Monday, December 22, 2008

Holiday HR Humor

One of my favorite games at work is HRspeak. Using a few words and phrases that seem to be overly popular in some HR circles, we create sentences that sound good but are practically meaningless.

For example:

"Hey, watcha up to?"

"Not much, just transforming our operational cluster into customer-centric business practices that strategically meet our mission-critical goals using knowledge-based ROI-driven solutions."


Why this is funny (at least to a very small segment of the population) is because an even smaller segment of the population actually finds language like this to be practically useful. Typically in my experience it's HR consultants who are trying to convince HR to reinvent itself. The concept may be sound, but the words get in the way.

As usual, Scott Adams picks up on this phenomenon (and makes it much funnier than I can) in a recent Dilbert strip.

This time of year, often when people reflect and plan, let's all try to communicate a little more clearly.

And here's hoping that you and yours enjoy a joy-filled, family and friend-centric season focused around cuisine-based activities that meet your critical soul-based needs.

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