This is my first foray into the mist of CIPD online discussions and I have to admit to being a bit disappointed with the quality of some discussion for debate.
Not to say that the items listed are not relevant but I think it would be better to have an 'advice section' for those individuals who have simple questions about practice to be answered?
Then the space for discussions can be recogised and valued more as one where real debate will occur.
Headache Cure (Male Version):
Tell Domestic Goddess (D-G) you have a headache: If no sympathy forthcoming immediately, struggle to feet offering to fix the creaking board in the bedroom floor she's been nagging about for six months. Struggle to shed with many gasps and groans of pain and suitable weaving to demonstrate blurred vision; fetch toolbox and various jars of nails etc.
Stagger upstairs clinging to banisters with one hand and balancing tools etc unsteadily with the other. Enter bedroom (It is important at this stage to eschew all offers of help). Drag bedroom furniture around with adequate noise and further groans of pain. Draw back carpet exposing loose board.
Take nail; hold to board. Take hammer; aim at nail. Miss, striking thumb.....
At this point pain from headache will cease to be noticeable and, if you have carried out the rest of this procedure correctly, D-G will rapidly ascend stairs with load cries of sympathy and remorse at having forced you to fix board in your weakened state.
Milk for rest of day while lying on sofa with hot tea (or something stronger) and further helpings of loving care and sympathy from D-G. Recover by bedtime. (It is most inadvisable for males to mention having a headache at bedtime as this may infringe a long-standing D-G prerogative).
(If uncertain how to milk situation refer to chapter one, paragraph three, of handbook "How to be a Man" received at puberty by all Martians and available at all good men-only bookstores.)
Warning: DO NOT allow this guidance to be found by D-G. Penalties for ignoring this warning are too terrible to speak of and may cause permanent harm.......
A Nonny Mouse.
Dear Nonny Mouse
Are male only bookstores being addressed in the Single Equalities Act?
Curious of HR
As somebody who has never reported in to an HR Director or had any HR colleagues (as a stand-alone HR Manager), I can feel very isolated - it would be nice to be able to have face-to-face discussions with somebody else in HR however this is the next best thing!!. I find these discussions immensely helpful and informative. Whenever I need to research an issue this is often the first place I will look.
It helps me to know whether I am thinking along the right lines when colleagues post problems and they are discussed, often at great length, by those with a vast amount of knowldge and, more importantly, experience in those areas.
I also value greatly the support from colleagues here. As I said, being in a stand alone position is often very isolating!
I am certainly not disappointed with the discussions.
Heather :-)
Another most-valid contribution, Heather.
This ties in aptly with just what I was reflecting the other day - what a meaningless concept 'quality of discussions' really is !
What frame of reference ought one to use ??
- intellectual rigour and challenge ?
- cutting-edge HR practice ?
- scholarly / academic prowess ?
One might point a finger at say The Sun newspaper and say that their quality of reporting, especially of political and economic events, is rubbish.
Perhaps so: if that's what a reader seeks, then perhaps they should go read The Times or The Economist.
The fact remains that, like it or loathe it, The Sun provides most of its readers in general with all that they require of a newspaper....
In similar vein, our Communities might be regarded as the work-related Facebook of CIPD members, and, unsurprisingly, it covers the entire spectrum of personalities / levels of expertise / levels of tolerance / senses of 'humour' / lightheartedness / pomposity etc etc etc
Not much point bemoaning this fact - it's somewhat inevitable that such a diverse / motley bunch allied with the similar nature of 'HR' problems will result in such a diverse and motley range of discussions.
Rather, the question perhaps ought to be: Is reading and / or participating-in Communities Discussions at least sometimes useful in undertaking my tasks at work ?
Heather for one has I think given the answer.
You are absolutely right David and I think the "problem" some readers have with "Communities" is resolving the apparent paradox of reading material of the accuracy and authority of the "Times" sometimes presented in the terminology of the "Sun" (if not the Dandy and Beano....sorry, I'm showing my age again by my choice of comics aren't I) ...occasionally mixed up Sun-level myth and rumour!
It's a bit like meeting your GP in the street dressed in a T-shirt and jeans when your mental image of how they "should" look is in the suit etc. they wear in the Surgery!
Heather's comment makes what I feel is an essential point, however: That communities does more than simply provide answers like an on-line text-book; it is people it is debate and disagreement and consensus and compromise: It is a guide not a pathway but it is also a point of contact showing that the words are not edited fact-checked text but someone else suffering the same problems you are having, being irritated by the same issues, facing the same imponderables.
...and sometimes the same interests, tastes, senses of humour or the ridiculous and perhaps even philosophies and values as you.
The answers may not be textbook or all "PC"; the words may be Latin or Chav; but it is what it says it is: a Community; where no-one is excluded and no-one need be professionally alone.
(...And more serious discussions can always go "off site" through the "contact" links)
I wish it had been here when I started off in HR!
Peter
Many thanks for sharing that Heather - and to David and Peter for their follow ups!
Not only are these discussions helpful in practical terms (there original intention), but they have evolved into a de facto peer-to-peer support network as well.
Steve
