HR BESTIES - HR Besties Happy Hour - Sag Szn, Leigh's Dreams and Politics in the Workplace

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Welcome back to another Happy Hour, Besties! We’re sure as hell glad it’s Friday. In this Happy Hour: Happy spooky szn Let's talk about the weather Meeting new Besties Politics in the workplace? TPD Officer Leigh Your To-Do List: Grab merch, submit Questions & Comments, and make sure that you’re the first to know about our In-Person Meetings (events!) at https://www.hrbesties.com. Follow your Besties across the socials and check out our resumes here: https://www.hrbesties.com/about.  We look forward to seeing you in our next meeting - don’t worry, we’ll have a hard stop! Yours in Business + Bullsh*t,  Leigh, Jamie & Ashley Follow Bestie Leigh! https://www.tiktok.com/@hrmanifesto https://www.instagram.com/hrmanifesto https://www.hrmanifesto.com Follow Bestie Ashley! https://www.tiktok.com/@managermethod  https://www.instagram.com/managermethod https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyherd/ https://managermethod.com Follow Bestie Jamie! https://www.millennialmisery.com/ Humorous Resources: Instagram • YouTube • Threads • Facebook • X Millennial Misery: Instagram • Threads • Facebook • X Horrendous HR: Instagram • Threads • Facebook Tune in to “HR Besties,” a business, work and management podcast hosted by Leigh Elena Henderson (HRManifesto), Ashley Herd (ManagerMethod) and Jamie Jackson (Humorous_Resources), where we navigate the labyrinth of corporate culture, from cringe corporate speak to toxic leadership. Whether you’re in Human Resources or not, corporate or small business, we offer sneak peeks into surviving work, hiring strategies, and making the employee experience better for all. Tune in for real talk on employee engagement, green flags in the workplace, and how to turn red flags into real change. Don't miss our chats about leadership, career coaching, and takes from work travel and watercooler gossip. Get new episodes every Wednesday and Friday, follow us on socials for the latest updates, and join us at our virtual happy hours to share your HR stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy Friday besties. Oh, that's that scary eighties. Yeah, jump scare. I thought the nineties were like the peak Halloween time. Like I remember watching the Roseanne Halloween special every year and like all that. You walk down the street like and you're like, Oh my God, the blow ups, the inflatables. I don't know what company buys those, but I wish I could back to the future and buy some stock in blow up shit for front yards because it has gotten, I mean, I love it, but it's gotten crazy.

I know we've got shit all over. I love a spooky season though. Oh, me too. Don't y'all. Can you believe it? November 1st. What the fuck? I know we're two more months.

I swear I can't, I can't. I can't. First of the month. Oh yeah. Rabbit rabbit. And then like, you know you're getting old when you just keep talking about time, you know, and the calendar and the weather. Like every conversation I'm having now here in my 40s is, oh my God, it's so humid today.

And can you believe it's November 1st? I mean, 25% chance, but I can feel it in my bones. I can smell it. That's why I said that the other day. I can smell it's going to rain. What night. 25% chance, but I can feel it in my bones. I can smell it. That's why I said that the other day. I can smell it's going to rain. What the fuck? But I could. Well, we have, for those listening in Atlanta or those that have been through Atlanta, we

have a news channel called 11 Alive. I think it's an NBC affiliate. It was like 11. You remember on the old cable or non-cable, basic cable would be like Channel 11 on the old TV. No, it's like the NBC affiliate. But anyway, so they're like 11 Alive. And so there TV. No, it's like the NBC affiliate. But anyway, so there are 11 alive.

And so there's this guy, Chesley McNeil. I think it's my favorite, I'd probably say my favorite weather person in Atlanta. And we've talked about, again, of course, we've talked about weather people and what a meaningful character they are in our lives. But so Chesley does this thing called the whizometer. And he does what the weather is from a zero to 11 and I swear when he when

it hits 11 I mean he is like boom it is like it's a it's a big day and so I'll say I bring it up to people regularly as you can imagine and I'll be like what do you think today is on the on the whizometer so wait is 11 a good day yes 11 is yes 11 is like it's like a 10 but better one better okay okay okay I took it the other way. Okay. Got it. No, it's like a one. I guess you could see that when you turn it on. I mean, if it's a one, it's like an all points bulletin.

But when it's an 11, big old smile on Chesley's face. I love it. You know who I love is that Jim Cantore. Yes. You know, the hurricane guy. Oh my God. And there's all the memes and the jokes. Like, are you coming to your town? You better freaking evacuate.

Like, you better get the hell out of there, you know? Yeah. You need to have like, find my friends on like your immediate family members, the people you care about and Jim Cantore. Because you need to know if he's coming within your radius, you are fucked. Yep. With a capital F. God, he's been doing weather like 30 years, right?

Holy shit. I mean, he has, how many lives does he have? Oh my God, he is a cat. Yeah, kitty cat Cantori. I'm going to somebody forward this episode to him. Meow, kitty cat Cantori. Oh my God, that's kind of cute. Right?

I wonder what he dressed, does he, we'll have to see if he dressed up for Halloween. You know, I always like to see people in like, you know, like, you know, well, I've always loved the Today Show, you know, when they do their reveal. It's so funny. Yes. Yeah. That's cute. Oh, man.

Did you all dress up for Halloween this year? Jamie, we saw your outfit. I knew instantly. Indeed. What was it? Good. Now, my kids didn't't I had to show them the video I was Missy Elliott from the Super Duper Fly video. So I had a big black suit on and I made sunglasses, gold and whatever. Yeah. And so my kids had no idea who the fuck I was. But I showed them the video and then both of them were like,

you did a really good job, Mom. I was like, I know. You did. It was exceptional. I love seeing the love you got on social for that. Well deserved. You know that I once met Missy Elliott. Did I tell you this? I'm so jealous.

I was at the Gansevoort Hotel at the club at the top, the bar. Where's that? Meatpacking district, New York City. I want to say like 15 years ago-ish or so. And I just turn and she's right next to me. That's so New York, right? I'm just like, oh, OK. But you had to be cool there.

Well, of course. Yeah, you can't freak freak out and be like... That's why I had to ask you where it is. I feel like you're not allowed to... I cannot be cool. Yeah, they'll keep you out. So what did you do? Oh, I just looked at her like, hey, and did the head nod like all cool. Like, hey, you know, because I mean, we're like, she's like right there, you know?

Right. But that was neat. And then I saw Tracy Morgan the next night at the Plaza Hotel bar. But anyway, wow Yes, look at that crazy. I know hashtag NYC weird things. Well, that's like in Nashville though Like it's an unspoken rule that when you see celebrities, you don't talk to them But most of the time I don't know who the fuck they are. So I did one time see though faith pill and Tim McGraw in Toys R Us. I didn't say anything to them, but that was really cool. It's neat.

I love that. Yeah. That's really cool. Like regular people. And I've seen Dolly Parton and Reba. Oh my God. Really? But like you can't say anything to them.

Well, like it's an unspoken Nashville rule. Like you don't go up to them. They want to live their lives like they're real people, whatever. I was laughing because I saw the other day on Twitter on the X, someone posted about CeeLo. Like he'd gone into like a department store, some store and looked at this woman and was like either he or I think his security, his security was like no pictures or whatever. And this woman was like, basically like I wasn't, we didn't even have our phones out

like uh-uh, no. And all these people in the comments are like, who's going to take a picture of CeeLo? Like I would. I'm at CeeLo in an elevator and I took a picture with this. Exactly. I was like, I totally would. I'll put it on the Instagram, of course. But I was with my mom.

We were actually living in Australia and I came back and I'd been back in the U.S. for about 45 minutes. We were staying at, she met me in Atlanta and spent a weekend with me in Atlanta when I was coming back for work. And yeah, we were in the elevator. I mean, his, you can see his eyes were barely open and he had been part taken. Yeah. So I have to, yeah, I can, I can see why you may not want to take a picture with someone. They probably do want to live, live their lives, I guess. But if somebody asked me to take a picture, oh my God, I'd be to, yeah, I can see why you may not want to take a picture with someone. They probably do want to live their lives, I guess. But if somebody asked me to take a picture, oh my God, I'd be so excited.

Someone did a couple weeks ago, a friend of a friend that is in HR. So it's not like a totally random person. It made my day, but not CeeLo. But I think that's weird to be like, you can't take pictures. Says who? Right. Like you're in public, it's a free domain. Like what the fuck? Yeah you can't take pictures. Says who? Right. You're in public. It's a free domain.

Like, what the fuck? Then don't go. Don't go outside. Right. You don't want your picture taken. Well, and it's embarrassing. If somebody doesn't have their phone out to say it proactively, that's cringe.

Yeah, that is cringe. That is very cringe. Did you dress up, Ashley? I dressed up as an HR bestie. I used it as an opportunity for self-promotion because I wore a nice hoodie that I could, which it wasn't, again, talk about the weather, it wasn't as cold as I would like it to be on Halloween. I needed to be a little bit chillier to get in the right mindset.

Yeah. October isn't Octobering this year. What about you, Lee? Are we still talking about the weather? I mean, I think here I go pick up, pull up my phone. I think it's 90. No, dress up. No, dress up.

Did you dress up? I know. Look, I'm already pissed about the weather. There I go. My temperature right now in San Antonio, Texas is 80, feels like 86. What the fuck? Oh my God. It's so

humid. But you know what? I did not dress up this year. But last year I looked hot as hell. I went as Gamora. Do you remember that? We should share that in the stories anyway. Oh, I should post that. Yeah. Yeah, this week. I should keep that going because yeah. I was proud of that. I was proud of that. You know what I mean? But no, it just all caught up. I was traveling all September, you know how it is, and just busy, busy. So no, I didn't. And I hate that for me. I really do. But built a lot of Legos and had a candy charcuterie. Wait, really? Well got to share that. You got to share that in the stories. That's fine. Yes. Yeah.

I bought the haunted house, the big one, and then also the nightmare before Christmas set. Nice. Now, what do you do with them after they're done? Do you have them on display or? Yes. Yes and no. But the holiday ones get destroyed and rebuilt the next year. So I've got like 20 Christmas sets. Yeah, those aren't fucking all getting built this year.

It's way too much work. I mean, I'm not a Santa's little elf. You know what I mean? It's just too much. And I already bought like three of the poinsettias, the new elf house, like all this, oh, like five Christmas. What? I don't understand.

I don't know. Are you a Christmas person, like a big Christmas person? I do decorate very nicely. Yeah, I mean, you know what? The reality is, is I'm a better person when there's a Christmas tree in the house. That's fine. For real, I'm ready to put it up. So I have four Christmas trees, I have one in each room.

You know, so I just need that to not be a bitch. I remember growing up, and this might be, well, I'm curious if this is a Texas thing. My guess is, Jamie, this will resonate as a Tennessee thing. Definitely as a Kentucky thing. I had friends growing up who had to share a room with their sibling because their parents, generally their mom, had a Christmas room in the house year round. Oh, I would love a Christmas room. Like I knew someone that literally shared a room in the same way, but they had it. And we kind of like

laugh about it, but it was like you really couldn't joke about it because it was obviously, could be a little bit of a source of stress. But yeah. Like a Christmas room, because I've never heard of this, like a Christmas room, like it's decorated Christmas or to store Christmas presents? No, no, no, like it's decorated for Christmas year round. Like they are a better person year round for it. But. Wow.

All year round. Huh. Yeah. You know what I have seen in rich people's homes? So not mine. But you know what I have seen is people have Christmas closets. Have you heard of the Christmas closet? I have not.

I'm going to find Instagrams on this, Reels. I'm going to find them. People literally will have like, it looks like a bookshelf, like in their living room, something pretty, opens up and that's where they just roll the Christmas tree into, no shit, and all their Christmas decorations. So they keep the tree. It's already wrapped, everything. Isn't that brilliant? That's what I was going to say. If I ever get real rich, fucking having a Christmas closet. This is big time. This is the ship. CEO's better watch out.

If your people find out you have a Christmas closet and you're giving them a 1% raise, they're going to come and steal your Christmas tree like the Grinch. So watch out. I do love this time of year. Jamie and I are sags. We have birthdays coming up here in December. Yeah, Sagittarius. Yeah, I was like, what's that stand for? Not my boobs.

Yeah, saggy boobs. Oh my God. I'm a pear. Perial menopause. Oh, shit. Quick story, okay? Please. I went to the dermo, and it's helpful for everybody, but I went to the dermo late last

week to do my annual skin check thing. Shout out dermatologists. Go to the dermo, please. Get your skin checked. But basically, you have to get butt-ass naked. Right? Well, the whole office follows me or knows me. They know what I do, and my doctor does and stuff.

So she's talking about my videos and shit. But anyway, so I had to get naked. And I was like, hold on, hold on. Let me lean back a certain way here so my boobs look just a little bit perky, and not so saggy. And she starts laughing. And I was like, hey, patient doctor privilege here now. Don't be telling people I got saggy tits. Okay, like, let them know like if I lean back a certain way, them shits are perky. Oh, it was funny. I don't know that just reminded me of that. Then she proceeds to broadcast it on her podcast. I know. I know. I don't know. I'm just gonna say, Oh, man, but

it was funny, right? It was so it was funny. But anyways, they're fine. They look okay. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm all sorry. I'll say this and I hate when people do this, but it's not, it'll be funny. This, I have an intro story that's not identical, but an intro story coming up on a future episode of the podcast. That's about... Saggy tits. Ooh, dermatology and coworkers. And there we are. So keep listening.

Okay. Teaser. Teaser. I like that. So it's happy hour. What are we shooting the shit about besides everything we already did? I met a new bestie. I met a new bestie this week. Ooh. I texted the ladies. So I went to Savannah on Monday and I live in Atlanta, but I was speaking in Savannah on Tuesday morning, hospitality design, next gen leaders conference. Amazing. Like the crowd there, the audience was like all like cool colors, like expressing them.

So totally amazing. Really awesome. But anyway, so, but I live in Atlanta, so I'm like, do it, you drive or fly. But my only thing is after I get done speaking, I kind of get tired. And so I'm like, I want to, so, and it was like a 32 minute flight. So I took a nap on the way back. But on the way there, I sat next to this woman. And from the second I sat down until we got off the plane, we walked through, we get through, her husband is waiting for her insecurity, chatted the entire way.

And she was lovely. I literally was like this. I kept thinking about Lee. Headphones in, bam. I literally thought to myself, at what juncture, like Jamie would have been with me, you would have been chatting. She was amazing. Lee, I'm like, at what point would Lee have shut it down?

Would you have been like, I need to... It would have never happened. Right. Okay. Right. That's probably fair. I would have sat down, I put my headphones in. Yep, we were talking about the air. She's like, I twisted the air. I'm like, oh, it's so cold.

And she's like, it's so chilly, you know, talking about weather. I mean, so. Of course. But so this woman, so she was actually had been a designer. And so she's a grand, she'd been visiting her grandkids, taking care of them for the week.

And she was very, very lovely, but has a private plane. So it's definitely my new bestie, but she was not flying on that that day. But anyways, we were talking, and she was like, what are you going for? And I was like, I'm speaking. She's like, what are you speaking on?

And I do manager training and some of these live things. And like, oh, tell me about your career, like telling her about things. And so I was telling her this thing I do in my talks, and I won't give it away, but I do a thing in the talks that helps different people in the audience kind of give recognition to each other. I'll say no more than that.

Anyway, she stops me and she goes, I just have to tell you that what you've done, you're so accomplished and you can just see it radiates and you love what you do. And I am so happy we met and I am so proud of everything you built. I mean, she's like, here I am with like my tears. And she's like, you're so beautiful, which I was not looking, you know, I was fine.

I appreciate that. Thank you. But she just was so kind. And she's like, I hear you talking about doing this for others. She's like, I hope there are people in your life that do that for you. And I was like, my two podcast co-hosts. She's like, you have a podcast. So maybe she's listening. So my new bestie. But yeah, she, like her husband, picked her up inside the airport.

All cute. We're like walking up and she's like, I can't think his name was like Jim. Let's say she's like, Jim, meet Ashley. She's giving me a hug kiss on the cheek. And so it is just sometimes the people that you'll meet. It was it was very sweet. And it like inflated my balloon. Bestie's trip to Turks. Like, let's do this. You know what I'm saying? Did you exchange

info or? Yeah, get a PJ. I mean, I mean, right? I'm like, can I have your cell? Can I have your digits? Can I just show up? I mean, I know where I'd have enough details. I'm sure I can show up at the house. You didn't exchange contacts? Well, I told her my Instagram, but I'm trying, you know. Oh, that would be so you to exchange the contact information, though. It would have been.

I did. You know what? In the security line, I have a new LinkedIn connection from the security line, a guy right in front of me. I thought it was the same person. My bad. No, different. No, no, no.

This was a guy. This was a guy who was a former former McKinsey alum. We figured all these things out in the. I cannot. It just happens. It just happens. And I want us to travel and for you to see life through my eyes. But don't pretend like you know me. I saw it one time at the conference.

I was watching you when I I just walk in 10 feet behind you, just watching the show. You and your yes face. You and your yes face. Because I knew Lee was watching. I brought my bold no face. I mean, I will cry thinking about this moment because Lee was like open mouth. Jamie, I really needed you to be there, but we're, that was at the Shurm conference, but she won't see us at next year. So don't think so quite so much. But anyway, but that was, that was my new bestie. Oh damn. Well, you always want a rule number. I don't know, 200 or something. You always want

to get the deets of people that have private boats and jets. And boats. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. A friend of boat. Jamie, do you have a boat, that's right. A friend of the boat. Jamie, do you have a boat? No. You have a friend with a boat? No. I used to have a jet ski. And then I got pregnant, so we sold it.

Oh, that's fun. Aww, those are fun though. Oh man. Jamie, what would you name a boat if you bought a boat? You know, are there those fun names? Oh, I don't know. I would have to think of something like really, like it'd have to be really silly. Manifesto. Would yours be Manifesto? Yeah, why not? Manifasto. Manifasto. Love. Yes, that. And maybe it'll have its own Instagram at Manifasto. The Adventures of Manifasto. Wee. Oh, damn. Well, I am happy that it's so easy for you to make friends.

I just love meeting people. Like that's neat. That's neat to hear. You know what I mean? I go deep real quick. That's not actually the case. Oh, that is what he said. OK.

Oh, my God. Now that's what he said. Damn. It is a busy time, right? The weather is turning, it's busy. We're moving out of spooky season to cheery season and all that. But first we have to get through the election, which is next week, right? You can cut that shit with a knife, can't you? It is all over everything.

And I don't know about y'all, but I get text messages. I thought I had that shit blocked, man, but they must have just let candidates do whatever. I'm getting like 10 texts a day from everybody. Both sides, all parties. Are y'all getting that too? It is overwhelming here. Yeah. I think I finally got them all stopped. Or like, do they know that I early voted and they stopped? Oh. Well, let me ask you. I saw a billboard literally driving back from the airport the other day. I saw this billboard that was like,

see if your friends voted. Vote dot friends or friends dot vote. I can't remember which one. And I was like, I don't know what kind of information you have to put in there to find out if people voted. But I was definitely like, wait, whoa, we are. But also the text, I feel like I still have an area code from Northern Virginia from when I lived in the

DC area 20 plus years ago. I kept it even when we moved to Australia, like I ported it over to Google Voice. But so I'll get some things from like, people think I'm in Virginia. So I get some of these raised in Virginia. But I feel like these candidates text and they like try to bring in like Gen Z language, like, you know, like, you know, whatever, like, what's up, what's up, whizzler. Yeah, what's up, whizzler. Hey, whizzlers. And you're like, wait. Dead ass, dead ass.

Boop. And I'm like, is this some A B testing? Like, I mean, do you not see my, you know, you don't see the prescriptions coming into my house and peg my age pretty quickly? Like, hmm. Yeah, but no. But in HR also people, if you know, you're kind of having to thread that needle a little bit between like fostering connection and like, keeping the like conversations from

going to fisticuffs and keeping things. So it's not, it's not easy. But let me tell you this. Keeping the conversations from going to fisticuffs and keeping things. It's not easy, but let me tell you this. We can talk about voting. In the US, voting is on a Tuesday. Different states have different laws of what's required of time off to vote. I did have done a video where I was like, rather than pay your employment lawyers to be like, give me a 50-state survey of the list of time off to vote.

Just give people the reasonable amount of paid time to vote. Please, for the love of God, just do that. But in Australia, voting's different. So voting is on a Saturday, and it's mandatory. And the fee is like 20 bucks if you don't do it. And you can do it by mail as well. But it's on a Saturday, and it's almost all the polling places are, at least where we were in Sydney, are local public schools. And so there's like fundraisers

at each, like a barbecue. And when I was there, like, I think it was my daughter's, yeah, one of my daughter's grade, we did like a barbecue. So we're making like bacon egg sandwiches, coffee, sausage sizzles. They call it democracy sausage, a sausage. It's like a big hot dog, like a big hot dog in a bun, but they call it the democracy sausage. After you vote, you get your democracy sausage. But because it's on a Saturday, and again, there are people of course that work every day of the week,

but those that work during the week, it's obviously easier. You come with your whole family, they walk down to the polling place. It's like a whole thing in there. It's communal. It's communal, and there are political ads. All you can have is like a whole thing. It's communal. It's communal and there aren't political ads. All you can have is like a little square that's like a sign that kind of has like positions on issues. So it's not as like, it's certainly not as testy.

I mean, there's still some wild politicians in Australia, just like there are everyone else. But to me, it's like, it's what you'd said, I think, on Wednesday's episode, Lee, of like, you know, until you experience like the UK colleagues seeing the food banks and bringing that perspective. Like, for me, it opened my eyes of like, wait, why do we have elections on Tuesdays during the week? And why is it such an issue of people who, you know, employers who were like, oh, how much time do I have to give my teams to vote?

So anyway. Yeah, it should be a federal holiday. But I love hearing that, you know, that it's like thought of as this duty, right? Like this civil obligation, you know, which, you know, we say it's that here, but we don't act like it's that. You know what I mean? So we don't, you know, put the system around to support that, you know, but have you all been seeing a lot of things like online about the election and sharing

and thoughts and all of this? One thing that I've seen a few times from business people perhaps or HR professionals is that you should encourage politics and election talk at work. And my first thought is, tell me you've never worked in manufacturing without telling me. Tell me you've never worked with, you know, all types of employees. Because, I mean, I've had fights around elections and I mean, a lot of discipline issues. I mean, just you name it, you know.

So that one's a real tough one. How have you all handled that in your experiences? I'm just curious. Yeah. I mean, I think I've had people reach out wanting me to take some sort of stance, but I'm a fucking meme page. I'll post funny memes about the election, but it's not in supporting either candidate. You know what I mean? And I understand people want me to take a stance because I have a platform of, you know, a million plus followers, but that's not why I created the page. If you want to follow me on my personal shit, then that's something different.

But, you know, it's just, it's not, it's just, I don't know. I agree. And I frankly, I think it's kind of icky when I see brands do it Mm-hmm. It's and there's certain things like there's certain things that matter to employment as well of like healthcare and the benefits that you provide and you know in the US we had Supreme Court rulings and it was hard for HR to Like how is it legal to provide these things? Is it not and so I think focusing on those causes and really thinking about that is really important, but it is Hard it's in it is hard.

And it's hard to meet people where they are if you're shutting the door on them and saying you won't, you know, whatsoever. Or what's hard is some of the stuff you see that is just, there's so much hate. There's so much hate. And I think that's the point of like trying to bring it up in the workplace. I love it if we can make the workplaces where people can actually learn things and learn skills. But the realities of it are right now,

things can be so contentious. And so someone tagged me on a LinkedIn I saw, and then I hadn't seen the notification again. But somebody had made a LinkedIn post that was like, employers, encourage people to vote. But they really should take the opportunity to educate people on civics and candidates and their platforms and things. And someone's like, that's interesting. What

do you think of that for onboarding? I'm like, imagine that from like, imagine you go and work somewhere and again, no place at all is a vacuum. And so if you started to work somewhere in whichever side, politically, if it's one thing, if it's like a political, you know, pack nonprofit, like if you're going to work for something like that, like you probably have a sense of it. But like, you show up and during orientation, they're like, let me teach you about our government system. Like, also, like if something sounds weird, like sounds weird if you say it that way, like, again, is it sad that that's arguably even a considerable idea?

Yes, it is a very sad state of affairs, especially in the US. We lived in Australia during the 2016 election and people there are certainly like, oh my, what do you think of the election? But the question that really was interesting, they were like, but what about Congress? And now the Republicans have control of the House and the Senate and these things. So how does that impact? And kind of, and what about the Supreme Court? Like, it was wild, these people that live literally across the world that have very knowledgeable interest in where in the US most people couldn't say that. Exactly. No more. Yeah, it's also gonna say probably more than most Americans. Yeah. And so, I mean, I definitely think there's a time and a place. I don't just think of the realities of it. Like, there's got

to be some space for things. It's just always thinking on the flip side of, would you say the same thing if it was a candidate different from you, for example? I was at Target the other day, and there's someone wearing a political button. And I was like, boy, I wonder. Of course, I'm not going to get into it and be like, tell me, do you have a company policy on that?

But I was curious and wondering if there was a policy. And again, it's something that these organizations are having to, and that's where people are like, what do we have to do? What can we do? And so HR often is trying to thread the needle in all of this. So I'm sure many of you will be anxiously awaiting the polls to close on Tuesday. I know, right? And I know there's all this talk about businesses, right?

Picking candidates, I think of McDonald's and all that, just things in the news, right? For me, and I think I was sharing with you all earlier, I mean, the focus, especially for businesses, should be causes and values and not candidates and sides. For me personally, I've never spoken about politics in the office because it is very contentious here and very divisive. And I didn't want to alienate people from feeling like they could come to me as a safe place. And some people are very serious about it.

Some people don't care, right? It's just the full gamut. But for me, I always try to be, you know, Switzerland personally and coach my leaders on that, you know, because I've had so many complaints from employees in my career saying, oh, my boss is this. I can't trust them. My boss is this. I can't trust them.

I mean, right? I'm sure you all have heard it. I mean, just really crazy shit, you know, and lots of complaints. So I'm excited for things to die down with the election and all that bullshit, you know? Oh, gosh. I've gotten those texts this week. All of them are like, I have one for you. And I'm like, this week in particular, I'm like, I can guess and I read down and I'm like, oh my God, I've literally gotten this probably four to seven times

from people that are like, my boss, literally my boss assumed, either my boss assumed I was the same candidate or had like made a comment about it. And they're like, how should I respond if I'm not? Should I tell them? Should I just pretend to like the same candidate? I'm like, but these are the questions that people have in the workplace,

especially with the power dynamic. Like, you know, the last thing you want to do is worry about something like a promotion or your compensation. And so just based on that, yeah, I think it's like knowing it's, you are a real person. Everyone's entitled to their, everyone is entitled to and should exercise, like please vote and do that. But just knowing that the influence you have on other people at times, especially if you're assuming things about people can create real awkwardness. So did you say someone at the bullseye store was wearing a political pin on their uniform?

This is interesting because two nights ago I had a dream and I just want to quickly share this. Jamie, are you ready? Cheers, Jamie. I'll make it quick. I had some crazy dreams all week, actually. Well, all the time. But anyways, this one in particular is I was a ride along, like air quotes, ride along.

I say this because we weren't in a car, but I was accompanying, I was like a junior officer at the Target Police Department. So I was at a Target apparently and they had a police force and the police forces offices were where, remember the retro snack bar? Yeah, popcorn. I get the popcorn. Popcorn's so good there. Yeah. Well, that was a police department and we fought Target crimes. Like theft? That was wild. No, like murder and shit like in the Target.

Like the Target? Every Target had a police department and I was part of the TPD. Just as a ride along and I did and I it was fucking wild dude you know but anyways. Oh my god Ashley please AI this. AI photo this please., the TPD. The TPD, the target police department we are having. Please have Lee. And I need Lee with a gun and a red Target shirt and khakis. No, a scanner. It was a scanner. With the red shirt and the khakis.

The best part of the self-checkout when they have the scanner thing. And I'll get it unnecessarily. Oh, I know. I feel so fancy. And I always tell the kids like, well, no, no, I'll do it because I don't want you to double scan it. And then you have to wait and excuse me, wave the hand for help. You know, because help me. But really, I just like doing the scanner. And I mean, sometimes I'll do the like spinny, like the spinny, the spinny thing and I'll let the kids have it.

Like that. Yeah. Like a sheriff. I'm going to do it. We'll see. We're going to do one take with Chachi BT on what this image is going to look like and we'll see if it makes a lead. You could look like an old man. You never know what it's going to, Chachi BT has a mind of its own when it comes to what it thinks that we look like.

Oh man. But I think I used to date one of those cops because I was hugging him and stuff, and then another cop felt awkward about hugging me. I was like, yeah, you don't need to hug me. And it was weird, I don't know. I had some sexual dynamics with the police force. So that was a whole other weird layer of this dream, but nothing happened like that.

I knew there was more to the story. So many layers to this. Did you have handcuffs? I don't recall handcuffs. They were twist ties from the target. Was it a grocery target? Was it a high end? That's a high end.

That's a super target. No, it wasn't a super target. Oh, that's sad. I know. I guess with the old school snack bar, it probably makes sense. Now it would be a Starbeast, Starbucks, or whatever. We have gone off the rails this happy hour.

Of course, per usual, you know. I'm going to nurse this candy hangover. Oh, shit. As you should. As you should, bestie. Happy Friday. Happy Friday.