Warren's Moody & He's Ranting

Ever been so annoyed by public phone conversations that you'd like to rant and rave at the offending party? We get it, and so does this episode. On a journey through pop-culture and personal experience, we explore a variety of topics from HR appreciation to the audacity of Gen Zers using speakerphones in public. 

We promise, there will be no dull moments in this episode as we delve into a curious incident involving a Karen, a Halloween display, and the police. We also skim through the SHRM's latest headline and the Engagedly's intriguing list of top 100 HR influencers. Reflecting on our past attempts at solo episodes, we realize the crucial importance of preparation - a lesson applicable to all walks of life. So, buckle in for a no-holds-barred discussion, because we're about to say all the things you're thinking.

Chapters

• 0:02 JDDHR Podcast and HR Rants
• 4:45 Karen's Complaint About Halloween Display
• 18:39 Episode Schedule and Importance of Preparation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Had you actually read the email, you would know that the podcast you are about to listen to could contain explicit language and offensive content. These HR experts' views are not representative of their past, present or future employers. If you have ever heard my manager is unfair to me. I need you to reset my HR portal password, or can I write up my employee for crying too much? Welcome to our little safe zone. Welcome to JDDHR.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Welcome to JDDHR, the podcast by two HR professionals who want to get you through to work day by saying all the things you're thinking. Say them out loud. I'm Warren and this is Feathers. All right, so no episode last week. Like I said on social media, we celebrated HR Appreciation Day last week way too hard, so that did not allow us to put a recording together. So, yay us. Did you celebrate HR Appreciation Day as hard as we did? That's the question out there for you Anyhow. Anyhow, it's sort of funny.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Before we really get into things, looking at my show notes and when I'm writing these show notes, you can almost tell the mood on me. And am I more of a satirical, sarcastic mood or am I in a complete asshole fuck the world mood by the things I put in my show notes? So apparently, when putting this show together, I was not in the best of mood, because this is just. I've got like 10 different rants going on my show notes here, from lame to silly. But that's what we've got today.

Speaker 2: 2:01

But before we get too far, I want to thank our original JDHR Rockstar, halley, for her continued support. Please be like Halley and support us online through Patreon or buy us a beer, follow the show notes links and do that, but also leave us a review. I did not check reviews any time lately to see if we've gotten any new ones. I'll do that before our next episode and get that out there if we have any. But yeah, please send us, please leave us a review on any of your platforms that allow it, but specifically Apple. So anyhow, it's been a crazy, crazy couple of weeks here for us. What branch should I start with now?

Speaker 1: 2:42

I see Just pick one.

Speaker 2: 2:44

Just pick one. Well, I shit on Gen Z a lot, so let's go ahead and shit on Gen Z a little bit more. So Gen Z this actually comes to me from a friend and I see this as more of a boomer issue. But they say in their company it is a Gen Z year issue where they talk All loud on their cell phones, their cell phone on speaker, talking out loud like some of the boomers. Would you know? You go to the grocery store and see this 99 year old person at somehow has a cell phone working and they have their speaker phone on and talking loudly to ever whoever. That's apparently a problem at my my friends work, that they were mentioning the episode that we talked about where we doing etiquette trading for jen Zers and they're saying we need to do that at our work and we need to teach them how to use their cell phone in public, not to use it on speaker. Really have Z does that, I know.

Speaker 2: 3:44

I haven't experienced that, but, yeah, it's not cool when a boomer does it. It's not cool in a gen Z, or does it? By the way, I didn't, uh, and I can see using your speaker. Sometimes if you're using your both hands for something, you don't have your piece or some of that, but if you're just walking around randomly Talking loudly so the whole world can hear your conversation, I bet you that's probably part of it. They want the drama of the whole world being involved in their conversation. So that, thank you for that. Oh, speaking of people we know, talking about us, I'm gonna make a shout out to someone who works with my wife who said they love our podcast. So your challenges the right to review, so, but thank you for saying that she. She went to the office for the first time in a million years recently for an event and someone brought that up, so anyhow. So thank you, thank you. All right, so I titled this one when I was writing it.

Speaker 2: 4:45

Karen on the loose. This comes to us from my, my hometown, my, my true hometown of Chesapeake, virginia, wtk, our news on September 27. And this has nothing to do with HR. This was me putting because I remember I read this article and I put it on there. This Karen did not want to go on camera but she's very concerned for children in the area. She told me street she called the police to report their Halloween display. The officer called lady back and said there's nothing we can do. The across the street neighbor from this Halloween display said she sees nothing wrong with it. She says I look at it every night, think it's just beautiful. I think she's done a great job.

Speaker 2: 5:31

So I know this is a podcast, not a visual medium, but if you've ever seen the new thing the last couple years is Wrapping a body up in like plastic bags and use like milk jugs and then water bottles for arms to make it shaped like that. Well, that that's exactly what this person has done and hung them by their feet, these plastic bags that look like they're holding a body. She's hanging them upside down from her trees in the yard and I I actually it's cool, it's okay, it's. I've seen a lot worse. I think it's Kind of lame a little bit, but you're gonna call the police and the TV station to complain about this Halloween display in your neighborhood or wherever it is. Just, oh, come on, it's for the children. No, she, she's. She's very smart. She must have realized how dumb she was.

Speaker 2: 6:29

Because she she didn't want to go on camera is like, yeah, everybody's gonna Fucking ridicule, hate, mock me worse than they already are, and my other rant about thinking about this when I read it. You're putting this on the news. This is newsworthy for For the TV station. What a what a slow news day. If this is what something they can put out there and say, hey, here's our news for today. This little bitch wants to complain about Halloween displays in the neighborhood. So I put on camera and say, yep, this is her. Look at her. Mocker, scorn or fire from her job. So, yeah, that's what I did. Well, people, this is going on the track of people I like to mock, scorn and ridicule. So one of our most favorite targets for mocking, scorning and ridicule is, of course, sharm.

Speaker 1: 7:23

It's your favorite organization.

Speaker 2: 7:25

It's my favorite. Yeah, like I said, I don't pay for it. So I know both Christina and Kate had some issues with me when they were on the podcast talking about still paying and being a member, but my company pays for it. But I do agree. I would not participate it voluntarily if not the case. That was not the case, but since the start of the pandemic we've had the great this, the great that, you know, the great resignation, the great return, the great regret. You know, whatever it is, I'm so sick of all these great things and if you're still, three years later, using a great something to denote HR, it's like you know, I don't know, doing something that was cool 10 years ago and still talking about it today. You know, I don't know what. I don't do anything cool.

Speaker 2: 8:14

So I don't have every point of reference that passed us years ago. Yeah, I don't, I don't get that aspect. But SHARM September magazine yes, I still get the paper magazine because I want them to pay to print that son of a bitch out and send it to me in the mail, even though it's getting a lot thinner and thinner each year that they get it. But there's the cover of their magazine for September of 23 reads the great compromise. Come on, people, have some audacity with with that, to come up with something new. Not the great this Don't use the great. It's nothing's great anymore. No, it's true, nothing really is great anymore. Yeah, I'm rocking my brain thinking like what could be great. And, yeah, there's nothing. Yeah, ice cream is great. Oh, it's fair, I'm addicted to ice cream. So, anyhow, let's see what other rant do I have on here? Okay, here's something, and this is a rant that some people might think it's out of jealousy or hate or something like that. I absolutely am not jealous, but there were a lot of surveys released on LinkedIn or I saw them on LinkedIn for, like, hr Loom release there Top 14 HR leaders to follow, and they do have some great leaders on there that I think that I do follow, like Tim Sackett, william Ten Cup, suzanne Lucas they've been on. Suzanne's been on the show. I'd listen to Tim Sackett. I really follow a lot of what he does and he's not cynical hardly at all. So you know there's there's some deserving a lot of people, though I don't know. I'm wondering what they're. They didn't reveal their criteria for the what they thought the top 14 HR leaders to follow, where I don't know their criteria were. I didn't dive too deep to find out, but I didn't know what it is. But on September 2nd, engagedly never heard of released their top 100 HR influencers to follow and once again, there were some good people on that list. There's a whole hell of a lot that I've never heard of. Not that that makes a hell of a difference and not that I want to be on the top HR influencers or leaders to follow lists. As you know, that means you're getting more solicitations. It's your favorite, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:53

But the one thing I liked about the Engagedly article is they released how they came up with the names of their the people they do so. This is a quote from their website Scores were based on individuals, recency, frequency and relevance in relation to their social media presences, speaking and writing, engagements and innovative contribution to the field. So these are the people that spam the hell out of, out of your LinkedIn and everything else. But there was one name I kind of looked for on here because I don't I don't particularly care for them. They I think they're too much of a touchy, feely, kindergarten fuzzy teacher or sweater type of HR person in my. Even though I've gone on LinkedIn and unfollowed and, you know, hidden her posts, you know, because so many people shared them, I still continue to see them. I'm like, oh, please stop. But anyways, that's.

Speaker 2: 11:50

That was the next little rant. This is going to end up being a shorty because I don't have all that much work to do. Well, this isn't a rant per se. This isn't a. Well, it's not a rant. It could easily turn into one if I let it.

Speaker 2: 12:05

So John Hyman, september 29th, wrote an article and it's it's awesome. I'm actually going to read quite a bit of it. So this employee from Costco her name was Monica Barnett she hurt her wrist in over a nine month period. She went through the whole interactive process, if you want to be technical, about accommodating her injuries. So they had. They offered Monica 134 different positions at Costco in terms to help accommodate her wrist injury. And how many of those 130, 134 jobs did she take? Zero. They told her about an Astrid apply. They offered those positions, but she requested placement to zero of those positions.

Speaker 2: 12:57

So, and then John, in his very cynical form this next paragraph is one that's a number of paragraphs that took the night circuit of appeals to affirm the dismissal of Barnett's failure to reasonably accommodate claim. In the court's words, barnett claims Costco refused to engage in good faith, forced her to remain on medical leave and required her to be 100% healed before returning to work. These assertions are unsupported by the record. The undisputed record demonstrates that Costco held three job assessment meetings, sent Barnett 134 available open positions over more than eight months and placed Barnett in an optical assistant position that accommodated her limitation. So this is the type of thing that gets under my skin. Is this employee only wanted one thing?

Speaker 2: 13:47

And unlike the Chipotle examples and the Walmart examples and things like that, where HR, just you know, screws the pooch 10 to ways to Tuesday, their Costco's looks like they're doing the right thing, here it is. We're doing everything, we're bending over backwards to accommodate whatever risk injury she had and the employee is still just has it in her mind. I'm going to sue them. I'm going to sue them. And well, she tried and apparently she lost twice because it was on appeal. This was from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. So, yeah, good luck with that. It just irritates me when people try to work the system. I mean, whatever, I had an oh something that's not in my show notes, but I saw it on Reddit when I was looking for show notes and I didn't copy and paste it. So I'm going to be flying off the seat of my pants.

Speaker 2: 14:44

But season one we were talking about stupid interview questions, sort of like what we were doing a while back. This employer and the article hasn't changed, it's just some. It's been refound on Reddit and rebloomed and come back to life, and it's it made one of those BuzzFeed type websites which made me find it and go to Patrick, found this story of a CEO, or whatever his title is, of this organization and turn the interview. He would kindly offer you a coffee, tea, water, etc. And the this was part of his interview process, because at the end of the interview, if you offered to, unless you offered to take back and wash your own cup at the end he apparently wouldn't hire you, and this has come back to life again. And first, I think it's a very stupid type of job interview thing. Not as stupid as some of the things we we found a few weeks ago, but it's still.

Speaker 2: 15:48

I don't see ever see myself going back and washing the cup. I can ask myself, hey, where would you like me to place this Cop after I've finished my coffee, tea, water, whatever it is? What do you want me to do with this? Where should I put this? I can see myself doing that. But, oh yeah, take it back to the kitchen and wash it. Okay, that's the. I would probably end up doing it if they asked me to, if I was like this is strange, but it's, this guy's getting a lot more hate out of it and that he's oh gosh, I forget the terms they were using that he's playing mental games and just screwing with people and things. Oh no, if you're a CEO company, that's what your test is to get into the company. Yeah, maybe you don't want to work there. Who knows whatever else is gonna happen once you get in the door. What is he gonna stick you with? What is he gonna make you you? Do I it.

Speaker 2: 16:42

It makes me think I was talking with somebody going complete off script, as my script is empty now. I was talking with somebody. We were talking about the, the movie one of my all-time absolute favorite movies the imitation game, and Alan Turing puts a crossword puzzle in the newspaper and says if you can solve this, and under however many minutes I think it was six minutes Contact us, because he, he, that's what he judges as intelligence and being able to do what he needs done. But I wanted to.

Speaker 2: 17:15

Manager once upon a time came up to me and said hey, could we do something like this? Can we? Can we give them a test like this? Because we just need to demonstrate problem-solving skills. We don't need. You know, some of the managers in the department are making things too complicated. They thought I was like oh, is adding a test, making it more or less complicated. But I think he was like he just wants to find problem-solving skills and is what the director wanted to. If you can solve problems, you can do this and I like well, there's plenty of opportunities out there to find a product that does that, but I don't think we want to have them. Do I just pick a random crossword puzzle and have them do it in six minutes right, right, not gonna.

Speaker 2: 17:59

Not gonna pass the smell test on that one. So, wow, this this is even gonna be shorter than I thought it was, was it not prepared? It's just been a crazy. Oh, I've had the craziest HR week, the craziest. A lot of things going on in the personal world. I know you have to and it's just wow, haven't been able to get prepared too much, so you have any anything you want to add to the this, to our unexpected shorty?

Speaker 1: 18:29

No, Like, keep it.

Speaker 2: 18:33

No, I don't. Yeah, so well, that's what we will have for today. Be on, look out for a new episode, hopefully next week, if not in two weeks I'm thinking about going back to every other week process again Is it is just a hell of a lot of work to get two weeks done at it or one done every week. Sometimes we do too at a time, like we're supposed to do today, but we're not prepared. So, anyhow, as all the intro now to music is underscore orchestra, double the double. The voice artist is Andrew Culpa and, as always, I'm Warren, and Sometimes I talk, sometimes I don't.

Speaker 1: 19:11

This is fellas.

Speaker 2: 19:12

Well, glad to have you here when I go solo it last. Two times I've tried it. It didn't work. I almost did last week, but I was just too tired and had too much crap going on to put out a Solo episode either way. But either way, oh, I did not mention best practice. Best practice do your homework Always good, always be prepared to your homework and we will talk to you soon and we're helping you survive HR one. What the fuck moment at a time.