Patience young grasshopper!!!!

So....one of my major development areas is my lack of patience...I get easily frustrated and constantly have to tell myself to slow down!! I'm so much better than I was a few years ago, and when dealing with others I've often give myself a little pat on the back for holding it in ;-)

But one thing I cant seem to be patient about is my career progression, and its something which frustrates and confused me almost on a daily basis.

Every company has its own way of running HR, and will structure its department in whichever way fits its model the best; so it is hard sometimes to benchmark yourself against others in the profession with, say, the same job title as you. Am I operating at the right level for a HR Advisor? Or am I operating above it, and really should be a HR Manager?? I don't know!!

Its unfortunate that I haven't had a stable line manager for a year now, and therefore haven't really had any HR guidance or development. I have taken opportunities where I can to gain feedback from colleagues; and I have even taken the time to speak to other HR Profs in my local area to try and benchmark myself. Unfortunately their feedback has been a mixed bag of complimenting me on my passion, my ability to engage and my knowledge around recruitment....to picking out obvious gaps in my practical experience.

So how do you know when you are ready for the next step? I have taken all the component parts on the CIPD professional map and all its telling me is that I have chosen Level 2 as my current operating level and the majority of my answers are at Level 3....but that's self assessment?!?!?

As you can probably tell, I am confused and slightly baffled by what my next step should be. I am looking forward to my new boss starting on the 14th, and I am hoping that she will take a vested interest and help me figure out my next steps. But if not, I need to take accountability for my career, and my progression within HR......once I have figured out what that is......

Generalist vs Specialist

So...sanity has returned and we can now get on with life as normal! I'm not saying another outburst wont occur, but for this moment all is well and I have something else to discuss with you.

Do we stay general or do we specialise? I'm going to be honest and upfront and say I'm not a fan of the business partner model. I never really got the point as I didn't see how the system needed fixing. So I'm ignoring that as an option.

My very lovely sister in law is currently working for a major corporate, within their L&D department as an administrator. She asked me the other day whether I thought she should stay put and focus on L&D or use her skills to move into a more general HR role, and learn the whole gambit.

I love being a generalist, I love having my fingers in all pies, I love knowing whats going on. I also like having the ability to directly affect peoples lives and see it happening. But yet...I am tempted by the lure of specialising, I have a real interest in employee engagement, and ER.

To my lovely readers...to those who have specialised, and those who have not - perhaps you could give me your reasons why....and why not. It might help me, but more importantly a newbie to the HR world.

Brand? What brand?

I feel like a fraud.....there.....I've said it.

I had an amazing response to my blog post written on Friday; and I was very proud of myself for writing it without making it into a rant. I've had some wonderful comments about how positive I'm appearing, how professional I've acted....I've even had the word inspirational attached to me!!!

The truth is......I drive into work every day feeling sick, sweating, dreading walking to my HR office and having to face someone who has made me feel useless for the past three months.

I sought advice from several angles on how I should deal with this, and took some action on Monday. This action involved a strongly worded email to the offending boss; detailing how she had made me feel, examples of when she had done it and basically my refusal to allow her to 'appraise' me without prior knowledge of how she was planning on doing this in a balanced way given her previous behaviour.

Now.....the response I received (as expected) was one of denial, an accusation of me being ill informed, confused and the accusation that I don't want to progress in my career - hence why I have 'refused' to have a performance review with her.

I only have to deal with this person for 7 more days.....but....then comes my new boss. And this is where my current dilemma comes into play. Do I tell them what has happened over the past three months? Do I protect myself and withhold my trust of them? Do I act like nothing has happened and see if they bring anything up?

How do I protect my personal brand? I didn't even know I had one until someone pointed it out to me. The idea of someone judging me for wanting to be treated fairly never entered my mind. Am I naive? Will I come across as awkward and hard to manage?

I am now not only anxious about dealing with a boss who is in complete denial about how they have treated me, I am now anxious about a boss I have never even dealt with!

Once of my favourite Twitter pals wrote about confidence this week, and how important it is in HR. But what happens if you've lost it?

An open letter to my boss

Dear Boss,

We have had our ups and downs over the past 3 months, but as you move into your final week of managing me, I wanted to take this opportunity to write you a letter to outline a few things I have learnt in our time together.

Thank you for teaching me the power of my own internal strength. There were times when all I wanted to do is break down, but by continuing to push me to the edge you showed me how strong I truly can be when faced with a barrage of abuse.

Thank you for highlighting how valued I am within the wider business. Through your clear and consistent treatment of me I have received words of support and encouragement from people I didn't even knew cared. That has been a great discovery for me, and I now cherish their support.

Thank you for showing me the importance of objectives and performance reviews. Through your continued refusal to issue me with guidance and support you have given me the ability to recognise why objectives are required, and how the lack of them can breed confusion, lack of self esteem and self doubt. I will always ensure that anyone reporting into me has a clear vision for their future and clear expectations.

Thank you for sending me on a road of self discovery. I have learnt that I like to know 'the big picture', I have learnt that I sometimes go off policy/process but that's ok if the decision is considered and well thought out, I've learnt that I'm not ready for a big role just yet but one day I will be able to do it.

I don't know where you're going, or what you'll be doing but I wish you well. Our time has been short, intense and filled with moments of tension. But as I take the time to reflect on it, it will only make me a better HR Advisor, and a better human.

Objectively Speaking.......

Objective - the object of one's endeavours; goal; aim

My question is....who owns the objectives? We all know that once a year we have to justify our actions and the results against a set of objectives, and usually we will be rewarded for our efforts. But if we get back to basics....whose objectives are they? Are they the employees, the line manager or the companies?

My reason for asking this questions is....what happens if you don't have objectives? What then? Who's role is it to write them?

If the employee is proactive and requests them, or even writes them, then they may not be right from a business point of view, or they may not match the perception of their role/duties of the line manager. This could lead to all sorts of issues around performance management, meeting expectations, managing roles and responsibilities.

Ultimately, I know the best practice answer is that the line manager and the employee should write the objectives together...but lets be honest....sometimes best practice is not feasible for various reasons.

So...what does the employee do? Do they write themselves a set of objectives, and work to them to demonstrate their ability to meet targets and goals? Or do they carry on regardless, and hope that what they do is good enough?

I'd be really interested in thoughts and comments, and how you would advise on this situation.

Strangest places.......

I've had a bit of a break from the social media scene, I know I only just started...but have had to face quite a difficult situation really and it's been quite draining.

This isn't the right forum to discuss it....but rearrange the following phrase and you'll get it.....

raise I've had to grievance a my line manager against

This has left me questioning my future in not only my current role, but my career in HR in general. I've also had a slight issue with the fact that I'm not an 'academic' HR person, I'm a 'doer', I love getting stuck in and just getting on with it. This has been constantly bought up in my venture to progress and makes me wonder...am I ever going to get to the top as I want to?

I'm not a big sharer, but I had the pleasure of going to my sister's wedding last weekend, and the topic of bad management came up when someone within the friendship group asked for my advice. I then confessed to some of own worries and had an immediate outpouring of support, and affirmation of my HR ability via their own accounts of how my advice had helped them all over the years we have known each other.

I also ventured back onto Twitter and immediately I had people asking how I was. These are people who have never met me....but who as humans have taken an interest, and therefore notice when a fellow HR Twitter-er is missing.

These two separate occasions, and the love and support of my family will sustain me through, probably, the toughest period of my career so far. But its an opportunity to learn and develop, and come through the other side with knowledge and skills I did not have when I started.

And that is what HR is all about, it's tough.....it sucks when you come across bad HR......but we do it because we love people, and we love development. HR Professionals come in all shapes and sizes....and I need to just realise there is a place for an Operationally Focused, Heart of Fluff, Giggler when most inappropriate, Lover of all things development related HR Lady like me.