High School Drama in the Workplace

Today's Post is froM ILSHRM's Susan Avello

Drama! I hate it. I know what you guys are thinking, "No woman hates drama because they all create it." Am I right?

But nothing could be further from the truth. Okay, I admit - I used to be a regular player in the world of drama. I spent my first 18 years of marriage in it, in fact. Every day was like being on a soap opera and I was this actress playing some kind of weird role. I admit it, I had my share of drama but what I realized when I left that relationship of 23 years (we dated five years before we married) that I didn't have to be pulled into drama anymore. I was relieved to know that it was not normal.

There are some people who just thrive on drama and they love creating it. They also love pulling you into their drama, into their crazy mixed-up world and then somehow, turn the tables on you. To this day, I still receive calls from my ex trying to create drama for me, in regard to things happening either with our child or some small town gossip. These days I just don't answer the phone because I know it's the same old' same old'.

I know we have all experienced drama in high school either ourselves or we see it happening in the lives of our children, but what about workplace drama? Shouldn't it have diminished after high school? Workplace drama can be the worst.

Now, especially in this technology world we live in, we're hearing all about the gossip through facebook and twitter. People are getting fired over these issues, being banned from school, even getting arrested because of their crappy drama being circulated around the world. How is this affecting our workplace? Creating more crap for us to deal with.

It's the same as the high school drama: We hear about the poor middle-schooler (actually an adult now) who was tagged in a photo as “whore” on Facebook. We hear about the kids who go to the woods behind the high school to get high (but it's actually now, behind the tree out back of the warehouse). We hear about the parties and the drunken stupor and orgies of our colleagues and we pass it off as "office gossip." And yet, it creates an atmosphere of jealousy, mistrust and then no one wants to "be on our team".....the same as if we were coaching the high school basketball team.

So what is the solution? Should we just fire them all and start over? I know sometimes we feel like that would be the answer but of course it's not a realistic solution.

Putting Policies in Place

From what I've experienced having a policy in place with easy steps to handle workplace conflict helps employees know the due process. This will help prevent future problems. Somehow, when you have it in writing "This is what happens if and when you post that picture of yourself on facebook, you know the one at a party holding the bong" you not only make your employees aware that there will be repercussions if the boundaries are crossed (just like dealing with our high school age children) but if documented correctly, you will save yourself a lot of headache if and when it should ever go to court. Documentation is key.

Susan Avello is Social Marketing Consultant and Principal of Social Buzz Concepts, specializing in Social Media Marketing Solutions, Training and Development and Company Branding. She shares her knowledge of  Social Media in the Workplace, and the latest in Technology over at HR Virtual Cafe blog, SHRM WeKnowNext and Social Media Today, and is a part of the social press team for SHRM annual conference. She is social media chair for Illinois SHRM State conference and helps Job Seekers and Veterans with their social job search as Co-Founder of DiscoveringSocial.com. She is the recipient of 2011’s Most Influential Women in Business award by Chicago’s Daily Herald Business Ledger, the National Association of Women Business Owners and Women’s Innovation Network. Follow her on Twitter @susanavello.

A Students Look at 2013 Illinois State HR Games

Today post is by Ashley Tague a University of Illinois at Springfield student. She recently attended the Illinois State HR games. We thank her for this post as she shares some thoughts here.

On February 23, 2013, Eastern Illinois University hosted the 2013 Illinois State HR Games.  This competition occurred in three parts:

       1. A case study      2. An individual competition       3. A Jeopardy-style trivia game.

 (L to R) Karla Leahr  AshleyTague   Mehr Chaudhry

The competition served as a great learning experience, not only for me personally, but for our school, University of Illinois Springfield.  UIS has only taken part in this competition twice, and this year, the team we took was new to all aspects of the competition.  I was astonished by the schools there who practice diligently for the competition each year, and it was fun getting to interact with the various students there as well.

I personally would encourage anyone who is interested in the field of HR to put themselves out there and compete.  I was extremely nervous because I have not had my internship in HR yet, I have never competed in this competition before, and I am currently taking my first HR class ever this semester.  Despite being extremely nervous, I guess I put my nerves aside when it came to the individual competition.  The individual competition consisted of a quiz with any topic from training and development to unions and everything in between.
 
During the awards ceremony, ISU took home 1st place in the individual competition, and I took home 2nd place on behalf of UIS.  Northern Illinois University placed first in Jeopardy, and ISU came in second.  As far as the case study is concerned, Northern Illinois University won 1st in that as well.  This was a great end to a really wonderful day, and I would like to tell everyone who competed congrats!

The caliber of the students was very impressive.  I would also like to give a big thanks to Eastern Illinois University Student SHRM Chapter and Dr. Heather Jia for such a well ran event as well as all the time and dedication taken.  Additionally, I would like to thank Donna Rogers and Dr. Ben Walsh for preparing our team and Dr. Walsh for taking time to take us to the event.  This competition allowed me to look forward to my own growth in HR as well as become inspired to open up a SHRM student chapter on the UIS campus.  I cannot wait to participate next year!

What Is an Advocate and Is It For Me?

Today's post is from Brian Spencer. He is our intern this semester at ILSHRM as well as Rogers HR Consulting.  He will be graduating this May from UIS with a degree in Management and focused on beginning a new career in HR.  He has been a tremendous asset to us in promoting the Advocacy Program here in the state and help coordinate projects for the upcoming Legislative Conference this April.  Connect with him on Linkedin

Many of you have heard about ILSHRM seeking to build an Advocacy Team throughout the state.  Some of us have new representatives that were just sworn into office this past month, so it is a great time to start planning to introduce ourselves and the value that we can bring to them as professionals who represent both, our companies and our employees, rather than a party affiliation.  As I have been talking to people about advocacy I have noticed some of the first questions that come to mind are: 

“How much time is involved?”

“What am I supposed to say to my elected official when I talk to them?”

“What exactly is an advocate anyway?” 

Well, I will start with the last question first.  An Advocate is simply someone willing to establish and maintain a relationship with their local elected official and set themselves up as a support person in the area of HR.  Additionally, as our legislative team sees bills coming that require attention, information will be passed to you to help educate your elected official on how it could impact our field and our people. 

            This takes us right into the next question.  I have heard that it can be intimidating to call or speak in person to our elected officials.  In fact, I was rather intimidated the first time I spoke to one of my legislators in his office, but it has been refreshing to find that they truly want to hear from us. We are their constituents first and foremost; in addition, we represent our companies and our employees.  Often times the conversations start with a simple introduction of ourselves and our profession, and then offering ourselves as a resource for them in the future.  One of the best things we can do is to simply be nice.  We are simply a resource for them in an area where many do not have as much expertise as they would like.

            And now, for the question about time; the next “most valuable commodity of our day” according to some.  To say that many people are overcommitted today would be an understatement.  This is a project that I can comfortably say does not take an exceptional amount of time.  In fact you may likely only get to speak with your official for 15-20 minutes at a time to begin with.  If you will maintain this extension of service about once or twice a quarter the result may surprise you.  The ultimate goal is for us to get to a place that by time the Legislative Conference comes next year we can go to the capital and they will hear our name and come out to say, “Hey Brian, how are you?  What can I do for you?”  Then you will know your time has been well spent!

            As a follow up point…  Don’t forget to say “Thank you.”  We all know what it is like to be worn down by criticism.  For people in office this can be a daily grind that becomes wearisome.  Besides the fact that it is nice to be appreciated, it lets them know you are watching! 

            If this sounds like something that could be exciting for you, or if you would simply like some more information please click here and give us some basic information so that we can follow up and help equip you to be an Advocate!

(Special thanks to Terry Steczo who helped to coach me through each of these points.)