A sad baseball night in New York as the Yankees and Mets both lose one-run games against their arch-rivals. So how about some great HR articles instead?
-CNN has a great article up on how significant others should react when their men get laid off -- but they still have a job. Some great advice there.
-24 Hours Vancouver is next with some advice not to lie on your resume because it'll come back to haunt you.
-Next, the Zanesville Times Recorder writes about mandated sick leave. It may not have passed in Ohio, but it is has a chance of becoming a national law.
-You have some questions for HR? Well the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an "Ask HR"
-Lastly, Business Management Daily says that while HR salaries weaken, comp and benefit pays have grown.
Let's hope tomorrow is a better night for New York baseball...
Showing posts with label Mets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mets. Show all posts
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Supporting NY and the 'Stache
We find it hard to disguise our love of baseball here on the Astron Blog and with both Mets and Yankees fans on the team, we decided to give some extra help to those teams. We've added on the right side of the blog, a voting widget so you can vote for whoever you want (or Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees and David Wright of the New York Mets). We're located in New York, but won't give away who we're voting for (Giambi and Wright).
Amazingly, the Yankees and the American Mustache Institute (not even remotely kidding) have endorsed Jason Giambi as the AL candidate: click here
Giambi's mustache has gotten so popular it's become an icon at the
stadium: click here
And it even has it's own blog: click here
David Wright hasn't resorted to the 'Stache [yet], but we'll give him the nod, as well--for John.
It has nothing to do with HR...but we urge you to support New York...
Monday, June 23, 2008
Executive Decisions
We're sorry we missed some of these articles, but we want to get back to you in style her at the Astron blog...
First, an old article recently reprinted in the Wall Street Journal gives some hints about what employers are seeking in Human Resource Executives: click here
Human Resource Executive Online follows up with an article about disclosing executive-pay goals: click here
HR Daily Advisor follows up on a recent SHRM discussion about when safety and religion collide: click here
Job Journal has an article about America's declining job readiness, a topic we have discussed on the blog before: click here
And lastly, following up on one of our big stories from last week...Jerry Manuel, the New York Mets new coach now has called the Mets fans a big pile of fertilizer (courtesy of the New York Post via FOX Sports on MSN): click here
This is an organization that's in need of some work...
First, an old article recently reprinted in the Wall Street Journal gives some hints about what employers are seeking in Human Resource Executives: click here
Human Resource Executive Online follows up with an article about disclosing executive-pay goals: click here
HR Daily Advisor follows up on a recent SHRM discussion about when safety and religion collide: click here
Job Journal has an article about America's declining job readiness, a topic we have discussed on the blog before: click here
And lastly, following up on one of our big stories from last week...Jerry Manuel, the New York Mets new coach now has called the Mets fans a big pile of fertilizer (courtesy of the New York Post via FOX Sports on MSN): click here
This is an organization that's in need of some work...
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Letterman Weighs In
One more and then we'll leave the Mets alone for now:
From David Letterman, on the firing of Willie Randolph (via Jason Stark of ESPN.com's blog: click here):
From David Letterman, on the firing of Willie Randolph (via Jason Stark of ESPN.com's blog: click here):
- "Willie is pretty good about it. He said he's looking forward to spending more time at home being booed by his family."
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Accountability in the Clubhouse
More on the Mets after Jennifer's great post...
The headlines aren't pretty: click here and here
And even Jon Stewart and the Daily Show have gotten into it:
And the articles about how poorly this was executed were numerous to say the least: click here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here (we'll stop here to be nice)
Willie Randolph's mother even got her opinion in here via the Journal News: click here
Journal News Beat Writer Peter Abraham thinks (and has thought) that the Mets need a Vice President of Common Sense: click here
But maybe one of the topics we need to be talking about, especially as HR Professionals, are how little accountability gets taken in this situation. The truth is that the easiest person to fire in sports is always the manager or head coach. But why wasn't it the owners faults? Or the players faults? Or, most glaringly, the General Manager's fault?
In sports (unlike a lot of other places in life) players cannot be simply and cheaply fired. In baseball, hockey and basketball you can waive or buy-out players but you still need to pay the entire amount of their contract. Football players can be waved but certain parts of salaries and bonuses still need to be paid and a certain salary cap hit still applies. Since most players that would actually change the tone of an underachieving team are the biggest stars, this can be an expensive and usually cost-prohibitive method. Trading a player is always an option but if a player is overpaid and underachieving you either get back another overpaid underachiever or pennies to the dollar in value for the guy you want to shed. A lot of marginal or young players end up getting moved because of the flexibility they retain in having a small contract. So the truth is that while the players have the largest impact by far on the end-product, and in a normal business they would be the first to go, the star players usually can escape the blame.
Owners don't fire themselves both in real life and on sports teams so that's out. But they write the checks and approve the deals and hire the General Manager, Manager and coaches.
General Managers seem to have a greater lifespan than managers (who also last longer than their coaches--who become sacrificial lambs at times). Omar Minaya showed that in this case. Minaya built the team and served as the axeman...but seemed to bear no responsibility in the end, even blaming the media in the end.
So it's the manager that goes and it brings up an issue for Human Resources: when things goes wrong and nobody is obviously solely to blame: who do you blame? who gets fired?
Many people feel like Minaya is next but the truth of the matter is that he should go just for how he handled the situation. Letting someone go is never easy to do but it should never be this difficult and drawn-out and messy and public. At this point, they are making the Yankees look like model citizens.
The headlines aren't pretty: click here and here
And even Jon Stewart and the Daily Show have gotten into it:
And the articles about how poorly this was executed were numerous to say the least: click here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here (we'll stop here to be nice)
Willie Randolph's mother even got her opinion in here via the Journal News: click here
Journal News Beat Writer Peter Abraham thinks (and has thought) that the Mets need a Vice President of Common Sense: click here
But maybe one of the topics we need to be talking about, especially as HR Professionals, are how little accountability gets taken in this situation. The truth is that the easiest person to fire in sports is always the manager or head coach. But why wasn't it the owners faults? Or the players faults? Or, most glaringly, the General Manager's fault?
In sports (unlike a lot of other places in life) players cannot be simply and cheaply fired. In baseball, hockey and basketball you can waive or buy-out players but you still need to pay the entire amount of their contract. Football players can be waved but certain parts of salaries and bonuses still need to be paid and a certain salary cap hit still applies. Since most players that would actually change the tone of an underachieving team are the biggest stars, this can be an expensive and usually cost-prohibitive method. Trading a player is always an option but if a player is overpaid and underachieving you either get back another overpaid underachiever or pennies to the dollar in value for the guy you want to shed. A lot of marginal or young players end up getting moved because of the flexibility they retain in having a small contract. So the truth is that while the players have the largest impact by far on the end-product, and in a normal business they would be the first to go, the star players usually can escape the blame.
Owners don't fire themselves both in real life and on sports teams so that's out. But they write the checks and approve the deals and hire the General Manager, Manager and coaches.
General Managers seem to have a greater lifespan than managers (who also last longer than their coaches--who become sacrificial lambs at times). Omar Minaya showed that in this case. Minaya built the team and served as the axeman...but seemed to bear no responsibility in the end, even blaming the media in the end.
So it's the manager that goes and it brings up an issue for Human Resources: when things goes wrong and nobody is obviously solely to blame: who do you blame? who gets fired?
Many people feel like Minaya is next but the truth of the matter is that he should go just for how he handled the situation. Letting someone go is never easy to do but it should never be this difficult and drawn-out and messy and public. At this point, they are making the Yankees look like model citizens.
What I’m Hearing…The “Midnight Massacre”
Late Monday night, New York Mets fired their Manager Willie Randolph. While this news is not entirely surprising – the rumors had been flying for quite some time – the manner in which it was handled is enough to make any HR professional cringe.
First the team’s owners let Mr. Randolph begin a road trip on the West Coast. They decided to fire him the next day, 2,500 miles away from home. After the team won their game against the Angels. At midnight, local time (3 AM EDT).
Not surprisingly, the Mets lost their game last night.
Terminating an employee is never an easy task. But when did common sense, respect, and manners make a quick exit from the process? The team’s owner claims that Willie Randolph is still his friend, but this was strictly a business issue. I hope none of my friends ever treat me like that.
Certainly every employee relations issue has many factors influencing the termination decision. And in many cases, termination is the only viable option for organizational success. For the most part, though, no one wants to lose their job. Nor do most people want to terminate employees. The more respectful and swift the process, in a comfortable environment, the better the outcomes should be for everyone.
First the team’s owners let Mr. Randolph begin a road trip on the West Coast. They decided to fire him the next day, 2,500 miles away from home. After the team won their game against the Angels. At midnight, local time (3 AM EDT).
Not surprisingly, the Mets lost their game last night.
Terminating an employee is never an easy task. But when did common sense, respect, and manners make a quick exit from the process? The team’s owner claims that Willie Randolph is still his friend, but this was strictly a business issue. I hope none of my friends ever treat me like that.
Certainly every employee relations issue has many factors influencing the termination decision. And in many cases, termination is the only viable option for organizational success. For the most part, though, no one wants to lose their job. Nor do most people want to terminate employees. The more respectful and swift the process, in a comfortable environment, the better the outcomes should be for everyone.
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