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Helloooo,

Spooky season is officially here, and I’m ready to put up some decor and set the vibe accordingly! 🎃

I'm also currently accepting horror stories!!! Pls share your spookiest HR moments. Someone asked if they can get them from the employee side too... what do y'all think?! Should I do it??

For now, here are some juicy Q&A to keep you entertained.

This week, a nonprofit’s new clock-in/clock-out requirement has employees feeling mistrusted. How do you handle the pushback without dismissing their concerns?

Then, a CPA firm’s top earner keeps ignoring procedures, and leadership keeps overruling HR’s disciplinary measures. How do you maintain credibility when the boss keeps excusing the behavior you’re supposed to address?

Let's discuss, and if you feel like it’s time to submit questions of your own, submit them here! 🫡

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ASK AWAY

🤔 pushback & admin

📣 Ryan Farmer, HR Director @ Watson Mills & Design:

I love this. I did this at my current company. They were handing in manual time sheets via an excel doc before i got there. What i did, is really just talk with them, hear their concerns and as a team of 1, I let them know the amount of time saving it does on the administrative side of things to help be able to focus on other things rather than having to manually input everyone's hours. I just had a company wide, this is how we are doing things, this is how it works and this is the why we are changing.

It's not for more 'big brother' oversight, it's a literal day saver for the payroll process, this also allows them more transparency into their time worked. What we eventually were able to do, once we had enough data, is see the direct correlation to the most often day off (which ended up being fridays) and we were able to create a 4.5 day schedule around that to where now employees work 4.5 days, get paid for 5.

📣 Tammi Burnett, Director of People and Culture @ Rainforest Action Network:

If your employees think this signals a lack of trust, there's a deeper issue here, and you need to address that ASAP. I would invite feedback about why folks feel this way, and then respond to it. Validate feelings without agreeing. What kind of change management was done with this - were people notified and trained in advance so they had time to process before it happened? Have you communicated why this decision was made? Have you communicated the advantages for your employees (not just for the org)?

📣 Mike Frost, CHRO - Chief HR Officer @ Ko-Kwel Casino Resort:

I would shift the conversation. You know they are busy and sometimes we forget that we stayed 10 minutes late a week ago. This is about paying you for the time that you've earned. It's not that you don't trust them. It's that we want your paycheck to be accurate and you feel they deserve to be paid for ALL the time they've worked.

Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here.

📣 Stephanie Salzano, HR Manager @ County Excellence Federal Credit Union:

I would advise leadership that if they do not hold this employee accountable, they cannot hold any employee violating the same policies accountable. If others are being held accountable, they are risking a lawsuit of discriminatory practices. The culture also starts suffering, if it hasn't already. Employees talk, they have eyes. Especially in a small environment like that, it wouldn't surprise me if turnover starts ramping up. Nothing sours employees like favoritism.

📣 Anonymous Safe Space User:

I had this happen at a previous place I worked for and truthfully, it was quite hard. You can go the strict disciplinary route and begin to write them up for non-compliance, but you would need to make a firm decision on what type of progressive disciplinary action that would require (e.g. after 3 write ups, are they terminated? Are they placed on PIP?) If you decide to go that route, then you would need to ensure that same disciplinary process is followed across the board.

What (sort of) worked for us was bringing the employee in and showing them how not following billing SOPs tangibly impacts the business's bottom line. In my case, when the employee did not submit their billable hours on time, we often would miss the window for invoicing the client which meant we missed out on a good chunk of billable hours that would make revenue for the business (I worked in a highly regulated industry that had strict invoicing and reporting deadlines). I also showed them how all other team members were abiding by the rules and were equally top performers. Our last resort was calling them out during our staff meetings (I know, I know, this isn't the best route, but what else could we do when they just weren't listening?).

Our billable hours were due by Monday at 9:00am and our staff meetings happened at 10:00am - if hours weren't submitted by the time our staff meeting occurred, we would have a slide at the end of the presentation that named all of the employees who had not yet submitted their hours.

It's a really tough thing to navigate, ESPECIALLY when they are top performers, but as someone else mentioned, if they are shown favoritism, then it'll quickly become a morale issue.

📣 Sondra Norris, Founder @ Strategic Culture Partners:

This isn't really a policy question. And the short answer, imo, is in a company of 30 people with behavior that's been going on unchecked and protected for 3 years (not without good reason - top earner is top earner and there's a lot of fear of what might happen if that person leaves), there's not much you can do. With only 30 people everybody knows. And leadership knows everybody knows. And everybody keeps tolerating the condition. They're making the sensible choice for them in the current conditions. Leadership knows the risks and would rather sweep up behind the person than piss them off and have them quit, to protect the revenue.

There is no easy answer here. Rule #1: No one can get anyone to do anything, not when it comes down that exact moment they choose to do A or B. Rule #2: It's all about doing your best to influence to create conditions in which what you want is the most sensible thing a sensible person would choose to do.

Their fear of losing this earner this quarter is much scarier than the havoc it's causing to keep them - because the worst that could happen, hasn't. So they're playing all with imaginary consequences. Any picture you paint is imaginary - and they've worked themselves so deeply into believing this is the lesser of the evils, that your suggestions and reasons, all reasonable and even likely, might get a glimmer of recognition, but it's imaginary.

It's one of the hardest parts of HR - we work a lot so that things DON'T happen and that people never know about. Lawsuits, regrettable attrition, execution stalling. And of course it's not safe to let it drop and let what may happen happen - because blame would land on us.

This is a firm doing literally the opposite inside of what they sell outside - which isn't unusual, but it's a dissonance that I'm sure is taking its toll on you.

Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here.

🚨 ON YOUR RADAR

🎧 I Hate It Here Podcast: I'm always dropping new episodes with your favorite People Ops leaders! Until we return with a new season of guests, enjoy some of the greatest hits! Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

⭐ Four days in Huntington Beach with 200 senior HR leaders, and zero cost to attend. Safe Space Summit is the event I wish existed when I was losing my mind in back-to-back exec meetings. This one is application-based and Director-level and above only, so if that's you, go apply and find out if you're in!

😵‍💫 Has your hiring strategy entered the compliance multiverse? Mitratech helps HR track regulatory changes before one remote employee’s move turns a normal weekday into a legal scavenger hunt. I wrote about where multi-state compliance falls apart and how to stop relying on luck!*

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📝 RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

Each week I feature a resource I love from the Safe Space library that I believe would be relatable to this week's newsletter topic.

This week, we’re setting the tone for October. Check it out HERE ⬇️

🫂 COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS

In-person Meet-ups

🍺 ASHEVILLE, SAVE THE DATE! Come hang with Safe Space members at Highland Brewing Company on Oct 22 at 5:30 PM EDT. We're talking crisp mountain air, a cabana inside an old grain silo, food trucks, and your first drink on us. Big thanks to Andrew Wachter + Highland Brewing for hosting. Grab your spot 👉here!

Charlotte + Philly - your fall in-person meetups are in the works! Stay tuned 👀Want to host your own meetup? DM Kat!

Must Attend Virtuals

☕ NEW! October’s Virtual Coffee + Cowork on Oct 21st, at 1:00 PM EDT is now live! Hosted by Kat. HR team of 1? In need of body doubling? Simply want to hang out listening to lofi beats with your fav community? Trust, it’s always a vibe. Come hang with your your ppl, secure your spot 👉 here!

📚 NEXT WEEK! Safe Space Book Club: Oct's Read + Recap - Join me (Kat) on Oct 8 at 2pm EDT to talk through I See You've Called In Dead by John Kenney. No book report energy, just a real conversation about what we read. Everyone who attends live gets entered into a $25 Bookshop.org gift card raffle. Grab your spot 👉 here!

FRIDAY FUN

😂 i haaaaaate when this happens

LIKE CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME MORE DETAILS SO I CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT THIS MEANS!!!

That's all for this week! I hope you enjoyed! If you have any thoughts, please let me know. I'm allll ears.

Reminder: Today is FRIDAY. 🙏