You a couple weeks ago that the very first thing that I was
going to do with the Cozy Earth promo code that I've got was buy
the pajama set. Let me tell you, I did that like
Day 1. I did that and the pajama set is
so comfortable and luxurious and like soft and silky.
I already said luxurious, but I'm going to say it again,
luxurious. This is why this is like a dream
partnership for me. Cozy Earth is really so focused
on like creating that sanctuary place for people in their 5:00
to 9:00. So like when you're done with
work and you take that deep breath and like you finally
close your laptop, you have some dinner, you take a shower, you
unwind. That's like the feeling that
Cozy Earth is all about creating.
And I'm telling you now, after trying the the sheet set, I was
already convinced. But then when buying the pajama
set, I was like, oh, OK, now I'm a big big fan.
Very, very big fan. And when I really like take a
step back and think about why comfort is so important to me,
it's like you spend all of this time and energy like bulldozing
through the day. Just like get like having a
coffee, getting up, going for a workout, getting stuff done as a
mother, like getting my kids ready for the day and giving
them breakfast and like all this stuff, right, changing diapers
still, it's just like a constant Sprint.
And then when you finally get to unwind for the day, it's like,
OK, you can finally breathe. And so with Cozy Earth, as I
mentioned, I have the bamboo sheet set and these sheets are
so breathable. And the same goes for the
pajamas because the bamboo pajamas are truly so luxurious.
And really, frankly, when I talked about like, you know, if
you're still sleeping in that old baggy stretched out T-shirt,
it's time for an upgrade, I said that the last time I upgraded,
it's meaningful. It had a significant impact on
my sleep. Just being able to like feel
really comfortable when when unwinding and going to sleep
makes a huge difference. At least it did for me.
It's really the kind of comfort that makes you want to lounge
and relax all day. And as someone who's a really,
really bad relaxer, like ice really struggle just kind of
unwinding and relaxing and taking a load off this these
between the sheet set and the pajama set, I really have
figured out that part of relaxing is just like leaning
into what feels comfortable and cozy.
And you know, we're going into the summer months and it gets
really hot in New York and most places around the world.
And having something that's breathable and soft and like
cooling is really important, at least for me, I tend to run
warm. And so again, what I really love
about Cozy Earth is that it's there's this commitment to
quality in every way, the commitment to quality in how we
create a peaceful environment for ourselves, especially after
work, and also in what the products are all about.
Like the products obviously are luxurious, but they're also made
ethically and they're produced responsibly.
So when you invest in better sleep, you're also investing in
something good so you can like relax and feel comfortable and
also, you know, be excited that you've invested in something
that does good for others and does good for the planet.
And you know, if you are not sure that Cozy Earth is for you,
that's OK Don't worry. Cozy Earth gives you 100 nights
to decide 100. That's a lot of nights.
That's more than three months of nights.
And if you don't love it, you can send it back.
And with that, there is also a 10 year warranty on what you
purchase because they believe in their products and that means
that you can also believe in their products.
So if you're ready to turn your bedroom, your home into a true
retreat and Oasis, a place that feels like a luxury hotel, but
even better, go to cozyearth.com and use my code human HR for 40%
off. And you can use it on anything.
Like I said, I use it on the pyjamas.
My, my best friend bought the sheet set and she was like, hey,
Oprah and Kris Jenner and I, we all have the same sheet set now.
And we have, you know, we have the same favorite sheets.
So that's a very exciting thing that you can brag about is that
you, Kris Jenner and Oprah all love these sheets.
So whatever you buy, you get 40% off.
And don't forget like this is right in time for Mother's Day.
So if you have a very special someone who is a mother or a new
mother or is planning or becoming a mother, I should say
these, and you want to like maybe find a gift for the
mother, not just the child or children.
In my case, having twins, many people have multiples.
You can then, you know, buy these sheet sets or these
pajamas. And these pajamas, by the way,
are totally breastfeeding friendly.
So when you have someone in your life who maybe is a new mom or a
nursing mom, these are another great way to say, hey, I'm
thinking of you. Here's a gift for you.
Because the kids are usually the ones that are the focus when it
comes to give time, not necessarily the mothers.
So anyway, that's my advice for you is to really lean into this
promo code. 40% off is like the best discount that you will find
on Cozy Earth or with Cozy Earth.
It's really, really competitive. So if you go to cozyearth.com,
use the human HR code and again get 40% off their best selling
sheets, pajamas, towels and so much more.
And if you get a post purchase survey, please let them know
that you found out about Cozy Earth right here at the Bringing
the Human back to Human Resources podcast.
The first thing that I bought, of course, were those pajamas.
I also bought more pillowcases because I have probably too many
pillows for one bed and I was like, I just like what and when
everything matches. So definitely get out there, get
to the code, use it before you can't use it anymore, and buy
those mothers some gifts. They've earned it and they
deserve it. So again, prioritize sleep.
Prioritize you sleep better with Cozy Earth and be like me and
enjoy the comforts of your own home.
Welcome to the Bringing the Human Back to Human Resources
podcast. I'm Tracy Chernoff, and I've
spent my entire professional career in HR.
Each week, we'll explore the delicate balance between people
and business with the aim to reconnect the two and create
meaningful outcomes. Listen in as I share my own
experiences, challenge the status quo, and chat with guests
from various industries about our mission to bring the human
back to human. Resources Hi everyone, welcome
back to the Bringing the human back to human Resources podcast.
Thank you so much for being here for another week.
Guess what? It is my first solo episode in
God knows how long. It has been weeks since I've
done like an episode. Just me, just you and I don't
know, maybe you missed these, let me know.
I've had a lot of guests on because there have been so many
amazing topics to get in front of you.
But I, you know, I have to hear feedback from you.
Do you like those guest episodes?
Do you like these solo episodes? What do you want more of?
Let me know. You can e-mail me at
contact@hrtracy.com. You can DM me on Instagram or
Facebook. You can message me on LinkedIn,
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, they're all HR Tracy.
So whatever the website is, the URL/HR Tracy, you can find me
anywhere. You can also go to my website,
hrtracy.com and let me know your feedback there as well.
And with my newsletter, you can always reply.
So that said, this week I want to talk about what HR work and
roles actually look like because there are still so many
misconceptions, not only from people who are relying on HR
partners, but more often than not from people who want to get
into HR. I've spoken recently with a lot
of people who are like, I really want to get into HR or like
maybe I want an HR job. And when I asked them why?
What is it about HR that you're really interested in?
A lot of the time, not every time.
A lot of the time there is like a totally warped view of what HR
practitioners actually do. And it's not to say that that
every like it's A1 size fits all.
Obviously there are different specialties within HR.
There are different industries within HR or like industries
that require or need or rely on HR partners that could change or
impact just what the job looks like.
But there are some fundamental things that we have to get
right. And so if you are someone who is
maybe in like an HR adjacent role, whether you're like an
office manager or in recruiting and you find yourself saying
that you want to get into HR, you might need a little bit more
information. That might be, you might be a
perfect fit for HR. But there are some instances
where HR jobs are different than what we expect them to be
because working in HR is different than working with
someone in HR. There there is this like over
perception of when we're working with someone in HR, there's this
over perception of what the job is.
But then when you're actually in the job, there's a there's
something totally different there, right?
And that's with anything like I could think, Oh yeah, being like
professional baseball player is probably so cool because you
work out and you get to play a game for for work.
But that's my perception. That's not necessarily reality,
right. So also, before I go on, look at
this mic flag. Isn't it so cool?
It has my logo. It says HR Tracy.
And then like around the sides of the circle, it says bring the
human back to human resources. So this is a very new addition
to the podcast world for me and I'm really excited about it.
I feel very official with a mic flag.
So if you are watching this, you see it.
If you're not watching this, take a look on Instagram in a
few days when we post a video from, you know, a clip from this
episode, you'll see the, the, the mic flag.
I, I feel really legit like move over journalists here I come.
Anyway, OK, let's talk about this.
So if, again, if you're new or to HR trying to break in,
there's a, there is probably this perception that you have
around like HR helping people. And The thing is, it's just not
that simple. You know, when I started out, I
don't even know if I had a perception of HR.
I worked with a really strong HR partners.
I found them to be very helpful people and I found them to be
people that that others in the business relied on.
And so I think for me, I was like, Oh yeah, like I could be
that I am that person for people.
Like it would be kind of cool if if I was also that person.
And so maybe I also had this perception like I would be able
to help people and, you know, taking us back, I used to work
in where I kind of sharpened my knife, so to speak, was in
Target. That's where I had my first HR
job working in store. And the reality is it's like so
much more than that. Sure, you probably do help
people at some level at some point during the day, during the
week, month, quarter year, but that's not the job.
Like your job is not to help people.
Your job is in some ways to have that outcome of like helping the
team or guiding the team, helping managers, you know,
which ultimately does help people, but really the job is to
focus on the business needs and the employees needs, mitigate
risk, manage operations and so on and so forth.
And also, it depends on the role or the specialty that you have
in HR. If you're an HR business partner
or generalist or a manager, you're going to have more
interaction with people. And so you have you have this
potential of helping people, hurting people, not being what
people expect you to be, being everything you people expect you
to be. There's a lot there that we can
break down. That's my background.
And then you have like HR jobs that are payroll or benefits or
compensation focused or admin focused or coordinator focused
or talent management focus, performance management focus,
like it's everything, right? There's so many facets to this.
If someone is in payroll and comp and then compensation and
benefits, they're not necessarily interacting with the
team much. So when it comes to like helping
people, that's not really the thing that they're doing.
They're managing a lot of operations, looking at how to
manage a budget potentially effectively, like executing on
some of those operational things.
Some of the most intelligent, strategic, innovative,
interesting people that I've ever worked with have been in
comp. And then people who are very
analytical take this sum of money and think about how they
can take that, compare it to like market data and research
and create this whole compensation strategy as a
result. Like it.
It's really fascinating people who are in compensation and like
where they or how they impact an organization.
Like it's it's really phenomenal.
If I'm sure that there are people listening who have worked
with comp and bend people, they are like when you find someone
really good in that, like don't lose them.
They're amazing. Anyway, let's talk about what
people think HR is some common expectations, of course, from
people entering HR especially are that they love people.
So HR makes sense, or they want to make workplaces better or
that they're a great listener and they'd be good at conflict
resolution. And these are good instincts.
These are good, you know, initial iterative moments where
we're thinking about like what HR is, but they're incomplete
thoughts. So for example, I love people.
So HR makes sense. HR can really expose to you the
downsides of working with people.
It is very hard to work with people and as much as like I
love people, but I also find it very challenging sometimes to
work with people. Not because like, you know, I
get frustrated and things that's not really like my personality.
No, it's instead because in HR you have this like
responsibility, especially in my role where it's like more of a
generalist adjacent, like business partner, like that
track, right? I find myself having to do a lot
of influencing and influencing is very hard because there isn't
necessarily this like problem solve it, problem solve it.
Oh, now that's solved. Like let's move on.
It's not like that. The it's like a constant uphill
battle, especially depending on who you're working with and if
the people that you're working with don't like necessarily
trust or believe in like that methodology or that focus or
that the reasoning, you have even more uphill battles.
You have to like really, really build a lot of relationships,
get people to feel, you know, part of that solution.
And it's just, it's not necessarily this like, oh, I
love people. HR makes sense.
I'm going to love this job. You have to really be OK with
not always seeing eye to eye with people, getting a lot of
pushback, having difficult situations that you have to
overcome, and then being able to move on from that and keep the
ball rolling. And that's not something that
everyone is capable of doing or actually enjoys doing this.
I want to make workplaces better.
That's great. But actually, I would say that
you can do that in any job. Anyone and everyone influences
and impacts cultures and workplaces.
And for people who maybe don't see that responsibility within
themselves because they're not an HR and they think it's just
an HR job, probably are contributing negatively to
workplaces. So you've heard it here first.
If you don't think that you're impacting A workplace, you are.
And so this, if you have other interests outside of HR, like
you can do that elsewhere. HR is like, you know, there is
of course that that element there where you impact workplace
or you make things better for people or you improve a culture.
But if you're working in payroll, if you're working as a
nature admin, you might not feel that direct link, even though,
if you ask me, of course there's a direct link.
Because when people, you know, see their promotions happen
effective, you know, on the date that they're told that they're
going to be promoted and they don't have any issues with their
pay and they don't have any issues with their org structure,
things are moving smoothly, then that creates a great experience
for them, right? But it's not necessarily so A to
B. It's kind of like A to D to Z to
B to C, You know, it's like it's a little bit more triangulated
when you're in a role that isn't necessarily direct to the
employee. But again, you do still impact
the workplace, but you really can impact the workplace and do
impact the workplace in any role with this other common
expectation around like, oh, I'm a great listener.
I'd be good at conflict resolution listening is is 20%
of it. The other 20% is being able to
problem solve. The other 20% is being able to
strategize. What am I at 60%?
The other 20% is I'm like adding the the percentages here.
The other 20% is actually being able to influence those who are
maybe like part of the conflict. And then the other 20% is
figuring out how you come back from that and how you ensure
that that doesn't happen again. So it's not just about being
good at conflict resolution, it's understanding what conflict
resolution actually looks like and what what is required of you
when you are resolving conflict. And by the way, not everyone is
good at resolving conflict. And so when it comes to like
employee relations issues when you are working in HR, not
everyone actually enjoys employee relations.
Most people will say do not allow me to manage employee
relations or do not expect me to manage employee relations issues
because it's it can be very challenging and it can be very
exhausting, frankly. And so when it comes to conflict
resolution, that's also just not always part of every HR job.
Some HR jobs don't ever expect employee relations resolutions
or or managing from certain people.
Again, when we look at payroll or performance management,
sometimes it kind of depends on like how big the organization is
and how many people there are within HR.
But especially for more administrative roles like
payroll comp and then even HR admin, like you're not going to
be dealing with ER. So it doesn't matter if you're a
good listener. It doesn't matter if you're good
at conflict resolution because you're not necessarily really
going to have to deal with that. If you're on the HR business
partner, generalist, director manager track, like in that in
in that arena, so to speak, you're going to be doing a lot
of conflict resolution. And just because you're a good
listener does not mean that you're good at it.
And so you have to really, you have to really know what you're
good at in order to assess like where within HR you should or
should not sit. I know I'm not great at payroll.
It's just not the way my brain works.
I don't really enjoy it. So I've said this before on the
podcast, like I'll never take a job or be interested in a job
that requires me to manage payroll.
And that's fine, I don't need to do that.
I am a a conflict resolver and a strategic person and I like to
help people with their problems and solve those problems with
them and guide managers to managing their teams better and
being stronger leaders and all of that stuff that comes with,
you know, a strategic approach to things.
And that's why I'm on I'm like a director and a business partner
within my role. And this is all stuff that you
do learn on the job. Also, like you could say all of
these things that you think HR is and you could still, you
could still get in the job and realize that you like other
things and that's OK. So let's talk about what HR
actually is. Of course, there's a lot of
administration. You don't always get to build
like cool programs and, and things like that.
You're very often maintaining systems and tracking metrics and
answering questions and potentially answering the same
question like 15 times. You could send an e-mail with
all of the answers and you will still get questions to those, to
that e-mail or to the communication that you've just
sent. And you have to be OK with that.
It's just part of the job and every job has that thing about
it, right? Has that admin heavy element to
it or you know, whatever that you know, potential quote, UN
quote downside downside might be for that role like there it
exists in every job. There's also a lot of compliance
and risk mitigation. So sometimes your job is just
simply to say no or to hold the line when someone, whether a
manager or otherwise, wants to skip a process or do something
differently. For example, like I've had in my
experience where people are like, oh, you know, I'm just
gonna terminate this person. Like they're just not working
out. And I'm like, no, you can't do
that. That's just not the way things
work. We have to understand, like,
what are the reasons? How are we doing this?
What's the communication? What's your plan for
backfilling? Do you have like reasonability?
Is this person going to be surprised?
Have you talked to this person about their performance before?
You're eliminating a role. Why?
What does that look like? Do you understand you can't fill
that role for another year? You know, if you create another
role, it has to be distinctly different or it has to not be in
the same location. Like there's so many things I
just rattled off. I don't even know what 20 or so
things that come with managing risk, mitigating risk and
compliance. And depending on the role that
you're in, that looks a little bit different.
If you're in payroll, you have to think about shift
differentials and, and predictive scheduling and
overtime and things like that. And if you're on a business
partner side, you have to do all of those things too.
And you have to know employment law and you have to know when to
partner with an attorney, when not to partner with an attorney,
when you can assert a decision without that partnership.
Like there's just so much and some people, you know, don't
necessarily understand all that comes with that and how
impactful it is on the role. And of course, still dependent
on the role that someone's doing in HR, but it is very much
embedded in in HR job. Also, when you're in the middle
of like complex, potentially highly emotional situations,
things are not always solved in a clean way or in a way where
people are without their emotional response.
And you have to kind of manage through that.
People will yell at you, they'll cry with you, meaning like in
front of you, they will be angry with you, they'll be upset,
they'll ask why, they'll tell you that they know it's not your
decision or that they know it's not your fault.
And you're going to feel like crap sometimes, maybe all the
time. And you have to be able to let
it roll off your shoulder and someone yells at you because
you're, you know, communicating a change to their employment
with their manager. Like, it's a, it's a totally
sucky situation no matter what way you fold it.
But you have to be able to process that feeling and move
on. And you also have to keep the
momentum within the organization while you move on from that.
And it can be very tough. I've spoken with HR
practitioners before who say, you know, I just couldn't do it
anymore. It was too emotionally
exhausting, especially for people who are deeply involved
in ER issues. It like I, most of my jobs, it
was like 60% ER most, at least most of my retail jobs.
Now I don't really deal with ER as much, but it is exhausting.
You have to really know how to process all of that stuff that
you deal with and that you're confronted with when you're
dealing with ER, because you're also sometimes making very
difficult decisions. And sometimes the decisions
don't always feel right, but they are what's right for the
business. And again, you just have to, you
have to be able to deal with that.
And you can't really talk to anyone about how you're feeling
unless it's another HR person that is like on a similar level
to you because of, you know, whatever, whether it's
confidential or whether it's sensitive, whatever it might be.
So you also have to kind of just like deal with it on your own
and process that on your own. And again, not a lot of people
are really good at that or want to do that.
And I've always talked about how HR is strategic, but it's not
always exciting. And so like, whether it's
workforce planning and analyzing your head count, figuring out
what performance systems work and what don't work.
These are the, the quiet things in the background that are
strategic but don't necessarily feel very fulfilling or don't
necessarily invoke a lot of excitement.
And that's like a, a, a very real reality that, you know,
they're all of these things that allow you to be a strategic in a
business and really drive an organization's planning and
strategy and development forward.
And especially as you, you know, grow in your career and you
become like more senior, you have even more of an influence
in your hands, are even more involved in that.
But it's just not always that fun.
And so depending on what really excites you or what you're
looking for, and some people don't necessarily need
excitement, but if you feel, you know, challenged or if you want
to feel a challenge, sometimes being involved in strategic
projects as much as they are strategic don't necessarily feel
like a challenge. So all of these things are
really important to know about that there is this strategic
side of things, but it's not necessarily, you know, as
exciting as one might think. It kind of depends.
I find things like that to be very exciting.
But do I think that when I'm analyzing our head count that
I'm having like the most fun ever?
No, most of the time I'm like, why can't we figure out where
this one person went? Like, is it a transfer?
Was it a term like where, where were they last month?
And so like, sometimes you like want to pull your hair out when
you're doing strategic work. Other times you're like, whoa,
that was really cool. So it's, it's all in ebb and
flow, right? And then also something that's,
you know, fundamental is that there's like this duality and
loyalty. There's the, you know, balancing
support for employees and, and their goals, and then also
balancing what the company needs and the company's goals and how
we drive that forward. And it's a very hard space to
live in managing both. And this is where that
misconception of like OHR is 2 faced quote, UN quote comes
from. And it's not that.
It's just that you have to be able to live in the Gray and you
have to be able to manage the duality of an HR role.
And regardless of whether you're in payroll or you're an HR
business partner or you're an admin, there's always that
duality. People are going to ask you
questions and you're going to have to assert the business
direction. And that doesn't always go hand
in hand with helping employees, for example, or building better
workplaces. Some people will be really
pissed at the direction or the decision of a business.
But you have to be able to assert that without really
wavering or or giving information on what your
feelings are because it's irrelevant in that moment,
right? Like you are.
You have to be able to take that employees feelings and help them
work through those feelings so that they can understand the
business direction. So I've talked a lot about what
we think HR is, what HR actually is.
But I'm going to also tell you what makes working in HR still
worth it because I love my career.
I love that I've picked this as a thing to do for the rest of my
life, right? In terms of like work.
And The thing is, is that HR isn't only admin or compliance.
It's really the potential to change how people experience
work fundamentally, full stop, end to end.
They can experience work from the moment they're interviewed
to the moment they leave a company.
And that full end to end experience is what you have the
potential of impacting when you work in HR.
If you're in recruiting, you have the potential to to really
set them up for success in their full interview process.
And then as they move into onboarding.
If you work in in HR, whether it's payroll comp and then HR
business partner, generalist, etcetera, you have the, the
ability to impact what that on boarding feels like, what that
employee experience feels like, and then what it feels like when
they're off off boarding. And that off boarding experience
is also so important because that's what determines whether
they're like, oh, I loved working at that company or like,
you know what, I'm glad I left and there's really so much
impact that we have on that full end to end experience.
So take that and run with it. Feel inspired by that and over
time you do become the trusted advisor, the coach, the
strategist, and that's amazing That's like what I aspire to be
for every single person that I ever work with in my entire life
is like this trusted person, an advisor, someone who's strategic
can be relied on like that. If you ask me what success looks
like, it's that if every single person that I ever work with is
able to say that I've won and that looks different for every,
you know, for everyone, someone in payrolls, like I just want to
be the, the person that never has a pay issue.
And that's great. That's someone who's trusted,
who is, you know, really analytical and detailed.
So whatever it is, you, you will get there.
It's just knowing that it takes time.
And then of course, the moments that do feel human, which
obviously is a very important part of my world.
Obviously, it's this the whole like ethos behind this podcast.
But supporting someone, whether it's through a tough transition
or creating a better parental leave policy, seeing people grow
and get promoted and develop in their roles, these are the
moments that really matter and that we have to really like
reflect on parental leave policy is a great example of how you
have a strategic, you know, project and you really are
helping people and you're impacting their lives and their
families lives. And that's really cool to be
able to do that. And for those of you who are
starting out, of course, hopefully you see like that that
still worth it piece of this conversation as something that
continues to inspire you to pursue this career.
But I would recommend that you're curious about all aspects
of HR Don't skip over the boring stuff or like don't skip over
payroll, something that I really don't enjoy, right?
Like you have to go through all of it.
My first HR role, I did everything.
I was an HR generalist. I did everything.
That's how I learned that I didn't like payroll.
It wasn't because I would like watch someone else do it.
It's because I did it. And so this is where like
learning about everything, getting involved in everything
can make a huge difference and get close to the business,
understand how decisions are made and why those decisions are
made, how they come about. Ask a lot of questions, get as
involved as possible. And even if you know, maybe you
don't want to be the one making those decisions, that's OK.
If you can understand how they're made, why they're made,
when they're made, it will help you to really look at things
more holistically and have a better grasp of kind of what's
going on. Just generally also find a
mentor, someone who can really guide you and help you to see
the big picture. Mentors are hugely impactful on
all of us, whether we're in HR or not.
And just know that it's OK if you feel a little disillusioned
to like, especially after this conversation, If you're like, Oh
my gosh, I really thought I knew what HR was.
And I have no freaking idea based on what Tracy said, that's
OK. You are don't feel like you're
not cut out for HR, that this is the wrong career.
It's all about asking those questions, finding a mentor,
getting to know someone. I've had people reach out on
LinkedIn say, hey, can I just like understand what your
day-to-day looks like? Like, are you available for a 15
minute call? And I always say yes, of course,
maybe not all, maybe not always. It kind of depends.
Like if it's someone like trying to sell me on something versus
someone actually interested in breaking into HR, like if you're
actually just interested in this career, spend some time with me.
I'm happy to schedule 15 minutes with you to go over what my
day-to-day looks like. Or to expand on this
conversation. Do it with anyone, someone maybe
that you have seen on LinkedIn or maybe even in your own
organizations who is in HR and is doing a really good job.
I'm sure that they would love the opportunity to share a bit
more. And if you, if you like, listen
to this podcast and you're like, oh, maybe this is not the right
career for me, Don't don't stop just yet.
Just ask those questions. Find someone that you can either
shadow or ask more of and really try to understand like, is there
a certain part of this that you really want to pursue?
Is there something else that you want to find out about?
Asking questions is often like the the best thing that we can
do in our personalized professional and especially in
this type of situation. And then of course, something
that I always reiterate is that you don't have to know exactly
what you want to do in HR today and you certainly don't have to
do it all. You can find your lane, find
your niche and really lean into it, Lean into that specialty.
And whether it's people analytics or operations or DENI
or payroll or compliance or whatever it is, you can really
lean in. There are so many facets of HR
and so many specialties that you can really just, you know,
specialize in, be a part of and grow your career within.
And so on that note, you know, while HR isn't always what we
expected to be, it's really one of the few places where I would
say we can drive an impact between, you know, this at least
in this intersection between people and businesses.
It's the whole reason why I started this podcast to try and
really give back to HR leaders and non HR leaders.
And I think that's really, really powerful to really think
about like leaning into that Gray area where people and
businesses come together and how we really, you know, figure out
what that like best case scenario looks like when the
business is happy and thriving and when the people in the
business are happy and thriving. If we can solve that, we're
doing an amazing job. Or maybe it's not even solving.
But if we can improve that, if we can have an impact, that's an
amazing thing and it's really fulfilling.
And if you're currently an HR leader, I would love to know,
like, what were your previous perceptions of HR?
Were they accurate? Did were they misconceptions?
Like what did you expect? Is your job what you expected it
to be? Maybe you reflect on your first
job in HR or your most recent job in HR.
We've all been there where we're like, what?
Even like when we've been in HR for a long time, maybe we go to
a new job and we're like, oh, I thought that was going to be
totally different than it is, and that's OK too.
So I would love to hear your reflections on this.
So please e-mail me contact@hrtracy.com, DM me on
Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. Let's get connected.
I'd love to hear your reflections.
You can also comment if you're on Spotify or YouTube watching
this and you know, I always post the episode material on LinkedIn
and social media and stuff like that.
So you can always comment there also.
But in any case, if you are interested in breaking into HRI,
hope this gave you a little bit more insight.
If you're already in HR and you're like, oh, this is totally
it or like no, there were other misconceptions that we didn't
talk about. Let me know.
I'm interested to hear. I hope you enjoyed this solo
episode. I have so many amazing guest
episodes coming up and another policy post coming up for the
month of May. So please like, continue to
listen, subscribe, rate, review, whatever you've got to do to
engage with my podcast. Really appreciate you being here
and I appreciate your feedback as well.
So have a wonderful rest of your week.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback.
And I'll see you next week for our next episode.
Hey, just before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the show
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Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll see you next week.