Elan Samirhaz

Ah, mandatory team-building activities—the corporate equivalent of forcing cousins who barely tolerate each other to play charades at a family reunion. For decades now, HR departments across the globe have poured money, time, and baffling amounts of trust into events designed to "strengthen the team bond" or "unlock synergies." (Who even talks like this outside a corporate email, by the way?) Yet, despite our best intentions, these events often flop harder than my attempts at baking gluten-free cookies last year. Let me be brutally honest: employees. Hate. Them. If you’ve ever sat in a circle with your team, clutching a pool noodle during a trust exercise while your boss mutters something about “breaking silos,” you know exactly why. But the real question is why they’re still universally despised. Are we all just grumpy fun-haters? Or is there something deeper going on? Let’s dive into the mystery. 1. The "mandatory" problem: fun shouldn’t feel like jury ...

Ah, the allure of office perks. If you’ve spent even five minutes scrolling through LinkedIn, you’ve probably seen those glossy posts about trendy startups offering unlimited snacks, game rooms, or—wait for it—pet-friendly Fridays. And sure, who doesn’t want to sip matcha while playing foosball with a coworker’s golden retriever? But let’s be honest here: the novelty of a beanbag chair wears off real quick when the deadlines start piling up. The truth is, employees don’t need glitter and gimmicks—they need meaningful perks that actually make their lives better. And guess what? Free coffee isn’t the holy grail of workplace happiness. Shocking, I know. So let’s talk about the office perks that actually work. Because as much as I love a good caffeine fix, it won’t solve burnout, low engagement, or the existential crisis triggered by another mandatory team-building icebreaker. Flexibility: the king (or queen) of perks Let’s start with the crown jewel of modern office perks: flexibility. R...

Ah, quiet quitting. The trend that sounds like a dramatic Netflix series but is really just a polite way of saying, “Hey, I’m done going above and beyond for free, but I’ll still attend your team-building scavenger hunt because HR insists.” If you're in HR (like me, an allegedly sane individual who decided to make a career of this delightful chaos), you've probably been hearing this term tossed around at conferences, on LinkedIn posts, and in whispers by the coffee machine. But what is quiet quitting, really? It’s not employees literally walking out in slow motion with a Bluetooth speaker blasting “Take This Job and Shove It.” No, it’s subtler. It’s the corporate version of a “soft ghost.” You know, when someone doesn't text you back but keeps liking your Instagram posts? Same vibe, different arena. In this case, the employee is physically there but mentally? They’re already sipping piña coladas on their imaginary beach of career apathy. Let’s dig into how to spot it befor...

Ah, annual performance reviews—those magical moments when grown adults are suddenly transported back to middle school, sweating bullets over grades that decide everything . Except this time, instead of fretting over whether you'll make the honor roll, you're nervously calculating whether your bonus can finally cover that overpriced Peloton. Let’s face it: performance reviews are the corporate version of "here’s what your teacher thinks of you," only now your "teacher" is Karen from accounting, and she’s been keeping receipts on that time you missed the deadline for the Q3 expense report. So, why does this process feel as anxiety-inducing as waiting for a text back from someone you know saw your message? Let’s dig in. The trauma of the mysterious "rating system" First off, can we talk about the cryptic rating systems? You know, the ones that seem like they were invented by a secret society of HR professionals who get together on weekends to practic...