Employees in most professions have been known to break up the workday by checking social media from time to time—and we won’t tell your bosses, but we know HR professionals are no exception. So, it’s not surprising that there are HR-based meme accounts that boast hundreds of thousands of followers across multiple platforms.

Jamie Jackson has been running @humorous_resources and @horrendous_hr on Instagram (and also TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter) for years. The self-proclaimed chief meme officer makes us laugh when we wanna cry, and reminds employees and HR colleagues alike that we’re not polished and buttoned-up 24/7.

“It was important to me that when I created Humorous Resources to really have it be more about the people,” she said. “They’re relatable, and everyone can be like, ‘Oh my God, I remember that time when…’ or ‘Oh, God, that just happened last week with Phil in accounting.’”

Jackson, an HR manager at a Nashville healthcare startup, started the Humorous Resources account in 2020 during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Here I am, an HR department of one over four nonprofit clinics, right in the throes of the pandemic, and I truly felt like I was losing it. I needed a creative outlet, and I had always made memes on my personal, private page, and I had two separate friends within the same week, say, ‘You should make a page,’” Jackson recalled. “I truly did not expect it to take off.”

Now, Jackson is posting daily to her 288,000 followers on Humorous Resources’s Instagram and also spearheading Horrendous HR, where she reads wild HR-related stories submitted anonymously. Reminder: She’s also a full-time HR manager, sometimes clocking 15-hour days.

Keep reading.—AD

You hate to see a crisis so widespread that all it takes is three letters to get everyone speaking in hushed tones. But that’s exactly what happened with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB.

As thousands of businesses lost access to the millions of dollars they had inside the bank, CEOs, VCs, and other business leaders scrambled to recover emergency funds before any major issues occurred due to late payment of employees or vendors.

In the past few years, HR leaders have had no shortage of opportunities to maintain order during chaos, particularly in the startup and tech companies that make up a large part of the SVB client base. The SVB debacle may offer a learning opportunity for HR pros.

Risk management for the people. Sanjai Bhagat, a University of Colorado finance professor, pointed out that executive pay and bonuses at SVB were not aligned with the right outcomes for the company or its clients.

According to multiple reports, the company’s most senior leadership did not have a comprehensive view of risk management, and its CEO and multiple senior executives sold millions in company stock weeks before its collapse. Bhagat suggested that restructuring and restricting executive and director compensation to delayed stock and stock options is one factor that could have motivated leadership to be “more cognizant of long-term risks.”

Protect your house. SVB received a warning from the US Federal Reserve in 2019 about its risk management systems, which may have been an early warning sign for companies relying on the bank to meet payroll. Some payroll providers have stronger systems in place than others. Gusto, for example, has what’s known as a redundant system and that, along with other controls, ensured that it did not experience any payroll interruption.

Keep reading.—AK

Since HR folks are typically the ones holding the ax when it’s time for layoffs, they might be cast by some people as villains who delight in culling staff. But HR people have to contend with the vicissitudes of daily work just like anyone else, and that includes getting the ax themselves.

To that end, we polled HR Brew readers on whether the layoffs hitting their industry has given them pause about staying in the field for the long haul. The question: How are you thinking about your own career in this climate?

Among respondents, 41% answered that it’s business as usual, 23% answered that they’re considering a career change, and 36% said they’re already updating their résumés.

Perhaps HR pros do have reason to fret: Layoffs tore through the tech industry (affecting HR departments and recruiters) in 2022, and early indications show that they’re continuing in 2023.

Today’s quick question:

Email etiquette check! Do you pepper in tons of exclamation points and happy, smiley emojis to convey lightness at work? Or is that not your style?

Yes! I am an over-exclaimer!
️ I like the occasional “!”
No way

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 91% of US workers surveyed say a colleague has been passive-aggressive over email. (Preply)

Quote: “When a significant portion of a team is let go, it’s only natural to consider alternative solutions to fill the gaps and maintain productivity.”—Shane McEvoy, an SEO specialist, on using AI tools to make up for human personnel shortages after layoffs (WorkLife)

Read: Alcohol has long been intertwined with socializing at work, but younger employees are changing that. (BBC Worklife)