What happens when an executive quietly outsources performance reviews to ChatGPT? Or when your C-suite is loudly preaching about AI adoption while refusing to touch the tools themselves? In this episode, I sit down with Talk HR to Me columnist and Head of People at Quantum Metric, Alana Fallis, to tackle real listener questions in a live advice-column format.
We dig into the messy realities of AI in the workplace—from misplaced trust in automated reviews, to the awkward theater of “innovation” at the executive level, to the human side of employee fears around automation. And yes, we even unpack the HR dilemma of whether an employee in recovery should be allowed to stock the breakroom fridge with non-alcoholic beer.
What You’ll Learn
- Why generative AI can supplement—but not replace—the nuance and empathy required in performance reviews.
- How to push back on “innovation theater” when leadership is more interested in optics than outcomes.
- A framework for addressing employee fears about job security in an era of automation.
- Why pay equity conversations demand transparency, context, and patience.
- How HR can balance empathy, compliance, and workplace culture in sensitive employee situations.
Key Takeaways
- AI is a tool, not a crutch: Use it to brainstorm or structure ideas, but don’t hand over human-centered conversations like reviews to a chatbot.
- Name the fear: Executives avoiding AI often aren’t resistant—they’re insecure. Confront the vulnerability, not just the rhetoric.
- Transparency beats false reassurance: Be honest with your team about what you know, what you don’t, and what they can do to strengthen their future prospects.
- Pay bands, not pay secrets: Compensation differences often have logical factors—but leaders should still be ready to explain them without defensiveness.
- Sometimes, mind your business: If an employee’s recovery involves non-alcoholic beer, focus on facts (it’s legal, it’s non-alcoholic) and shut down gossip.
Chapters
- [00:00] Why AI-written performance reviews miss the point
- [04:48] Innovation theater and performative AI adoption
- [10:38] Job security in an automated HR world
- [19:15] Why identical job titles don’t mean identical pay
- [23:17] The ethics of non-alcoholic beer at work
- [27:48] Closing thoughts + where to submit your HR dilemmas
Meet Our Guest

Alana Fallis is the VP and Head of People at Quantum Metric, where she leverages over a decade of dynamic HR leadership across the U.S. and internationally to oversee a global People program and lead a team of international HR practitioners. With deep expertise spanning employee relations, operational and legal HR, people metrics, employee engagement, global benefits, performance management, organizational development, compliance, and DEI—and backed by her certification as a Brain‑Based Coach from the NeuroLeadership Institute—she brings both strategic acumen and human-centered insight to her role. A creative at heart, Alana even authored an adult coloring book titled Intrusive Thoughts in the Workplace, blending art therapy with workplace wit.
Related Links:
- Join the People Managing People community forum
- Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts
- Connect with Alana on LinkedIn
- Check out Quantum Metric
- Talk HR to Me
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- About the People Managing People podcast
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- The State Of Work 2025: AI + HI And The Trends
- The Value Of Pay Transparency And How To Implement It
- The Cognitive Cost Of Convenience: AI Will Impact Our Brains
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Read The Transcript:
We're trying out transcribing our podcasts using a software program. Please forgive any typos as the bot isn't correct 100% of the time.
Alana Fallis: A manager who is just copy and pasting a gen AI like review into the forum, that's not gonna make your team member feel good.
David Rice: What we gotta get at with leaders here is what is your real fear or misalignment?
Alana Fallis: This is none of our last jobs, right? So let's build a relationship to work that is as healthy as can be, and prepare ourselves for what we're interested in.
David Rice: There will be a day where maybe the CEO does get outsourced AI, we never know.
Welcome to the People Managing People Podcast, the show where we help leaders keep work human in the era of AI. I'm your host, David Rice. And today I'm joined by Alana Fallis, she is the Head of People at Quantum Metric and the author of our recurring advice column, Talk HR to Me. Now if you haven't seen it on the website, it's definitely worth checking out.
But today we're gonna be doing the advice column live on the podcast. We've got a nice blend of questions for you. Some focus specifically on AI challenges within the organization, and a few that are maybe more traditional HR dilemmas. I won't go on with a big long intro. We'll just get straight into it. Enjoy.
Alright, well, Alana, welcome!
Alana Fallis: Thank you. Thank you.
David Rice: You ready to do this live in person?
Alana Fallis: Let's do it live and in person. The people have questions and we have to answer the people's questions. So let's get to it, you know.
David Rice: I'm amazed by like how often we get 'em. I'm like, this is great.
Alana Fallis: I know. It's so nice. I'm always like, Ooh, it's another one. It's another one. So it's great. Yeah.
David Rice: Some of 'em come through it. I'm like, Ooh, that's a good one. I can't.
Alana Fallis: I know. I like rub my hands together. I'm like, all right, we're gonna get to that. We're gonna get to that. Yeah.
David Rice: All right. So yeah, if you're new to it, Alana has this advice column on the website. It's called Talk HR to Me. We do it every couple of weeks and we take the questions from that and she just does an advice column. So we're gonna this week's straight in this show.
So, all right. The first question that we're gonna ask here is, I just found out one of our executives is using Gen AI to draft employee evaluations, and it's not part of any sanctioned pilot.
He says it's saving time. I'm concerned about bias, confidentiality, and tone. Am I overreacting or underestimating the risk?
Alana Fallis: No, I think you're perfectly reacting. My CSO, my chief security officer would be all over it. Here because there's a couple of considerations, right? ChatGPT is not secure to be entering confidential company information.
So there's sort of two things to keep in mind here. I would certainly have. This writer check with their security team about any internal protocols necessary or policy around the use of gen AI. Some companies have a requirement that only specific instances are used, or there's like specific guidelines for how to use ChatGPT.
And so obviously the risk is entering company information for one and for two to the point of the question not filtering through for bias and for tone and the delivery of information. So. Definitely check with your security team and make sure there are clear protocols on how to use Gen AI for your leaders.
On the other hand, if sanctioned and if allowed, using Gen AI to support with performance reviews is a good idea. I do it. I write the foundation of what I'm looking to do and sort of the bullet points, and then use it to brainstorm or flesh out a thought if I'm having trouble. Or I'll upload something like we have, you know, at my company, we have a specific Gemini instance for my company, so I can upload something securely and ask for some feedback.
So it definitely should be used for a time saver and for organizing thoughts and for brainstorming, but. A manager who is just copy and pasting a gen AI like review into the form, that's not gonna make your team member feel good, and it's gonna make them feel like it's not important and that you didn't give a crap about filling it out.
So I, I don't recommend it for that reason, but it's about the right use. Referencing it, using it for brainstorming, but definitely not just like setting it and forgetting it and copy, pasting m dashes and all into the form. Yeah. So yeah.
David Rice: I, yeah, I would say like it can provide inspiration for you totally. But it's terrible with what Nuanced context, Empathy. It's, which is sort of the thing.
Alana Fallis: Emotional intelligence. Yeah.
David Rice: Which is all the things that a performance review should be built on.
Alana Fallis: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
David Rice: You know, you don't wanna use, it's like one of the things it does now, you've probably noticed this too, is it's like it uses all these it's not this, it's that.
S and I'm like, this would be terrible in a performance reviews.
Alana Fallis: Yeah. Yeah. And their team members definitely know it's not, it might be really obvious, so. Yeah, I know. Yeah.
David Rice: No, definitely not overreacting on that one.
Alana Fallis: I don't think so. I don't think so. Appropriate amount of concern I.
David Rice: Absolutely. All right, so the next one is, and we obviously, you know where we are at this moment in time. A lot of it ain't gonna be a lot of AI questions, and please do keep sending them 'cause we love them.
Alana Fallis: Yeah, we do.
David Rice: But we're rolling out gen AI access org wide and HR is expected to lead and enablement, but the C-suite won't touch it.
I'm caught between pushing change and protecting credibility. How do I confront performative innovation from the top?
Alana Fallis: I first have to say that I want to have a wine with this writer because I get it. I get it. Let's talk about it. Okay. I would, in this case, book some time with the person who is actually making this ask of you, I'm assuming somebody on the executive team, and get really clear with them about the goal of what they're trying to achieve and have a partner in goal setting and clear expectations for the use of AI across the company.
I mean, if it were me, like my kind of sassy answer is, I'd be making this everybody else's problem. I would be saying, Hey, we're all in this together. But my real answer is get really clear on what you're actually being asked to do and whether the juice is actually worth the squeeze. Is it important?
What are we trying to achieve and how can I actually help? Because a use of everybody use AI with a. You can't see me, but a general hand wave, you know, is not enough. So I would get some real partnership with the person who's made the ask of you. And then I think what I would also do is have a one-on-ones with other members of the executive team and ask them, have exploratory conversations about their pain points and in what ways generative AI can support, you know, more team productivity and address the manual labor issues that they have on their team.
So make it an attractive offer to them, make it something that they can be excited about, make it a partnership. But definitely don't attempt to just go do it in the face of resistance and without clarity and then try to make it happen. So it really is a group effort. So I think that's where I'd start.
What do you think?
David Rice: Yeah. I mean, we've seen this come up a little bit recently, right? Like the idea of innovation theater. Innovation theater, it's like, I think what we gotta get at with leaders here is what is your real fear or misalignment that's attached to this, right?
So like, are you afraid of looking foolish? And exposing like some kind of technical gap and then maybe losing respect. Is that your headache? Because yeah. We all are dealing with this, you know? Yeah, totally. Like welcome to the party and that sort of vulnerability and experiencing that might actually bring everyone closer to you and make them respect you even more.
The fact that they watched you go through that, you know what I mean? So that could be totally something that you have to overcome within that conversation. And I think also there's like this belief. Within some leadership circles that it's like AI is really more for the doers. It's not for the deciders.
And it's like a good tool for task work, but strategy, you know, it's not there. And I think that what we're seeing now, especially with some of these new tools, I've seen a few lately that I was like, whoa. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I think we're seeing that it is becoming a strategic tool. Yeah. And so yeah.
How does your behavior change around that then? And how do you use it to just become better at your job like everybody else. Right. Totally. There will be a day where maybe the CEO does get outsourced AI, we never know.
Alana Fallis: God. We'll see. We'll see. But yeah, that's a really interesting perspective too because I think I was approaching the question, and maybe even with the assumption that there's like a lack of interest or resistance in some way, but you uncovered something really interesting.
I think that is it around a fear of a lack of knowledge of how to use the tools? And if that's the case, what kind of enablement can we do across the organization? Port, not just the executive team, but everybody with like how to use this technology. So that was a really good call out, I think.
David Rice: Yeah, well it comes from I've seen some research recently, especially in particular with HR leaders, that they feel sort of like unqualified to use it, like not technically savvy enough.
And I, I think there's so many different ways to experiment with it that you don't really have to be, and then once you start open the door and create a certain level of comfort for yourself. You can take it so many different places, and I think particularly for like CHROs, think about the culture drag of everybody else is forced to use it, but you don't you know, that's just, you're not like, embodying any of the stuff that you want.
Alana Fallis: Totally. Yeah. And the advice that I always give to my team is that this is the tools that are gonna help us, you know, be successful. In the future and maintain a competitive skillset. If I didn't also do it then I wouldn't be practicing what I preach.
And so, you know, what's interesting is that I, at the beginning of this year gave a an H one challenge to my team to find two use cases. I mentioned we use Gemini at my company for how Gemini can. Ease their workload or how they can use it in their roles. And so, and they had to present back to the rest of the team a couple months ago.
And I made very clear that it's not about, I'm not a super technical person. I'm not expecting you to be able to code or be in an engineer. I'm asking you to explore and see how AI can support you in your role specifically giving two examples and like starting slow I think really helps sort of plant the seed.
Once you start seeing and you get more experience with it, you're like, oh, and I can do this, and I can do this. And so yeah. Yeah.
David Rice: You start learning covering ways to use it. You never imagined it, so I know. I know. But the I, the thing I've been hearing lately is like I've been hearing this term, AI fluent culture.
And I'm like, that's nice to say. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. The thing is I think for most companies, everybody's in this like very different place with it. Yeah. And the cool thing as like a leader is why you should feel like invited to use it and to lead with it is that there's someone within the organization that is in the same level of using it. Yeah.
You know what I mean? Like they're just starting out or they're like, they've figured a few things out, but they haven't quite figured out how to apply it or whatever, you know? Right. Totally. So I think it's a good time to start using it and thinking about how you're gonna, like essentially steward meaningful adoption.
Alana Fallis: Yeah, exactly. And what will that mean? What will that mean for your organization and your team? Yeah.
David Rice: Absolutely. Yeah. Alright, so the third one that we have here is we're automating parts of our HR ops function. And my most dependable coordinator just asks, is my job safe? Yeah, I care about my team, but I also know that more changes coming.
How do I balance honesty with reassurance?
Alana Fallis: Speaking of generative AI, I mean, what a doozy. You know, and I really feel you I'm glad this person asked this question 'cause I'm sure they, they're hardly the only person thinking of it. And I think like foundationally, my answer to this question is, when faced with queries like this from your team is to sort of.
Go transparently through your knowns and unknowns, right? There is a lot that we do know about what's important to the business, what our goals are for the year, what our headcount will look like, you know, over the next couple months. But there's things that we don't know about how fast technology will advance and what chat bots will look like six months from now, and what that will mean for the business, right?
And so I have, I guess maybe this, maybe I'm unique in this perspective and let's debate if you'd like to, but I have contrary to our last sort of question where I believe in the potential of AI, I believe that it can leverage and automate certain parts of work. I'm not yet at the state where I think it will be replacing jobs as quickly and just completely replacing humans.
Like at the rate that everybody seems to think, I know we've seen layoffs recently, there was a big, I think it was a Microsoft layoff of a big HR team.
David Rice: Yeah. Like 9,000 people or so million people.
Alana Fallis: That's tons. Right. And those are big enterprise businesses that have huge. Huge amounts of roles, and maybe some of those roles will remain redundant.
But there's also a small part of me that's let me see their careers page in six to 12 months. I think it's not proven yet that it can completely replace the role of a human, especially on small teams, but I would frame the response to this person. Here's our knowns and unknowns. We don't know what technology will look like right now.
You have a spot here and let's make the most of that spot by learning to use the technology and leveraging it to, to be really awesome at your job. So leaning into it and teaching people to our last question, how to adopt it, how to get really awesome at what you do, how to become more data-driven as your HR ops coordinator.
How to present back to the executive team to be someone who can really leverage and be on the. Forefront of innovating with tech and generative AI, I think is actually probably the best way to keep your job safe. All of our jobs safe. But yeah, those are my starting thoughts.
David Rice: I agree. I think like we are seeing it.
They always say oh, it's not AI. It's gonna take your job. It's a human AI. I think that's very much a sentiment of the moment, which is fine.
Alana Fallis: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Agree.
David Rice: I don't think that is the long-term reality. Five years from now, I think an AI will take a job.
Alana Fallis: Okay. Okay. So you think so? Okay.
David Rice: But at the same time, right now, what we are seeing is there's an overindulgence with it, right? Yeah. Like from leadership. So they want it to do all these things. Yeah. But they're creating like the recipe for Boomerang employees because like we saw it with Klarna, we've seen it with some other companies, high profile cases where yeah, you end up having to bring people back because it doesn't quite do everything.
Or you find out that actually like the human QA step, right, like quality assurance step is really important. Yeah. And so I think. Getting back to the key question here. You know, you gotta be honest without being harsh. Right. You can't guarantee anything. Like we just have to be That's right.
Real about this moment. And actually like that when you see like leaders pretending like automation's not changing things. It's what are you doing? You know?
Alana Fallis: Oh, right, right. It should be changing some things. If it's not, then yeah.
David Rice: Well, if you're acting like it's not like, I'd actually be more nervous about that.
Yeah. You know what I mean?
Alana Fallis: That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
David Rice: But I think you could say to the person okay. We're automating some of the more repetitive work. Yes. But like we do wanna free you up to do other things, and I want to work with you to identify what those things are. I think one of the problems that we're having and why so many people get nervous is they hear leaders say things like, it's gonna free humans up to do higher order tasks.
Then someone inevitably goes, well what is that? What are those tasks?
And they don't have an answer.
Alana Fallis: They don't answer. Exactly.
David Rice: And I'm like, well, it's time to start having an answer, 'cause people, when you don't have an answer and it's like what you're gonna expect them to do. Yeah. People get really panicky.
Yeah. And I understand that like from a skills and role development perspective, we kind of don't know. We've gotta start giving people some sort of direction of travel. Here's what you should be learning. I don't know where it's gonna go, but I know that this will be relevant experience to where it does.
Like we've gotta at least be able to map that. Yeah. I don't know. I think it creates a lot of nervous and or tension when we can't answer that question.
Alana Fallis: Yeah, and I think that's particularly relevant advice for the person in this seat asking the question is like, how can you support the development of your team member?
It's not like over for us all tomorrow. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like obviously technology will continue to advance and of course there are things that people will always want human connection on that is not automation and efficiency, like around emotional intelligence, like around coaching, like the ability to hear and synthesize and build relationships with other people.
And for the record, not to sound like Doomsday, anyone on the team can lose their job for any number of reasons over the next couple of years. Do you know what I'm saying? So it so, yeah.
David Rice: Yeah. It's not just AI.
Alana Fallis: It's not just AI. So I always try to say this is none of our last jobs, right?
So let's build a relationship to work that is as healthy as can be, and prepare ourselves for what we're interested in. And to your point, like March in the direction of what skills will be strategic and demand and interest to you over time.
David Rice: I always come back to they're gonna need smart people who have a vision or like an idea of what to do with things like, so if you find yourself in these positions, start thinking about, well, what can I do differently?
Yes. Can I, how can I, yes. Try this or like experiment and just keep learning and keep. I was talking to somebody recently who said the number one thing is shifting from what I do to what I become.
You know, okay, what? How much can I learn and absorb is essentially going to be one of the biggest skills of the future? And I think that's why I kind of say give people the agency. Tell 'em I wanna shape this with you. I don't wanna dictate it to you.
Alana Fallis: Yeah.
David Rice: You come to me, you tell me like, oh, I'm actually falling into this thing and it's really interesting and I want to keep going. You know, like we can work together to figure out how you get there.
But that's totally sort of the direction.
Alana Fallis: Totally. And I've said before, people have to be in the driver's seat of their own development and of their own career journey. And yeah, I think, you know, definitely having this person lean into more of developing that technical skillset and learning to leverage technology and have it help them be better at what they do, can't run in the opposite direction from it, so.
David Rice: Yeah, that's what we have to, I mean, yeah, I, I. You know, obviously working in media.
This isn't even the first thing I've seen just wipe out jobs.
Alana Fallis: Yeah, sure. Right, right. Yeah, no, that's a good point. That's a good point.
David Rice: So it's it kind of gives you a perspective of like, all right, remember, like things will shift, but at the end of the day, like this thing that we do is not actually going anywhere.
It's not like people are gonna put down their phones and stop reading and stop watching things and stop listening to podcasts.
Alana Fallis: Totally.
David Rice: So at the end of the day, like how do I now. Use this thing to shape. Those things that I always used to, I mean, it used to be much more labor intensive, right? So we could minimize the labor, but create more output like let's just figure out how to do that, you know?
Alana Fallis: Yeah, totally. Not to get us off track, 'cause this is a workplace and HR podcast, but did you see the release of the Y Combinator, like what kind of submissions they're looking for their next class?
Some of these were crazy. It was like someone build an AI tool, please and pitch it to us. That can build new seasons of retired TV shows, like New Seasons of Friends using AI. Oh no. I'm like, nobody wants that.
David Rice: Yeah, no, no. This is like the, this is like the AI music thing.
Alana Fallis: Oh my God. The selling of the, oh the signing of the HR artists were like, whoa.
David Rice: And you're like, what? Why? And like some of this music is absolutely dreadful.
Alana Fallis: Of course. It's dreadful. Yeah, of course.
David Rice: Well, they I love that, that to keep us sidetracked, but they had recently I saw like a leaked they had the playlist gate where all these like billionaires playlists were leaked.
And one of the guys was listening to some AI generated song, and he listened to it like 60 times in a row on his playlist. I'm like, what's what? What kind of a deep psychosis do you have to be like, I couldn't listen to any song 60 times in our No.
Alana Fallis: That's wild. They have something going on. That's funny. That's funny. Oh, man.
David Rice: Alright. Back to the question.
Alana Fallis: Yeah, back to questions. Back to questions.
David Rice: Why is it ethical that if two people have the same job title, they can have dramatically different salaries?
Alana Fallis: Why is it ethical? Well, there are a lot of factors that go into compensation, and I think it's probably more helpful for this person to think of compensation for a particular role or for a particular team as in bands as opposed to one static figure that doesn't change and everybody gets the same number, but.
There's a lot of reasons why someone, people in the same position might be paid a different place in the comp band, and it can be years of internal experience, as in they were just promoted into this role. You will likely be at the bottom of the band if you were just promoted into a new role, external experience, what people were doing before they got here.
Many companies pay based on region, even if remote companies or like national locations. Someone in New York makes more money than somebody in Idaho, for example, because of the cost of living and so. Those are some of the reasons, but a comp band can vary from about like 30 to 60% on the high to low range.
And so if you do have questions about your compensation, I definitely suggest that you involve your manager in asking why things are, why you are placed where you are. But those are some reasons on why that might be the case.
David Rice: Yeah. I mean, you know, years of you know, those conversations like Uhhuh, what, how much do you make?
Alana Fallis: Yeah sure. Yeah.
David Rice: But like the things I always come back to is like, all right. Does my pay accurately reflect the value that I add? And do I feel like that's applied correctly?
Alana Fallis: Yeah.
David Rice: If so, it's tough to question that, right?
I'd say is performance measured fairly transparently, consistently?
You know, all those questions, like you gotta look at that and. If you have feedback on that next time they send out the survey, be honest.
Alana Fallis: Yeah sure. Yeah, and you know, also, like obviously I have some hand in my own compensation program at my own company and it's not uncommon to see one role that has like a 40 k band of differential.
Right. And some people I think make the mistake of thinking like, well, I was newly promoted. I should be at the top of the band for the new position. No, that works. And that's just not how that works. Right. And also sometimes I do find that like some people have questions, are your duties exactly the same as like the other people in the PO in the position?
That might be a question. Yeah. There's a lot, again, a lot of factors that go into compensation and if you feel that you or you. Suspect you might be paid unfairly. I would sort of do some reflection on those items that I just said. Do a little bit of market research, do a little bit of research about, you know, what similar companies are paying for a similar position.
And then ask the question. It doesn't hurt to raise your hand to ask. I'll say that it hurts to raise your hand to make an accusation, but I was start with the exploratory question about why you make what you do and why you are in the band. And also, one last point on this, you want room to grow within the band like year over year.
So. If you're at the top of a compensation band, you're probably due for a promotion or due for a next role, but you're not promoted at the end of every year. Right. But like in my company, we give merit increases at the end of each year. And so there's, so there has to be like latitude to grow and space to grow.
So just, those are a couple points to think of, couple points to think through.
David Rice: And in that too, I would add just keep in mind that these systems get audited and corrected over time. Yeah. They don't just, you know, like it's not on a one-off basis. So like it may take a year. But within that year, they may come back to it and go, actually, we've got some discrepancies here.
We've gotta close these gaps or whatever. Right? And just say, you know, raise it, but don't obsess about it because at the end of the day, you've gotta do it in the right way. And they're not gonna change anything on anybody's schedule but their own.
Alana Fallis: That is true. That is true.
David Rice: Because that's just a career advice.
Alana Fallis: Yeah, sure. Make your case and then the company will tell you. They'll let the company will tell you. Yeah. They'll let you know. Yeah. Yeah. This is true.
David Rice: All right. Last question we have for today is, one of my direct reports is in recovery. He brings a six pack of non-alcoholic beer to work each day. We work in manufacturing, which was, I was like, I'm picturing this in the break room fridge of an office.
So I'm glad that they clarified that.
Alana Fallis: Yeah. Right, right. Yeah.
David Rice: It says, I don't have any problem with this myself, but some other employees have made comments about him just grabbing a beer in the middle of the day. One of the women on the team has complained to me that he smells of beer. I know that there isn't any alcohol content in these beers, but he has told me that they support his recovery, but I don't want this continued distraction.
What should I do?
Alana Fallis: Well, this is quirky. This is different. Yeah. Yeah. This is quirky. What I think you should do is continue to let him have the non-alcoholic beer. And there's a couple reasons for one, addiction is a disability that's covered under the a DA, and so the employer is expected to make a reasonable accommodation for somebody under the ADA with a qualified disability.
Now, what are the chances that you terminate this person for non-alcoholic beer and he goes to file a claim and you have to go to court? Probably very small, but that said I think it's the right thing to do. I mean, it's non-alcoholic beer. If it was alcoholic beer, that would be a whole different answer to my question, but.
I think what I would do is make sure if the team is chattering about it, I would make sure that they know that it's non-alcoholic beer. Like I would correct the assumption that he's like getting drunk and hanging out on the job. I think that's your responsibility to do that. You shouldn't be giving any information about this person's recovery.
They can share it if they want to, but if not, I would shut down the conversation about the non-alcoholic beer. And you know what? Maybe I'm unique inness that the person who complains about the smell of. Beer can be kind of gnarly. Like I don't love the smell of beer. I got a simple solution for you at one of my companies I worked at did this.
It was great mouthwash, little disposable plastic cups in the bathroom for everybody. Everybody can have a little refreshment at lunch and freshen up when they need to. So I would shut down the commentary and I would let them have their non-alcoholic beer, and I would encourage them to bring a non-alcoholic beverage of their choice to work should it provide them comfort.
David Rice: Okay. One, I love the mouthwash idea because, yeah, I think it's interesting. What would be interesting to me to track is do we see less dental claims, you know, on dental.
Alana Fallis: So claims that's so funny.
David Rice: That would be interesting. I don't know, maybe that would, I would just be like, I just wanna track that and see.
Yeah, but I think you're right. Like for me. Okay. He hasn't violated any policies, so. Right. You know, the key is to address like the distraction. Yeah. Not their behavior or not make it about him. Totally. So, you know. Yeah. I don't think you can question someone's recovery methods. I mean, maybe if you're also in recovery, but, right.
Sure. I think youre probably gonna be more empathetic if that is your experience. So yeah.
It's kind of like setting some clear boundaries here about what you need to observe about your colleagues and what you don't, quite frankly. Totally. There's certain things to none of your business.
Alana Fallis: Totally. Some, sometimes people just gotta here mind your business. I mean, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Unless they are concerned that this person is drinking on the job, in which case you, you need to like address that, that's actually not the case because then that can erode trust and cause confusion.
So definitely nip that in the bud. But yeah, just. Because an employee has questions about another employee, doesn't mean that they're entitled to a lot of answers. Do you know what I'm saying?
David Rice: Yeah. And I love that you brought up the a DA thing. 'cause you gotta think yeah. Is that an reasonable accommodation?
Yeah. And maybe it's in this case, you know?
Alana Fallis: So yeah I would say it is, and again, like the chances that like that has to be like arbitrated in court are probably slim, but I also would think it's the right. Thing to do. This person's in recovery, they shared that with you. That's a vulnerable piece of information.
And if they want their, they wanna spend money on a six pack of non-alcoholic beer on the daily, which seems like probably an expensive abbot, then I think you should accommodate it. I think you should just let it be.
David Rice: I mean, I used to work with a guy who drank like four red bulls a day, and I think it, that's crazy.
I mean, yeah, he would he had jitters. He made me there, but look at that.
Alana Fallis: Oh my goodness.
David Rice: And he would sweat a lot and I was like. Okay. Like you try to say something, but I'm like, sure. You got, you know what? I don't know what he's going through. Yeah. I don't know like how disengaged he might be if we cut off his caffeine intake.
Alana Fallis: Well, I hope he is okay today.
David Rice: Yeah. I hope that he found maybe like acupuncture, something.
Alana Fallis: Yoga. I hope our How found yoga. Yeah. That was about yoga. Yeah. Yeah.
David Rice: Well these are some good questions. You gotta do this more often. I like this format.
Alana Fallis: I know. This was fun. Thank you. Me too. Thank you for sending us your HR workplace questions.
We really loved answering them. So do it again.
David Rice: Yeah, keep 'em coming. Yeah. We have a, an anonymous form that you can just submit a question. You don't have to put in any personal details or anything like that, just put in the question, hit submit, and yeah, we'll tackle 'em in the column or maybe here on the show.
Alana Fallis: Yeah.
David Rice: But Alana, thanks for giving us some of your expertise today.
Alana Fallis: Thank you. Thank you.
David Rice: And if you're looking for the form, you can find it on a link to it on all the Talk HR to Me columns that you see on the website. It's like right there in the first couple of paragraphs. And we'll also put a link in the episode show notes.
Alana Fallis: Cool.
David Rice: All right, until next time. Everybody have a non-alcoholic beer.