HR in Fiction

There aren't too many novels with HR Managers as main characters. I just ran across a new work of fiction, called A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua which stars an unnamed Human Resources manager. Apparently the HR Manager is called in by the boss to help solve the mystery surrounding an employee's death.

According to this review on Amazon

In A. B. Yehoshua's "A Woman in Jerusalem," a local newspaper publishes a scathing article in which a reporter denounces the owner of a commercial bakery for not missing one of his employees when she no longer shows up for work. It turns out that this individual was a cleaning lady who was killed in a terrorist bombing. The eighty-seven year old owner is mortified and conscience stricken by what he considers his company's dereliction of duty. He calls in his human resources manager and tells him to do whatever he can to set things right.

It seems apt to use a Human Resources Manager for this story since HR usually is the one responsible for dealing with complex human related crises.

If you know of any other works of fiction that feature HR please email them to my attention.

How Would You Rate Your Cell Mates?

Here's an unusual use of exit interviews that even Nobscot Corporation never dreamed of.

According to this article, The Sedgwick County Jail in Wichita has begun conducting exit interviews with prisoners a few weeks prior to their release. The goal of the program according to Captain Glenn Kurtz is to assess the prisoner's needs. I'm not sure if they are talking about their needs while they are in prison, like a standard corporate exit interview, or to discuss their needs coming out of prison.

Will they ask questions like "What did you like best about staying here," "If you could change on thing about this prison, what would it be," and "How would you rate your cellmates?"

The same article also talks about using a mentoring program for the ex-convicts upon their release which sounds like a great idea to me.