever had to deal with aninappropriate Halloween costume
at work?
SPEAKER_00 (28:29):
No, I don't think I have.
No.
I I think I've heard whispersand complaints, but never ever
ever anybody saying, Warren, youhave to investigate this
inappropriately.
SPEAKER_03 (28:39):
I'm trying to think, I don't think I've ever worked
for a company that really didlike allowed legit Halloween
costumes.
SPEAKER_00 (28:46):
We worked together, there were some uh Did we do
some Halloween?
We didn't necessarily, but therewas a department that was on our
floor that really went all outsometimes.
And some of them werequestionable judgment.
SPEAKER_03 (29:00):
Any any day of the week, a Tuesday might be
questionable.
Yeah.
But yeah, unfortunately I didn'tI couldn't think of any, but I
did find um an Ask HR fromReddit user Sydney2030.
They're actually in Australia,which I thought in Australia
this is a really interestingcostume choice, but said we had
a ha our Halloween party in theoffice, and a lot of staff
(29:21):
dressed up.
However, our state manager worea KKK costume, complete with
hood and that funny red crosssymbol, and seemed to find it
funny that everyone wasuncomfortable and no one wanted
a photo taken with him.
And they go on and on and onabout talk about this, but Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (29:35):
That is a extreme lapse in judgment and uh Yeah,
that that's terminable.
Yeah, I I there should be zerotolerance for that.
SPEAKER_03 (29:46):
That's the person that was complaining here
because it was a m very muchlike an old school mentality,
old basically old white manhierarchy in the organization,
so people just thought it wasfunny and this was a higher
level manager.
So from an HR standpoint, likehow do you even how do you
approach that?
SPEAKER_00 (30:05):
That that's something you just rip off the
band-aid and say, you know, heyWarren, that costume is not
appropriate in any way, shape,or form.
We can't have that in what itrepresents in our company.
I'm sorry, we you're you'regone.
That's really how the the theconversation should go.
(30:25):
Same thing if you you want to beuh you know a Hitler or you know
any of these other peoplenotoriously.
SPEAKER_03 (30:34):
It is the some of these people just go for like
the shock value, but man, doingthat at work is such like a it's
work I mean it's work suicide.
Like if you're trying to getthis weird shock out of people,
but man, like that is just notthe way to do it.
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
No, no.
Go for the creepy gory costume,go for other things, uh but it's
something that's so you know, Idon't know.
SPEAKER_03 (30:55):
There was like there was a list as I was doing some
research for the episode, it waslike ten ten costume ideas to
avoid at the workplace, andcreepy gory was one to avoid,
you know, all the all the sexythings.
Um anything that was raciallyinsensitive, like this one.
SPEAKER_00 (31:11):
Yeah, going in blackface, you know.
I don't know there's I seem toremember once upon a time
somebody, uh a white guy doingblackface dressing as uh Barack
Obama once upon a time andgetting that made some stories.
Yeah, I think it made somestories a few years back.
SPEAKER_03 (31:26):
Uh probably on things like that Okay, this
wasn't a personal story.
SPEAKER_00 (31:30):
Okay.
But we did have that that skskeleton costume uh or mummy
cost poster on the wall at work.
And I brought my son to work oneday and he points it out, and I
probably still have a picture ofit on my phone.
He said, This poster looks justlike Barack Obama.
And after I looked at it, Icould never look at it again.
It was a mummy.
(31:51):
I'll I'll I'll have to forwardthat to you.
But we also know how my sonlikes to compare things to
Barack Obama, or used to, atleast back in the day.
SPEAKER_03 (31:59):
That is true.
SPEAKER_00 (32:00):
So that was that was but after you know, after I
looked at it that way and I saw,wow, that that the mummy does
sort of look like Barack Obama,and I could never look at it
again without and it wasn't, youknow, what I'm sure it wasn't
intended to, but it just it wasjust the eyes and the facial
features.
I was like, wow, that I couldn'tlook at it again that way.
SPEAKER_03 (32:21):
One more funny note, this is a hypothetical I have,
and I just thought this was a agood timing for for our spooky,
not so spooky, spec sp not sospooky spectacular.
So this is from Reddit userWeezy Runner, and his
hypothetical is you are now it'sjust kind of a morbid question,
but we're gonna we're gonna getto we're gonna do the fun bit of
it, not to think about thecircumstances of our current
(32:43):
situation.
You are now a ghost, and ghosthigh command has assigned you to
haunt your former workplace.
How do you mess with your formercoworkers?
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
Well, first you'd have to pick a workplace.
I mean, I guess you haveinfinity times, so you you can
go to all of them and and hauntthem.
SPEAKER_03 (33:02):
So uh I know a certain person who would never
be able to find their chapstick.
SPEAKER_00 (33:08):
Yeah, I think just randomly screw with people all
the time.
SPEAKER_03 (33:13):
Yeah, some of the comments were try to make the
toilet seat warm all the time.
SPEAKER_00 (33:17):
Uh that you know, that's one of my pet themes of a
public recipe going in and theseat is warm.
That just makes me cringe.
SPEAKER_03 (33:25):
Yeah, in a public space, it's the worst.
Yeah.
I liked um just constantlyadjusting the thermostat up one
degree just throughout the day.
And all of a sudden everyone'sjust melting.
SPEAKER_00 (33:35):
Uh yeah, I I would I would screw with people's work,
like uh edit people's emailsthat they uh before they send
them, or or yeah, put put somemacros in their outlook, so with
that every time they typed inlike the company name, it
changed it to a different likecompeting company.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Do do fun do some fun thingsjust to screw with people, no
matter where you are.
SPEAKER_03 (33:55):
Yeah.
I actually did that.
I back when I worked for UPS, Ia co-worker of mine we used to
prank each other a lot.
And I researched, I spent waytoo much time researching how to
put a macro on someone'scomputer, but it was and I don't
remember how to do it now, butevery time we typed UPS, it
changed it to FedEx.
Oh.
But he ended up sending an emailto our our HR regional manager.
(34:17):
Just full of fun.
Yeah.
We had to stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00 (34:23):
Oh, and I would be I would be awful.
I'd find the people that Ididn't like working with and
for, and oh, they're I'd makesure they got their ass fired or
you know, went crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (34:32):
I swear.
You don't want to do firingstuff, you just want to do like
annoying things, like hide atimer somewhere like in the in
the ceiling tile that just wouldgo off randomly.
Randomly throughout the day whenyou couldn't find it, you didn't
know where it was.
SPEAKER_00 (34:44):
And move it randomly.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:46):
Yeah.
It's gotta move every day.
SPEAKER_00 (34:48):
Oh man, that's I'm that's a good one.
I'm gonna have to remember thatlittle timer.
SPEAKER_03 (34:53):
Yeah, so shoot us uh shoot us a message on Twitter or
Facebook.
What how would you haunt yourcoworkers?
Oh that's your homework for thisweek.
SPEAKER_00 (35:01):
Homework assignments, ooh.
Well, I'll I'll I'll go uhanother thing I have the HR
nightmares since we're beingscary and things like that.
SPEAKER_03 (35:12):
Stay with a theme.
SPEAKER_00 (35:13):
Well, HR as its own worst nightmare.
And uh so for a long time, HRhas been looking for that quote
unquote seat at the table, youknow, and HR does deserve it.
And for a lot of companies, thepandemic gave them that sort of
right to the seat at the table.
But once again, sometimes HR canbe its own worst nightmare.
(35:35):
And I'm thinking specificallywhen it comes to job titles.
And I don't know if it was thelast episode or the episode
before that, I made a jadedcomment.
As soon as you mentioned aperson's title was the chief
people officer, I I sort ofscorned it, but it turned out I
agreed with everything that theythey did.
But uh so I know I'm going tocontradict myself here, but uh
(35:57):
I'm just gonna throw it outthere.
Anyways, uh this can also bevery dependent on the culture of
the company.
If you're one of those trendytechie firms, you know, that
does things differently, thenyour titles can be a little bit
you have a little more leeway tobe a little crazy with your
titles.
But overall, I I think that whenI looked at a job title, I
should be able to look and seeyour job title and know have a
(36:18):
very good idea of what you dowithout having to think about it
too much.
But so here's some doing someresearch, I found some HR titles
out there and some other titlesas well.
So I found People Evangelist.
And what do you think that wouldbe?
SPEAKER_03 (36:34):
People evangelists?
Yes.
I a recruiter.
I don't even know.
Oh gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (36:41):
I I I didn't write down the name for that company.
I some of these I've writtendown names of the company or
typed down the names of thecompany that did it.
Chief Chief Happiness Officer,that was the HR D at uh Google.
And a couple other companies hadthat.
SPEAKER_03 (36:55):
I like Chief People Officer, Chief Chief Happiness.
Officer.
SPEAKER_00 (36:58):
The Culture and Geek Resource Manager was a title for
HR manager, and I once again Ididn't write down the name of
that company.
The head of optimistic people,that is their HR director with
Life is Good.
The Chief Vibes Officer.
That's the Witch Witch SandwichShop.
(37:19):
Speaking of which, they'reopening one.
Apparently, I saw a sign in uhright up the road from you,
looks like.
The chief heart officer, and I'mgonna butcher the name of this
company, but Vanner Media, I'mgonna go with.
(37:47):
Now, here's one I foundinteresting.
SPEAKER_03 (37:48):
I kinda like that one.
It's like uh, you know, guidingexp guiding a company to their
to reach their highestpotential, reach their peak, the
pinnacle.
I like that.
SPEAKER_00 (37:58):
Okay.
Well, here's a title from Googlethat might be just a little bit
sexist.
It is the security princess.
And what if they don't what ifthey identify as a male?
And then that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03 (38:12):
That would be a security princess.
That sounds kind of cool.
SPEAKER_00 (38:15):
But what would be the general neutral title for a
princess or a prince?
Uh I I thought I spent too muchtime thinking about that and I
did not come up with an answer.
They they they there.
But uh, I do have one personalexperience with a a stupid
(38:36):
title.
I was working at a CPA firm, anda senior partner sends me a
resume and said, Hey, we'rehiring this person.
And after I sent me, and theysent me a lot of information.
The only thing they reallydidn't send me that I needed to
get the person set up and hiredwas a job title.
And I read the person's resumeand I I replied to them
something to the effect of, hey,I'm great to help you make this
(38:59):
happen.
I need a little bit moreinformation and reading the
resume.
I don't know if they fit inbetter as position A or position
B.
And the reply was they'll justbe a utility infielder.
Like in baseball, you might havethat guy who can play all the
infield positions.
Uh, after a little back andforth, we ended up sticking with
(39:19):
the titled Utility Infielder.
They had business cards made,utility infielder, and uh, we
created that in our HRS systemas well.
So that was like I kind of likethat.
Yeah, uh, I mean, you know, onceagain, uh going back to my
theory, when I look at your yourjob description, I should know
exactly what you're doing.
And if you're at a CPA firm andyou're a utility infielder, I
(39:43):
don't know.
SPEAKER_03 (39:43):
I always create Jedi Knight in the HRS HRS systems
that I manage, and I always justwant that to be my my title.
Or I could just change my titleto like I don't know, HR
firefighter.
I spend a lot of time justputting out little fires here
and there.
SPEAKER_00 (39:59):
Caused by other people.
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
Sometimes caused by myself.
But you know, and still stillfighting the fires.
SPEAKER_00 (40:05):
Yeah.
So no, I I I'm I just I loveseeing some of these.
I both love and hate, I shouldsay, seeing some of these
employee job titles that theyhave and and people get.
You know, some of them arereally cool and creative, some
of them are really stupid, andI'm not going to get my um you
know, we're all wound up oversanitation engineer or sandwich
artist or something stupid likethat.
(40:26):
Everybody knows.
SPEAKER_03 (40:27):
I feel like we can probably do that could be like a
topic every episode of just likehere's the top three job titles
I found this week or somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Yeah, no, you look around LinkedIn, there's all
sorts of uh great job titles,and I I did some other research.
Uh so yeah, I could fill up uhuh Tune in next week.
What is our new favorite jobtitle of the week?
SPEAKER_03 (40:47):
Well, I don't know about that, but I do know we
need to tell the people what wewant them to do for us as we
start this new new alphabetchapter.
SPEAKER_00 (40:56):
All right.
I'm only gonna ask for twothings, people.
I I really, really want to seesome reviews.
It's been a while uh since we'vegotten a review.
That was Chris up in Canada, sothank you, Chris.
SPEAKER_03 (41:06):
But we still think about you every night.
SPEAKER_00 (41:10):
Maybe, maybe not.
That might be a little ooky.
But uh, anyways, I do uh one Ido want some reviews, go to your
favorite podcast player.
Most of them now allow reviews.
Give us your feedback, tell usyou love us, tell us you hate
us.
Give us your feedback.
What would make it better foryou?
But uh uh we will respond to anyany feedback you give to us if
(41:31):
we're able.
We uh can't access iTunes Canadato get into and respond to that,
Chris's.
But we've now acknowledged youon the the show a couple times.
But the other thing, just engageus on social media, follow us on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
SPEAKER_03 (41:47):
We'll and we'll try to engage you as well.
SPEAKER_00 (41:48):
Yeah, we'll we'll try and engage you.
We're getting better.
I'm getting better.
You are, you are.
I am horrible.
I'm I'm trying my hardest as I'mI'm and it's the strange thing
is I'm getting personallyfurther away from social media,
but at same uh but yeah, workingon this.
So that's what we're looking forfrom our our lovely listeners.
So just keep spreading the word,uh, give us some reviews, and
(42:11):
we'll talk to you all very soon.
SPEAKER_03 (42:13):
Absolutely.
And I'll say uh quick thank youto the underscore orchestra for
the use of their song Devil withthe Devil that we use for our
intro and outro music.
SPEAKER_00 (42:21):
And we'd also like to give a thank you to Kyle
Rhode of the HR Rebel podcast.
He had us on as a guest, and theepisode will be airing on his
podcast on uh October 27th.
So this will already be this itwill come out before this
episode, but we'll also berebroadcasting it as one of our
(42:42):
bonus episodes sometime in thenot terribly distant future.
SPEAKER_03 (42:45):
And we always like to leave you all with a best
practice to uh take with you forthe week.
And Warren, what do you have forus tonight?
SPEAKER_00 (42:53):
I want you to randomly select any employee
mailings that you you send outand put glitter bombs in a
certain percentage of thembefore you you mail them out.
Your employees will love it,promise you.
SPEAKER_03 (43:06):
Yep, spread the joy.
Yes.
With that, thank you all so muchfor listening to another episode
of Bookie HR.
I'm Patrick and Tillis.
SPEAKER_00 (43:16):
And I'm Warren Workman, and we're helping you
survive HR one what the fuckmoment at a time.
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