Twas the night of the office Christmas party...

Let’s all deck the halls with boughs of holly

Party time, the season to be jolly

With short skirts, earrings and reindeer hats

A few vodkas at home and then off to get rats'd

As grumpy John from accounts asks Edna to dance

In walks the boss, just back from France

He makes straight for the bar, full of French bonhomie

And says “Over here folks the drinks are on me”

This is the moment when he should have known better

But it’s all a laugh, bit of fun and he’s a go getter.

Next thing he knows Lucy’s perched on his knee

And he’s fooling about and his hands are quite free.

Her boyfriend takes umbrage, Lucy heads for the loo.

It goes down in history as a “hell of a do”.

But come the next day with his head in his hands

He opens a letter that makes big demands:

Sexual harassment and a promised pay rise

Will his wife believe that it’s really just lies?

From all at The HR Dept, we wish you a very Merry Christmas

Why letting loose snakes into the office isn't the best idea...

This week we came across a rather unusual report of an angry Indian snake charmer letting snakes loose in a government office! Apparently Mr Hakkul, who was the go-to when there was a snake on the loose in the area, campaigned for a plot of land to keep his snakes. After several delays in dealing with his request, Mr Hakkul had come to the end of his tether and had his revenge on the officials, causing chaos.

Photo from BBC

This cleverly links us to the importance of leadership and management within any organisation. The HR Dept continues to preach about being proactive rather than reactive. Sadly no one has a crystal ball; however foreseeing issues before they come to a head, is the key to dealing with issues effectively. In this case, there had clearly been miscommunication, confusion and upset felt by Mr Hakkul. Ignoring a problem and assuming it will go away will not achieve anything, in an extraordinary case like this or in the office environment.

The HR Dept advises managers as always to identify an issue quickly before it becomes a problem and escalates. Following policies and procedures will enable you to deal with difficult situations more successfully. The role of a manager is not just in the title, it is the ability to manage people and ‘prevent people problems’...  

"Help Wanted"

Why it is never good when you see an advert posted for your own job...

After seeing a ‘help wanted’ advert in a newspaper for a position that looks suspiciously like your own and included your boss’s phone number, what might you do? We recently came across this tale and this is exactly what happened to an employee of an architect’s firm in Florida.

The employee, confused, believing they were about to lose their job, made the rash decision to go to the architect’s office and erase an eye watering seven years worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5m (£1.5m).

Naturally the employee was caught, arrested, charged... and then fired.

Making matters even worse, it turns out the job was for the owner’s wife’s business.

Wondering whether the employee submitted an application for the other role? Probably not.

Unemployed youth: Disillusioned or misunderstood?

The HR Dept is disappointed and concerned to see that figures of youth unemployment have recently reached record highs. We recognise that the majority of unemployed 16-24 year olds do make every effort to get on the job ladder, but at the moment there are limited opportunities. However, Conservative politician Norman Tebbit has gone further and criticised the lack of ‘get up and go’ from UK graduates, sparking an interesting debate on motivation of the younger UK workforce at a time of high unemployment generally.

The reality is though, that the figures are likely to get worse before they get better. The Government will launch a £1 billion ‘youth contract’ to fund six month work placements for up 410,000 individuals. This is very positive, as it is so often the case that young workers have the theoretical knowledge but not the practical application. It has the potential to help build a younger worker’s confidence as everyone remembers their first day of work as it can be daunting stepping into an unknown environment! Once we know more about it, we will put more information out.

Find something you enjoy and are good at and you will hit the ground running

The critical point about younger workers disillusionment with the working world can be highlighted with some research we discovered recently - finding that a staggering 48% of people aged 16-24 said they would not work for a firm that prohibited social media use. Whether for work purpose or not, it shows a new trend of younger individuals looking to use social media in every part of their lives, whether it be personal or working.

Advice is to any young worker looking for their first role:

Look for something you want to get involved in or a role which you can match your skills against and present yourself as a positive, hard working and ambitious candidate and deliver on that promise.