The Round Table

I’ve always struggled with introductions, even as a kid. In school, the worst moment was always when the teacher said, “Give me three fun facts about yourself.” I always could come up with two, because they really weren’t about me, but about my family instead. The third one stumped me and I never felt interesting enough, so I would make stuff up instead. With that said, bear with me as I attempt to wade into the world of writing, my biggest challenge yet. To start, I want to thank my first readers. I appreciate anyone who spends their time reading about me working in HR and the struggles I’ve faced so far. I want this first post to cover three things: a little about me, the point of these blogs, and finally, where I want this to go. I don’t know much about writing, so I may change and adjust the format as I go. While I like having headers to keep me focused while writing, I am going to switch up the format and find what works best for me. As for the title, I think “The Human in Human Resources” is the best fit for my experiences. 

A Little About Me:

The HR professional inside me does not want to give too much away about myself, but I’m sure I will share too much information while writing these blogs. I am a young professional in human resources. I’m also a recent college graduate from a lesser known state school. In the past, I worked at a few different places; a movie theater, a college bookstore, and a hospital. Talk about range. I currently work for a company that oversees major hospitals and rehab facilities. Growing up, I lived in a small town raised by both my mom and my dad. I have two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. Recently, I moved in with my partner for the first time. To sum it up, the three most important things to me are my partner, my family, and my friends. I guess I’m about as average as…well an average guy. 

I guess you’re wondering why I’m passionate about human resources out of every other job profession. It all comes down to my first job in high school: the movie theater. If you also came from a small town, then you know the movie theater was THE place to be on Friday nights. My small town theater was always staffed by high schoolers with a few “regulars,” like the head manager. I know many of you experienced the “unprofessional” manager in your lifetime. For me, my head manager would talk to the high school girls about whether the boy who bought the large popcorn bucket was cute. Fast forward two years, I got promoted to assistant manager. This meant I was in charge of all employees on Sundays and random weeknights. During my time as an assistant manager, I had to work closely with the other assistant managers, who were usually a combination of college students (like myself) and full time workers. Like any college student, the other assistant managers were immature, like myself, and lacked “real” professionalism. All this leads to what sparked my passion for Human resources…Benji. 

For the sake of privacy, I’ve changed all the names of the characters. I’ve never worked with a Benji nor have I kidnapped one and kept him in a plexiglass cage. Benji was the most stereotypical assistant manager you could ask for. If you looked up assistant manager in the dictionary, you would find Benji’s face. Benji never finished his degree. Instead, he bounced between colleges and worked at the movie theater. Benji’s favorite pass time was hitting on the underaged workers. It seemed like women in his age bracket knew better, so he was demoted into the minor league. His bat of choice? Snapchat and unsolicited…baseball bats. When girls rejected Benji, he accepted it and moved onto the next girl who caught his attention. Until he didn’t. During a particularly busy Saturday, the high schoolers were tasked with cleaning the concession stand while the movies played. It was during one of these mundane cleaning sessions that Benji worked his usual routine of hitting on one of the girls. Like all the girls before her, she rejected his advances. Except she didn’t stop at just the rejection. She made fun of him. And like all the other losers who came before Benji, he lashed out and grabbed her hair. 

Now is the time where you might yell at the screen to “do something!” I wish I could say I did, but I didn’t. I watched the girl get grabbed by the hair and said nothing to either of them. For what felt like ten minutes, I stood processing the situation. Eventually, I made my way over to her to check in and even though she said she was fine, I still felt guilty. I regretted letting my coworker become a victim of workplace harassment. I regretted not stepping up and saying something to Benji. Even something as simple as distracting him. Most of all, I regretted being a coward. I felt like I not only failed my coworker, but I also failed my little sister by not stepping up. Even after countlessly apologizing to my coworker, I knew it didn’t matter. The moment it would’ve mattered had already passed. It was because of this situation, because of my guilt, that I realized my passion is with people. I vowed to make sure no one would experience what my coworker experienced in my company again. I guess you could say I owe Benji for being the reason I’m in human resources to begin with and why I now have the opportunity to write these weekly articles.

What’s the Point:

Besides being free therapy, these weekly articles are preparing me to write a book discussing mental health in human resources. Being new to the profession, it’s hard for me to imagine dealing with employee relations like my mentors and idols. Hiring, firing, coaching, and C-suite expectations have been the biggest challenge for me. I want each weekly article to go over a challenge I have faced while working and hopefully assist others who may be experiencing the same situations. They are by no means the best way to solve HR issues, but they can at least show that you’re not alone in an overwhelming field.

When I first went into HR, I had no idea how heavily taxing it could be on my mental health. Because it is a people-heavy field with complex and emotionally-driven issues, I learned I needed to create a divide between my work self and my home self in order to preserve my sanity. However, the more time I spend in HR, the more robotic I begin to feel. You don’t realize how much of your day is dominated by your work self until you text your mom you will “follow up” on her question. With that said, it is easy to start feeling as if your “HR” self is the real you.

What’s Next:

This is just the beginning of what I want to accomplish. I want to uncover the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of working in a people-dominated field, whether it was turning someone down who is working their hardest to start fresh, maintaining professionalism when adults “shoot the HR messenger,” and finally, dealing with the inter-office politics that, without fail, rear its ugly head at the worst time. 

I also plan to interview some HR and non-HR professionals on how they separate their work life from their personal life beyond just paid time off. I also want to explore what happens when you let the two collide and the emotional drain that comes from a dominating work life. 

I want to end every article with a positive message and a quote that helps relate to that message. The best piece of advice I’ve been given in both life and HR is that the world doesn’t end because of a mistake. No matter how many times you send the wrong email or tell an employee the wrong information your life isn’t over. The quote that has kept me somewhat sane so far is “The sun will still come up tomorrow”. I appreciate everyone who’s read my first article and can’t wait for you to join me on my journey in Human Resources. Please subscribe to the monthly HR newsletter along with the round table newsletter to stay up to date on what’s next.