Human Relations

Early on, her passion for horses was also to be her career interest. But a random college course led to opening her eyes to a different path, which she pursued, always dedicated to learning the basics and nuances while she earned professional respect enabling her to zig and zag through several jobs until finding an interesting career. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND

SB was the youngest of two children. Her father had been a professional baseball player, later and longer involved in the commercial banking industry. Her mother was a homemaker and a talented artist. 

SB’s parents never tried to steer her in any adult career direction. She appreciates having had the freedom to pursue her early love of horses. 

CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

While SB’s parents indulged her love of horses by purchasing a horse for her to ride, along with paying its related barn and vet fees, SB also had the responsibility to groom the horse and muck its stall. She envisioned her adult future as somehow continuing to be involved with horses.

COLLEGE

SB’s father was not a college graduate but was still successful in his adult career. SB’s mother was a college graduate, focusing on fine arts but had not pursued such a career. Thus, there was no confirmed family history of college graduation which set a binding precedent for SB to pursue a college education. On her own initiative, SB enrolled in a two year, post high school program to pursue a degree in equine management toward a career in managing horse stables while being able to continue her passion for riding horses. However, not unusual for many college students, SB’s enrollment in a random college class involving a subject – sociology – unrelated to her major focus, opened her eyes to a potentially different career path focusing on people instead of horses, with potential career paths in human services, personnel or industrial relations.  

FIRST ADULT JOB NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT

Not yet having changed her initial career path, SB’s first job following graduation from the two-year, equine management program, was to assist the manager of a commercial horse stable business. As soon as she started, SB’s supervisor left for a vacation leaving SB solely in charge of mucking the many horse stalls. Vague ideas of a different career path then came sharply into focus, as SB said to herself: “This is not what I went to school for!” so after one week at this new job, SB quit, with a new career path in mind.

RETURNING TO COLLEGE TO RESET CAREER GOALS

With the idea of maintaining her love of horses while pursuing a different career path, SB promptly enrolled in a nearby, different, college program. Average class sizes were 13 students and 93% of its graduates were either promptly employed or pursued graduate school plus its tuition was relatively inexpensive so SB was pleased to enroll when the college accepted her first two years of college credits toward her potential Bachelor’s degree, focusing on human relations courses.

(Editor’s note – see separate career related story within this collection, entitled: “FOLLOW YOUR DREAM?! FOLLOW YOUR PASSION?!”)

POST COLLEGE HUNT FOR AN INTERESTING CAREER

SB has always liked to “make up her own mind” about things so she declined the opportunity to consult with the college’s career guidance office and pursued part-time employment to give her some office business experience while she continued to ponder an interesting career, knowing for certain only that she didn’t want to be an actual “social worker” dealing daily with other people’s significant problems. 

PART-TIME WORK MAY OR MAY NOT LEAD TO A FULL TIME CAREER

Following college graduation, SB needed to work and fortunately, wanted to work to support herself and hopefully find an interesting, long-term career. A friend’s mother knew SB was looking for a job and lined up an interview for an entry level position with an insurance agency, where SB’s initial duties were essentially to act at the office receptionist while answering phones. When SB showed up for work promptly every day and exhibited her intelligence and ease with both customers and co-workers, management transferred her employment status to full-time with increased responsibilities involving preliminary analysis of rating factors for insurance coverage. 

After a few years, SB found a better opportunity with a different insurance agency, involving both better compensation and more opportunities to continue learning and advance with further responsibilities, including serving as an “underwriter” making the final decisions on the insurability of individuals or businesses for certain claims. This job proceeded smoothly until……..her current employer sold its business to her prior employer, which caused SB to wonder about her future with managers she had quit. To resolve this concern, she opted to pursue employment elsewhere. 

BOUNCING TO A THIRD JOB DOESN’T AFFECT AN OVERALL CAREER PATH 

By establishing her reputation as a hard worker, eager to learn both the basics and nuances of the business, while accepting and excelling with greater responsibilities, SB earned the recommendation of a co-worker who was also leaving the newly merged insurance business, to work for a different insurance broker, which job she accepted, learning much about insurance benefit plans, which she enjoyed for the next six years until making a personal decision to relocate to her parents’ home area. 

HOME RELOCATION PROCEEDS WITHOUT A NEW JOB IN HAND BUT WITH A FOCUS UPON “STEADY” EMPLOYMENT

When SB returned with her husband and two children to her former home area, she needed to find a new job to contribute to her family’s finances; also, she liked to stay busy and enjoyed working with people. Hopefully she would find an interesting job but after being involved most recently with three different businesses (all within the same insurance industry), SB’ job hunt was primarily led by looking for steady employment, so she focused on finding a position with the major employer in the area: a regional hospital. Reviewing job openings, she applied to be an assistant to the Manager of Facilities, where on the plus side, SB learned all about how the hospital’s many departments worked, including their interactions, along the way meeting co-workers involved in many medical and administrative types of jobs. 

CAREER CHALLENGE: “TOO MANY CHIEFS”

While SB enjoyed her day-to-day activities trying to assist the facilities manager deal with problems involving equipment needed by the 3600 hospital employees, there were concurrent, negative aspects while trying to do her job efficiently: 

(1) She was required to interact with “too many chiefs” being the heads of various departments and most significantly, her supervisor changed 6 times in 8 years and 

(2) One person alone could not keep up with the demands of the job. SB took her phone with her during any off-duty time since she was the only one who knew all the details of the facilities issues. She was constantly asking to be assigned an assistant, who would appear for a brief time to help but was soon returned to their primary job. Confirmation that SB was over-worked: after she left for other employment, her job duties were spread among 4 (!) people.

KEEPING EYES OPEN FOR A BETTER CAREER OPPORTUNITY

After several years enduring such frustrations while remaining dedicated to her job, SB was randomly reviewing job openings within her hospital’s employment options and found an ad which seemed to be written expressly for her: “Benefits Specialist within the HR (Human Relations) department.” SB applied and with her dedicated employee reputation, was accepted for a position in which she had prior, enjoyable experience. 

(Editor’s note – working hard at any job will always earn a good business reputation to assist with any future job search)

EARLY RETIREMENT TURNED OUT TO BE TEMPORARY SABBATICAL

Following a divorce and remarriage, SB and her new husband decided that she would retire so they could enjoy traveling more frequently. BS tried this relaxed lifestyle for a while but hadn’t quit working because she disliked any type of work. So when a home remodeling project required some expense, SB proposed returning to a job on a part-time, seasonable basis until the home project could be paid for. Unfortunately, her husband died unexpectedly so she had to adjust her plan from part-time to full time employment. 

PRIOR RELEVANT EXPERIENCE LEADS TO FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT

Fortunately for SB, she found employment within her area of experience, working within the HR department of a local, seasonal business which employed several hundred people to deal with its facilities and Spring through Summer customers. SB’s same working pattern – show up regularly on time, learn the basics and the nuances of the business and work well with different personalities among co-workers and customers – earned the offer of full-time employment when SB sought to transfer from part-time due to her tragic personal circumstances. 

SB commenced this new job within her “Human Relations” career as an assistant to the Director of Human Relations, involving supervision of employee work hours and policy compliance, recruitment, orientation, payroll, job fairs and compliance with government labor laws and regulations. After two years, SB’s supervisor left the company, so SB was promoted to Director of HR. When the pandemic of early 2020 impacted all businesses, SB’s employer laid off most of its employees but not SB, who accepted a 20% pay reduction out of loyalty to her employer, who needed her to continue her job duties on a full year basis (despite attracting customers only Spring through Summer) due to SB’s expertise in personnel benefits, payroll, and government compliance. 

CAREER SATISFACTION AND CHALLENGES FOR A KEY EMPLOYEE 

Benefits – The “go to” person in any organization earns the respect and admiration of management and co-workers plus sufficient compensation and equally important, steady employment. 

Burdens – On the “flip side” the main problem of being the sole, key employee (one who is extensively relied upon) is feeling the responsibility to always “be on call.” This is especially true within any small business (i.e. with few employees, especially among management); but not a problem if you are addicted to carrying your phone and answering it wherever you go and any family or friends don’t mind the constant, off-duty interruptions.)

EPILOGUE

SB would have remained full-time Director of HR with this employer but when she found an opportunity to relocate to a much warmer climate, combined with the opportunity to work remotely during only traditional work hours (Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 pm, totally off-duty weekends and vacations), she jumped at the opportunity, gave fair notice to her employer and headed south with the same zeal she had applied to her prior career path.