Classes So Far
So I've once hit that snag where "I'm so over this quarter." It typically happens around midterms. I think it also does not help that next week I schedule my last two classes of graduate school, so I am THAT much closer to receiving my MLHR degree. It also does not help that I have what seems an overwhelming amount of projects to do in a very little span of time.
I don't know why, but winter quarters always are rough. Always. Normally, it is due to the weather making your classes and doing work even more horrible. But "winter" has not even been all that bad...almost even pleasant (atmospherically). Maybe it is due to the fact that I actually have to take 3 classes to prevent getting caught up in the whole semester switch conversion. I don't know. But anyways...
Employment Law
This class speaks for itself. It covers all of the different laws that apply to organizations. I never knew how much the law affected business. I see why many lawyers do not actually have to be court attorneys like on Law and Order, but are able to work in corporate America. Both of our instructors are licensed attorneys. The first one we had has a Juris Doctor, but was also a Human Resources Director. So much about the law applies to human resources that you don't even need to have a "Master's of Labor and Human Resources" to be effective. A lot of the information can be a little legal jargon-y, but it is a lot of information that I never thought about before. Though future students in this program will not have this class, Employment Law is different than Labor Law. Labor law applies more to labor unions and collective bargaining. Employment law is what most HR professionals deal with. A lot of actual labor law human resources issues, from personal experience, are not even handled by HR professionals but lawyers. For example, the labor adviser for the organization that I work with is an attorney (but she also has her MBA so she works with the business aspects as well). The instructor who is in charge of the class had a child on our first day of class, so we have had someone else teach half of the class while the main instructor has been resting. We have a group project where we have to make a video, and I have nine other group members. Also, the final is worth 80% of our total grade. YOWZA.
Organizational Development and Change
We actually have not covered anything concerning organizational development. It should probably be called Change Management in the future (maybe something else though because there is already Talent and Performance Management and that might get unoriginal). This class has been intense. There are cases we have to discuss every week in class. I swear every class's purpose is to do a 180 on what we are supposed to think. I would say a good 60% of the material was written by the professor and his wife. He really takes some interesting perspectives to change that I have never thought of...that can apply to your everyday life (not just grandiose company "change efforts"). I am nervous about practically every assignment we have in this class. All the readings of this class were condensed in the first 5 weeks. So I'm done with reading for this class thank goodness, but trying to keep up with everything in this class has sucked so far. I mean I'm sure it won't be easy with the midterm, project, and presentation we will have to do. But if I have gotten through other classes I can get through this one (hopefully).
Organizational Behavior
This is the class that I really like the most this quarter. It is taught by Dr. Inks. All the people who I have known to have him for class have claimed he was great. At my past internship, one of my coworkers hated everything about HR (why he was working in that position I really don't know), but when he took OB with Inks he actually started to like HR. When all these people were praising him, I actually thought I wasn't going to be impressed, but I must admit I will have to agree with everyone else. I don't know. I think it is something about his teaching style that makes you want to actually participate when he's teaching. Not many professors can pull off being interesting and inviting at the same time. All of the topics are really interesting and feel like "progressive human resources". We get a say in what we want to do for our project, too. If I go back and get a PhD in the future then this would probably what I would consider studying.
The entire month of February is not really looking like any kind of fun. I am determined that if I can get through at least March then I will definitely be getting my degree.
Wish me luck!
-G