Jaded HR: Surviving Snowmageddon, Pop Culture Lessons, and the Evolution of Work

What happens when 13 inches of snow and HR chaos collide? Our latest episode of Jaded HR takes you on a hilarious ride through the unexpected mess of Snowmageddon, complete with a local weather forecaster's snow angel antics and our own technical mishaps. We reflect on the serenity of unexpectedly quiet nights and the slippery adventures of family visits through blizzard conditions. We also pause to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our listeners, with a special nod to Dustin Stoll for his stellar review, promising to show more love to our audience's feedback.

Ever wonder how pop culture mirrors the HR world? We kick off a new segment by dissecting HR lessons from "The Office," mixing humor with insight as we unravel how pop culture often mimics and sometimes misunderstands our industry. As we look back on 2024, we share personal milestones and stories, including the joys of family additions and professional challenges. Our conversation takes a nostalgic turn as we reminisce about the perks of late 90s and early 2000s corporate campuses, contrasting them with the rise of remote work and its impact on workplace camaraderie.

With a nod to the evolving workplace, we explore the benefits and challenges of both remote and in-office environments, highlighting the importance of personal interactions and flexibility. From the mentoring opportunities lost in remote settings to the accommodating nature of working from home during life events, we explore how strong bonds with colleagues can make even the toughest jobs more bearable. We top it all off with a heartfelt thank you to our Patreon supporters and contributors, who keep the Jaded HR journey rolling along with humor, nostalgia, and a fresh perspective on the HR landscape.

Chapters

• 0:02 Jaded HR Podcast Snowmageddon Chat
• 7:34 Pop Culture HR Lessons From the Office
• 21:05 HR Year-End Wrap-Up and Memories
• 28:33 Corporate Campus Nostalgia and Remote Work
• 38:12 Office vs Remote Work Benefits
• 46:20 Podcast Rating and Patreon Acknowledgments

Transcript

Andrew Quilpa: 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 Jaded HR.

Warren: 0:42

So, anyways, let's take two Welcome to J hr to podcast by two hr professionals who help you get through the workday by saying everything you're thinking, but say it out loud. I'm warren I'm cc all right, so this is take two you're. We had a little technical difficulty, so yeah, we're back and it's 2025 in. April We'll be starting our season five, a year five, so that's going to be really exciting for us. So yeah, before technical wonderfulness happened, we were talking about Snowmageddon and you making it through that.

Cee Cee: 1:27

Do you think that's what made this fall apart? Was the Snowmageddon? I'm starting to think Exactly. Also, I'm starting to believe Mercury in retrograde. Is it in retrograde? What's going on? Because I woke up this morning like my husband's complete work station was not working Things, just his keyboard wasn't working, this wasn't working whatever, and then he was like, trying to fix that, like all the batteries went out all of a sudden in the house. I'm like is something happening with? Is it retrograde or is it just 2025? Like, where are we? What is happening?

Warren: 2:03

oh, I don't know. I I haven't had any knock on wood bad luck in 2025 yet, but I'm with me. I'm just a time bomb waiting to go off with some bad luck somewhere.

Cee Cee: 2:17

So I just you know I'm over the new year. Let's just go for a, a slightly used, like reasonably good shape old year. Like I'll take a 1998 all over again.

Cee Cee: 2:28

That was pretty fun, like let's just no but, yeah, snowmageddon, so we had like 13 inches of snow, which is very not, it's not normal for us. But yeah, we were snowed in for a little bit. The baby actually slept at my parents' place and because they're like the daycare and they're like we don't know how the roads are going to be, so just leave her here. And that was fantastic, cause I don't remember a night, oh, yeah, yeah, I'll wait.

Cee Cee: 2:56

Yeah, thanks, but yeah, like it was just, it was wonderful, and I don't know. I there's like this clip going around the internet. I don't know if it went, quote unquote, viral, but it's been going around. It's our local weather guy and he has lost his mind, like while doing the newscasting. Like at the end of it he's just making snow angels and it is. It is like chef's kiss of how we were just dealing with snowmageddon.

Warren: 3:21

Oh, that's funny. So, yeah, we got our snowmageddon too. It it flurried for probably five minutes and and it was done. Uh, and the funny thing is I went to take out some garbage and I noticed, oh wow, it's snowing. And you know, you really couldn't see it too well. If you looked up in the light you could see you know it a little bit better. And then you, you look at like we have our patio furniture covered with a black cover and so you could see the snow on that. I was like, oh cool, it's snowing. And I said, you know what, I'm going to go take the garbage to the curb before before it gets any worse or anything like that. By the time I got back from the curb it was done, our snow, our snow had stopped and we, we were done and I was perfectly happy with that. And yeah, so I was.

Warren: 4:08

Yeah, I would like some snow, just not on a day or time I have to drive and right now my son lives in. It goes to college out in the mountains in North Carolina. It's been snowing like three days in a row out there and I think yesterday they got six inches and then it's supposed to not snow again the rest of this week until friday, which, but on friday and saturday it's supposed to snow again and that's when we have to take him home or take him back, so it's normally a 13 hour drive to get him there and back. I'm anticipating this is going to be like a. This might require a hotel trip somewhere along the way back North Carolina. We don't. We aren't prepared for snow. I don't think my county has its own snow vehicles period or anything like that. So yeah, that's it, that's good. That's good. So let's see. I want to.

Warren: 5:04

Before we get too far, I want to get caught up on a couple things, and first, I am a very bad person. I have not been checking our Apple reviews in forever, and I was looking the other night and I noticed there's one that I missed from October. So Dustin Stoll, who left us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. He wrote HR conversations to make the world go round. I need to do research on podcasts for my marketing class. I came across this during my research. I find this podcast informational and educational. This is precisely what I need as an HR major to become as a HR major, because, after working in the field for a while, I am jaded, so it helped me very much.

Warren: 5:54

So, dustin, sorry it took us so long to read your review. I I'm going to try and read the reviews much more frequently. So if you'd like to give us a review on any of the platforms, especially Apple's that helps us grow, go ahead and do so and we'll read it on the air. So yeah, I'm just so sorry I missed that that review but also it's time for me to to eat a little crow. In the last episode about the Ohio State Disappointed I apparently spread some misinformation. I even said in the episode I didn't read the whole article. I have the TLDR type of mindset ADD TLDR, it doesn't matter. So apparently the Ohio State University employees did not get their second increase. They got the first increase back in July, but they were informed that they would be getting this second one, so they didn't actually get it, but it still doesn't change the fact that they got screwed in the process and my feelings still remain the same.

Warren: 7:03

You tell me I'm getting an increase and then you take it away from me because you don't have to give it to me anymore. No, sorry, still still going to leave you.

Cee Cee: 7:11

I don't believe anything until it happens, especially with pay and promotions. You can tell me until you're blue in the face that something is coming. Something is coming. Face that something is coming, something is coming. But I feel like I've been around the block one too many times. To know that something is coming is squat until it actually happens.

Warren: 7:34

Yeah, in my company we had like five or six people that this would have applied to and we had a game plan in place what we're going to do for each of them. Some would get the bump to remain exempt and others would get their normal annual increase at the beginning of the year and then just go to non-exempt. And we, we had a game plan for everybody. And, uh, even the week before this happened, we said, okay, it looks like the nothing's gonna happen to stop this from happening. So we'll, uh, uh and we're like, okay, fine, and of course it does happen. So, uh, you know, even if you have thousands of employees like ohio state, you don't have to take immediate action all the time you can. You can figure this out. I don't know, but I still think that I still think from what I know and didn't read everything, I still think the situation seemed to be handled pretty poorly. So I did want to put it out there that I had spread some misinformation apparently. So I halfway read another article which set me straight.

Cee Cee: 8:40

Well, thank you for the clarification, but it doesn't change our final verdict as shitty.

Warren: 8:48

Exactly, I like it. I like it. So we've been teasing for well. Actually, before we get there, wanted to wrap up the must listen to podcast list that we, you know, we had Mike Coffey from Good Morning HR. We had the game from Corporate Pizza Party. We had Jamie from HR Besties. I was trying to get two others. I'll go ahead and say that I was trying to get Kyle from Rebel HR and also Eileen and Glenda from Serping Corporate. My schedule just went sideways and it just became harder for me to try and get those schedule. But those other podcasts are definitely in our must listen to HR podcast lists as well.

Warren: 9:34

But oh well, speaking of must listen to podcasts, we got ranked for 2025 by Buzzfeed, which is absolute garbage, but it's still. It's still, yeah, the 20 number 21 must listen to a hr podcast. I don't know what we were last year, but we're 21 this year out out of I don't know how many there are. There's 22. There's only 20, but we got 21 on that list. Yeah, it's garbage. Buzzfeed sucks. They list some podcasts which aren't in publication anymore. I think one of the years we were listed on it, it even gave it even gave completely wrong names of the hosts. I don't know if it was me and Feathers at the time, but it didn't have either of our names correct. But this time our names were at least correct on it. So yay to that, for what that is worth. It basically sets you up for marketing, because they're trying to sell your contact information and it's very blatant, so I'll put the link in the show notes.

Cee Cee: 10:44

A win is a win, man yeah.

Warren: 10:48

Excuse me.

Cee Cee: 10:49

After 2024,. I'll take any win.

Warren: 10:52

Yeah, yeah, For me 2024 wasn't that bad looking back. I mean, you know it wasn't a 2020 or anything like that. I think we're done with with those type of things, hopefully yeah, I can be honest like 2024.

Cee Cee: 11:10

Aside from like the weird stuff, things in my life were pretty awesome. I mean I had a baby like hello. I mean that's pretty. Yeah, like I can't top that. So, yeah, like I'm no, yeah, like I I get cynical but at the same time life is good. I can't really complain.

Warren: 11:28

No, no, and you know, even professionally, I have a hard time complaining. You know I'm not getting as much ammunition for a jaded show for my own work experiences as I used to get when I first dreamed up the jaded HR concept and things like that. So it's a little bit different than having to rely on some of the news sources. And actually, speaking of which, two things we didn't do in 2024 and one will never come back is I don't think it'll ever come back. We didn't do the holiday song. I think y'all have suffered enough with my singing for the first three years of doing that.

Warren: 12:09

But we didn't talk about John Hyman's end of the year list of worst employers and you know what? I don't know whether to be happy or sad, but the contenders there were no teenagers killed or anything like that. I hate to say it that way. There were no god-awful ones out there. There were some bad ones. So it was interesting. But I did see he already has his first contender for 2025. I saw earlier today. I don't know when it was posted, but hey, we're only a week in, so somebody's doing something out there to try and make the list for 25. So yeah, so, fun stuff.

Warren: 12:54

Well, now, I think, would be a good time for you to introduce to everybody what we've been teasing for a month or two about what our new segment's going to be. So take it away.

Cee Cee: 13:07

Yeah, so I am a huge pop culture workplace comedy connoisseur and it's always, I think this is kind of a passion project of both of ours. But we'll be having a segment that's basically HR lessons from pop culture and, specifically, we're going to be focusing on the greatest television show to ever grace our presence, which is the Office. So Warren and I are going to be picking select episodes the classics if you will and we'll be dissecting them, but then looking at them from an HR lens and see what they got right and what they kind of got very, very wrong. But yeah, so we're going to start off with the Office. We might, you know, go into other shows, like maybe Parks and Recreation or other movies like Office Space or stuff like that. So we're also open to suggestions. So you let us know what you want to hear as well, or like what you'd like us to dissect from that HR lens. But yeah, like we're going down the like I said, it's pop culture through the lens of HR.

Warren: 14:22

I think that is just such an awesome idea. I'm glad you brought it up. If you, dear listener, have suggestions, the show notes have two ways to easily get in touch with us. One is a link that just says send us a text and that's one-way communication. And when you hit that button, the your text app will open on your phone and it'll have like six digits as your first number. Don't delete those, because I'll never get it if you don't, because that's how the hosting provider sorts. That six digit is our jaded hr code. It knows to send it to us versus any of their other shows. So you can send us that way.

Warren: 15:01

Plus, there's a 252 number in the show notes as well, a phone number you can just call. You can leave us a voicemail. It doesn't ring. It's a Google voice number. It doesn't ring anywhere. I get a voicemail when someone leaves a voice message, but you could send a text or voice message there. And yeah, that's two ways you can send suggestions. You have maybe a favorite episode of the Office or maybe there's another show that you think needs to be discussed that has a great HR influence with it. A Big Bang Theory comes to mind, because they always seem to be ending up in Regina King's office as their HR manager.

Warren: 15:41

Oh, that's right At some point or another. So, yeah, so it's funny. There are some things we can pull out of there. And, yeah, any workplace comedies that you can think of or maybe they're not comedies, maybe they're dramas, I don't know, I watch mainly comedy. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to this. I think what we'll do is the, so the, these episodes, the rewatch, if you will. Episodes are going to be the third episode of each month, so this one is going to launch approximately january 30th. Uh, so, uh, uh, we'll do our regular recording session every two weeks and then this will be a special one. And if you have an idea for what would be a good idea, let us know.

Warren: 16:32

If you're a member of Patreon, I let our Patreon community know ahead of time. They're special, they're special. So they got to know this about two weeks ago and Hallie gave it a big heart. And then Bill says awesome, looking forward to it and a new year. So, yeah, if you, if you join us on Patreon, patreon has this new feature where you can chat with us and it's two way communication. So go ahead and support us on Patreon and you get to know a little bit ahead of time what's going on. I think I've done two Patreon only episodes and then you can chat with us and we'll respond to it.

Cee Cee: 17:08

So yay, you can also honestly feel free to slide into my DMs as well. I'm boozy B-O-O-Z-Y. Underscore H-R yeah you can there's a plethora of ways to contact us, so jump on all of them.

Warren: 17:24

Your Instagram link is also in the show notes as well. So, yeah, there's so many ways to reach us. So, yeah, we really want to get some feedback from you, our loyal listeners. I mean, we're coming up on five years of Jaded HR. It's so hard to believe that. You know we're almost at five years Wow, crazy. But yeah, this will be something good, this will be something fun. I'm really looking forward to it. So, yay, I'm trying to think of anything happening in I I. I am not prepared.

Warren: 17:58

I did not do any homework. Obviously, I was telling you off the air that I've been talking for months, months, about my son and his search for an internship. Well, he's got his very first ever interview tomorrow. So by the time this airs, you know it'll be over. I doubt he'll have an answer or not, but he's got an internship interview tomorrow with a company in Fargo, north Dakota. So I looked at the stats to see in Fargo, north Dakota. So I looked at the stats to see we do have probably a single listener in Fargo, north Dakota. How many Fargo? I don't know how many episodes. Yeah, yeah, I just told them to stay away from the wood chippers.

Cee Cee: 18:36

I just pictured like this one person listening to our podcast at their desk and they're just like me, me.

Warren: 18:45

Yeah, we have. They haven't listened to all the episodes, but yeah, I just looked up and we have. We have a listener who's listened to a few dozen episodes up in Fargo.

Cee Cee: 18:56

Well, listen, fargo. We have a back catalog. You can listen to all of them.

Warren: 19:00

Exactly, exactly. So yeah, I'm really excited about that. We I've been doing practice interviews with him to the point where he's just completely annoyed with me. And you know, he's a senior in college, he's never even had a job interview before or anything like that, so it's going to be interesting. So I'm excited for him. I hope he's excited. I hope it goes well, so yay.

Cee Cee: 19:26

I'm sure it will. The first interview is always nerve wracking.

Warren: 19:31

Yeah, yeah, and you know if, if he doesn't get it, I mean it'll suck, but it's a good interview experience and you know it is in Fargo. You know he, he is very interested in going to Fargo. So Every time we look to apply for a job, there's been, you know there's been places no, we're not going to go there or anything like that. But when he saw this one and wanted to apply, I'm like, okay, yeah, we can, you know, check it out and give it a shot. And so this is so far the only positive response he's gotten. But if know, anybody hiring a geography gis intern for summer 2025, let me know. So, yeah, that's gonna be.

Cee Cee: 20:10

It's gonna be fun seeing the world through his eyes yeah, things like that so oh, just think, in like 18 years I'll be hopefully sending mine off to college and then maybe that helping her get her new job and then her being like oh mom god, leave me alone.

Warren: 20:29

That's not how they do it, leave me alone, mom that's not how they do it now okay, see, the thing is with my daughter.

Warren: 20:38

She was much more open to my suggestions. Maybe she's just nicer and sweeter and won't tell me to go F myself. My son is very prone to leave me alone. Dad, get away, I'm tired. Okay, you've had your fun. I played your little interviewing game with you. Let's, let's move on. But my daughter was more into it and things like that, and so, yes, that'll be. That'll be interesting to see how that. But the world of HR, what has happened since the new year? I can't, really I can't.

Cee Cee: 21:13

The only thing I can think of is, like, personally in my world, it's just, we are in talent calibrations and I know a lot of companies are going through performance reviews right now, or at least doing their annual evaluations. So so, yeah, like best of luck to you all. I'm very fortunate to have a bunch of really great HR, like an HR business partner team that supports it. So, yeah, we're on schedule, we're on time and people will be getting their reviews in a couple weeks and I am excited, I'm glad that we can close the 2024 chapter down. And then, like this is how crazy the year is for performance management. It's like we're not even done with talent calibrations, let alone going into performance discussions, and I had to have a kickoff meeting today about goal setting, because right after annual goal setting, like it just you know, it's just the wheel, it just keeps going and it's already like I'm already planning for February and I'm not even seven days into January.

Warren: 22:18

Yep. Well, we're at the tail end, we're wrapping up. All our performance reviews have been done, completed, most have been signed. Employees are dragging their feet about signing and you know the salary increases that were proposed went into effect January 4th for everybody, so that's really exciting.

Warren: 22:40

So, what I'm waiting for, though, is because I guarantee and I can name the managers who didn't do a good job January, let's say 10th, we get paid, but that is the last pay of 2024. And you're raising. I'm already bracing myself for a dozen phone calls or more. On the 10th, my raise wasn't in my check, and I can tell you the managers that weren't clear to let them know oh, this is a. You'll see this. It's effective January 4th. You will see it on your January 24th check. I so I'm already bracing myself for that. Uh, and you know that's not the employee's fault, that's a manager fault who, like I said, 90% of the people who call for that question are going to be. It's going to be because the manager didn't do their job effectively, and the employee just doesn't know. And then the 10% weren't listening, or, when their manager did, tell them it was the effective date.

Warren: 23:41

So, yeah, it's going to be good, but I'm already starting. You know, as soon as I launch my review process, I create a document in the postmortem, I call it for the reviews and I write down things that could be done better. We need change for next year, and I'm going to be going over that later with my assistant, and Thursday we have our, our, our meeting, our kickoff meeting for 1095s with our our provider on that. So, yay, a lot of fun, uh, there, and yeah, it is so cyclical and there's so much going on right now. You know it was nice that, like the, the last week of, you know, december, the first week, week of January were somewhat slower overall, but now it's like we're got to get right back in the saddle because here it comes again.

Cee Cee: 24:32

Yeah, I went through that weird space in time where it was like between Christmas and New Year's and it was just, I think we were all in this temporal time warp of just insanity. And now it's like coming back and you have to, like you know, start running a new marathon. It was this week's been a little you know, just catching up on the emails, just getting my ass kicked a little bit with all the things I need to do.

Warren: 24:57

Yeah, yeah, it's you know, but I'm looking forward to 2025. I think that you know. Even the title of the show is jaded hr. I'm I'm really optimistic, I'm looking forward to it. I I think that it's going to be a good year.

Cee Cee: 25:15

So yeah, oh, I don't think I told you this um. 2025 is going to be a fantastic year, because it is the year I turn 40.

Warren: 25:27

40. 40. Yes.

Cee Cee: 25:33

I have mixed feelings about it. It's fine, it's fun, it's a new era, it'll be good, but I'm kind of excited about there you go 2025. The year I turn into a real adult 40.

Warren: 25:46

A real adult. Oh, congrats.

Cee Cee: 25:49

Thank you, congratulations on that, yeah, yeah.

Warren: 25:53

Does that officially make you an elder millennial or are you like in the sweet spot of millennials? Where does that fall in the millennial spectrum?

Cee Cee: 26:02

Oh, I've always been elder, because I think the cutoff is 82, so I've always been elder with that elder meant millennials. Okay, yeah, so yeah I am, I am, I am your elder I millennials, uh or z's or whoever come, come talk to me, I am. I'll tell you about the days before social media.

Warren: 26:26

Yeah, exactly.

Cee Cee: 26:28

And what an AOL room was.

Warren: 26:31

Ooh, hey, okay, Fun fact, I in 99-ish I hired the first developer for the Mac version of AOL Instant Messenger for AOL and then, because he was the program manager for it, he ended up knowing all these other people could do Mac development and I ended up hiring majority of the team for the very first version of maybe it was 98 for AOL Instant Messenger. That was something really cool.

Warren: 27:08

Going to the AOL I've never seen a business campus before in that realm and going to see campus- oh, I miss the campus it was so much like a collegiate campus kids running around in backpacks and even on skateboards and stuff among the various buildings.

Warren: 27:28

But when you got into a coding area, imagine a large building where when you get off the elevators other than the elevators and the restrooms and the pillars holding it up you can see the entire floor of the building from there and all you hear is the click, click, click, click of keyboards and you know the lights are not turned on in the building and some people have lamps and other things and it was just so weird going in. I've never seen that type of environment before. I actually happened to be on the AOL campus in Ashburn, virginia, the day someone dumped off like three dump trucks full of those AOL discs you used to get all the time. Someone collected them and sent them back to them. I have to be there. Like the day or day after that got delivered, I got to see the piles of AOL discs that somebody had done there, that was pretty cool.

Warren: 28:25

So yeah, the 90s in Northern Virginia, the IT boom was really really cool.

Cee Cee: 28:33

And now when I see somebody who's still, did you work for AOL?

Warren: 28:38

No, we were a contractor, a third-party recruiting firm, and they were one of our clients.

Cee Cee: 28:44

Oh, that's awesome. I want to point out the fact that you hired the team that basically created AOL Instant Messenger, and I feel like you need some credit.

Warren: 28:54

Or Mac. They already had it for PC.

Cee Cee: 28:57

Or PC for Mac. So I feel like some credit should go to you, because Butterfly Effect if there was some bad selections it wouldn't have worked. So I thank your recruiter, that's all I'm saying.

Warren: 29:13

Yep, that was my recruiting gig. It was so funny back then. The companies we work for and where they are now like AOL was one of our clients, but like MCI WorldCom, which doesn't exist anymore. Remember, when you had telecommunications and you had to pay for long distance and shit like that, mci WorldCom was one of my clients. I'm just trying to think of.

Warren: 29:36

The only client that I think is still around and doing very, very well is MicroStrategy. They were. We were in Tyson's Corner, virginia. They were literally around the corner. We used to call it the shopping bag building. If you've ever been to Tyson's Corner, that's where MicroStrategy was, at least in the 90s, and now they're killing it with the whole Bitcoin thing. So, yeah, if I bought some stock in the 90s from them, I'd be retired now probably.

Warren: 30:03

But yeah, it's so interesting to think of the clients I work with and how, in the telecom industry, none of them are around anymore. Aol is a shadow of what they used to be. Microstrategy is still around. I can't think of any other clients I service with IT and people with government. We had some government. We placed some people like north of Grumman and places like that, but so they're still around. But yeah, it was really weird, really really cool, really different and, yeah, fun stuff. Back then Shoot it was technical recruiting, then was shooting fish in a barrel. I couldn't believe I was getting paid to do that and paid well and making commission and all that. It was a fun time.

Cee Cee: 30:52

That's awesome.

Warren: 30:54

Late 90s.

Cee Cee: 30:56

I also want to point out I think probably late 90s, early 2000s was probably the prime time for a corporate campus. I worked on a corporate campus before everything just basically got dismantled because of the way it is now. But like, I love a campus and I like, if you give me a good camp, so where I worked, like I worked for the home office of Luxottica and at and like it's here in Cincinnati, and one of the like, the really cool things is like we had an on-site gym. We had what was it people service that would come pick up your clothes and drop it off the next day. We had a cafeteria and like I think the company put stipends into it to basically lower the cost for us. You could have like a really cheap lunch. That was really like, honestly, it was really decent. There was walking trails, there was, I mean, there is like all this stuff that I'm like I'm so nostalgic for because it created such a really fun culture.

Cee Cee: 32:00

I think we talked about this before on the podcast. Like I work with people who are in my wedding. I was in people's, my coworkers' weddings. It was just such a fun time and I'm not sure if it's the campus or just the nostalgia of being early career amongst a bunch of other people who are early career like you. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it was a little bit of both, but I miss the campus and I will die on it. Hell, no, don't tell me. I have to come to that campus every single day and I can never be late. Like then we're going to have problems. I will beat you up, like, but I would love a campus that I can go to.

Warren: 32:37

My wife's company has a campus and it is. It used to be really cool. They did the same thing. They had a employee gym. My wife broke her leg in the employee gym there and but they they had a cafeteria. At first the food was free and then they made it like $3. So $3 and their food was good and they would even have like seafood days where they would have things like shrimp for $3 and their food was good and they would even have like seafood days where they would have things like shrimp for $3 and shrimp and fish and it was really good. They had a hotel on their campus. They still do have a hotel, I should say, on their campus for visitors and things like that. They do training there, among other things. They actually have their own airport on their campus, so it's a really, really cool thing.

Warren: 33:27

But now she goes to the office every other week for one day and she's not even there for the full day, unless she absolutely has to or she decides I'm going to hang out and talk with the other people that are here, because she's not required to be there. She's actually removed all of her personal belongings out of her office, so her office looks pretty vacant now. And then she says sometimes it makes me feel sad, but sometimes I'm like eh, don't care when she goes to her office and it's completely empty, like it's not even hers anymore. So, yeah, I've never worked in that environment, but I think it would be a mix of being a young professional and having all those amenities right there for you, like a gym, go out to lunch with your friends, or maybe you've been just going to go get a snack. Hey, let's, let's go get a parfait or something like that. You know, let's take five, go get a parfait, snacks, pancakes, whatever.

Warren: 34:27

I think that there is something to being in that 20, the early 30-something and working with a bunch of other 20 to 30-somethings in that type of environment. I think it would be pretty darn awesome. Like I said, I never worked on a campus, but I can just see it and know what other people have experienced, heard what other people experienced. I think that would be pretty cool stuff. But yeah, I don't know how much you have that anymore.

Cee Cee: 34:56

Yeah, it's not there. But you know what? Everything it's like a pendulum. Everything swings in one way to the extreme and then it swings back into the other way. I wouldn't be surprised in like 10 years. There's a resurgence of like returning to the office full time or something, because whatever, um, I don't know, I don't know. I I kind of see something coming back. I don't think it's gonna be this remote forever unless you take a remote job. I think people hunger for it honestly, because I think we're just a social humans are social beings so there's only going to be so much that people can take from video interactions that I think we're going to see some amount of need and want from the employee to have that physical connectedness again. So I could be wrong, but that's what I predict.

Warren: 35:49

I agree, I absolutely agree. I voluntarily have given up my work from home day. I can still do it if I want, but by the time, you know, for my, I was only doing, I was allowed to do it up to two days a week. I only did it once. For my, I was only doing, I was allowed to do it up to two days a week, I only did it once. And just you know, first were problems packing up the computer, remembering the charge, or both leaving office and coming going back to the office and having to charge her.

Warren: 36:14

You know, doing this it was and I feel so much more productive in the office and I like I like the interaction with the people and half my day is people coming into my office and I like I like the interaction with the people and half my day is people coming into my office and needing a question answered or having a problem that I can solve, or something like that. And when I'm not in the office, they're not calling me, they're not chatting me, they're, they're not doing those things as I. Where we work, it's just hey, I'm going, hey, warren, can I come in and ask you a quick question? And that's how it works. And so I decided, you know, when it's slow and I'm working remote, it's almost painful, whereas if it's slow and I'm in the office, hey, I can chit chat with somebody. I've got other things to do or, you know, I'll be there for that person who has that one-off question or something like that.

Warren: 37:11

So I, like I said, I voluntarily gave up my work from home and actually this is my first time in my office recording this. Since what? A month ago, when we last recorded an episode I've not been up here for for anything. So actually I had. I came up a half hour before and turned the heat on, because the heat hasn't been on up on the side of the house, because I don't, I don't use it. So, yeah, I wanted to. It's just different, it's just, it's just different, it's just different. So, yeah, yeah, social interaction is. I still have friends with people I work with at that IT company in Northern Virginia in the 90s. I'm still friends with a couple of people from there and it's a different environment. I don't think you can have that interaction, that camaraderie, working remote, because I think the the people there and at other places I've worked have been what makes it, you know, special, if you will. Yeah, this is so unjaded.

Warren: 38:29

I know it's like Hallmark movie type thing, but no.

Cee Cee: 38:33

I always think, also, like working remotely, if you're gonna do it a hundred percent of the time, I think it also depends on where you are in life. And I like, because I'm thinking like, okay, I think of myself when I was new to career and I didn't know, you know, aside from a couple internships, there are certain things you just don't know until you work in an office and you're actually on a payroll, a lot of those things being those special social things, and you know how you interact with people. I don't know if we, I don't know if we talked about it on here, but I forget the number but there's a lot of Gen Z getting terminated or fired because of a lack of performance or just inappropriate behaviors or stuff like that. And I'm like, or stuff like that, and I'm like, oh my God, some like I think working in an office, early career with people is so beneficial to you professionally. Um, yeah, like I think that's so necessary.

Cee Cee: 39:33

But then, on the flip side, I'm like, I am so flippant.

Cee Cee: 39:37

Thank you, like, thankful, and I'm going to say I w I was very privileged to be able to work from home while I was pregnant and one like and returning to work after having a baby and like that to me.

Cee Cee: 39:52

I mean, I can't imagine what it would have been like to have to commute 35, 40 minutes every day, um, without you know the ability, like if I was had morning sickness I would have to pull over the side of the road and puke or all of like the weird things, all of the weird things a woman's body does while she's pregnant, like having to be in a conference room and like almost pee your pants or something like all those things. I'm so happy I was able to work from home, remotely, and I think there I think there's something to be said about meeting people where they are in a lot of the ways and giving them space to be flexible. Like if they need to work from home for a small season and they're still able to do their job and do it well, let them, if they want to come back to the office, create a space for them. Like I don't know, there's something to be said about being a little flexible.

Warren: 40:43

Absolutely, and I think that's the best thing. If you could have some sort of true hybrid hey, you're going to work from in the office Because, especially early career, you need some mentoring, you need some development, you need someone looking over your shoulder every once in a while. Hey, warren, instead of doing it this way, why don't you try it this way or something like that that you're not going to get remotely? And yeah, I understand the data's there that people are much more productive working from home. I know my wife says she's like does the job of two people now that she's working from home and she, she doesn't really mind that as much. But you, you know in her world it works well. For me it just didn't work out as well and I never got used to it. If I'd been doing it more than you know once a week or twice a week or something like that I probably would have adapted better. But I never really got the full adaptation to it and I was like, yeah, I could take it or leave it. But I think, yeah, younger professionals need that in their life and I'm really surprised they don't want it more because after, like, look at someone, my daughter's age, she's 23.

Warren: 41:55

She went through college, through all of COVID, and you know her college experience sucked. That's heartbreaking, you know not, not, not like you know mine. She went to East Carolina and she didn't have the same are like, yeah, I want to interact with people and things like that. I don't know, maybe these people interactions maybe will lead to retention, as I know, I've stayed at more than one job longer than I probably should have. Yeah, because I like the people. Yeah, uh, the job was mad. If it didn't suck, it was mad at best and but I like my, my co-workers, I like the people I was with. So, hey, what the hell, I'll stick around to be with them and yeah, so that's, I don't know. I think that's a good experience. Yeah, you have a. But if you even have a sucky job and you're with good people, that makes it all the. That makes all the difference as well.

Cee Cee: 43:16

So no one can like. There's something about a bond between people who have a horrible work experience, whether or not it's the company or whether or not it's the boss they work for. And it's so funny because I have like I have some team members in my past who form our company and we still have like a chat going. I got what is it just like a text, like group, and we still, like at least once a week, are like active in there. I haven't worked with these people in years, but we all bonded over the fact that we had a nightmare boss. Oh yeah.

Warren: 44:00

And but there's more of you. Yeah, you might have a sucky boss, but there's more of you than them. And it's like, yeah, I think I've told the story before. I worked one place where the HR manager slash, director slash whatever the title of the day was they. I was there six years, I think. I had eight managers slash, directors, slash, whatever. I think I had eight managers slash, directors, slash, whatever. And after a little while I was just and I'm in my early 30s and I'm thinking, oh, let's see how long this person lasts. You know, I'll be here longer than they are, that type of thing. And it was interesting. You don't get those type of experiences without physically being at work, being at work, and how the hell these new hr people deal with all the, the, the poops, the poop happenings if their, their employees aren't I know they're, they're being robbed of a critical these people aren't able to clean up poop in a, in a bathroom.

Cee Cee: 44:55

I mean, where are these stories going to come from one day? What you're going to tell? An old war story about a mean IM someone sent you Please.

Warren: 45:07

Oh yeah, so anyway. Well, even though we had no agenda going into today, I think we've gotten this one pretty far. Next week we will have an agenda. I'll do some homework I actually think I've a, an idea or two and then, of course, please listen to the episode. On the 30th we'll be re-watching the office, I think, next. Next time we'll even go into what episode we're going to talk about. So if you want to watch it, uh, ahead of time, before the episode drops, so you can become more familiar. I know that's what I'm going to be doing as we, as we plan our episodes.

Warren: 45:45

And please give us your feedback. The show notes are just chock full of ways to give us feedback, including CeCe's. Let us know what you're thinking, what you'd like to see, or any other stories you might have for the show, or your own experiences. We got text, numbers, everything like that. So give us your feedback and also leave a review. I promise I won't take two months, like I did with Dustin's review, and get those out sooner. So leave us some reviews. That's what's going to help people find us. I think we're. We've got like a 4.8 rating on Apple podcasts, so please, please, continue to check that out. I think we've got like a 4.8 rating on Apple Podcasts. So please, please, continue to check that out, and I know some of the others are allowing you to give either thumbs up or stars and things like that. So, yeah, help us out that way.

Cee Cee: 46:34

Yeah, rate us. It helps us in the algorithms.

Warren: 46:39

Yeah, the algorithms, the algorithms, yeah.

Cee Cee: 46:40

The algorithms. The algorithms.

Warren: 46:44

Yeah, so let's go ahead and land the plane, thanking our Patreon supporters. I know I mentioned them earlier, but Cece, excuse me, but Hallie, the original Jaded HR rock star, bill and Mike, thank you very much. You can join us on Patreon or you can chat with us there, message us there as well. So thank you very much to them. Also, thank you to Andrew Kolpa, who does the voice artist work in the intro, and the intro and outro music is Double, with the Double by the Underscore Orchestra, and so, with all that said, as always, I'm Warren.

Cee Cee: 47:19

I'm Cece.

Warren: 47:22

And we're here helping you survive. Hr one. What the fuck moment. At a time you