Punk Rock Human Resources » gen y

More HR Blogosphere Drama: UR So Crazy

Laurie — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:33:08 +0000

Did you hear about a Gen Y Blogger on Brazen Careerist who touted her undergraduate degree in psychology and diagnosed her colleagues at work with mental illnesses? Yup, this Gen Y blogger called one of her co-workers bipolar and diagnosed the others with a bevy of mental disorders.

Holy crap, dudes. That really happened.

Breanne Potter, a psychologist and MBTI pro, caught wind of the original post and wrote a scathing response. At the time, I happened to agree with Breanne. It is wholly irresponsible to go around calling your co-workers crazy. Don’t put that on the internet, fool — save it for happy hour!

This whole situation didn’t sit well with me. I’m a recruiter by training, and the narrative seemed a little off. Who writes a post about her co-workers and calls them crazy? Who is so naive as to post something so ballsy and reckless? I contacted the blogger and asked some questions. Here’s what I learned.

The blogger is a lovely woman named Katie.
She writes a blog called Liberal Arts Leftovers.
She doesn’t have an undergraduate degree in psychology. She has a BA in English and she manages to hold down a real job (unlike me).

Katie attempted to write a silly and fun blog post that was meant to cast light on weird & unhealthy workplace relationships. She FAILED, dudes, and she openly acknowledged her failed attempt at humor.

So it goes, right? Better writers than Katie have failed at humor & satire. I applaud her efforts, yo, but I was a little surprised with my own reaction to her post. Why was I so quick to jump on it? Why was I so quick to cut?

Was it the failure of the writer, who didn’t seem to be joking when she called her co-workers crazy?
Or was it my inclination — as a passive-aggressive blogger — to assume the worst and jump all over Katie?

I am always fascinated when good intentions go awry. I wondered — what accounted for the gap between Katie’s words and the reaction of her audience? Why did some readers go ape-shit when other readers seemed to get the joke?

I asked Katie to reflect on the situation & write about it. I wanted to know

Was Katie angry about the readers’ response? Was she surprised?
Did the reaction change her relationship with her readers?
What did she learn?

Katie responds here, and she makes a plea to the HR bloggers out there who didn’t like her post.

I would like to maintain some employ-ability, so if ever an HR person from a company I would possibly ever apply to is reading this:

John Edwards and Human Resources

Laurie — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:50:13 +0000

Questions:

In a performance-driven society, should we care about the personal lives of our politicians and corporate leaders?
If we hold our leaders to extraordinary moral standards, will we turn off a younger generation of talented kids? Will Gen Y ‘opt out’ of leading for fear of being scrutinized?
As HR Pros, do we want the media covering the economy, the military escalation in Georgia, or the moral character of John Edwards?

What do you guys think?

Generational Warfare Part 2: Paul Anka

Laurie — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:28:52 +0000

Punk Rock HR readers had a spirited discussion about Jeff Gordinier‘s book, a few weeks ago. We discussed whether or not Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials approach employment (& life) in different ways.

The conversation took on a life of its own and moved forward on other awesome blogs. My opinion on the validity of ‘generational differences’ hasn’t changed since my original post. I land firmly on the side of disinterested. (Clarification: I’m disinterested in talking about this with you.)

I believe that cultural trends and important events will impact a generation of people (think Kennedy assassination, 9/11) — but I really don’t give a shit about how other people approach life & work. Life is great and work is fine as long as I get paid. Let’s not have a group meeting and discuss it further.

That opinion, some would argue, makes me totally Gen X.

In any event, there is one thing I care deeply about: your unabashedly poor taste in music. Do you know what’s better than listening to your music collection? Everything. Your iPod is packed full of Coldplay and Bob Dylan. You like Jethro Tull, Blue Oyster Cult, and Linkin Park. If it isn’t Blink 182, you’re not happy.

I’ve heard more thoughtful emotions expressed through music by my cat, Scrubby, than in your iPod.

To that end, I found two excellent gems via the interwebs related to generational warfare, employment, and your poor musical tastes.

The first gem is an honest discussion about embarrassing musical preferences. I came out of the closet on Jeff Pearlman’s blog and admitted that I bust a move on the treadmill to Marky Mark and Backstreet Boys. I can’t explain my love of Good Vibrations, but I will tell you that I never listened to Everybody until my friend, Sully, used the song in a training video. He is very punk rock and has excellent taste in music. He sent me a link to the training video and wrote, “I’ll admit it. The song is kind of catchy.”

Christ. He’s right. Backstreet Boys + training video = pumped up inspiration! I’m ready to meet my sales quotas and I can’t take on the world. Needless to say, I’ve loved the song since then.

The second great gem on the internet, tonight, is this little ditty by Paul Anka.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s Paul Anka singing Nirvana, and I don’t know if this video is legal in the United States or Canada. (I have my doubts.)

It’s a great example of what happens when someone, such as Tony Bennett on MTV Unplugged, does something clever and interesting. Tony played to a live audience on MTV in 1995 and reintroduced himself to a new & musically-savvy generation. Some marketing dude thought, great, let’s do this on a larger scale.

The results of that marketing endeavor, way back in the late 90s, are sketchy. You get Johnny Cash singing Nine Inch Nails and a Burt Bacharach tribute, which aren’t half-bad attempts at shaking up the musical establishment. Unfortunately, you also get the very bad and very schlocky Paul Anka covering REM.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ugh. Stick to your day job, Paul Anka, and stay away from Generation X and our musical oeuvre.

Update: It seems as if I’m a few years late. The Paul Anka videos made the rounds, a while back, according to my Gen Y bloggy friends. Whatever, hipsters.

Update II: I do like generational discussions, but I hate arguing about them. Are you Gen X? Are you Gen Y? I don’t care. I just have one question: when will baby boomers just STFU already?

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Laurie — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:41:48 +0000

Happy Birthday, Mom, from your first born (& most awesome) child.

Remember the good old days when it was just you & me? We listened to the radio and watched Beatles cartoons on Channel 32 before it was FOX. You gave me pretzels because that’s all I would eat. I gave you trouble.

Those. were. the. days.

(To my Gen Y readers: please forgive the 1970s. They meant no harm.)

Grammy Diversions: Keith Richards & Amy Winehouse

Laurie — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:21:21 +0000

Is it just me, or is the world waiting for the members of The Rolling Stones to shut the hell up?

Baby Boomers Set to Retire

Laurie — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:59:37 +0000

My favorite is, “Delete Your MySpace Page.”

236 – News – Baby Boomers set to retire; the rest of us set to hear about it