The department that turned firing into a growth opportunity.
An invisible barrier preventing women and minorities from advancing to senior leadership positions, despite qualifications. A metaphor that's unfortunately more durable than glass.
In HR land, the polite corporate term for 'people yelling at each other about who ate whose yogurt,' escalated to include formal grievances, arbitration, and occasionally lawyers. These disagreements can range from genuinely important issues like discrimination to Jerry insisting his cubicle is 2.3 inches smaller than Sarah's. Most companies have a 47-step dispute resolution process designed to make everyone too exhausted to continue fighting.
Digital training delivered through computers or devices instead of in-person instruction. Allows employees to complete mandatory compliance training while simultaneously answering emails and questioning their life choices.
Employees entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, typically hourly workers. The classification that means you actually get paid for working extra hours, unlike your salaried colleagues.
The gradual reduction of staff through resignations, retirements, or natural departures rather than layoffs. It's the slow-motion version of downsizing that executives love because it doesn't require awkward conversations.
Describing a work program where employees rotate through different positions or departments, theoretically to build diverse skills but often to prevent anyone from getting too comfortable. In mechanics and physics, it refers to anything involving spinning or rotating motion. HR departments love rotational programs because they sound developmental while actually just shuffling people around every few months.
A strategic initiative to ensure workplaces represent and support people from all backgrounds. Often abbreviated as DEI, sometimes followed by eye-rolling.
The allocation of work tasks across team members—often grossly unequal and never actually addressed despite anonymous survey complaints.
An interview technique asking candidates to describe specific past situations rather than hypotheticals, based on the radical theory that past behavior predicts future performance. Questions always start with 'Tell me about a time when...'
Modifications or adjustments enabling employees with disabilities to perform essential job functions, required under the ADA unless they cause 'undue hardship.' It's the legal framework for accessibility that shouldn't need legal framework.
The corporate buzzword for having a workplace that actually reflects what the real world looks like, rather than a 1950s country club. It's the intentional inclusion of people from different backgrounds, races, genders, and experiences, ideally moving beyond token representation to genuine equality. When done right, it's transformative; when done wrong, it's a checkbox on a compliance form.
Legalese for "we actually have to pay you for that," typically applied to workplace injuries, overtime, or time spent dealing with work nonsense. If it's compensable, congratulations—your suffering has monetary value! If it's not, well, that's just character building, apparently.
The belief that opportunities, recognition, and resources are limited, causing employees to hoard information and compete destructively rather than collaborate. It's the organizational psychology behind every colleague who treats knowledge like nuclear launch codes.
A life insurance policy taken out by a company on critical employees whose death would cause significant financial loss. Your employer literally betting on how much your demise would cost them.
Assigning jobs to specific compensation bands based on role complexity, scope, and market data—basically deciding what a position is worth before you know who'll fill it. It's HR trying to introduce objectivity into inherently subjective decisions.
The official record of who actually showed up versus who claimed their alarm didn't go off. A metric obsessively tracked by schools, HR departments, and managers who believe physical presence equals productivity. Poor attendance can lead to disciplinary action, while perfect attendance often earns you a certificate nobody really cares about.
The structured framework defining job levels, career paths, and salary ranges across an organization. Essentially the blueprint that explains why someone with the same job title makes $20k more than you.
A neutral third party who gets paid to listen to two sides argue, nod sympathetically, and suggest compromises that neither side particularly likes but can live with. In workplace contexts, they're the professional peacemakers called in when HR realizes that another 'team building exercise' isn't going to fix the fact that Karen and Susan genuinely cannot stand each other. The mediator's superpower is getting people to agree without technically forcing anyone to do anything.
A legally permissible reason to discriminate in hiring based on characteristics like age, sex, or religion because they're essential to the job. Abbreviated as BFOQ, the rare loophole in anti-discrimination law.
How long it takes a new hire to become fully productive, or the grace period before management starts openly questioning if you were a hiring mistake. It's a countdown to expectations.
Standardized assessments measuring candidates' cognitive abilities, personality traits, and behavioral tendencies for hiring or development purposes. It's astrology for HR, but with more statistics and legal defensibility.
The practice of contacting a candidate's previous employers or colleagues to verify their claims and uncover potential red flags. Essentially calling their exes to ask if they were really as great as they claim.
Career counseling and job search support provided to terminated employees, usually as part of a severance package. A company paying someone else to help you find a new job after they fired you.
Firing an employee for a specific violation of company policy or poor performance, as opposed to layoffs or restructuring. It's the difference between 'you did something wrong' and 'sorry, budget cuts.'