Laurie ruettimann's Page

This for my HR Scrabulous buddies out there — most of whom I’ve met through this blog. LTS&R ain’t gonna get you very far. As a side note, my pformer employer blocked Facebook almost immediately after I left the organization. Coincidence? Happenstance? Divine intervention from Baby Jesus? I’m curious about the level of access to Web 2.0 in [...]

I worked as a recruiter back in the 90s. I was in my office, minding my own business, when I heard a knock at my door. I looked up and saw an administrative assistant in tears. She accidentally stabbed herself in the thigh with a pencil while trying to open a box. For reals. She was in pain and asked, [...]

Dear Laurie, As a prefatory note, you don’t look very punk rocker-ish which, for my money, is a much more satisfactory state of affairs. I’m writing to solicit your opinion on the use of the Briggs-Myer and FIRO-B in a OD-team building day and half session for my employer which is a state special district. We’re a [...]

Per Cute Overload’s suggestion, I made a demotivator poster for my office at Team Building Is For Suckers, Inc. Our new brand slogan? “Building teams through the power of NOM.”

I rarely write about math or compensation because neither are my strong suit; however, I’m here to testify to the dangers of tapping into your 401(k), your pension plan, and other retirement investments. A former employer of mine allowed employees to borrow money from their 401(k)s and repay the loans through payroll deductions; however, my employer [...]

Deb Owen, one of the first people who actually read my blog when I started writing about Human Resources, is quoted on The Shine network on Yahoo. Check it out, yo: Words of wisdom for entrepreneurs from the pros on Shine: For those contemplating taking what Thoreau called ‘the leap in the dark to our success’, it’s [...]

Scott Adams is trying to come up with the ultimate Catbert t-shirt design. Go vote here (correct link!).

I could never be a funeral director. Being the human resources geek that I am, I visited the BLS website in the aftermath of my great aunt’s death. I wanted to learn a little more about the funeral services industry. It turns out that being a funeral director is a hot job. (You Baby Boomers out [...]

The best advice I can offer on Mother’s Day? Demonstrate some creativity and savvy! Show mom that she didn’t raise a fool! Get up early on Monday (for you unemployed suckers, that’s tomorrow, May 12th, 2008). Arrive at Target at 8AM when the store opens. Buy a 50% off Mother’s Day card with the remaining $2 from your [...]

i. We had a death in our family, this week. My grandmother’s sister, Helen, passed away from complications related to being old. (This isn’t snarky. She was old and it was complicated.) Helen was the matriarch of our family — a woman who had children late in life, ran a successful Avon business, and was an all-around [...]