Have You Ever Saved The Day by Turning Disaster into Victory? - Brief Article

I call them "frustration dreams." I'm on the way to do something important, maybe even life-changing. But I can't get there. First, I get lost in an unfamiliar part of town, driving around winding side streets, looking frantically for a route back to the main highway. The clock on the dashboard seems to grow larger with every turn. In moments, I'll be late.

At last, I see the highway. I mash down the accelerator, on the move now. But wait! There's a car ahead, brake lights on. Can I stop in time? No. I swerve over the shoulder, into the ditch. The car is stuck.

Then I wake up.

Fortunately, I don't have these dreams often. But the next time I do I want to add a new twist. As soon as my car hits the ditch, a helicopter will land in the adjacent field. "Your ride, sir," the pilot will announce. And I'll fly off to my urgent destination with time to spare.

That's turning a bad situation into a good one.

And--in real life, not in dreams--turning around bad situations is something HR professionals often feel they do for a living.

We want to know about those victories you've snatched from the jaws of disaster.

In a little contest we're running this summer, we are asking SHRM members to send us a short description of a situation that could have been an HR nightmare. But instead of it becoming a "frustration dream," it was handled especially well and brought to a successful conclusion.

The prize: The people with the most creative and effective solutions to the toughest HR problems will be featured in HR Magazine.

To be considered, e-mail a short description (about 500 words) of your situation to SuccessStories @shrm.org. We will select some HR professionals to feature in an article in an upcoming issue of the magazine. Winners must agree to be interviewed for the article, and we may want to take some photographs, too. If a winning situation is delicate, we will maintain anonymity for the contestant and his or her company.

The deadline for submissions is July 31.

Watch for more information on SHRM Online at www.shrm.org.

On the Roadside

If you don't think welfare-to-work programs are important, consider the following:

Driving home from the office the other day I came to an intersection that has become a popular place for panhandlers to solicit donations from drivers waiting for the light.

Two tattered fellows were on the side of the road, each holding a sign saying "Homeless. Will Work for Food. God Bless."

But instead of approaching drivers, they were reading a sign tacked onto a telephone pole: "Earn up to $5,000 a month working from home."

Talk about opportunities some people just can't capitalize on.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Society for Human Resource Management
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group