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"Working" in a HR gibberish environment - or face the sack!

There is just no doubting what gibberish (aka rubbish!) and absolute nonsense the HR people will come up with.....

"It may be a new low in human resources gibberish.

But the fun crowd at retailer Cotton On have told staff they need to "keep it real" or face the sack.


A leaked copy of Cotton On's code of conduct tells its staff it is "unacceptable" when working with colleagues or customers, to be anything but "fun" and "keeping it real". No ifs or buts. Failure to do so can result in being fired on the spot.


Less well defined in the document is what "keeping it real" means. The Online Slang Dictionary tells us that to "keep it real" is to "stay true to one's self; to resist the temptation to be fake". One claim is that the origins of the phrase emerged out of hip-hop culture in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.


Employment lawyers, no doubt, would enjoy an unfair dismissal case in the Fair Work Commission for a worker sacked for not being real or fun.


But executives at Cotton On, a multinational headquartered in Geelong, are clearly serious.
Under a section titled headed "unacceptable conduct" it warns "any team member found engaging in any of the below acts will be subject to disciplinary action which may include counselling, warnings, or instant dismissal".


That includes not following Cotton On Group's values such as "Fun, Entrepreneurial, Keeping it real, Family, Ethical and Engaged."



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