Santa?

This past Tuesday there was a "holiday" celebration at work. Holiday? Give me a break, it was for C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S! I know because Santa was there and, as far as I know, Santa isn't part of any other holiday. We (Sean was there too) were strongly encouraged to sit on Santa's lap for a picture. "Come on, the kids will love it" we were told. When I explained that Santa isn't part of Christmas at our house, the encouragement came to an end and all was well and good.

Until we walked by Santa...

He looked at me (not Sean, just me) and patted his knee (that should have been my first clue that something wasn't quite right).

Smiling, I told him, "We don't do Santa."

"Are ya Jewish?" was his crass response.

"No," I sweetly told him, " We choose to focus on Christ at Christmas."

Defensively he said, "Well, I go to church sometimes. Our Lady on the Lake. I'll be there Christmas eve. You should come."

"Our what?" I asked for clarification.

Then, speaking slowly in a wonderfully condescending tone he enunciated, "Our...Lady...on...the...Lake. Are you Catholic?"

"No," I said, "we're not Catholic."

Horrified, he said, "You're not Lutheran are you?"

"No. Not Lutheran either."

Not having any other guesses for what "religion" we actually are, he let it go. I wished him Merry Christmas and went on my way so grateful that Santa wasn't coming to our house on Christmas eve.

How to Save Millions in HR Costs

As an HR professional in a field that many employees don't know even exists, I tend to get a little defensive when the HR profession as a whole is over-simplified...

I was listening to a radio show this morning and the discussion turned to school uniforms and whether or not that takes away a student’s ability to express his/her individuality. The talk show host maintained that it didn’t; it was a requirement of the school and it was more an issue of dressing appropriately for the environment than an inability to express indivuality, similar to a dress code at work. The caller responded with, “Well, we know not everyone dresses appropriately for work, otherwise we wouldn’t need HR.”

So if a company can train its managers to enforce the dress code, it can get rid of HR altogether and save millions! I think I’m going to steal this idea, market myself as a “consultant” to Fortune 500 companies and cash in.