Failure and Fun

Tomorrow night, Wednesday November 4th, I will be attending the Fail Spectacularly event at Joe's Bar in Chicago, Illinois.

The 'Fail' event is hosted by Jason Seiden of Seiden Leadership and Laurie Ruettimann of PunkRock HR and is meant to give folks impacted by the crappy economy a chance to get up on stage, in front of over 200 assorted strangers and friends, and share their stories.

And if hosting a rocking, free party for the good people of Chicago is not enough, Jason has offered to give away boxes of his fantastic first book, 'How to Self-Destruct: Making the Least of What's Left of Your Career.'  For details on this great and generous offer, see Jason's blog.

And to add to the fun, and give the crowd a chance to see more failure in real-time, Shauna Moerke, the HR Minion, and I will broadcast a special episode of the HR Happy Hour show, live from Joe's Bar.

This remote show was made possible through the generous support of HR Happy Hour show sponsor Aquire Software. Aquire makes the leading solutions for corporate organizational charting and planning, and has some of the coolest, nicest people in the HR Technology industry.

The show, like the event, will start at 8PM EST, 7PM CST and we will stay on the air for the entire Fail party.

There is still time for you to get to the Fail event, and to participate in the fun, just go to the Fail registration site and let Jason and Laurie know you are coming.

See you in Chicago!

Is HR Dead? - The Reading List

Thursday night October 29 at 8pm EDT the HR Happy Hour show will take on the topic, 'Is HR Dead?'.

There is nothing like a little in-depth analysis and self-examination of the HR function to rile up the community and this topic certainly has been poked and prodded for the last several weeks.

Since the instructor in me wants to be sure everyone is well-prepared and ready to jump in to the conversation I thought I would assign some pre-reading, to get us all on the same page prior to the show. Flickr - KiltBear

In the blogosphere as far as I can tell, the most recent 'Is HR Dead?' conversation started with this post:

'Is Human Resources Fatally Flawed' - Lance Haun at Rehaul

It was followed by numerous responses (or rebuttals if you prefer), a few of which are listed here:

'HR is Dying: Yes? No?' - Laurie Ruettimann at Punk Rock HR.

'HR - Not Dead Yet' - Mike VanDervort at Human Race Horses

'to HR, on news of your death' - Fran Melmed at free-range communication

'HR is Dead: Some Mourn, Some Celebrate, and Others Say "What?"' - Mike Haberman at HR Observations

'HR is Obsolete! Isn't It?' - Joel White at Joel's Views

'Human Resources Departments: I've never understood the point of them' - Sathnam Sanghera at the UK Times Online

And in the last week or so:

The Future of HR - Mark Stelzner at Inflexion Point

'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' - Maren Hogan on 'Marenated'

Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series Again, Nietzsche, and Other HR Thoughts - Frank Roche at Know HR

The HR Profession, Business Leaders and the Future of Work - Sharlyn Lauby at HR Bartender

But if you think this is somehow a 'new' discussion, it really isn't, the top Google result (at least at the time of this writing) for the phrase 'Is HR Dead' was this piece from 2003 on Workforce.com.

And of course we should not forget this gem from March 2009 - Memo to CFOs: Don't Trust HR - David McCann writing on remarks from Professor Beatty for CFO Magazine.

So you have your assignments, catch up on your reading and join the discussion on the HR Happy Hour Show, Thursday October 29, 2009 8PM EDT, call in 646-378-1086. Frank Roche and Mike VanDervort are set to appear, and perhaps another special guest or two as well.

What do you think, is HR Dead? In need of revival?  Need to be scrapped and re-built from the ground up?

It should be a great show!

HR Happy Hour - Episode 14 - Clueless at Love

The latest HR Happy Hour Show, the Clueless at Love show, is in the can.

It was alternatively silly, insightful, informative, and crazy.

The Clueless at Love project is a new venture from Laurie Ruettimann from Punk Rock HR and Sarah White from I'm So Corporate.

The show was meant to be a pilot or beta for the Clueless at Love concept, and certainly from the cluelessness of the host and some of the guests, I think that the project definitely has potential.

So give a listen as Laurie and Sarah set some folks straight and let me know if you think that HR and Talent Management professionals are qualified to give relationship advice.

 What do you think?  Ask your HR pro for advice?  Or save it for your local bartender?

Fail Spectacularly

Just like Michael Corleone in the Godfather, I'm trying to get out, but I just keep getting pulled back in.

Back to Chicago that is. 

The HR Happy Hour Show is returning to Chicago to broadcast live from the Fail Spectacularly event being held on November 4th and hosted by Laurie Ruettimann from Punk Rock HR and Jason Seiden from Seiden Leadership.

What is Fail Spectacularly?

It is an event, or really a party, for anyone that has seen their world turned upside-down by this crappy economy. It is a chance to vent, to share your story, and to have fun as only you can by listening to other people's failures.

So what will the HR Happy Hour show do at the event?

I am not sure exactly.  We may just open the mics up and live stream the on-stage antics, we might grab speakers as they come off stage 'Oscars style', or I may just roam around the event to see what interesting stories I can turn up.

Or quite likely the show will Fail. Spectacularly.

Thanks so much Laurie and Jason for inviting the HR Happy Hour to the event, and thanks again to Lois Melbourne and Aquire Software for your support.

See you in Chicago on November 4th!

Many, many thanks to official HR Happy Hour show sponsor Aquire Software for making the remote show possible.

Back on the Chain Gang

Tonight on the HR Happy Hour show, 8PM ET, we will be talking Work/Life Balance, keeping yourself sane when getting pulled in 100 different directions, and maybe even if the fundamental idea of work is truly changing (or should change).

Joining Shauna and I will be Leanne Chase from Career Life Connection and Chris Ferdinandi from Renegade HR.

Does it even make sense to be talking about work/life balance issues with millions of people out of work?  For many of the unemployed, 'life' sucks right about now, and any 'work' would do. So maybe it is foolish to even discuss the topic. 

But we will.

My son attends a program for about an hour or so each day after school to bridge the time from school dismissal until I or his Mom are through with our 'official' work days and can take him home. It is just an hour, he generally has a decent enough time there, so it really is not that much of a problem.  But from time to time I have had to stop by the child care center early in the morning, perhaps as early as 6 or 6:30 AM to drop off a check or a note, and almost without fail I will see parents carrying sleepy or even still sleeping small children into the center.

Parents that are usually well-dressed, driving nice cars, hauling really young kids to daycare in the cold and dark, almost certainly so they can get themselves to an office somewhere by a prescribed time.

Every time I see that it makes me very, very sad.

And that is the reason I wanted to do this show.

I understand work is work and when you have a job working for someone else, you don't get to make the rules.  Sometimes the rules stink.  They are archaic. And they have more to do with maintaining some kind of post-industrial status quo that serves primarily to make managers and owners lives easier.  If they know where everyone is and how long they are meant to be there that is one less variable to actually have to manage.

Talking about Work/Life issues on the show this week may not really solve anything, or make anyone's situation all that better.  But it will hopefully add just another small piece to the puzzle that maybe one day will result in no more business suit wearing parents dragging sleeping, freezing kids to daycare at 6:30 in the morning.

But until then, we're Back on the Chain Gang.