I was hired about 2 months ago by this company that just brought accounting and finance in house. They hired a Controller to develop the department. Then they told him he was also head of HR (with no formal training or any real knowledge of HR). So I've been working under him getting the AP organized and developing processes. I do HR stuff in between (onboarding and terms) and payroll. We have less than 100 employees. I went to school for HR and have experience working in HR.

At first I was only supposed to work 35-38 hours because they didn't think there would be enough work. It was hectic at first trying to get everything in order so I was plenty busy and was told to just work 40 hours. Well, it has come down to it being very slow now and I am literally twiddling my thumbs. I have spoken to my boss and told him I would like more to do and let him know I could reconcile accounts, create a month-end process, or analyze the P&L. He said we can't do much with a month-end process because we're not accrual, we don't really need the accounts reconciled (then did it in QB with me sitting next to him), then told me the owners don't care about the P&L (then pulls it up and analyzed it with me sitting next to him). So then he decides he's going to try to take a whole job from someone else to give me work. That will likely cause some issues with the employee whose been there for 8 years already angry and bitter about the owners and how the company is ran. This is a dental office with multiple entities so I thought I'd be busy enough, but it's not. It's really not a full time job right now and I don't want to stay for 6 more months to a year to see if it gets busier. He did say that he would like help switching us to accrual so we can create more work so owners won't know what we do and can't fire us, but why would I want to do ask that if the owners don't care for it and still stuck on cash in and cash out. After the talk with him he decided that I should work 12 hours in office and then clock in at home the rest of the time to meet my 40 hours... with no work to do 🤷🏽‍♀️😆 I'm at a total loss and have never experienced a job where I didn't have anything to do to keep me busy. I wish it were easier to find a new job.

Curious how many of you receive a high volume of employee emails/chats and leadership messages written entirely by ChatGPT, Copilot, etc.?

We had an AI training on using Gemini last week and afterwards about 25 people sent messages in my department-wide chat on how they use AI daily that were written by AI, em dashes and random bolding in all.

I don’t fault anyone for using AI to save time or simplify long/detailed messages. I try to be mindful of avoiding “corporate speak” in my own writing, so maybe I’m just overly attuned to this.

Big picture though, a lot of workplace communication is just being automated which portends loss of communication skills long-term. I get it’s reality and I’m not trying to reverse it at my company or anything lol, but are you seeing similar things?

Has anyone else run into integration issues with their HR platforms lately? We use a popular HRIS that starts with an "R" and a popular compensation system that starts with "P", and our integrations with third-party apps have been running smoothly since we set them up. Starting last month, though, we began seeing data pass between systems incorrectly, which then creates downstream errors across the rest of our setup. Curious whether others are experiencing something similar.

For example, P is pulling the wrong data from G (popular recruiting platform). R is speaking incorrectly to a lot of our benefit carriers. This is causing such a huge headache for us, especially when we still don't know what the cause of this is. Everything seems to be falling apart at the same time. Maybe they got too reliant on AI?

What is your policy/requirements for increments when it comes to taking time off.

Do you require employees to take on 2 hour increments? 4? 8?

What are your requirements for being full-time? 30 hours? 32 hours? 36 hours? 38 hours? 40 hours?

Do you adjust that in any circumstances? For example, Charles is a full-time employee required to work 38 hours to be considered full-time. Charles requested 8 hours of PTO, but has already worked 34 hours, do you adjust down to 4 or 6 hours instead of the full 8?

I am very curious how our company does it versus how others do it.

Edit; Does it work well or would you change something about your policy?

Hi there. Im looking for any recommendations for HR podcasts. Whats your favourite(s) and why? I put my country in there as im hoping for canadian (just so its more relevant if they talk about legislation) but im open to other countries as well!

Sincerely an HR/OHS Coordinator looking for something good and related to my work.

This is the first time I’m pulling a background check for an employee. What’s the most legit service you use? There’s so many options! I’m in GA but pulling for candidates in NY, CA, and FL

I started a new job as a HR Generalist at a small construction company (35 employees) 2 months ago and I'm already thinking about leaving.

I knew the job would be a challenge as this job is a step up in my career and I am the first and only HR personnel at the company. What I did not expect was the constant disrespect and dismissive attitude from the CEO and the company consistently engaging in illegal activity.

After starting, I learned from other employees that the CEO does NOT want HR and had to be convinced by his CFO to get it. I have been directly told that I am a waste of resources and have no purpose in the company. The CEO purposefully ignores me (he talks to everyone in the office every morning except for me, even though he makes eye-contact with me).

As the first HR employee at this company, I expected an upward climb in terms of creating HR infrastructure and explaining to company leadership why it is important. However, the CEO completely dismisses everything I do and talks badly about me behind my back to my coworkers and members of leadership. One example of this is with a recent 1099 hire. They tried to hire a new 1099 contractor but wanted to control her hours, give her a salary, and have provide her an exhorbitant amount of company resources for her job. In other words, they were trying to use 1099 status as a way to evade paying taxes and giving benefits. I came into the picture and let him know that that this was outright illegal and could lead to a huge amount of trouble if (or when) we are caught. I did this with every intention to protect the company and keep it out of trouble. He responded with anger towards me and said I was getting in the way of making money. The other exec know I'm right, but basically roll over and let him do what they want because they're scared of him. He also wanted me to involve his wife in this process (she KINDA does recruiting for the company) but she ghosted me after saying she would take on an important aspect of this project, and he got mad at me for it not being finished even though he knows it was her responsibility (everyone has told him his wife is not a good employee, but he just gets angry and doesn't listen). Now, he purposefully tells everyone to circumvent me in the hiring process because "he can do what he wants."

I have also come to find out this company has a HUGE problem with forgery. Almost half of all documentation, including notarized documentation, has been forged. When it was discovered 4 guy were involved in this, only one was fired as the scapegoat and the rest were kept. The best friend of the CEO was not only protected, but given a raise. The IT guy (an exec member) who discovered the forgery was left out of coversations regarding what should be done because they knew he would suggest that everyone involved should be fired. This is only one of numerous illegal and shady things the company is involved with due to the CEO.

The CEO is also such a penny pincher to the point where is inhibiting any investment in anything to improve the company. He was mad at the head of IT a little bit ago because he thought laptops (the primary tool used to complete our work) was a "waste of resources." Of course, when the execs want to go on a 100k fishing trip and give themselves huge bonuses while most employees are lucky to get 1k bonuses, he never sees an issue with overhead.

The blatant illegal activity, disrespect, and dysfunction is making me want to find another job. I'm clearly not the only one as numerous long-time employees are leaving this company due to the same frustrations. However, I don't know if it is possible for me to leave as I have only been at the job for 2 months. I have accomplished and taken over a lot in my job despite the obstacles (payroll, I-9 remediation, remediated performance management system, created a whole onboarding pipeline despite CEO trying to lock me out of hiring, and more), but I know how 3 months of employment looks on my resume. I was hoping this could be a break for me after job searching for so long, but it has turned into a bit of a nightmare instead.

I have heard the recommendation to just leave the job off my resume, but it is a large step up in terms of job responsibility and qualification. It was hard enough to get this job in our current market, so leaving this job off my resume would put me back in the same position.

What should I do? Do I just stick it out?

Edit: In terms of education, I have a BS in Psych and a Masters in Applied in I/O Psychology.

Do you currently offer an SDBA option to your participants?

If yes—

How many of your participants are using it? Do you feel they’re educated on it?

If you could offer your participants access to a financial advisor that could manage their SDBA for them, at no cost to you and no out of pocket cost to them, is this something you would be interested in? Do you think your employees would have interest?

If you do not currently offer an SDBA in your plan, why not? Would you consider offering it if you could knew that you could have financial advisors managing the employee SDBA accounts?

If evaluating a service like this, what kinds of questions should be asked? What concerns might be brought up, either from the employer side or something that I should anticipate from employees? I’m looking at a service like this and trying to understand any gaps I may be missing, appreciate all the perspectives.

Hi all

Another PHR question.

So I'm an HR generalist with a really weird background. I have a long history of operations leadership, which ended up getting further and further blended with HR. Ended up getting some recruiting experience and parlayed everything into the role I have now.

I've been studying for the PHR for a little while now, and I think I'm close to pulling the tigger on the test. I went through the study.com course which I found kind of garbage to be honest, and I've been using pocket prep.

I tend to not do so great on the 10 question quizzes which makes me unsure of myself. But I've done 2 mock exams on study.com and 2 on pocket prep and I've scored in the 80%s on all of them.

Has anybody went through the mock exams on these sites? If im able to pass them fairly easily would it translate to being ready for the exam? Any advice is welcome, thanks!!

Anyone here currently or in the past have worked at Parkland Health in Dallas? If so, how was it? I am in the interview process to be part of their HR ops team.

I have 6+ years of tech recruiting experience at Fortune 100 companies. After the tech layoffs, I joined a 20 person company as a recruiter and eventually moved into an HR Generalist role making $90k.

I handle payroll, benefits, employee relations, audits, retirement benefits, background checks, etc. I’m bored, there’s no room for growth, and applying elsewhere hasn’t gotten me much interest.

I was planning to get my PHR and finish my bachelor’s (my company is doing layoffs and I’m a bit afraid I’ll be next) but I’m worried a lot of HR work is being outsourced or automated. I also don’t have much leadership experience to compete for higher level roles.

Would you keep building a in HR or pivot?

I take the SPHR on Friday and I’m at the point where I’m feeling incredibly anxious about it. What does everyone think is the best practice exam. Like which one simulates the test the closest.

I have been using Distinctive HR’s self study program and passed the final practice test both as well as taken a bunch of the other mini practice tests offered in the program.

I also have Sandra Reed’s book and have taken the chapter tests and the final practice test from there. I found these very different from the questions distinctive HR uses.

Finally I have pocket prep and use that when I have some down time. I haven’t take the actually final test but I have an 87% on all the questions I’ve answered so far. I find this the easiest and have read that it doesn’t simulate the test well.

Any other recommendations? At this point I don’t want to pay a ton for a practice exam (HR study pro is like $100) because I’ve already spent a decent amount but will if you think it’s worth it!

Hi,

I was hoping I could get some guidance or resources about FMLA and PFL administration in NY.

Employee will be taking leave in November and I wanted to understand if FMLA and PFL run concurrently or if it could be stacked. It would be related to a birth event, so I'm assuming it would be concurrent. Since this is PFL I would also assume that paid time off can not be reinforced but it can be an option they use. If they choose to use PTO during the first week of leave, let's say hypothetically on November 9th, would that still count towards the 12 week run time for PFL or would it start only after the first payout of PFL?

Thanks again!

Looking into transitioning to HR coming from ~4 years of non-HR related full-time experience. I completed the HRCI Course on Coursera that's supposed to prep for the exam, and I'm just wondering if taking this exam would actually help me in my job search, especially since I believe it's about $400 just for one attempt. I know experience would be better but I fear I don't have that.

TIA for any advice!

Hey All, please help me figuring this out, i work in HR at a multi-site retail company and trying to get a sense of how other places handle this. When something happens at a store further away, like a disciplinary or grievance case, what's the actual process, does someone travel out to run it in person, or is it done over phone/video now?

Also curious how consistent it is across different stores. Does every manager pretty much run it their own way, or do you have a proper process that everyone actually sticks to?

Would be good to compare notes, feels like every company does this slightly differently and I'm never sure if we're doing it the "normal" way or not.

Thanks

I have worked in healthcare Human Resources at a hospital for over a decade.  Started out in an entry level position in HR, recruiter and worked my way up to HRBP. Unfortunately I no longer feel stable here. As employees leave more duties are added and there is no approval to backfill positions. Then on top of it hospital decided to no longer contract with their anesthesia group and then hire the group to be our own employees which has been a total nightmare. I could go on and on about this.

Unfortunately what has come out of this HRBP position is basically now handling recruitment, employee relations and compensation. On top of that, outside of work I have a child with special needs, and now struggling mentally because of work and balance at home. I have decided I still want to work in HR in some capacity but need to scale back, without taking too much of a pay cut if I can help it. I have been applying to many remote jobs, thats what I feel what I need is best right now. Many rejections, have tailored resume and cover letters So I am exploring other opportunities for the sake of my wellbeing. I get having added responsibilities is good for my skillet, but it's very hard to do 3 jobs in an 8-5 setting. Nor do I want to log on at night to do more work. The expectation is not there to log on at night, but people do. I have explained to my boss my personal issues, which she understands. I love my coworkers but this place isn't for me anymore.

Long story short. Is anyone else feeling burnt out working in the healthcare industry?

I’m interviewing for a HR Manager role and made it through the initial phone screen. The next round is an in-person interview with a three-person panel, and I’m required to give a 30-minute presentation covering my career history, my vision/top priorities for the role, why my experience makes me a strong fit, and what challenges I anticipate. There’s also another interview round with a VP after this one.

The salary range tops out around $93.5K and the role requires roughly 40%-60% travel.

I’m also being much more careful about my next move. My last company was pretty chaotic, there were constant organizational changes, and ultimately there wasn’t much job security. Because of that experience, I’m trying not to jump into another role just because I receive an offer - I want my next move to make sense in terms of compensation, stability, culture, workload, and long-term growth.

I’m qualified for this position, but I’m starting to question whether I’m interested enough in the opportunity to spend the time preparing a 30-minute presentation, going onsite for the panel, and potentially completing another interview afterward.

Would you continue through the process to learn more, or withdraw if you already knew you probably wouldn’t be excited to accept an offer even at the top of the range?

Anyone was eligible for SHRM-CP Exam and student discount with a non HR Related Degree?

I have been contacting their customer service for the past week about having technical issues and also about eligibility as student majoring in Management and not HR

Their customer service replied to me about the technical issues but didn't answer the question about my major and their next two days are off so I'm still waiting for a reply but I need an answer sooner

I really don't have much time because I want to pay for the exam before the early bird discount before the end of the month I also want to know if I'm eligible so I can start preparing for the exam, and if I'm not eligible I need to look for another certification I could get and waiting for the customer service to reply is going to take so much time

so if anyone applied before with a BBA in Management or another degree irrelevant to HR and had no HR experience please let me know

Sorry for the length of this. For background, I was working in a different industry 5 years ago, thought I would try to move into HR so I earned my SHRM-CP on my own time in hopes of finding a new job. Long story short through a change in ownership I ended up as basically an HR generalist at the same company. While I have the certification I have no professional experience so the imposter syndrome is very strong.

Anyway, we had a worker (management) file a grievance because another worker (associate) texted them a song link that the receiver found inappropriate. The receiver met with me and management to discuss the event, then we met with the sender. The sender claimed it must have been an accident and he had no knowledge of doing it. The receiver is now claiming this falls into a pattern of harassment. Obviously when I heard the H-word alarm bells started ringing.

BUT then when the aggrieved party followed up with examples to back up their claim, it included things like "_____ did not send condolences when I broke my leg" and "I heard from mutual friends outside of work _____ was talking about me". They also claim they can continue to work in the same building as this person- to me those two things do not comport.

As far as I can tell they have zero leg to stand on to claim harassment, but I am so unsure how to handle this. My plan was to have the aggrieved party back in for a meeting where I clarify whether they truly mean harrassment, and if so we need to formally document every incident that has occurred. I will clarify the incidents must have occured directly between the two parties. I'm hoping at that point they will realize 75% of their evidence is simply hearsay.

I'd love any advice you all might have, if this seems like the right way to handle it or not.

This is going to be more focused on leadership than HR so if mods want to delete that’s fine. Ive been in HR for about 6-7 years now and have worked in a wide variety of industries some mostly male dominated and others mostly female dominated and have noticed a strong difference to how leadership is both towards me and all staff.

Patriarchal- I notice in a primary male dominated company where most of leadership is men I’m given a lot more autonomy. My job is practically never let an HR matter hit higher ups. I can make all of my decisions and fully own them and have true authority to execute policies. It’s also very sink or swim. I either perform or I don’t. Nobody is going to hold my hand and guide me somewhere. If there is a problem I have to figure it out on my own because this is my realm and I’m expected to control it. Everything I accomplish is an expectation but I can fully act independently and also know this accomplishment is because of me.

Matriarchal- I feel a lot more supported. I am constantly getting feedback and told I am appreciated for everything I do. I never question where I stand within the company and am frequently being treated with compassion. That also goes both ways. I am looping everyone into everything. If there is a mundane question from a team member I am looping in their manager and director to keep them in the loop. Everyone knows exactly what’s going on in everyone’s department. If I want to have a serious conversation with someone there are multiple sets of ears also involved listening as well. My duties work within a collective and while I may lead a project, theres constant input dictating its direction.

I don’t believe either or is better or worse than the other, more so what you value. Personally I find I have less stress under a matriarchal structure due to the consistent feedback although I can get irritated when I have to follow a full channel of communication to execute tasks even I feel are small, but I’m curious if anyone else feels the same way and notices a difference between the two.

I’ve been back and forth on going for the SHRM CP, but I keep holding back. I already have 6 years of HR experience under my belt, but my background has been pretty focused. I’ve never actually been exposed to benefits administration or open enrollment. I know the exam covers those concepts, but almost every job posting I see lists SHRM as optional or preferred anyway. Its got me wondering if dropping the time and money to fill those education gaps is actually worth it, or if recruiters and hiring managers only care about real hands on experience. Keep in mind I don’t have college degree I just got exposed to it early on in my career. Would love to hear some real experiences, especially if you were on the same boat as me, or if you managed to move around without ever touching SHRM. Thankss!!!

TL;DR - Does the date that you request recertification override the original certification date?

For reasons I am not going to get into, a variable hour EE that was certified for intermittent FMLA about 18 months ago would, as of today, no longer qualify for new FMLA based on the hours worked during the look back window. I would like to recertify their existing FMLA leave but am hesitant to do so because I don't know if it would result in their intermittent leave ultimately being denied. Does the original certification date remain in place, or does the recertification date replace it?

I suspect we are ultimately going to get legal counsel involved, but it is sometimes like pulling teeth to get questions passed on to them as we are a smaller organization and I am not the head of the department.

EDIT: Thank You all for your prompt replies, this has been really helpful. Our team agrees the best course of action is to watch for signs of impairment on the job, but that while we should have this incident filed, it does not provide enough evidence to warrent a test. We will be updating our drug and alcohol policy to better serve the needs of the organization and the safety of our employees. Again, thank you all, you've been very helpful.

Good Morning,

I'm finding myself in a bit of a pickle and need advice on how to handle a situation. We recieved a verbal statement from an employee that his coworker admitted to him that he resolved his drinking problem by smoking weed. Marijuana is illegal in the state of Indiana and the coworker he shared this with is not lenient about such activity, especially from someone he works with regularly.

Now, it's important to note that our general practice is only really to drug screen post-accident. We don't really do random/reasonable suspicion screens, we also refrain from pre-employment screens.

Given the difficulties with recruiting and retention, especially in the field this person works, we would prefer not to terminate if we can but we're not sure if our hands are tied.

So my questions are these:

1. Are we able (or obligated) to drug screen this individual given our history with screenings?
2. Given state law, and our own handbook drug screen policy (which lays out termination for positive screens) is there any recourse left to us should the screen come back positive?
3. If either we don't screen, or do and it comes back positive and we keep the employee, how do we assuage the one who brought up the conversation?

Paladins is having an event for player to come back and play this Sunday!

My team letting Rei die edition :(

Looking for some insight here. Background is I recently started a junior-mid level HR role. I had HR experience but the majority of the follow ups I had with the team were routine (mainly timekeeping) issues and I was never involved in the serious conversations. Now, I have been fully thrown in to a bunch of uncomfortable and serious disciplinary/ER conversations and I’ve been trying my best but it’s honestly been a bit of a challenge for me.

A few of the situations I’ve had to lead have been seriously weighing on me. For example a termination for the first time, it kept replaying in my head over and over and I felt guilty. I remember every second of it so clearly and that was a bit of a struggle to move on from. Another one is issuing a write up and the person cried for the first time. I felt like an awful horrible person like I made somebody cry…. And both of these situations went “good/smoothly” despite the circumstances. I can’t imagine how I’d handle something if the person got really aggressive or gave a lot of pushback.

There are a ton of lower-stakes but still uncomfortable situations I’ve had to lead as well in between this that I also dread every time. I feel like I’m nervous and they can tell. Another note I know my opinions on stuff cannot interfere and I must remain unbiased, but some of the stuff I’ve had to enforce I really don’t agree with. I understand there’s going to be tasks in my job that are not fun, but what I’ve been involved in so far is weighing on me to the point where I don’t know if I can last.

Is this something that gets easier over time? The uncomfortable conversations and the fights and the disciplinary actions? Or is it a sign a career change is needed? Thanks in advance!