Mind Work

Woman in striped shirt smiles while gesturing, seated at a table with two people. Laptop and clipboard visible. Bright office setting.

Human resources is one of the most thankless jobs around in my opinion. I appreciate those in this position because they have to deal with the best of the best and the worst of the worst sometimes all in the same hour.

At one point, I covered the front desk while the woman who usually sat there went to lunch. During this time, I learned that you should take the cigarette out from behind your ear before you enter a business and don’t put your spitter on the front counter when you’ve popped in to pick up a job application. Those were the people we didn’t call back for an interview but the ones we did kind of shocked me too.

Smiling woman in a black blazer writes on a clipboard at a reception desk. Background shows shelves with books and decor.

One woman was hired even after she said “I don’t do mind work” during her interview. My jaw dropped when I heard that one. I also wondered aloud when I could turn down “mind work.” At that point I would have welcomed the opportunity. This was the same place that had the IT guy who would just lie to you about a solution if he was bored.

Man in a suit asleep at a desk with a laptop and cup, head resting on hand. Bright room, calm mood.

Boredom wasn’t an issue when one of the supervisors was new to digital camera technology and thought he needed a new memory card every time he filled one up. There was also a guy that took copious notes at meetings, still didn’t understand what was expected, and ended up giving away thousands of dollar’s worth of product. It was a very educational time!

It is safe to say that unless you are a one-person company you’re going to get a wide variety of coworkers. I like to think that I’m not the topic of conversation amongst my former coworkers but I can’t be too sure of that.