Human Workplace

Roses bloom on their own schedule

Some people enjoy brainstorming and problem-solving - they do those things naturally with their friends and family members.

If you like problem-solving, have built up a little bit of subject matter knowledge and are a good listener, you can start a part-time or full-time consulting business and get paid for your expertise.

I was shocked to learn on my very first consulting project how similar consulting was to my regular job.

In some ways it was much easier to consult because you only have one thing to work on - the project you were hired for.

In my full-time job I had a hundred things to keep track of and new stuff coming at me every day.

I was surprised how different the income from my side consulting business felt from my regular salary.

My salary was 100% allocated before I got it. I didn't even notice when it was payday because every dime of my paycheck was assigned to bills, savings or something else before I got it.

The consulting money felt different. I knew exactly what I was getting paid for. After that first consulting project, I started looking for more of them.

If you're thinking about starting your own part-time or full-time business either for the extra income, as an exit ramp from corporate or as a way to take the pressure off your job search, come to my free class How to Launch Your Consulting Business in Eight Weeks.

The link is in the comments.

If you have a question about consulting, leave a comment or DM me!

Oh dear 😬

Granny has a few things to say about the way things are now, and the way they used to be – in this week‘s newsletter!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/grandmas-hr-story-time-liz-ryan-9ovte?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via

Too many people involved in the recruiting process, both hiring managers and recruiters, have the mistaken idea that recruiting means weeding people out & finding excuses not to hire them.

Recruiting is selling. Every sales process involves an element of qualification – making sure the customer is a good fit for your product or service – but it’s still selling.

If you think recruiting is all about making candidates prove they’re worthy to work in your amazing, perfect company you are missing the boat.

You will never attract the team you want by using fear to keep candidates off guard and desperate to please you.

Anyone with normal self-esteem will simply drop out of your process and go work for an organization that deserves their talents more than you do.

P.S. I didn’t buy these geraniums at the farm stand this morning but now I think I should have. Suggestions welcome!

AI-generated comments on LinkedIn have that distinctive “I’m using words to say nothing” vibe

Performance reviews are time-wasting, insulting nonsense

(link to story in comments)

One evening in the nineteen-seventies, my dad hosted a fancy business event on behalf of his company at one of the university clubs in Manhattan.

He was a magazine publisher. The event was an annual bash for his team and their most important advertisers and clients.

The event was going wonderfully when my dad got an urgent call from the lobby imploring him to come down and deal with a situation right away.

He took the elevator down to learn that the ground floor staff had prohibited a guest bearing an invitation (a client) from entering the elevator to join the party.

Why did they do that?

Because she was a woman, and she arrived alone.

At that time, the club did not allow women beyond the lobby unless they were accompanied by a man.

The club concierge and ground floor staff had told the woman she could not enter, so she laid on the floor on her back and waited for something to happen.

What a badass!

My dad came downstairs, told the club staff they were being ridiculous, his company had not agreed to the no-unaccompanied-women rule, and my dad and his client went upstairs.

He came home very embarrassed.

He said, this nonsense will be over by the time you grow up.

But it isn’t over.

All-male panels make decisions about women’s health.

When my dad threw that party where a woman had to lie on the floor in protest, we had control over our bodies.

Now, we don’t.

Around the same time my dad threw that party, a constitutional amendment was drafted to give women in the US the same rights as men.

That amendment is not in force today.

My rights and every woman’s rights begin and end at each state line.

Can you imagine?

Can we call ourselves a civilized country?

We should be moving ahead but instead, we are hurtling backwards.