Luck and Love, HR Style

by Pat DiDomenico on February 13, 2015

As we sit at the confluence of Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day, today’s HR Soapbox is reflecting on luck and love in the workplace. As luck would have it, we’ve stumbled upon a pair of new surveys on these topics:

FIRST COMES LOVE. More than a third of you (37%) say you’ve dated a co-worker. And it didn’t always end well, did it? Five percent of you romantics say that the conscious (and messy) uncoupling of a work relationship has forced you to quit a job.  

But what about the kind of love that people have for the job itself? It’s not all about the love of money, as you can guess.

Here are the top 5 reasons, according to a Korn Ferry survey, that people say they love their jobs:

  1. Relationship with co-workers/clients          43%
  2. Company culture/values                             18%
  3. Growth opportunities                                  17%
  4. Relationship with management/employer   13%
  5. Competitive pay/compensation                     6%

BAD LUCK OR BAD LIES? It’s just superstitious to worry about bad luck on Friday the 13th. Or is it? One study shows that while fewer people drive on Friday the 13ths, hospital admissions for traffic accidents actually increase dramatically.      

For U.S. workers, bad luck seems to hit hardest at the start of each workday. Unexpected traffic jams and oversleeping are the two biggest causes of running late in the morning.

But for some workers, their bad luck is caused by less conventional culprits. According to a recent CareerBuilder report, here are eight of the most bizarre bad-luck reasons that employees have given for arriving late to work:  

  1. I knocked myself out in the shower.
  2. I was drunk and forgot which Waffle House I parked my car next to.
  3. I discovered my spouse was having an affair, so I followed him this morning to find out who he was having an affair with.
  4. Someone robbed the gas station I was at, and I didn’t have enough gas to get to another station.
  5. There was a stranger sleeping in my car.
  6. A deer herd that was moving through town made me late.
  7. I dreamed that I got fired.
  8. I went out to my car to drive to work, and the trunk had been stolen out of it. (In this case, the employee had the photo to prove it!)
Category: HR Soapbox