HR BESTIES - HR Besties: Start Ups 101

Starting point is 00:00:00 I once worked at a startup where my new leader proceeded to send me a manual of her. It was called Manual About Me. About you, about her. About her. And she asked me to review it prior to our first one on one. And I was like, okay. And immediately I thought, oh, this is so fucking cringy. And I thought, no, no, no, Jamie, you need to, you need to stop. Like, you know, give it a chance, have an open mind. Yeah. This is your new leader. And I click on it and I pull it up and it was long, y'all. I mean, it was a manual. It was long. And it listed

Starting point is 00:00:47 out basically about her as a leader, how she likes things done, how she likes to set meetings up, how she likes to respond to emails, how and when she'll be available, very detailed about just like her work in general, but also it got personal. And it told a little bit about like her backstory and like her cat died. It was a lot. I read it and I thought, Jesus Christ, I don't know all this information. It was just too much for me. And you know what? Truth be told, it was really cringey as fuck.

Starting point is 00:01:31 I hated it. Ashley and I are kind of speechless here. We're just like, I'm both speechless and I have so many words to come out. But let me ask a question. When you say lengthy, like around multiple pages or? Yes, I would say it was probably like five pages. What format? I know what format is this PowerPoint PDF?

Starting point is 00:01:52 Yeah. So, so if you actually Google and then this is not an ad, but there is such a thing that you can create this online apparently, because I Googled it because I was like, who the fuck would come up with it? Where's his template? There is literally a site and I guess you get to pick your own questions and then you do the answer. So a lot of them are like how you work or how you want to be worked with and how you

Starting point is 00:02:16 want your people to work with you. Which is funny because now I'm thinking back on it and a lot of what she said was completely opposite of how she actually was a leader. Of course. Because that was one of my questions was on one hand, we love the transparency. Yeah. Depending on what all the information in it was. But how did the first meeting go?

Starting point is 00:02:35 Because was it reciprocated or did she send you something where you could fill in those things about yourself? No, it was not reciprocated. Of course it wasn't, right? I think the cringiest part of that is calling it a manual. I mean, that's what you use for a power tool, for a machine. That is so bizarre. It's so clinical and sterile and not personal.

Starting point is 00:03:00 I'm not surprised that it was just like an aspirational document as opposed to reality of how they actually work. Yeah, they were heavily micromanager. And it's funny too, I don't know, I guess if I ever created a manual of me, which I wouldn't, I would dress it up with some gifts or some clip art. Of course you would. This was just all black and white, boring, like Times New Roman. Right. Well, that tells you what you need to know too, right? Yeah. I mean, that says a lot too.

Starting point is 00:03:33 But that is the largest part of my problem is two things. One, people put the information out there. As a leader, are you stopping to think, how will this be received? Yes, it'll help people to know how you work, but are you working in a healthy, productive, empowering manner? And also on the flip side, I'm giving this to someone. The natural question is, now tell me about yourself. And when that doesn't happen, says it all. Exactly. Or have prompts that you ask them to complete. How know, like, how do you like to be worked with? See, the thing is, is that narcissists lack self-awareness. So that's why they don't ask those questions back and create manuals. All self-absorbed. Oh my gosh. You know, they just had a field day creating that.

Starting point is 00:04:19 They thought that was so like innovative.. Oh my God. They were probably like, this is amazing. Well, it reminds me, I don't know why I think of this frequently, but once my parents were visiting and I don't know where we lived at the point, but wherever we were, there were a ton of roundabouts. And my dad was like, it's like someone went to a conference and they're like roundabouts, roundabouts. Like the new thing is roundabouts.

Starting point is 00:04:43 And it's like, you want to ask, but in a way that's not going to show how cringey this is. Like, tell me, where did you hear about this idea? And she'll be like, oh, a Ted Talk or like a conference. Like some conference charges a gazillion dollars. And they're like, we'll walk away with the number one secret to being a leader. And this is it, the manual of me.

Starting point is 00:04:59 Oh my gosh. Yeah, I tried so hard not to be a hater, but once I read it, I was like, yeah, see, my gut was correct. It's cute when you're like a kid does it, like a little kid, like manual of me, me. Manual of me, right? Oh my God, that's funny.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Like that Dr. Seuss book, I don't know, it was yellow. It was like all about me. Exactly, yeah. I remember filling that in, but I was like eight. My kids did it, and was yellow. It was like, all about me. I remember filling that in when I was like eight. My kids did it. And I'm curious how many pages, like Jamie, I feel like you and your kids would get through it the whole way. We got through about maybe five pages with my older daughter, got through three pages with my younger son. I feel like a lot of those books start out really meaningfully, but they don't finish. But obviously your leader's manual

Starting point is 00:05:44 of me, all the way, I'm finished. Oh, gosh. Well, that is cringe, but it's a wonderful segue because if I had a guess, that was probably a startup. Anything goes, anything goes and a startup. And so we're going to be talking about that today. But first, let's do a quick rundown of the agenda. Ashley's going to take it away with some more cringe. We're going to keep this train moving here, the cringe train. She's going to do our cringe corporate speak for us today.

Starting point is 00:06:18 And then hot topic, startups 101. What to expect, key traits of a startup. I mean, you name it. how to be successful in a startup. I dare you to. And then as always, some questions and comments. How's that sound? Fantastic. I know it's a rich agenda today.

Starting point is 00:06:36 Robust. Robust. Well, Ashley, take it away. What cringe do you have? I mean, now I want my cringe to be manual of me. So I challenge everyone to do that in a meeting or start thinking about putting that together for your team as a prank.

Starting point is 00:06:52 Maybe don't do that, just do it in your mind. But the real corporate cringe for the week is, and I can't believe we haven't done this, take it offline. Oh, yes, let's take it offline. How did it take us this many episodes to get to this cringe? Honestly, I can't tell you how many times I've heard that too. And how do you hear it? Like what's the tone of voice in a meeting? If someone's trying to maybe derail a meeting, it's like, let's take that

Starting point is 00:07:19 offline. Yeah, it means shut the fuck up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's take that offline. Like, you are totally out of control. With like dagger eyes. Yeah. Is that the same place that the parking lot goes to as well? Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah. Yeah. Where things die. Let's put that in the parking lot. Yeah. Take that. Then someone comes back and brings it up later and you're like, I didn't mean that. I don't want to talk about that online, offline, anywhere. Let's just keep it in mind, in your mind only.

Starting point is 00:07:53 But do you all ever say this? I probably have. I'm probably guilty. No. But not in a shitty way. More like that doesn't really pertain to this meeting. Let's just take it offline and we can discuss it. Or maybe even, I feel like I've said it probably when it really just concerned one person and there's no need to bring it into this meeting of 10

Starting point is 00:08:14 people. So me and you can meet on that separately and we'll figure problems solved for that. So yeah, I am probably fucking guilty of it. I'm learning guys, I'm learning. I don't think I am. I think I say like, well, we'll just talk about that later. Or that's really not for this. I don't think I say let's take it offline. Not that I think there's anything wrong with it. I just don't think it's like in my toolbox, my manual.

Starting point is 00:08:38 My manual of me. I've never, a manual. I mean, you think you'd at least go to chat GPT and be like, what could I call this besides a manual because that does sound very like forceful utilitarian. I don't know. It's just, I wish I still had it so I could send y'all and publish. I mean, let's be honest, we're not going to publish it, but me too. I would love to see that. I'd love to see that. We'll have to do a live reenactment. Y'all literally would die. Of course we would. We bring a modicum of common sense. And so we would look at this and like, why would

Starting point is 00:09:14 you do that? Have you thought about this? Please. So cringe. Well, let's go ahead and take that one offline, shall we? And maybe, I already used it. Look at me. I'm like patting myself on the back. Yay. Look, I already used it. But shall we pivot to the hot topic today? Yes.

Starting point is 00:09:34 Turn startups in and out a little bit. Startups one-on-one. Has anyone ever worked for one? A few times. Yeah. We're all shaking our heads. Yes. Jamie. Oh man, she's a our heads. Yes. Jamie.

Starting point is 00:09:45 Oh man, she's a startup queen. Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment, y'all. She's masochistic. That's why. What would you say, Jamie, if someone were to say, oh, what's it like to work in a startup? Oh my God. So in almost every startup I have ever worked, this is also a corporate currentry phase that always gets used.

Starting point is 00:10:04 We're building the plane while it's flying. Oh, yeah. Because it literally is. Like, you're already running this company or it's doing whatever work it needs to do, but there's no infrastructure. So you're having to come up with things and put things in place. And for an HR piece, it might be putting a people system in place, or benefits, or policies and procedures. And you're having to come up with things almost as they

Starting point is 00:10:31 come up. You can't be proactive. It's always reactive at a startup, at least every startup I've worked in. I'd say that's common. And I've only worked for one, and it was quite the experience, a horrific experience to your point. You know, they had no idea what really they were doing. You know, they were becoming, right? It's so young and it's so early and you got to meet people where they are. But someone like me, you know, coming from only very established organizations, like 100 plus year old organizations, multiples of those.

Starting point is 00:11:06 That was a learning for me. And that's actually why I took the job. Because I was like, okay, let me go somewhere that doesn't know how to be. Right? Like, let me use everything that I know and apply it now in this sort of really raw environment. And boy, I tried, that's all I have to say. I mean, I tried, I really gave it my all, but every day was quite the learning experience. And it was overwhelming for someone like me that only been in that structured environment,

Starting point is 00:11:43 where people know how to be and things are predictable and consistent, there's process and systems and all of that. And then to go from that to literally the exact opposite, where people are making things up every day. And I mean, it is no literally like it's fake. Literally, you have to learn how to function in chaos. And being in HR is specifically for me, as I was a lot of the times the department of one for startups. So I was literally building the HR

Starting point is 00:12:12 department from the ground up. And it can be fun because you get to kind of put your own spin on everything. And it's also very overwhelming as I always joke too, it truly is blood, sweat, and tears. Like you're gonna cry because you have 12 hour days, sometimes longer. You're staying up overnight to make sure things get done. And it is not for the faint of heart, that's for damn sure. I'd say it's absolutely not. And some of what both you all touched on

Starting point is 00:12:39 are things that it's so important for people considering working in a startup, but also startups hiring to be realistic of what it's so important for people considering working in a startup, but also startups hiring to be realistic of what it's like and the profile that's not just likely to want to work there, but also be successful there because I do think it's like a very specific skill set. And so a lot of people are in the experience likely, like you're working, you know, established organizations and it's kind of ho hum.

Starting point is 00:13:03 And you tell people like, I want something exciting, I want some sort of challenge. And so you look at working in a startup, and a lot of people, because you see people can get really rich working in a startup. You start there, you have options or RSUs, which are restricted stock units, you have the, whatever it looks like, your equity piece, which people sometimes get, sometimes not. And so it's really important to understand, are you going to get that? Also important to understand, what does that look like? Because often you don't realize how very much

Starting point is 00:13:29 at the very bottom of the barrel you are, especially if you're not employee 1 through 10, but you're employee 173, and you think I'm going to get rich, but you don't realize that in the level of things. And often organizations won't share any of that documentation or information. And it's often lawyers that are behind that. But even just this aspect of like, I want growth and challenging those things and you

Starting point is 00:13:51 totally do until you get into it, especially if you're coming from like, like I said, like you're coming because you want this experience and organizations often startups, they're often looking because they're trying to do fundraising. So they want to show where they've been able to attract all this talent from. And they say talent, and they're thinking, I want someone with the biggest title from the biggest organizations they've worked with. That's all fine and good. Those people that have those big titles, all of a sudden they're working in that startup.

Starting point is 00:14:20 And even if you have, you know, even if you're a team of three or five, you have to do the shit. And it is overwhelming for people that either one, you don't know how to do this stuff because you've never done it. It's been a while you've moved into strategic HR and you never did the like spreadsheet type type things and you literally don't know how to do it. And that's and that can be a problem and have a lot of emotions. Or the bigger issue that I think oftentimes in startups is people don't want to do it.

Starting point is 00:14:47 Because you're like, I've done this work. I've reported to the CEO of a huge company. Now I'm at the startup. I'm not fucking working on a spreadsheet. And so that's an issue that I think people have to recognize for themselves. If you're thinking about working at a startup is to think, don't take it as a guarantee that you're going to get rich. Because the vast majority of people that go and work at startups do not strike it rich.

Starting point is 00:15:06 And so it's important to realize that you might, but more often than not, you're going to be building experience that you may look back on as the craziest professional part of your life, literally. I was really taken aback in my experience. I did not mind rolling up my sleeves because, especially being HR, there's so much admin, you know what I mean? Yeah. So that was not my issue with it.

Starting point is 00:15:31 Where I really struggled was is that I had to continuously inform and influence simultaneously. And that was exhausting for me. So what I mean by that is I would literally have to educate and teach explaining to the CEO what the functions do. And I'm doing like wide eyes off to the side. You can't see me, but I'm like WTFing over here. Here's what finance does. Like not kidding.

Starting point is 00:16:01 Oh, wait, there's a difference between accounting and finance. BTW. By the way, okay. And here's what HR does. Oh, and here's what operations is responsible for. And no, I don't do operational workforce planning in HR. What the f... I don't know the machines scheduled anyways. I'm not bitter, I'm just saying.

Starting point is 00:16:26 So there's like this constant informing along with influencing. And that is so exhausting because some of the things are just so obvious and some of them are legal matters, right? A great example is, hey, we do not have, this is a true story, EHS or EHNS or health and safety or whatever you call it, wherever you are. Hey, FYI, CEO, we do not have a safety function and that is dangerous. It's also required that we do. The states that we operate and some of the things that we're doing and working on and it's not funny at all, but there were just accidents left and right and people were so confused why they were happening.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Why did someone drive a forklift straight into the wall and on the other side of that wall was the break room? And thankfully no one was on break, right? Why are there no water fountains in our facilities? Why are there no functioning fire alarm systems in one of our buildings? That's illegal. Why are there no lights in the parking lot? Why is there no badging system? All of these things, and you have to explain that. So there's this thing called safety.

Starting point is 00:17:44 What the fuck? You know what I mean? Like you have to start there and it's hard for me just I think because of what my voice sounds like to not sound condescending when I'm explaining something, you know? And I really don't mean to. I've gotten that feedback. You're being condescending and I'm like shocked. Literally I'm not.

Starting point is 00:18:02 I'm just like trying to break it down. Like, I'm so sorry. It's just my voice, you know? But anyway, sometimes I am and you can fucking tell. But that's what was, that was hard for me is that constant informing plus influencing simultaneously and it was common sense shit to the highest level people. sent shit to the highest level people. At least for me, in an HR role, usually we see it and we automatically know that it has to be fixed.

Starting point is 00:18:34 I remember one time there were toilets installed without toilet seats. Oh, okay. I'm sorry, what? Me having to order toilet seats. Oh my god. What? Off of Amazon or what? Yeah, Home Depot. You had to buy like the industrial ones. But like... Did you install that shit? Did you install that shit too? You did, didn't you? No, no. I did not. I did not do that. But no one thought that we would need... The plant manager was like, well, I mean, you can still use it. Gee, what you? Sir, I'm a woman.

Starting point is 00:19:05 I do not want to put my bare-ass cheeks on a cold porcelain. On a rim. Yeah, no thank you. A porcelain rim. And I think that's where HR unfortunately takes up a lot of the slack, that we pick it up, because we see those very common, like the red flag things, like the safety issues or, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:27 and we're like, hey, wait, we got to do something about this or we need a policy for this, you know, and we're creating things on the fly. And that's where I think it's very hard in a startup is you really are constantly reacting instead of you're really it's hard to be proactive because you're always trying to fix something even if it's not you know like ordering toilet seats even if it's not necessarily in your JD you know but it's also like the cool thing about it is you have a lot of autonomy right you get to kind of create like I've been able to create my actual department and I got to hire the people on my team and I got to own my

Starting point is 00:20:07 function and do things, you know, that fit our environment at the time. But it was a lot of spreadsheets to manual tracking of shit manual of me because you physically don't have the tools. And then you're having to demo tools and systems and find out which ones are most cost effective. I think another thing that gets left out about startups is day one when that company was created, there was an idea of mind of what they wanted to do. It could have been, we're going to produce this thing. And so they set up the company of everything that they thought that they would require

Starting point is 00:20:51 for this. But as they started building this plane and it started, it took off and it's flying, they realized, oh, we actually don't need this whole department of 10 people that we hired. So there's a lot of rifts that occur and a lot of layoffs and that's really hard for HR because you probably hired them, you probably created the job descriptions, you know, based off of what you thought the model was. And now you're on the back end and you're like, fuck me. I don't, none of that actually works anymore.

Starting point is 00:21:24 I think it's absolutely true and that can be really gutting because to the point you often know people. on the back end and you're like, fuck me, I don't, none of that actually works anymore. I think it's absolutely true. And that can be really gutting because to the point you often know people. It is one of, I mean, some of the good aspects of startups, because some people are like, what? Yeah, what? There are some good things. I mean, there are times if you can work and get equity, it can be fantastic. And I know people that seem to have like the, I don't know what the Midas touches in the startup world, but like working successively. And so you get to know people, including across functions.

Starting point is 00:21:51 And so it is one of those places that in HR, it can be really hard because there's some people that, including maybe the founders that will look at you as like, you're costing me money, you're back office. And so it's especially important to do the inform aspect of like, these are the things that we can do to help to retain the people that you've worked so hard to recruit or had me work so hard to recruit.

Starting point is 00:22:11 And so you can do some of that informing, but also in addition to that autonomy, which people that really, if you think to yourself, which I do think it's important to think, what do I like doing? What do I not mind doing? What am I okay doing? And if you're okay doing this range of things, it can be a great place. Also, what does my lifestyle support? Because those founders, you know, I don't like it when people disparage a nine to five or eight to five or whatever you want to say generally, like, oh, this isn't a nine to five, like

Starting point is 00:22:38 as if something's wrong with that. I actually think there's a lot right with that. And I've personally I've mentioned before, experienced that and it changed my life. But sometimes you might be in whether it's a season of life or just your work life, whatever, that you don't mind working your ass off and are committed and knowing it's a risk of whether it's going to pay off or not. But you're willing to put that time in but it's really important to recognize that because if you're going into it, and you're not realizing your dinners are going to get interrupted your weekends, like it's important to recognize that because if you're going into it and you're not realizing your dinners are going to get interrupted, your weekends, it's important to know that going in. But also, all these people you're working with really closely, it's amazing.

Starting point is 00:23:13 If you look often, when someone leaves a startup, often they are taking people with them. If you work with people and you have that relationship, then often you can end up with this whole network that kind of carries you through your career because people go all sorts of places and all of the names of every startup. It's hard to pronounce them or look them up because it's like the I turns into a Y. There's lots of X. It's very incestuous.

Starting point is 00:23:38 Yeah, it's incestuous. All the spellings of them are like, you know. Velocity. Velocity. Velocity. Like, yeah. Yeah. The original, like the original was taken, you know, long ago by trademark law and domains. And so all of a sudden they're like, okay, well let's take a couple of vowels out. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:57 Add a Y and take the other vowels out. Like, how does, does that change things? It sure does. So you're always spelling it on sales calls, which is frustrating in a startup. But there are some benefits as well. I think the point of it is just important to really recognize what it looks like truly when you're like what that experience is like. And for you, what am I going to be successful at here? Or what am I going to start and be like, what the F? Yeah. Yeah, there definitely are some benefits. You all name quite a few of them. For me, what I did enjoy was that it was not bureaucratic at all. So I am not a fan of being micromanaged.

Starting point is 00:24:40 So I like to go ideate, innovate, and, you know, solve problems and just go about my business. And you can do that in a startup because everyone's so damn busy. No one has time to micromanage. You definitely ask forgiveness as opposed to asking for asking permission. There's no system to ask permission in anyway. Literally. You know? So people just expect to, you know, hey, they expect you to, if you see an issue, you just

Starting point is 00:25:12 go fix it, whether it's even in your function or not. Right? But it does give you an opportunity to problem solve and be creative, which is fun, be innovative. And I truly, truly enjoyed that aspect of the startup life. If you aren't getting that in your current role and you want to be creative, something to think about is changing. The business type that you're in there, perhaps a startup fits. I'm good though. I can't see myself ever going back to a startup. I'm gonna be honest with you all.

Starting point is 00:25:48 It was a little too lawless for me. Just a little bit. Look at Jamie, here she goes. Here she goes. Yeah, I'm like, God! You know, I'll be honest. I did step away from startups for a minute and it was like a large corporate hospital system.

Starting point is 00:26:06 And I was bored out of my fucking mind because everything is there. I couldn't create anything. I just kind of typed my little emails and I'm like, I felt like I had... Was too in control. Yeah, exactly. You know me. I am a sucker. So if it was the right thing, I might.

Starting point is 00:26:23 I love it. For me, it's that passionate founder. Every founder is different, right? Some startups are still founder-led, some aren't, whatever. It's all different scenarios. To the previous points there, they have a vision. Some of them may want to stick to it. It's funny sometimes looking at the structure, see what that founder's role is.

Starting point is 00:26:48 Because sometimes the founder is still the CEO. And again, what is your vision? How does it translate? Sometimes the founder moves into a chairman role or an advisor role. Look and see. And just getting a sense. But then get a sense, what does that mean? Because does that mean there's actually a CEO, but really another CEO? The title isn't CEO anymore. And getting a sense of that.

Starting point is 00:27:09 And if you're working in a startup now, hopefully it feels validating by hearing some of this. I've worked directly in startups, but I also work with a lot of startups with manager training. And it's helpful because I do have this manager training course, but these toolkits I customize to run training sessions. Some of the things I love putting in there for startups are things like that, of how do we drive innovation without driving people out the door, for example, and help managers have those conversations. And those can be really needed.

Starting point is 00:27:37 And I love talking to people that are in the HR people world. Often they have a team of one to five. And it's a very shared experience. And so there's some great industry network, startup support groups. Or not support groups. There are, I'm sure. Maybe, maybe they are.

Starting point is 00:27:53 But like networking type groups that can also be helpful for you if you're in a people role or even if you're outside of that. I do think it's helpful to recognize startups. It can be wild. And so it can be great to find networking and support in those resources groups. See, I love that segue into closing the session out perhaps with how do we as leaders, HR professionals, business professionals, employees of startups, everyone kind of has a hand in

Starting point is 00:28:24 this, how do we has a hand in this. How do we shape a healthier startup culture? I think that you have to start with the culture in general, if you can. I have seen too many leaders just want to gun hoe, gun it, and they want to build the product or do the thing. But you really have to build the culture early on because those people are going to be working their asses off for you and you creating the product or the service or whatever. So if you have a strong culture behind you, I think you're able to do all the things that

Starting point is 00:29:02 you want to do later on. And I think it's a real focus on bringing in those right people. I think, Ashley, you said it earlier where it's like, hey, you have got to be so honest with people that you're recruiting, like what the reality is of the place. Now, what I experienced is that when I was in recruitment for that startup position that I went into, see, they didn't even know that what they were experiencing was, in my opinion, abnormal, traumatic. Because that was all a lot of them knew, you know what I mean? But I do think it's really important to be careful who you hire, be honest when you're hiring, and protect that culture. Jamie, that's a really good point.

Starting point is 00:29:49 I think the one thing I'd say is that experience, the common places that I've seen startups fall on the employer side is often those leaders, including the most senior leader, maybe the founder, they don't realize how much they're trying to control people and how that can come off as judgy. And so the ways I'd phrase that are, in addition to everything we kind of talked about hiring and being honest, your people that work there, are they in meetings, do they feel like they can speak up without being put down? Because frequently you hear that founder criticizes an idea vocally and that person and everybody

Starting point is 00:30:23 else on the call is never going to speak up again. Are you creating that type of environment where people are able to contribute and grow because that's one of the benefits of a startup and that's how you can really maximize by having this. It doesn't mean everyone's idea is going to get adopted, but that probably is in addition to time off and the emphasis that people actually do need to be able to recharge because otherwise they will burn out spectacularly. That's a pretty common one with startups. But for me, I think that one real question of do people, including all levels of

Starting point is 00:30:52 the organizational ladder, feel like they can speak up without negative judgment? And that's a differentiator that I think more startups need to really flip and think about that. Yeah. I mean, for me, one of the first things I did when I went into the startup that I'm referencing was I brought in comms. Like I really pushed to invest in communication, because it just was not happening. And especially in such a ever changing, volatile, chaotic environment that especially an early startup, right can be people need information almost on the daily because everyone's running in circles and you want to make sure that people are

Starting point is 00:31:32 going all in the same direction. There's velocity, there's speed with a direction as opposed to just speed. So you have to be able to communicate those things. When no one is responsible for communications, simple even emails, I mean, all hands, whatever the case may be. Wow. I mean, it's just a flurry of activity. It's just a beehive. And people are stepping all over each other. There's work in triplicate. There's lots of frustrations and gossip gets weaponized. So back to the focus on the culture that Jamie was emphasizing,

Starting point is 00:32:09 comms really helps quell some of that fear and worry and frustration and all of this. But communications are always important, but I think more so in fast-changing environments like that. Anything else on startups or should we shift to some questions and comments? Questions and comments? Shift? Well, we'll take startups offline. Discuss it later. I tried. We will. Well done. I mean, Lee, you're really crushing that today. I have a comment. And this is sometimes I get questions because I'll, Lee, you're really crushing that today. I have a comment. And this is sometimes I get questions because I'll make videos, those that have seen at manager methods videos, I do

Starting point is 00:32:49 conversations with like Luke, this fictional boss who's who's actually the CEO of a startup tech company. He calls it a startup. It's been around for a while. And this is where my playwriting comes in if I love to have the whole whole story. And so Luke is CEO of a company called Quaint Tech, which of course is spelled K-W-A-N-A-I-N-T-T-E-C-H because all the reasons I said before, but they make AI enabled blankets. It was tech enabled blankets, but of course we've changed with the times. So it's AI enabled blankets. And so I have a whole website of QuaintTech.com. It is a real website that I created because I love a good domain. And so that, in addition to

Starting point is 00:33:31 the backstory of Luke, that's the organization we're working with. And so sometimes I like to joke and say, you know, we're just making AI enabled blankets. It's not life and death here, Luke. Speaking of AI, have y'all noticed that all of the AI companies' logos look like buttholes? Wait, I saw this the other day and I cannot unsee that. You can't unsee it, can you? Don't search for that on your work email, besties, please. Really? Yes. Now I'm going to search AI butt holes.

Starting point is 00:34:11 Like cat butt holes. All the logos are like circles, and they look like butt holes. Like circles and circles. I mean, look at chat GPTs. I don't want to look at that now. Now I go to chat GPT. Now I have to pull it up. We'll take that offline. Look, look at that. I really

Starting point is 00:34:27 like that. It does look like a, it looks like an infinity butthole or something. But when you put them all together, I'm telling you, I think this is what I saw. But again, don't look at this on your work email peeps. We don't need. I'll post it on HR Bestie stories. Yeah, perfect. Oh my gosh. Yeah, definitely take that offline. Oh my goodness. Not a question, but just a quick comment from me. And it's kind of a quick story. Startup life, I think one of the funniest things that I saw,

Starting point is 00:35:00 and I've got a lot of stories, I'll have to share some more here. There was a wall in the corporate headquarters that was dedicated to employee of the year. And every year since the beginning of the startup, the person that was in that frame picture was the CEO. That makes me want to throw a punch him. Like I want to be violent. The whole purpose of that is to not have the CEO. How many people took pictures of that to text it to people? I have it. Wait, wasn't one month like his dog too?

Starting point is 00:35:35 Yeah. I was like, yeah, his dog. She did a video years and years ago. And I remember being so irrationally angry at the CEO. You know, that tells you a lot about some startups. A picture does say a thousand gazillion words on that front. Narcissism, man. You got to love them. We've gotten some good anonymous ones over the time and they do seem to come from

Starting point is 00:36:02 startups and so, right? So If you want to drop those, you can go to HRBesties.com and drop those anonymously. You don't have to do your name. We don't know how to track IP addresses, so all set. But please share them. Lee, that is something. Yeah, share your startup stories. That's always fun, right? And we'll share them here, in our stories. That'll be good. Oh, startup life. If you're in one, hang in there. Bye besties!

HR BESTIES - HR Besties: Start Ups 101

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