I found myself so wound up in a work discussion this week that I nearly forgot to eat my lunch.  My eyes were lit up, my heart was racing, and I barely stopped talking long enough to breathe.  At one point, I feared drool.  When the waitress stopped by for the second time to see how we liked our meal, I said everything was great…and then realized I hadn’t even looked at my food.  I finally had to gain control of myself.  The topic? Recruiting.  What a geek! 

Even more specifically, the topic was a broken recruiting function.  There is little that fires me up more than talking to someone that needs to fix recruiting.  Hiring managers were grumpy, the candidate experience was shoddy, a crazy amount of money was being spent on agency fees, the employment brand was nearly non-existent, and the employee referral program was ineffective.   I could barely keep myself in the seat. 

Does your job do that for you?  It should.  Do you get all geeked-up when you talk about your job?  If not, get out!  Life is way too short to go to work and talk about boring stuff.   

When my lunch partner asked if a recruiting mess like this scares me, I was compelled to share my meteorologist analogy.  Here’s what I know, especially living in Cleveland, Ohio, when it’s 70 and sunny doing the TV weather report is kinda boring (albeit a rare and enjoyable phenomenon).  Now, bring on a good mid-January blizzard or an April tornado warning and the local weather reporters are all geeked-up.  Their hair is a mess, their sleeves are rolled up, the tie is askew, they are talking at warp speed, there is sweat rolling down their face…and the smile is uncontrollable!  That’s what I’m talkin’ about.  When all is calm, it’s a snore fest.  When it’s a mess, bring it on!