HR Famous

On episode 46 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee  come together to discuss the art and concept of marrying up, use John Krasinksi and Emily Blunt as their case study, then pivot to something more serious and talk about the use of Professional Conduct Policies by HR Leaders in crazy times.

Listen below (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

2:30 - Two topics on the pod today (but KD is more excited about one than the other!)

3:00 - First topic of the week: marrying up! KD was wondering in the text channel with JLee and Tim if actor John Krasinksi of The Office fame married up when he married actress Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Mary Poppins Returns, The Girl on the Train).  It rose the level of a pod topic, so they discuss the art of marrying up across partners.

4:30 - JLee thinks Krasinksi definitely married up. She also thinks that her own husband married up but she also thinks she married up because of her low credit score!

5:45 - KD asks JLee to numerically rate Blunt and Krasinski. She thinks Blunt is around an 8.5 and Krasninski is in the 6.5-7 range. He’s not hot enough for JLee!

8:00 - Tim’s initial reaction is that every man marries up, but he realizes there may be some gold diggers out there that will marry down for money. 

9:30 - KD asks JLee and Tim to now rate Krasinski and Jenna Fischer’s characters from The Office. They both think it’s a pretty even match. 

10:00 - First rule of a happy (heterosexual) marriage: the man has to say he married up. 

11:30 - KD asks JLee if a woman could ever say she married down. She says no, but you can say that your spouse married up. 

14:00 - Check out the Best Hire Ever episode featuring JLee to hear about her familial experience! 

16:00 - Next topic of the day: KD and Tim were both quoted in the HR Executive about how to handle employees that partake in outside events that polarize them to some teammates at their company.

18:00 - Tim thinks in order to create a workforce that has diversity of thought, you have to allow your employees to partake in events that express that thought. However, if it crosses the line into illegal activity, that’s when action must be taken. 

21:00 - JLee ponders if it matters what role a person holds in a company when it comes to events like the insurrection on the Capitol. 

22:00 - JLee brings up the term ‘doxing’ which refers to outing someone for something they did on social media. She thinks this new practice brings some complexity to this issue.

24:00 - KD thinks that companies and HR leaders must have a strong professional conduct policy to give them the flexibility they need in all scenarios. 

26:15 - Business Insider released an article of their premium service about a Github Jewish employee that warned their co-workers in the company messaging channels about Nazis being out in the DC metro area. A few days later, the employee was terminated.  While that may seem extreme to some, the team discusses the fact that we don't know the whole situation, and by the way - that's where a great HR leader comes in - to display judgement.

In episode 45 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Jessica Lee are joined by special guest Laurie Ruettimann to discuss her new book (out 1/12/21, click to view) called Betting On You.

Listen below (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

2:00 - Tim opens up the episode with a discussion about pronouns prompted by this tweet. JLee mentions that they/them can feel like the only option for some people and so she understands why some people would want pronouns that are unique to someone. 

5:30 - Tim welcomes on today’s guest, Laurie Ruettimann! She is a longtime friend of the pod and we are happy to have her on today’s episode!

7:45 - Laurie has a new book coming out soon called Betting On You. She says that she wrote the book because she felt stagnant in her HR roles and wanted to create the book that she would have wanted in this phase of her life. 

9:30 - Laurie mentions the phenomenon that HR employees tend to forget their employees too and they need to trust themselves and the issues that they see.

11:00 - JLee asks Laurie what she thinks makes her book stand out from others. She says that she just wants to tell stories and her experience. She doesn’t claim to be an expert but she wants to relay messages she’s learned from her work experiences. 

12:00 - The crew takes a quick sidebar to talk about their favorite Peloton instructors (Team Dennis or Team Cody?).

14:00 - Laurie mentions that many different movements of this past year have caused a lot of self-reflection about our lives and our morals and how this themes of her book follow along with this journey.

17:30 - Tim asks JLee if she thinks there will be a reckoning for more traditional white collar environments post-pandemic. She thinks that the traditional way cannot keep going on in the way that it has for a long time. 

22:00 - JLee thinks that people forget how much choice they have. Not only do they choose to work somewhere but they choose to go into work everyday. Laurie thinks that embracing that perspective as an HR professional can change how systems work. 

24:20 - Laurie brings up the fact that FBI agents are taught to detach themselves from their work and that they have an identity outside of your job. 

26:50 - Tim asks Laurie about things they can do to combat burnout. She says one of her favorites is that your personal life should go on your professional calendar first. She thinks so many of us are victims to the Outlook calendar. 

29:30 - Tim heard a story about how your life is juggling 5 balls. The ball for your job is rubber but the other 4 are glass. You can rebound from dropping the job ball but the glass balls will cause real damage. 

32:00 - Laurie’s new book is available for pre-order at bettingonyoubook.com and available for purchase on January 12! Also check out her podcast, Punk Rock HR! Thank you to Laurie for joining us for this episode! 

Order the book here!

In episode 44 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee come together in the new year to discuss Gary V requesting to connect with Jessica on LinkedIn, the CHRO move of the week, and Google calling their employees back into the office (eventually). 

Listen below (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

1:30 - Happy New Year! Tim is thinking (and hoping) that 2021 is going to be a great year. JLee is looking forward to drive-through vaccinations. 

2:45 - JLee got a LinkedIn request from Gary Vaynerchuk. Tim is extremely jealous (he’s a super fan) and JLee is very confused on how she got this. 

6:00 - The gang wonders aloud how many people send invites out on Gary V's behalf. Tim thinks that JLee needs to leverage her brand and her title to get Gary V on the phone in 2021. 

9:00 - Time for the CHRO move of the week! UPS announced a new CHRO Darrell Ford after their old CHRO (Charlene Thomas moved to a new role at the company). 

10:30 - KD thinks Thomas got a demotion. 

12:30 - Tim thinks that Thomas was potentially underperforming so they brought in a new one to try out in the head HR position. 

15:30 - Tim also wonders that they are potentially setting up Charlene Thomas to take over a COO or a CEO role eventually at UPS. 

17:20 - In KD’s youth, the UPS driver was a person of note in his life. KD thinks it’s a transactional job now because there are so many drivers and people aren’t making a lifetime career out of being a driver.

21:00 - JLee thinks that KD would be a shorts only UPS type of driver. No brown pants in sight!

22:30 - Next topic of the day: Google’s CEO announced that they will continue being remote but they will be returning back to the offices eventually and will not be remote forever. The announcement said that employees should eventually return to a place that is in a commutable distance from their office. 

25:00 - KD thinks this is the revert back from the earlier pandemic announcements of full time, forever remote transitions.

30:45 - KD also thinks that Google is trying to prevent a mass exodus from California to places like Texas, as companies like Tesla are moving there. 

32:00 - JLee is coming up on her 100th Peloton ride and she found out that her husband ordered 100 balloons on their shared Amazon account to celebrate.

RESOURCES AND SHOW NOTES:

---------------Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

Boss Leadership Training Series

In episode 43 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee come together to discuss Christmas shopping, the term ‘Dr.’ in corporate America, and HR Christmas horror stories.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

2:00 - Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? The Lee and Sackett family are done with their completely online Christmas shopping and KD had to ask his kids to get gifts for Mrs. Dunn.

4:30 - For those of you lucky enough to get the Sackett family Christmas card/letter, Mrs. Sackett is a big fan of throw pillows (as is Mrs. Dunn). 

5:45 - First topic of the day: use of the term ‘doctor’. On December 11, the Wall Street Journal dropped an opinion article being critical of soon-to-be First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s usage of the term. 

7:30 - KD has always been skeptical of the use of “Dr.” in corporate America, away from education. Tim has understood the opinion of the article from a recruiter/corporate standpoint as well. However, he understands it applies differently in other industries/academia where it may be more relevant or acceptable.

10:00 - Tim reached out to seven different people he knows who have a doctorate, including MDs, EDDs, and PhDs. Six out of the seven of these people said that they harp on each other about the merit of their degree behind closed doors, but in a professional setting, they’d be expected to be called Dr. 

13:00 - JLee is married to a PharmD and in writing, her husband includes his doctorate title. JLee thinks that in writing, being called ‘Dr.’ is justified and totally acceptable but it may be weird to refer to someone in person as ‘Dr’.  KD clarifies that JLee's husband is including letters behind his name, not the Dr. title in front, which JLee confirms.

16:00 - Tim thinks that if Dr. Biden and Joe Biden had switched roles, Joe wouldn’t have had an article like this written about him.

21:00 - KD asks Tim if the term ‘Dr.’ on a resume would throw him off and he said that it only bothers him if someone in an interview were to ask to be referred in that way. 

27:00 -  KD likes it when people combine ‘Dr.’ with a funny first name like his friend ‘Dr. Chuck’.

28:40 - KD asks the crew if they have any dysfunctional workplace Christmas stories. KD tells the favorite from his career about a dysfunctional boss that made him make a "this offer expires at the end of the day" to a VP-level candidate on Christmas Eve, JLee tells a story about how her first HR job required her to be the event planner and she wasn’t 21 yet so she had to plan events with alcohol without being able to drink.

30:00 - Tim had an employee’s wife complain over email to him about the company gift. 

RESOURCES AND SHOW NOTES:

---------------Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

Boss Leadership Training Series

In Episode 42 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends)  Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee come together to discuss TikTokers getting fired from their jobs at Sherwin Williams, the new Microsoft productivity score, and how much they spend on gifts for their siblings during the holidays. 

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

1:30 - Tim opens the pod by asking the crew what their favorite side dishes are for the holiday season. JLee is a stuffing fan, KD likes the good mashed potatoes, and Tim likes them all!

3:45 - First topic of the day: TikTok videos taking over work! Popular TikToker Tony Piloseno, who got famous for his videos of mixing paint, got fired from his job at Sherwin Williams and social media went ablaze. 

6:00 - Tim says that he knows exactly where a regional HR manager knows where this is coming from from his experience as a lower level HR leader during his career. 

7:00 - JLee doesn’t understand why there wasn’t an investigation into what was happening and what the repercussions could be for firing Piloseno. 

10:00 - KD goes through all of the calls that an HR manager might get from a Sherwin Williams manager. 

11:10 - JLee mentions how he was very passionate about his job and how she feels like there was oversight in his firing. 

13:00 - Second topic of the day: Microsoft released the Microsoft Productivity Score which allows IT and other product development managers to monitor how their products are being used. Tim raises the question “was this type of software inevitable?”

15:00 - JLee isn’t very concerned about her personal privacy because she doesn’t have anything to hide. However, she does see that there might be some value to this product.

16:30 - KD is more interested in the productivity score of their managers - a collective score for how teams are doing and the effectiveness of a manager -  instead of using it as a “gotcha” tool for individuals. 

20:00 - Any mouse movers to make it seem like you’re online? 

21:00 - Tim met with the team at Microsoft that put this together and he thinks their intentions are good but the product in bad people’s hands can be an issue. 

23:00 - Final question: what do you send on your siblings for the holidays? JLee’s family doesn’t do presents for the adults anymore. Tim’s does the same because they were over exchanging gift cards. KD just buys his siblings a book (so only $20). 

24:00 - Tim hates getting gifts but loves getting gifts especially for his younger brother.

RESOURCES AND SHOW NOTES:

---------------Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

Boss Leadership Training Series

In episode 41 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee discuss the impact of the new Florida minimum wage passed in the November election Cycle and the passing of the Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh and his impact on the world of company culture and HR.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

2:45 - The HR Famous crew opens the pod by sharing their Black Friday deals. Tim is the main shopper of the group and he bought 4 pairs of shoes, 7 pairs of pants, lots of quarter zips, socks, and Christmas gifts for his family. 

6:10 - First topic of the year: Florida passed an increase in the minimum wage to $15 (from $8.60) by the year 2026. About 60% of voters voted to pass the raising of Florida’s minimum wage. 

8:40 - Tim thinks that they had an easy job to pass this proposal because the increase is several years away. He also notes studies that show minimum wage increases reduce suicide attempts. 

10:00 - JLee thinks this opens up an interesting conversation since some people may have crossed the aisle and split their ballot to vote for the minimum wage raise. 

11:30 - Tim notes that he saw this ticket splitting in many different areas across the country between candidates and proposals or plans.

14:00 - Tim and JLee think that a raise in minimum wage will become a consumer tax instead of a job decrease. 

14:40 - KD disagrees and thinks that this may actually hurt small businesses and benefit big corporations since they have more ability to handle that increase. 

17:00 - KD also thinks that compression in wages may happen with a pay increase, and the impact of compression is something most don't think about with minimum wage increases. 

20:00 - Last topic of the day: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh passed away on November 27. He has been responsible for a lot of important HR principles that are used today. 

21:30 - Tim says his biggest takeaway from Tony Hsieh is allowing HR to test just about anything. Tim wrote this post about Tony Hsieh in 2009 and he commented.

24:00 - JLee notes the importance of Tony Hsieh as a very visible Asian-American leader. 

26:00 - KD, JLee and Tim share their favorite contributions to the HR dialog that came from Zappos. Conversations include hiring people that don't act like the norm at your company, Holacracy and paying people to leave!

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

RESOURCES AND SHOW NOTES:

---------------Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

Boss Leadership Training Series

In Episode 40 of The HR Famous Podcast, Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee appear at TalentNet Live and do a panel on behavioral trends among recruiters in 2020, using the 2020 Recruiter Nation Survey from Jobvite as their source for conversation.

The gang discusses how recruiters have changed in the depths of COVID, Tim gives his rant about the use of social media by recruiters, JLee notices that female recruiters might be more balanced than males and KD wonders how soul crushing it is to be a resume writer in 2020.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

RESOURCES AND SHOW NOTES:

------------TalentNet Live and Jobvite

TalentNet Live

Craig Fisher

Jobvite

The 2020 Recruiter Nation Survey

---------------Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

Boss Leadership Training Series

In episode 39 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends)  Tim Sackett and Jessica Lee are joined by Cameron Sackett to discuss remote work burnout, proposed remote work privilege tax, and onboarding in a work from home environment.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

1:30 - KD is out this week but Tim and JLee welcome Cameron Sackett, Tim’s son and our resident Gen-Z expert, onto the pod!

3:20 - First topic of the podcast: The Wall Street Journal published an article recently about burnout due to working remotely. 

4:30 - Cam started working at BuzzFeed about 2 months ago and he mentions that while he hasn’t hit the full on burnout that many others have, his company is offering some special offerings to combat burnout like mental health days, yoga and meditation sessions, and others. 

6:30 - JLee is glad that people are trying things to combat burnout but she worries that the things people are trying aren’t the right answers. She also worries that this emphasis on mental health will dissipate once the pandemic is over. 

8:00 - Tim’s Gen-X mentality makes him think that these special perks are a setup to weed out the weak, but he does see his own employees struggling with the types of burnout mentioned in this article. 

10:00 - Next topic: Deutsche Bank recently released a study calling for a ‘privilege tax’ which takes a 5% tax from those working from home in order to support lower income essential workers who can’t work at home. 

11:45 - JLee wants the people at Deutsche Bank to look at their own company first and ask themselves if they would do this within their own corporations before putting out some plan like this.

14:00 - Most people aren’t choosing to work from home and so JLee and Tim think that the responsibility should fall on the corporations to take care of this issue instead of the workforce. 

16:40 - Time for the CHRO Move of the Week: The Washington Football Team recently hired Andre Chambers to be their new head of Human Resources. He comes from many different industries such as tech, gaming, and even grocery!

18:00 - Any Wegman’s fans out there? JLee is a big fan.

21:00 - If any pro sports teams want to hire KD or Tim to be their head of HR, they’re ready to go!

24:40 - Last topic of the podcast: onboarding in a pandemic world! Cam onboarded to his current role completely remote and he gives us some insight on what the experience was like. He mentions that while the actual onboarding process wasn’t that much different, he has had trouble getting to know his co-workers. 

27:00 - JLee asks Cam about the logistics of his onboarding experience. He had good communication from his recruiter and manager in order to have a smooth onboarding process. 

29:00 - Cam talks about the struggle he’s had about meeting and getting to know the people on his team since he’s not in person with his co-workers. Tim says that he’s heard of organizations that will force employees to make introduction videos for new hires. 

33:00 - JLee asks Cam if he heard anything about required dress code and he says that he was given no direction on what the dress code for WFH was. 

36:00 - JLee doesn’t know of a company that does onboarding really well and thinks we often do a disservice to new hires because of this. 

39:15 - Cam says that the work culture that BuzzFeed is known for BuzzFeed  doesn’t really come through in a virtual environmental and he doesn’t think he’ll know what it’s like until he starts working in the office.

In episode 38 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee discuss whether having two bosses or two CEOs (dual leadership in major corporations) ever works, superior genetic traits and dress codes in a WFH environment.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!

3:00 - Tim found an article about genetic superiority and the fact that redheads are superior (seems a little biased that Tim found this one…). Redheads feel 25% less pain and run hotter in addition to other superior traits.

6:30 - JLee brings up the genetic superiority that Koreans have such as dry earwax and a  lack of body odor when sweating. The HR Famous crew is full of genetic superiorities!

8:30 - Do you find that the redheads in your life run hot in temperature and anger?

9:20 - Next topic: Business Insider reported on the two CEOs of Netflix and dual leadership at that company. They said that this resembles a family where there are often two CEOs leading a single family. 

13:00 - Tim gives an example of his work at Applebee’s and how the CHRO and the CEO had a co-CEO like relationship where the CHRO was very beloved by employees but the CEO was running a lot behind the scenes.

16:00 - JLee thinks it might be a little ridiculous to give out the compensation packages that a CEO of a company like Netflix would get to two different people. She also doesn’t know if a two-parent analogy is the best comparison because she thinks often one parent is doing more than the other. 

20:30 - KD mentions two different places that dual leadership can go haywire. He thinks that who makes the final decision may be an issue in addition to the issue of a “i don’t know who my boss is” sentiment among employees. 

24:00 - Next topic: dress code policies for virtual working. Some HR departments are trying to reconsider what a dress code looks like in a virtual environment. 

25:30 - KD thinks that dress code violations tend to come more in the vain of over dressing rather than under dressing.

28:00 - JLee thinks the charade of putting a suit on for one call or presentation is a little bit ridiculous and not very genuine.

31:00 - Let JLee wear her ripped jeans! KD asks JLee what is actually inappropriate to wear on a video call. JLee thinks t-shirt and athleisure is 100% okay.

33:30 - Tim says that he’s gotten better about asking what is appropriate to wear for meetings instead of shooting in the dark.

In episode 37 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee come together once again to discuss whether Mental Health/Wellness Technology and Apps are better for your employees than talking to a human, McDonald’s recent Travis Scott marketing success, and what TikToks are flooding their feeds. 

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

2:15 - Tim isn’t a huge McDonald’s fan but JLee is a proud alum of the company. McDonald’s has had a huge success recently due to the success of their newly launched Travis Scott and J Balvin meals. Editor note: J BALVIN (not Blavin like Tim said) was on I Like It with Cardi B among many other hits. 

4:30 - The KD crew makes their own McDonald’s packages. What would be in your McDonald’s go-to meal?

9:30 - Tim asks the crew what celebrity they think would have the biggest success as a McDonald’s meal. JLee thinks that a Kardashian would sell the best

10:00 - Next topic: Oracle released new data that showed over 80% of people believe that AI bots can support their mental health more than real humans. 

11:15 - JLee says that she agrees with the majority of people in this study. She says her new found hobby of meditating (using a virtual service)  that she started during quarantine has helped her mental health significantly. 

13:00 - KD is a believer always but he personally relies on exercise and running to help aid his mental health. 

14:30 - The Oracle study also found that AI has helped people at work by taking away busy work and other meaningless tasks. 

16:00 - JLee finds herself getting angrier with the bad AI than she feels happy with positive AI experiences. 

17:45 - Shoutout to the movie "Her" starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johannson where he falls in love with an AI bot. It’s available on Netflix!

20:30 - KD thinks the most basic addiction is going to be in the form of notifications

22:00 - Last topic of the day: weird TikTok culture! Tim and JLee are users of the platform (KD only views them when Tim texts him links). Tim gets a lot of divorced mom TikToks and lip syncing to comedian TikToks. JLee gets plant-related TikToks and roller skating TikToks.  What kind of TikToks do you get on your for you page?