On this special episode of Honest HR, Hosts Amber Clayton and Wendy Fong discuss “HR Horror Stories” directly from SHRM’s Knowledge Center. From natural disasters to harassment to cybersecurity and more, learn how to navigate some of these spooky situations.
On this special episode of Honest HR, Hosts Amber Clayton and Wendy Fong discuss “HR Horror Stories” directly from SHRM’s Knowledge Center. From natural disasters to harassment to cybersecurity and more, learn how to navigate some of these spooky situations.
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Monique Akanbi:
Welcome to Honest HR, the podcast for informed and aspiring HR professionals intent on transforming workplace challenges into golden opportunities.
Amber Clayton:
Every week we chat with industry experts to bring you insights, trends, and actionable advice through relatable stories from the real world of HR.
Wendy Fong:
Honest HR is a SHRM podcast, and by listening, you're helping to build a more engaged workforce and drive organizational success. I'm Wendy Fong.
Amber Clayton:
I'm Amber Clayton.
Monique Akanbi:
And I'm Monique Akanbi. Now let's get honest.
Amber Clayton:
Hello everyone and welcome back. My name is Amber Clayton. I'm the senior director of Knowledge Center Operations here at SHRM, and I have with me today-
Wendy Fong:
Hi, Wendy Fong. I am manager of Event Technology Innovation, also at SHRM.
Amber Clayton:
And co-host of this podcast. You forgot about that.
Wendy Fong:
Yes. And happy Halloween. It's October.
Amber Clayton:
Yes, happy Halloween. We actually are going to be talking about HR horror stories today since it's October, we thought it would be fitting. We're not going to talk Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street or anything like that. But definitely stories that can make an employer scream whether silently or out loud and those that might be considered a nightmare for employers. So let's just go ahead and we'll jump right into the topic. Is that okay with you, Wendy?
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, definitely. And we do want to acknowledge our other co-host, Monique Akanbi wasn't able to join us this time, but next time we'll have her join us on the episode.
Amber Clayton:
And I think it's important to say why she's not able to join us. She actually is traveling for work and currently there is a hurricane heading towards Florida, so her travel is delayed and we thought it'd be fitting to start with that. Hurricanes, anything like hurricanes, tropical storms, earthquakes, oh goodness, tornadoes. Did I say tornadoes already? I don't know, but I don't know about you Wendy, but I live in Maryland and work in Virginia. We don't really get the hurricanes often, and if we do, it's just really like a storm, not as major as the ones that typically hit the south. We've had a few earthquakes and we did have a tornado in southern Maryland. But you live in California, right?
Wendy Fong:
Yep, California native, born and raised. So the only experience from hurricane and tornadoes is watching The Wizard of Oz or Twister or the news.
Amber Clayton:
Well, thank goodness, because I know that's one of the reasons why I love California, to my California audience, but I don't know that I'd want to live there just because you hear about the mudslides and you hear about the fires, the forest fires, and then the earthquakes. And those can be really scary things, not just for the people who live in those areas, but for the family and friends who are worried about them and worried about their safety. And we get these questions in the Knowledge Center, and for those who may not be familiar with it, the Knowledge Center is a member benefit for SHRM members, and they can contact us and ask us any HR-related question. And we do get those inclement weather disaster relief type questions. We'll get questions like how to donate PTO, how to pay employees if they're having to take off or if the businesses are closed. So certainly these disasters, these weather-related scenarios can be really scary for employers.
Wendy Fong:
They're scary, unpredictable, and you have to make sure you have a contingency plan in place.
Amber Clayton:
Absolutely. That's really important, having those business continuity plans just in case something happens, whether it's inclement weather or if it's something else. Like we had years ago here, our offices ended up getting flooded after a storm. It was pretty crazy. And it can damage the documents and equipment and things like that. And of course that can hurt your business as well. So having those business continuity plans in place can be really, really helpful for employers.
Wendy Fong:
I mean, I've been in an earthquake before, if you ever follow... There's actually a radar you can follow in California for different earthquakes that happen, but thankfully the state has certain building regulations that they must be up to code to ensure that we don't experience disasters in the past with buildings collapsing. So making sure that your organization, if you own the building, you're leasing the building, you're in compliance to ensure that the structure, even the building itself, is up-to-date and up to code.
Amber Clayton:
And I should mention that I do have a couple employees. We actually have a few employees at SHRM who are in the Florida area. So I'd actually reached out to an employee this morning to say, hey, are you leaving? And she said, "No, we're going to hunker down here." So of course, I'm worried and just want to make sure that our employees are safe, and that's something that we do. We make sure that we find out what's going on in those areas, where they might be heading just so that we can keep tabs and they can help keep us posted. But we also provide resources for them around keeping themselves safe. So I hope that if there are any employers who have employees in those states that might be impacted, that they're doing the same thing for their employers, or excuse me, their employees.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, that's a great idea. Or even an emergency response plan. Like I know in schools when you would have fire drills. Here in California, we have also earthquake drills and even gun shooting and bomb threat drills as well. It's important to have those plans in place because you just never know.
Amber Clayton:
Yeah. I was actually going to include in our HR horror stories today about workplace violence and those types of situations where you have that type of training in the workplace, active shooter, but I think we're going to keep this a little bit lighter today since it's Halloween, and we'll cover that on another episode of our podcast.
Wendy Fong:
Well, another thing that can be scary, like you mentioned, was incorrect wages. That's definitely scary as most may not be aware that FLSA violations can result in personal liability.
Amber Clayton:
Yeah, absolutely. Compensation is one of our top topics in the Knowledge Center. I should also mention we get about 50 to 60,000 inquiries a year. Compensation is one of our top three. And really it's about compliance. And I don't know that many employers realize that they can be held personally liable if they are not paying employees properly or they're misclassifying employees as exempt when they might not meet the definition of being exempt for overtime, or if they're doing things like making employees work on breaks and then deducting that time from them. There's a lot of things that employers can do that they end up not only having lawsuits against the company, but they can actually be held personally liable, and that comes out of their own pocket. And I don't know about you Wendy, but I don't have the funds to be able to pay for a class action suit. We were just talking about class action earlier, and I personally don't have the money to be able to pay that, so I'd want to be in compliance.
Wendy Fong:
Are there any benchmark cases or significant cases that you've seen in the news that stand out?
Amber Clayton:
There are actually, and I think it's really important for employers to look at these things because even though it doesn't necessarily apply to them, of course that's very case specific, there are outcomes that can provide some really good information for employers so that they can be sure that they're not put into that situation. So there was one, it was a case around a front desk clerk who worked for a hotel. The hotel happened to be owned by a father and a son, and apparently the individual was not paid properly for their wages as well as their lodging and their overtime. And so the individual ended up filing suit against the organization, against the hotel owners, and they also filed a suit against the father and son. And so they were found to be individually liable as well as the company. So they ended up having to pay, they had to settle with the employee and pay back those back wages. The overtime, of course, they probably ended up having to pay fees, their legal fees and things of that nature. So yeah, there was definitely a case involving that.
There was also a case, actually several cases that are notable where the employer had misclassified the employees as independent contractors when they really were employees. And so in those particular cases, again, the employers, the managers, supervisors were sued as well as the company itself. Employers, they're responsible for making sure that employees or independent contractors meet those definitions under the federal law or under the state and local laws and classify them appropriately. Otherwise, you may end up having to pay not only back wages and overtime, but benefits as well. So that's something that employers need to be aware of.
I have to be honest with you, I worked for a company, and this was many years ago. I was in between jobs. I was working for a company as an independent contractor. Once I left that organization, I learned after the fact that the owner had to shut down because someone had reported that she should have been an employee versus an independent contractor, and this owner couldn't afford to pay all the taxes, the back wages, the overtime and everything that she had to pay the employees. So she lost her business. It was a sad situation, but again, when you start these businesses, you have to make sure that you are following the laws.
So yeah, so we had that. And then of course there was a case where it was with an airline service and they were rounding. So basically meaning that employees, if they came in a few minutes late, they would round to the nearest 15 minutes or so. And they found that in the particular situation, in that case, that employees were getting deducted too much money from their rounding practices, and they were also making them work while they were supposed to be on breaks and not paying them for it. So definitely there are a lot of cases out there that involve the FLSA wage violations, but I think that the point I'm trying to make here is that you can be held individually liable, so just be cautious about that.
Wendy Fong:
That is a scary HR horror story, because it could put also the company out of business if you're not prepared.
Amber Clayton:
Yes, absolutely.
Wendy Fong:
That also made me think of staying up to date of any wage or just legal changes within federal law, state law, local law. There's a lot of different layers that a company has to be aware of, especially whenever elections come along, what new proposition or law comes into place, such as minimum wage. For example, back in April, earlier this year, they raised the minimum wage for fast food workers in California to $20 an hour. So making sure that the employer does their due diligence and make sure that they follow and are compliant with that law and that they're prepared also as well to still run their business smoothly. And it does remind me too how important audits are as well. I had a past employer that did annual audits on our 401k, for example, and they found that they were granting us more than what our compensation package was. So they gave us notice, which was nice, and then they adjusted accordingly. But if they didn't do that audit, then they would've lost that money.
Amber Clayton:
And that's another thing, employers may try to take back wages that they overpaid, and that actually is a question that we get often in the Knowledge Center is that they're asking, can we take that money back? And sometimes you can't. If the employer made the mistake, then unfortunately they lost that money and the employee doesn't have to pay it back. If they make changes, they may have to, well, usually they would have to do it prospectively versus retroactively, but of course, it depends on the situation and whether or not the employer has employment contracts or if they're at will or if they're under a collective bargaining agreement.
So there's just a lot that employers need to take into consideration and to make sure that they're up-to-date on. And I would say be part of that email distribution list from your state's Department of Labor, from the US Department of Labor. If you have an attorney, sometimes they'll provide you the updates. Of course, being a SHRM member, you'll be able to get information on any updates for your areas and for federal laws. But it's so important just to keep up to date on those things because you just don't want to be in a situation where you're going to get sued and lose your business.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, definitely. Or you can also, as you mentioned, call the Knowledge Center. How many times can a member contact the Knowledge Center within a year?
Amber Clayton:
So it depends on the membership, but usually for HR professionals, it's up to 15 inquiries per membership year. So I'll have to say we're not attorneys. We are HR practitioners like many of our audience members, but we can help provide guidance and resources to help navigate those sticky situations and sometimes prevent you from having to contact a lawyer or hopefully preventing you from getting some type of a lawsuit down the road. So yeah, it's an absolutely great benefit for our members.
Wendy Fong:
That's awesome. I hope everyone's taking advantage of that. It sounds like it is very beneficial, especially in these very complicated situations where you almost have to analyze case by case because they're so unique.
Amber Clayton:
A hundred percent. And I know sometimes the Department of Labor puts out opinion letters and those are great, but again, you have to think that these are specific situations, opinion letters that are on those particular cases, but you could always learn from that. So I think there's actually a section on the Department of Labor website [inaudible 00:15:16] in our division where you can look up all the opinion letters as well. So lots of great information out there to just keep you up-to-date, informed and make sure that you're in compliance.
Wendy Fong:
Another thing that is an HR horror story that comes to mind is harassment. So there's sexual harassment, bullying, anything that may come up with the EEOC and any of the protected classes can be a scary situation in terms of the liability when it comes to claims for the employer.
Amber Clayton:
Yeah. You mentioned bullying, and I think it's a really good segue to just talk about this briefly because some people don't realize that bullying may not actually be considered harassment. So if you look at the definition of harassment under federal laws in some state and local laws, it is around protected classes. So somebody can be a bully and be a terrible person and yell and scream and basically just be a mean person, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are legally harassing. So there's definitely some lines there. And we have information on workplace bullying versus harassment, but I just thought I'd mentioned that since you mentioned the bullying piece.
But yes, harassment is another area where employers can be held legally responsible, and it's called vicarious liability. So if a supervisor, for example, knows that sexual harassment is taking place by an employee or of an employee and they don't do anything about it, they can be held liable for that. So not just the company, but also the manager or supervisor individually. So that can be really scary. I think harassment claims can be just scary in general. Nobody wants to have to deal with that, whether it's the person who is on the receiving end of the harassment or even the employer because it's so challenging to deal with.
Wendy Fong:
That does remind me of how important it is for workplace investigations and for that skill set or to even have a team that's properly trained to make sure that they do their due diligence and interview all the appropriate people and collect all the information and facts as possible during workplace investigations regarding harassment or even the wage and compliance red flags that may come up.
Amber Clayton:
Yeah, I can tell you in my 25 plus years of HR experience, I couldn't even tell you how many harassment cases and investigations that I've done. And I will bring up one though this happened many years ago, and I find it to be scary because of the situation, but I had a gentleman who came and applied for a position with us, and it was for a maintenance position. And during that interview process, he told me how pretty I was, and I thought, well, that's awkward. Who would say that during an interview process to the HR director? I mentioned my concerns to the operations manager, but he was adamant that he wanted this person on board with us. And I said, "Look, if he comes on board, I just want to make sure that we do have him go through the sexual harassment training. I want to make sure that he understands that the comment wasn't appropriate during the interview process."
And so we took a chance, we hired him, and he ended up sexually harassing a couple of young ladies who worked in the building. They weren't our employees, but they were other employees. And so we did an investigation. Ultimately, we ended up having to terminate his employment. And during that termination discussion, he basically said to me that I was going to get what I deserved and not so nice words. And so after that, I had to have a button installed under my desk, a security button just in case during a termination process, something came up and I needed assistance. So it's really scary. And I had an employee, a former employee that I used to work with, something very similar happened to her recently too, where they had to call the police and remove someone. And that was again, a sexual harassment case. So it's very scary when these things happen.
Wendy Fong:
That does sound scary. To back up a little bit. So how would you define harassment versus sexual harassment? And I know that employees have to go through a certain amount of training, but managers also have to have mandatory training.
Amber Clayton:
Well, that's interesting because that's in California, so under federal law, there is no required training for employees as far as sexual harassment, but there are for states and some localities where they require employers to do sexual harassment training for their employees or for their supervisors, California being one of them, they're very specific about who does the sexual harassment training and what they get and when they get it. With regards to harassment under federal laws, harassment by itself would be harassment based on protected classes, things like your race, age, national origin, could be disability. And under sexual harassment is sex-based harassment. So it could be something that might be quid pro quo, which means something for something. So if I give you a promotion, you're going to go out to dinner with me or you are going to stay the night with me. Or it could be hostile work environment where someone is harassing someone.
It could be touching, it could be body language, they can be giving people elevator rides, making people feel uncomfortable. Usually it's not isolated, one-time incidents, unless it's egregious like the touching or some type of a sexual assault or something of that nature. If somebody makes a comment like you look pretty today, it's probably not going to be considered harassment, but if the person continues to do so, especially after being told not to, that could be pervasive enough that somebody feels like they're being harassed. And so while I don't have the legal language that I'm giving here, that's just a brief overview of what harassment is versus sexual harassment. Of course, there's more to it and can go the EEOC website, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that'll give you the full definition. Then of course, your state's Department of Labor probably has something on their sites as well.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, that's really helpful. So even if the harassment training is not necessarily mandatory based on federal law, it could be a good practice or company policy to do some sort of training for your managers or your employees. There's nothing preventing or stopping an organization from doing this.
Amber Clayton:
Absolutely. I highly recommend training and policies in place. I know some employers don't even have employee handbooks. Again, they're not required by federal law, but having policies in place with regards to conduct, including sexual harassment and harassment and how to handle that, who you talk to, the whole investigation process, all of those things are really important to make sure that you are training and sharing this information with not only your supervisors and managers, but also your employees.
Wendy Fong:
And just like with incorrect wages and harassment, prevention and preparation, it sounds like it's very important steps for a HR professional to remember so these horror stories don't happen to you in your organization.
Amber Clayton:
Yeah, I mean, again, 25 plus years, I've pretty much had to deal with everything. So I'm sure there are many employers out there that have been in the same position I have. And if you haven't, I would just say try not to, and make sure that you educate yourself and train your employee population, your supervisors, managers, and try to avoid these scary situations.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, definitely. And it sounds like horror stories are not uncommon for an HR professional to experience and hear about too. It is part of the job and to be prepared and to know that there is a community out there that we as HR professionals can support each other, and there's resources that SHRM offers. There's a SHRM member network where you can have discussion groups and ask questions. So there is a support network there for you if you need that.
Amber Clayton:
Absolutely.
Wendy Fong:
I did want to touch on bullying a little bit since that is definitely different as you define from harassment. So bullying, if that was happening in the workplace, I mean, what can an HR professional do to prevent that from escalating to a scarier horror story?
Amber Clayton:
Yeah. Well, similar to harassment, of course, you'll want to do investigations and make sure that the claims are valid. And of course, depending on the situation, there may be disciplinary action up to and including termination. Many employers have codes of conduct. A lot of times workplace bullying is in there, or it could be. No cursing, no screaming, shouting, yelling, different types of behavioral actions. And so those could be violations of company policy. Of course, there might be training involved.
This is terrible, but I always say there may always be a person, an a-hole - I don't know, can I say that? I don't know - in the organization. And I've told my mom, I'm like, "Just because they're mean and they're yelling at you that they want you to do something, again, doesn't mean that it rises to the level of harassment under the law." Sometimes they're just a jerk. And we do have this great toolkit on managing disruptive behaviors, and I'm going to say it wrong, but it's something like managing difficult employees and disruptive behaviors. That's it. And it goes through a number of different scenarios, including bullying. And so there are resources and guidance out there that can help employers through these situations, but having policies in place and making sure that your employees are following them is a really good idea.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, that's really helpful. And SHRM does have a civility campaign as well. How can we promote civility in the workplace? And we have recorded a few episodes on civility and dealing with incivility in the workplace because of all the added stressors in life, in the world, in society, the economy, that it can create moments of incivility. So having those tools and resources for your employees and people managers, I think it's really important so everyone feels that they can tackle those situations.
Amber Clayton:
I think we actually have a civility toolkit that can help managers and employers. And we have some recent research that I was just hearing from one of our researchers yesterday about with regards to civility in the workplace. Absolutely.
Wendy Fong:
Well segueing over to the month of October, we're just celebrating a lot of different months, national months. October is also Cyber Security Awareness month. So this can be scary for anyone because we know that cyber threats, cyber crime is on the rise, and it will be continuing to be a major concern for all different entities, public and private organizations and governments as well.
Amber Clayton:
Yes, I've received a number of notices in the mail recently where companies have said, "Oh, your personal information may have been compromised." I actually had my bank account stolen recently.
Wendy Fong:
Oh, no.
Amber Clayton:
I know this is the second time in 10 years, and so it's been a couple of months now, and I still don't have everything resolved. They took about $2,400 and then tried to take another $800. So my accounts were frozen. I had to get another account, couldn't pay for things just because the account was frozen. I couldn't even pull my own money out of my account, which was just crazy. But yeah, it's awful. It's awful. And hopefully employers have those plans in place to protect their employees' personal identifying information because again, it's a data breach, and there are state data breach laws that require employers to do things like notifying employees, notifying government agencies. So data breach, protecting the data, whether it's electronic or paper copies, very, very, very important.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah. And also too, if there's the data breach with your customers that you have to notify them as well and what that does to the company's reputation. Like you mentioned, I've gotten notices from different companies that my email was out there or whatever confidential information, health records. But that's when it goes back again to, I feel like, for prevention, having those policies in place, training, being prepared to make sure that your employees have that cybersecurity awareness, whether it's... It is a skill that you have to learn. Is that spam? Should I click on it? What are different things to look out for in an email?
And also with the emergence of AI, right? AI can mimic someone's voice, can mimic someone's face and videos. We recently had an internal deep fake training. I don't know if anyone knows what deep fake is, but basically the video was of Christopher Walken and was talking and was starting off the training, but then Christopher Walken turned off and it was actually someone else pretending to be Christopher Walken, but it sounded just like him. For the most part, it looked like him, like 90%, but the training walked us through different things you can look out for like sometimes the image isn't quite syncing up or the movements and blinking is a little off, but it's important to train your employees, especially with six different generations in the workplace, that everyone has the skills and has the aptitude to be able to notice those things.
Amber Clayton:
It's amazing how often that's happening. And I'll tell you that I was on Facebook and I saw this video with Keanu Reeves, and I was like, oh, to my daughter. I'm like, "Oh, look at this video." And she's like, "Mom, that's AI." I was like, "What?" And then I learned that Keanu Reeves really doesn't do those type of videos. He's not on social. And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, it is AI." It looked just like him, talked just like him. So I mean, it's just unreal how real these things can be.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, that is crazy. And it's coming out so much quicker than federal states and local governments to come out with regulations to keep up with how fast the technology is moving.
Amber Clayton:
Well, I'm looking for a time where my face, I look like a totally different person, and I don't know. We'll see what happens.
Wendy Fong:
Well, another thing that we had talked about before we started recording, which I thought was hilarious and scary at the same time, was you said that you get several inquiries at the Knowledge Center about restrooms.
Amber Clayton:
Yes, yes. Hard to believe, right? We always joke about this, but we've gotten over a hundred questions this year related to the bathroom use.
Wendy Fong:
A hundred? 1-0-0.
Amber Clayton:
Yes. 1-0-0. And for those employers who have never had to deal with this, great for you. For us, we hear these stories and we're like, "Wow." And while there is a bit of funniness - is that a word, funniness? - to them, it is scary to have to deal with. So one of the big ones that we get is people who are using the restroom often, and they're not being productive. They're staying in the bathroom too long, or they are taking multiple breaks. And I think what employers need to know is that that could potentially be as a result of a medical issue. And so then that may come into play with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA or the Family Medical Leave Act, FMLA. So before you go and discipline someone around this, you may want to follow through with them and find out is there a medical related issue why they're using the bathroom so frequently?
So that's one that we get pretty often. The gross ones that we get are the ones where people are vandalizing the bathroom. And I know that sounds crazy, but it happens so often that we created a Q&A on our site around it, because we've had people who have asked us, can we install cameras in the bathroom? Please don't. That's a scary thing. Can you imagine using the restroom and there's cameras in there? Now, laws typically prevent employers from doing that monitoring surveillance. But the purpose behind it, of course, was to try to catch who is vandalizing the bathrooms. And so employers can put cameras outside of the bathrooms if they're seeing people coming in and going out, they can do things like have the bathroom locked, so they have keys, a sign-in sheet, which is weird. Nobody wants your name to be up there multiple times, but there are things that you can do to prevent bathroom vandalism.
But something around that that I think is really important, and again, scary is somebody has to clean that up. And if you have a cleaning crew, if you have employees who are responsible for cleaning the bathrooms you're dealing with, I hate to say this, fecal matter, urine, blood, all types of things. And that can be a biohazard. And yes, it is scary and it is gross. And unfortunately these things happen, whether it's accidental or purposeful. And many times it's purposeful, you wouldn't believe the stories that we've heard, but you do have to make sure that your employees are safe and you have to provide proper equipment to be able to handle those. And whether it's chemicals or equipment, all of those things come into play when it comes to these types of issues. So while it might seem funny, it could definitely result in hazardous situation where somebody becomes ill or even injured in those situations. So yes, it's gross, but we definitely have them. And hopefully if you're an employer who hasn't had that situation, that you will continue not to have that situation in the future.
Wendy Fong:
And be prepared. I think that's the key line that we're using throughout the episode to prevent horror stories.
Amber Clayton:
Yes. And people are probably like, well, how do you prepare for that? You really can't. I mean, you can make sure that there's someone regularly looking at the bathrooms to make sure that they're clean, but I mean, you're not going to know or predict if an employee's going to do something like that, do something purposefully. Signage, communication, policies, all of those things can help.
Wendy Fong:
That's great advice. Well, there's so many other HR horror stories that we can cover, but unfortunately we don't have the time.
Amber Clayton:
Darn. I like talking about these things. I think it's really helpful for employers.
Wendy Fong:
I know. We can go on for another couple of hours.
Amber Clayton:
Yes, absolutely.
Wendy Fong:
We can go through all the different stories.
Amber Clayton:
And I think it's just how someone defines what's considered a horror story. Because again, it could be really bad, like we talked about with the workplace violence and things that, but these other situations that employers can get in are really scary. So the list can go on and on.
Wendy Fong:
And I hope that prepares everyone for Halloween this coming year.
Amber Clayton:
I don't know about that, but something to think about.
Wendy Fong:
Prevent the HR horror stories from happening at your company so you can just enjoy Halloween and have the fun part of the horror.
Amber Clayton:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I should mention, since it is Halloween, if you're an employer and you recognize that, watch out for those costumes and parties. We have information on that too, to keep you out of legal hot water. So just something to add on to the HR horror stories episode.
Wendy Fong:
Yeah, that's a good point. Even at my daughter's school, they come out with a policy of what costumes aren't allowed at school and what to wear. We want everyone to have a fun and safe holiday.
Amber Clayton:
Absolutely.
Wendy Fong:
And I love your flapper costume, by the way.
Amber Clayton:
Thank you. Thank you. I know it's probably inappropriate, but I also have this.
Wendy Fong:
It's your magic wand, right?
Amber Clayton:
It is my magic wand. Don't pay attention that I just put that near my mouth.
Wendy Fong:
Well, with that, we've come to the end of our show. So for listeners who are members of SHRM, you can find resources specific to this topic on S-H-R-M SHRM.org. You can also contact the SHRM's Knowledge Center like we mentioned, and ask one of our HR advisors for assistance at SHRM.org /hrhelp. Even if it is a restroom potty story, they'll take all of your inquiries.
Amber Clayton:
We'll take them all. We take all the questions.
Wendy Fong:
Well, before we say goodbye, I encourage everyone to follow Honest HR, wherever you enjoy your podcasts or your videos. And audience reviews have a real impact on our podcast visibility, so we would love to hear your feedback if you could rate wherever you listen or watch podcasts. And finally, you can find all of our episodes on our website at SHRM.org /hrdaily. So thanks for joining the conversation, and happy Halloween, we'll catch you all next week.
Amber Clayton:
Happy Halloween.
Wendy Fong:
Bye.
Amber Clayton:
Bye.
Speaker 4:
This podcast is approved to provide 0.5 professional development credits or PDC towards SHRM-CP, and SHRM-SCP recertification. Enter this PDC activity ID into your SHRM activity portal to claim your credit. 25-2-T-P-A-F once more. That code is 25-2-T-P-A-F. Please note that this code will expire at November 1st, 2025.