Man, I love the Gallup website.
It’s a fascinating destination on the internet. When I want to know what Americans think, I go there and learn all kinds of random stuff. Right now, Americans believe that the most pressing problem out there is the economy.
Wow. Hold the phones. The economy?
I like this next poll. What’s interesting to read is that 36% of Americans say that they follow politics closely and 42% follow it somewhat closely.
Hm. I kinda follow America’s Next Top Model closely. Whenever I pose for a picture, I always ask myself, “What am I doing with my neck?”
*
I really do hope Americans follow national politics closely (and I don’t just mean the way my Gramma follows national politics by listening to Rush Limbaugh) because important economic decisions are made by politicians — whether we like it or not.
Unfortunately, when I talk to my fellow HR peeps about politics, they generally fall into a coma. Eyes roll into the back of the head. They might make an effort on my behalf and pretend to talk about national politics much the same way I pretend to take an interest in U2.
And it’s painful and annoying.
I have learned that very few HR professionals feel comfortable articulating a political position. This sucks because real business leaders (who make money) have real opinions. They don’t want to hear Human Resources professionals talk about the ROI of a wellness plan. They want to have a discussion about meaningful issues. Religion. Politics. Current events. That’s how relationships are formed.
So here is my plea to HR professionals (and this includes staffing peeps) — don’t tell me that you hate politics. Please dont tell me that you are sick of the partisan debate so you turn off the TV. And please don’t talk to me about social media policies and employer branding. I’m done with it. So is your CEO and CFO.
If you are a Human Resources professional and you’re not plugged into the world around you, you are doing it wrong. Just like this cat. Only less cute.
Now please, for the love of god, tell me what you believe.
42 comments ...wanna add one?
Love the post and it is so right (oops, correct, don’t want to use the political term right). HR needs to keep track of politics and be aware of both sides of all arguments. I am not saying that the profession should always be on one side or another but it needs to be aware of all the positions and how they affect us.
One of my biggest pet peeves over the last year was the blow-up over having Al Gore speak in San Diego because “SHRM shouldn’t be in politics”. Horse puckey (to quote SHeRMan Potter from MASH). SHRM and all HR pros need to be listening to all political discussions which affect the economy, jobs, workplace regulations, etc. Those who don’t will keep HR being known as paper pushers and picnic planners.
God forbid we talk about things that matter, john.
I’m Libertarian. More to the point I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I believe that people are by nature good, and when not overgoverned are prone to doing good, such as helping those that need it, and allowing those that beleive differently than them the freedom and space to do just that. I believe a government can tax me fairly (read no more than 10% of my earnings) for certain common matters (defense, trade, infrastructure, etc), but after that, it’s my money to do with how I please, I earned it after all. Governments have to be fiscally responsible, just like I do, you can’t spend more than you have, period. When the economy is tough, I can’t tell my b0ss I’m going to take more pay to manage, and you can’t tell me (y0ur boss Mr. or Mrs. Government) that your going to take more of my money to get by.
Government by the people, for the people, somewhere got lost, as did the idea that that includes all people, not just the ones that think or look like me.
I follow politics very closesly, I vote. Everytime. Not just in national elections. I wore the uniform because I believe in giving back, I vote for the same reason.
You are perfect for Michigan. If only they’d listen to you.
What do I believe? Well, I think Whitney articulated this best –
I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way, so them all the beauty they possess inside. Give them a sense of pride to make it easier…
That is all that is really needed, right…
Wait, I thought you believed that she had dumps like a truck truck truck/
Thighs like what what what.
I believe that we DO have a societal obligation to those in need. I believe that if we as a society want nice things such as roads and bridges we have to PAY for them. I believe that student aid and mass transit can change lives. I believe that no one should have to sacrifice their phyisical, dental, or mental health because proper treatment is financially out of reach. I believe that everyone should have the same rights as I-to get married, be miserable, and get divorced
I believe that separation of church and state protects BOTH.
I believe in balance. Neither pure capitalism nor pure socialism works in practice; human greed always taints an otherwise plausible socioeconomic theory. There must be enough of one to keep the other in check.
I believe we need to remember sweatshops and robber barons.
I believe I need another coffee.
I like the idea of balance. But capitalism seems to forget about balance and focus on selfish interests. And that makes us better than everyone else, right?
I live on the red side of a blue state (more people on the blue side = more Democrats in office which pisses off the righties over here.) As one of two left-leaning people in my small office, I don’t talk about politics much at work. There’s one person I can opine to and can generally get him off his soap box with one two-word interogatory: “What…specifically…..” For example when he says, “We need to get our freedoms back!” I ask “What freedoms, specifically, have we lost in the last two years??” That will shut him up and I can get back to work.
We need to get our freedoms back from
the chinese
the muslims
the communists
the blacks
the mexicans
the puerto ricans (who are technically american)
Believe me, I know this discussion and I empathize.
I’ve long argued that SHRM has helped stunt the political growth of members by telling them what they should believe rather than truly educating. I know the lines I’ve always been given are that they research it and poll members before taking a position.
Whatever.
Look at those e-mails: OPPOSE SB 1040!!! CALL YOUR SENATOR RIGHT AWAY WITH THIS FORM LETTER WE ARE PROVIDING.
That’s what the end member sees, SHRM. That, along with some sort of faux neutrality that HR is supposed(?) to take, are the major factors that hold HR back from taking on a decent position.
Obviously, it’s also the individual’s fault for not seeing through that but that’s such a tired argument. Why can’t we take care of some of the stupid contributing factors?
I understand how an association wants its members to take a position, but I hate it when the association takes positions that aren’t in the interests of its members.
Educating your members — in any association — means that you trust them to make good decisions. And we don’t trust easily in HR.
I am so tired of politics to be honest. It’s the same old garbage. I vote in every election, I educate myself to what those politicians “say” they believe and am disappointed every time. What I believe is that until we get our act together as a people and get rid of these career politicians, demand term limits on every position, demand campaing spending limits, demand that we start to take care of our own people first, demand that our politicans have the same retirement and health benefits they force on us, things will never change. The problem is, there is not ONE politician out there that would go for anything I beleive in or have a rats chance of winning in any election.
Oh I beleive that no political ad should ever be able to say “I am so and so and I support this message” because no you really don’t.
So the answer is to run for office, right?
Except that I’m unelectable.
Sigh.
I wonder how many of the 78% of Americans who follow politics are really just watching horribly polarizing news shows on either Fox or MSNBC and then saying, “Oh yeah I know all about politics!”
Hey now I watch MSNBC. I also listen to POTUS and fall asleep to CSPAN. So I’m a partisan geek.
But I know what you mean. “I heard from G Gordon Liddy…”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that.
Happy to see I’m not the only person who likes POTUS. My radio rarely leaves that station! Can forgive you for C-Span – who doesn’t want to watch House proceedings go on for hours on end?!
I’ll admit to watching MSNBC once in a while, but I largely lost interest once Olbermann went from the left to “generally frothing at the mouth at all times”. His piece on “love” (regarding opposition to gay marriage) was fantastic though.
Being partisan is fine! Just so long as you’re willing to reach across the aisle for the good of your fellow citizens!
There’s $1.8 trillion of available money and companies are still waiting about healthcare, retirement, and taxes? No company can figure out how to dispense that and they’re blaming Obama? I understand if you’re company is productive, you don’t need anymore employees, but blame it on Obama? Something tells me this is more political than actually doing the right thing for your company.
Agreed. They’re waiting him out.
I try to be pretty straight forward in my dealings with people (family, friends, employees, random people and random idiots on the street) and my biggest problem with politics in general is that politicians don’t do that. Rarely do I hear a politico say – I hear you, I think it is This for this reason and we’re going to do This because it is in the best interest of the most people involved.
Like Jerry Seinfeld said about men wanting the TV remote. We know whats on…we want to see what Else is on. Politicians are the same way. We got elected now we want to do what we can to get re-elected.
As for your grandmother listening to Bush Limbush, she is wrong (nope, it doesn’t matter that she thinks it’s ok, she’s wrong). Don’t know her and I’m sure she’s awesome in every other way, but she’s wrong about this one. Of course I’m not one to really talk. I used to flip the channels for my grandmother and she’d say – “Oh, that’s a good picture, leave that”, when I found something in black and white. No grandma, that’s a black and white video on MTV, you probably don’t want to watch that.
LOL, I know my gramma is wrong. Just don’t tell her.
Also, I love how just about everything in life can be traced back to an episode of Seinfeld.
I have never voted PURELY out of political indifference (…and the overt lies, corruption and greed that permeates American politics).
This is the very first year I’ve ever registered to vote— and that’s to legalize marijuana, period.
Wow. You’re motivated.
I believe in totalitarianism, with me as dictator.
Where that is not possible, I believe in representative democracy, with high income-tax rates for the very top earners. All federal taxes should be subject to deductions for any state or local tax paid, to keep the various taxing authorities from piling on. There is no way to earn millions/billions without massive society wide investments to provide you with educated workers, moneyed consumers, and the infrastructure to make it all possible.
Aristocracy will always form, rise and seek to dominate , and it must be held back by a rigid rule of law that applies to every level, with some level of forced social mixing with the lower orders in the key institutions: the military, schools, and businesses. That’s why I believe in the military draft, with no exceptions or exemptions, and why charter schools are mostly steaming piles of bullshit.
What has gone wrong in America is rotten governance (see O.J. Simpson Trial, free torture pass for Cheney, destruction of the 4th amendment, et al.) and an obsolete/maladapted center-right philosophy in essential political control for 30 years.
The current ‘socialist’ in charge is actually conservative, and the ‘conservatives’ gunning for him are actually radical fascists, but one side is committed to lies and violence, and the other is not. One side has been acting in bad faith, and until that is resolved (took a civil war last time), I don’t have hopes for much improvement. See Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech for a preview of where we are.
The notional democratic majority has never been filibuster proof, but it would be hopeless anyway, because it is bought and owned by various interests. The real future of our politics will be a fight between left- libertarians and right- libertarians as the weed-hating, big-man-in-the-sky fearing monochromatic fundies die-off or become electorally marginalized and the big money boyz balance each other out because access is universal.
They won’t go easy.
PS I think it’s a bad idea to mix business and politics – you can form meaningful bonds with people without doing it.
Holy crap. This is brilliant and hilarious and kind of interesting. Imma read this a few more times, but honestly, this is so cynical it hurts my eyes. Love it.
PS – I can’t form meaningful bonds with you unless I know your politics. Now we’re bonded, yo.
Great post Laurie. I think you are right on that people need to get in the game. When I watch Fox news I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I live in AZ where even with 18% real unemployment most folks seem to think the pressing issue is illegal immigration. The other good news if you are 21 and have never been convicted of a felony you can carry a concealed weapon with a permit… I guess that’s to protect yourself from the illegal aliens..
I don’t think you have to be in people’s face about your positions, but you need to be informed enough to have one.. I actually ran for political office, it was very “educational”. One of the litmus tests was gay marriage. I told them position was neutral, but I was “anti discrimination” and as a parent and a former HR practioner I had a hard time drawing the line about where it is appropropriate to draw the line. No kids it isn’t right to judge people because of their color, but it is ok to judge for their sexual orientation…. what the f…?
Maybe I am reading more into this then you intended, but to me what you are saying to HR people is “if you want to sit at the big kids table you actually have to develop a spine and take positions on issues”
Things are fucked up, the economy, health care, etc; but if you don’t participate then we get the government we deserve.
I won’t work for or with organizations that don’t value people, period. I don’t work with “human capital” I work with people. Capital is inanimate you expend it or hoard it…
I would never talk about a table, but yes, I’m talking about activism.
I think I was ‘this close’ (thumb and forefinger millimeters apart) to coming to harsh blows with some HR peeps at a lunch meeting. We were discussing the option of, as a group, supporting/opposing a statement recognizing respect for ‘diversity’ characteristics. Not a law; not a new compliance mandate. Nothing but a statement based on valuing other human beings But the vast majority of the group invoked the “bad for business” mantra that HR likes to hide behind and felt that supporting something that referenced respect for all people was too controversial and not in line with support for business. I get mad all over again just thinking about it.
OMG, it’s so controversial to be a decent human being. We might lose a few bucks on that one.
Sheesh. Don’t get mad. Get even. Piss them off with a supremely stupid comment at the next meeting.
Locally, it’s impossible to find any information on candidates. Voters pretty much just walk party line (like they do nationally?) but what alternative is there if local candidates don’t get the support or funding to promote themselves? We have a local paper which endorsed candidates for 23 legislative positions; 22 were for the same party.
Running a campaign is expensive. You’re talking $15k for a small campaign after you put out money for t-shirts, signs, and mailers just so people know your NAME, much less a website and graphic designers and PR people to help you frame your message. Oh, and petitions! You have to go walking for hours upon hours just to get your name on the ballot! You can walk to every house in your district to talk to people and it may not mean jack shit if most of them lean towards the other party. I’ve seen this first hand, and it’s truly disheartening.
Or consider this: was the stimulus a good idea? People scream and yell about it in the tea party. It seems that most of the economists say so (I’m talking about real economists from Harvard and Stanford, not the flakes that show up for 5 minutes on most of the news and business channels). However, other economists would make damn good arguments that the stimulus was a bad idea because we’re simply delaying the inevitable; that we’d be better off by putting forth legislation that prevented off-shoring of jobs and corporate accounts. I think the stimulus was a good idea, but damn it all, it seems superfluous when what really needs to be done is a complete overhaul of the way America operates internally and internationally.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I totally agree with you.
Okay, I need to go cry in a corner now.
There’s no crying in politics!!
That’s what you think!
I want Pastor Terry to stop drinking and the people in a small town in my area of service to stop with the campaign to pass an English only ordinance. I want people to stop believing in regurgitated Marduk and Tiamat and take accountability for their lives without excuse and stop wasting time on false hope of another chance. Since they won’t, I want interfaith forums on an international level to address intolerance, inhumane law and treatment of women and children. I want people to read the DOL Occupational Outlook for 2008-2018 BEFORE they all say they want to work in PR. I want more time or the need for less sleep because I have a lot I want to do and I’m just past halfway to the end. There’s more but I don’t want to hijack your blog Laurie.
I love it. You can hijack it. And I’m with you on PR. Sigh.
I consider myself a socially liberal but moderate fiscal conservative libertarian. I think we totally need to revamp our version of capitalism so smaller companies have the resources they need to produce innovative new products, and we need to stop rewarding giant corporations that produce nothing but fancy math to game the system. Our kids need an education system that rewards hard work and teaches them more than how to take tests and become a mediocre office worker or cashier. And we need to stop letting the Rush Limgbaggage’s and Glenn Beck’s get more attention than they deserve. And govt. has no business in areas of personal morality or love or privacy or reproductive rights. And the extreme religious right do not have the right to turn our country into a Dominionist nation. And if conservatives want to be taken seriously, they need to get someone more intelligent than Palin as a cheerleader.
This is a good position statement and I’m 100% with you on Palin.
Hi Laurie – since you’ve asked for people to share what they believe, I’ll step up to the plate. And thanks to everyone who has commented for allowing differing opinions here as well – first time I’ve seen something like this without people destroying one another in replies
Laurie I think you know where I stand on most things. I think motivation for change is something that way too many of us overlook (does one want change to make a difference, or change to prove a point?). Just because we have a right to do something doesn’t mean doing it is right. Yet, I believe in the inherent goodness of people when they are not forced into benevolence. I think we never really grow up; we don’t like doing things we’re forced to by law, we are more inclined to attempt to do things we’re not supposed to (i.e. breaking laws established for our ‘own good’) and I think most new laws passed are just people’s passive aggressive tendencies and lack of willingness (or ability) to have civil conversations with one another and meet in the middle (i.e. the recently proposed ‘saggy pants’ law in GA).
Laws are like iPhone apps these days – don’t like the way someone looked at you? There’s a law(app) for that. Feel the need to impose your way of thinking on others? There’s a law(app) for that. We’ve become afraid to talk to each other because we cannot respect each other or the fact that we have differing opinions. I think that passing laws to force people to accept one thing or another creates a lose-lose situation; try education first. All we can do for each other is provide knowledge; people must come to their own conclusions based on knowledge and education. THAT I respect, regardless of whether I agree with the individual or not.
I don’t care for either side’s personal interpretations of human rights to fit the moment. I don’t care for either side’s hypocritical interpretations of law and order. I don’t like being lumped into a generalization simply because of who I am and what ideals I adhere to (i.e. I am not a cold, heartless b**** because I did not support the recent version of healthcare reform that passed).
But what I like the least is that we are uncomfortable sharing these things with others because it’s not ‘socially acceptable’. I’ve lost friends over the last couple of years because they couldn’t handle being associated with someone having a different opinion. We (collectively) don’t respect each other any more. Any time the topic of politics comes up, you have the group of people who roll their eyes, the group who are very vocal about what they believe in and are quick to shut down anyone who disagrees with them (again, both sides are guilty of this), and the people who say nothing because they don’t want to be lambasted yet again.
What needs to happen is that we need to facilitate non-judgmental dialogue amongst people. Encourage people to talk about why they think the way they do without being accusatory or belittling people based on what they believe. Getting to know each other is step one. I get pissed off when people don’t take the time to learn about others and why we believe the different things we believe. Isn’t our business the business of people, anyhow? We all have reasons for believing what we believe – and if we don’t, then 1) time to start thinking for yourself instead of what everyone tells you to think, and 2) a perfect opportunity to educate.
By the way, I am fiscally and socially conservative, and I lean Libertarian. I live in the Pacific NW so I’m kind of in the minority up here. I live well below my means and give generously to numerous charities, both faith-based and secular, because I want to, not because I am forced to, and because in my mind it is the right thing to do. And I think a flat tax would solve a lot of problems – starting with this growing problem of lack of personal responsibility. Pay taxes on that which you personally consume – perhaps that would encourage us to put some more thought into what we “need” vs. what we “want” in the first place.
Awesome comment. No one beats anyone up around here.
As I get older, I lean libertarian. That’s so weird for me to write because I still have political allegiances to the Democratic Party — but I understand why Americans own guns.
I find myself turning into an old man screaming, “Get off my lawn, out of my life, and out of my pocketbook.”
I seldom talk about my political views. I am very passionate about them and I believe they are formulated with care and reason. So, when someone else tells me about their political beliefs, more often that not I am disappointed to learn that the incredibly intelligent person before me transformed themselves into a gibbering idiot.
I am pretty hardcore liberal, though I am not a “bleeding heart” liberal. I believe the government has no business in our bedrooms, marriages, and places of worship (or lack thereof).
I believe that every human being has the right to life and liberty. But I also believe that sometimes individuals can forfeit that right and hence must die through military or judicial action.
I believe that every woman should have the right to choose whether to continue a pregnancy. But I also believe that humans should not be allowed to make babies willy-nilly.
I believe the conservative movement of the past 15 years or so is insincere and has put their political success before the livelihood of the American people. But I also believe that we Americans are stupid enough to vote for people that lie to them on a daily basis, hence deserve what we get.
And sadly, since some of those gibbering idiots will likely read my resume at some point, I am leaving my comment anonymously.
Makes sense. I hear you. I believe we have to many gibbering idiots in the world.
I’m a Chomskyan spy in the house o’ love. This keeps me conflicted on a daily basis, since HR is pretty much all about manufacturing consent. I stick with it because I believe it’s still possible to achieve meaningful, constructive change working from the inside.
love this for 100 reasons