Lunch inspired by Rachael Ray

When I saw this Thai Curry with Shrimp recipe in Rachael Ray's magazine, I immediately flagged it as "must try". My mom had prepared it recently and I loved it, plus it looked quite easy to make. Sunday I tried it. Here's the finished product:

It was fast and simple to prepare. The only changes I made were to delete the scallions and exchange the green curry paste for red. This is going in the repeat file for sure.

Why the hiring process moves at a glacial pace

Every wonder why the hiring process tends to take beyond forever? This article by the Evil HR Lady does a great job of explaining the factors behind that reality.

Two more reasons I'd like to add based on my own recruiting experience:

1. Managers who take forever to choose candidates for interviews

I have had managers take weeks to select which candidates they want to interview. To me, the length of time it takes you to complete this step is directly proportional to how badly you really need to fill the position.

2. Managers who take forever to select their chosen candidate from the interviews

Our normal process is at the conclusion of the last interview for a position, the interview team discusses all the interviewees and identifies up to the top 3 candidates. However, sometimes hiring managers take forever to make this decision. We have a position for which interviews occurred a month ago, and there has still not been a decision made. It is maddening, and to me a indication that the hiring manager really doesn't need to fill this spot.

There can be benefits of being sick

I recently got over what is probably the longest lasting illness I've ever had. Far from the most severe, it was still a far from pleasant experience. However, in the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, I did notice a few good things that can come from being sick.

1. You don't spend any money (except for medicine & co-pays)

When a trip from the couch to the bathroom every few hours is at the absolute max of your physical abilities, your opportunities (and desire) for spending are severely reduced. I did break down and actually go to the doctor, but thanks to good insurance at this job and HSA money from 2 jobs ago, that was pretty financially painless.

2. You lose weight

I went over 24 hours without eating. In my family if you go off your feed for any significant time, something is seriously wrong, For a long time after that, I had very minimal appetite. Thank goodness for Clif bars. I pretty much lived on those for a while.

3. You appreciate health

Last week I was leaving a meeting room to get a candidate to bring into the interview room. On the way out, I twirled. I told the rest of the interview team I did it because I could. Dizziness had been my worst symptom during my incapacitation, and I truly appreciated being to move around in any way I chose without fearing I would topple to the ground at any time.

It's probably time to work on that

I recently had a bit of downtime at work, so I thought I'd actually read some of our employee handbook. As an HR person I thought it might be a good idea to have an idea of some of the things it said.

I hadn't read very far when I found something that wasn't right. I asked one of our long term staff members about it. What she told me blew my mind. The last time our company completely revised its handbook was 1998. Yes, you read that right. It seems there was another complete redo ready to go in 2011, but that was shelved due to an organization wide audit that was in process. Since then, internal memos are circulated that have changed the procedures, but the handbook itself, aka what is on our internal website and what is provided to our employees, is woefully outdated. A revision is on the to do list, but pressing day to day work must be done first.

I have to say I've never seen anything quite like this. The HR manager for my former long term employer would be aghast. We had multiple changes to our handbook every year. The situation at my current employer is certainly not optimal. It's probably time to dedicate someone to work on this exclusively until its done. Nearly 20 years between revisions is far too long.

I think we all have this person at our work

I heard a great quote this week from one of our managers. He was talking about an employee who is on the chatty side. He described the person to me this way- "He has more stories than Mother Goose". I loved it. I think every workplace has at least one of these individuals in its employ.

You know it's bad when

I've written previously about how my boss is not very time oriented. Well, this week she was telling us how one of her kids has no sense of time. They went to the daughter's house for Christmas. Dinner was scheduled for 6 PM. They ended up eating at 8:45 PM. My boss said that is typical for this daughter.

You know it's bad when your non-time conscious parent talks about how horrible you are at being on time.

When people are the cause of their own hurt feelings

One of our managers was eating breakfast at his desk this morning when one of his direct reports came to him and said "my feelings were hurt because I didn't get an interview for X position." The manager said his jaw dropped. He told the employee he would check into the situation and get back with him. Upon checking, the reason his jaw dropped was confirmed. The person didn't get an interview because he didn't apply for the position. Funny how that works.

This was the 2nd interview for an opening with this title in the last month. The jobs are on different shifts and were posted separately.  Thus, applying for the first opening has nothing to do with the interview process for the second one. We did end up filling the 2nd position with someone who was also in the candidate pool for the first position, but the key is this person applied for both position. If you want the job, you need to make people are aware of that fact by turning in the required paperwork.

As my mom likes to say "Being a manager would be great if you managed robots."