Shauna Moerke is…

In HR we get to do some crazy things. Odd things, fun things, uncomfortable things, sad things; things that can both destroy and restore your faith in humanity. They are things that being new to HR you could have never anticipated having to do, and no school would have been able to prepare you for.

But it’s all part of the life of an HR professional, right? We wear our crazy experiences like badges of honor and proudly share them, at least amongst other HR professionals, like veterans trading war stories. ” Oh, you had a candidate hit on you during an interview? Guess what this one candidate did during a panel interview with our C-Suite…”

Now, I consider most of my “experiences” to be mild compared to some of my peers, but sometimes I think back on some of the odd situations I’ve had in my career and wonder what I would have thought if years ago you had told me this is what I had to look forward to:

– Helped an employee hack into their social media account, that they even forgot they had, in order to take down something inappropriate that they had posted.
– Creating training for a software program I did not have access to and did not use.
– Buying, washing, and then distributing dozens of apples as part of a wellness initiative.
– Counseling a manager that wanted to fire an employee for an unsubstantiated rumor because he was afraid what other employees might think if they heard it too.
– Dealing with an HR colleagues snide comments toward me due to not sharing her religion.
– Having a manager lie to my face and then having my boss blame me for the manager lying to me.
– Had a candidate literally (Yes, I am using that correctly) speak for 20 minutes straight despite repeated attempts to interrupt her, even speaking over me when I tried to interject or stop her.
– Having to explain to an employee that stealing a soda was still stealing and a terminable offense. They were escorted out still not getting it.

And those are just some of the examples I can remember/feel comfortable sharing. But the thing that all good HR pros share is resiliency. After all, if the first time you have to talk to an employee about their inappropriate use of the copy machine doesn’t make you quit HR altogether, you’ll find yourself recounting the tale over cocktails one night at an HR conference with the only other people who can truly understand your pain.

Welcome to our community, we’re glad you are here.