I'm in the process of writing one of the last papers I'll ever have to write for class. As part of the paper I'm looking into the history of HR and how it transformed itself from being this back office super hated group that was seen as completely non-contributory to being fairly well established and considered one of the best ways of getting and securing a competitive advantage. Pretty great story, no? Till I started looking for someone who actually talks about it.
Beyond a couple of small and brief articles here and there about how scientific management used to be all the rage, and the hippies said we need to make our workers happy, there's virtually nothing of note I can see available, be it blogs, newspaper articles, peer-reviewed journals... Are we embarrassed to talk about our past? I know it's not exactly glorious, but really? No information on how people progressed through their careers, their trials and tribulations... It's like we're scared of anything that is not an unadulterated success story. If we didn't fundamentally change the way an organization runs, save them billions of dollars, or made the company from a small start up to a fortune 500 company, we're failures and the mistakes must be buried in the backyard near the dog? Do the British not teach the war of independence? Do the Germans not teach WWI and II? Do the Americans not teach the war of 1812? Failure is acceptable, especially when you pull through it and make the most of the lessons taught.
Anyway, back to the search. Hope something comes up.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Olympic Spirit
The Olympics, what a wonderful time to vicariously enjoy the very cream of the crop of what humanity can produce. Except of course that's not the case anymore. So here's the beef, and by beef, I mean 2 beefs:
1. The grading of winter sports (likely to spill over to the summer sports)
Russian ice skater Evgeni Plushenko got last place (silver) in the men's ice skating competition. Why? Well to be honest his landings were weak throughout the last skate, and that probably cost him gold. That said, Plushenko claims otherwise, and damned if I don't see his point. The new marking system in ice skating, and for the most part the rest of the winter sports have been warped. As an HR professional, when I look at compensation and performance reviews I first and foremost look at what was expected. And what is expected from an Olympic athlete? To basically defy the laws of physics. We want them to fly like gods above our heads, astounding us every 4 years with how far the human body can extend itself when need be. We don't line up for hours and spend millions of tax dollars to see people who try to get something that'd been done a million times before, really well. We have regular athletes for that. You're supposed to show us something amazing. Something that hasn't been done before. To reward athletes because they didn't take on that more complicated jump, or that more difficult set of moves is an insult to the game. And how might you tell your other participants, such as speed skaters and hockey players, who cannot take the easy way out and win on technicalities, that while the Olympics has gotten easier for some, they still have to burn through every ounce of strength and imagination they have to win gold.
If this was a company, their employees would be unionizing, rioting, or just plain quitting for a more equitable and logical employer, because this is horseshit.
2. The Canadian Women's Hockey team won gold yesterday. Like most hockey players, they celebrated by hitting the bars. If the Men's Hockey team wins this weekend, they will do the same thing. Though they won't experience the same global backlash these women have. Criticized for drinking and smoking, something that while I obviously don't endorse, are absolutely commonplace in the world of hockey. Why are they being singled out for this behaviour when men participate in exactly the same way? In fact, there have been a number of male athletes sent home during the games over the past several years for getting drunk during the competition (i.e. before winning) and getting into a bar brawl. Other athletes have celebrated by drinking on tv, and posing with their medals in riske positions. No news reports. No angry blogs writing about the despicable nature of that nation. Why? We've already stolen any chance these women have of being considered on par with the men in the sport by removing checking - as they are so delicate they may bruise or be offended by such a display of violence. Now we're not allowing them to celebrate the same way men do? And this is only adding insult to injury as the Olympic committee decided not to allow Women's Ski Jumping in the competition. Why? Well, we've never had them before. Well, women couldn't always vote, and black people weren't always free (I say that with caution, as they are treated as FAR from equal, though at least now they're paid while being discriminated against). Clearly, it makes sense not to include women's ski jumping.
We've come a long way, ladies.
Between these two situations, the Vancouver Olympics are turning into one big farce. I am proud of our athletes, but unabashedly ashamed of what our country, and really the world too, has done to this once spectacular competition. The ancient Greeks must be rolling in their graves.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Union
Because my heart rate wasn't high enough in the gym today, I decided to get some cardio writing, and what better topic than unions?
Disclaimer! In this piece, I am going to rant. A lot. I'm going to call unions various names, refer to various directions in which they can go, and miscellaneous things I hope happen to them (symbolically, of course). However, I would also like to point out that I have great respect for the place where unions came from before they became overpaid whiny bitches. They gave us the minimum wage, the Employment Standards Act, and universal health care, all of which are core aspects of what makes up Canadian culture, and our feelings of superiority over our cousins to the south. I would never want to diminish what they've done in the past, but I will now take great pleasure in ripping apart what they're doing now.
Ok, so right now, a couple weeks after the first image of the sleeping TTC token collector has come and gone without any real reaction from the TTC, and the youtube video of a TTC driver taking an unscheduled coffee break during work has led to that driver's suspension... People are slightly upset. And here's why: because unions are stupid.
Allow me to elaborate. The first picture - the sleeper, a man who by all means is completely useless as every single one of his responsibilities have been taken over by the token and metropass machines, was defended for his actions by his union, who attacked travelers for not checking whether he was sleeping or passed out. First of all, illnesses that cause you to pass out, do not do so with you leaning back in your chair with your hands folded over your chest. Secondly, this man was in clear violation of the employee code of conduct, and all service sector rules. The union however, violated the cardinal rule of customer service - the customer is ALWAYS right. It baffles me that the management allows this rogue union to go on doing whatever they please. Where I work, we fired a guy today for sleeping on the job. Why? Because his job is important, and whenever someone is slacking off, that means someone else has to bear the brunt. This sleeper lost the TTC likely tens of fares if not more - depending on how long his nap was. The brunt is then transferred to the rest of the system, which can't handle the number of people in the subway because they don't have the funding to accommodate them. And with the recent fair hike, suffered while the quality of service plummets, I do not blame any one of those people for going through without paying.
However, as absurd as this whole situation has been, it is not what is currently making me so angry I am almost crapping my pants. What makes me so angry is that these "public servants" have been so spoiled by their union that they're out there protesting what is a completely reasonable action by management to suspend an employee for taking regular, lengthy, unscheduled breaks. Hell, the guy that was caught sleeping didn't even get that! He's still working! And they're out there saying "we're all human, he just needed to go to the bathroom" PLEASE! First off, if he was just in desperate need to hit the can, then NO ONE would be angry. There would be no post on Youtube, and no suspension. It was a coffee break, not a bathroom break. Secondly, most jobs which require the precision and regularly of something like public transit have regulated bathroom break times, and only in an emergency could you violate that. I work in the manufacturing sector, and we have scheduled breaks for our employees. Why? Because we're evil? No, because if they walk off the line to take a piss for 5 minutes the machine either runs without them and backs up or someone else has to take over. You are a part of a greater picture, and you stepping out of line to grab a cup of joe messes everything up. It means he's either late to every stop afterwards, or he drives like a maniac, endangering the lives of the public. And we should be sympathetic? That other people out there are making half as much money (if that) for harder work with greater (though reasonable) restrictions, while these little girls bitch about their naps and pee pee breaks coming under fire?
And it's not like this is the only example of union bullshit. The auto sector has been punished by these greedy assholes for decades. Yes, the CEOs are grossly overpaid and yes, most are unqualified, but that's only representative of every other position in the company. Maybe if you weren't making 40/hour to drill a hole in a metal sheet and then not feel like actually attaching the bumper to the car before you go home and burn up your pension savings on crappy investments and whine about how the government should take care of you because you were too stupid to do it yourself, and screw those kids who will eventually be old enough to need to make use of the government pension plan into which they pay, but you'll have dried it up completely leaving a barren wasteland behind.
Please, bitches. Shut the fuck up and do your job, and thank whatever god(s) you believe in that society let you get away with doing nothing for a bucket-load of money this long.
/rant
Disclaimer! In this piece, I am going to rant. A lot. I'm going to call unions various names, refer to various directions in which they can go, and miscellaneous things I hope happen to them (symbolically, of course). However, I would also like to point out that I have great respect for the place where unions came from before they became overpaid whiny bitches. They gave us the minimum wage, the Employment Standards Act, and universal health care, all of which are core aspects of what makes up Canadian culture, and our feelings of superiority over our cousins to the south. I would never want to diminish what they've done in the past, but I will now take great pleasure in ripping apart what they're doing now.
Ok, so right now, a couple weeks after the first image of the sleeping TTC token collector has come and gone without any real reaction from the TTC, and the youtube video of a TTC driver taking an unscheduled coffee break during work has led to that driver's suspension... People are slightly upset. And here's why: because unions are stupid.
Allow me to elaborate. The first picture - the sleeper, a man who by all means is completely useless as every single one of his responsibilities have been taken over by the token and metropass machines, was defended for his actions by his union, who attacked travelers for not checking whether he was sleeping or passed out. First of all, illnesses that cause you to pass out, do not do so with you leaning back in your chair with your hands folded over your chest. Secondly, this man was in clear violation of the employee code of conduct, and all service sector rules. The union however, violated the cardinal rule of customer service - the customer is ALWAYS right. It baffles me that the management allows this rogue union to go on doing whatever they please. Where I work, we fired a guy today for sleeping on the job. Why? Because his job is important, and whenever someone is slacking off, that means someone else has to bear the brunt. This sleeper lost the TTC likely tens of fares if not more - depending on how long his nap was. The brunt is then transferred to the rest of the system, which can't handle the number of people in the subway because they don't have the funding to accommodate them. And with the recent fair hike, suffered while the quality of service plummets, I do not blame any one of those people for going through without paying.
However, as absurd as this whole situation has been, it is not what is currently making me so angry I am almost crapping my pants. What makes me so angry is that these "public servants" have been so spoiled by their union that they're out there protesting what is a completely reasonable action by management to suspend an employee for taking regular, lengthy, unscheduled breaks. Hell, the guy that was caught sleeping didn't even get that! He's still working! And they're out there saying "we're all human, he just needed to go to the bathroom" PLEASE! First off, if he was just in desperate need to hit the can, then NO ONE would be angry. There would be no post on Youtube, and no suspension. It was a coffee break, not a bathroom break. Secondly, most jobs which require the precision and regularly of something like public transit have regulated bathroom break times, and only in an emergency could you violate that. I work in the manufacturing sector, and we have scheduled breaks for our employees. Why? Because we're evil? No, because if they walk off the line to take a piss for 5 minutes the machine either runs without them and backs up or someone else has to take over. You are a part of a greater picture, and you stepping out of line to grab a cup of joe messes everything up. It means he's either late to every stop afterwards, or he drives like a maniac, endangering the lives of the public. And we should be sympathetic? That other people out there are making half as much money (if that) for harder work with greater (though reasonable) restrictions, while these little girls bitch about their naps and pee pee breaks coming under fire?
And it's not like this is the only example of union bullshit. The auto sector has been punished by these greedy assholes for decades. Yes, the CEOs are grossly overpaid and yes, most are unqualified, but that's only representative of every other position in the company. Maybe if you weren't making 40/hour to drill a hole in a metal sheet and then not feel like actually attaching the bumper to the car before you go home and burn up your pension savings on crappy investments and whine about how the government should take care of you because you were too stupid to do it yourself, and screw those kids who will eventually be old enough to need to make use of the government pension plan into which they pay, but you'll have dried it up completely leaving a barren wasteland behind.
Please, bitches. Shut the fuck up and do your job, and thank whatever god(s) you believe in that society let you get away with doing nothing for a bucket-load of money this long.
/rant
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