A few years ago, I retired my blog because I wanted to write under my name. More importantly, I wanted to see if I could branch out beyond human resources and write about something fresh. In January, a friend of mine reached out and said that he “ceased reading my work” because it lacked passion…
One of my cat blogging acquaintances strongly believes that total rewards plans—which include health insurance, retirement, paid time off, life insurance and other benefits—are written for people with kids. And she thinks it is criminal. My friend wants a different approach: you should get a flexible mix of cash and other benefits that are more…
What Is the SHRM-SCP? HR professionals are not required to have formal certifications the same way that doctors, lawyers, accountants or teachers are. However, many employers do prefer to hire certified human resource officers. In the past, that just meant earning your PHR or SPHR, but that’s no longer the case. Those certifications, offered by…
I live in a world where aggressive, arrogant men swoop down from big consulting firms and hate the women who work in human resources. It’s creepy. They are “here to help us” while simultaneously undermining us. And some of those arrogant, aggressive men are women. (Et tu, Betty?) I spend an inordinate amount of time…
I kissed a boy so hard it melted my face off on April 30th, 1990. We were in the front seat of his parked in his car at a grocery store in Palatine, IL. It was a warm, muggy afternoon. The new Depeche Mode album was playing in the background. We kissed so hard and…
Nobody has better work-life balance than a pilates-loving cat mom who travels the world and sees cool places. I’m talking about myself. Even when I’m burned out, I’m not burned out. So here are some of my tips and techniques to achieve real and lasting work-life balance. Say yes when someone else is burned out.…
I have some friends who are just back from Carowinds. They rode the new Fury 325 roller coaster. It seems insane and scary. (It’s also been stuck a few times. I would die.) The Fury 325 video from Bloomberg has me thinking of how proper design is at the core of everything—from roller coasters to employee…
My friend Lars Schmidt asked me to join a group of other smart people and tell him about the best part about my job. Do you know Lars? Go check him out. Anyway, there are a few things that I like about my job. [soundcloud url=”api.soundcloud.com/tracks/198905984″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] Being HR Famous I won’t lie.…
Years ago, I just put my head down and wrote like a motherfucker. Then I blogged. Then I started cross-posting my blogging content on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Then I used a WordPress plug-in to automate that laborious task. Then I used Twitterfeed to cross-promote other people’s work. I now use ManageFlitter to organize my…
Do you remember your first meeting? I do. I was at Monsanto. We were talking about staffing. I didn’t know what to do. I just sat there with a pen in my hand looking ridiculous. Remember the days when meetings were over fast? Or when you could make up a lie, walk out of a…