Jaded HR: Your Relief From the Common Human Resources Podcasts
Jaded HR is a Human Resources podcast about the trials and tribulations of life in a human resources department….or just a way for Human Resources Professionals to finally say OUT LOUD all the things they think throughout their working day.
Jaded HR: Your Relief From the Common Human Resources Podcasts
Our Lists Will Make You Lose IQ Points
We're cracking open the HR playbook with a fresh twist this new year, and you're invited to join the revelry! Imagine kicking off your workday with a bit of laughter - that's what CeCe and I, Warren, aim to inject into your HR conundrums. From the comedy of unread emails to the chaos of performance reviews, we're spilling the tea on all things human resources. While sipping on our coffee, we reflect on the quirky side of workplace resolutions, or the lack thereof, and share our aspirations for a morning routine that doesn't start with hitting snooze.
Ever wondered how TikTok lingo might influence your office vibe? This episode is your backstage pass to the latest cultural shifts making waves from the boardroom to the break room. We mull over 'Vibe Sessions,' debate the merits of 'Bare Minimum Mondays,' and chuckle at the notion of 'Loud Quitting,' all while sharing tales from the HR trenches. Our personal stories weave through these discussions, offering you insights and laughter as we tackle the trends reshaping our work lives.
To cap it off, we're navigating the remote work waters, contemplating the hybrid model, and the curious case of 'coffee badging.' Plus, we explore the jarring feeling of 'shift shock' with a nod to our own experiences. Setting the pace for the year, we're switching to a bi-weekly recording rhythm and sending out a big thank you to our Patreon heroes, Hallie and Bill. Whether you're deep in the HR game or simply craving a fresh angle on office life, CeCe and I have got your back for another year of surviving—and thriving—in HR.
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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 ride up my employee for crying too much? Welcome to our little safe zone. Welcome to JDDHR.
Speaker 2:Welcome to JDDHR, the podcast by two HR professionals who want to help you get through to work day by saying all the things you're thinking, but say them out loud. I'm Warren.
Speaker 3:I'm CeCe.
Speaker 2:All right, we have now our third co-host. Feathers is still around but not able to make it today. We're recording on a wild schedule. We were supposed to record yesterday but those wonderful storms knocked out my electricity. I'd go like 45 minutes with electricity and then go out for two minutes. With the internet it takes like 10 minutes to get going again. It was a crazy one yesterday. Happy New Year.
Speaker 3:I'm already exhausted, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you would talk to offline about what you're going through at work. We just finished up our inward views, we are heading into open enrollment and we have some other things going on. It's just oh, and my recruiters on maternity leave, so I'm picking up that slack. So it's just like. Sure, let's all do it all at the same time, but it's all good, it's fun, I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 3:Nice, we're getting up our performance reviews. We just got done with our talent calibrations this week, so now we're going into performance conversations and if I get one more email asking me questions that they could have read I'd be I'm going to just throw my computer out.
Speaker 2:That's the most frustrating thing. We do all this. People just think HR just throws this shit up against the wall and sees what sticks. And we do a lot of planning. We work together and come in with some well-crafted emails that supposedly answer every question. Oh, last year we got this question five times. You put all this all together and nobody read it.
Speaker 3:Fun fact people don't read.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, had you actually read the email?
Speaker 1:as.
Speaker 2:Andrew Culpa says in the opening line here on our thing so yeah, it's a lot of fun, but yeah, yeah, yeah. So do you have any HR New Year's resolutions? I was going to ask.
Speaker 3:So I decided that I am not going to get better this year. I'm just going to let the year get better because it's time for the year to shape up On top of that, I'm pregnant, so I am really going through. I guess pregnancy brain is a real thing and my body and my brain can only do so much. So no, there are no resolutions. Everything is my resolution.
Speaker 2:Back to 2020, the survival yeah, I don't do New Year's resolutions. I come up with a list of projects I want to get done and I'll probably get three quarters of them actually done, but if I'm lucky, I'll get three quarters. We'll see how it.
Speaker 3:I will say I am trying to get better at my morning routines. So if I can get up like I work from home 100%, so if I can get up, wash my face and somewhat style my hair, it's a win. So that's kind of just focusing on a really decent morning routine. Or I actually have a breakfast and yeah, like that's really where I'm focusing on.
Speaker 2:Well, I said to myself I was going to be. I go into the office Still. I've never done work from home, except for rare occasions when other things are going on. But I said, oh, I'm going to start coming to work at 8 30 in the morning so I can leave a little earlier. So I normally come in at nine ish and leave at 5 30 ish and it's not nobody cares if it's nine or five or nine 15. We don't care about that where I work. But yeah, since what? January 2nd, I'm on the offer list. I have not made it to work at 8 31 time, despite my least best efforts. But I do want to. That is something I want to do Well with.
Speaker 2:With the new year comes a lot of lists, and so the show today. I've got a couple lists I want to talk about. But this one, this first one, if you listen to the podcast a lot, I spend a lot of my free time on LinkedIn. I like that time. I want to explain this a little bit. You have that meeting at 11 o'clock, but it's 1045. I'm not gonna start something new for 15 minutes. I'll get on LinkedIn, cruise around, read some articles and things like that. So I saw this on LinkedIn and I'll get to why. How I saw it is. I don't follow the author or anything like that, but the the title was something along the lines of the top X podcast is. I'm gonna be very vague because I don't want to give it any credit where it's not doing. I do also want to say this is not a case of sour grapes, that J2HR is not included on this list, but I just thought it was.
Speaker 3:That was my next question.
Speaker 2:No, we did not make the list, this list, but we did make another one, which is actually included in this article. But so, anyways, it's clickbait for me. So I clicked on it and I read it and let's say they had their title is the top number X number podcast and their image that they chose for art was cover art for a whole bunch of different podcasts. But five of those podcasts weren't even on that. Their cover art was on. Their graphic weren't even in their list. And then I went on.
Speaker 2:I you know I'm a, I'm a complete nerd about this. When I went in on podcasting I went all in. So I went down the ride, that whole of listen notes and they that's a pretty independent way that's publicly available to see how podcasts are ranked in terms of how long people listen for, or I guess they call it the quality of listening or something like that and then your rank of podcasts in all the world. But anyways, one of their their top was not even listed in a list of notes. Three they were listed but not even ranked at all. Three of them didn't even have a show in the past year and one of them their last episode, was in 20, they'd listed. Churn podcast is one of their top podcasts and they have a bunch of them. One of them was pretty good.
Speaker 3:I think the host I know it's talking about and you're right, it was excellent and she did sadly die.
Speaker 2:It was. It's the only good one that came out of that churn thing. But yeah, I forget the name of the host. It's been been quite a few years probably before J did HR started but the host passed away and I think that just sort of ended after that. Or if it didn't end, I didn't keep listening. One I would call HR Jason and the other was not HR at all. Another was not.
Speaker 3:HR at all, really solid list.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, well, get this. The author of the list is a podcast host and while he stated his list is not in any order, his was conveniently ranked number two and some of the things he put behind his being ranked number two. The show has received hundreds of thousands of downloads and ranks in feed spots top five HR podcasts in the world based on traffic, social media, followers, domain authority and freshness. Now, if you're not a podcast nerd, like I am, feed spot is like the who's who of a podcast list. Basically, it's trying to sell your information and they try and get podcasts sponsored their lists and do things like that. It's really interesting.
Speaker 2:By the way, j did HR. Well, this podcast hosts there. They were ranked number five on it. We were ranked number 18, but right underneath the podcast list it says buy the contact information of the hosts or something like that. So it's crazy. But if you, if you went by, listen notes, j did HR blows this podcast out of the water. But anyways, going back to the article, it had caught nine company links in 25 people links and between all those links, there has to be hundreds of, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people that were that saw this post because that's how I found it. Somebody I follow their name was linked on it and that's how it came up in my feed is. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. I think that's all they were trying to do and put conveniently put their hosts. So I think next year I'm going to do my list of top pod HR podcasts, and J did.
Speaker 3:Hr is number one, I'm telling you right now, already, let's do it, let's do it tomorrow, let's do it tomorrow.
Speaker 2:The number one podcast for January 10 is J H R. Next tomorrow Do another one. I love it. That number one HR podcast is J did HR, but one out of one.
Speaker 3:It's a one, the one list or the one podcast you should listen to. J did HR.
Speaker 2:It's just sort of funny. But changing subject, signed kind of this is more on the list. Since day one of J did HR, we've been inundated with these stupid terms for the people are using. You know, going back to, it seemed to get worse over COVID and it just doesn't seem to get better anymore and all let's see. This first article comes from Sarah Braggle, from Fast Company and Vibe Session zombie, zombie brand, lazy girl job the business jargon that defined 2023. So I've heard of a few of these for these terms, but I found this through an HR article somehow. But anyways, I haven't heard of a lot of these terms and so I don't think they're that big. The number one on her list is Vibe Session, which was apparently coined by a TikToker, meaning that the recession was being more or less shaped by how people are feeling versus. It's an astute observation about the power of vibes. So you feel like the economy sucks.
Speaker 3:So you're in a Vibe Session, but Okay, so it's like a play on recession, then is that what we're doing, okay?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I'm thinking it's supposed to be. It comes down to all these terms probably originated with some TikTok or some Lair.
Speaker 3:I was just thinking like it's a vibe session, like it's a session where we're all vibing and I'm totally off.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I fail that vibe test. Well, number two. Let's see if you do better zombie brand.
Speaker 3:Zombie brand.
Speaker 2:No, I hadn't heard this before. Kind of makes some sense. Companies that live through very horrible times and their brand lingers, no matter how bad they're doing and things like that. They just refuse to go out of business. I guess example I'm thinking of is JC Penney's. Every year I read the stores that won't be the retail that won't be in business next year, and it's always JC Penney's or K-Mart. They're gone. Well, yeah, I think they're completely gone now, I don't know so, anyhow.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:The third one I have heard of bare minimum Mondays.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And of course this is a social media. You ease into the work week rather than jet in the office with a to-do list as long as your arm. If Mondays, stressing you out bare minimum Mondays feels like an excellent solution, the idea is to check some things off your to-do list, but not to panic about having an absolute crush goals. The lower key expectation can help workers adjust from the weekend and ease anxiety about the week ahead.
Speaker 3:I kind of feel that it's like 10 years ago Mondays were the worst and you had like hardcore Sunday scaries and you had your two. And now I don't feel that pressure anymore. Maybe I do, but I'm lying, but no, like now I'm thinking I don't know whether it's not, I've just kind of gotten used to it, or maybe it's just a culture of that low key Monday. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I first. Mondays are my busiest day of the week. I usually do orientation every Monday morning and then I have two or three meetings in the afternoon and by then the rest of my day is just plain catch up and my Mondays over it flashes by. It's crazy. I like it that way, and one of the meetings has offered me to reschedule to go to work around my schedule. I'm like you know what it's all going to get done one way or the other, so I might as well do it now.
Speaker 2:It didn't matter to me, but you brought up a word Sunday scaries. That isn't on the list, but that's something new to me this year. I hadn't heard that before, but I get it. If things are overwhelming at work, you just don't want Monday to happen. Is there treading work on Sunday? I guess I'm a little bit fortunate that, besides being jaded on HR, I love my job, I like where I work, I love everything I have going on at work. I don't get the Sunday scaries. I don't like look forward to it. Oh yeah, let me get up to work and things like that. But it doesn't. It doesn't faze me. I think, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 3:I'm having a therapeutic breakthrough right now and realizing that I, too, like my job and therefore I do not have the Sunday scaries anymore. This is fantastic.
Speaker 2:We're supposed to be jaded though. Now this one somebody's going to get offended about lazy girl jobs and it's about working smarter, not harder. Once again started on social media, but it's a way to respond to burnout and I'm like yeah, and I have to say, embarrassingly, I do.
Speaker 3:I do follow the, I guess, content creator who claims that she may have coined the phrase. But, yeah, I feel like it could be a better phrase. It's not really capturing what we want, but I am a fan of the work harder or work smarter, not harder, so I support that, just branded differently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not. It's not about being lazy, that's what it is. It's not being lazy. Actually, it takes hard work to plane things out. So you're working smarter, not harder, and once you get your little system in place and you're doing that, but yeah, lazy, what I read into that and that's as a old dude reading this that you know looking for like an entry level job that they don't have to do, Achievement is not important. That's what it makes me think about. So the next one is loud quitting. We heard a lot about that, especially seemed like at the end of the year. You know people going out and burning the bridges behind them and things like that. I have not seen that. Knock on wood. But just, if you're going to leave, just go, Okay, why do you?
Speaker 3:have you ever loud quit? Have you ever burnt a bridge, leaving a job?
Speaker 2:No, I'm not intentionally. I mentioned I worked at the water park. I'm sure I would not be welcome there. It wasn't for me, I wasn't for them and things like that. And I've gave three weeks notice. But you know, I just don't. I don't think I've burned a bridge. One thing oh, early in my career I I gave proper notice and everything, and my new boss because at the time it was sort of pressure felt me, made me feel like I was being pressured out gave me the list of all these things I need to be done by the in my two weeks. It was like an unmanageable list. The next thing, you know, the payroll assistant comes in my office and says, oh, your last day is going to be today. You're going to pay for two weeks someone, okay, whatever, but I'd never experienced that before and that that pissed me off and I was like if all people heard to come because she was a work of art on her own to to come and do that.
Speaker 3:I have loud quit once, and it was. I was like I was working at Starbucks. I was a barista. I was a shift butt, for I was. I was in college at the time so I was trying to study for a final.
Speaker 3:I had someone cover my shift the manager, who was younger than me, doesn't really matter, but she was just drunk at a bar so she was harding. She calls me while she's at a bar and be that. The person who covered my shift is going over there 40 hours and I can, and this is like a few like this is like kind of the straw that broke and I was like I cannot and she said, well, if you don't go back in, he will be fired at, his blood will be on your hands and I'll like. So I walked in the next day, I threw my keys on the counter, I'm like, and she was like we're going to have to get your shifts covered and I said, well, you're the manager, so it looks like you're going to have to manage. And I walked out like Mike, drop out. Oh, I do have a Starbucks. I like that job. I still love your car, but no, that was. That wasn't fun for me.
Speaker 2:You know one of she's been on the podcast before when my very good friends, lisa. She started her career in Starbucks and then got into HR as well. But yeah, I haven't had the opportunity, but I can if you really like I. There's been times I probably wanted to loud quit, but yeah, I don't think I, I'm just not that type of person. I just let me. It's not worth it. Well, the next one might apply to me sometimes monk mode. I've never heard of this before. This list that distraction, distractions by giving yourself permission to ignore everything yes, everything until the tasks are complete. It sounds like a little avoidant, but also very liberating and clearly necessary. I love setting aside some time that this. I put a fake meeting on my calendar and I just I don't answer my phone anyway at my desk, so I put my. I just get something done. So I've done that. I've never heard it called monk mode, but gotta give it Things, gotta have a cool name nowadays.
Speaker 3:By the way, pro tip I don't know if you've used it, but the focus like blocks and outlook fantastic because it allows you to ignore all notifications while you're focusing. It's great.
Speaker 2:The focusing. Yeah, we, we were a Google house where I work, so I don't, I don't know if Google meet and all that has that availability or chat G chat has that, but I do like the opportunity and I just turn, turn it off sometimes, which I have forgotten to turn it back on before. Whoops Number nine. Nepo baby. Many people seem more annoyed than ever about the lives of the privileged, in particular the children of celebrities, who come by incredible jobs with little, no effort on their part, also known as Nepo babies.
Speaker 3:I know. I don't care, I was going to say, also known as life Like touches happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't care about celebrities, I don't care. You know, it'd be cool to meet some people sometimes. But yeah, just yeah, I don't get overly star struck, I don't think, not that I've met many. And then their number 10 word is anxiety, and obviously it wasn't formed in 2023. But let's see here. Glassdoor dubbed it the word of the year, based on conversations both in and out of offices. Identifying use of the word was up 338% on company insights platform. Anxiety is often thrown out there, together with return to office, mental health, burnout, layoff. So anxiety, yeah, it's out there, you know, and for some people it is really debilitating. But I think the word is way overused and and that's a shame because it really take something away from those people have real anxiety versus just someone who wants attention. Am I my jaded mind?
Speaker 3:So I am one of those people who is guilty of overuse, true to the. When my mom stopped me one day and she was like CC, do you have a real anxiety problem? I was like I had to really watch myself using that word. I was worried.
Speaker 2:You're on the right path, like mom. Yeah, so that was the one article. I'm going to sort of combine. These next articles are all by Erica Lamberg on Fox Business, but she had three different articles between let's see what are the dates December 18 and December 26 talking about these phrases. The first one is career cushioning. So basically, you're afraid of losing your job and you're doing things to start finding another job. I don't think there's anything new to that. Yeah, it actually writes. Employees add security their careers by taking proactive steps like attending networking nights, updating the resume and LinkedIn profiles and even perhaps applying for jobs. I mean, if you're not doing good in your job, that's what you should be doing. It doesn't need a name.
Speaker 3:Correct.
Speaker 2:All right, if you now I will say I've twice in 2011,. I got laid off twice. I've told the stories before the first time. In hindsight, I should have seen it coming. I should have seen it coming. I guess I was too young or naive or whatever at that time. In the second time, oh, I absolutely saw it coming, but I was helpless to do too much about it. But I did find a job one day after being laid off the second time. So it works out.
Speaker 2:So the next term she has is coffee badging, and I saw that. I Googled coffee badging because I'd seen it somewhere else before. Now Erica Lambert writes coffee badging is when employees show up to the office enough to for enough time to have a cup of coffee, coffee, show their face and get a bad swipe and then go home to do the rest of their work. And our lab study found that more than 58% of hybrid workers are coffee badging, while 8% said they haven't done it yet but would like to try it. So the other way, I heard, coffee badging is like you if you're a gamer or something, you, you earn badges for doing certain feats and games. Like you can't. You come in to go, get a cup of coffee and be seen and get out and you earn the the badge for that. So I guess it's basically the same. But yeah, coffee badging.
Speaker 3:I honestly would have a badge. I'm just alone on my island. I would love to just go somewhere, get coffee, like socialize a little bit, and then get back home Like that'd be my ideal day.
Speaker 2:I'll go to you, know me, I'll go down. Tangents are my thing. So working at home full time. So you do miss going into the office. I don't.
Speaker 3:If you asked me this a year ago I would have been like never. But yeah, I do miss it. I miss going in once in a while. I just don't be. I don't like being told I have to go in. Like do not tell me I have to, but let me want to, okay.
Speaker 2:I I've you know I've talked to any number of people. Like said, I have the opera. Since the pandemic started, I've had the opportunity to work from home two days a week. I've done it a couple times. In my current setup I had my wife works 100% from home and me setting a card table up on the couch in the same room as she's in working is not a recipe for success for either of us, so especially me being HR, I'm on the phone. I mentioned earlier I don't answer my phone, but I am on my phone a lot at solving all the world's problems employee relations issues and everything like that and it's it's not a success for us to both be working from home in the same place, same time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my husband's my coworker and close our doors. He pokes his head in once in a while. I love it, but yeah, like I don't know, I kind of miss an office I too, and I kind of feel bad for a lot of people who are entering the workforce now who may never experience that culture. I do feel bad for them. I feel like there's a little bit that they're missing out of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, I think Zoom and Teams and everything else like that, it's not the same as being there and I'll be walking down the hall. Ooh, I need to talk to somebody about this. And you can't have spontaneous things happen like that in the 100% work from home environment. Now, I'm sure it has a lot of perks, but I will probably. I'm about to move 20 miles further away from my office than I live now, so I'm probably going to take advantage of the two days of work from home once I move, but because I will have my own dedicated space versus being in the same room with my wife.
Speaker 2:But yeah, there's something to be said for being in the office and getting base time with your bosses and the decision makers and there was an article earlier. I talked about it. I think, when it comes time to lay out layoffs or even raises, the people who have the face memory do better than the people who are 100% right. I believe it. Oh, I don't know. First thing about John Doe out there in Timbuktu, so he's easy to get rid of versus, you know, Dearsweet Warren that's here every day is, you know, that's going to be a harder trigger to pull.
Speaker 3:I will say, though, it's a nice in the season of life I am in. It is nice to be able to block my calendar off for an hour or two and take a nap. I will say that, I'm not going to hide it, it's a real thing. Just let me nap.
Speaker 2:No, that is. That's an awesome example, because people I think that's a great thing about working from home you can do those things. You can do the laundry. I mean. How long does it take to change out a little laundry or do some other things? Or even, yeah, rather than wasting time cruising the internet on the company, I'm just going to take my nap. I mean, I don't think there's any overall less productivity from people working from home for most people. You've got some people out there that are a person left to her company. Not that long ago went to a major, major, huge company and I was talking to his brother and he says, yeah, he could play video games all day long. Nobody's going to know or care, and things like that. That sounds cool. I would probably like it for a short period of time, but I'm like somebody's going to get smart to me at some point, if that's what it is.
Speaker 2:Well, the last term before we wrap up for this episode is shift shock. I've never heard of that. It's a viral career trend. When employees find their new job is not up to the expectations, that the company they chose to join is different than expected and was portraying during the interview and hiring process. That's called recruiting, because the exact opposite of shift shock is called recruiting. Oh yeah, I'm awesome, I'm great, I'm the best person ever Anyhow, but I think I lowered everybody's IQ a few points today by these stupid lists, whether it's a HR podcast list or list of stupid names. I can't wait. I do have fun seeing these names that people try to get coined and it's interesting which ones get on. But the quiet quitting and the loud quitting and oh, did I skip one? Did I say? Oh, I skipped quite a few. Oh yeah, my ADD's everywhere Grumpy stain. So it's about not leaving, but you're going to let the whole world know you're not thrilled about staying, can I? Just? That annoys me.
Speaker 3:I know people like that. I have encountered people like that if you're not happy, just leave, don't bring the vibe down.
Speaker 2:Oh, grumpy people overall, whether in personal life or at work, they bring me down and it's awful. And then the other one I skipped over is quiet hiring, and that was just so overused. Once you have quiet hiring and then right after that came loud quitting and all this yeah, quiet hiring, bringing in short term contractors or just spreading other people's work. No, we're in a labor shortage and it's not going to get any better any time soon. Period in the story. There's just not enough human beings around to do all the work that needs to be done, so you're going to have to get used to it. But I also think some of these people aren't really working in the first place and now their expectations are hey, johnny's gone, so you've got to pick up some of their work and you weren't doing anything in the first place. So I don't know, that's all I've got for today. Anything else on your mind?
Speaker 3:No, I'm just, I'm ready for this like my performance review, life and be done and that's it. I'm just like I said, 2024,. Just survive the first six months. Better year, year, get it together. I'm done you be better.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, I don't have anything more. We're back. So we're going to be on a bi-weekly recording schedule for the year. Hopefully everything works well with that and we will take the month of June off from recording, like we took the month of December off. But I will say I looked at our download stats. They weren't awful for the month of December, for not having but one recording. So thank you for continuing. Download back episodes and reacquaint yourself with us and maybe you're some of y'all are just finding us for the first time, so welcome and also want to invite people to support us.
Speaker 2:We have a Patreon. You can find all the wonderful links in your show notes. We have two Patreon supporters Hallie, the original J2DHR Rockstar, and Bill is our second contributor. So yay, thank you very much for your support. The intro and outro music is double to double by the Underscore Orchestra and Andrew Culpa does our intro at the beginning of the podcast. So, as all best practice, give it up on these stupid list people Best. So that's your best practice. But, as always, I'm Warren, I'm CC and we're here helping you survive HR. One the fuck movement at a time.
