I’ve been doing speaking about Facebook recruiting lately. Probably because it’s a fairly new concept. And after these talks, I always get feedback from the audience.
Here’s the latest:
I think a more through (sp) process needs to be put into place when picking session speakers. Meredith Soleau lacks ETHICS! I understand Ed Schmidt is her first HR job, but before you speak in front of tenure PROFESSIONAL HR associates you should know right from wrong. What she does to recuit (sp) is just absolutely dishonorable!
Oops! It was probably unethical to put that comment on my site. Oh, well!
My brain wants to go like this when I look at that comment:
You don’t know me, fool! You don’t know about my ethics! You don’t know what’s in my heart! You never walked a mile in my shoes!
But I’m going to keep it together here, and try to teach you guys something new I’ve learned about nasty people.
Look, I don’t have some magic Facebook bullet that allows me to hack into people’s accounts. I can see where they work because they leave it open in their “About” section.
No one has ever, even once, while I am recruiting them told me that I went too far or that they didn’t like me. Do you know why? Because I am not some stuck-up HR snob, preaching policy from my HR ivory tower, and telling other people how perfect I am. I am extremely nice to my candidates, and I treat them all with respect. I tell them where I found them, and none of them care that I found them on Facebook, and none of them care that I called them at work.
So…
I don’t really care if you think I lack ethics (because I don’t). I care if I am getting my job done (because I am). And I care if the people I am recruiting find me ethical (because they do).
So take your professional HR tenure, and run an ethical help wanted ad in the newspaper or something. Good luck to you.
Now, I can sit here and stew over the fact that someone said nasty things about me (which is secretly what I want to do), or I can do what my new friend Erika Oliver taught me to do.
I can focus on the positive. Which is way more fun anyway.
Name Three Good Things
Erika Oliver talks about how she was very negative once in her life, and how focusing on the positive made her a better person.
A few weeks ago, I decided to test Erica’s positive and negative theory.
I asked Facebook two questions:
1. Name three good things. (52 comments and 41 likes)
2. Name three bad things. (60 comments and 16 likes)
I had an employee, Matt, who is my Facebook friend come up to me the day I asked about the bad things and say, “Meredith, what are you doing? Why would you even ask that? Yesterday was much better.”
And he’s right! Being positive makes us feel so much better! We even “like” these things more often on Facebook.
But we also love to complain. It’s so easy. We complain about everything, especially things we don’t like or understand. Like the lady who complained about me, and like the 60 comments of complaints on Facebook.
So that’s it for me. I can’t fix what she said about me. Yes, it makes me upset, but I am choosing to not let her get my panties in a bunch all day. Instead, I’m going to keep being positive.
Good Thing #1
I am getting booked like crazy to speak. I happen to be speaking on Wednesday to a bunch of attorneys about social media policies and why it’s not life and death, and something we need to police like crazy people, like lawyers and HR people tend to think.
Good Thing #2
I tell the truth when I speak. I don’t sugar coat any of it, and even comments like this will not make me sugar coat it. I tell these people exactly what I do, how I do it, what I say, and I leave nothing out. A lot of people have thanked me for putting the HR-BS aside, and just admitting what has worked and what has not worked.
Good Thing #3
Nike is trying to talk to me. So I must not suck that bad! They heard me speak in Vegas, and they would like to “chat”. I haven’t called them back. And I won’t.
I am not going anywhere so there’s no point in having that temptation. I happen to love working at Ed Schmidt. Not even Nike can pull me away. I tried leaving once, and we all know how that worked out.
But, it feels good to know that there are other companies (and major companies, at that) who like what I have to say in regards to HR and recruiting.
Oh, and once I applied to Google, just to see what their rejection looks like, and they still haven’t sent me one. So there is a slight chance that Google wants me, too. Maybe.
Can’t Nobody Break My Stride
I’m not going to let this bring me down. I’m choosing not to care, and I am choosing to laugh it off, and use her statement as my new opening slide whenever I speak. This way, whoever is thinking this in the crowd, knows I already know how to laugh it off when they get petty with me.
But I want you guys to feel better, too.
Tell me three good things going on with you right now.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Just traveled to the Detroit area and spent the last 36 hours with my floundering 18yr old niece – being a confidant and pseudo mother figure, because my brother and her mother and even her older sister have all but abandoned her. Trying to quit smoking and succeeding (for the most part). Currently doing my invalid mother’s laundry and will be food shopping for her later and then visiting and helping her accomplish that which she can’t do herself.
i find it hard to stay positive sometimes, but you are absolutely right – positivity breeds positivity. i type that or ‘posi posi posi’ on my facebook page once in a while when i feel like i need it.
1. i have a day off today and one of my best friends told me to ‘turn my brain off’. i have a smidge of homework to finish up but have allocated 30 minutes for that – and then i will not do anything of substance.
2. i have been researching better pet foods for my cats, and i feel great knowing that i’m giving them the best that i can to keep them as healthy as possible because i fucking love them so much.
3. my husband and i have been working on eating a more plant-based diet, and i don’t even want to eat meat! i feel great knowing i’m being so proactive in what i put in my body.
1 – I finally found a mentor at work that I like. Though I have a lot of work to do, I am excited.
2 – I got paid yesterday and get to pay my bills today. I’ll be broke this pay period, but at least I have a paycheck to pay bills with.
Yay positivity!