Happy Thanksgiving…you’re fired
I was thinking about the holidays and how people who have been fired right before a holiday get more sympathy than just a normal firing.
I don’t get that. There is no good time or even better time to be fired. That’s of course is leaving out the possibility that you were fired after winning the lottery. I think that would be fine by me if I had won the lottery. I can’t think of too many situations where it would be better to be fired.
So why the extra sympathy?
Maybe being fired before a major holiday can put a major damper on that celebration. I can accept that. But that’s pretty much it, isn’t it?
Ah, well…all this hating on holidays makes me tired. Have a great thanksgiving, don’t get fired.
Your HR Guy hates holidays
Okay, maybe “hates” is a strong word. And really, I don’t personally hate holidays. But something has got to change.
“So how can you hate holidays you sick jerk?”
My readers are polite so maybe they wouldn’t ask something like that. In reality, holidays kill momentum in regular businesses* with the assuredness of a Dick Cheney hunting trip. And while regular holidays are usually strategically placed at the beginning or end of a week, the holidays in November, December and January give us no such luck. Thanksgiving is on a Thursday and Friday is often included. Even if you do require workers to come in on Friday, what are they going to get done? How many are going to bail on you?
This year, Christmas and New Years Day are on Tuesdays. Tuesdays! How inconvenient. So basically you get the Monday off (or you take it off) and you come back the day after and have three days. Then the next week, it is the same deal. The only days that could possibly be worse are a Wednesday or Thursday.
And during that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, sales and productivity goes down in most sectors except retail and grocery. Speaking from experience, working retail during the holidays is like getting bludgeoned to death by a wiffle bat. Not deadly at first but the constant barrage of hits leaves you bruised every single day.
Meanwhile, we are making fun of the French for taking an entire month off. Which would be fine if they didn’t pick a better time to take off than we do. And hey, at least they aren’t pretending to get work done.
I am not suggesting we turn into bagel eating business robots like Penelope Trunk (man, I really hope google picks up on that) but it seems like if I want to take a couple weeks off, I want to do it during a nicer time of the year. Really the only advantage to holidays is that everyone else has them off too. If I could just get that time and use it throughout the year, I think I would pick better days and assuming the wife could have the same advantage, we would coordinate that too. Assuming our entire family had that advantage, we could schedule a family get together at a much less stressful time. And we could assure more uniform productivity throughout the year.
Not that I am going to refuse the holiday though. My wife and I are going to one of the most beautiful places in the states to go hiking, see a museum, see a replica of a wonder of the world and probably drink our share of wine. But it isn’t because of the holiday, it is because of the common time off. And believe me, I would pick a better time of year to go if it were up to me.
Is Google (2008) turning into Microsoft (1998)?
No says Scott Berkun. But…
There are problems with any company growing large. A culture shift from going from small to big. Many people talk about how great rapid growth is and obviously rapid growth usually follows other good things (like growing sales and revenues). There is a dynamic culture shift happens when companies get bigger. But what is little studied is what happens to a large company that explodes.
That’s what happened to Microsoft in the 90’s and you saw their culture shift. You can see it starting at Google as their growth goes from aggressive to explosive.
What can HR do to help a company deal with this. Berkun has a good start of what not to do.
- Believing no one has been at the center of the tech-universe before.
- Inability to take a non self-centric view of the world.
- Depending on power and intimidation, more than intelligence and wisdom.
- Failing to find ways to stay humble & hungry while being dominant.
- Focusing more on beating rivals than satisfying customers.
- Underestimating how decisions will be received by the rest of the world.
And I like that list. I don’t think Google will go down that path but I think they were also lucky to see what has happened to other tech companies that forget what got them to the point where they became super explosive.
Dress codes should be unnecessary
But they aren’t.
We revised our dress code at work and I was reminded about how much I hate enforcing, creating and working with employee dress code issues. And even though we moved in a net positive direction (we decided to allow jeans for all employees), any sort of change always brings handfuls of questions to go along with it. How good do the jeans have to look? Do they have to be blue? What happens if I just have one rip, is that okay?
My automatic response to all dress code questions is just to say no. This takes care of most of the questions. I believe if you have to ask the question, the answer is probably no.
No, there is no scientific reason or study behind it. Just a bit of experience.
Now people that decry dress codes are typically people that have never worked for a company that doesn’t have a dress code. And in my experience, that is scary.
I worked for a place that did telephone surveys. Mainly we did surveys for governments, educational institutions and broad consumer products. There was no dress code. You could wear whatever you wanted. And it showed.
And it was awesome. At least for me personally. I showed up to work in my pajamas, bathrobe, slippers, stocking cap and gloves (it was snowing and cold). That’s convenience (no changing clothes).
What wasn’t awesome was what other people wore. Including the middle aged lady that wore short shirts with jelly rolls around her stomach. Or the guy that came to work every day after the gym in his sweaty outfit stinking the place up for the entire shift. Or the guy that has so many holes in his t-shirt (the same one he wears every day, stains and all), you thought they were made on purpose for the copious amount of hair he had all over his torso. Last but not least, the 16 year old that dresses like a dancer (and I don’t mean no ballerina).
So yes, workplace policies, like the laws of our country, are made because of bad people in the world. Regardless of legality, I am doubting that most people would steal or murder people. There still needs to be a law about it. About 90% of the people at the survey place dressed appropriately but the 10% were just so awful, it deserved a policy.
Luckily, I am in a place where that is a reality.
Happy (Belated) National Boss Day
So I forgot to write about National Boss Day yesterday and I feel kind of bad about it. After all, the boss is a pretty important person. Someone who is up there as far as power is concerned but always looking out for us working class folks. The boss sticks up for us and has never let us down (maybe in the early to mid 90’s but that was a tough time for everyone). Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to the boss for writing all those great songs like “Born in the USA” and …
Wait, what?
National Boss Day is actually about your actual boss (not The Boss, Mr. Bruce Springsteen). That’s too bad because that probably would have been my best post to date.
So if you are reading this today and you forgot to tell your boss how special they are, you might as well forget it now. You don’t want to be late on this like you are late on everything else. And you know why they say there is no “National Employee Day”, right? Because every day is Natio…
Alright, I guess that’s what Labor Day is all about. But now you know the difference because Labor day is a national holiday and National Boss Day is just a random Tuesday that isn’t about Bruce Springsteen.
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About
Your HR Guy is a Human Resources Generalist practicing in the field. But don't let that fool you, this isn't a boring blog. I seek relevance and humor in a place we will spend much of our lives. Everything from workplace issues, job seeking and terrible bosses. Read more...
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