Yeah, free time, how likely are you to get that? Having just moved to a new state, I find myself in possession of this mythological free time. Except that I don’t really. Finding a new job, unpacking, just getting settled in general; it’s funny how that free time somehow disappears. And really, that’s what I want.

Why? Because a lot of free time isn’t a good thing. Sure, we all need time every now and then to relax but if you find yourself with lots of time on your hands then something is wrong. Too much free time means a lack of responsibility, a lack of challenges, or even a lack of opportunities.

Being busy is good because people who are busy are also people who are getting things done. As long as you aren’t being overwhelmed by obligations, you aren’t letting people down, and there is a purpose behind what you are doing, isn’t that something to feel grateful for? Shouldn’t we all be so lucky to be in that kind of position?

Even so, every now and then I may still whine about needing more time, but really, I couldn’t be happier. However, I do wish I had more time to devote to all my social media stuff…

Professional development isn’t easy though. Not only does it require an honest self-reflection of one’s abilities and failings, you also need to seek out honest, constructive feedback from others that you are willing to actually listen too. Those are hard things to do but both are necessary, even if you find yourself stumbling through it.

So far, I think I have identified a few areas of professional development I should focus on:
Communication – Now, I pride myself on my communication skills because I have worked hard over the years to develop them. Through Debate, Speech, Theater, past jobs, and even this blog I feel I have built a strong foundation for these skills. But I think I need to continue refining them, especially because while I feel my written communication continues to improve, I think my verbal communication skills development may have stalled. And that’s a shame because I love presenting and speaking to people. So the question becomes, what would be the best way to improve my verbal communication?

Emotions – I’m sure this may come as a huge shock to all of you, but I tend to be a casual person who wears her heart on her sleeve. Surprised right? Yeah, I didn’t think so. One thing I’ve always struggled with was perfecting the “HR Mask of Neutrality” that is so important sometimes. Happy, sad, frustrated, or excited; you always know what I’m feeling. While I find that it helps people relate to me in some occasions, like recruiting, it’s not the best when handling tough situations. But my biggest question for this area is not so much “How do I improve this?” as much as “Can I/Should I change this?”

SPHR – My current PHR certification expires this year and I have been debating whether I should attempt the SPHR or not. Is it worth it? Will it help my career significantly? Wouldn’t I benefit from the studying regardless? Should I just renew my PHR? In 2008 when I first decided to go for my PHR I always planned the next step to be my SPHR. But I’ve been through a lot over the last 3 years, maybe that shouldn’t be my goal anymore. Clearly, I have a lot to think about on this one.

Whew. Professional development really is hard. I would love to hear any suggestions you all have, what you have done in the past, and even what professional development goals you are setting for yourself so hit me up in the comments!

- Moving to a new state
- Getting re-settled/unpacked
- Finding a new job
- Trying for my SPHR(?)
- A new tattoo
- Devoting more time to my blog and social media (Is that possible?)
- And there is even talk of 2 puppies now (Yay!!)

And that’s only the stuff I know about/planning for. But that also means 2012 is going to be a year of opportunities. Now it may be silly and optimistic but when I worked at Target they always referred to problems as opportunities. It’s easy to brush that off as corporate speak and roll your eyes, but it’s also true. Some of the best things in my life have come my way because of the problems I had to face first. And we always learn more from the rough times than the good.

So no matter what kind of “opportunities” come your way in 2012, I hope that when the year ends, assuming there is no Mayan apocalypse, that we are all still happy, healthy, and ready for more! Bring it on 2012!

But on the plus side, I sometimes get special “insider” information form the community. So just in time for Christmas, here is a special message from Santa, for all my darling readers out there!

Have a great holiday, enjoy the time off from work, and lots of hugs and love to you all!

Quick Breakdown: A Macy’s employee saw a transgender customer exiting the women’s dressing room. She approaches the customer and refuses to let her re-enter. Macy’s has an LGBT policy that allows transgender customers to use either the men’s or the women’s dressing room. This was pointed out to the employee and she cited religious discrimination as she felt complying with the policy violated her Christian faith by causing her to “compromise with homosexuality”. The Macy’s employee was then fired for refusing to comply with the policy.

Welcome to the world of HR where policies, belief, and equality all collide in a battle of wills. Which one will be the victor?

Let’s say that you are the HR pro who gets this problem. What would you do? Strict adherence to policy so termination? Move the employee to a comparable position within the company where this wouldn’t be an issue? Re-evaluate/change policy to accommodate religious freedom?

Personally, I support Macy’s stance that they want to promote a culture of non-discrimination towards the LGBT community. Makes me want to go spend money there right now. However, religious discrimination is also a very valid concern and business are required to make reasonable accommodations whenever possible, as the article points out with Pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions.

For me, I have two questions: Is managing dressing rooms a critical function of her job? And if yes, are no alternatives available either for the customer (Other employees who can assist them) or for the employee (Another position they can be moved into)?

If it is a critical function and no alternatives exist, I would argue that compiling with company policy is an unavoidable part of her job and the employee should be expected to follow it as a condition of her employment. Taxi drivers who refused to pick up drunk passengers or passengers with service animals because it violated their religious beliefs have been found to be in the wrong. Picking up passengers is a critical part of the job and they weren’t allowed to discriminate in such a manner, in spite of their beliefs.

But if it isn’t critical or if there are alternatives… I don’t know. I think Macy’s was probably too quick to let this employee go without trying to accommodate her religious beliefs. Even if she acknowledged the policy and Macy’s is committed to non-discrimination of the LGBT community they could have still violated Title VII.

No lawsuits or claims have been filed as of yet, and by no means am I a lawyer so I can’t hazard a guess how the law will come down on this issue if given the opportunity.

But what decision would you have made if this was your company? I would love to hear your opinion so hit me up in the comments!

I don’t know how long my torrid love affair with you will last this time, but for now the passion we share will sustain us… somehow. Err, yeah. Enough of that silliness.

Sigh. Let me just tell you that if I can get through this move with out burning all my belongings and avoiding a panic attack I will consider it a success. This will be my 3rd cross country move in 1 1/2 years so believe me when I say I will not be moving again for at least several years. I am moving in January so I only have a little more time to get into trouble. And I would be moving right when I consider the weather to be at it’s best too.

But I’ve been able to do a lot of great things while here, got to hang with a lot of great people, and got to see a lot of the state. Not all of it mind you, Florida is huge, so I guess that means I’ll just have to come back for visits.

However, one thing I won’t miss is this:

Yes, that is a Gator and yes, I was about five seconds away from yelling at the tour boat driver if he got us any closer. Freaked. Me. Out. But I still got a picture.

It’s been real Florida, let’s make the most of my remaining time here.

But then I saw this awesome post over on TNLT by Derek Irvine, and I was all like “Crap, what can I add to that? It even has that really cool infographic at the end.” There are so many bloggers out there smarter than me, but I’m glad you guys stick with me anyway. It’s because I’m cute, right? Please say it’s because I’m cute.

Anyway, one thing that jumped out at me was the statistic that 4 out of 5 people were dissatisfied with their performance review. It is unlikely that all those people are getting bad reviews so even people who get positive reviews are unhappy. If you manage employees, this should concern you. After all, you may be thinking that your employees are going to be happy getting a good review from you when in fact, you might actually cause them to become unhappy and disengaged. When it comes to performance reviews it’s all in the execution, not the final score.

From my experience, both in counseling managers and employees about performance reviews and being on the receiving end of them myself, here’s what happens:
There are managers who provide timely feedback throughout the year, clearly communicate expectations, solicit feedback from their employees, and then take all that information into account when creating a year end review reflective of each individual contributor. They are doing it right.

vs.

Everyone else. You are doing it wrong. Stop it.

The biggest complaints I get about performance reviews usually revolve around it being impersonal, not an accurate reflection of their day to day efforts/big accomplishments throughout the year, they feel blindsided by the criticism/first time they were told it was an issue, they are being held accountable for things outside their control, or that it feels petty, harassing, and unfair.

If any of these thoughts go through your employees mind then you did something wrong. Sure, some employees will never be happy with their review. But if done the right way, performance reviews should encourage, reward, and counsel as needed. They should be a resource to both employees and managers, not a chore that needs to be done once a year never to be thought of again.

Anything less than that and the review stops being a reflection of the employee, and more a reflection of a dysfunctional company.

Who knows how long the yearly performance review will last, but for now, do yourself, your employees, and your company a favor and do it right.

Try not to watch this during dinner though or you might have a #turkeyspew.

Then again if it means Paul Rudd will show up I don’t think I’d mind the awkwardness. Not at all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past week I have been fighting a cold. It’s been over a year since I last got sick so I’ve been trying to milk the experience for all it’s worth. “I’m sorry I didn’t return your email right away, I was in the bathroom trying not to cough up a lung” or something like that. Honestly though, I’m too busy alternating between chugging orange juice, going through package after package of tissues, and slathering on the antibacterial gel.

It’s that time of year again and in the close confines of an office environment, it only takes one sick person and soon the whole office is ill. Now, fortunately or unfortunately, the worst of my cold happened while I was already out of the office on vacation (lucky me!) but there is always one or two people who refuse to stay home, even when they know they should.

So here is my list of the top 5 ways you know you should have called out sick:
1. Your co-workers start complaining about tripping over your IV that the doctor insisted you at least take with you when you checked yourself out of the hospital against their wishes.
2. Your co-workers all called out sick in order to avoid catching what you have.
3. You find the prospect of standing up and walking over to the copier 15 feet away too daunting because you might pass out from the effort.
4. The cashier at the coffee shop gives you the drink on the house to avoid taking the money from your hands.
5. Your manager follows you around the office with paper towels and Lysol so they can wipe down everything you touch.

All joking aside though, coming into the office when you are too sick to work is a serious concern. I know some people do it because they truly don’t think they can be gone for even one day. I assure you that isn’t true. Except in rare cases, NO ONES job is so critical or important that you can’t miss a day or two to recover from an illness. Things can wait and others can step up to help out.

However, I know some people come in for more personal reasons. They can’t afford to miss time from work either because they are afraid they will lose their job or otherwise they won’t get paid. And if they even miss one day of pay they won’t be able to pay their bills. Often this means they can’t afford to go see a doctor or pay for medicine anyway.

And that isn’t right. As HR professionals and managers, I know we can’t and shouldn’t try to solve all our employees problems, but there are things that we can do to help. Employee Assistance programs, Paid Time off Donation programs, Special sick leave amnesty during the flu season, company-wide flu shots, and I could go on and on. Get creative, and get resourceful.

Your people can’t do their best when ill, and that means your company can’t either. So pass the tissues and Dayquil and let’s get back to work!

That’s the way things are supposed to be. If everything stayed the same, including yourself, then something is wrong.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about “boomerrang employees” this year. You know, former employees of a company who come back after leaving to work elsewhere. It’s increasingly common and a lot of companies are looking for ways to maintain good relationships with leaving employees exactly for that reason.

There is a lot of value in telling leaving top talent “we are sad to see you go and would love to have you back someday.” Smart employees know the value in leaving with all bridges intact and structurally sound.

Now, as I type this I am sitting at the gate, waiting for my plane to arrive as I’m about to head out on the long trip back to Minnesota. I’m excited to see everyone and I’m looking forward to celebrating my sister’s 33rd birthday (11/11/11, you gotta celebrate that). And I realize three things: One, I do a lot of blogging at airports. Two, I need a keyboard for my iPad, this is awkward. And three, I want things to be different.

Come on Minnesota, surprise me. I’m looking forward to it.