My great-grandmother, Francelia Crittenden, was a force of nature.  She lost her husband in the Great War, and raised her two sons on her own by working as a business organizer and community activist. She died, at the age of 103, in an old folks home she helped found. Gran had two sayings that have always stuck with me: “The only sin is not using the talents God gave you to make the world a better place,” and “You are how you spend your time.”  She stayed busy until the very end, walking the halls of the home, “offering suggestions” in her gracious but firm way.  I often fail her model, but she’s always on my mind.

In the last six days at work I’ve:

  • Placed job postings at 45 universities
  • Processed 120+ resumes for three positions using only Outlook and my good judgement
  • Performed 30+ phone screens
  • Set up eight face to face interviews
  • Participated in three face to face interviews
  • Checked references on five candidates
  • Made four job offers
  • Set up a rule in Outlook which sent 95 “no thanks” responses to resume submittals
  • Processed a couple of employee exits
  • Talked to our company employment lawyers three times (all good things, thankfully) and our tax accountant once
  • Worked through some 401(k) issues and checked references on a couple of potential new vendors
  • Worked with employees on performance issues and opportunities
  • Talked company execs and a few staffers into seeing eye-to-eye on various cultural or retention matters
  • Analyzed compensation and performance metrics across the company and recommended a couple dozen compensation adjustments
  • Improved the hiring process to allow all new hires to be more effective from day one of employment
  • Made recommendations regarding operational effectiveness opportunities
At home, I:
  • Celebrated my partner’s birthday
  • Moved from a Blackberry to an iPhone, with lots of “training time” on my part – aka “Angry Birds” and “Words with Friends”
  • Hosted the first Houston ERE meetup
  • Started a conversation about an oil and gas/petroleum industry-specific recruiter’s group
  • Provided a couple of quotes for a local paper regarding business uses of social media
  • Cleaned out my garage to give my crib and some of my daughter’s infant stuff to some friends
  • Took my daughter to four birthday parties, including buying and wrapping the presents and wrapping my daughter’s brain around the fact that the presents aren’t for her
  • Hosted a neighbor for swimming and dinner
  • Reconnected with some online friends over the phone
  • Unexpectedly babysat another neighbor’s child when the neighbor had to run to the hospital to check on her dad
  • Had an intense but productive conversation with the principle at my daughter’s school
  • Read most of two books – “The Upside of Irrationality,”  and “I Thought it Was Just Me“
  • Read 160 postings regarding business, HR, economics, and just flat interior design eye candy, (according to my RSS feed)
  • Made a tiny nod to my health by sleeping 8 hours a night and attending a weekly yoga class
  • All while acting as the primary caregiver to my little stinkbomb, since my partner is working nights and sleeping days this month.
I have to admit, I rarely enumerate how I’m spending my time like this. When I see it in black and white, I feel, frankly, sick. Because the fact is, it’s Not Enough. There’s still laundry to be done, a regular exercise program to pursue, that employee manual that needs a serious overhaul ASAP, that staffer who’s still waiting on my confirmation that her address has been changed in payroll. You’ll notice I neither lent an hour to any volunteer efforts, nor listed “made it to church” as one of my achievements.
Being busy is not the same as being effective. I can delegate more, make better use of help at home, and deepen my impact with company owners.  I’m still struggling there, and I’ll keep exploring that intersection, hopefully until I myself am 103.  Though I’m no expert, HRFlorida has been kind enough to extend an opportunity for me to lead a conversation on effectively using your time at work. We’re sending out a brief survey to all attendees ahead of time, to make sure we cover what the participants want to learn, and we’ll discuss both practical and philosophical tools to lead the HR departments, or be the HR department, for small companies. I hope you’ll join us. Maybe you can teach me a thing or two, and I can offer you a couple of pointers as well.