In light of my recent exploits at work, I'm beginning to question which was harder to deal with, life in the Army or life in HR. My reasoning is this:
In the Army, mostly when I was working law enforcement, I had no issues writing people tickets. This is largely due in part that they did something to deserve it. I tried to avoid writing b.s. tickets (i.e. no seatbelt, no little light next to the license plate), unless the occupant pissed me off.
***Please note, the best way out of a ticket is admit you're wrong. Cops love writing tickets for whiners, clevage showers (it doesn't work ladies), and ESPECIALLY people that piss and moan.
Anyway. Military traffic & infraction tickets are different. The fines are based on a reduced rate because when the civilian law is adopted by the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice - the "rule book" if you will), it is argued that soldiers make considerably less (which they do) then civilians, and should be fined less. Suffice to say, when I give a jerk a $45 ticket for failure to carry his driver's license (which I'm sure in the civilian world it's $200), I don't feel bad in the least. Again, ESPECIALLY, if he pisses and moans about it.
In the civilian world doing the HR thing, my role is more or less the same. Whereas in the Army I was quite literally the gate keeper to a military installation, in HR I'm the gate keeper to the organization I work for. I help in identifying the trash, bagging it up, and throwing it out. And subsequently keeping it out as well as other trash.
Today I have to assist in firing (sorry...involuntarily separating) an employee who is being let go for "having a bad attitude". Although this is a hire-at-will state, that's alittle questionable. Especially because this employee doesn't even know it's coming. What makes it worse is that he's also ex-military, so I understand that reasoning behind his gripes. In the military, there's a saying about "soldiers only gripe about the things they care about". I'm not fining this guy for making a mistake, I'm screwing with his livelihood.
And here I thought the Army was the only thing that on days would make me go ass-over-tea kettle on the bottle.
In the Army, mostly when I was working law enforcement, I had no issues writing people tickets. This is largely due in part that they did something to deserve it. I tried to avoid writing b.s. tickets (i.e. no seatbelt, no little light next to the license plate), unless the occupant pissed me off.
***Please note, the best way out of a ticket is admit you're wrong. Cops love writing tickets for whiners, clevage showers (it doesn't work ladies), and ESPECIALLY people that piss and moan.
Anyway. Military traffic & infraction tickets are different. The fines are based on a reduced rate because when the civilian law is adopted by the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice - the "rule book" if you will), it is argued that soldiers make considerably less (which they do) then civilians, and should be fined less. Suffice to say, when I give a jerk a $45 ticket for failure to carry his driver's license (which I'm sure in the civilian world it's $200), I don't feel bad in the least. Again, ESPECIALLY, if he pisses and moans about it.
In the civilian world doing the HR thing, my role is more or less the same. Whereas in the Army I was quite literally the gate keeper to a military installation, in HR I'm the gate keeper to the organization I work for. I help in identifying the trash, bagging it up, and throwing it out. And subsequently keeping it out as well as other trash.
Today I have to assist in firing (sorry...involuntarily separating) an employee who is being let go for "having a bad attitude". Although this is a hire-at-will state, that's alittle questionable. Especially because this employee doesn't even know it's coming. What makes it worse is that he's also ex-military, so I understand that reasoning behind his gripes. In the military, there's a saying about "soldiers only gripe about the things they care about". I'm not fining this guy for making a mistake, I'm screwing with his livelihood.
And here I thought the Army was the only thing that on days would make me go ass-over-tea kettle on the bottle.
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