Showing posts with label #badHR. Show all posts

The Worst HR Job in America Might Be At Teller Motors

by Matthew Stollak on Thursday, December 12, 2013


(Spoiler alert - if you haven't watched the season finale of Sons of Anarchy, you may not want to read on).

 The worst HR job in America might be the HR Director at Teller Motors.  Here's why:

 *The job is located in Charming, CA, a town with a death rate that rivals Cabot Cove, ME

 *It's family-owned, with a highly unstable family.  The current owner, Jax Teller,  shot and killed the former owner, his stepdad, Clay Morrow.   And the owner's mom, Gemma, just killed the owner's wife, Tara, with a carving fork.

*The owner is involved with many illegal activities, including guns, drug-running, and prostitution.

*Recruiting employees is tougher than a union closed shop in 1939.

 *Employees are more likely to get killed by a member of the IRA than receive a company-sponsored IRA.

 *Health care premiums are likely to skyrocket in the next year.  Given than Tara was a physician and provided care to the company employees gratis as well as stole supplies from the hospital in which she worked, the employees are likely in the market for a new doctor.

*Teller Motors has a very stringent orientation procedure.

*Most common reason for turnover?  Death.

 *Most useless taxes paid?  FUTA and FICA. Most employees are unlikely to be fired and few are around long enough to collect Social Security.

*Forget about the AFT...the latest concern may be OSHA, who may put Teller Motors on their watch list for imminent danger after the company clubhouse was firebombed.

At least the company parties are off the hook.

Elysium: Even 140 years in the future, there is bad #HR

by Matthew Stollak on Saturday, August 10, 2013


Note: Minor spoilers about the movie "Elysium" are revealed below, though there is nothing that isn't already revealed in the trailer above.

As the trailer above indicated, "Elysium" takes place over 140 years in the future in 2154.   The 1% live on a space station orbiting earth where there is no war, no crime, and health care eliminates all illness.  Meanwhile, the 99% on Earth are living in Rio de Janeiro-like favelas, scraping to get by.

 What sets the movie in motion?  A case of poor supervisor-subordinate relations.

 Matt Damon plays Max De Costa, a small-time criminal, trying to get his life back on the straight and narrow.  As noted in the trailer, he works in a huge factory assembling robots.  As he loads the pallet of robots into a chamber to be irradiated, the door gets jammed, and production stops.  What occurs next could have happened 90 years ago.

The supervisor tells Max to go in the chamber to fix the problem.  Max is hesitant.   The angered supervisor threatens Max, "either you go into the chamber or I'll find someone who will."  Of course, seeing no other choice, Max goes in, unjams the door, the door closes, and Max gets exposed to radiation, and only has 5 days to live.  And, the rest of the movie proceeds based on this singular incident.

 Why wasn't the manager trained to engage his employees more appropriately?  Why weren't better safety procedures put in place?

 Even 140 years in the future, we will still be dealing with bad HR.

Pet Peeve #27 on How Television and Movies Portray the Workplace

by Matthew Stollak on Monday, August 20, 2012





I like Aaron Sorkin shows and movies.  I watched "The West Wing" and "Sports Night" regularly.    I thought "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was an interesting mistake.  I enjoyed the script for "The Social Network."

 However, in watching his latest endeavor, "The Newsroom,"  he is guilty of using a device that drives me up the wall....having private conversations in front of other co-workers.

 Whether it is about relationships, or, even worse, dressing down a subordinate, these conversations are held in the audience of other friends or peers.  You can see the pained expressions in those friends and co-workers' eyes, the awkwardness that ensues, and rarely, if ever, is there a follow-up scene with an apology for the inappropriateness of the conversation.

 While you think it makes for good TV or movies, it makes for bad management.

 Please stop.