How stupid has this field become?

[TranquilMind]

I can't believe it.  I am married to a high level professional, who works in a department managing other middle-aged professionals. 

 

The entire company is asked to do the dumbest things by Human Resources, and fill out stupid questionnaires and do useless "team-building" stuff all the time.

The latest - to a bunch of middle aged married men - "Who is your celebrity crush?"

 

We laughed and laughed about this.  Come ON!  Seriously??   What kind of Human Resources kind of garbage are they teaching out there now?

 

They all decided to say, "Justice Scalia"  just for fun.  They have work to do though and probably won't get to it. 

 

I have run a small company.  Who has time for that nonsense?

 

Anyone else encounter this kind of time-wasting stuff? 

Edited March 8, 2016 by TranquilMind

[Arcadia]

The companies hubby has worked for including the current one has always outsourced HR.  The HR company has always been happy to do the minimum required which can be a thank goodness :)

[zoobie]

My dad filled out his personal goal for the business year as "Not quitting and making it to retirement." Giving out reflective questionnaires to tech reps and engineers = pointless.

[TranquilMind]

The companies hubby has worked for including the current one has always outsourced HR.  The HR company has always been happy to do the minimum required which can be a thank goodness :)

The minimum required is all they need.  This is simply make-work as an attempt to justify existence.  But geez.  Really...come up with a better question for a  bunch of older men, ok?  Maybe what sport you like or something.

[TranquilMind]

My dad filled out his personal goal for the business year as "Not quitting and making it to retirement." Giving out reflective questionnaires to tech reps and engineers = pointless.

Absolutely.  ;)

 

Mine would not have even said that, as it may trigger them to look at him and realize how old he was getting to answer that way, and we all know that if you can ditch them before retirement, you can save some money. 

 

Something like, "I live to serve X company as my highest joy" is more along the line of the answers this company likes to get.  :laugh:

[mathnerd]

My previous company's HR decided to run a campaign about "caring and appreciation" and they said that each employee had to start showing that at home. The assignment was to go home and tell your spouse or s/o that "you love them very much" and show our appreciation in a speech and to report back in the questionnaire about what the response was. My boss told them that he never talks like that to his wife as he is not a guy who makes flowery speeches and after all the years of being married, if he talked to his wife suddenly like that, she might suspect that he was trying to cover an affair or some other such devious thing. So, that was the end of the questionnaire for our department.

[KungFuPanda]

DH went on a business trip and somehow got funneled into a team building activity in the Chicago office. He told them to never bring him out for that nonsense again. He was not amused. His brother was with him. They were equally disgruntled. They should've taken me. I would've kicked ass at office chair relay or whatever stupid game they were playing. I'm in to win! I would've forgotten the purpose of the trip in my quest to make the best paper clip bridge. #liveinthemoment

[TranquilMind]

My previous company's HR decided to run a campaign about "caring and appreciation" and they said that each employee had to start showing that at home. The assignment was to go home and tell your spouse or s/o that "you love them very much" and show our appreciation in a speech and to report back in the questionnaire about what the response was. My boss told them that he never talks like that to his wife as he is not a guy who makes flowery speeches and after all the years of being married, if he talked to his wife suddenly like that, she might suspect that he was trying to cover an affair or some other such devious thing. So, that was the end of the questionnaire for our department.

Good Lord.  I laughed out loud. 

And on what planet is what you do AT HOME any of their business!

[TranquilMind]

DH went on a business trip and somehow got funneled into a team building activity in the Chicago office. He told them to never bring him out for that nonsense again. He was not amused. His brother was with him. They were equally disgruntled. They should've taken me. I would've kicked ass at office chair relay or whatever stupid game they were playing. I'm in to win! I would've forgotten the purpose of the trip in my quest to make the best paper clip bridge. #liveinthemoment

You would be fun to work with!  I will go with you to some team building junk!

[KungFuPanda]

You would be fun to work with! I will go with you to some team building junk!

We'll sign up for the inflatable obstacle course together and the people who are anti-social or hate to get out of their chairs can judge us from the sidelines! #adultrecess

[TranquilMind]

We'll sign up for the inflatable obstacle course together and the people who are anti-social or hate to get out of their chairs can judge us from the sidelines! #adultrecess

Oh, well I was thinking more about the questionnaire answers we would make up!  ;)

[Arcadia]

My boss told them that he never talks like that to his wife as he is not a guy who makes flowery speeches and after all the years of being married, if he talked to his wife suddenly like that, she might suspect that he was trying to cover an affair or some other such devious thing.

 

:lol: Hubby's current supervisor does not like angry wives.

 

Hubby's HR is great at buying too much food for staff meetings which means I don't need to cook dinner quite often :)

So far HR has messed up on pay slips for the entire company but that was a rare occurrence.

[Tap]

Ummm, yep it really is stupid.

 

My husband's previous employer really pushed 'volunteer' community service. Of course it only counted if the employee had support and Advertised for the company at the service event and if it was on the employees own time.  For example, one year my husband collected food for the food bank on a Saturday outside a grocery store on a hot summer day. His company did  donate  some of their own food product to the event...Great! But that wasn't good enough.  They also required a volunteer to appear in the company full size mascot costume.  Since no one wanted to do it, dh had to talk ds into doing it for him so his time would count, otherwise it wouldn't have. Of course all the donations were tallied up and the company added that total to its "look how amazing xyz company is...they donated x dollars to the local charities!" 

 

The next year he didn't get around to it after working 60-70 hour weeks all year long.  On his next evaluation he was marked down because he didn't do the required volunteer work. Despite the fact that were foster parents to a special needs baby....that didn't count as volunteer work because they couldn't put a tally on that.  

 

 

Ugh.  Stupid companies!

Edited March 8, 2016 by Tap

[Tap]

My other favorite event dh had to attend on a 4x a year basis.

 

Dh managed a team of sales people who deliver products to grocery stores.  Every few months they would do a 'Safety awareness event' or similar titled safety event.  

 

The 6-8 managers, were all required to be to work at 3-8am to make breakfast for all the other employees before they started their day.  Then the managers were required to complete their normal 10-12 hour work day after breakfast was served.  (There were tasks at the end of the managers day that they had to be in the office for, so they couldn't leave early) On those days, dh would have to work 16+ hours straight! All in the name of Safety!  I have no idea how working the equivalent of 2 full 8 hour shifts back to back is representative of a safe working environment.  LOL 

[zoobie]

Ha! The "lunch" meetings my dad is supposed to attend require he be called out of taking calls but on the clock, drive an hour there, waste an hour at lunch, then drive back to take a call. His productivity for the day therefore sucks, and they get dinged for it on quarterly reviews. And last time "lunch" was a few foot long subs cut into pieces, 2 2-liters of soda, and one bag of chips for like 20 grown men.

[poppy]

That kind of question is meant to spark a laugh and an unexpected thought. No big deal.

[Melissa in Australia]

When I worked in Aged care their team building involved every few months going up the coast for a getting drunk as you can weekend ( they had a different name for it - bonding weekend or something along those lines). I never went. I was the only one that didn't go.

[zoobie]

He should answer by saying his celebrity crush is Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies.

 

Let the HR people figure that one out.

Or Mr. Ed.

[Malory]

:lol: Hubby's current supervisor does not like angry wives.

 

Hubby's HR is great at buying too much food for staff meetings which means I don't need to cook dinner quite often :)

So far HR has messed up on pay slips for the entire company but that was a rare occurrence.

This is almost too embarrassing to admit but I love it when DH comes home with leftover food from work.