Music News: Something Wicked This Way Comes

First of all, I heard Madonna's new song with Justin Timberlake & Timbaland called "4 minutes." I am praying this is a dream. This is the worst thing I ever heard that Madonna has ever done....ever. Is she hurting for money, attention, or what? Why is she hanging out with these two? Frankly T&T are running out of steam with the same beats. Please Madonna, don't put this out. Store it away in a closet like Prince did with the Black Album. Whatever you do, just don't follow your husband down the path of massive pop culture mistakes. Surely you remember the early 90's when you sucked & everyone hated you.

Secondly, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, said about his lawsuit with Virgin, that they have"irreparably harmed the group, their reputation and goodwill with their fans." Ha-ha-ha. All that started happening when you realized your falsetto brings hits, you released one pretentious album after another starting with Mellon Collie, and fired James Iho & Darcy whats-her-name. Hire them back, grow your hair back & stop acting like a baby and maybe people will care again.

Uncool alert: I watch American Idol. And even though I know AI isn't all that; it's just a popularity contest; it's still fun water cooler conversation. Anyway, Dave Cook's rendition of "Billie Jean" was .... I know I am going out on a super uncool in a Pitchfork kind of way limb here.....truly very good. Actually it was the best thing I have heard on the show. And I could not wait to hear it again. I did. It still rocked. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.

The Trouble with Tribbles

When I'm not writing about something HR-related, I will probably be ranting about the Music Industry or raving about some new music that I can't stop playing.

Here is a rant on the Music Industry. First of all, why should I care? Because I spent 10 years working in it. By the time I was done with it (some may say it was done with me) it was common for me to express this opinion, "the music industry will go by the way of canals. It's out worn it's welcome." It really surprised me how very few people wanted to hear this. Some actually were very upset, as if the music industry was like the sun and moon, parts of our life that had been around forever. Secondly, why should I care now? Bitter, table for one? Perhaps. More likely, I am not a fan of whining.

A new colleague introduced me to Seth Godin by giving me a copy of his book, "Purple Cow." (BTW, anyone doing a job search, hint HR Wench, should read this) Seth has some very definitive things to say about the music industry which hit the nail right on the head. Here is an excerpt,

"For years, the record business has been dominated by a few major players, and they work hard to follow each other's lead. The labels have similar pricing, merchant policies, contracts, and packaging. Each label avoids criticism by sticking with the pack.

But when the market changes - when technology reshuffles the deck - the record labels are all in trouble. With no practice leading, no practice trying the unknown, they're trapped, panicked, and in serious trouble. Their trade organization, the RIAA, is spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to legislation to keep the world just the way it is. In the long run, of course, they'll fail. You can't keep the world the way it is, even if you buy the influence of Congress."

(And as far as I'm concerned I really don't care that the RIAA goes after P2P users. No matter what you call it, it's called stealing. Put a dress on a pig and it's still a pig. So to those getting nasty letters in the mail, saying you owe $xxxx, suck it up.)

But the RIAA puts out press releases every couple of months that make the online newspapers as well as the local TV morning news about the slump in CD sales and it's all because of the Internet and downloading. Frankly anyone who knows the facts knows their press releases are all lies and propanganda trying to salvage the careers of overbloated industry moguls.

Unfortunately you can't see the tears I'm crying.

To be continued....

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Currently FMLA regulations do not specifically require employers to provide employees with information detailing the amount of leave designated as FMLA leave. Employers just need to notify the employee that leave has been designated and will be counted as FMLA leave. The recent case of Edwards v. Heathcraft, Inc. No. 7:05-cv-36 (HL), 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11596 (M.D. Ga. Feb. 15, 2008), upheld this regulation.

But as every HR professional knows (because you read the 130 pg, triple column, smallest font in the world, Federal Register on proposed rule changes for FMLA. God knows I didn't. I'm waiting for the HBO mini-series) that the DOL has proposed revising the notice provisions by adding the requirement (825.300(c)(1)) that employers tell employees the number of hours, days or weeks of leave that have been designated.

Oh my, did I just hear a collective whine?

Frankly I support this idea and our office just implemented this practice last year. In fact we go to the extent of informing them of when they will exhaust their paid leave time, what happens to their benefits, when their benefits will expire and/or all the necessary relevant situations that could occur in the future as a result of their leave. Of course this only really works with non-intermittent leave. And it works best if an employer requires employees to use paid leave first before going on unpaid leave, which we do.

It can work greatly to the employer's advantage. I perceive it in the same way, employers use a panel of doctors for WC. If the employee is closely monitored and they know they are closely monitored, they have more incentive to return to work. In this case, they are definitely aware of their status. Employees waste less time returning to work because they value their accumulated paid leave time.

Is this a lot of work to figure out when, if and how? Yes. But once you make the calculations, the onus is on the employee. They'll make better informed choices about their leave. And return to work as quickly as possible, avoiding the temptation to abuse the FMLA system.

Bob Sutton hates Kevin Spacey

Not really. It's just that I've been reading Bob Sutton's book, The No Asshole Rule and it reminded me of the movie, Swimming with the Sharks. Kevin is definitely an asshole.

Read the book, watch the movie...it may make you feel better. It does for me. Bob's book is making me remember that my work life is not nearly as bad as most people I know.

It's all fun & games (March Madness, that is) until someone doesn't return my call.

I just came across this article published in the L.A. Times a year ago, written by Molly Selvin entitled "More employers allowing some March Madness at work." The article sites two companies that have given into the idea that instead of fighting their staff's lack of interest in work during the three weeks of the NCAA championship, it gladly supports it. Worse yet, it's considered "an opportunity to boost morale." What a bunch of bunk.
When using the rationale that...
"With 24/7 e-mail and Internet access fuzzing the line between home and office, employees are spending as much as 36 minutes a day, or three hours a week, checking their bank balances, arranging child care, watching TV and cyber-shopping from their desk,...."
and
"Some workers will spend as long as two hours a day tracking the NCAA tournament games.." it's just best to give in and/or give up.
Oh, wait a minute, I forgot, when I am at work, I'm supposed to be...what was that again?...yes, that's right....WORKING!
When I read these articles that glorifiy slacking, I am left with a misunderstanding of the modern work world.
From this article, I gather
1) Sports are the most important thing in everyone's life.
2) Being concerned about retaining "talent" is not the same as retaining productive workers.

The other thought I had about this, what if I were a client or customer of either of these companies and I found out my requested service was being put aside because the company wants to make sure that all their employees are enjoying the NCAA tournament. I am fairly certain I would not be feeling to motivated to be a return customer.

One of the companies that was mentioned in the article was a Maryland based banking firm, First Commonwealth Funding. So I tried to reach them today to see how business was going, in lieu of all the wonderfully inspired employees they must have. I discovered their website is down, their 800-phone line rings busy and their regular phone line doesn't ring, the line just goes down. Now either
1) Business is so good, they don't have time for new customers, or
2) Everyone in the office is installing TV's and sound systems for the big games.

Personal phone calls, internet usage, birthday cakes, staff outings, etc. are all quick diversions. But can you imaging TV's in your workplace? Playing sports games, listening to co-workers cheer & talk obsessively about it? If this is a company's way to motivate, it obviously has more problems than retention.

My last thought on this is that, the rationalization that managers use this to motivate is probably just a thinly disguised way of legitamizing their own need to slack off.

Here is the link to the entire article: http://www.latimes.com/classified/jobs/news/la-fi-madness14mar14,0,1904286.story

Marla... the little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it, but you can't.

The first thing I want to share is some self inflicted pain I caused myself. While driving recently in a rental car, I had no way of plugging in my mp3 player. So for my hour drive, I listened to the FM radio; scanning the frequencies for a recognizable song that would make the drive more pleasant. When a commercial or an unbearable song broke the rhythm of one station, I simple pressed the scan button and went onto the next. And then it happened. The unbearable song that caught me it's death grip. It started out simple enough, a catchy discoey drum beat & a funky bass line & then a little candy keyboard line floated in. I knew this song. But who was it? I figured it was a 70's soft-rock band, like Ambrosia (after the first album.) And I just could not turn it off; I had to know. Then the guitar riff started & soon after the vocals, "Spending all my nights, All my money going out on the town." I knew this frigging song! And I knew I hated this song! But I did not know what it was! And then the chorus came like a tidal wave of nausea, memories of junior high & jukeboxes in bowling alleys..."Baby come back, any kind of fool can see." And there is was, all was revealed: Player-"Baby Come Back." Since I was in it, I stayed for the whole crap fest of a song.
Now why is this important for a blog entry? Simply because this happened 3 days ago and that song is still stuck in my head.
So people, here is my first bit of advice. Silence is golden. Don't let a horrible song ruin your weekends. If you hear it, and you know it, and you hate it: Turn it off.
But if you just can't resist....here is Player, ripping it up.

Dr. Smoot's Healthy Advice on Human Resources and Popular Music

What the world needs now is another blog, like it needs a hole in the head. Yet here is where I come in. As opposed to posting on the blogs of others, I just have to much to say on my own. Hopefully this blog is viewed and is helpful to those seeking advice, relevancy & some humor in the world of Human Resouces and Popular Music.