HR! Inclusion doesn’t equal you.

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Tim Sackett

Many of you probably missed what happened to one of your HR peers recently. This HR peer was fired, and it was upheld in courts, for using their First Amendment Rights. This was a senior level HR executive at a public university. Here’s the article: Federal appeals court upholds termination of anti-gay human resources administrator. From reading the title, what is the picture that immediately came to your mind? If you didn’t say over 60, white male – you’re a liar! The administrator is Crystal Dixon, and she’s a black female. Here’s what she did:

“A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the University of Toledo’s decision to fire a high-level human resources administrator, who wrote a newspaper opinion column challenging the idea that LGBT people deserve the same civil rights protections as members of racial minority groups.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Court ruled that Crystal Dixon’s column “contradicted the very policies she was charged with creating, promoting, and enforcing, and cannot be excused as merely a statement of her own views as a private citizen.”

The court upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit.

Dixon, who had been the University’s interim Associate Vice President for Human Resources, wrote the essay published in the Toledo Free Press in April 2008 in which she took aim at LGBT people.

Dixon wrote that she was greatly offended that “those person who choose the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims.'” adding that she “cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman” because she is biologically and genetically such “as my creator intended.”

I’m not here to challenge Crystal’s views on the “homosexual lifestyle” – she clearly believes something, and it’s her God given right to believe what she wants. I don’t agree with her – I think her thought process is ignorant and callous at best.

I’m here to challenge her being fired.

You see Inclusion works really well when you’re liberal, and you have your liberal ideas, and others have to listen to your ideas because we/organizations need to be “inclusive”. But have a differing idea, a way more conservative idea, and somehow “being inclusive” doesn’t work for you. I think Crystal’s ideas about the LGBT community are completely ridiculous. But, if I’m, truly, being inclusive as an organization – I don’t fire her. I work to help her become more educated and understanding of all people in our organization. “But Tim! She’s in a senior level HR position – she should be the one that understands this!” But she doesn’t.

Inclusion in 90% of organizations is broken. It’s broken because those who ‘support’ inclusion – are the same folks who don’t allow inclusive thought to be a part of your organization. We support the gay young male who wants to hang up a poster advertising the gay pride parade this weekend, but we chastise the old white man who wants to advertise his gun show this weekend. That’s not inclusion, that’s bigotry in the opposite direction. Neither one of those things is wrong, or right – it’s just two different ways of thinking.

Crystal was fired for: “contradicted the very policies she was charged with creating, promoting, and enforcing, and cannot be excused as merely a statement of her own views as a private citizen.” The Diversity and Inclusion policy she was in charge of creating I assume meant she had to think the exact same way as everyone else in her organization. Is that what “Inclusion” means to you?

Don’t Fire Me Because I’m Beautiful!

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Tim Sackett

By now most HR folks have seen the articles about the Iowa worker who was fired for being “too irresistible“! If not, here a little of the back story:

Melissa Nelson, who is married with children, had worked for James Knight for 10 years before his wife complained about his infatuation with her. Nelson told the court that she had seen Knight as a father figure and a man of “integrity” who generally treated her with respect. But about nine years into the job, Knight started to complain that her clothes were “distracting” because they “accentuated her body,” and he sometimes asked her to cover up with her lab coat. At one point, Knight told Nelson that “if she saw his pants bulging, she would know her clothing was too revealing,” court records showed.

After she told him that his complaint about the tightness of her shirt wasn’t fair, he texted back that it was a good thing she didn’t wear tight pants too “because then he would get it coming and going,” the court records showed. And at one point when Knight discussed infrequency in Nelson’s sex life, he told her “that’s like having a Lamborghini in the garage and never driving it.” Knight’s wife, who also worked in the dental office, put her foot down when she discovered the two were texting each other. After meeting with their pastor, Knight agreed to fire Nelson because she was a “big threat to our marriage.”

…Since Nelson did not consider Knight’s behavior to be sexual harassment, the Iowa Supreme Court determined the question to be “whether an employee who has not engaged in flirtatious conduct may be lawfully terminated simply because the boss views the employee as an irresistible attraction.”

While Iowa law prohibits discrimination against employees based on gender, the all-male court ruled that Knight’s conduct was “unfair” but “did not amount to unlawful discrimination.”

Wow! This is crazy on so many levels it’s hard to even comprehend!

This is why, if you’re a dude, should should add in an attractiveness meter to your hiring process. Anyone over a 6, doesn’t make the next round (unless you have low standards, then feel free to add in some 5’s). Believe me, this is hard for me to say – I’m the original one who advocated for you to hire beautiful people, not because they’re pretty, but because science has proven they perform better! Kris Dunn is the one who says hire ugly people – because, well, he has low standards and lives in Alabama!

Honestly, I truly feel for Mrs. Nelson – let’s face it her boss was a creeper and if Iowans have any morals at all they will stop using him as a Dentist and he’ll go out business. Let’s all hope this happens! Also, this should really teach all beautiful women a good lesson. If you’re really that beautiful, why are you working!? Beautiful women are suppose to be going to Yoga classes and having lunch with their other beautiful girlfriends on their rich husband’s Platinum American Express card, before heading over to the upscale mall to pick out some new shoes – not working. Overall, good lessons to be learned from this entire story!

Want something better than InMail?

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Facebook announced it’s testing a new product last week. What’s the product? A version of paid messages within Facebook. Think LinkedIn’s Inmail, but for Facebook and an additional 800,000,000 users and potential candidates! From the article:

“Today we’re starting a small experiment to test the usefulness of economic signals to determine relevance. This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the Inbox rather than the Other folder of a recipient that they are not connected with.

Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful.

This test is designed to address situations where neither social nor algorithmic signals are sufficient. For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox. For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them.”

Oh, please, if there is a Facebook God, please pick me for this test!!! You see, I’m a believer. I fully believe Facebook is going to change the way we recruit talent in the future. The way we network to find referrals, etc. I’m also a believer that companies will pay Billion$ of dollars to have this ability. I also, fully, believe that the majority of recruiting professionals out there will understand how to use this function appropriately. Plus, having a financial consequence will ensure this won’t become spam central.

Let me give you an example. I have a client right now looking for 2 Human Factors Engineers. They are hard to find because individuals in these roles have fully employed and get multiple contacts per week with offers. We’ve had success finding good ones – but eventually even the best networks start to dry up. Facebook has an additional 500+, self identified HF engineers that I can find through friend search – but that I’m not connected to. I can try to connect through a request, but they’ll say they don’t me – and Facebook will slap my hands and warn they are going to kick me off the network. If Facebook said to me – Hey, Tim, for $1 per message, we’ll allow you to send a message to all 500 HF Engineers – I would sign that check right now – twice! And these are just the ‘self-identified’ folks – Facebook has thousands more who have identified but not made it public. I’ll pay for those as well! So will most companies.

Think this isn’t going to happen, eventually? You’re wrong – this is a multi-billion dollar opportunity – every year. You know what else? It won’t have any impact to your Facebook experience. While it sounds like a Spam nightmare – it won’t be. First, these are directed ads for specific people, not everyone. So, Charlie working the friers at McDonald’s, calm down, I’m not sending you any messages. Second, they cost money – so companies aren’t going to be sending millions of these messages – they can’t afford. This isn’t a shotgun strategy, this is a sniper rifle strategy.

Facebook – call me. We need to talk!

What it Means to Lead

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I’ve really wanted to write something about the tragedy in Connecticut this past week – but I just can’t. It makes me sick to my stomach every time I think about it. Most of you know I’m a huge basketball fan and while catching up on some highlights this week I caught this highlight which put into words that which I couldn’t get myself to write. Here’s Winthrop University’s Head Basketball Coach Pat Kelsey after his team lost to Ohio State:

The one great part of being in HR my entire career is that you constantly get to meet and work with people throughout your entire organization that just “get it.” Coach Pat Kelsey just gets it. I would argue that he is ‘smarter’ than most of our political leaders who don’t “get it.” They make it harder than it has to be. There aren’t two or three sides to this, there is only one – we can’t allow children to get mascaraed. Period. One side and we’re all on that side. I also didn’t vote for Obama – but like Coach Kelsey I’ll support him and our leaders to make the right moves so that I never have to explain to my sons why another kid was senselessly killed.

Thank you coach for saying exactly what I was feeling!

HR Can’t Forget Your Past

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Tim Sackett

What I’ve found in HR is that most great lessons are taught to you by the Spice Girls.

“If you want my future, forget my past”

So, I’m going to tell you what I want. What I really, really want.

I want you to understand this one little concept – HR has the memory of an elephant! Seriously. If you do something wrong, if you screw up once, don’t think your going to “work through it” and change their mind in the future. It won’t happen. HR loves to label employees. Oh, Steve is our best sales guy – even though he hasn’t closed a deal in 3 years. Mary is a drama queen – because she had drama 18 months ago, but nothing since. Doesn’t matter – HR has you labeled!

So, what should you do?

If you screw up, if you already know you’ve been labeled, if you’ve been talked to more than once about a specific issue – you need to move on with your career to a new organization. Period. Being talked to “more than” once is key. You can live, organizationally, after being talked to once, because it might be forgotten. Once you’re talked to twice, or more, it’s probably documented and thus you’ll have an organizational lifetime label (or OLL as we say in the business!). O.L.L’s happen all the time. Sleep with one subordinate, and now you’ll always be “that” creepy boss who sleeps with their employees. Unless you marry that person – then you’ll be labeled positively as having ‘commitment’. Unless, you then get divorced from that person because you slept with another employees – then you’re back to “creepy boss”.

It works that way on the positive side as well. When I was working for Applebee’s we had a General Manager who had taken a ‘broken’ restaurant and turned it around to be a ‘star’ restaurant. We actually moved this person to two other ‘broken’ restaurants to perform their ‘magic’, but they failed both times. Still that person’s name was brought up every single time a ‘broken’ restaurant was brought up as needing someone to fix it. What really happened was the first restaurant they fixed had more to do with the “team” that was put in place to fix that restaurant than that one person. When that one person was put in other similar circumstances, with different teams, they failed. Yet – the past followed this person around like they were Mr. Broken Restaurant Fixer. You see – it works both ways – but with the same outcome – HR isn’t going to forget your past!

Here’s the real problem with this concept – you won’t find one HR person who will admit to it! That’s why I say – if you really, really wanna zigazig ha – you need to move on.

The Secret to Happy Work

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Tim Sackett

We’ve all been sold a really harmful lie, by a lot of people. That lie is: To be truly happy at work, you must do what you love (or some variation of the same theme). It’s complete garbage that is usually told to you by – an ultra-rich people who can do anything they want, someone who really doesn’t have to earn a living because they have a spouse earning a living for them or someone who just flat out got lucky, right place-right time and does something they actually love. I know, I know – “Tim, you create your own luck!” – said by the same idiot who’s wife is a brain surgeon and allows her deadbeat husband to be a “writer” at home.

Still most of us define our happiness like this:

Step 1 – Work really super hard.

Step 2 – Really super hard work will make you successful.

Step 3 – Being successful will make me happy.

I hate to break this to you – being successful will not make you happy. It will allow you to buy a lot of stuff, you’ll probably have less money arguments and you might even feel good about your success, but if you’re not happy before all of that, there is a really good chance you won’t be happy after to gain success.

Let’s start with this concept:

Work Success ≠ Happiness

Have you ever met someone working a dead-end job, a just-not-going-anywhere type of job, but they are completely joyous? I have. I envy those people. They do not define their happiness in life by the level of success they’ve obtained in their career. Their happiness is defined by a number of other things: are their basic needs met, do they enjoy the people they surround themselves with, do they have a positive outlook on life, etc. These individuals do not allow the external world to impact their happiness. Their happiness is derived from within.

In HR I’ve been forced to learn this, because I’ve had people try and sell me on that Engagement =’s Happiness – which is also a lie. I’ve had incredibly engaged workers who are very unhappy people and very happy people who were not engaged. I’ve found over time, I can do almost nothing to “make” someone be happier. I’m an external factor to their life. Don’t get me wrong – as a leader I can give praise and recognition, I can give merit and bonuses, etc. While that might have a short-term impact to ones happiness, it’s not truly lasting happiness that comes from within.

So, how can you help someone find their happiness? I think we have to start realizing that you don’t have to ‘work’ at something you love, to have happiness at work. Putting work into perspective of life is key. I like what I do a whole bunch – hell, I blog about it! But if I really thought about it, I don’t ‘love’ it. I love my family. I love floating on a lake on a warm summer day. I love listening to my sons laugh in pure joy. I find my happiness in many ways – only part of which I gain through my career. My secret to happy work is finding happiness in a number of aspects in my life. That way if I’m having a bad day at work, or a bad day at home, I still have pockets of happiness I can adjust my focus to.

What is your secret to being happy at work?

An Open Annual Holiday Letter

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Each year for the past 15 years I’ve written an annual Sackett Family Holiday letter that got sent out to friends and family. Now that I have a blog, the thought of writing a letter to be mailed out seemed so 2005! So, I decided to just write my annual letter here instead – send out the link – and Bam – I saved a couple hundred bucks in snowflake paper, printing and postage! We are right in the middle of annual holiday letter season right now – yesterday I actually received 8 in the mail, and I would say that’s probably an average daily number.

Nowadays, you don’t just receive a letter, but you also receive the annual family pic as well – it’s usually the straight Sears Photo Studio annual Christmas Tree backdrop or the beach shot from Spring Break last year with everyone in swim suites and Santa hats. Most people just go with the kids – because they hate showing how they’ve let themselves go – it’s easier to show their ugly kids who’ve let themselves go. We’ve gotten into the habit of sending out a picture Christmas Tree Ornament to each family on our list – that way we can ruin your perfectly decorated tree with our family photo! And believe me, I check to see if you’ve put it up when I come to visit during the holidays. Nothing says Christmas like a picture of a family of Jews on your tree!

Typical Annual Sackett Holiday Letter:

Paragraph 1: I make some joke to a popular cultural happening that took place in 2012 – this year it would have been probably something to do with the Olympics or the Election. I will talk about how Michigan State is Awesome, and how Michigan sucks – doesn’t even matter if this was actually true during the year.

Paragraphs 2-4: I have 3 sons, so the main body of the annual letter is about how genetically superior my children are as compared to yours. Athletically, academically and spiritually my kids are great and the intent of this section is to point this out to you. My hope is that you’ll actually feel jealously and start to push your kids a little harder – it’s my annual gift to you as a parent, a little push so-to-speak. Either way, they will never catch my kids who are just better. (True story – I made a joke about his in one of our letters and my grandmother got upset – “How could you say your kids are better than other peoples?” My response was like – “Really, Grandma!? Let’s force rank’em, you know mine are better!” Kidding Grandma!!)

Paragraph 5: This paragraph is about how awesome and beautiful my wife is. This single paragraph usually takes me about a week to write, because of re-writes. You have to be extra careful in this section – you want to be witty, but not to witty. You want to show how great she is, but not so great her girlfriends will call her a ‘bitch’ when they read it. The entire intent of this paragraph is that when her girlfriends read it, they say “Ahhh!”, in a good I wish-my-husband-would-say-that-about-me way.

Paragraph 6: This one is about me. It’s usually the same thing – Work, chasing boys, repeat.

The Big Close: It’s Coop Quotes! It use to the best quotes of the year from all the boys – but the older boys would now be embarrassed to have their quotes sent out to the world, plus Coop just says funny stuff – so for the last 5 or so years – we’ve just done the best quotes of the year from Coop. My wife and I actually send each other emails when we hear a good one, that way we don’t forget them throughout the year! This year’s Coop Quotes:

“It’s not called cheating, it’s called winning!” -After Cam caught him cheating at a game they were playing.
“Boys and girls are similar, but girls have a backbone.” -Coop clearly understanding the reproductive differences between the sexes.
“Canada!” -When Keaton asked Cooper where Mexicans were from

Right-To-Work or Wrong-To-Work

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I have to say it’s been fun to have a front row seat in the Right-To-Work debate that raged on in Michigan this past week! Even President Obama made an appearance in Michigan and was probably the only one to put this debate into it’s proper context – he said Right-To-Work legislation is not about economics, it’s about politics – and for once in his life he was right. Unfortunately, he then spewed a bunch of union propaganda numbers and made it even more political – but hey, he’s a politician. I have a bunch of thoughts on this that don’t really make one coherent post, so I’m just going to share those thoughts and we can take it from there:

– Unions are dying a slow death. 17% of Michigan’s workforce, 7% of the national workforce. What does this say? It says companies get it more today than ever. You have to treat your employees well and you have to compete for talent. If you don’t get this – you won’t be a competitive company for long, because the best and brightest won’t work for you.

– Unions in Right-To-Work states, and really nationally, need to get back to getting their membership to understand their ‘true’ value. In HR we have to do this constantly in our organizations. Unions have forgotten this for decades! They just kept collecting their monthly dues and assumed their membership got it! They don’t.

– Somebody explain to me how it’s a bad thing for an employee to have the choice of not paying union dues, if they don’t think their union is giving them value. I pay a stock broker to give me stock tips – I find value in his opinion, I pay for it. If I found value in the service a union was giving me, I’d pay for it. I spoke to 3 long term teachers who are members of the MEA this week – all 3 said they would not pay dues if given the option. All 3 said, and I quote: “My union does nothing for me.”

– Unions believe ‘branding’ = scaring their membership into believing they can’t live without them.

– Michigan citizens voted for a Republican governor, a Republican Senate and Republican House. Those 3 functions voted exactly the way they were suppose to, by the citizens who voted them in. There is nothing shocking about his at all. If Michigan’s citizens didn’t want Right-To-Work legislation, and similar types of legislation, they would have voted differently. But they didn’t. If you lived in Michigan during the recession you would probably understand why – it sucks to lead the nation in unemployment.

I’m an HR Pro, so in my career I’ve been on the opposite side of the table from unions -I’m management. I don’t have a positive view of unions because I believe they don’t make my workforce better they make it weaker. Everyone in a union is treated the same, which just pushes everyone to the middle. High performers have no reason to be high performers when they are treated the same as the weakest performer. I’ve seen this and have dealt with it professionally. Unions telling me I have to treat these two groups the same. This does not create high performance, it creates worse performance. This is what I know.

Everyone needs a wake up call. I think Michigan enacting Right-To-Work legislation is a wake up call to Unions to reinvent themselves. To start to really think, “how do we show our membership we are adding value to their lives.” It can’t just be about ‘protecting’ jobs. They’ve protected jobs right out of this state. It has to be about creating opportunities for their membership – that is a 180 degree difference in philosophy from where they are at. They need to find a way that employers are begging for their membership to come and work in their companies, because their membership is so highly performing and skilled. Right now employers are running away from unions because the value equation of skills and dollars don’t match up.

A Field Guide To “Nice Bosses”

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Sarah White shared an article last week from Jezebel called “A Field Guide to “Nice Guys” which was really funny! From the article:

“When using the phrase ‘Nice Guys’ with a capital NG, I don’t mean a man who happens to be a genuinely kind person. Hooray for kind, caring, conscientious people! I mean the sort of Guy who has declared himself to be Nice, and thus deserving of positive (usually sexual) attention from the female of his choice, upon whom he has often projected an elaborate fantasy of perfection and willingness that rarely has anything to do with the subject’s actual feelings or desires. When a Nice Guy is romantically rejected by a woman he wants, he lashes out at her, wondering why that dumb cunt won’t go out with him. After all, he has been Nice!”

This concept works with Bosses as well! We’ve all had the Nice Boss (Capital NB), right? Here’s my list of the Nice Boss (NB) types:

The BFF Boss

BFF Bosses are the type that want to be your friend, or at least they want you to think they’re your friend. That way you’ll do more them, that they can take credit for! Plus, it’s so much easier to tell your subordinates that they won’t be getting a raise, again, this year when you’re BFF’s! “Hey, guys, it’s me, you know me, if I could get you anything you know I would, but there’s nothing!” As they drive to the bank to cash their profit sharing check.

The Cool Boss

Can you dress casual on Tuesday? Sure! Can you leave early on Friday to get a head start on your weekend? Of Course! Is it alright you’re 15 minutes late coming back from lunch? No you weren’t! But as soon as Cool Boss is held accountable by his/her superiors somehow they also get amnesia and place the blame back on you. “I never told them they could take an hour and a half lunch!” Cool Boss will do whatever it takes to be the Cool Boss, except have your back.

The Concerned Boss

Come in and tell me everything that’s going wrong with you – I want to know, I need to know – I’m only concerned about you and your welfare! Plus, I need some information to hold over your head the next time I need to make cuts, changes or promotions. This boss could probably be called the Blackmail Boss as well, because that’s really what’s going on. I’m going to acted concerned so you’ll spill your beans and now I’ve got you on the hook to do whatever I want!

The Work Spouse Boss

I love my boss! She is so great, not like my wife who doesn’t understand me. My boss really gets me, and supports me, and knows what I want in my future! Oh, and she really only wants to ruin your marriage in some game of spouse Twister that will never work – but what the hell, let’s suspend reality – it seems to work in the movies until someone gets shot. The Work Spouse Bosses are even better than Work Spouses because they also support your career development – they’re ‘really’ trying to help you get ahead in your career – just not higher than them – that’s not part of the game!

What kind of “Nice Boss” do you have?

Top 25 Rap Lyrics That Shaped My Leadership Style

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Tim Sackett

This year I did blog series on The Top 25 Rap Lyrics that shaped my leadership style. The posts, individually, still get clicked a ton, so I decided to do a compilation of the 25 posts to make it easier for new readers to find all 25 (I know my family is really proud of me right now!). Taken out of context of the original post, you might be asking yourself “How the hell did this shape his leadership style?” If you find yourself asking that, click through the link to read the explanation!

Here you go – The Top 25 Rap Lyrics That Shaped My Leadership Style with links to the original posts:

1. “It’s like the more money we come across, the more problems we see” -Notorious B.I.G.

2. “Today I didn’t even have to use my A.K., I got to say it was a good day” -Ice Cube

3. “What does it take to be number 1? Two is not a winner and three nobody remembers.” -Nelly

4. “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.” -Jay-Z

5. “When I wake up, people take up, mostly all of my time. I’m not singin’, phone keep ringin’, so I make up a rhyme.” -RUN DMC

6. “It’s funny how someone else’s success brings pain.” -Drake

7. “Success is my drug of choice…” – 50 Cent

8. “Forgive, but don’t forget.” -2Pac

9. “True happiness is not acquired, and you won’t find it on sale.” -Outkast

10. “At exactly which point do you realize, that life without knowledge is death in disguise.” -Talib Kweli

11. “You’re young and dumb and quick with the tongue.” -Kool Mo Dee