“Are You a Sheep? No, You’re a Dragon…So Go Be a Dragon!” That’s a powerful quote from one strong female to another in the blockbuster TV hit “Game of Thrones.” In the process of re-watching the series I’ve admired the evolution of the female characters from stereotypical victims to strong leaders in their own right. […]
If you don’t pay all employees equal pay for equal work, you can violate: Title VII The Equal Pay Act State employment discrimination laws State equal pay laws Salary History laws Pay Equity is also a huge problem. Pew Research in 2016 determined: White and Asian men earn the most 100%+ Asian women 87% White […]
Ethics and leadership are closely aligned and in my opinion, difficult if not impossible to separate. You can’t have strong, positive leadership without ethics. And you can’t have a robust, ethical culture without strong leadership that endorse and lives ethical values. If ethics and leadership are entwined how do you become an ethical leader? And […]
You know your Black History Month is going to crap when elected officials are wearing blackface paint, teachers are telling kids to play slave plantation games, high end fashion designers are using racists symbols and imagery, and a tween is shot 28 times while asleep in his car at a Taco Bell. Maybe you don’t […]
A few years ago Google released an internal study that said there was no correlation that workers with four-year degree equates to successful employees. More recently, Elon Musk (The Tesla and SpaceX innovator) has said he doesn’t care if you have a degree or not. Employers – recruiters and hiring teams – have been lamenting […]
I quit my in December of 2018. Well, technically I retired, but it is still quitting. After 40 years of learning and growing within the context of my job, I am choosing to do that on my own now. On my own schedule, and choosing which assignments I want to do, and when I will […]
Being Black. Where do I begin? When your parents got together and later found out they were pregnant the first thing they knew about you is your ethnicity. They knew, based on their racial background, that you were going to be black, white, brown, olive or whatever the hell else skin color combination is out […]
. I’m a white Christian male, always have been and always will be. As such, I’ve never been a minority by any measure – that is until I turned 40. Then like everyone else who turns forty I became a member of an EEOC classification and protected class as defined by the 1964 Civil Rights […]
. Stop Discriminating! Now that it’s February and all the new year’s articles are out about updates to policy manuals, I am here to remind you that policies are pretty much worthless. They are worse than the mission statements on transparency and integrity that are projected on the lobby wall while people continue to hide […]
The other day my dear friend, Melissa Fairman aka the HRremix, talked about her gut reactions when she sees someone wearing a MAGA or “Make America Great Again” hat. Reading her piece, coupled with the recent actions of the Covington Kentucky Catholic boys in D.C. during Dr. King’s holiday weekend, wearing MAGA hats and counter-protesting […]
– I’m sure you’ve heard all the raving about so-called side hustles and gigs and how some professionals have become millionaires from starting side-hustle businesses. A side hustle is any type of work undertaken in addition to one’s full-time employment. It is usually freelance or piecework, providing a supplemental income. Side hustles are often things […]
Fully realizing that I may be shooting myself in the foot, I feel the need to say this: if you need to be trained on how to be decent in the workplace, Lord help you. While I’m a COO now, I have been training my entire career and still do as a regular part of […]
When was the last time you had to look for a job? If it’s been a while let me tell you it’s a hot mess out there. The job boards are crowded with millions of jobs. In most cases you have to create an account before applying. When applying you have to fill out a […]
A few weeks ago, I spoke at Disrupt HR Detroit about how to make work suck less. One of my suggestions is to assume positive intentions…which can be really hard in many organizations. My other suggestion is to help each other instead of hurt each other. This can also be difficult in many organizations that […]
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s tough out there. The world is a cold place. Some would say it always has been. Ask a police officer, school teachers, public defender, doctor, nurse, fire fighters, airline employee, or DMV worker and they will tell you that people have always been cold blooded. From heinous acts of violence and […]