I love listening to Jim Rome, Sports Radio and TV Sports Talk show host, and one of his classic bits is to go off and some of the crazy types of personalities we see in our every day lives – Slow Pitch Softball Guy, Travel Baseball Dad Coach Guy, Crazy Soccer Mom, etc. We see these people go from normal everyday accountant to something we can’t even recognize anymore! Wait is that Steve from the office?! No, it’s Slow Pitch Softball Guy – acting like a fool and playing like it’s game 7 of the world series when it’s really just a lazy Wednesday night with a bunch of guys trying to get away from the family for a couple of hours and have a beer and play a game!
I see this in our HR lives as well! My favorite is “Interview Gal“! You know her! She’s the lady who comes in to interview for your position – and you realize right away she probably escaped that morning from the mental hospital!
Here’s what Interview Gal likes to say during her interview:
“Why did I leave my last job? I didn’t feel it was right for my soul.”
“Haa haa haa, snort, haa, snort, ha ha!”
“Um, do you have anything else besides water or coffee? I really like tea!”
“Why do I want to work here!? Duh! The money! No, really just kidding – ha ha, snort – I need a position to help me pay my bills.”
“My strengths? I’m strong at a lot, and I’m not really late very much, I mean traffic is crazy around here, but I always try and leave early to get to work on time.”
“Is it hot in here? I’m roasting – must be those hormones!”
“So, I don’t want to bring this up, but if you hire me – I need to leave early every other Tuesday for my group. And one Monday per month I will take off all together – but that should be it. Do you let everyone out early on Fridays?”
I would have an “Interview Guy” but those comments would consist of “Yes” and “No” and “You know” and not much else!
I love HR for the simple fact, almost daily, candidates give me great joy and stories to share with my friends and family. I have a theory that people aren’t necessarily crazy, but the actual exercise of performing an interview makes them crazy! Kind of like when you bring out your video camera and your kids immediately lose their minds trying to crazy stuff in front of the camera. The same things happens to candidates and we (HR) are the cameras!