Gratitude! It’s been on my mind a lot lately. I help a lot of people. Sometimes I don’t hear from people unless they need some help. It’s draining at times. Then I have to remember to stop whining and accept the fact that it comes along with the gig.

When your employees need their replacement pay checks, where do they go? Replacement checks, you say, what happened to direct deposit – well there are still millions of HR folks that have to process paper checks.  When the boss wants to know why people are quitting left and right, where do they go? When customers are complaining about service levels and lack satisfaction, were they properly trained is the first question asked.

“Who hired that a—hole?”

“How did they get injured in the first place?”

“When will that survey be completed?”

“Can you handle that investigation?”

“Hey, Can my boss legally … (fill in the blank)?”

I can go on. But we don’t do it for the “thanks” do we? We do it for the love of the job. If you’ve read Victorio Milian’s article “A Recruiter’s Plea: Stop Calling My Phone” or Robin Schooling’s article “With a Sturdy HR Foundation, You Can Raise The Roof” or Doug Shaw’s “Before and After, Big and Small” or Tiffany Kuehl’s “In Recruiting You Must Turn Complainers Into Champions” none of them mentioned being thanked.

They already know, in our line of business you help people – selflessly – putting their issues and concerns over your own with nothing in return but self-fulfillment. HR is a thankless job.

Now that being said I must be fair and tell you that recently I’ve had some clients show me great appreciation.  I’ve received emails and even packages in the mail. The great thing about mail is, they took the time to go purchase items – get a postage stamp and send them through the U.S. Postal Service…when was the last time you mailed something YOURSELF? (bills don’t count) Alright then!

I enjoy hearing from my clients, especially when the stuff works out well for them and although I’m paid to turn out good HR content (resumes included) – it’s what I’m commissioned to do (which is an awesome show of appreciation), I still like hearing “thank you.” So I want to pay it forward and say thank you for reading and supporting this blog. I want to thank Robin, Victorio, Tiffany and Doug for coming through with awesome guest contributions.

Stay tuned for the Carnival of HR, March 6^th!