Category Archives: HR departments

In which yet another letter comes and we ponder our dongles …

Posted on February 10, 2011 by

Leaving your employer sometimes feels just as complicated as leaving a long-term partner. Some of the organisation’s behavioral quirks that seemed almost charming once upon a time now drive you rapidly into a paroxysm of face-twitching rage. Of course leaving … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucrats, HR departments, Redundancy, rejection letters, war on the deficit | Tagged , | 4 Comments

In which we all hold our breath …

Posted on February 1, 2011 by

There’s a moment before any action when you take that deep breath to calm your nerves and fuel your muscles. The pause before whatever has to come next. I’ve felt a similar sense of tingling expectancy out in the woods … Continue reading →

Posted in fairness, HR departments, memories, Public sector, Public service, Redundancy, rejection letters, rules and regulations, war on the deficit | Tagged , | 11 Comments

In which I perform a Saturday stocktake …

Posted on December 4, 2010 by

Early mornings at the weekend are an ideal time for some quiet reflection particularly during this cold spell. The rest of the RPS family is piled under duvets as thick as the snow on the TV. Another week has gone … Continue reading →

Posted in bad news, HR departments, Job applications, job hunting, recruitment consultancies, Redundancy, rejection letters | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

In which ‘sorry’ is the hardest word …

Posted on December 3, 2010 by

On a lovely summer afternoon about 150 years ago a striking white-haired man stood at the edge of an unremarkable meadow just outside an obscure town in Pennsylvania. What he did next has always struck me as being among the … Continue reading →

Posted in bad news, HR departments, people management, Redundancy, rejection letters, saying sorry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

In which I notice there’s a ‘war’ on …

Posted on December 2, 2010 by

I read the ever-excellent We Love Local Government blog today with a terrible feeling of recognition and despair. The poster described how they and their colleagues got the news of their inclusion in various redundancy pools at their council employer. It … Continue reading →

Posted in bad news, HR departments, people management, Public sector, Redundancy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

In which I get an unheralded email from HR …

Posted on November 24, 2010 by

‘Hello, what’s this?’ I asked myself as the email alert told me I had mail. In my twilight days at work emails have become few and far between. Mostly they break down into three categories: stuff I won’t read; stuff … Continue reading →

Posted in HR departments, Redundancy | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

In which I get to lecture HR professionals …

Posted on November 18, 2010 by

The following post first appeared on the XpertHR website on 10 November 2010 as part of their series If I could change one thing about HR. The website gives job hunters an insight into what the professional HR community is thinking. … Continue reading →

Posted in bad news, HR departments, people management, Public sector, Redundancy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

In which I savour the language of rejection …

Posted on November 17, 2010 by

This post orginally appeared in Patrick Butler’s Cuts Blog on 10 November 2010 and appears here by kind permission of The Guardian. ________________________________________________ I am growing to appreciate the language of rejection. Sharing learning was why I started to blog about … Continue reading →

Posted in bad news, HR departments, rejection letters, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

In which we hear from an old friend …

Posted on October 22, 2010 by

A long newsy letter arrived in the RPS household today from an old friend. She’s not a person for the internet favouring instead the old-fashioned virtues of a card, and envelope and a stamp. She’s that sort of person. Solid, … Continue reading →

Posted in fairness, HR departments, people management, Public sector, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

In which I get to grips with my exit questionnaire …

Posted on October 8, 2010 by

I posted a little while ago on the trials of being in HR during all this change and times of ‘difficult decisions’. (Have you ever noticed that when a politician or business leader uses the phrase ‘difficult decision’ it usually … Continue reading →

Posted in HR departments, Redundancy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments