“That’s not in my job description,” said the HR director.

Whoa! You’d think that HR director would know that saying those words can sometimes ruin one’s career (or current job position).

We actually know the person (character) who said (wrote) that. It’s none other than one of our favorite presenters, Cheri Baker. If you didn’t know that Cheri is also an author, you’re in for a treat. She just rolled out her new ebook, “Orientation to Murder (A Katherine Voyzey Mystery)”. That’s book number 2 in her author career; her first was published in late 2013, “Involuntary Turnover (A Katherine Voyzey Mystery)”.

When Cheri is not writing about HR Director Katherine Voyzey, she is a consultant providing coaching and employee and leadership development to individuals and organizations. Having that subject matter expertise under her belt, you might think she’d get away from “teaching” in her mystery books and just let her readers feel the simple act of sitting back and enjoying a good read. Not entirely so.

You’ll still find golden nuggets of “how to be a good HR manager/director” throughout Cheri’s ebooks. But now you’ll be enjoying what you read (the mystery story) instead of feeling like you’re reading a dry list of how-to’s.

For example:

• Even though you want to say “That’s not in my job description” at work, the underlying tip is, “Don’t say that out loud.”
• An HR manager/director should always maintain a professional behavior (if you feel like cussing, don’t cuss out loud).
• And privacy is just that. No talking about employees to other employees. Period.
• A good reply to prying employees: “Sorry, I can’t (won’t) share confidential information about other employees.”

If you’re looking for an easy to read, interesting story on the life of an HR director and how she deals with staff at the hospital she works at (along with all the mystery stuff), you might want to check out Baker’s ebooks.