an HP day the HP way

     So some of you have bee asking, "What does Katie do again?"  "What is this sweet gig that got her to London?" "Does she work? ... because she certainly hasn't been blogging out it?..." :)
     So let me be the first to clear up any misconceptions. The job is nothing amazing.  Most of you know I'm in an HR rotational program with HP so they move me every 6 months or so. I started in Palo Alto with Executive & Leadership Development. Now I'm over here in the UK doing HR Global Operations for Enterprise Services (recently acquired 'EDS' the company founded by Ross Perot).  Pretty much it's  fancy title to say I'm an HR Generalist. So basically, I am the HR support for the "Apps" division (I still don't really know what "Apps" are... don't tell my boss)... but I'm supporting them nonetheless.  Unfortunately, a lot of my work right now involves WFR's (workforce reductions)... in other words, layoffs. I can't say it's anything I'm really proud of ... in fact, when people I meet ask me what I do, I try to muffle it under my breath... But really about 75% of my time is spent doing layoffs or negotiating the terms of severance agreements.  The other 25% is dealing with any kind of randomness coming from the 200 or so managers I support.
Here are just a few crazy highlights from last week:
     1.  Learning of an investigation of a UK employee who slept with an American employee at a recent leadership summit.  And... when starting the investigation learning that the UK employee was off on "holiday" because he was getting married!!!
     2.  A manager calling to ask for support and coaching with his team... since one of his employees, "Steve" was soon to become "Stephanie" over the weekend.  (Really?!!  I have no idea how to deal with these situations people.. I don't even want to think about them!)
     3. And finally getting news Friday afternoon from the Unions informing me that hundreds of our employees would be going on strike this week (more Union negotiations... awesome...)
     The good news about all of this is that I'm learning a ton. And I'm learning what I really don't like about HR (on a side note...there's a good chance I'll be re-evaluating my own career choice after London...but that will come after London)
     But also last week, I got a call from a good friend, colleague & mentor in Australia. He wanted to see how I was doing in my new role. Because we're quite authentic with one another, I shared some of my frustrations and he responded, "Katie, I always enjoyed working with you because you are an idealist. Undoubtedly you were drawn to HR because you believed in the potential of people, of employees, of organizations. You love to see people grow, develop, lead.  But part of the job is also seeing the other side..working with employees who make poor choices, dealing with the implications... sometimes forced to be in the middle of the conflict. Your job is to continue to lead with a higher vision."
     So I'm not sure how well an "idealist" fits into corporate America.... but he is right.  He knows exactly why I was drawn to HR. He hit it right on the head.  And for now, I'm going to suck it up & take his challenge to "lead with higher vision."  Wish me luck!