I don't think I'm alone in saying that my HR department really could stand to loosen up a bit. Sure, they have to worry about all those employment laws with fancy acronyms, like HIPAA, ERISA, FMLA, USERRA, etc. And I'm sure it's no fun always being the bad guy that tells you your benefit costs are going up, your performance isn't up to par and/or the merit increase budget has been cut once again. But what if I told you there's an HR department out there that actually HAS a sense of humor?

Last week, a friend sent me a link to a job posting on woot.com for an Accounts Payable Manager. Being a communicator (not to mention one who struggles to balance her checkbook), I initially wondered why she would be sending this to me. Then I read it, and something very unexpected happened -- something that's never ever happened to me before when reading a job posting: I laughed! And I kept reading. 

Not only was it lighthearted and witty. It was actually well-written. In fact, I read the entire thing...every word of it -- not because I have any interest whatsoever in the position, but because it was entertaining reading. See for yourself.

It even made me ponder what member of a Superhero Team I would be in my current position, or what potential hazards of the job I wish someone had warned me about.

Of course, I'm not so naive as to think an HR person actually wrote this posting. But the point is that an HR person ALLOWED this to be written -- and posted online for potential applicants to see. If I ever meet that HR person, I might just hug him (or her). After all, no employer brand, slick recruiting brochure or eager, well-spoken recruiter is ever going to convey the true essence of a job more than a job description that cuts through the crap and tells it how it really is -- warts and all -- in a way that actually makes you want to read it.

Wouldn't the working world be a much happier place if all job postings were this honest and engaging?

Meetings are a fact of life, no matter what business you're in. We meet by phone. We meet in-person. Sometimes, we even meet "virtually." But what would the business world be without meetings? Less boring? Definitely. More efficient? Quite possibly.

This afternoon, I endured a five-hour-long Corporate Management Team meeting. While it was full of strategic business information, lively discussion on topics facing the organization and updates from each of the business units -- all of which will be helpful to me in my job -- the meeting itself was downright painful.

What I find most ironic is that some of the agenda items were actually updates on OTHER meetings that had already taken place. So basically, you have a meeting, then you get to present what happened at that meeting at yet another meeting.  Then, the attendees of that meeting (like me) can relay that information to their teams in -- you guessed it -- another meeting. Is it any wonder that my calendar stays booked solid all the time?

In this day and age of technology, isn't it amazing that we haven't found a more efficient way of sharing information than to sit for hours-on-end in an over-air-conditioned conference room with bad coffee, watching an endless string of Powerpoint slides while hearing about what happened at the last meeting you weren't invited to attend?

At least they fed us lunch.

Confession: I'm a religious viewer of the Today show. Every morning, I go straight from the shower to the TV to get my daily fill of news, weather and heartwarming stories of triumph over adversity, as told by my long-time friends Meredith and Matt.

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed my beloved morning show covering more and more stories that involve some form of crime, rant or otherwise embarrassing public display that's been broadcast on YouTube for all the world to see. 

First, there was the cheerleader beating in Florida. Matt and Meredith really milked that one for all it was worth, interviewing the mothers of the victim, the accused and some 'poor girl' who just happened to be there watching the entire mess, but who wasn't really guilty of any wrongdoing. (I wonder if she still feels that way, now that she's spent a night in jail?) Needless to say, the fact that eight teenage girls actually thought it was a cool idea to film themselves beating up on one of their former friends and post it on YouTube is pretty disturbing. Were they really so obsessed with getting their 15 minutes of online fame that they failed to realize they were commiting a crime?

As if one weren't bad enough, on Tuesday, YouTube removed a 30-second video of yet another teenager -- a boy from Missouri -- beating up a classmate in a locker room. It had been viewed 1,042 times by the time it was taken down. 

Just when I thought I'd seen it all on YouTube, on Thursday, the Today show covered the Broadway actress who filmed an embarrassing rant about her estranged husband (a wealthy and well-known Broadway producer) and -- you guessed it -- uploaded it to YouTube. Care to guess how many views so far? Over 2.6 million as of today.

While I agree that violence-loving teenagers are in a different league than revenge-seeking divorcees, I continue to be amazed at how these people willingly broadcast their lives, as if they're starring in their own reality show. And let's face it...they're not exactly getting to live in some amazing house or have the chance to win $1 million. (Well, actually the wealthy divorcee is. But that's beside the point.)

Remember when Jerry Springer had a huge following? It was all about shock value. I never understood why anyone would go on that show, knowing full well that they were about to be embarrassed, humiliated and/or have their life completely destroyed. But maybe it's the same principle...to some, 15 minutes of fame is more important than maintaining any degree of dignity or self-respect. And now that we have YouTube for this, who needs Springer?

The question is: has YouTube created a society that thinks its okay to broadcast any aspect of your life if it gets a million views? Or have we always been willing to put it out there, but never before had the means to reach such a huge audience?

It's that wonderful time of year here at AHA when the Finance department is buzzing with activity, executives are holding day-long closed door meetings and frazzled assistants are cursing the day our clunky e1 financial system was ever invented. Yes, my friends, it's BUDGET TIME!

The thing is, though I didn't realize it at the time, I got lucky last year. My budget requests were approved, with the exception of one that was reduced by about $5K...not a huge sacrifice and one that I was fully willing to make since I got everything else I asked for.

Fast forward one year, and I'm in pure budget hell. Granted, I asked for a lot more money, but it was money to pay for new communication projects that the CEO actually asked me to do: quarterly virtual town hall meetings and videocasts to volunteers. These things aren't free! On the contrary, they required an increase in my tiny budget of nearly 250%. As if that wasn't enough, I had to ask for money to fund monthly hosting costs for the internal social network and video platform that I want to implement next year. I found some money in a separate budget that I thought I could repurpose, but I still had to ask for a little more to cover a full year of hosting costs. (After all, what good is a social network if I have to take it down after a few months?)

Guess what got cut? Hint: it wasn't the money to fund the CEO-requested projects.

My beloved social network concept is rapidly becoming a dream never to be realized. While I have received funding to build the site (AND approval by senior management to move forward on the implementation), I have no money to pay for it to be hosted on an ongoing basis. So basically, I can build it, but nobody can come.

Adding salt to the wound, I was asked to cut another 8% out of my other two budgets yesterday. They didn't really care where it came from. It just had to come out.

When I was a consultant, I remember hearing my clients say "My budget just got cut. Stop working on this immediately and send me a bill for the work you've done." I would be dumbfounded that the project that we'd worked so hard on for the past few months would never see daylight because of some irrational decision made by senior execs who really didn't understand the project to begin with. Now I know firsthand how those clients felt. Embarrassed, helpless, unempowered...defeated.

I don't think I'm alone in saying that communicators spend a fair amount of time being frustrated by their Technology departments. It's certainly true for me. But I have to say that, out of all the departments I work with, one of the best relationships I have is with folks in Technology. Yes, they often make me want to pull every hair out of my head and run screaming from the building, but all in all, they at least TRY to understand my issues and, even though they almost always reject the solution I'M recommending, they have something to offer in return.

Case in point: today we FINALLY launched our new Intranet homepage. I emphasize "finally" because this project has been in the works since November, with launch scheduled for February. Unfortunately, our web content management application seems to be on its last legs and has been going down just about daily for the past month. Before that, there were delays in building the widgets because the programmer's machine kept crashing. And at the end, when the page was finished and ready to launch last week, my Tech guy informed me that "Oh, actually, we can't really replace the old homepage because our system won't support the changeover." As you can imagine, that was NOT what I wanted to hear...especially at the END of 4 months of work on the site.

So why I am now defending the honor of my humble Technology department? Because they didn't give up. And lo and behold, at 12:30pm today, the new page launched. I don't know how they did it...don't even care. It's up!! Hallelujah!

The reason I'm giddy over IT right now is because they found a way to make it work and, unfortunately, with other so-called partners I have in this organization, that's not usually the case. When the going gets tough, we change direction. But not this time. No, those resourceful little troubleshooters in IT found a way to get it done. And I will be forever greatful.

Long live IT!