Freaky Fridays
Christmas Day is two weeks from today and only 20 days remain before we get to 2025.
_____
I think it is fair to say that H-Town Mayor John Whitmire is doing a great job over at City Hall. Year one for the Mayor is just about done and the folks at the Chron are down to putting out stories on what days the Mayor makes major personnel changes over at City Hall. I will call today’s story Freaky Fridays, and it is the top headline story in today’s Chron hard copy as seen in the featured photo. See this from Freaky Fridays:
Of the 69 staffing changes Whitmire has made – including changing members of the city’s largest boards, department heads and interoffice leads – the announcements for 46 happened on a Friday.
Analysis of department head announcements showed those mostly happened on Friday, with 18 of 29 occurring at the end of the work week. Four of those people – like Herbert Sims at the Department of Neighborhoods and Melissa Dubwoski in the Finance Department – were promoted from being the interim to permanent lead at their respective departments and accounted for more announcements.
The second most popular day an announcement of a hire or departure was Tuesday with nine announcements, Wednesday with seven, Thursday with five and Monday with one. No administrative hiring announcement came on a weekend. The administration did not immediately provide the hire announcement date for Thomas Jones Jr., who was appointed to the Port of Houston Authority on Feb. 21.
And this:
Elizabeth Roumell, an associate professor of Associate Professor, Workforce, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Texas A&M, said Friday may not be the most ideal day to have meetings for critical HR decisions. But, when decisions are made, they don’t always occur at the same time employees find out.
Whitmire’s team declined to comment when asked if the timing of hiring and departure announcements was different from the date they made a decision.
Someone might meet to make a decision on a Tuesday, for example, but the rest of the staff might not find out until later in the week, she said. Roumell also noted some might find Friday to be a wise day to make a decision on someone’s employment, especially if the employee might respond poorly to the news.
“Letting someone go on a Friday may provide a buffer of time over the weekend for the organization and employee; fewer people may be in the office on a Friday; having the employee complete the work week may be more practical for the payroll office; and mitigating excessive responses by the employee may also be a consideration for the organization,” Roumell wrote in an email.
Here is the entire read: Why Houston Mayor Whitmire fires and hires City Hall staff on Fridays.
I guess the Chron City Hall beat writers and the editors in the newsroom think this is lead story worthy. Oh, well.
_____
You know these lyrics:
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos
They are from “The Christmas Song” written by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. Some folks don’t know the name of the song but know the lyrics. Dylan Dreyer from “Today” said recently that she didn’t know the name of the tune.
_____
Folks have probably noticed that Commentary is now writing more about college athletics. A lot of the athletes now have more control over themselves than they used to have. They have the transfer portal and the NIL dough. Good for them.,
Some college head coaches who make millions of dollars in salary still find time to complain. The latest is the head coach over at Ole Miss. Just shut up, please.
_____
Astros fans are waiting for news of a deal with Alex Bregman. Get it done, please.
