Working in Human Resources (HR) is not without its many challenges, opportunities and funny and not so funny moments. As I’ve mentioned previously, I worked in HR for almost 35 years. During that time, I worked my way up from a hotel recruiter to a Chief Human Resources officer in the housing industry. I worked in the hotel industry, in retail and in the property (apartment) management business.

And, to be honest. The industry really doesn’t matter, people are people. Managing a company’s biggest asset, the employees, is no easy task.

So, I could spend time describing how HR changed in my 30+ year career. But we will save that for another day. Today, I am going to share HR stories that actually happened to me from early in my career until retirement. Some of the stories are funny (ha-ha), others are funny (strange) while others are tragic and sad. I won’t spend too much time on that.

One of the first stories I recall was right after I became a Director of Personnel (what we were called back then) in a hotel in West Hollywood, California. One of the most difficult discussions with anyone is about body odor. Yes, I know. It’s never easy. The employee was a room service waiter, who was diligent and worked hard for his tips. Regrettably, the conversation did not go well. No one wants to be told they smell badly. So the manager tried to go through a number of things with the employee first, like reviewing bathing practices (daily?), use of body deodorant, washing his uniform daily, commuting to work on the bus and so on. It didn’t work. I reiterated those points and mentioned that fellow employees and guests had mentioned the body odor. The employee just shook his head and disagreed.

The meeting ended badly, unfortunately. The employee got up, looked at me and said, “lady, you have a problem with your nose.” And he walked out. Yes, we were shocked. We felt badly, as it was obvious that the employee was embarrassed. How did this story end? The body odor was not as pronounced as it was previously, but it wasn’t gone entirely. It was never again addressed with the employee. It was obvious he was trying, and we started providing employee uniform laundering, and that seemed to help as well.

How about counseling an employee on washing/changing her pantyhose daily? That wearing the same pantyhose daily with large tears in them was inappropriate in a customer-facing position. Yes, that was an awkard conversation. Back in the day, in many hotels where I worked, we had a machine in the employee locker room areas that sold pantyhose. Yes, it really did! As women in the hotel and retail industry, we had to wear pantyhose with dresses and skirts, in addition to closed toe shoes.

Disciplinary conversations with employees can be quite difficult, awkward, embarassing and can end badly. It was just something I learned to do. I learned about expressing empathy, understanding, patience, and compassion. I remember once at an employee meeting (union employees at that), I was called a liar. That I had misrepresented something to them about what the company could or could not do. I don’t recall the specifics, but I do recall managers present that day were horrified that employees would call me out like that in an employee meeting. I learned to listen and not over react. To explain things (sometimes in two languages) so that they could be easily understood. That sometimes, an agreement could not be reached and we would have to agree to disagree. But at the end of the day, I would remind people that businesses have policies and practices that must be followed if one wants to work there. Of course, these same policies and practices could not be discriminatory.

How about an employee “sit in” in the hotel lobby during union contract negotiations? Or an employee in handcuffs being escorted out of the store by police officers? Then there was the time security walked in on a manager having sex with her boyfriend on the floor of her office. Talk about awkward. Oh! And the time an employee traveling on business hung a garment on those pesky sprinklers in a hotel room, and yes, set off the sprinkler which caused major damage to the hotel room. And the hotel trying to come after her employer to pay for damages (sorry, that’s the guest’s – our employee’s- negligence and financial responsibility!).

So many more stories, but I’ll stop there. Dealing with people isn’t easy. I decided early in my career that I would rather work in employee relations than guest relations, and I made a career out of it.