A Trip to the Big Top | Carnival of HR

carnival of hr

One of my fondest childhood memories was heading to the show when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus came to town. By that era, of course, they had long stopped setting up their own Big Top on the outskirts of town and, instead, circus patrons headed to the local arena.

Growing up in Milwaukee, I was lucky to live through the era of the Great Circus Parade (held 30 times between 1963 and 2009). Alongside the bands, Shriners and dancing groups, the parade featured hundreds of clowns, wagons, animals and antique circus vehicles. These items were transported the 200 miles from Baraboo, WI to Milwaukee on the “circus train” (which people lined up to watch along the route). Upon arrival, the “circus” would set up in a park on the shores of Lake Michigan and hold shows in an actual real-life outdoor Big Top.

I loved it.

Those days, of course, are long gone. Other types of entertainment became more popular, and circuses became relics from some distant, dusty past.

But the circus, like it’s closely related form of entertainment, the carnival, still exists to some degree (although they’ve gotten much better with animal treatment!). Both circuses and carnivals bring their events TO people. The Carnival Barker and the Circus Ringleader strive to be entertaining. And, most importantly, they work to assemble enticing acts – whether on a fairground field or under the Big Top.

So, with a bit of a flourish (no sleight of hand), we present this edition of the Carnival of HR. We’ve gathered some of the latest and greatest blog posts, LinkedIn Articles, and podcasts from February 2023.

Ta-Da!

The Written Word

The Spoken Word

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Interested in participating or hosting the monthly Carnival of HR? This 16 year tradition continues – please reach out (current Ringleader is Humareso) to the get involved and on the mailing list!

Black History is American History – EVERY Day

When February came to a close we wrapped up the official – if one goes by the calendar and Presidential Proclamations – Black History Month.

I, for one, love that over my lifetime the month has evolved. February continues to be about celebrating the achievements of Black Americans as we recognize individuals; ordinary folks and those a bit more well-known. More importantly though, we now use the month to propel conversations about the work that still needs to be done in areas such as voting rights and ensuring equal access to the voting box, infrastructure issues (Flint! Jackson!) and the disparity in healthcare outcomes for Black women.

This February (my first in my new gig!!), our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Recruiting Teams shared a presentation and opened a discussion (at our weekly All-Team meeting) about “Black History & The Labor Movement.” (yes; we wear our HR badges proudly on our sleeves).  Here are a few things I learned:

The Navy Strike of 1835

Caulking was essential to the building of Naval ships — and freed Black people were almost 70% of caulkers. In 1835, they organized a strike to protest unfair practices, demanding lunch/rest breaks and a workday of 10-hours max. This was the first recorded strike of any civilian military and federal employees. The strike was unsuccessful because its demands were not met — but shipyard owners did increase base wages for the protesting caulkers to get them to return to work.

The ideas from this group contributed to the successful labor demands that gave us the required lunch/rest breaks and 40-hour work week that we enjoy today.

The CNLU of 1869

Black workers established the Colored National Labor Union in 1869 after being denied membership in the National Labor Union for many years. The group petitioned Congress to alleviate the “condition of the colored workers of the southern states” by subdividing the public lands of the South into forty-acre farms and providing low-interest loans to black farmers. This is from where the term “40 acres and a mule” and the continued push for reparations to ADOEA comes.

Office of the Director of Negro Economics

During the Great Migration (1916 – 1930), Black people made significant gains in industrial employment, particularly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, and meatpacking industries. Between 1910 and 1920 the number of blacks employed in these industries grew from 500k to over 900k.

This led to the establishment of the Office of the Director of Negro Economics by President Wilson in 1918 which was the 2nd office created by the government to monitor and advocate for fair treatment of Black workers in the US. In its first year, the office received over 1000 complaints of unfair practices but less than 10% were reportedly addressed and resolved. The President disbanded the office at the end of 1919.

The EEOC was modeled in part after this office’s structure when established in 1965.

In addition to the history discussion we also talked about legislation to watch such as the PRO Act, H.R. 40, the Freedom to Vote Act, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.  

And the Team shared podcasts, movies, documentaries, and books that we can – and SHOULD – read, watch, and listen to all year long. A few mentioned:

  • Leading in Color (Sarah Morgan) – podcast
  • Mississippi Burning – movie
  • The 1619 Project – documentary (Hulu)
  • Slavery by Another Name – documentary (PBS)
  • The Warmth of Other Suns (Isabel Wilkerson) – book
  • The Color of Law (Richard Rothstein) – book

Good stuff. GREAT stuff. I am so thankful to work for an organization where we not only take the time to have these discussions but encourage thoughtful dialogue and reflection.

And NOT just during the designated month but every month. Every day. For all.

Because Black History is American History. Every day. For all.

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Kids at Work in the 21st Century : Child Labor

child labor
Mollohan Mills, Newberry, S.C.  (1908) Photographer – Lewis W. Hine

When I was 14-years-old I had chores to do at home. I was tasked with laundry duties, dusting, cleaning the bathrooms, cutting the grass, and weeding the garden.  When it snowed overnight I was out with my parents at 5 AM shoveling the (long-ass) driveway.

I did not, however, have to don PPE and go to work in a meatpacking plant.

Yet, if Republican lawmakers in some states get their way, we will see the rolling back of child labor law protections that harken back to the days of old.

The Wisconsin Senate passed a bill that would have expanded working hours to 11 PM for 14- and 15-year olds … but Governor Tony Evers vetoed it. #whew

But legislation is still working its way through the process in Minnesota and Iowa. The bill in Minnesota would enable 16-and 17-year-olds to do construction work. In Iowa, where meat is king, 14- and 15- year-olds would be allowed to work in the meatpacking industry. (Sadly enough, just this past November, the US Department of Labor was granted a temporary injunction against a company that offers cleaning services at meatpacking plants for – you guessed it – “oppressive child labor” violations.)

And here’s one of the key points of the Iowa bill – it exempts business from civil liability in the event a child/student is injured, sickened or killed due to the company negligence. So if, under the guise of a “work-study” program through the student’s school, the teen loses a limb (or loses their life!) due to the company’s negligence…there will apparently be just a “shrug” and a “sorry.”

Is there value in teens holding outside employment? Of course there is; a job promotes the learning of communication and time management skills and gives teens the chance to be independent and responsible. Not to mention the paycheck.

But teenagers also need 9 to 9.5 hours of sleep per night as they progress through the developmental stage of cognitive maturation. Their primary pursuit at this age should be education – and it’s what we should want as a society.

And we should be extraordinarily cautious about exactly which teens would be taking these jobs in slaughterhouses and on construction sites; chances are pretty good we won’t see Chad the star quarterback whose daddy owns the local car dealership hosing out a chicken coop. Rather we’ll see the exploitation of immigrants and families living in poverty who send their kids to work to have enough money for basic living expenses.

That’s a whole lot different than shoveling the driveway at home.

“The idea of putting children into work activities that could be dangerous is something that is not only irresponsible but reprehensible.”

Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

There’s Nothing to Fear! Well, Maybe a Little…

fear

“Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.” 

W. Edwards Deming

I’ve long been a fan of Deming. Back in the day, when working as an HR Director for a large health care organization, I spent several years being fully immersed in his teachings and theories when we adopted his System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) as the framework for transforming our multi-state organization. I admit that I still periodically grab Out of the Crisis or The New Economics off my bookshelf for reference.

Among other things Deming was known for developing his “14 Points for the Transformation of Management”; some are operational while others are more philosophical in nature.

Point #8, just one of the nuggets of wisdom, is “drive out fear.”  Pretty basic. Simple even. Yet Out of the Crisis (with the 14 points) was published in 1986 and we still suck at eliminating fear in the workplace.  

This has been on my mind, yet again. as I’ve recently heard stories or had conversations with people regarding the pervasiveness of fear in their companies; in some scenarios the work environment is filled with outright terror.  

And, in every single scenario, leaders – from line supervisors to CEOs – are the ones creating these hellscapes when:  

  • Managers (or HR Departments!) issue rules or policies, often nonsensical, with no explanation of the purpose or reason
  • Employees are chastised, disciplined, and punished (not course-corrected or given constructive feedback) for simplest missteps
  • There’s a lack of understanding (leading to people ultimately not giving a damn) as employees are reluctant to ask clarifying questions because others have been told “you don’t need to know that”
  • Leaders blow the proverbial gasket (froth at the mouth? lose their minds? act like fools?). One person told me about a senior leader who berated a team member in their department meeting. This “leader” slammed his hand on the table as he punctuated his escalating tirade with curse words and then swept from the room leaving the entire team sitting in stunned silence. Not the first time and, allegedly, the standard M.O. for this leader.

Out There in the Real World

One woman told me she gets physically ill every morning at the thought of walking through the doors into her office building and she’s not alone; every single day her co-workers speculate who will be the next ‘target.’ Another said she works for a company where “everything is swept under the rug” and no one dares to bring up problems for fear of making the boss look bad. “We just keep our heads down and try not to draw attention to what we’re doing” she told me.  

A guy who is a senior leader at his organization told me “What we (as a company) say we’ll do is never what we actually do.  I’m reluctant to bring it up though because our CEO takes it personally whenever someone mentions something negative about our operating model.”

Not surprisingly several of the organizations these people work for list similar corporate values on their websites informing customers and job seekers alike that they (to paraphrase) ‘believe employees are the most important asset’ and ‘embrace open communication’ while ‘fostering a caring work environment.’

That’s the same pablum we’ve seen many times before, isn’t it? The same corporate communication and C-Suite doubletalk that has no connection to the organizational reality.  Rather, these are workplaces where fear has been institutionalized.  Employees have been beaten into submission to the point where they’re just going through the motions and trying to stay out of the line of fire to keep their jobs.

Sadly though, somewhere in the bowels of these corporate domiciles, there are oblivious leaders ignoring the panic running rampant in their organization whilst instead getting excited about the quarterly pizza-for-lunch day. To which the woman who literally vomits when she thinks of walking through their office door each morning says “$#*& @!^”

And she is scared. More than just a little.

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