A PEO is an insurance broker, a guardrail, and a payroll provider. But it’s not a brain. Some people need a PEO. Some need a person. Most don’t know which they are.

What we’re really seeing is misaligned incentives disguised as authority. They have no reason to follow through, just respond. We wouldn’t put up with this in any other business service.

I get it. All this talk about replacing humans with machines is anxiety-inducing. Especially to those of us who work in a fields built on people, like HR and People Ops. It just means that you can program it using the same language you use to talk to your team or your kids.

Self-promotion isn’t about ego. It’s a kind of management. It took me too long realize that self-promotion isn’t selfish. Staying heads-down just makes me easier to underestimate and overlook. If I didn’t tell people about my skills, they wouldn’t know when to bring me in so I could have the most impact. Or when to just get out of my way and let the magic happen.

Certifications like SHRM and HRCI that over-rely on recall without nuance only magnify this false sense of authority. Like passing the exam makes you Solomon or something. 

I saw a founder on LinkedIn bragging about “solving” six-state compliance. His brilliant solution was... ...wait for it...

I spoke to someone last week who was confused about how to administer her company’s sick leave policy. This HR person (or should I say “truancy officer”?) was essentially blocking people from using their time and then deleting it before they could. That’s not how that works.

Did you know: Payroll doesn’t update tax settings automatically when someone moves. If you live somewhere where it’s common to commute across state lines, having different settings for where someone lives and works seems natural.