94 - Wordle and Letting People Choose WFH Days

On episode 94 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Jessica Lee come together to discuss bathrooms in the workplace, Wordle, and why you shouldn’t let your employees choose their WFH days. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:30 - KD is out sick this week! Just Tim and JLee. 3:00 - Tim mentions that he had a conversation with a co-worker in the bathroom before they hopped on their call. JLee asked if they make eye contact while they talk… 5:00 - JLee talks about how genderless bathrooms can bring about new bathroom dynamics. Tim says he’s only seen genderless bathrooms where it’s single-use only. 7:30 - Tim asks JLee if she’s the type of Mom that lets her kid in the bathroom or locks the door. She says she tries to lock the door so she can play Wordle. 9:45 - JLee is a Wordle strategy queen. Tim has failed but JLee is still undefeated. 13:30 - The draft of KD’s second book is done! Look out for Best Boss Ever coming soon. 15:45 - Tim and JLee are big fans of footnotes in books. More footnotes in books! 17:45 - Harvard Business Review released their top articles of 2021 and the top one of the year was “Don’t Let Your Employees Pick Their WFH Days”. This article discusses the realities of making WFH successful long term. 19:30 - One main reason to not let your employees choose their WFH days is the idea of “mixed modes”. This refers to the reality where some people are in the office and some are at home. 22:00 - JLee thinks it’s important to designate and create criteria for in-office work so you can reduce your office footprint and optimize in-person work. 24:00 - The vast majority of people want to WFH on Mondays and Fridays. 27:20 - Tim thinks it’s naive to “treat people like adults” when it’s very prevalent that there are WFH/hybrid work issues. 29:00 - Tim talks about a discussion he had with an employee about a “blacklist”. He jokes that there isn’t an industry “blacklist” but he has his own personal one. 31:00 - Tim is a fan of an employment blockchain. JLee is less of a fan.