Human Resources
Talent, pay, policy and culture, chosen for the HR leader who has to answer for them on Monday.
Human Resources at The First Click is written for the people who own the workforce question: talent and hiring, compensation and benefits, workplace policy, and culture and engagement. Three stories a weekday at 11, each summarised in our own words and linked to the publisher. We favour the story that changes a decision over the story that confirms one: a survey with a number a compensation head will be asked about, a policy experiment that will be copied badly, a departure that says something about retention at the top. Artificial intelligence runs through most of them now, as a tool the workforce already uses whether or not the policy has caught up. The editor’s note under the day’s lead says why we chose it, and the Friday Funny lane keeps the stories that prove the point by making you laugh.
Every story we have kept in Human Resources, newest first. Headlines link to the publisher; the tags below narrow the list.
Why We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person
A satirical memo argues staff must return to the office because artificial intelligence works better in person, skewering return-to-office mandates and the vocabulary invented to justify them.
Editor's noteDaily use of AI and Return to Office (RTO) protocol is akin to us humans teaming-up against the great machine of our times. It helps us laugh at the absurdity that is RTO for professions that do not need regular human contact to flourish.
Office NPC Punches Monitor After Failing To Secure Bruno Mars Tickets
An office worker takes a failed ticket queue out on a company monitor, satirising concert-scarcity meltdowns and the explanations that reach IT afterwards.
Word Of The Week: Fredagsbar (A Popular Danish Tradition Of Friday Drinks And Socialising)
A mock dictionary entry defines fredagsbar, the Danish Friday-drinks ritual, and quietly mocks offices that import a foreign custom and call it team culture.
Welcome to Career Day
A working mother explains her job to a classroom: inbox dread, meetings that decide nothing, and the chatbot she is training to replace herself. Shouts and Murmurs.
Seven Steps to Financial Success, According to a Guy Who Won a Multimillion-Dollar Lawsuit Against the Circus
Mock self-help from a man whose fortune arrived when an acrobat landed on him, satirising success literature that reclassifies luck as method.
