Pie Night Clarity

Wow... what a night.

A night of mayhem, madness, excitement, order and anarchy, and let's not forget, pride and fun and smiles.

That was my night tonight. I attended my son's first football club meeting, in the form of a jumper presentation and pie night (A great Aussie tradition). It was Zach's first involvement in a footy club, and his excitement all week in the lead up, seemed justified with his facial expressions as he took the whole thing in. The highlight for him (and his apparently very proud Dad) obviously being presented with his first "real" football playing jumper, and a great kit bag full of stuff from the AFL and its sponsors nab. (I'm not endorsing nab, however the amount of money they must pour into this astounds me. If every junior club and every junior player got the same stuff, well, let's just say WOW!)

Another thing struck me, being in attendance tonight. How many people, freely give up their time for others. This is a volunteer/honorary organisation, run by people who just believe in it, and who want to contribute. Amazing!

I have always been pretty protective with my time. I find it hard to give more to anyone, as I save what I don't use for work for my immediate family. My parents were always there for me, I saw my Dad every night, he was always home for dinner, Mum was there every afternoon after school, and Dad attended every single sporting event I had as a kid (which I think was every weekend, summer and winter). I want to provide the same for my kids. But there are some amazing people out there, who, I think can do all this and more.

I have been learning about so many people giving of late, it is just great for the soul, and has me questioning myself and feeling a little guilty.

From those who have given for those horrific bushfires in Victoria recently, to people in my own recruiting circles, who have been putting their own special talents to assist those who are suffering in this recession. People like the Susan Kang Nam, (the PinkOlive woman) who heads up a Career Club called SaltyLegs (really have to find out the origin of that name), to the RecruiterGuy Chris Hoyt, who apart from being the Talent Acquisition Guru at AT&T is actively involved in raising funds, well at the moment the Big Brother, Big Sister programmes with "bowling for kids" and more recently the people from JobCamp (#JobCamp), Luke Havey Palmer from Buzzle, and Stephen Collins, AKA @Trib Honestly, what a great concept. Putting together Employers, Unemployed and Specialist Recriuters who really can do something about making jobs for people in a room for 2 days to see if they can make a difference. These are all inspirational people, who've had inspirational ideas, and more important is the fact that they ACTED on them.

Well what can I say, whilst not in their league, it did make me put my hand up, much to the surprise to those who know me. For what? may you ask.... Just remember, you heard it here first I am going to be a brand new Auskick coach for the 5-6 year olds at our local club. Maybe I was inspired, or maybe they just put something in the pies?

What is this Twitter thing anyways

You cannot seem to turn around, look at a website, or even have a coffee without Twitter being mentioned.

What is it?

Here is the best explanation I have found.


Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Learnings from an evil boss

Working in the HR arena is tough! Especially in bad times. Who likes sitting across the desk from someone explaining to them that as of now your livelihood has been taken away. (I have only met person ((and catbert)) in my career who actually enjoyed it)

We are hearing lots of stories about redundancies at the moment, I was talking with one of my colleagues today about this and how we (the collective "we") handle it. We must remember there is almost a whole generation in the workforce who have never seen a downturn. Sales people who have never seen an environment where budgets just weren't to be found, HR people who have never had the "I'm sorry, there is just no job for you here anymore... through no fault of yours", or candidates who have never had to find a job in a candidate rich market.. phew.

Thus the people delivering the bad news, may have never experienced the bad news before (or had to deliver it before) and may find it difficult to engender sufficient empathy to perform such a task adequately.

Poor handling of such events actually pushed me into this industry! Originally I wanted to be an HR professional. Why? because of the way a company handled my father and his redundancy. My father had worked for a company for 34 years (give or take), until in the early 90's it was time to rationalise etc (during what one prime minister of Australia called the "Recession we had to have") and his job was deemed redundant. How was it handled? Poorly from what I remember. Now what I remember may be a little inaccurate as it is seen through an emotional teenagers eyes. However, there was little council, little warning, little payout, little explanation, and less support. It was one of the rare times I saw my father in a very emotional state. The sole bread winner, having spent his entire working life at this establishment, only to get discarded like yesterday's newspaper. His identity had been taken from him in my view.

My fear is that the marriage of these two points, could mean that, in these most difficult times, the handling of redundancies may not have improved.

In one of my first jobs, as a console operator at a petrol station, my boss decided to teach me a lesson. Why? I still don't know, but the lesson was learned.

My boss at this time treated me like he was going to fire me. ALL day.. the entire 6 hour shift I had anyway. At the end of the day, he started the you're fired conversation... I was really scared, stammering and stumbling over my words, really struggling through the conversation.

He then stopped, and grinned. "Have you ever been fired before?" he asked
"Nope" I responded nervously. "Well now you know what it feels like!" "so now before you decide to take this option with someone you know how it feels and how to respect the people you will be doing it too." Powerful huh! This was almost 20 years ago. You know what, although harsh, and bordering on harassment, I've never forgotten it or the feeling.

For those of us who may have to sit in on discussions around redundancies, have the actual conversations, as well as those of us who now are charged with finding them new work, please keep a few things in mind.

Ensure you have thought of everything to prevent having to do this. Just because everyone else is, is not a good enough excuse.

Bring your empathy. Be human, and be aware that these business decisions will have real personal effects on the people hearing the news. It may not be personal to you, it will be for them... guaranteed!

Bring your respect, and give them dignity. Take your time in telling them, spell it out clearly and concisely (Don't get in an argument though).

Expect to feel bad. That's OK. The conversations are about them, not you. If people cry, allow them to. Give them space and time, silence is OK. Do not feel the need to fill a silent void with words.

Bring some options for them. Outplacement, agency names, something. Think about the people and what they may need before the discussion.

Be prepared for criticism and finger pointing, but again, there is no need to buy into arguments, the decision has been made.

And of course have everything organised, current and covered off BEFORE the meeting.. triple check it.

Bottom line... REMEMBER you are dealing with people (with lives, responsibilities, and dreams), not employees, not numbers, not inventory.

I read an article a little while ago which stated that

"More than 40 per cent of the Australian workforce has been made redundant at least once in their careers and for most (70 per cent) it was extremely stressful...."

The stress mentioned will be for a number of reasons, the loss of income, the loss of identity, the loss of self confidence due to the stigma attached to a redundancy.

Redundancies are not just a clear out of dead wood anymore. Good/Great people are being laid off too. IT IS A REALITY. We have a responsibility to ensure that people being made redundant know this, and as Employers, we need not to look at people who have been made redundant, actively challenge the idea that only the "Dead wood", would be culled first. Hard business decisions are needing to be made everywhere.

OK, these are tough conversations to have, you have every right to feel uncomfortable and nervous about having them. If you are the person delivering the message.... Please remember these discussions aren't about you, they are about the person you are talking to. Give them the respect and dignity they deserve by present for them and not just a messenger.

I am not a religious person, however the term "Do unto others..." rings true to me.

Sunshine from the rain

I was getting depressed earlier this week. Things were getting tough at work, the recession was knocking on the door, I had a proper look at my taxes coming due, I was tired and I read a few disturbing articles.



One, I must say I was pretty late on. It was an article from November which reported on the fact that an employee in Sydney for global giant EDS attempted suicide after finding out he was being made redundant. See more of article here. This if nothing else made the stark reality of our current times hit home for me.

Then as if on cue an article appeared in our local news paper about one of Australia's leading banks, spending half a million dollars on an Executive getaway, just before laying off 500 people. (More here). I must say, this made me question a few things too.... Maybe it was well deserved? If nothing else it smacks of an arrogance in an unsure market, and something that has to put a poor taste in the mouths of those who were let go, and perhaps the public in general. In truth, I read and re-read a few times to ensure I got it.

Then this morning happened. Nothing unusual really, woke up late... train on time (things looking up), got a free up sized coffee (things looking really up!) then as I cross the road to my office I see something pro-active and positive happening.

I see the good people of sixfigures.com.au camped outside a major ANZ bank building (and I must note a Telstra building, 2 of the major employers in Australia, who have announced lay offs recently) offering pamphlets and career advice for people who want it. They took the mountain to Mohammed. Awesome stuff guys. A great idea, not sure what the results will be or even what you wanted to get out of it, but it inspired me, and took a bit of the gloom and doom of the preceding days away to see companies out there doing something. Congratulations! Read more about this here and here. It's kind of funny... an online job board, burgeoning on Recruitment 2.0, here in downtown Melbourne going old school, hitting the bricks and making a big impression. And put some sunshine in my day

The Thumper Principle morphed into The Gambler edict

"If you can't say somfin nice... don't say nufin at all"

Phew, what a week... I had to really battle hard to ensure I kept the "Thumper Principle" in check. I really do prefer to live by this... I rarely react well emotionally, and tend to go over the top and embarrass myself when hindsight kicks in.

That said, I have this week so far self censored out 2 blog posts, 5 forum responses and 9 emails. By self censoring out I mean, I wrote and then decided not to sent or post. Maybe everyone is under pressure, maybe I am just feeling it more at the moment?

OK quick run down:

a) I had one of my top five worst calls from a Recruiter. Man it infuriated me. So I blogged about it... I actually listened to my old advice, I saved it before I posted it. I looked at it the next day, and decided against it, it really made neither him or I look good.

b) I wrote a post about Corporate Recruitment battling for respect within an organisation, on the back of a long week of in-fighting, accusation battling and pulling knives out of my back. (This also accounted for a number of those aborted emails).

c) There were a mix of dumb posts, and plain written lies on a range of forums. I wrote strong worded responses, OK some stronger than others, yet decided to again, calm down before hitting that POST button. I'm glad I did, as again, I was way to emotional, one almost had the underlying well thought out notion of "I know you are, you said you are, but what am I?". Way to win your argument Dan. Things were posted, but tempered and rational. (I hope)

There is enough negativity out there, why add to it? If the battles don't really have any long term consequences in the war, why waste ammunition?

That said for a while I took this negativity and shouldered the blame that was placed on Recruitment for the woes of the world. And there were a few, if we didn't have enough people, Recruitment was costing the company a fortune, if we had too many people, Recruitment was costing the company a fortune. Any time people didn't work out, Recruitment didn't understand the business (and were costing the company a fortune), when we hired superstars, we were lucky (the superstars were too expensive and Recruitment was costing the company a fortune). The list goes on and on, Recruitment was an easy target, we were "lucky", everyone knew how to do it, and weren't afraid to voice an opinion.

It took me a while, to find the confidence to stop believing all this stuff, and to stand up for myself and my function. When I finally did, it was so liberating, and the respect came and I began to see the function move forward. That said, I couldn't argue with everyone, and bite at everything, I'd never get anything done.

Being cautious and quiet didn't help, arguing with everyone didn't help productivity, even if it did make me feel a little better.

I remembered Kenny Rogers singing about "you gotta know when to hold them... know when to fold them... know when to walk around.. know when to run!"

This one worked better... Thanks Kenny. Work life hasn't gone without the finger pointing, as there is always someone under pressure trying to deflect their ills, but responses are made appropriately and not in an emotional manner. Things are still going in the right direction.