WEBVTT 00:00:02.023 --> 00:00:09.814 Had you actually read the email, you would know that the podcast you are about to listen to could contain explicit language and offensive content. 00:00:09.814 --> 00:00:16.480 These HR experts' views are not representative of their past, present or future employers. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:19.687 If you have ever heard my manager is unfair to me. 00:00:19.687 --> 00:00:26.548 I need you to reset my HR portal password, or Can I write up my employee for crying too much? 00:00:26.548 --> 00:00:28.864 Welcome to our little safe zone. 00:00:28.864 --> 00:00:31.170 Welcome to Jaded HR. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:55.334 So, anyways, welcome to Jaded HR, the podcast by two HR professionals who want to help you survive the workday by saying everything you're thinking. 00:00:55.353 --> 00:01:02.587 But say it out loud I'm Warren, I'm Cece, she's back, I'm back and I'm sick with something different. 00:01:02.587 --> 00:01:04.745 So you know, just keeping it spicy. 00:01:04.787 --> 00:01:05.909 It's been a rough year. 00:01:05.909 --> 00:01:09.528 It's only April, come on. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:11.486 It's only April. 00:01:11.486 --> 00:01:12.945 It's ridiculous. 00:01:12.945 --> 00:01:19.748 I don't know what happened to my immune system after I had a kid, but I think that has something to do with it, because I'm catching everything that's coming at me. 00:01:20.021 --> 00:01:24.608 I would just wait until they get to kindergarten and stuff and they start bringing home all the school cuties. 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:27.953 I, I would just wait until they get to kindergarten and stuff, and they start bringing home all the school cooties. 00:01:27.953 --> 00:01:41.170 I think kindergarten year I don't think I'd been my first kid, I don't think I'd been sicker because they bring home all the cooties and new cooties you haven't been exposed to and yeah, it always seemed to be something I'm so excited. 00:01:41.170 --> 00:01:48.891 Yeah, so I mentioned I'm going to this Virginia State SHRM conference. 00:01:48.891 --> 00:01:49.692 We're in the middle of it. 00:01:49.692 --> 00:02:01.534 Today's a Tuesday, tomorrow the conference wraps up and okay, I'm going to be shitting on it a lot, but I have had some good experiences too. 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:20.151 But yeah, and this is the first state conference I've been to, normally in in virginia they rotate the state conference among the five major metropolitan areas and so the hampton roads, virginia beach area gets it like every fifth year. 00:02:20.151 --> 00:02:23.751 And the last year, surprise, surprise was covid I'd would. 00:02:23.751 --> 00:02:26.602 I was registered and obviously couldn't go. 00:02:26.602 --> 00:02:28.344 They canceled it that one. 00:02:28.344 --> 00:02:30.028 So so here it is. 00:02:30.028 --> 00:02:40.605 They they're doing it again, but next year it looks like for the next three years they're going to be in virginia beach, but I, at this point I don't think I will be going to going to those. 00:02:40.605 --> 00:02:42.590 So it's, it's interesting. 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:49.221 Uh, let's see here because it's been since I've been, I since it's. 00:02:49.221 --> 00:02:50.645 There wasn't one in covet. 00:02:50.645 --> 00:02:55.461 It's been at least 10 years, then, since I've been to a state conference and it's. 00:02:56.122 --> 00:03:11.967 It's a little different than I remember, but maybe that's, maybe that's just my old foggy memory or anything like that, but yeah, so, um, I've already titled this episode and you know, sherm, you should be ashamed that that's what. 00:03:11.967 --> 00:03:18.925 Uh, oh, no, that's, that's what this, this conference, is. 00:03:18.925 --> 00:03:20.388 I broke down. 00:03:20.388 --> 00:03:26.760 I go to, as all of know, I go down deep rabbit holes when I get my mind like hyper-focused on something. 00:03:26.760 --> 00:03:40.191 So there are 64 breakout sessions in the three-day conference and I went down the list and I was classifying them by the speakers, what their bio says about them. 00:03:40.191 --> 00:03:45.530 I classified the topics, so here's some stats, anyways that I came together. 00:03:45.530 --> 00:03:59.652 So, of the speakers going through their bios 38 of the speakers and there's only 64 breakout sessions 38 identified themselves as a consultant or a coach, which brought me to perfect timing. 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:04.850 Suzanne Lucas, on LinkedIn, posted this on April 4th. 00:04:04.850 --> 00:04:26.492 She says I have a controversial thought today Getting laid off does not qualify you to be a coach, and it is so perfect because every HR person who loses their job, they're a coach, they're a consultant, they are something else, and I thought that that fit very, very perfectly for this. 00:04:26.492 --> 00:04:35.723 But, anyways, I classified six people as an industry expert, somebody who they're in the weeds, they practice it, they know what they're talking about. 00:04:35.723 --> 00:04:36.505 Only six of them. 00:04:36.505 --> 00:04:37.470 I could do that. 00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:52.048 There were 10 attorneys speaking, three salespeople, only five people who are like practitioners not to the level of industry expert, but they're practitioners and then speakers were made up the rest. 00:04:52.048 --> 00:05:04.189 Then I further broke down the topics and there are 18 functional topics and I know these numbers don't add up, it's 47. 00:05:04.189 --> 00:05:15.326 I put whimsical topics, and whimsical is like the pie in the sky rainbows and unicorns hanging their kitty cat memes and posters and things like that. 00:05:15.326 --> 00:05:19.271 But we're talking three quarters of the. 00:05:19.271 --> 00:05:21.307 I can't do math, I'm an HR. 00:05:21.307 --> 00:05:27.045 Two thirds of them are there's no there there with them. 00:05:27.786 --> 00:05:31.851 And then I looked at the titles of the breakout sessions. 00:05:31.851 --> 00:05:34.855 The word resilience is used six times. 00:05:34.855 --> 00:05:42.680 Empowering was used twice. 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:44.483 Navigating was used 15 times, but they were trying to have a nautical theme. 00:05:44.483 --> 00:05:46.146 It's at the beach, they're trying to have a nautical theme. 00:05:46.146 --> 00:05:48.750 Four of them had the words play or games in them. 00:05:48.750 --> 00:05:51.774 Several had storytelling stories. 00:05:51.774 --> 00:05:57.291 Future was in five of them, but this is something I'd never seen at a conference before. 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:04.357 In the schedule that tells you where the breakout session is and the time and all that, the schedule that tells you where the breakout session is in the time, and all that. 00:06:04.357 --> 00:06:10.507 Nine of them have books for sale listed in the in the front of the schedule and yeah. 00:06:10.507 --> 00:06:16.249 So, anyways, there was, in their bios, 14 people listed themselves as authors. 00:06:16.249 --> 00:06:24.026 But of those 14 authors, only one listed themselves, listed their publisher, which is something I you know. 00:06:24.026 --> 00:06:29.144 Listed themselves, listed their publisher, which is something I, you know. 00:06:29.144 --> 00:06:34.500 I'm really keen on, because self-published books are a dime less, they're free a dozen, they're not even a dime a dozen, they're free. 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:51.228 And if there's no publisher willing to say and in the self-help arena that a lot of these people are operating in, there's so much bullshit, stupid books out there if you can't get a publisher and you, you go the self-help boat route. 00:06:51.228 --> 00:06:52.870 Yeah, you're not, you're not. 00:06:53.632 --> 00:06:57.505 Yeah, that's not yeah, it's so easy to self-publish right now, like you could. 00:06:57.526 --> 00:07:10.295 Just I'm thinking like I'm going to, when I'm finished with my, my grad school, and I actually have time to get my head above water and breathe again, I'll have some more letters behind my name. 00:07:10.295 --> 00:07:11.543 I'm going to find I've got. 00:07:11.543 --> 00:07:19.060 The only thing I put on my signature is term SCP and I don't put it on my LinkedIn anymore, but I use it my email signature. 00:07:19.060 --> 00:07:23.228 But I'm going to find all my little certificates and all my little letters behind my name. 00:07:23.228 --> 00:07:26.113 Get all my little bona fides looking really nice. 00:07:26.113 --> 00:07:33.026 And AI and I are going to self-publish like 100 books a year so I can be this incredible author. 00:07:33.026 --> 00:07:34.329 Nobody's read one Hell. 00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:35.012 I haven't even read them. 00:07:35.012 --> 00:07:36.564 Chat TPT wrote it. 00:07:36.564 --> 00:07:37.168 I haven't read it. 00:07:37.168 --> 00:07:39.305 One of my favorite lines Lou Holtz. 00:07:39.305 --> 00:07:48.230 He said once I saw him speak he's a great speaker, he's talking about a book he wrote. 00:07:48.230 --> 00:07:50.980 He goes and that makes me the only person in the world to have written more books I've read Awesome. 00:07:51.319 --> 00:07:51.781 I like that. 00:07:51.781 --> 00:07:54.247 But anyways, I'll follow his footsteps. 00:07:54.247 --> 00:08:00.129 But more things they put in their bios that they say they're a professional keynote speaker. 00:08:00.129 --> 00:08:03.884 Four of them have been on TED Talks and then coaches and things like that. 00:08:03.925 --> 00:08:09.869 So it was just yeah, I've told some by the way, that was a very impressive analysis that you just said. 00:08:09.869 --> 00:08:10.329 Oh, I went down. 00:08:10.920 --> 00:08:18.591 ADD is great when you can hyper-focus, and I just decided this is my target today and that's what I'm going to do. 00:08:19.333 --> 00:08:22.701 But yeah, when you can focus in on the right thing, ADHD is a blessing. 00:08:22.822 --> 00:08:31.528 Oh yeah, when it's the right thing, when you're supposed to be doing something else and you're deciding to Google these speakers, bios, things like that, not so much. 00:08:31.528 --> 00:08:35.551 But Sunday night, well, I'll be going back. 00:08:35.551 --> 00:08:39.774 So, whatever day, the schedule came out, the official final schedule came out. 00:08:39.774 --> 00:08:44.657 My assistant and I are both going and I deferred to her. 00:08:44.657 --> 00:08:59.946 I gave her the schedule, I hadn't even looked at it and I said you pick the sessions you want to do and I'll go and I'll do different breakout sessions from you so that we can cover more ground and meet later and discuss and have good conversations about it Smart. 00:08:59.966 --> 00:09:00.466 Yeah, only if I could. 00:09:00.486 --> 00:09:00.846 Smart? 00:09:00.846 --> 00:09:02.147 Yeah, only if I could. 00:09:02.147 --> 00:09:16.894 After she picked hers and I looked through, there was only one time that we could break up and do different things because I was not going to do any of this touchy-feely bullshit sessions. 00:09:16.894 --> 00:09:24.677 Actually, I have two holes in my session where I decided I'll check emails, I'll do it, because there was just nothing of absolute interest in there. 00:09:24.677 --> 00:09:34.506 So I have two holes in my my schedule. 00:09:34.506 --> 00:09:42.039 But I was like, and so the only and the reason we could break up, one of the touchy feely speakers had to cancel, and when the attorney stepped in and filled that slot and so she went to the one she was going to already go to and I went to the other one. 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:49.073 So we got to separate, separate and you know what, this episode is going to get jaded. 00:09:49.375 --> 00:09:52.744 But those were some great professional conversations. 00:09:52.744 --> 00:09:58.168 Discussing she's fresh out of college, she went to this what did you think about that? 00:09:58.168 --> 00:09:58.809 What did they say? 00:09:58.809 --> 00:09:59.311 What did you think? 00:09:59.311 --> 00:10:02.875 Getting her thoughts and insight. 00:10:02.875 --> 00:10:06.168 I mean those are great conversations. 00:10:06.168 --> 00:10:09.383 Too bad, we could only have one of them, but so far. 00:10:09.383 --> 00:10:13.552 Well, tomorrow's the last day and there's nothing else there. 00:10:13.552 --> 00:10:29.032 But anyways, that was my plan, but it couldn't be done Because, like I said, I was not going to sit through and I did sit through the keynote speaker today and one of them 30 seconds in she just completely lost me. 00:10:29.032 --> 00:10:31.749 She's I don't know what this, this pose is. 00:10:31.749 --> 00:10:34.249 You see all over Instagram, or I don't know what you call it. 00:10:34.249 --> 00:10:36.947 You put your hands under your chin and yeah. 00:10:37.207 --> 00:10:39.645 Under your chin, yeah, and I don't know what that is. 00:10:39.645 --> 00:10:43.350 And she's like really sucking up to the crowd and I love HR. 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:48.879 And like 30 seconds in, I'm grabbing my phone, I'm starting to place the dukes. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:50.886 I'm like, oh gosh, I'm in for it. 00:10:50.886 --> 00:10:56.749 And then she starts going on and this was like three minutes into the conversation. 00:10:58.140 --> 00:11:04.971 The hardest, the toughest, longest journey you'll ever have to take is the 18 inches between your brain and your heart. 00:11:04.971 --> 00:11:15.990 And I just I said jesus, fucking christ, and I said it probably about that loud and, yeah, I, I was just like, oh, I, I'm not even paying attention to what you're saying. 00:11:15.990 --> 00:11:20.063 I'm trying not to pay attention because I didn't want to do things like that. 00:11:20.063 --> 00:11:24.880 And the toughest journey is the 18 inches between your head and your heart. 00:11:24.880 --> 00:11:29.427 Okay, and that tough journey is going to help me in my HR career. 00:11:29.427 --> 00:11:30.729 How so. 00:11:30.729 --> 00:11:34.072 And that's where I'm going with the whole title of this of where. 00:11:34.072 --> 00:11:52.905 Why Sherm should be ashamed Because A, with two thirds of the speakers being nothing that you're going to be, you might leave feeling good. 00:11:52.905 --> 00:11:55.932 You know I've made my opinion before that I'm not the target for those type of things, but in the long run, you leave those type of sessions. 00:11:55.932 --> 00:11:57.557 You feel good, you feel energized, you feel positive. 00:11:57.557 --> 00:12:02.428 What are you going to actually take back to work and improve your work? 00:12:02.428 --> 00:12:04.974 From Nothing, yeah. 00:12:05.541 --> 00:12:06.303 You feel good for that. 00:12:06.384 --> 00:12:10.179 It's hard Until the next session when you go to an employment law section. 00:12:10.179 --> 00:12:15.504 And then they're saying, oh, the sky is falling and you know everything, the shit's all hitting the fan. 00:12:15.504 --> 00:12:17.605 And yeah, maybe that was their plan. 00:12:17.605 --> 00:12:19.567 Maybe I'm just not giving them enough credit. 00:12:19.567 --> 00:12:23.364 We have so much bad news and bullshit that we're going to have to cover. 00:12:23.364 --> 00:12:28.011 Let's give them some rainbows and unicorns and, you know, fluffy little ponies and things like that. 00:12:28.052 --> 00:12:30.964 So to at least let them leave feeling okay. 00:12:30.964 --> 00:12:34.452 I'm sorry I cut you off it's hard. 00:12:35.475 --> 00:13:10.995 I was just gonna say it's so hard because I think a lot of these, a lot of these conferences, they know they have X amount of days to fill and some of those things are filler and I wish it was more substance, I wish it was more like I would rather sit through a two days, a two day conference and have nothing but substantial things, rather than having a three or four day conference and then having these experiences of I don't know, just these inspirational quotes on a wall, personified. 00:13:11.419 --> 00:13:11.841 Exactly. 00:13:11.841 --> 00:13:20.932 And walking through the corridors I hear these people this was so great, this is so great, and I can understand it, but what are you going to do with it? 00:13:20.932 --> 00:13:24.003 And you're not going to get anything out. 00:13:24.003 --> 00:13:26.966 I've told any number of people, including you. 00:13:26.966 --> 00:13:38.636 If my COO read the agenda and the topic titles for what I'm going to be doing, what I've been doing the last three days, he would just say look, what the fuck are you doing, warren? 00:13:38.636 --> 00:13:40.405 He goes what are you wasting our money on? 00:13:40.405 --> 00:13:41.269 I can just picture him. 00:13:41.269 --> 00:13:42.485 What are you wasting our money on? 00:13:42.485 --> 00:13:45.008 Why do you need to know about IK? 00:13:45.008 --> 00:13:48.690 I don't have the actual titles in front of me right now of these things. 00:13:48.690 --> 00:13:51.707 But why, oh, gamify your workplace? 00:13:51.707 --> 00:13:55.629 Yeah, that's going to. 00:13:55.629 --> 00:13:55.830 Yeah. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:00.748 Gamification is big in learning, but how is it in the workplace? 00:14:00.748 --> 00:14:03.673 I don't know, you're like I don't know. 00:14:03.692 --> 00:14:09.330 I don't know, I didn't want to go to that session and then, whatever session was, I don't know. 00:14:09.330 --> 00:14:10.173 I've meant to look up. 00:14:10.173 --> 00:14:11.639 I'll have to go back to the schedule. 00:14:11.639 --> 00:14:15.128 I was in a session with an employment attorney. 00:14:15.128 --> 00:14:35.350 Actually, my employment attorney was giving the presentation and in the conference room they're playing like family feud music and dings and people getting all loud and stuff like that and I'm like, okay, they're having more fun than I'm having, probably, but what are they going to walk out the door with, and things like that. 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:43.869 So, anyways, the next rabbit hole I went down after being very disappointed in this offering. 00:14:43.869 --> 00:15:00.855 I just put into Google my search term was Virginia Professional Annual Conferences and I went down the list and I started just clicking on them, not in regard to what profession or anything, it was just search result 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and going down. 00:15:00.855 --> 00:15:02.967 Then I would look and see if they had an agenda. 00:15:02.967 --> 00:15:06.691 So it took me a couple of pages to go through this many. 00:15:06.691 --> 00:15:10.227 But so the first one, the Virginia Society of CPAs. 00:15:10.227 --> 00:15:27.083 Oh, here's the criteria If I was going to count them on this list, it had to be a professional organization, it had to be a multi-day conference, not just a one-day thing, and they had to have a detailed agenda that could read the topics and make a judgment call whether it was substantial or fluff. 00:15:27.083 --> 00:15:30.535 So first one Virginia Society of CPAs. 00:15:30.535 --> 00:15:36.475 Zero fluff topics, zero Virginia Commissioners of Revenue. 00:15:36.495 --> 00:15:36.956 Yeah, it's accountants. 00:15:37.339 --> 00:15:40.033 Yeah, virginia Commissioners of Revenue zero fluff. 00:15:40.033 --> 00:15:41.134 The Virginia Bar Association zero fluff. 00:15:41.134 --> 00:15:44.558 The Virginia Bar Association zero fluff. 00:15:44.558 --> 00:15:47.842 The Virginia Academy of Sciences no fluff. 00:15:47.842 --> 00:15:56.870 Virginia Society of Toxicology zero fluff. 00:15:56.870 --> 00:15:58.091 Association of School Programs of Public Health no fluff. 00:15:58.091 --> 00:15:59.975 The Virginia Funders Association I don't know what half these things are no fluff. 00:15:59.975 --> 00:16:01.217 Wildlife Society no fluff. 00:16:01.217 --> 00:16:02.639 College of Physicians no fluff. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.623 Rheumatoid Society no fluff. 00:16:04.623 --> 00:16:06.371 Association of Museums no fluff. 00:16:07.214 --> 00:16:16.240 Not until I got my 12th one that actually had an agenda did I start seeing fluffy things, and it was the Virginia Apartment Management Association. 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:18.994 That goes probably on Google results page three. 00:16:18.994 --> 00:16:23.113 Like I said, not everybody had their agenda still published, or they had their. 00:16:23.113 --> 00:16:28.437 2025 is saying coming soon on the agenda, so I couldn't see what 2024 was. 00:16:28.437 --> 00:16:34.243 But on day one they had a fluffy keynote and two fluffy breakout sessions. 00:16:34.243 --> 00:16:48.955 Day two, three breakout sessions and day three their closing was I think it's I put a quote is energetic and funny keynote speaker, but I think the whole quote that I didn't write down was you'll be enthralled by our closing. 00:16:48.955 --> 00:16:50.639 They weren't even trying to hide that. 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:51.662 It was fluff. 00:16:52.350 --> 00:16:54.072 Yeah, that's interesting. 00:16:54.072 --> 00:17:10.741 So, like as you're going through this, all I'm thinking is that sometimes hr has this reputation of being the people people and we're there as emotional support, or we're just there for the business and like it's. 00:17:10.741 --> 00:17:11.490 It's two different. 00:17:11.490 --> 00:17:13.035 There's two different sides. 00:17:13.035 --> 00:17:22.064 People either think that we're like too people-y and too feeling-y, or people just think that we're out for the business and you should never trust us. 00:17:22.064 --> 00:17:28.282 Those are the two sides of the coin and this stuff it's discouraging to hear. 00:17:28.282 --> 00:17:40.076 It feels like we have the most fluff in our conferences when, if you think about it, the things that we do have tangible business results. 00:17:40.076 --> 00:17:49.457 However, it's not as obvious as accountants or lawyers or this or that, but the work that we do. 00:17:50.117 --> 00:17:57.185 I mean I could pull up the projects I've done in the past and I could pull up ROI and I could talk about how we impacted the business. 00:17:57.185 --> 00:18:03.914 It's serious work that we do, but then you go to a conference and you get discouraged with the fluffy feelings. 00:18:03.914 --> 00:18:05.598 It makes me a little sad. 00:18:06.339 --> 00:18:09.593 It is sad because everybody HR needs a place at the table. 00:18:09.593 --> 00:18:12.760 Hr, you need your seat at the table and all this. 00:18:12.760 --> 00:18:28.028 Well, this is exactly why if it's our own professional organization, the only one out there for us that says this is what we think is important for your professional organization, the only one out there for us that says this is what we think is important for your professional development, then no, it's an epic fail in terms of that. 00:18:28.028 --> 00:18:40.696 And yeah, if it's where they're in San Diego this year for the National SHRM Conference, they've only hyped it up a couple dozen times over to conference, which I will not be going to the National SHRM conference. 00:18:40.696 --> 00:18:52.103 But when you have 300 exhibitors and things like that and multi-day, I'm sure I could find all the substantive things I want, but in a three-day state conference, yeah, it's just. 00:18:52.103 --> 00:18:58.236 This is exactly what is wrong with HR right now. 00:18:58.236 --> 00:19:00.821 If you want to, you can come up with some. 00:19:01.241 --> 00:19:14.768 Like I said, there were about 10 breakout sessions with lawyers and I'm doing every single one of them overall and it's just such a shame is I, beside all the jadedness, I'm passionate about my career. 00:19:14.768 --> 00:19:26.605 I'm passionate about my profession, I love what I do, but to see that the local chapter or the state chapter or whomever it is, thinks that this is what's going to be important to us? 00:19:26.605 --> 00:19:27.971 Yeah, it's. 00:19:27.971 --> 00:19:33.864 And on top of all that, the fact that you had to pay and register as it sold out. 00:19:33.864 --> 00:19:36.719 They only allowed like 650, I don't remember the number. 00:19:36.719 --> 00:19:40.936 It's a really low number of people this year, but it's really not any space in the place. 00:19:40.936 --> 00:19:47.999 They've gone and I'm thinking it's been 10 years since I've been to one, but in the past I was thinking there was like a thousand people or more in them. 00:19:47.999 --> 00:19:54.906 But but yeah, there was, there's just there's no there there and I'm I'm just really highly disappointed. 00:19:54.906 --> 00:19:59.961 They, they need to have some more substantive topics and get us out of that mind. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:09.114 Space of this is what HR is important Because, like I said, you take a functional person, you take your CEO, your COO, and you show them this agenda. 00:20:09.114 --> 00:20:10.337 They're going to laugh at you. 00:20:10.337 --> 00:20:24.301 You go to your CFO and they go to one of these society of CPAs where they have a four-day conference and it's like all hard-hitting stuff and here we are, we're going to learn the second verse, the kumbaya, that nobody knows, or something like that. 00:20:24.301 --> 00:20:41.830 I have no freaking clue, but this is what is absolutely wrong with HR right now, and I know some of the people on the local board and I haven't talked to them about this, but I think it's just so disappointing and I don't know how much control they had over this. 00:20:41.830 --> 00:20:51.077 My other thing, where I was going before I diverted myself again is you had to pay before you know what the and register before you knew what the topics were. 00:20:51.077 --> 00:21:04.172 And if I'd known, if I'd seen the agenda, I would have said, oh, I'll pass, I'd rather go to work and do things, but some of these ones that I listed, they're future conferences. 00:21:04.211 --> 00:21:15.961 Now, one thing I didn't do which I wanted to do I just ran out of time and motivation was I wanted to go and look at other state SHRM councils and see if they have. 00:21:15.961 --> 00:21:25.421 I know there's going to be a fluff, but if it's going to be, two thirds of it is fluff, or if it's it's, they have more substantial stuff. 00:21:25.421 --> 00:21:28.965 Because I I don't want to just the one deal with it. 00:21:28.965 --> 00:21:38.815 I want to, I want to go, I want to learn, I want to improve myself and I want to get back to work and say, hey, I think we can do this, I think this is a good idea. 00:21:38.815 --> 00:21:42.957 That's why I want to go when I get back to work Thursday. 00:21:42.957 --> 00:21:44.179 That's what I want to be doing. 00:21:44.179 --> 00:21:46.884 And what'd you do? 00:21:49.770 --> 00:21:52.700 I learned about the hardest journey that we will ever take. 00:21:55.893 --> 00:21:59.317 Yeah, I go back to telling that to my COO. 00:21:59.317 --> 00:22:03.865 Yeah, the hardest journey I'm going to take is the 18 inches between my mind and my heart. 00:22:03.865 --> 00:22:10.559 Yeah, I think my bags would be packed and thrown out me as I'm getting booted out the door. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:12.102 Yeah, it's hard. 00:22:14.009 --> 00:22:47.875 And I will say, because I used to be on a board where we did plan an annual conference and it was difficult, not difficult but you have a call to action or a call out for individuals who would like to be a presenter, and there's a whole moment like a picking process and a vetting process, but at the end of the day, like if we have x amount of sessions to fill and we're a couple short, we'll take someone from the bottom of a pile to put them in there to fill that up. 00:22:47.875 --> 00:22:52.074 And I hate to say it like that but that's kind of like how it was. 00:22:52.275 --> 00:22:56.531 So yeah, like you just have the sessions and the time slots to fill, you just have to fill them. 00:22:56.932 --> 00:23:07.358 And I was giving us a little bit of thought what would I, what other topics would I want to see addressed that substantively? 00:23:07.358 --> 00:23:09.451 But that's the thing about when these conferences too. 00:23:09.451 --> 00:23:27.907 You go to some of these conferences, you don't know, hey, that that topic I didn't know was going to hit me and be as important to me, and as it ends up being, until you go there and you say, oh, wow, this is, this is something that's, that's good, so but yeah, it's been going going well. 00:23:27.907 --> 00:23:30.635 I don't know if I hit this on on the speech. 00:23:30.635 --> 00:23:40.682 So the keynote, the closing keynote speaker for Monday, was Johnny C Taylor, himself JCT, and I tell you I've I've been very hard on the man. 00:23:40.682 --> 00:23:43.068 You can listen to any dozens of episodes. 00:23:43.068 --> 00:23:44.191 I've been very hard on him. 00:23:44.191 --> 00:23:53.510 He is a phenomenal speaker and I was expecting him to be more fluff and pie in the sky. 00:23:53.510 --> 00:23:54.332 He was not. 00:23:54.332 --> 00:24:08.733 He was actually kind of direct in all politics or whatever side you think of JCT, because I know he carries a lot of baggage because he was in Trump's or he advised Trump or something like that in his first administration and he was the lead. 00:24:08.733 --> 00:24:11.219 He was the head of the Department of Labor. 00:24:11.219 --> 00:24:14.375 This time was supposed to be the person. 00:24:14.375 --> 00:24:19.354 Everything I heard until this other person from Oregon was going to be him came up. 00:24:19.354 --> 00:24:28.411 So you know, you know what, which side of the political aisle he lines with, which is not what I think the general HR population lines up with. 00:24:28.411 --> 00:24:30.275 But he was. 00:24:30.275 --> 00:24:34.201 He talked about the future of SHRM. 00:24:34.201 --> 00:24:35.324 He talked about the future work. 00:24:35.324 --> 00:24:38.219 He talked about the future of AI and HR. 00:24:38.219 --> 00:24:53.036 I mean, it was a substantial topic and he was engaging and lively and I will actually say that I would give him a 10 out of 10 on both presentation and content. 00:24:53.036 --> 00:24:54.200 That's awesome. 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:58.058 I was not expecting it to like it that much. 00:24:58.058 --> 00:25:18.836 I went in, I went in jaded and he converted me and one of the things he said he said I will misquote him here, so don't say this is exactly it but his people, his handlers, whoever told him not to talk about the, the diversity, removing the diversity from DEI, and he talked about it in. 00:25:18.836 --> 00:25:26.921 Now his spiel on it is whatever the court decision was, that was really impact, negatively impacting diversity. 00:25:26.921 --> 00:25:30.032 They saw the writing on the wall and they're getting ahead of it now. 00:25:30.594 --> 00:25:34.064 I've also said is is you know, did he get lucky? 00:25:34.064 --> 00:25:36.530 Did Sherm and Johnny C Taylor get lucky. 00:25:36.530 --> 00:25:43.234 And now, yep, because that was September, before the election or anything, and nobody knew the direction things were going to change in. 00:25:43.234 --> 00:25:46.711 And is he now just getting in front of the band with his baton? 00:25:46.711 --> 00:25:47.512 Look what we said. 00:25:47.512 --> 00:25:48.634 Was he lucky? 00:25:48.634 --> 00:25:49.537 Was he right? 00:25:49.537 --> 00:25:50.318 Was he predicted? 00:25:50.318 --> 00:25:50.358 I? 00:25:50.358 --> 00:25:56.839 I don't know how it, how it came about, but the fact is that's where we are right now. 00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:58.990 Regardless, the fact is that's where we are. 00:25:58.990 --> 00:26:16.998 How you feel about it's a whole different ballgame, but I I went in very cynical and jaded and I'm not gonna say I'm a a thousand percent jct fan now, but I have a new level of respect for him that I did not have before Monday evening. 00:26:17.987 --> 00:26:19.874 So I know that's going to be a very unpopular opinion. 00:26:19.874 --> 00:26:29.019 No, what I was thinking was maybe he no longer has that carrot dangling in front of him for a shiny political position. 00:26:29.285 --> 00:26:47.953 So now he's being a little more direct and a little more himself, like he has nothing on the line yeah I will say that I did hear him speak at a sherm convention and he is very charismatic and he's a great public speaker and honestly, you do leave feeling good about the work you do. 00:26:47.953 --> 00:26:52.868 And it's not fluff, it's like you said, it's very direct and very state. 00:26:52.868 --> 00:27:00.359 It's almost like state of the union of hr exactly perfect analogy, but see, that's what I want yes what if I'm going to a conference? 00:27:00.539 --> 00:27:03.609 I want a state of the union of the industry, a state of the industry. 00:27:03.609 --> 00:27:05.955 I want best practices. 00:27:05.955 --> 00:27:15.259 I want to see how other companies, like best in class companies are doing things and what I can learn from them. 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:17.083 I'm okay on the other stuff. 00:27:17.083 --> 00:27:19.588 I'm okay with the fluffy feely stuff. 00:27:20.309 --> 00:27:35.250 And it's not that I want zero fluff, like some of these other ones, but two thirds of it being wide categorized as fluff is a bit too much and because, like I said, some of it's been quite depressing. 00:27:35.250 --> 00:27:47.748 When you're doing an employment law seminar one, you're doing like I said I've done I don't know how many law ones have been done thus far and it's a little scary, it's a little depressing and maybe you want to. 00:27:47.748 --> 00:27:49.314 Okay, I've had enough of this. 00:27:49.314 --> 00:27:57.596 Let's talk about gamifying your workplace or whatever One of these BSE topics they had out there were. 00:27:57.596 --> 00:28:03.712 And, yeah, I can see me going to my CEO and COO and say, hey, let's gamify our place. 00:28:03.712 --> 00:28:06.792 Yeah, let's gamify your resume and see how. 00:28:08.708 --> 00:28:12.511 Make it into a fun puzzle piece so people can put it together when you mail it to them. 00:28:13.595 --> 00:28:17.795 Yeah, so, but anyways, that's my take on it. 00:28:17.795 --> 00:28:19.145 I'm having a good time. 00:28:19.145 --> 00:28:23.118 I just wish I could have done more substantial work, get more. 00:28:23.118 --> 00:28:23.159 I. 00:28:23.159 --> 00:28:25.750 I wanted my assistant this is our first, you know. 00:28:25.750 --> 00:28:26.976 She just graduated from college. 00:28:26.976 --> 00:28:29.185 She I wanted her to get a little more experience. 00:28:29.185 --> 00:28:33.766 She's getting a good experience out of it, but I wanted her to to expose, and I'm I'm. 00:28:33.766 --> 00:28:35.169 I even told her. 00:28:35.169 --> 00:28:40.352 Look, I said I feel I feel bad because I think I'm corrupting you with my mindset. 00:28:40.352 --> 00:28:44.509 And then she goes well, I'm thinking a lot of these things, I'm just not always saying them. 00:28:44.509 --> 00:28:53.776 I'm like okay, well, because I do feel bad, I don't want to create another mini me or something like that. 00:28:53.776 --> 00:28:56.913 I actually respect her so much. 00:28:56.913 --> 00:29:02.441 I don't want her to feel that she has to agree with me or say that I'm right or anything like that. 00:29:02.500 --> 00:29:14.855 So yeah, I will say I do love I mean I'm I've said before I love a conference, even with the fluffy stuff and everything, because I love it energizes me to be around people in the same industry. 00:29:14.855 --> 00:29:22.635 I love to network, I love to meet people who are doing similar things to me because I feel like that ups my game. 00:29:23.305 --> 00:29:35.865 You're in a very specialized area so there's not you know other than you, maybe two other people that that is their full-time position, maybe. 00:29:35.865 --> 00:29:38.269 Yeah, I know that, do that. 00:29:38.269 --> 00:29:43.338 You know it's not like recruiting or generalist role or anything like that. 00:29:43.338 --> 00:29:57.779 You're doing very specialized work and if I were much more specialized I'd be very much hunting down my other cohorts because I know I'm a generalist overall. 00:29:57.779 --> 00:30:03.356 I know people I can call and contact if I have a question and bounce ideas off of or vent to or whatever. 00:30:03.356 --> 00:30:06.690 If I were in your boat I wouldn't. 00:30:06.690 --> 00:30:15.173 I mean, I'm sure you have more networking, a broader network in that arena than I do, but wow, that must be own island a lot of times. 00:30:16.134 --> 00:30:16.776 A lot of times. 00:30:16.776 --> 00:30:19.660 Yeah, and that's a lot of places. 00:30:19.660 --> 00:30:20.461 This is new. 00:30:20.461 --> 00:30:25.059 Oh yeah, I started a new job. 00:30:25.059 --> 00:30:47.997 Like a lot of places I worked at, I was kind of a team of one, or maybe one or two, and it was always difficult to try to keep ahead of what's going on and trying to see how the best places are doing things, and that's why I've always had to go to conferences and network and go outside of my office, so to speak. 00:30:47.997 --> 00:30:53.570 Now, starting a new job, I'm on a team of us, so this is exciting. 00:30:53.570 --> 00:30:57.508 This is a whole new game and I'm very excited. 00:30:57.508 --> 00:30:59.915 Good, but yeah. 00:31:01.165 --> 00:31:02.171 You've started a new job. 00:31:02.171 --> 00:31:04.031 Feathers recently started a new job. 00:31:04.031 --> 00:31:08.396 Patrick still where he was when we worked together, and I'm not going anywhere. 00:31:08.396 --> 00:31:11.213 I'm going to become a lifer where I'm at. 00:31:11.213 --> 00:31:15.904 If the decision were mine, I'd be a lifer, but the decision's not always going to. 00:31:15.904 --> 00:31:16.885 I hope If the decision were mine, I'd be a lifer, but the decision's not always going to. 00:31:16.885 --> 00:31:19.251 I know that's not my decision all the time. 00:31:19.251 --> 00:31:23.373 Nice, do you want to talk about your new job? 00:31:23.373 --> 00:31:28.632 You've told me how it came up or anything. 00:31:28.632 --> 00:31:29.996 Anything you want to and we can edit. 00:31:30.016 --> 00:31:33.712 Yeah, so this is the I'm going to say, this is the power of networking. 00:31:33.712 --> 00:31:56.998 I had connected with the hiring manager about five years ago because I was interviewing for a role under her at a different company and I was one of the final two and I just got edged out and I didn't get the role and she basically called me and she said usually you get some kind of just email or something. 00:31:56.998 --> 00:32:03.188 But she had called me and she said it was a very hard decision and I do want to keep in touch because I feel like one day we're meant to work with each other. 00:32:03.188 --> 00:32:07.846 And I was like, oh, and I thought that was fantastic and sure enough. 00:32:07.846 --> 00:32:14.009 Like, over the course of five years, different opportunities kind of popped up, but they were never the right one. 00:32:14.009 --> 00:32:20.633 And then finally this one popped up and I said I was leaving. 00:32:20.692 --> 00:32:28.155 So I had a really good conversation with my old manager, the, from the company I was leaving and I was telling him how this time it's the. 00:32:28.155 --> 00:32:29.628 This is one of the hardest times. 00:32:29.628 --> 00:32:42.537 Only two times in my life leaving a company Did I say oh, like this is a hard leave because I love the people I work with, I love what I'm doing, I love all that, but this it just, it's just hard to leave. 00:32:42.537 --> 00:33:00.804 And again, twice in my life and my last company being one of them and he said something that was kind of it resonated with me in a way, because he said it's different, it's a different feeling when you're running away from something than when you're running towards something. 00:33:01.084 --> 00:33:04.034 That's cool, I was like, oh, like that is. 00:33:04.034 --> 00:33:33.143 And he just basically said if you can manage to run towards something every time, and every time you leave, towards something to elevate yourself or for a better position, you're going to have it in your heart like leaving your past company to be like, oh, I'm gonna miss them, but the time is right, versus times where I've left companies running away from them with my middle fingers in the air, being like f you guys, yeah, screw you, screw you, you're cool, but I like that. 00:33:33.143 --> 00:33:34.590 I was like, yeah, so this is the first like. 00:33:34.590 --> 00:33:39.972 I feel like I'm really like running towards something bigger, something better. 00:33:39.972 --> 00:33:50.440 And the other thing I wanted to say was sorry, I am in a remote position again and I love being 100% remote. 00:33:51.701 --> 00:33:59.805 And the one thing about remote roles is the onboarding is sometimes tricky, like it's hit or miss, because your first day you're at your home, you're in your office. 00:33:59.805 --> 00:34:06.710 It's not like your first day in an office where you're like meeting people and this kind of stuff, and it's a different energy. 00:34:06.710 --> 00:34:14.666 And this is the first time where I started a remote role and the onboarding is like perfection, perfection. 00:34:14.666 --> 00:34:34.945 I got like this PowerPoint, like a deck that basically had like 20 some slides saying exactly what my role was going to be, exactly the org structure, exactly like what we do as a company, and then it went down to like okay, here's your first two week plan. 00:34:34.945 --> 00:34:38.670 Here's your 30 day plan, here's your 60 day, 90 day Like. 00:34:38.811 --> 00:34:51.458 It was so in depth that I feel like, so well prepared and, additionally, everyone at the company, just the culture of the company, is very welcoming. 00:34:51.458 --> 00:34:55.179 Everyone is just let me know if you need anything. 00:34:55.179 --> 00:34:56.724 I'm already setting up touch bases. 00:34:56.724 --> 00:35:02.876 It's much more casual in the way people speak to each other than what I'm like it's. 00:35:02.876 --> 00:35:03.418 I've. 00:35:03.418 --> 00:35:10.786 I've had that kind of culture in the past and I've always tried to find a place that recreates it and this place seemingly does. 00:35:10.786 --> 00:35:12.590 It's very like we love that. 00:35:12.590 --> 00:35:15.934 You here, we can't wait to see what you're going to do. 00:35:15.934 --> 00:35:17.215 It's very positive. 00:35:17.215 --> 00:35:20.599 They trust me and it's just such a feeling. 00:35:24.371 --> 00:35:27.125 And now I'm like gosh, don't let me fuck it up. 00:35:27.125 --> 00:35:28.266 Oh no, you'll do excellent. 00:35:28.266 --> 00:35:34.755 A good onboarding experience really said you know, this is dating myself. 00:35:34.755 --> 00:35:43.887 But when I joined the law firm, I go into you know I do you go into a conference room I think a couple other people started the same day as I did and you get this, you get that. 00:35:43.887 --> 00:35:46.833 And then they sent me to. 00:35:47.173 --> 00:35:54.753 I got to see my office after after a while and you know I talked to my boss real briefly, but she actually had to go to another meeting or something. 00:35:54.753 --> 00:35:57.097 So she said, just get yourself set up in your office. 00:35:57.097 --> 00:36:22.617 And I walk into my office and I have my computer set up there and I have several reams of letterhead with my name on it, notepads with my name on it, my name and title, and then I'm sitting there organizing, getting stuff and somebody comes in and now this is getting spoiled by a law firm and they gave me this like a sheet I could just sort of check out. 00:36:22.617 --> 00:36:29.949 I want this, I want sticky notes, I want and they would say law firms go through the amazon raven floors like there's no other business. 00:36:29.949 --> 00:36:35.371 They actually had their own print shop, like I think was this I was on the 21st floor and they were on the 17th floor. 00:36:35.371 --> 00:36:44.295 It was like their own Kinko's that they could do any sort of printing and things and if I'd wanted anything I could just put in a request and I would have it. 00:36:44.456 --> 00:36:45.666 And I was like what? 00:36:45.666 --> 00:36:49.594 And then it was just such a amazing onboarding experience. 00:36:49.594 --> 00:36:57.485 You know, it wasn't high tech or cool like what you have, but was like this they have their act together in doing this. 00:36:57.485 --> 00:36:59.992 I was just like this was really, really cool. 00:36:59.992 --> 00:37:07.347 And then getting to be an hr and be the one who works with facilities and works with the all the other departments to get make that happen for other people. 00:37:07.347 --> 00:37:10.918 I was like this you know you can't do that everywhere, but it was. 00:37:10.918 --> 00:37:15.550 It was such a really, really good experience there. 00:37:15.550 --> 00:37:25.210 And they also had a housekeeping, the internal housekeeping crew and I remember one day you know I was doing with a hole puncher and I I picked it up wrong. 00:37:25.210 --> 00:37:27.617 You know what happens we put a couple of these damn hole punchers wrong. 00:37:27.617 --> 00:37:33.987 The little holes go everywhere and I'm in yeah, I'm in there cleaning it up and someone says, oh, we'll send housekeeping. 00:37:33.987 --> 00:37:40.018 I'm like, no, I, I cannot have someone else come in and clean my mess up. 00:37:40.284 --> 00:37:43.034 I just no, no, I created this. 00:37:43.034 --> 00:37:48.936 I'm not going to do it and you know, I'm sure I didn't get them all, but I got them overnight or what have you. 00:37:48.936 --> 00:37:53.476 But that was just such a really good onboarding experience, a really good onboarding experience. 00:37:53.476 --> 00:37:53.777 And that. 00:37:53.777 --> 00:38:12.311 That, when you have those really good memories, even thinking back and like, wow, you know, yeah, there's going to be crappy days and stuff, but when the table is set right, you know, it's just like yeah it's so like even I got to choose my computer, Like I never got to choose a computer. 00:38:12.492 --> 00:38:15.028 They're like oh, you're just going to get whatever we send you. 00:38:15.028 --> 00:38:18.313 But they let me choose what kind of computer I wanted, which. 00:38:18.313 --> 00:38:21.440 I'm on a Mac now because I'm a Mac girlie, so thank you. 00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:28.532 And then the IT person was like please let me know what else you need, like, and do you need dual monitors? 00:38:28.532 --> 00:38:29.335 Do you need this? 00:38:29.335 --> 00:38:30.137 Do you need that? 00:38:30.137 --> 00:38:38.213 And I was like this is nice, just being a, because you don't know what you don't know and you don't want to ask for too much if it's. 00:38:38.213 --> 00:38:42.298 You know not the standard and you don't know what the standard is. 00:38:42.298 --> 00:38:43.701 So you don't know what to ask for. 00:38:43.701 --> 00:38:52.398 And yeah, they were just like yeah, let us know what you need to make work better. 00:38:52.398 --> 00:38:53.760 And you know my manager. 00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:54.382 She's amazing. 00:38:54.382 --> 00:38:55.827 My new peers are fantastic. 00:38:55.827 --> 00:38:56.789 I'm on like the. 00:38:56.789 --> 00:38:57.992 What is it? 00:38:57.992 --> 00:39:01.246