I met my friend Victorio Milian on a snowy day in upstate New York when I was 22 years old. Just kidding, I met him about a decade ago at an HR conference. Which one? Who the hell knows. Doesn’t matter. Victorio is a reasonable guy who doesn’t have time for bullshit, including mine, which…
Mister Jake turns 17, this week. Well, that’s an estimate. He was born in June or July 2000, and I adopted him in September 2000. That makes both of us old. Jake was rescued from a parking lot on the northwest side of Chicago by some random chick named Lynn. Her mom worked with my…
I’m doing this new thing where I do almost everything Jennifer McClure tells me to do. If you don’t know Jennifer, she’s someone who never gives bad advice. She’s a former HR executive who runs a successful speaking and coaching business. She’s an advisor and leader, but, more importantly, Jennifer is a woman of character…
Mary Ellen Slayter turned 40, last week. I’ve loved this woman for years. Almost a decade-ish. Look at this dated-as-hell video of the two of us. Jesus. That’s painful to watch. When I’m nervous, I adopt a Chicago accent. I planned on writing a tribute to Mary Ellen and telling her about what it’s like…
Hi, everybody. My name is Laurie Ruettimann. I am forty-two years old, five feet tall, and I weigh 130 pounds. My BMI is 25.4, which makes me “overweight.” Thankfully, BMI has always been bullshit. I’m sexy AF, climb skyscrapers that tower over America’s largest cities, and get drunk at business events and still wake up…
I’m in New Orleans for two birthdays and a meeting on Wednesday. This trip overlaps with an HR conference that I’m not attending My career is messy, my personal life is all over the map, and I’m massively hungover from drinking too much. Dammit. Drank too damn much and had a crazy night. Just like…
There are two types of people in this world: project managers and task managers. • • • I’m a project manager. Everything I do — from making coffee to launching a company to fixing my marriage — is a giant endeavor of some sort. I have a plan, I understand the steps, and I get…
This month is ten years since I quit my job at Pfizer. Technically, I didn’t quit. My position was eliminated as part of a broader HR restructuring. My husband’s job was eliminated, too. I signed a release and waiver, and I was given a severance package that provided some coverage while I transitioned to a…
I hate giving and receiving professional feedback. It’s the worst. • • • That’s why I agreed to write a six-part series on the Saba Halogen blog about giving and receiving feedback. If I’m ever going to get better, I need to learn how to communicate with other people effectively. The first two posts are…
I’m in the middle of pretty big changes in my life. I’m no longer working as an HR blogger. I’m not doing HR consulting. I’m trying to launch my nascent software company. And there’s always something going on with one of my cats. Right now, Emma has a hernia. You know, of course, my cat…
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