#1 Personal Branding Chat with... the HR Lady ✨

Loredana Giță managed to do the impossible on LinkedIn: reach over 300 regular reactions to posts (for a 1k followers account) by creating a clever character - "the HR Lady" (in Romanian: „duamna hașer”). 

So, I was curious to find out more from behind the scenes of her creative process.

And I decided that each month in my Get Noticed newsletter, we'd have mini-interviews with people who are growing their personal brand through quality posts that provide a lot of value to their audiences.

Thank you, Loredana, for your trust!

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How would you describe your personal brand?

A mix of irony, authenticity and courage. My personal brand is the more effervescent version of myself, writing all-out and trying to touch people in the process. I believe in education through humour, therapeutic banter and dialogue between different levels of leadership.

How did you start your series of one-liner posts about HR and how did this iconic character - the "HR Lady" - come about?

The HR Lady appeared a few months ago when I received a notification on Facebook. It reminded me of a post I wrote a few years ago in which I drew attention to the ghosting phenomenon done by ladies who work in the HR department. At the job interview they give you the impression that everything is fine, then you never get any feedback.

That's how I realised that our professional life takes up more than half of our time and that there are things going on there that are worth writing about in a different way. But I didn't think that this kind of content would catch on best on LinkedIn, where people usually strive to be just professional.

What does your writing process for these sentences look like? How does it differ from when you write long form content?

My creative process is simple. I'm inspired by everything that moves around me, so most of the time the posts are spontaneous. I pay close attention to people's stories, read and write a lot about the job market - my professional and serious side can be found in articles and news for Hacking Work, where together with a cool team we talk clearly, bravely and honestly about the job market and the relationship between employees and employers.

In long form content I am much more organised and structured, providing topical data, relevant statistics and conclusions from which readers can draw something useful. The HR Lady educates much more subtly, using bad examples, empathising with people going through similar situations and breaking out of the circle of toxicity through humour and irony.

What were the echoes you felt from your semi-viral posts?

I started getting DMs with personal stories of abuse at work. Also, in the comments section more and more people are getting brave and responding, relating similar stories. People ask me to write about their situation too, and friends call me the HR Lady. 

I'm just a content courier who wants to remind you how important it is to feel good about the work we do, and I'm lucky to be able to say I love what I do.

How do you see the future of this LinkedIn series?

I'm thinking of "firing" the HR Lady the moment I feel people are getting bored of her. At the moment I feel I have found a much needed niche and people are responding incredibly well. I think I've created a safe context for honest dialogue, and I'm happy about that. We'll see where the HR Lady goes from here. I hope to take her far.

But there's a less pleasant aspect of the series that's important to talk about. Some people take absolutely everything I write seriously and feel like they are now living all the abuse I write about. On the one hand I enjoy the empathy I arouse and the credibility I've built up around myself (everything I write is based on truths I or other people once experienced), but this can also stir up a wave of hatred against a person who, let's not forget, is fictional. "The HR Lady" can be your boss, an abusive manager, or anyone within the organization (even you). I've ironically named her "the lady" because she represents a harmful organizational culture that needs to change.

Thank you, Loredana, for your trust and valuable information! ❤️

As for you... 👀 I will be seeing you next month with another personal brand worth learning from 🤗 Bye-bye!