Human Resources...the good, the bad and really friggin' ugly!

About 15 years ago I was working in Customer Service and sort of found myself working in more of an HR capacity. Eventually I began working completely in HR Management and have now found myself out of Corporate America working as an HR Director in a medium-size Long Term Care center in small town, MN.

On this journey I have met and learned from SO many great people and equally so many horrible people. Human Resources is a just that, being a resource to the humans that make up your work force. This is a very customer service related field and so over time I have learned the art of bull shit. It's the first course they teach when majoring in HR...Bullshit 101.

I have also learned the great art of timing from one of my greatest mentors in the business world. As an antsy 19 year old it wasn't my greatest strength as you can imagine. My "I want to get answers now" and it doesn't matter what you are doing or that you have your office door closed or a phone coming out of the side of your head...me, me, me, me, me, me! It IS all about me isn't it? HA! That's a laugh!

After timing I learned how to survive in the good ol' boys club including smoking cigars and working in an environment that felt more like a locker room rather than an office. This experience included getting hit with a soft ball a golf ball, drinking beer in our offices on Friday afternoons with our clients, watching as my male counterparts used their empty Mt. Dew bottles as a spitune and talked about T&A like I wasn't really a "girl". That didn't stop until the "evil new girl" showed up, complained to corporate and put an immediate HALT to the bad behavior in lieu of a law suit.

None-the-less I learned a lot about being a solid business woman, about about being sold out and how to come back from that, about respecting others even when I don't care for them, about having fun at work and still getting the job done well. I am grateful for my corporate America experiences but also very grateful they are over.

Moving into a nursing home setting was SO different and really gets me out of my "big business" mode and into the worlds of these wonderful elderly folks that I work with/for every day. There are so many rewards to working as HR in a nursing home. For instance, where else can you do a job you completely love all while watching a petite elderly woman with dementia run right past you and out of the front door of your building, fall and when you go to rescue her she asks "Didn't you see it?" "See what?" "The bus that just went by that said FREE SEX on the side?" I mean c'mon...now that's just funny I don't care who you are, not the falling but the bus and her running after it of course!

How about the little woman who is in the room next door doing therapy and when the the Therapist asks her "Do you have any children?" and she screams (because she is hard of hearing) "I DON'T KNOW! YOU'LL HAVE TO ASK MY DAUGHTER!". Yet another is when a resident is being cared for and cleaned up and she lifts up a breast only to look at the caregiver with a straight face and state "These were some pretty good lunchwagons in their day!". Seriously...it's some funny stuff!

It really is a pleasure and a lot of fun to work in this field. I enjoy it thoroughly for many reasons.
I really only question my choice in career when I come in contact with this group of 20 somethings that act as if they are entitled the world. They act as if they can do no wrong and that what they say is the most important thing in the world. These complacent, mildly lazy, hand me a paycheck for doing as little as possible assholes! I can handle being told I have a stick up my ass and being told I am a bitch or whatever else they wish to say on FB, in the break room, wherever but I can't get past the fact that these 20 somethings are so certain they have it all figured out. I don't recall every behaving this way as a 20 something myself but if I did I shall apologize right this minute for my VERY poor judgment and bad behavior.

When and where are these folks going to be dished their share of humble pie? And may I shove it down there throat with a spoon please? I'm sorry that you have looked at this job that pays you double+ minimum wage and have decided you are too good for it. If you would like to do something else please take advantage of the thousands of dollars we give in scholarships each year and DO SOMETHING with yourself...oh wait! What? You don't want to better yourself and you want to just sit and complain and blame everyone else because you are lazy, ignorant and too self-important...oh I'm sorry...I shouldn't have bothered to try and help you!

Please let me save you the trouble of wasting your time interviewing with me. If you haven't learned anything from your parents or their generation, or the generation before them about work ethic, going above and beyond, helping others regardless of self-sacrifice...please...don't apply!

A note to all up and coming 20 somethings: You do NOT know it all! You should take time to learn from previous generations. You need to learn how to be excellent at customer service (BS 101) and learn to fake it 'till you make it! If you cannot be respectful (even if you disagree) you have no place in the workforce. Learn to be humble and introspective, it's not always someone else's fault that your life sucks! Earn your paycheck. You do not have to like everyone you work with but you must get along with them enough to get the job done without a problem. Smile, suck it up and WORK.

With that said I am proud to have come from a family of hard working individuals. I am proud that I am a hard working individual. I am proud of my accomplishments but I will never ever forget that I have SO much more to learn and that everyone around me has something to teach me...enough that I should never be so arrogant as to think I am better than or superior to any of these 20 somethings. Maybe, just maybe there is one whom I can teach and help as others have done for me in my years past.

As I write this I realize that I have suddenly gotten older and all those things that the adults before me said...it was all true! Thank you God for my teachers!