As the Economy Improves

Sharlyn Lauby — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:28:31 -0400

There’s been some discussion lately that, as employees start to see
signs of economic recovery, they’ll begin to dust off their resumes and
start searching for a new opportunity. If you want to read more about
this, check out the posts here and here.

What I've Learned About Business from Mike Rowe

Sharlyn Lauby — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:37:43 -0400

One of my favorite shows is Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe
on the Discovery Chanel. Mr. Bartender has actually been employed in
a few of the jobs shown during the opening credits. When we met, his
job was doing whale autopsies, which (trust me) was a very dirty job.

Way Way Overboard

Sharlyn Lauby — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:09:16 -0400

Earlier this week, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) suggested that executives at AIG Insurance should accept responsibility for the collapse of their company by either resigning or killing themselves.
Yes, that's right. An elected member of the U.S.

Best Is Not Always Nice

Sharlyn Lauby — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:06:16 -0400

I was recently talking with someone who used to work for General Electric during the Jack Welch
era. They said that working at GE was the best job they've ever had.
Not because things were "nice" but b

Didn't Read the Memo

Sharlyn Lauby — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:03:20 -0400

But, still responsible for the content, right?

Sounds simple. Someone writes a memo. Most people don't write
memos because they have nothing else to do, so let's assume there's a
legitimate business reason for their correspondence. It's the
receiver's obligation to read the memo. End of discussion.

Now some people on the receiving end of memos like to abdicate responsibility for reading by tossing out a bunch of excuses:

The Right to Exist

Sharlyn Lauby — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:01:34 -0400

A colleague recently forwarded to me an article written by Dr. Jac Fitz-enz on the rebranding of human resources. I'm a fan of Dr. Jac and recommend his book, "How to Measure Human Resource Management

No, Recruiting Is Not Dead

Sharlyn Lauby — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:52:06 -0500

I'm a little surprised at the lack of convo about recruiting right now.

Truth and Transparency

Sharlyn Lauby — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:48:28 -0500

There's been a lot of talk about corporations and government
being more transparent. As a result, the use of the word transparency
is creeping into our business vocabulary. But before you start tossing
out the word "transparency" it's important to understand what it means.

Hiding Behind the Economy (Part 2)

Sharlyn Lauby — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:47:46 -0500

I want to thank Lance Haun over at Your HR Guy for a terrific post yesterday called "Welcome to the Excuse Economy." Lance addresses head-on a very important point about personal accountability.

Hiding Behind the Economy

Sharlyn Lauby — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:33:36 -0500

I recently attended a workshop on managing during challenging economic times. In the session, an interesting discussion started about Gen X and Y employees and the fact they've never seen this kind of economic crisis before. At least compared to Baby Boomers who have seen the inflation of the 70s (and lived through the Great Depression second-hand from their parents).