First Comment

I'm just catching up on my DVR from last week after a fun trip down to New Orleans and one of the shows that I recently watched was "The Office" from last Thursday. It had a Valentine's Day theme which reminded me a lot of the Astronology from last week titled "Valentine's Day: Friend or Foe of the Workplace". Andy Bernard, a guy in Dunder Mifflin, likes Erin, a girl, but he doesn't want to make it that obvious by just giving her a Valentine's Day card and gives one to everyone in the office. Except he doesn't actually read the cards and confusion (and hilarity) ensues when some of his cards are a bit too "loving". In the fictional Dunder Mifflin, no one ever seems to get in trouble for violating Codes of Conduct, but in your real-life office, this could become a real problem:

While we look to the positive side of the holiday, there is always the concern about sexual harassment claims. The romantic nature of the holiday may encourage some employees to express their feelings for co-workers. Each year Vault.com runs an eye-opening study on office romance. Vault.com should be releasing the 2010 results shortly. Barbara Safani of Career Solvers also recently blogged on the prevalence of workplace romances and why people get involved with co-workers. While we can’t control everyone’s actions, as HR professionals, we need to ensure our employees know our organization’s policies regarding sexual harassment and hostile work environment to prevent legal claims.

I think the key is to revert to elementary school politics to prevent problems from occurring. As Astronology suggests, after what we all went through in 2009, Valentine's Day just gives workplaces another "excuse" to bring a "small injection of fun" into the office--but it needs to be fully inclusive of everyone. Games, candy, and even cheap gift cards all seem to work. Since it's Mardi Gras time, bringing in a King Cake for your group is a fun, sweet way to celebrate. The tradition is that whoever finds the tiny plastic baby has to buy the next King Cake. This allows some fun competition between office members and allows everyone to participate in a cheap fun way.

The Astronology concludes with some great advice: "Whatever options you implement, utilize this opportunity to reach out to your employees and let them know how much they mean to your organization!"

Photograph courtesy of NBC, Byron Cohen via Poptimal.

We start off on this Tuesday (an Astronology Tuesday) with a blog entry from the Boston Globe Monster.com HR Center HR Blog about Millenials: click here

Next, from the Wall Street Journal's Career Journal, advice on how to get better pay after years of a lower salary: click here

Also from the Journal, word that the same old technologies that worked in the past are proving successful today for productivity (see chart on right): click here

Lastly, as a special to the Journal a Q&A that addresses the ways to get out of negative thinking at work: click here

So many times in this blog I've harped on the merits of subscribing to Astron's bi-weekly newsletter, Astronology. It's really, really simple to sign up (I'll even give you the link again here), it's a great resource, we won't spam you, and sometimes you get to read about really awesome stuff (plus I penned a few back in the day if you check out the archives here)...

And while the latest issue has some great stuff (click here)...nothing compares to this amazing interview with yours truly:


Mini-Interview
The next Astron Solutions team member to let it all hang loose is our Blogmaster, Andrew Katz. Also, this won’t be the last mini-interview of our series! Stay tuned to our website for big news! Now, without further adieu:

1) What is your position in Astron Solutions, and how long have you had this position?

I guess you could call me the official Blogmaster. I've done this since snagging an internship with Astron back in the Summer of 2006. I wanted to stay active with Astron once I went back to school and this gave me a great opportunity to do so.

2) What convinced you to do HR consulting?

The interview with Jennifer. HR consulting was FAR from anything I had ever thought of doing but one Human Resources lesson to learn is that while the candidate is trying to woo the interviewer, a company can attract good employees through a great interview. Hearing about what Astron did and stood for and seeing how happy the employees were really went a long way into convincing me to join the Astron family.

3) What do you do when you are not consulting?

I work double duties...I also work at Genworth Financial in Stamford, CT. But blogging has become a passion of mine and I love doing it. Having to keep my readers up-to-date on what's going on in the world of HR also keeps me up-to-date and I'm always plugged into the latest news. I'm also an avid sports fan so I'm always watching games and talking sports with my friends.

4) What is your favorite place to travel to and why?

I spent a semester studying abroad in Copenhagen. Although 90% of people I know can't pick it out on a map, it really is an amazing place. When most people think of visiting Europe they think of London and Paris and Italy...but Copenhagen is one of those treasures that I think has to be part of any European travel. The people are amazingly nice, the city is so much fun, and it has been named the "Happiest Place on Earth" the past two years. And bonus: everyone speaks English so you won't need to carry around a dictionary!

5) Where do you see Astron Solutions this day next year?

It's amazing to see Astron continuing to grow. I think that as Astron continues to attract new and diverse customers through word-of-mouth referrals from happy customers, you'll see Astron out there more and more with the big names in the market. Genworth is a "People Driven" company very involved in the local community and I see Astron continuing to follow those same ideals.

As we continue our trek through getting to know the Astron Solutions team better, we find ourselves with the iShuffle yet again. Again, Blogmaster Andrew Katz has helped us out with this! We thank Andrew for both his blogging skills, and his time for this. Enjoy the list, and the questions!

Kanye West - Through the Wire
Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static
Fallout Boy (feat. John Mayer) - Beat It
Madonna and Justin Timberlake (feat. Timbaland) - 4 Minutes
Rick Ross (feat. T-Pain) - The Boss
Lupe Fiasco - Hip-Hop Saved My Life
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Counting Crows - Rain King (Live from Soho)
N.E.R.D. - Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing on the Line...)
Dave Matthews (feat. Tim Reynolds) - Lie In Our Graves (Live at Radio City)

Favorite - Everybody Nose. The song gets you pumped, smiling, and is just overall fun. You know a song is good when you get into it in the first 15 seconds you hear the song for the first time.

Least Favorite - 4 Minutes. There's nothing wrong with the song at all. Actually I like it. But it's repetitive and you get sick of it too quickly. When a song comes on and I start reaching for the ipod, it's a BAD sign.

Seen Live - Kanye, Lupe Fiasco, Counting Crows, N.E.R.D., and Dave Matthews I have all seen live this summer (and I saw John Mayer in the past). Dave is my favorite live act. Some people have great songs. Some sing really well. But very few combine both these and put on a great, entertaining SHOW. Dave does this. I went to a Dave Matthews Band concert after my Junior year of high school and I really was not a big fan at the time. He put on such a great show that I'm not only a huge fan, I've been to his concert every summer since (at least once).

One of our new segments on our bi-weekly newsletter, Astronology (see sign-up on the right) is the ishuffle. Although I won't give away which are my favorite, I will tell you the 10 songs that came up last on my iPod (actually an iPod Touch) as I was taking the train on Friday:

Kanye West - Through the Wire

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static

Fallout Boy (feat. John Mayer) - Beat It

Madonna and Justin Timberlake (feat. Timbaland) - 4 Minutes

Rick Ross (feat. T-Pain) - The Boss

Lupe Fiasco - Hip-Hop Saved My Life

Journey - Don't Stop Believin'

Counting Crows - Rain King (Live from Soho)

N.E.R.D. - Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing on the Line...)

Dave Matthews (feat. Tim Reynolds) - Lie In Our Graves (Live at Radio City)

Stay tuned to Astronology for my reviews on these songs as well as the other picks from Astron employees...but figured it was a good way to "shuffle" things up a bit :)

This New York Times baseball blog title was so good, we decided to use it as our own ;)

If you haven't read the Astronology or our post on facial hair in the workplace, you should: click here

We made a reference to the Yankees, and this article from the Times is a great little history of facial hair in baseball. The Yankees have had a policy under principal owner George Steinbrenner that has prohibited long hair of facial hair (besides a cleanly shaved mustache on the upper lip). Some other teams have also taken variations on it. If you incorporate a facial hair policy and meet resistance, you can tell your employee that you're just being like the Yankees!

If you haven't checked it out yet, there's an interesting debate in the current Astronology about Facial Hair: click here

If you're not subscribed to Astronology, Astron Solutions bi-weekly newsletter, you're missing out...you can sign up by clicking on the link on the right side of the page...