Encore Episode: Tiger Crashing a Virtual Happy Hour

Due to technical issues we don't have a new episode for you this week.  Please enjoy this encore episode from May 2020.

Can virtual happy hours spell trouble for HR departments? Join us as Warren and Patrick discuss the unexpected challenges that arise when colleagues meet over video for a drink. We share a riveting Reddit story where an inappropriate comment during a virtual happy hour led to a tricky HR situation. The lack of face-to-face interaction seems to loosen tongues, leading to unprofessional behavior that can have serious repercussions. Discover how these online gatherings can potentially increase harassment claims and create uncomfortable scenarios for everyone involved.

Being in HR isn't all about playing workplace police or mediating minor disputes. We shed light on the real frustrations HR professionals face, especially when dealing with candidate rejections. Ever sent a "thank you, but no thank you" letter only to receive backlash? We discuss why it's crucial not to ghost applicants, even when you're swamped, and share some funny and inspirational workplace quotes to lift your spirits. The realities of understaffed HR departments make these tasks all the more daunting, but maintaining professionalism is always a priority.

Ready for a laugh? We explore the humorous side of HR, from Reddit posts comparing HR to witchcraft to funny nicknames like "management resources ladies." We also put forth an exciting idea—gamifying HR with health and experience points to make the workplace more dynamic and engaging. Say goodbye to traditional performance reviews and hello to leveling up at work! Wrapping up, we extend our heartfelt thanks to The Underscore Orchestra for their music and to our wonderful listeners for tuning in to Jaded HR. Don't forget to leave your reviews and engage with us on social media!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey everybody, this is Warren. Unfortunately, our recording last night had some severe technical difficulties and we won't be publishing a new episode for you this week. So look out for a new episode in two weeks. In the meantime, please listen to this encore episode of Tiger Crashing, a virtual happy hour from April of 2020. Relive those Tiger King days, but we will see you again in two weeks.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Thank you very much hello and welcome to another episode of Jaded HR, a podcast by two former Human Resources co-workers who just want to help you get through the workday by saying all the things you are thinking. Say it out loud. I'm Patrick Consilis and I'm Warren Workman. Today, we have some things for you that we're going to talk about.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Yeah, we have quite a few topics. I'm going to try my hardest to not delve into any COVID-type things because everybody's overwhelmed with that. But along the lines of people being isolated and things like that, I've seen several places online places like LinkedIn and other places employees are having virtual happy hours. Now happy hours normally they can be a cause for HR concern. Maybe you should be a little concerned and think about what's going on there. But a virtual one where people don't even have to worry about driving home afterwards or anything along those lines yeah, no limits.

Speaker 1: 1:43

You have no limits and plus, we've already seen any number of instances of people not being dressed while doing their video conferences and things like that. I just see so much. I see this as just you know, wow, this could be really really crazy in terms of all the things that could go wrong with this virtual happy hour and things like that, just wow.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Well, I love it because we're already. We've already talked about the great work from home experiment that we're all in, and now we have basically zoom gone wild with a lot of things that we've already seen and it just seems to be getting better and better.

Speaker 2: 2:22

So it's just, it's a nonstop material with all this work from home stuff and you'd think it would be, you know, quieter. You're not getting the the weird interactions at work, but now we're just getting these. I haven't seen a whole lot of online or like zoom harassments yet, but now, with virtual happy hour potentially becoming a thing which I love, it's yeah, I always miss happy hour because I just want to get home, I don't want to do anything after work, but I mean, if you want to jump on and, you know, drink a few whatevers, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 2:53

But that brings me to something else I saw Suzanne Lucas, the evil HR lady, put online on one of her accounts about are we going to see something to the effect of are we going to see an increase in harassment claims? You would think that because people aren't physically together, that you wouldn't have as many harassment or bullying or whatever else claims like that. But now, in the days of people standing up without pants on, sometimes intentionally, I really got to believe there's people out there that are doing things like that intentionally. I really got to believe there's people out there that are doing things like that intentionally. You know other things going on. You know taking their cell phones or cameras or computers into the bathrooms with them. There's going to be more. There could be potentially more harassment type complaints and cyberbullying complaints and things like that. We wouldn't have had if it weren't for the great work from home experiment.

Speaker 2: 3:45

And that's what I was just going to say. Like, cyberbullying is so easy because you can say anything behind your internet, behind your random username, but it's a little bit different if you're working. But I guess people might feel a little more comfortable behind their desk microphone and just I don't know, maybe they started their virtual happy hour a little early.

Speaker 2: 4:02

Yeah, I guess that gives a little confidence you. Maybe they started their virtual happy hour a little early. Yeah, I guess that gives a little confidence. You don't have that face-to-face to awkwardness so maybe you feel like you can say something that you wouldn't normally say in person. There's the added internet confidence to the Zoom meetings Well on that. So I love that you had virtual happy hour on your notes and then my notes. I also had a virtual happy hour thing. So well, I don't know if we have the same thing, but I actually had a workplace issue from Reddit.

Speaker 2: 4:32

This is posted by a Reddit user, reddit with a bunch of random numbers and it said my department had an online video conference happy hour recently. During the happy hour the head of the department said that a female colleague in attendance drinks like a dude. I don't think that comment was meant to mock, offend etc. Probably just putting his foot in his mouth after a few drinks. I can't say that my colleague didn't feel insulted, but I felt shitty about it.

Speaker 2: 4:54

Kind of one of those mouth-to-gate moments for the surprise at a really weird unprofessional comment that overrides the wit to say anything in response Like that's so clearly an inappropriate thing to say. How should I respond if comments like that are made in the future? Is it appropriate to bring up to said female colleague to hr? So let me just reiterate this is something that someone just overheard. Someone made a male colleague made a comment to a female colleague. You drank like a dude dude and a person on the side just heard that comment. I guess got offended for that person the comment was made to and I was asking the HR subreddit should I bring this up to HR? Or something along those lines. So this is what virtual happy hour, unfortunately, is going to bring us.

Speaker 1: 5:41

It is. I didn't read that story, but that's what it's going to bring to us, and that also makes me think. How many complaints have you fielded? Where the complainant isn't directly involved, it's a third person and, just like in your example, that made me think I've fielded not an overwhelming amount, but more than I feel I should. Where the the complainant is a third party, they person A says something to person B and person C is the one who gets offended by it.

Speaker 2: 6:12

It's the world we live in right now. I mean, that's not even just in HR and business, it's just the world gets offended for other people that really couldn't give a shit. And that's where we're at, and virtual happy hour has already been ruined.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Maybe the lady does drink like a dude.

Speaker 2: 6:30

Yeah, I mean that could be a compliment, or yeah, I don't know, and all these people in the discussion were just saying you could bring it up to your female colleague and talk to her about it, or you could they're like, but don't bring it to HR. We don't want to hear about these dumb things. You're already doing virtual happy hours, which is skeptical at best. Just have your drink, Karen, and just move along, okay.

Speaker 1: 6:57

Oh boy. Well, I'm glad we had some different takes on the virtual happy hours I've seen. I didn't see that story, but I saw some memes on Facebook with it or Instagram and other things. I'm like, wow, this is, I guess, a real thing.

Speaker 2: 7:10

Yeah, I mean, and, like you know, I love the people I work with, but if I'm going to have a virtual happy hour, I'm going to have a virtual happy hour with, like, my parents or my grandparents or something, because I want to see them get kooky, because I don't get to see them right now.

Speaker 1: 7:22

And, like I said, just a regular happy hour is so prone to HR issues. You know it happens all the time and you know 99% of the time nothing comes out of it. But, like I said, when the anonymity or the you know you get that extra degree of freedom from being home and things, or maybe you're drinking stuff that's stronger than what you would drink when you go to the local bar, who knows what can happen.

Speaker 2: 7:49

Well, and people are out of stuff too. So it's like Warren, are you just drinking 91 isotopal alcohol or whatever that stuff is? You really wanted to participate in this happy hour. Got my hand sanitizer. I was going to say are you licking hand sanitizer? Where did you get that? That stuff's premium right now?

Speaker 1: 8:06

Yeah, Don't drink that, but it's a strange and crazy thing that I wouldn't have ever expected coming out of the current events.

Speaker 2: 8:16

So another thing coming out of current events that I wanted to bring up, and I will apologize to anyone who is named Karen we know some really nice Karens yes, we do. But unfortunately Karen is a thing, and I've even seen stuff recently where Karens are getting offended and they're saying using the word Karen on the Internet is like the same as using the N-word. At this point, people are making those kind of arguments which, I'm sorry, that's not even close, you'll have to educate me.

Speaker 2: 8:43

I've seen it, but I don't know the origin of this Karen. So a Karen is a let-me-speak-to-your-manager kind of person.

Speaker 2: 8:48

Gotcha, that is the internet version of a Karen, so it's unfortunate that that name was picked because, like I said, you and I both have worked for a Karen that we really liked, and I know some other Karens in personal life that are perfectly wonderful people, but that is the world we live in right now is, if you are a Karen it is a derogatory name, typically for a middle-aged woman who wants to speak to your manager, Gotcha. So I found a workplace complaint on Reddit one of my favorites by PBJ Nutella, and she says he. She says I'm not sure I work with a Karen who complained about my use of Lysol, yet she has Febreze air freshener. So we're in a tiny office and Karen complains about break room smells. Our office is next to the break room, so she has a Febreze air freshener spray can and one of those automatic sprayers by her door.

Speaker 2: 9:40

Now, with all this COVID stuff, we constantly wipe down and spray our areas. I spray a bag that I use when I step out of the office. This is a shared bag, so I spray it down when I'm done and leave it for the next person to use, which that already just sounds weird. I'm guessing they're nurses, maybe I have no idea. So today I'm working on items that were out in the public and were dirty. I washed my hands and sprayed my area and when I did this Karen immediately started complaining to me that it hurt her throat and I always overdo it with the Lysol. This person goes on and on and on some more, but this person is basically complaining about this Karen in her office that is complaining about her Lysol spells, and if you're not in HR, this doesn't just happen during a pandemic. This is the kind of bullshit we deal with all the time. Yes, and what would you? What would you tell this person? Cause I'm not on, really either of these people's sides.

Speaker 1: 10:37

I think they're both idiots. But well, if they're spraying and disinfecting there, I mean, I don't believe febreze carries any disinfecting power, so I would, I would side with the person in the lysol if they're doing things along those lines, but but the other person if it's irritating their throat or whatever? I mean, work it out amongst yourselves hey, exactly when they're in the room.

Speaker 1: 10:52

I don't know that I would have to sit there and do the stare and blink thing for a moment or two while I process this information of how to how to solve this issue yeah, we have.

Speaker 2: 11:02

We have so many issues going on and this would be also like a head tilt, like really, this is what you guys are worrying about. Can't you just talk to each other and, and maybe, if you have to, lysol it ask Karen to leave the room for a minute? Hey, I'm going to Lysol this real quick, do you mind? But don't take this to your supervisor, or please, god, don't take it to HR.

Speaker 1: 11:19

We don't care. Yeah, that's something that needs to be solved at a more local level and that seems to be.

Speaker 2: 11:26

I went through so many things today and I didn't use all of them, but so many complaints that everyone in the comment section is just like have you talked to the person? Are we not talking anymore? Do we forget that part? Because sometimes these things you just talk to adults and you don't need to bother HR for these stupid internal conflicts.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Well, that's part of the thing we mentioned in our earlier episode about what HR is and isn't. People think that we're the police, the guidance counselor, things along those lines. You know, hey, work it out amongst yourselves. You know, this isn't high school. You know that's a relatively minor thing. Now, if she's having severe allergic reactions and you know festering boils popping up everywhere because she's allergic to Lysol, then okay, you know festering boils popping up everywhere because she's allergic to Lysol, then okay, you know that's something that maybe needs to be direct action. But if it's just, you know, hey, hey, I'm going to clean this up. I know it bothers you can, you know, step out for a second and I'll clean it up for both of us. I'm doing this for both of us. Make it a win-win. Easy peasy. Sell that.

Speaker 2: 12:27

Oh Lord, yeah, those are just the kind of things that reasons why we're jaded.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Yeah, exactly. Well, I have a topic that you know. I was trying to do the right thing and I'm trying to be a good HR person. You know I've been trying. I've been dipping my toe into Reddit a little bit. I'm not as good. Be careful, because it's like cook sand. I feel so bad as if I go to the Ask HR or the anti-work subreddit or a few of the other ones that I actually subscribe to or whatever. I feel like I just want to put my flamethrower on and just blast people to death. So I've made a couple of comments but I try to restrain myself.

Speaker 1: 13:10

But one of the things I've been reading a lot in it, not only at Reddit but other places of candidates really getting upset when a company ghosts them. You apply for a job and you never hear back. So I've been working on our applicant tracking system I mentioned earlier. I'm still actively recruiting, I'm trying to fill our position, so I was consolidating positions, closing ones that we're not actively working on and things like that. So I sent out the. I set the system when I close a job to automatically send thank you, but no thank you letters to the remaining candidates, and so I don't know. I think I closed 10 jobs or so this week, but I got three emails in response to my thank you, but no thank you letters and all three were gripes. So the first one said they never applied with us and we're running a scam and we need to delete his information immediately because he never gave us permission to use his email address and things like that. I'm like you know, I can see that it was only like two weeks ago you applied.

Speaker 2: 14:17

It's not, can you like send them a screenshot? It's one of those things where you want to reply. So bad, but you probably just have to let it go.

Speaker 1: 14:24

Yeah, I, just I didn't respond to any of the of the three. Another person replied that he I put in quotes here dodged a bullet because we're rejecting him without even calling him to check his qualifications. Well, just because you feel you're qualified doesn't mean that the rest of the world does. Or maybe I closed the position I don't know which one specifically he was for, but that we're no longer actively pursuing. And then the third one was he started off. Thanks for we're no longer, you know, actively pursuing and so. And then the third one was he started off. Thanks for letting me know.

Speaker 1: 14:54

It's only been six months since I applied and if that's the way you do work, I'm glad you didn't contact me. I'm like why? Why are you up in arms? You know, I, I, I most of the time when I close a position. This is the first time I've turned on the ability to automatically send thank you, but no thank you letters when I close a position. So you know I just generally don't do that, but I've been trying to be the good HR person and do the right thing, and people don't like being ghosted.

Speaker 2: 15:26

Yeah, it's not even ghosting. It is nice to know if you didn't get a job. It's nice to at least have some closure, saying, okay, well, I can move on from this one, I know that's been filled or I didn't get that one.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Yeah, and obviously, admittedly, some of the jobs were quite older that were open. But getting three emails out of I don't know. I sent hundreds of thank you but no thank you letters while closing out these positions and things like that. So three isn't that many, but I was just like, really why are you going to put energy towards responding to this email which is so very painfully computer generated that to be offended to the point you have to reply that? Just really people.

Speaker 2: 16:08

I think when I first started doing hrs we had just implemented the recruiting module for our hrs software and I think I had some issues where I accidentally sent candidates these like thanks for no thanks email, like several times. You know I'd mess with some kind of setting and then hit save and it would actually auto send all these things and we had a lot of issues. I didn't save any of those emails. But yeah, I've been on the HR error end of accidentally mass letting people know they didn't get a job several times.

Speaker 1: 16:45

But you're letting them know and I really, like I said, I was trying to do the right thing. I wanted to let the people know I personally, you know, wouldn't if they don't contact me or contact me again, I wouldn't care too much. It's honestly too many. Hr departments are just understaffed and you know they don't like sending the the computer generated auto response. So they want to. You know if, generally, if you interview, yeah, I'll send you or give you, even give you a phone call letting you know hey, it didn't work out. You get burned for trying to do the right thing.

Speaker 2: 17:13

Yep, well, I have a positive note that I wanted to start. I'm not going to read them all, but I found some funny inspirational workplace quotes. All right, so we'll switch gears here and I I'm just gonna read maybe the first couple and then that's something that will will sprinkle in so people can have some inspiration and some little little motivation moving forward, if our podcast isn't already motivating enough. And the first one I really like is never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Speaker 1: 17:48

that that sounds like a Dwight Schrute quote, Actually Napoleon Bonaparte oh.

Speaker 2: 17:55

But it makes me think of unemployment calls. Oh yes, I love just sitting back putting my feet up and letting employees shoot themselves in the feet.

Speaker 1: 18:04

Those are some of my favorite moments.

Speaker 2: 18:07

I always think of the one where the guy was driving while doing his unemployment call and the employment commission representative said sir, are you currently driving? Yes, okay, well, we will not continue this call until you pull over. So you hear him or what he says Okay, I pulled over, I've stopped. You can still hear the car running. She's like sir, I know you're still driving, we will not continue this call until you pull over. And a couple of times tries later, I think he finally did, or we might've even rescheduled the call. But that quote just made me think about unemployment calls immediately.

Speaker 1: 18:42

Yeah, actually I didn't think about it, but now that you say, yes, so many unemployment hearings, you know, in Virginia they're, they're done by phone. Most places now, I assume, are done by phone. But yeah, that's a great way, People, you know, sometimes you weren't even. Okay, we'll moderately fight this. But if they win, they win. But the employee goes and shoots themselves in the foot, you know, you know, if they'd just been quiet it could have been better.

Speaker 2: 19:09

It's usually how it is. This is a good homer simpson quote that I thought fit hr pretty well. I think smithers picked me because of my motivational skills. Everyone says they have to work a lot harder when I'm around hey, everybody needs a homer simpson around and the last one I'll leave with is oh, you hate your job. Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called Everybody.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Yeah, I don't know if I ever told you a story, a real quick story. I actually got a comment once from a supervisor that I didn't have enough motivational posters in my I think they said cat-like motivational posters in my office. I didn't have any.

Speaker 2: 19:48

Well, that's what HR does. Right, does right. It's where you know we have the motivational posters. We make sure we keep the the wall updated with all the party information yeah party planning and all that good stuff.

Speaker 1: 19:58

Yeah, so hr is all about yeah, but someone actually said that to me. I'm like really okay, you'll get my evil catbird poster wherever that may be now I mean I always have.

Speaker 2: 20:10

I always had some motivational posters. I had my my gandalf flow chart to let you know how to handle things. I had my han solo. If you're going solo, take a wookie with you take a little wookie, yeah, yeah I always like to have a few, a few of those around, keeps people, people's morale up yep, no, we had a.

Speaker 1: 20:28

We had some good stuff up there. I never really had any, any decorations in my area.

Speaker 2: 20:32

I was pretty plain, jane. Well, mine just has a lily all over it now.

Speaker 1: 20:37

Okay, oh yeah, obviously Well, also in terms of current events. The Tiger King is everywhere now, even if you haven't watched the show, you've seen the memes, you've heard of it. I just finished the show, finally, last night, the seventh or last episode or whatever it is. But this Ford Harrison, he wrote a blog in JDSupra, which is a law blog I follow, and he wrote an article titled the HR Dolts, inspired by Netflix's Tiger King, and he listed five things and I'm going to take them into a little bit of a different way. But his number one thing was don't turn a blind eye to safety. Obviously, if you've seen the show, safety was not their first priority. Maybe you've seen the meme with safety.

Speaker 1: 21:23

Third, with the person's ring finger cut off, it was more than just third the employee named Staff that got her arm ripped off and then shooting guns at towards people not at people, but towards people in general. I mean, safety was a big concern. So they needed a strong HR presence for a safety officer there. And then the number two he put is don't fraternize with the help. And then the number two he put is don't fraternize with the help. And you know, some of the hairiest situations we get involved with in HR are fraternization type issues. And you know, maybe it's a person A and B are having a consensual fraternization situation and person C is offended because they're getting, you know, not getting favored or what have you.

Speaker 2: 22:09

But Going back to virtual happy hours, Tiger. King is going to make virtual happy hours hell for us.

Speaker 1: 22:16

But you know, joe Exotic, he had two husbands that and it turned out that not to be a spoiler alert here, but they weren't even necessarily gay. They just wanted the meth and the tiger access.

Speaker 2: 22:27

Well, who doesn't?

Speaker 1: 22:30

Yeah, no, I'd do it all for the meth.

Speaker 2: 22:32

I'd do it for the tigers, but you know.

Speaker 1: 22:35

But so fraternization. And then the one husband ended up getting the front desk person or someone else in the office pregnant, so that's a little awkward. So he definitely proved that at least he's not always playing for the same team as joe exotic. So you know, fraternization is a bad. It can be a bad thing in in the hr world I think it's always a bad thing in the hr harrison wrote.

Speaker 1: 22:59

His number three thing was don't allow secondary pursuits to affect your business. You know joe wanted to be a reality TV star, youtuber and everything like that and that got in the way. And I guess also you know he wanted to kill goddamn Carol Baskins all the time and that got in the way of him running his actual zoo. I guess that's where he was going with that one. But the fourth one I found to be actually the funniest Don't neglect to conduct background investigation on your employees.

Speaker 1: 23:28

Not a person in that entire show would have probably passed a criminal background check. They openly admitted, they sought out and hired ex-cons and hey, you know there's nothing completely wrong with that, but you do have to accept the consequences that come from that. And then he also wrote don't retaliate. Well, I guess that's what landed Joe in his current situation is retaliation. But also I got to think there could be some wage hour issues. This was not written by Harrison, you know they're talking about Joe Exotic paid his people $100, $150 a week and they were working seven days a week and I'm like, wow, even if you do were to consider their housing, which you saw was shambles compensation, I think got a wage hour issue going on there. That was just if you want to re-watch the series. From an HR point of view, I'm like, wow, I mean.

Speaker 2: 24:26

He's a complete mess. Yeah, I mean, that whole place is hr nightmare we've seen, we've watched the first episode. Oh, I hope it didn't do any spoilers for you. Oh no, trust me, I don't care. But yeah, I just don't even think you can compare anything in hr to anything going on on that show.

Speaker 1: 24:42

It's so far past the limits of a normal business that, yeah, it it's it's, yeah, it's a crazy show and it's, it's so I don't know what the word is uh, surreal to see that that can be life for some people, that they, they live that way and they work that way and you know why the hell don't you say screw this, I'm leaving. Uh, obviously, since then I guess many of them have gotten other jobs, but really people.

Speaker 2: 25:12

Well, speaking of how can you live this way? My last segment here is from a funny little post not a super popular post, but it made me laugh and it was a post by Reddit user SlugeNF, and he asked human resources people of Reddit what inspired you to take that path and do the devil's work?

Speaker 1: 25:35

The devil's work.

Speaker 2: 25:38

The whole thread is really funny, but the best comment I had was the top comment, and Reddit user BedlamBiker says Witch isn't a profession anymore, so I've decided to go into benefits administration instead. Earning my master's in HR isn't as cool as attending a black mass, and getting SHRM certification won't be as metal as swearing my soul to Satan, but no one will burn me at the stake.

Speaker 1: 26:03

That is a great response.

Speaker 2: 26:05

That was just amazing, but there are some people that really don't like HR.

Speaker 1: 26:12

And I don't get that. I really don't get that.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Why the and some of this is just trolls, but we have HR the biggest backstabbing liars ever, or I call them management resources ladies. I once worked at a company that had a two Karenaren hr department. They really were both called karen. Oh, true story. Oh, and they said my guess why women go into hr? They're called karen and it was the easiest way for them to get in direct contact with every single department manager. Yeah, that just. I love the. What inspired you to take that path and do the devil's work?

Speaker 1: 26:46

that just worked well, I saw your show notes. I was thinking, thinking of Bobby Boucher and Bobby Boucher's mama. Don't do no devil's work, don't play no foosball.

Speaker 2: 26:54

We're named hooligans. Well, we are in HR, so that's what we do. Is we manage the hooligans? We do do the devil's work. Those are the ones that we hear about, at least.

Speaker 1: 27:03

Exactly Well.

Speaker 2: 27:09

Now Warren. What do we want the people to do, warren?

Speaker 1: 27:14

Well, we want them to A subscribe to this podcast on their favorite podcast player. We've been live for just a week today now, and so that's really exciting. We have some really exciting numbers in terms of downloads already. It's surpassing my expectations, but put Lotus on your favorite podcast player. If you're on Podchaser or Apple, leave us a review. We will respond. I haven't seen any as of this morning. But also, we're all over social media and our social media channels are listed in the show notes. Take a look at us on social media. But also we want to hear from you. We know that we've got some interesting and fun stories, and we know you've got even better ones, so send them to us at feedback at jadedhrcom. We want to get your feedback, your questions, your comments, the dumb questions employees will ask you, or maybe you just need the expert advice of two completely jaded HR professionals. So let's hear from you.

Speaker 2: 28:13

And yeah, leave some reviews, send us some feedback. We're going to get a little more active on social media so we can interact and get some stories and get some questions. But definitely leave those reviews and subscribe. That's going to be the best way to get visibility for us and help our podcast grow.

Speaker 2: 28:30

Yeah, we're entertaining, but you all in the HR world are also super entertaining, so we definitely want to hear your stories Absolutely Well, one way we always like to end our podcast is with a best practice. So, warren, do you have a good one or I have one I can do today, you go for it.

Speaker 1: 28:46

I did get one, but yours is probably better.

Speaker 2: 28:49

I don't know about that. So my best practice for today is continuing the gamification of HR, and this one's a long one because it's kind of a doozy. So every employee starts out their career with 5 to 10 HP or health points. Throughout their career they can earn experience points which would allow them to level up, meaning earn more money, more responsibility, more PTO, et cetera. They can also get some magic spells or extra abilities, depending on what class they choose you know, whether they went the fighter route or the rogue route or the mage and that could be like bonus, pto, extended break, special privileges in the building, maybe some flexibility. However, any policy breaking, poor work, internal conflicts, write-ups, you know anything like that would cause you to lose HP, health points until you're considered unstable or dead unfit for the job and you would get the axe.

Speaker 1: 29:38

Or you know you have to roll for your job last week or two weeks ago we did so.

Speaker 2: 29:42

This one is kind of a continuation on gamification, where you actually can level up yourself within the job by maybe doing trainings or doing good work, but that's how you get up. There's no, there's no performance reviews, it's just all about leveling up well, you know what.

Speaker 1: 29:58

I see you creating a new hrs system from scratch with this gamification and a lot of people. Trendy upstart companies like this will be awesome and people would work harder, as you know how hard people work to get you know whatever the the next level is on whatever game they're playing at the time, and work hard to do that.

Speaker 2: 30:18

So that's yeah. As much of a joke as that is, it actually probably could be a fun like I would probably work harder if I knew that I was able to like level up myself and get experience points. Yeah, yeah, all right, maybe this actually is a best practice. Might have to rewrite that. Yeah, no, I like it Well. I'd like to thank you to the Underscore Orchestra for the use of their song Devil with the Devil that we are using for our intro and outro music, and I am Patrick Consolas.

Speaker 1: 30:45

And I'm Warren Workman. Thank you for listening to Jaded HR, where we're helping you survive HR. One what-the-fuck moment at a time.