Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

The Lorax

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From the "Sound Off" section in today's Middletown Journal:

"To all the whiners in Monroe who claim the pollutants from the SunCoke project for AK [Steel] will pollute their pristine, little town: Wake up! You live south of this project, and 95 percent of the year, winds come out of the west and northwest. … the south end of Middletown should be concerned. But they know: AK needs this project."

Have a frightful, blightful Christmas

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From a letter to the editor in the Middletown Journal today:

"Middletown's downtown, with all the old manufacturing facilities that are empty and numerous storefronts that once produced a livelihood for the owners, are filled with 'for sale' or 'rent' signs. This is a fright on our city."

Marketing, through HR’s eyes

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For years I've talked about holding an HR and Communications Summit, where for one high price a communicator brings her favorite HR goon, or an HR pro brings her favorite communication powderpuff, and we gather at a fancy hotel and work it all out over a couple of days.

This tale from the front from a friend in HR reminds me what a serious (and funny) couple of days it would be: 

	So, we were all assembled today in a conference room to hear our current Leader to discuss the year’s accomplishments. Our HR Leader was just ending his 18 month stint, having been “rotated” into the role between his last Marketing Leadership role, and his future incredibly lucrative, possibly redundant role as one of the Credit Card company leaders. 
	After a nice little pep talk about what the HR & Communications department had accomplished over the year, Dear Leader took a few questions. Here’s the one that made my day:

Q: So what have you learned in your 18 months as the Leader of HR and Communications?

So, we were all assembled today in a conference room to hear our current Leader to discuss the year’s accomplishments. Our HR Leader was just ending his 18 month stint, having been “rotated” into the role between his last Marketing Leadership role, and his future incredibly lucrative, possibly redundant role as one of the Credit Card company leaders.

“I learned that people actually decide on HR as a profession when they are in college. They actually go and get degrees, and sometimes advanced degrees…."

Not sure the rest of the statement as I laughed out loud so hard, I actually started crying. Thank God for mute buttons.

Oh, and this was one of the questions he received in advance.

This, coming from the pretty boy, fits the “mold,” glad hander who while he was in Marketing made such genius moves as:

• Establishing a multi-million dollar NASCAR sponsorship for our Financial Services company. Oh, did I mention he always had to attend the events in the premium sponsor seats? And continued to “own the relationship” after he left Marketing for HR. By the way, we sure did drop that sponsorship like a hot potato once expense controls got serious.

• Asking his HR person to go and coach his direct report when they screwed up. (The HR person declined to provide the service, and told Boy Genius to go coach is own employee.) …

Now, I’m probably the first one to critique my own profession, and the short comings of my own department, but it is a rare treat to be insulted by some narcississtic douche bag who’s too clueless to fucking figure out he’s just insulted you.