HR BESTIES - New Year, Same You?

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Today’s agenda:  A** itching Cringe corporate speak: “Fleshed out”  Meeting hot topic: New Year, Same You? How to not make the year a sh*tshow Are we making New Year’s Resolutions?  Our practical tips for goal setting and starting year strong What happens when companies that don't do goals? Questions/Comments  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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ass itching hands. All right, ass itching hands. I once had somebody come into my office very, very upset because at lunch, they were in the salad bar line. And the person in front of them, using the tongs, right, took his hand, stuck it down the back of his pants to itch his ass, and then proceeded to, you know, put his salad together. And this person is watching this in absolute horror.

Absolute horror. And then proceeds to come to my office to freaking tell me about it. Like, what can I do about someone's ass itching hand? Right? I mean, come on. I mean, that is HR. Okay. What did you do about someone's ass itching hand, Lee? I said, what the fuck you want me to do about someone's ass itching hand, like 20 minutes in the future? I mean, did you continue to eat the salad? You know what I mean? Like, what do you do? But one thing I did do was I made a TikTok video about it. Of course.

Of course. I have a meditation. And then they proceeded to put their ass itching hand. Like, it sounds like that. You have to go find it. But yeah, ass itching hands in the workplace. Have you ever experienced an ass itching hand in the workplace? Well, you guys know from season one, I had someone who I had to tell to wash their ass, their nooks and crannies.

But I would think like the person who complained probably immediately lost their appetite. Like I couldn't. That was my number one question. Did you still eat the salad? Yeah. Well, did you make the salad? This is my challenge of some of the things like that someone goes to tell HR and I'm like, OK, let's play this out. How's this going to go? So let's say that the person had told you Lee, and then you

go to this individual in either two things. One, they're going to deny it and be like, I didn't itch my ass. Or, and then, then what? Get the security camera footage because that's exactly, that's going to be the next step. Let's pull the footage. And so all of a sudden it is Encyclopedia Brown. Let me smell your hand. Yeah. Ew. You are Lee SVU trying to, or the person says. Let me sniff your fingers. Oh, oh, who told you about this? Because I know that you were not there. And so someone couldn't in the moment say something to me. And so now you're supposed to have this conversation.

And that sounds awkward as a mofo. And so I think people think, I'm going to go report this and be done with it and not to have to have involvement. But of course, the person who's, you know, touching their ass is going to come back to you and be like, couldn't say something about it in the moment. I just think people think that HR is like the solve and can do that. But if I saw it, like I would not eat the salad because I wouldn't make the salad. I would say, excuse me, sir, you just touched your ass with those hands. Please go wash them.

And then the tongs. Yeah. Yeah. And then you'd probably get written up for something else. But what I've learned working in HR and how I did handle that situation is that, no kidding, 90% of the time, people just want someone to talk to, right? They just want someone to listen. So it's like me just there like, oh, okay.

So then what happened? He stuck his hand on the back of to listen. So it's like me just there like, oh, okay. So then what happened? He stuck his hand down the back of his pants. He itched his ass. He dug in deep. Okay, great. Thanks for that visual. And he pulled it out and then he grabbed the tongs for the spinach. So you decided to have romaine. Okay, got it. Thank you so much for that beautiful visual. Thank you so much for that beautiful visual. I hope you enjoyed your salad. I have to say, I have a hard time imagining someone that would like touch their ass with their hand choosing a salad. Like if that was me, I would think.

Not the salad type, right? No. That's what I'm a little bit hung up here is thinking I would think they'd be going to the chili station, the burger station, Taco Tuesday. But salad bar, really? Well, maybe that's the thing is they had that yesterday. And so now they got a pipes issue. So they're in the salad bar. These pipes are clean, right? Oh, stop.

That's too much. Always a day in HR. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of HR Besties. I think real quick, let me just run through the agenda for this staff meeting here today. We're going to move into some cringe corporate speak, of course. We love talking about the cringey things we say at work. And then we're going to go into our hot topic. And the hot topic today is New Year, same you. So it is January for us here on this podcast episode. And then, of course, we are going to end our meeting as we always do with some questions and comments. And so we do have a hard

stomp. So let's dive right in. Jamie, you are up for cringe corporate speak. Yeah. So today it will be fleshed out. Ew. Yeah. Gross. So funny story. I was actually at a company very briefly recently, and it was very high level human capital management. And so we had a lot of consultants in and the consultants loved corporate speak. But one in particular loved using fleshed out. And every time he said it, my body would shudder. And every time he said it, my body would shudder.

Like, can we not just use a different corporate, like flesh? I don't know. I guess I think of a fleshlight. Wait, what did you say? Like a flashlight? No, don't, don't. You haven't heard of that, Ash? Oh, my God.

Don't, don't, don't, Jamie. Do not describe it. No, I can't. No, do, do, do. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hold on. I'm not watching this stuff. Okay, go Google. She's Goog. No, I can't. No, do you? No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. Hold on. I'm going to Google. She's going to Google. She's Googling now.

You can't see the video. We are not going to describe it because people could be listening. Jamie's taking a live photo of Ashley Googling Fleshlight. But people may be listening to this podcast in the car with their children. You're at work. You know, not suitable for work. Okay, she goes, oh! If you heard the little cry there.

I thought it was just your accent. No, no. She's Tennessee, so I can say that. I am a redneck. No, it is a thing. No, it is a real thing. So somebody learned something today. What a flashlight is. There's one called Alien Queen. Okay.

Jamie, continue with your cringe corporate speak. We're going to all try to use fleshed out, not flesh light. Yeah, not flesh light. We're going to try to sneak it in. That's not. After those visuals, that's not. Okay. What would you say? I always

like to give a do with a don't. So if people are about to say fleshed out, what would you have them say instead? You know, actually, I think that's a really good point because I was thinking about that every time he said it. So give it substance. I think that that like because it's almost like or build it out or it depends on what kind of we analyze this yeah i mean i just i don't know what it is but i'm not kidding every meeting this man said it in and it like literally made my body shut and that's what it means right like let's like investigate something deeper yeah yeah let's get more yeah let's figure it out because i like i guess where I've worked or my region, I don't know. Right.

Like, we don't use that. So it's like I have. Yeah. What do you say in Texas? I mean, I still have always been in global teams. I've never heard a French person be like, look, let's shop. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's not a thing, you know.

And you got to be careful with all that vernacular and adages, especially with global teens, because they're always looking at you like, what the heck? This person's crazy, you know? But I just have not come across flushed out. Yeah, and this was like, this man was a boomer. So I wonder if it was an elder gentleman. I don't know.

An old school consultant thing to say. I don't know. He probably just heard a boss say it, like most consultants. He probably heard a boss say it. Like most consultants, he probably heard a boss say it, and now he's going to repeat it, you know, be a little good soldier and say it in verbatim and feel like

that brings a level of intelligence, because that's what tends to happen. And I truly do not believe that like a millennial or like a Gen Z would say that because it's too close to fleshlight. Yeah, I say fleshlight more than fleshed out. Yeah, okay.

Good job. I have a lot of questions. But I would like for, we'll have this, listening, if you're global, either if you're global and you work with people

from the U.S. and they say terms and you're like this, think about it, doesn't make sense, send them to us. Yes, please. Hello at hrbesties.com.

You can always send us or go to our site hrbesties.com and there's places for you to submit your even anonymous tales. Yeah. But I love some of those global type things that are so funny. Or like if you're in the U.S. and global colleagues say it and you're like, I don't know what they're talking about. Yeah, it happens all the time. That's fun stuff. Sure does.

on to hot topics. Our hot topic today is all about new year resolutions, all about new year's goals, all about how do we start 2024? You believe we're in 2024. I feel old as shit for the record. But how can we start this year off on a bang? How can we have a successful year? All of the things around new year stuff, right? Let me ask you this real quick. So maybe it's January, maybe early February. People are listening to this. What's your cutoff date for when you can stop saying Happy New Year? Like when you say Happy New Year.

The first week. Okay. Oh, really? Like what date specifically? January 8th. Okay. We're seven days in. It's a full week.

See, my bitch ass be in March and I hadn't talked to someone for four months and I'm like, hey, 2024, can you believe it? And it's like March 16th or something, you know what I mean? St. Patrick's Day and someone's birthday. Well, St. Patrick's Day is the 17th. I like to have a two-day celebration. St. Patrick's Day and someone's birthday. Well, St. Patrick's Day is the 17th. I like to have a two-day celebration. But have you ever seen the Larry David skit on Suburban Enthusiasm?

No, no, no. My husband is Larry David in this, and he heard me on like January 5th say to someone like, Happy New Year. And he was like, knock, knock. He's like, uh-uh. No, no, no. The time has passed for that. Yeah.

You need to stop. So I will probably say it well through April. So you will hear in the season two finale, I'll still be greeting everyone a happy new year. So I apologize for hijacking the meeting, which is probably good. So let's parking lot that. Yeah. Okay.

Thank you, Ashley. Which is the opposite of fleshing it out. That is part, is the parking lot. Yep. I'm going to move on. Oh gosh. So the key question here in this staff meeting is, do you all make resolutions? Is that a thing?

I mean, I personally don't. I've kind of always been the kind of person that I don't think I need a new year to start off resolutions. A lot of people do, maybe to stop drinking or working out. I like putting goals on. So I have goals for 2024, but they're not resolutions. They're not like things I'm giving up or doing differently. You know, if I want to do something, I feel like you should do it at any time during the year and not have the excuse of a new year. That's just me personally. What about you, Ashley? I think I probably do some resolutions. I love a good activity. And so thinking about it, I try to have like my family or friends, I'll be like, you know, especially with family, like, what do you think, you know, what do you think for this year? No one wants to participate in that like I do. But I do, I try to, probably goals is a better way of thinking about it. better way of thinking about it. But I try to put them into buckets of like physical health,

mental health. I think about some of the, like some of the things that drive me crazy if I'm like thinking about things too often. And so I do try to be really intentional, map that out. And I have a, I love a dry erase board. And so I have a dry erase board in my, in my office and we'll put those things on there. And then I try to look at it again before, you know, December. Yeah. Yeah. So you take that time to reflect. I do. I try to be like, again before, you know, December. Yeah. Yeah. So you take that time to reflect. I do. I try to be like, I'm not a big... Which is good. Yeah. Like I'm not a, I've never been a real meditative person. I tend to be, Jamie and I know this, I tend to kind of like move at full speed, cruise ahead. And so I try to make myself. So for me, having the calendar helps me to take that pause and kind of just think about the things I've done. What do I want for this coming year? Having been a lawyer, the start of the new year was like very traumatic because you have to start your billing, your time billing all over. And that was no fun. And so I'm glad not to be

in that life. But I do like this kind of turning the page for myself. How about you, Lee? Yeah. So I don't think I've ever really been one to make formal resolutions. I'm a little bit about Jamie in the sense that, you know, I can change who I am or do what I want whenever I want, kind of that sort of control thing. But I'm also very much so like Ash in the sense that like I'm super reflective, like all the time, right? Just wondering, and I believe that you can't accomplish anything if you don't write it down, you know? So I'm one of those journal whores with like all these to-do lists and the vision board and all of that, you know, but I don't do resolutions. I do love assigning a word to the year. Have you heard of that? So last year, my word was

connectivity. And I define that in different ways. So last year, my word was connectivity. And I define that in different ways. And this year, my word is action. But then I'm so ridiculous. I keep going back and forth. Like, should I change that word to discipline? Because I need that to do the action, I find. Because I'm like a squirrel, squirrel. Something shiny.

I want to go do that. I want to go do this. But I do that word of the year thing. I like that. And I think before connectivity, it was growth. And, you know, so like every year kind of has a name, you know, for me, which helps because then I'll just, well, maybe it doesn't help my mental health, because then what I do is I just keep adding goals that align to that. Yeah. In our group chat, I think we all shared our goals for 2024. And a lot of them were, obviously, some of them were HR bestie based. Some of them were our personal brands based. Some of them were truly personal or even our family goals. So I love the idea of having a word. I think my word would be fleshed out.

Look at this. We're just at the top and you're already hitting that, Jamie. Crossing off a to-do. I really do like, not the fleshed out. I really do like that idea. And I'm like, obviously I've only had a minute to reflect, but I really want to come up with a word for this year. Yeah. What are some of your best practices? Do you have any best practices like that kick off the year strong or? So I have, I do like to do to-do lists. And so I make a to-do list, but I make it very doable for myself. And so two things that I do that I have my to-do list, I've now had this for a few years, is a page a day calendar to turn, I write cow. So I get a page a day calendar.

The page a day calendar that works the best for me is the thousand places to see before you die because it's travel pictures from all over the world. Every once in a while, it's somewhere I've been. And so that's good memories. A lot of times it's aspirational. And so I have some of them, like there's this, oh my God, like village in Japan.

It's like snowy village that like, I will go there one day. Cherry blossom. Nose a little colder, but it's like skiing. You know, I like, I learned to ski later in life. And so, but it's, so I have those, some of those things up of like, oh, that's where I want to be. And so, but one of my to-dos is the calendar. Another is, I read this book, Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie. That's like, it's kind of like meditations. Whenever I post it, I get DMs from people that I swear,ody Beattie. That's like, it's kind of like meditations. Whenever I post it, I get DMs from people that I swear, I just love it. It's like, and I have a page long and it just really resonates with me. And when I finish it, I start it over. And so some of those are like to-do lists that I do. And then it's just trying to tackle the productive things. Every day, I try to do something now that I have a business

that will make the organizations I work with to make their manager's lives easier. And that's one of my goals. I write like manager easier, which maybe if I like collapse in the middle of a workday, my to-do list is going to look very strange. But that's as I think about it in that framing, that helps me to have that level of action. And so I try to tackle those activity type things at the beginning of the day. You guys? I think being in HR for as long as I have, I always start the day with good intentions. But this has bled over into my personal life. So, you know, you start the day and you have these plans and you know what you're going to work on. I mean, this could be personal, like,

I know I need to do three loads of laundry today because tomorrow I'm going to be completely out of pocket or whatever, you know, but there's fires and there's always fires you got to put out and you get real line. So I think for me, I've, it's really truly been pivoting, but I've gotten really good at pivoting. And so that's not, that's not the greatest answer, but that's not, that's not the greatest answer, but that's the, that's the truth is as, as I have to pivot a lot, not only in my personal life, but like really more in my professional life than anything else. Yeah. I mean, I think for me, it's important to write things down. You know, as I mentioned, I don't think anything can be accomplished unless you write things down. And so I'm less

resolutions based and maybe more goals based. Maybe we can have the argument, some existential argument on are those really the same thing or not? But when it comes to the new year and just the hype with the new year, you know, I get kind of indignant because I think, you know, why do I need a resolution? Because nothing's wrong with me. You know, there's always ways I can grow and there's always ways that I can be better, but God, I don't need to like necessarily stop doing something or I don't need to do this, you know?

So I choose to do goals, but what's fascinating to me is all the personal kind of attention that everybody really a lot, the majority of people give to creating goals or resolutions at the beginning of the year because it's a new beginning and it starts fresh. But what is shocking to me are all of the organizations that don't do that and expect to be successful. And so that's what I have seen are organizations not cascading goals,

not creating goals, bosses not having goalsading goals, not creating goals, you know, bosses not having goals, people not having professional goals, whatever the case may be, and expecting to have a successful outcome for the year. Does that resonate? I see you all like shaking your heads like, oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, I recently started a new position and I have so many goals for the new year and I just keep adding to the list things I want to accomplish. And I'm so excited that I just happened to change jobs again at the beginning of a new year that I'm able to kind of like jump in. And one thing we're putting into place, my boss and I, we're going to start making KPIs. And I hate, I'm sorry, I hate KPIs.

Some people may not know what that means. So define it. Key, oh God. Performance indicators. I was going to say like I. Sorry. I didn't mean, I just want to.

Yeah. We got you best. We got you best. Well, because it's funny because I've at my last company, they were called WIGS, Wildly Important Goals. That's cute. And then, yeah, every company names them something different. But anyway.

Yeah, that's true. My boss and I are going to be setting up KPIs for our staff too. And that's like one of the first things we're going to be working on. But I'm excited about that because they've never had that before. So, and I'm really big about metrics and because I think that puts the responsibility on the employee themselves, if they're able to measure their own metrics. So like they might not have a fancy dashboard that tells them what their turnover is, you know, for that month, but maybe there's something else that can be measured and they can kind of have that ownership and they can check it every month. And that's another thing

that I always suggest is start like a working document in January and write down what you do every month. What are your wins? What were you able to complete each month? So then at the end of the year, you can look back and reflect on what you've actually accomplished in the year. Because I tell you, when you get to December, you can't remember what the hell you did in January. Well, and it's good for those beat down days that, you know, the, the, you start your day with all the good intentions and, you know and the road to hell is paved with good intentions. A colleague gave me that advice, which is a real truism.

But I have always had an email folder or at some point I started this called positive emails. Some people have a code, other people call it something differently. But when you get that positive feedback is putting it in there. So when you have a beat down day, you can glance at it

and remember that you are a very capable individual. Yes. Even if you don't feel like that. Yes. Kudos. Like a kudos folder. Yeah. Always makes me feel better.

Yeah. I like a kudos bar as well. Speaking of like millennial misery. Yeah. Please bring those back. I love kudos. We beg you. But yeah, I think it's so important because it's for those beat down days,

but you kind of forget. Like I remember I was, I was at a company for five years and I had put stuff in there, you know, throughout my time, but looking back, reading it when I was leaving, I was like, I was crying because you just, you forget. Yeah. And, and that goes back to a season one episode that we did where we talked about, it's so easy to just say thank you, but not enough people show gratitude for the simple things. Yeah. Well, from the organizational standpoint, I think something organizations can do is really to think about that individual. The organization is made up of individuals that are coming to work. They have these personal things, whether they've made resolutions or not.

They're trying to get things done. And so they need some level of direction. So to Lee's point, people often don't have that direction. And so what really was my origin story to get into HR was a study that Gallup had done in connection with a company called CEB, now owned by Gartner. It's where I worked out of college, CEB. But the study was about all the drivers of employee engagement. Well, coming into doing this, I'd gone to liberal arts school. I was like, pay people.

That's, you just pay people. And pay works towards retention, you know, keeps people in their job. But when you think about like when you come to work and whether you care about things, it's, it is so much more. It's, you know, your experience, your autonomy, your manager, and so they were looking at all these, you know, very pretty bar charts. And the number one driver of employee engagement in that, and that research is still quoted to this day, it was written up in Harvard Business Review. That number one driver was if your direct manager explains how your role and your success impacts the organization's success. And I say what that looks like. Some people listening may have that, this may be in your vocabulary.

Other people listening may think, I don't talk to people about like your success and things. So use it in whatever, whatever terms you want. That's real talk. Like your job, this is why it matters. And if you come and you do this, this is how, this is how it helps. And if you come and you don't, this is, this is the impact it has. And so other people may have to jump in or these things may make a delay, but like your, like when you are successful or when you do well at your job, and people sometimes don't have a sense of that. And so this goals, one of the things to Lee's point is either organizations don't do it because they just assume everyone knows what they're supposed to do. And that assumption does not end up in good places. The second is that like, you know, analysis paralysis, you know, people love the good,

you know, whatever, grime, I guess, but is organizations that we're thinking about organization goals, we're thinking and we'll cascade that. Well, that, that, that what should be a waterfall is a slow ass moving brook that it's like September and people are like, oh, tell me about our 2024 goals. And so being decisive and thinking about what really matters and explaining to all, like from a pattern is, is from an organization, be decisive, come up with your goals and explain to all employees. These are specifically our goals. This is why. Because the why also like 10% revenue.

Okay. Why is that? Is that because the CEO wants to buy a seventh vacation house? Why does that matter? What are employees going to see if we meet those goals? And then to your teams, this is how, what you do. If you are in HR, we'll come up with systems, FAQs to help people find things, everything that you can actually practically do to explain to people how they can meet those goals

and how that matters. That step just isn't done. And so I so encourage in HR thinking about helping managers facilitate those conversations with their team. Think about everybody on your team and if they do well, why does that matter? And if you've never had the conversation, tell them that. I wish I'd had the conversation when you started, but now I'd rather have it than not saying anything. So let's start that. That's my tip for everyone listening, whether in HR or otherwise. That is totally spot on, Ashley. You know, I have personally supported multiple, sadly, CEOs that did not do goals for themselves, for their leaders, for the entire organization. And to your point about assumption, if you assume that people

even know what their job is in an organization. But if you're making the assumption that they know what the business itself is trying to accomplish and what they should be doing, they do not. They need that direction. They literally need that direction. They crave it. They want it. They want to know the why. They want to know their impact in the organization. want to know the why, they want to know their impact in the organization. All these things have to be communicated and communicated well and communicated a million times throughout the year. There's no such thing as over communication in the workplace. I've never seen it happen anyway. Typically, we just really, really suck at communications, right? But it is so important for somebody's personal professional success, but also the collective success. And so if you make the assumption that your CEO knows what

they're doing, they don't. They need support and counsel as well. If you give it and say, hey, why don't we try on goals this year? And they don't, you know, they say, ah, those are useless. Ah, everybody should know. Ah, every, you know, this and that. It starts with you. Like be that change. Like you as a leader, you as an individual contributor, create those professional goals for yourself then if you don't get that at work, right? And then if you're not getting that from your boss, if you are a leader, influence your peers, your peer leaders to do the same if you don't have that in the organization, because it's really, really powerful. People are defining what their roles are for themselves. And what you'll

see is every single person in your organization moving in a completely different direction, not in sync, not aligned like whatsoever. You can tell this drives me crazy, you know, because I've seen it happen. It's like, duh, have a goal, right? You do it for yourself. You want to lose weight? God, well, what do you want to do at work? I think one way to actually to make that come in practice and one exercise that I've done working with organizations is to have them have meetings with another department. And so a lot of times you have these meetings within your own team, maybe your own department, and you really are thinking about yourselves almost as an island. But if you are in HR, meeting with finance, meeting with IT or marketing, but having these

meetings and generally having two functions at a time so that you can really go back and forth, but build those relationships, but have people, including not just the CMO and the CPO, but have even junior people and talk about it to say, these are our goals. This is what we're trying to do. And have those conversations because what tends to come out of those is you having a much different understanding of what that person's job is and them having a much different understanding of yours, building those relationships, but actually making progress to thinking about how can you support. And the outcome of that frequently is having more ongoing meetings with departments. But if you have to tell someone that doesn't know

your job what your job is and articulate it, it's a lot harder than you think. But it's also really, really important. And so that's an exercise I encourage you trying. So I'm curious to have people try that and let us know how that goes. Because I do think that that can shake things up and find success in that. A lot of times, you know, when managers approach us about, you know, putting someone on a PIP or some kind of progressive discipline, the first things I'm going to ask is I'm going to be like, okay, what goals did they have? What metrics did they not hit? And when you as a leader tell me, oh, they don't, they're just not doing this, I'm probably going to be like, no. You have to set clear goals and standards and metrics for not only positions, but I'm telling you, if people don't know where to hit, they're not going to be able to do their jobs and do their job successfully.

I've always snarkily said, is that a word, snarkily? It can be. It can be. But whenever a leader would come to me like, I want to fire this guy, you know, oh, well, any documentation? No. And then I would always like sarcastically say, well, they're my best employee. They look at me all pissed off. Yeah. Wait, what? And I was like, gosh, I mean, look, incredible performance. There's nothing to say. Let's look back at 2023 performance review. Not a mention of anything you're talking about here. We will have to flesh this out in an upcoming episode, I think.

This is more than a hard stop. Exactly. Exactly. No, I love that. All right. So to the point, we do have a hard stop today. We all have places to go and people to see. So any questions or comments? And I know that I have one for you all, if I may. So not a comment, but a quick question. What are your ins and outs for 2024? I keep seeing that like what's in for 2024? What's out for 2024? So what's in for you all? What's in for me is Gen Z's like breathing new life into the corporate scene and really having that firm personal life, business life, and that hard stop. Boundaries. I love it. Yeah. Healthy boundaries. That's what's in.

Yeah. I like that. My in is a little bit on the flip side of hiring older workers who have that knowledge and using their expertise and also having them to teach others at work, not just about their jobs, but also their career lessons and things that they've learned along the way. Because I think those conversations don't happen enough and there's so much fear about age discrimination. And so I think having this balance and finding ways for people to learn from each other. So mine is a yang. Yang? To your yin? Yeah. I flip side. Lee, is a yang. Yang? Do you hear yang?

Yeah. I flip side. Lee, what's your yin? I like that. Well, I do love the healthy boundaries. That's definitely one of my yins for this year. And boy, do I love Gen Z and all that they bring to the workplace.

But what's always in for me is treating people with respect and dignity in the workplace. Can I get a witness? Okay. Like that, it just, it does not happen often enough. And I always, one of my little coaching sayings is respect is honesty. Honesty is respect. And so not bullshitting people at work. Boy, you sure go a long way in that relationship building. So that's what's in for me. Conversely, what's out? What is out for us in 2024?

What is out for me is outdated ATS systems that make you, you upload your resume and then you have to completely fill out your entire job history. We got to do better, guys. We got to. Honestly, fuck you if that's how you, I mean, I'm not even kidding. I'm going to quit in the middle of that application. I'm not applying. You don't deserve me. I say this. I say this.

One of the things with HR is to have CEOs go through the job application process because I bet you a gazillion dollars, and I'll ask Jamie and Lee to cover for me if anyone calls me on this, but to have a CEO go in your C-suite, do that in the leadership team meeting and have them go through the application process in the middle of a leadership team meeting and have their feedback. Because I bet a lot of them have not gone through that process. And when you think about like friction in the sales process, you know, I'm too familiar with that term. But friction in the application process, they will be shocked. Shocked.

The CEO needs to flesh it out. Oh, there we go. I like that. I still think, I laughed that I thought you said flesh. Fleshlight. I'd say for me, that's out is, is delegating things to other people without some sense. Some of this is the layoffs that we're continuing to see and the calls that get recorded that go terribly. Often, you know, an HR business partner who's, you know, trying to make it as good as possible. And then some leader that the person doesn't know. And I, at times you feel for those people because they're put in this position to have, and they're just, they're totally set up to fail. And it's a terrible experience for that

employee that's having this devastating impact. And so thinking holistically about the human lens of the decisions that you make, especially the ones that are leading to job loss. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll say what's out for me and it's been out for me for my entire career, but it continues for 2024 and that is toxic bosses. Toxic bosses are so out for me. I'm absolutely a toxic workplace survivor and I've had a handful of toxic bosses and it's such a weird kind of like feeling I feel because in one way, I'm totally grateful for having the experience of being air quotes led, managed, air quotes, by a toxic boss, because those individuals have taught me everything not to be. And boy, did I pay attention. And boy, did I listen. And so in some sense, I'm so grateful.

And then kind of on the swing side, though, is that I should have never had to experience that trauma to learn. That was not fair to me. That was so gross that that had to happen to me in these multiple instances. And so what I say is that toxic bosses are so out. If you have a toxic boss, just know that you do not deserve that. You don't deserve to learn from trauma. And I hope that you craft not deserve that. You don't deserve to learn from trauma. And I hope that you craft that exit strategy and you have an absolutely beautiful 2024 like you deserve. So is it new year, same you? Because if it is, that is freaking gorgeous. You are enough. So hard stop, right?

Well, I have a question. I do have a question. Oh, yes. It's very related to our topic for New Year. It's a quick question. But if you were going to Times Square for New Year's, would you like chance it and break the seal and look for a nearby restaurant to go to the bathroom? Or would you wear an adult diaper? You can't do that. What do you mean?

They do not let you out. Once you're in that thing, people are literally wearing diapers and pissing themselves. Well, okay. So that's the choice. For like 10 hours. Okay. Well, but would you- Did you realize that? They do. You can. Clearly not. Would you wear, what? Yes. Never. I will never. Oh my dear God. I will go to Times Square 364 to 365 days a year, depending on the leap year. I will never go on New Year's saying that. What? But okay. So would you wear a diaper or would you just chance it? I mean, I would wear a diaper the leap year. I would never go on New Year's saying that. What? Okay, so would you wear a diaper or would you just chance it? I mean, I would wear

a diaper. No, actually, I would wear a shiwi. What? Oh, my gosh. A shiwi. Google it. Oh, another thing. Google it. Google it. What would you wear, Lee? What would I wear to Times Square? Well, we already know you're prepared because we all know

when we pack for travel, we pack about 10 pairs of underwear for one night. Exactly. Just in case. Like I'm going to shit myself. But what would you wear an adult diaper or just chance it? Well, I would not be in Times Square for New Year's just for the record. Only because I love to sit. Yeah.

I love to sit, y'all. We can have some chair pants. I mean, I'm 5'11". That's a lot of weight to just kind of hold around. You know what I mean, I'm 5'11". It's a lot of weight to just kind of hold around. You know what I mean? And so I just can't stand there for 10, 12 hours. But I mean, I don't really see myself pissing myself in public if I'm not drunk. I mean, you know, so I mean, but it really depends. And then do you change your depends? Does someone change your pant before you if you use your pant?

I tried to. Once I was running. Do you wear a skirt? Well, once I was doing a 5K while I was very pregnant. I sound a lot more ambitious than you. Oh, you pissed yourself. Well, no, I didn't. But I prepared so I got some adult diapers and I put one on and it wasn't going to be comfortable to run in because like I could probably stand away or just standing around, to be honest with you.

But when I was running, also, you could hear it. And so I practiced. You had a crotch windbreaker on. Exactly. And I was thinking, oh, my God, back and forth. Well, I'm pregnant. Nobody will judge me. Well, they actually they absolutely will.

So I decided not to wear it. And so I finished the race in record time and ran right to that nasty porta potty. Actually, it absolutely will. So I decided not to wear it. And so I finished the race in record time and ran right to that nasty porta potty. Actually, it was Minneapolis. It was very clean. But yeah, adult diapers. I probably wouldn't stand around if I was going to Times Square. But again, I would not because that's a long time. That's good.

So you fleshed it out. I fleshed it out. I thought that was related. New Year year same me oh i know right exactly new year same you which again is a beautiful thing oh my gosh well thank you so much for joining us on this episode of hr besties we do have a hard stop so we better end this meeting now but until next time