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“GOOD MORNING HUMAN RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS!”

In my five years working in the human resources field I have met a variety of personalities.  Some have made me excited to be an HR professional while others made me want to play hooky like Ferris Bueler.  A few even prompted thoughts of violently shaking the poor attitude out of them.  Seriously people, check your poor attitude at the door!

One thing I have tried to improve upon in my career is the ability to manage my attitude and reaction to others in the workplace in order to accomplish communication.  You can never fully prepare yourself to handle everything that may be thrown at you in human resources; all you can do is control yourself.

Volunteers (That's me on the left!)

This past spring I was a volunteer coordinator for ABC’s Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition for a build here in Tallahassee, FL.  The experience was one I will never forget; thousands of volunteers working around the clock to build a house for a family in need – in seven days!  Since I was “in transition” during that time, I took the night shift from 12 am to 8am, went home, slept, got up and headed back to the site every day.  One thing that stood out from this experience was the overall attitude of our volunteers.  Each day they showed up to donate their time and had to deal with extremes – cold weather, hot weather, sleep deprivation, dust, aches, pains, grumpiness and everything else one may come across on a construction site.  Most of the volunteers have full time jobs and other regular commitments but they continued to be invested in a project they were passionate about.  Regardless of these obstacles the morale of the volunteers remained positive.  These volunteers cared about the family and were invested in their work.  Shouldn’t this be how your employees feel about your workplace?

Establish relationships with colleagues in the office that you work with on a regular basis.  You do not have to be best friends with everyone but take the time to learn and figure out what makes your colleagues tick.  What do they complain about?  What makes them laugh?  What standards do they hold themselves to?  You will begin to learn how to best present things to these individuals.  Some you may be able to be blunt with and let them take initiative to complete a project.  Others you will have to hold their hand through execution.  In the end you should be able to develop a unique delivery mechanism for any interaction with these individuals.

By establishing these relationships and learning how to handle your attitude towards your colleagues, you will take a huge step towards a happier workforce who is typically more productive.  Regardless of why you work, the attitude you portray in the workplace is up to you.  Whether positive or negative the work will still be there.  Help create an environment employees care about and are invested in.  Don’t let the Debbie Downers ruin it for everyone else!

Now come on, get to work!  Say it with me HR professionals! “Move that bus!”

Desk job…oh how I miss you!  It has been six months since I left my job as COO for a successful software development firm.  Why you ask?  Let’s just say it is a long story that results in 90% of my workforce leaving, including myself and our CEO!

I knew leaving was a big risk but one necessary if I wanted the professional reputation that I have built for myself to remain intact.  What I didn’t realize was how hard unemployment would hit Florida’s capital city.

To give you a little idea of what has been going on in Tallahassee let me discuss Big Bend SHRM.  2008 was a big growth year for us.  As of December 31, 2008 our membership totaled 247 people, an increase of 79% over the previous year.  For the first time in our Chapter’s history we had reached 200 members.  With the economic crisis taking its toll we planned to see our numbers drop in 2009, which we have.   We knew that companies would begin reworking budgets and cutting expenses.  What we found was that a majority of our members who did not renew moved out of the area (most out of Florida all together) because they or their significant other was laid off.

With that said, the past six months have been rough.  Not too many human resource jobs in the City of Tallahassee.  Not giving up on the job hunt I quickly realized I had to expand my search, which is now covering most of Florida as well as Cincinnati, Boston and Atlanta.  I am optimistic that I will find something soon.

Now for the craziness that is my life.  At the end of May I made a drastic decision after crunching my budget and moved all of my things out of my apartment and into a storage bin.  A few days later I packed up my Civic with clothes and my dog Scout and embarked on the long voyage up to upstate NY.  I made it in 20 hours and an overnight in Harrisonburg, VA.  The following day my nephew Weslee was born to my sister – 9 lbs 4 oz, one big boy!  As my sister gets everything situated at home I am taking her place working for the family business – a discount wines and liquors emporium. 

My life for the past few weeks has been nothing but lifting boxes, restocking shelves, pricing, organizing and dreaded customer service.   I am completely and utterly exhausted.  My feet hurt, my back aches and I sneeze constantly from dust.  I went to business school so I didn’t have to do manual labor like most of my family!  Manual labor is NOT for me!

Of course I am exaggerating about how much I loathe manual labor (or am I?).  It is a blessing to be able to come back to NY and spend time with my family every day – especially my niece and nephew.  What I do realize from this experience is how much I miss sitting behind a desk processing forms and dealing with employee’s problems.  You may think I’m crazy but I did go to college to study human resources and it is actually what I am practicing.  The moral of my story:  don’t take your desk job for granted!