Here’s the Corporate BS for August 24-30:

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The beginning.

Supervisor:  “Hello, HR Manager?  I want to fire Employee.”

HR Manager:  “Why?”

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This week’s song is Elvis Costello’s poignant, even stirring, “Shipbuilding.”

Hiring, discharge, all in between; Discrimination, harassment, seen and unseen.

Documents, handbooks, paper bits; Managers, supervisors, having fits.

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Do you have an office tic of some kind? Drumming your fingers on your desk. Snapping a ballpoint pen open and closed. Rattling change in your pocket. Crossing your legs back and forth. Spinning in your desk chair. As this video clip demonstrates, there may come a time when you’ll need to get help.

Hiring, discharge, all in between; Discrimination, harassment, seen and unseen.

Documents, handbooks, paper bits; Managers, supervisors, having fits.

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The company’s C-Suite was composed of all men. At regular meetings, it wasn’t unusual for the guys to start with a few questionable jokes, some racy humor and a bit of sexual banter. Boys will be boys, and besides, it was all in good fun.

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The recently departed Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had plenty to say on many important subjects. He asked a simple question that should make every executive, manager, supervisor, human resources professional, employee, and employment lawyer sit straight up in his/her chair and take stock of what one is doing or not doing in his/her job.

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I dreamed that the human resources department for all my clients had been outsourced. CEOs of every company had called a meeting and announced that having an HR department inside the company added no value. Outsourcing was the answer.

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During the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen enough beach volleyball to last a lifetime.  I don’t know if someone at NBC is a beach volleyball nut, or if beach volleyball has attained a status heretofore hidden from me, or if the Chinese government decreed that beach volleyball must be shown in Law & Order fashion to make the world think China is a trip to the beach, regardless of what we may have heard to the contrary.  The primary U.S. women’s team won a gold medal.  I saw them make a comeback against the Belgium team that would have been thrilling in any sport other than beach volleyball.  Seeing so much beach volleyball got me to thinking about a couple of things that may–may–have relevance to this blog.

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Cultural Offering, a blog I often read and always borrow music from, had a recent post that focused on two simple workplace rules.  The post deals largely with the use of sick days, but the two rules apply to any aspect of the workplace.  When I read the post, I thought “Tip of the Week.”  So here it is.

Here’s the Corporate BS for August 17-23:

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This past post discusses what can happen when Internet privacy intersects with the workplace. The post also links to an even earlier post on the same subject.

The subject of sports has been a fairly regular source of material for this blog. Here we revisit a post from the world of sports.