Question: How Can You Give Your HR Manager a Conniption?

Answer: Tell her a new requirement could mean it'll take you 2-3 weeks to clear applicants for hire . . . and then tell her like this:

Email: It may soon take us 2-3 weeks to clear applicants for hire.

HR reply: 2-3 weeks or 2-3 days? It takes you 1 day now.  

Response: 2-3 weeks.                                                               

HR reply: That's a major problem.

Response (wait for it, wait for it): Out of my control.

HR Manager is seething. Can you get why? Yes, the absolute lack of ownership, responsibility, and  understanding portrayed in the four words, "out of my control." It's really not the possible 2-3 week delay because no HR Manager worth her weight in gold is going to let anyone or anything add 2-3 weeks to her hiring process - and that's a given.

Holy smokes folks, don't communicate this way. Just don't. Get it or move on. We've got things to do and you are only in the way.

Finding A Way With Others

Originally posted in January 2007 and the issue at hand long forgotten, this post reminds me that  answers can come from the places you least expect them. And with that, a blast from the past!

We have an problem to solve and I think we may have found a window in a room full of walls.  Let me explain.

I have written before about how, in HR, we are bound by many rules and regulations that the challenge lies in us finding ways to get the job done in spite of them by working in between the black and white and in the grey. Beware of self-imposed interpretations that, at times, can be more restrictive than they need to be.

Part of the challenge is getting out of the muck and looking at an issue from a completely different perspective. In a post on Fast Company, the author, Donna Karlin, leads with a quote bu Anais Nin that is so very appropriate, " We don't see things are they are, we see things as we are."

Getting beyond ourselves and realizing what we thought was an absolute, non-negotiable truth, is not that at all, is an exhilarating feeling. In this case at hand, what we thought was a solid wall may not be at all. There may be a way around, or better yet - right through - this wall. And this is where we are today - giddy all the way.

How did we get here? Not by any planful way at all but through a series of conversations, venting sessions and frustrating  interactions all converging, blending, stirring and leading up to one "AHA" moment - spitting out a possibility on my way into work this morning. My thoughts ranged from "of course, why didn't we see that sooner?" to suddenly placing a new light on previous interactions and conversations .

I am only able to accomplish the things that I do because of those around me and today, we may have stumbled upon a window in a seemingly airtight room. But you know what, even if we find out that this isn't the answer, it has reminded me of the value in discussing issues, of listening to dissenting opinions, of allowing all sides of an issue to be presented, and more so, of valuing the contribution of every individual.