"It's On Like Donkey Kong, And I Got The F#%king Mallet..."

Not being fresh out of school and having had to readapt to the civilian workforce, has in some ways made me feel like I'm at a disadvantage with my peers in terms of where I am with HR experience. I feel like the fact that I'm only alittle over a year experienced in the field makes me below par on what I should know in this position.

Well, that's at least how I felt until a few days ago.

A question came up concerning benefits for an ex-employee that used to work for my company. That is, my company before it was acquired by our new parent company. I received a phone call from an HR generalist from our old parent company claiming that an ex-employee should still be covered under our insurance, despite the fact that we were essentially fired and hired by our new company based on the acquistion agreement. I argued back stating that while we were now employees of the new parent company, the old company essentially stayed with the old parent company.

Having dealt with me before, she stated she needed to check with her boss, the Director of Human Resources for said old parent company. She immediately got back on the phone and said that the Director said I was wrong. Didn't offer reason, nor arguement, just...wrong. I simply replied...alright, lemme check into this.

Fastforward a day or so, moving past several boggled insurance representatives, a few confused HR professionals, and one very grumpy employee from the U.S. Department of Labor, and we arrive at the answer. Me, myself, I am right. I have essentially taken a situation that is rarely dealt with, nonetheless addressed by either the Department of Labor nor the IRS, and answered it before any research...because I knew how this all worked.

(For those who don't know me, there are some things that set me off. Being told I am "wrong" without any proof, support, or otherwise is one of them. If you tell me this, and you're right..then good for you. If you tell me this, and you're wrong...I WILL put your sh#t out on the street for all to see...)

So, having said all that, I wrote a response to said HR Generalist/Lacky and copied the Director stating that not only was she wrong, but so was her boss. To add alittle fun, I tacked on support from a governmental source and followed it up with an enormous smiley face after the "let me know what else I can do for you!" So not only did I crap all over the Director, I crapped all over the Director infront of their subordinate. Was that professional? No. Was it deserved? Oh yeah.

Opportunities like this come very rarely, but whenever I, an HR newbie with 1 year experience, gets to crush a six figure income generating HR Director with possibly 15+ years experience, especially when she blindly tells me I'm wrong (not face to face mind you, through her subordinate), I'll be damned if I won't jump on that gravy train.