#employee onboarding systems

[martinlogicsau]

Streamline Your HR Processes with Martian Logics

From managing new hires to keeping track of organizational structures, Martian Logics provides a powerful HRIS (Human Resource Information System), a robust Applicant Tracking System, a dynamic Organizational Chart, and seamless Employee Onboarding Software. Each of these tools is designed to save time, increase accuracy, and provide HR teams with the insights they need to manage their workforce effectively.

Read more  https://www.bloglovin.com/@martian7/streamline-your-hr-processes-with-martian

[thepresence360]

[ahalts]

How HRMS Enhances Employee Onboarding Processes

An HRMS (Human Resource Management System) significantly improves employee onboarding by automating and streamlining tasks that are typically time-consuming and prone to error. With an HRMS, paperwork is digitized, allowing new hires to complete forms, upload necessary documents, and sign contracts online, eliminating the need for physical paperwork and manual data entry. The system also provides customized onboarding workflows, guiding employees step-by-step through the process with clear tasks, deadlines, and resources. This ensures new hires have a structured and efficient start, with access to key information such as training modules, company policies, and team introductions. Furthermore, HRMS platforms often include self-service portals, where employees can manage their profiles, track their progress, and directly communicate with HR or their managers. This level of automation reduces the administrative burden on HR teams and improves the onboarding experience for employees, helping them feel more connected and prepared from the beginning. With real-time data tracking and analytics, HR teams can monitor onboarding success and make necessary improvements, ensuring new employees are integrated quickly and effectively into the organization.

More info: https://ahalts.com/products/hr-management

[phantomrose96]

If anyone wants to know why every tech company in the world right now is clamoring for AI like drowned rats scrabbling to board a ship, I decided to make a post to explain what's happening.

(Disclaimer to start: I'm a software engineer who's been employed full time since 2018. I am not a historian nor an overconfident Youtube essayist, so this post is my working knowledge of what I see around me and the logical bridges between pieces.)

Okay anyway. The explanation starts further back than what's going on now. I'm gonna start with the year 2000. The Dot Com Bubble just spectacularly burst. The model of "we get the users first, we learn how to profit off them later" went out in a no-money-having bang (remember this, it will be relevant later). A lot of money was lost. A lot of people ended up out of a job. A lot of startup companies went under. Investors left with a sour taste in their mouth and, in general, investment in the internet stayed pretty cooled for that decade. This was, in my opinion, very good for the internet as it was an era not suffocating under the grip of mega-corporation oligarchs and was, instead, filled with Club Penguin and I Can Haz Cheezburger websites.

Then around the 2010-2012 years, a few things happened. Interest rates got low, and then lower. Facebook got huge. The iPhone took off. And suddenly there was a huge new potential market of internet users and phone-havers, and the cheap money was available to start backing new tech startup companies trying to hop on this opportunity. Companies like Uber, Netflix, and Amazon either started in this time, or hit their ramp-up in these years by shifting focus to the internet and apps.

Now, every start-up tech company dreaming of being the next big thing has one thing in common: they need to start off by getting themselves massively in debt. Because before you can turn a profit you need to first spend money on employees and spend money on equipment and spend money on data centers and spend money on advertising and spend money on scale and and and

But also, everyone wants to be on the ship for The Next Big Thing that takes off to the moon.

So there is a mutual interest between new tech companies, and venture capitalists who are willing to invest $$$ into said new tech companies. Because if the venture capitalists can identify a prize pig and get in early, that money could come back to them 100-fold or 1,000-fold. In fact it hardly matters if they invest in 10 or 20 total bust projects along the way to find that unicorn.

But also, becoming profitable takes time. And that might mean being in debt for a long long time before that rocket ship takes off to make everyone onboard a gazzilionaire.

But luckily, for tech startup bros and venture capitalists, being in debt in the 2010's was cheap, and it only got cheaper between 2010 and 2020. If people could secure loans for ~3% or 4% annual interest, well then a $100,000 loan only really costs $3,000 of interest a year to keep afloat. And if inflation is higher than that or at least similar, you're still beating the system.

So from 2010 through early 2022, times were good for tech companies. Startups could take off with massive growth, showing massive potential for something, and venture capitalists would throw infinite money at them in the hopes of pegging just one winner who will take off. And supporting the struggling investments or the long-haulers remained pretty cheap to keep funding.

You hear constantly about "Such and such app has 10-bazillion users gained over the last 10 years and has never once been profitable", yet the thing keeps chugging along because the investors backing it aren't stressed about the immediate future, and are still banking on that "eventually" when it learns how to really monetize its users and turn that profit.

The pandemic in 2020 took a magnifying-glass-in-the-sun effect to this, as EVERYTHING was forcibly turned online which pumped a ton of money and workers into tech investment. Simultaneously, money got really REALLY cheap, bottoming out with historic lows for interest rates.

Then the tide changed with the massive inflation that struck late 2021. Because this all-gas no-brakes state of things was also contributing to off-the-rails inflation (along with your standard-fare greedflation and price gouging, given the extremely convenient excuses of pandemic hardships and supply chain issues). The federal reserve whipped out interest rate hikes to try to curb this huge inflation, which is like a fire extinguisher dousing and suffocating your really-cool, actively-on-fire party where everyone else is burning but you're in the pool. And then they did this more, and then more. And the financial climate followed suit. And suddenly money was not cheap anymore, and new loans became expensive, because loans that used to compound at 2% a year are now compounding at 7 or 8% which, in the language of compounding, is a HUGE difference. A $100,000 loan at a 2% interest rate, if not repaid a single cent in 10 years, accrues to $121,899. A $100,000 loan at an 8% interest rate, if not repaid a single cent in 10 years, more than doubles to $215,892.

Now it is scary and risky to throw money at "could eventually be profitable" tech companies. Now investors are watching companies burn through their current funding and, when the companies come back asking for more, investors are tightening their coin purses instead. The bill is coming due. The free money is drying up and companies are under compounding pressure to produce a profit for their waiting investors who are now done waiting.

You get enshittification. You get quality going down and price going up. You get "now that you're a captive audience here, we're forcing ads or we're forcing subscriptions on you." Don't get me wrong, the plan was ALWAYS to monetize the users. It's just that it's come earlier than expected, with way more feet-to-the-fire than these companies were expecting. ESPECIALLY with Wall Street as the other factor in funding (public) companies, where Wall Street exhibits roughly the same temperament as a baby screaming crying upset that it's soiled its own diaper (maybe that's too mean a comparison to babies), and now companies are being put through the wringer for anything LESS than infinite growth that Wall Street demands of them.

Internal to the tech industry, you get MASSIVE wide-spread layoffs. You get an industry that used to be easy to land multiple job offers shriveling up and leaving recent graduates in a desperately awful situation where no company is hiring and the market is flooded with laid-off workers trying to get back on their feet.

Because those coin-purse-clutching investors DO love virtue-signaling efforts from companies that say "See! We're not being frivolous with your money! We only spend on the essentials." And this is true even for MASSIVE, PROFITABLE companies, because those companies' value is based on the Rich Person Feeling Graph (their stock) rather than the literal profit money. A company making a genuine gazillion dollars a year still tears through layoffs and freezes hiring and removes the free batteries from the printer room (totally not speaking from experience, surely) because the investors LOVE when you cut costs and take away employee perks. The "beer on tap, ping pong table in the common area" era of tech is drying up. And we're still unionless.

Never mind that last part.

And then in early 2023, AI (more specifically, Chat-GPT which is OpenAI's Large Language Model creation) tears its way into the tech scene with a meteor's amount of momentum. Here's Microsoft's prize pig, which it invested heavily in and is galivanting around the pig-show with, to the desperate jealousy and rapture of every other tech company and investor wishing it had that pig. And for the first time since the interest rate hikes, investors have dollar signs in their eyes, both venture capital and Wall Street alike. They're willing to restart the hose of money (even with the new risk) because this feels big enough for them to take the risk.

Now all these companies, who were in varying stages of sweating as their bill came due, or wringing their hands as their stock prices tanked, see a single glorious gold-plated rocket up out of here, the likes of which haven't been seen since the free money days. It's their ticket to buy time, and buy investors, and say "see THIS is what will wring money forth, finally, we promise, just let us show you."

To be clear, AI is NOT profitable yet. It's a money-sink. Perhaps a money-black-hole. But everyone in the space is so wowed by it that there is a wide-spread and powerful conviction that it will become profitable and earn its keep. (Let's be real, half of that profit "potential" is the promise of automating away jobs of pesky employees who peskily cost money.) It's a tech-space industrial revolution that will automate away skilled jobs, and getting in on the ground floor is the absolute best thing you can do to get your pie slice's worth.

It's the thing that will win investors back. It's the thing that will get the investment money coming in again (or, get it second-hand if the company can be the PROVIDER of something needed for AI, which other companies with venture-back will pay handsomely for). It's the thing companies are terrified of missing out on, lest it leave them utterly irrelevant in a future where not having AI-integration is like not having a mobile phone app for your company or not having a website.

So I guess to reiterate on my earlier point:

Drowned rats. Swimming to the one ship in sight.

[sharedocsdms]

Streamlining HR Processes with Workflow Automation and Compliance Software

In the present quick moving business climate, the HR (HR) office faces expanding strain to proficiently oversee different assignments. From taking care of representative information to guaranteeing consistence with always evolving guidelines, HR groups should remain nimble and responsive. Luckily, the approach of HR Workflow Automation is changing the way in which HR capabilities, offering arrangements that smooth out processes as well as upgrade in general effectiveness.

The Force of HR Workflow Automation

HR Workflow Automation is something other than a pattern; it's a need for present day organizations. Via robotizing redundant undertakings, for example, onboarding, leave solicitations, and execution assessments, HR groups can save significant opportunity to zero in on additional essential drives. Computerized work processes guarantee that assignments are finished on time, diminishing the gamble of mistakes and further developing the general representative experience.

For example, when another worker joins the association, the onboarding system can be mechanized to guarantee that all vital desk work is finished, instructional courses are booked, and gear is ready. This recoveries time as well as makes a consistent encounter for the fresh recruit.

Upgrading Proficiency with Human Resources Document Management Solutions

Close by work process mechanization, Human Resources Document Management Solutions assume a basic part in keeping HR tasks smooth and coordinated. Overseeing immense measures of representative records, agreements, and consistence reports physically can be an overwhelming undertaking. A report the executives framework planned explicitly for HR can store, sort out, and recover records easily, it is generally open to guarantee that significant data.

In addition, with advanced report the board arrangements, HR groups can guarantee that delicate data is put away safely and that entrance is allowed exclusively to approved faculty. This improves information security and guarantees consistence with information insurance guidelines.

Remaining Agreeable with HR Compliance Software

Consistence is a main pressing issue for HR offices, particularly as guidelines keep on developing. HR Compliance Software assists organizations with remaining on the ball by guaranteeing that all cycles stick to lawful necessities. From following representative certificates to overseeing work regulation updates, consistent programming computerized the checking and revealing of consistency related exercises.

For instance, HR Compliance Software can naturally refresh the organization's approaches and systems to reflect new regulations, guaranteeing that the association stays agreeable without the requirement for consistent manual updates. This diminishes the gamble of resistance, which can bring about exorbitant punishments and harm to the organization's standing.

Conclusion

As organizations proceed to develop and adjust, the job of HR will just turn out to be more intricate. Embracing HR Workflow Automation, HR archive the executives arrangements, and HR Compliance Software is fundamental for remaining cutthroat in the present market. These instruments smooth out HR processes as well as upgrade precision, security, and consistence, at last adding to the general progress of the association.

Putting resources into these advancements permits HR groups to zero in on the main thing: supporting representatives and driving the organization forward.

[artify360bahrain]

The concept of employee performance management and essential digital engagement should be done effectively with the support of HR software. An authentic HR software program possesses the power to build and develop a core operational integration structure that works in association with the appropriate operations models. These are essential for managing the optimum performance and output of the organization’s performance metrics. The coverage of employee performance will start from the hiring and recruitment stage. It gets extended to the onboarding and training phase, which will also include a dedicated employee onboarding system. HRMS activities will only be completed once you follow them by utilizing the given employee engagement structure. It is meant to boost the overall system performance of human capital resources in the organization.

[maxlearnmicrolearningplatform]

Is Microlearning the Future of Employee Training? Here’s What We Know!

Microlearning, a training methodology characterized by delivering content in short, focused bursts, is increasingly being recognized as a transformative approach in the realm of employee training. As the modern workplace continues to evolve, driven by technological advancements and changing employee expectations, microlearning emerges as a solution that addresses the need for agile, efficient, and engaging training methods. This article explores the potential of microlearning to shape the future of employee training, examining its benefits, applications, and challenges.

The Evolution of Employee Training

Traditional employee training programs often involve lengthy sessions, extensive manuals, and a one-size-fits-all approach. While comprehensive, these methods can be time-consuming, costly, and ineffective for the modern workforce, which values flexibility, personalization, and immediacy. Employees today are accustomed to accessing information quickly and efficiently, thanks to digital technologies. This shift in information consumption has paved the way for microlearning to gain prominence.

What is Microlearning?

Microlearning breaks down training content into bite-sized modules that can be easily consumed and retained. These modules can take various forms, including videos, infographics, podcasts, quizzes, and animations, typically lasting between 2 to 10 minutes. The goal is to deliver relevant, actionable information that employees can apply immediately, enhancing their skills and knowledge incrementally.

Benefits of Microlearning

Increased Engagement: Short, focused content is more engaging than lengthy training sessions. Employees are more likely to stay attentive and absorb the material when it’s presented in manageable chunks.

Flexibility and Accessibility: Microlearning modules can be accessed anytime, anywhere, using mobile devices or computers. This flexibility allows employees to learn at their own pace, fitting training into their busy schedules.

Improved Retention: Studies have shown that information retention is higher when learning is spaced out over time, rather than crammed into a single session. Microlearning’s structure supports this spaced learning approach, reinforcing knowledge and skills.

Cost-Effective: Developing microlearning content can be more cost-effective than traditional training programs. It reduces the need for in-person training sessions, travel expenses, and extensive training materials.

Personalization: Microlearning allows for more personalized training experiences. Employees can select modules that are relevant to their roles and career development, ensuring that the training is directly applicable to their needs.

Applications of Microlearning in Employee Training

Microlearning can be applied across various aspects of employee training, including:

Onboarding: New hires can benefit from microlearning modules that introduce company policies, culture, and job-specific information in a structured, digestible manner. This approach helps new employees acclimate faster and more effectively.

Compliance Training: Compliance topics often involve dense regulations and policies. Breaking down this information into microlearning modules makes it easier for employees to understand and adhere to compliance requirements.

Skill Development: Whether it’s soft skills like communication and leadership or technical skills like data analysis and software usage, microlearning can provide targeted training that enhances employee capabilities incrementally.

Product Training: Sales and customer service teams can use microlearning to stay updated on new product features, benefits, and usage. Short modules ensure they have the latest information to effectively support customers.

Performance Support: Microlearning can serve as just-in-time learning, providing employees with quick access to information they need to solve problems or perform tasks more efficiently.

Microlearning in Action: Case Studies

Several organizations have successfully implemented microlearning to enhance their training programs. For example:

Google: Google uses microlearning to train its employees on various topics, including new technologies, management skills, and company policies. Their approach includes short videos, quizzes, and interactive modules that employees can access on-demand.

IBM: IBM leverages microlearning to keep its workforce up-to-date with the latest technological advancements and industry trends. Their microlearning strategy includes bite-sized courses, podcasts, and gamified learning experiences.

Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola has implemented microlearning for its sales teams, providing short, focused training on product knowledge, sales techniques, and customer engagement strategies. This has helped improve sales performance and customer satisfaction.

Challenges of Microlearning

Despite its many benefits, microlearning also presents some challenges:

Content Development: Creating high-quality microlearning content requires careful planning and expertise. Organizations need to ensure that the content is engaging, relevant, and effectively designed to meet learning objectives.

Integration with Existing Systems: Integrating microlearning with existing learning management systems (LMS) and other training platforms can be complex. Organizations need to ensure seamless access and tracking of microlearning modules.

Consistency: With multiple microlearning modules, maintaining consistency in tone, style, and quality can be challenging. Organizations must establish guidelines to ensure uniformity across all content.

Measuring Effectiveness: Assessing the impact of microlearning on employee performance and knowledge retention can be difficult. Organizations need robust evaluation methods to measure the effectiveness of their microlearning initiatives.

The Future of Microlearning in Employee Training

As organizations continue to navigate the changing landscape of employee training, microlearning is poised to play a significant role in the future. Here are some trends and predictions for its evolution:

Increased Adoption: More organizations will adopt microlearning as part of their training strategies, recognizing its benefits in enhancing employee engagement and performance.

Advanced Technologies: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data analytics will enable more personalized and adaptive microlearning experiences. These technologies can analyze employee performance data to recommend relevant modules and provide real-time feedback.

Gamification: Gamification elements, such as leaderboards, badges, and rewards, will be increasingly incorporated into microlearning to boost motivation and engagement.

Social Learning: Social learning features, such as discussion forums, peer reviews, and collaborative projects, will enhance the microlearning experience by fostering interaction and knowledge sharing among employees.

Focus on Soft Skills: With the growing importance of soft skills in the workplace, microlearning will increasingly focus on areas like communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence, providing employees with the tools to succeed in a dynamic work environment.

Conclusion

Microlearning represents a promising future for employee training, offering a flexible, engaging, and efficient approach to skill development and knowledge retention. As organizations seek to meet the evolving needs of their workforce, microlearning provides a solution that aligns with modern learning preferences and technological advancements. While challenges remain, the potential benefits of microlearning make it a compelling strategy for the future of employee training. By embracing microlearning, organizations can enhance their training programs, improve employee performance, and drive overall business success.

[abhishektoolyt]

AcadleLMS: Best learning management system (LMS) Software

An Enterprise Learning Management System (LMS) platform that allow companies to develop, deliver, and track training for their employees, clients, and partners.

LMSs provide gamification, live chat, lesson grouping, and live classrooms, which make any training simple. Training has become a crucial element of many businesses; thus, making the system usable for everyone is critical.

It can be time-consuming and exhausting if not done correctly; thus, it is critical to create your training programs so that your staff feels involved.

Employee onboarding software such as Acadle assists in integrating LMS into training programs, resulting in a better learning environment for everybody. The software facilitates staff engagement through gamification, live broadcasting, or chat, which improves employee retention.

Original Source: https://www.acadle.com/blog/best-employee-onboarding-tool/

[thedigitalgroupinc-blog]

Optimize your employee information with an efficient employee information management system from Digital HRMS

The use of an employee information management system is appropriate for successfully managing an organisation. It enables keeping track of all the interests of representatives so that you may manage them from anywhere. By attending to the necessary needs, the employee information management system is a helpful HR software. Another benefit of this HR Software is that it keeps personal records like employee benefits, incident reports, assessments, and so on.

A simple place to start is with information like names, titles, residences, and salaries. History of salaries and positions, reporting lines, histories of performance reviews, and other crucial employee data, administration of all employee data, documentation pertaining to the business, including employee handbooks, emergency evacuation protocols, and safety regulations, administration of benefits, including enrollment, status modifications, and personal data updates are possible through employee information management. Employees should be able to access and examine their own information, including vacation tracking, in a perfect employee data management system. 

Steps to follow to procure the best employee data management are-

1. Choose a system that can expand with you.

2. Make the features clear.

3. Purchase a customized module for your business.

With the help of an employee information system from Digital HRMS which is the My Details module, you can handle all of the employee's data under one roof, including their personal and professional data, employment contract, onboarding documentation, appraisals history, offer letter, etc. The organisation hierarchy that is available in the employee information system allows both employees and HRs to view and change the data and have a general understanding of who is who in the company. The HR department uses employee data management software, mostly for managing documents, managing people, and processing payroll.

Keep track of all employee data in one location and use the Digital HRMS My Details module to manage it.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I deleted the ask, but someone wrote one basically saying "why do you post reaction videos to Helluva Boss? Don't you know the show exploits its workers and they're overworked and get burned out?"

And, I mean, I love your energy, person who asked, definitely hold on to those values and speak up about this. But also, I am afraid I might have some bad news for you about literally the whole entire animation industry.

As near as I can make out from the sparse journalistic reporting that's been done on SpindleHorse -- and as a sidebar, please for the love of god read actual reporting about these things and not just callout posts and fandom discourse -- as near as I can make out, SpindleHorse as a studio is neither all that much better nor all that much worse than basically anywhere else in the industry on their level. It seems like it is (or was? Hazbin Hotel seems to be run differently) a studio mostly run by contracting people on a project-by-project basis, which leads to a crapton of turnover, and a huge need for organizing and onboarding, which according to the reporting I have read, the producers and freelancers have struggled to balance and manage properly, which has negatively impacted a number of the workers.

Top that with the usual catty, clique-based backbiting, sniping and poorly managed conflict resolution that's just kinda endemic in creative environments mostly staffed by twentysomethings and stressed out freelancers, and you have the recipe for a workplace where a lot of people are going to have a great time and feel creatively fulfilled, and a lot of people are going to come away feeling justifiably burnt the fuck out and exploited.

All of this is... not especially unusual for the animation industry, or indeed for any creative industry. Which is not to say that it is good, or that it should be allowed to be normal, or that it shouldn't be reported on and criticized (and please for the love of god support unionization efforts because that's the only thing that will actually address these kinds of systemic problems). It's just to say that if those kinds of issues are the line in the sand you draw where you refuse to engage with a studio's output...

Then, for starters, say goodbye to basically all of anime, because the Japanese animation industry is actively in a state of crisis trying to recruit new talent because its working conditions and pay are so astonishingly abysmal. And the horror stories that escape from that industry make the issues at SpindleHorse look like summer camp at times.

But you also have to say goodbye to a lot of American and European animation. Please do not imagine that Disney and its subcontractors, or that Nickelodeon or Warner Bros, are benevolent employers. They exploit their staff brutally and are currently trying to crush the labor value of animation with threats of generative AI being used to replace jobs. But those corporations also have extremely well-funded PR departments and the ability to silence employees with NDAs and threats of blackballing, so you don't get to hear as many of the horror stories as you might from a smaller independent studio that's less able to silence criticism by holding people's careers hostage.

All of this is to say that 1) it's valid and important to have criticism of both large and small-scale animation studios, and to keep the well-being and happiness of the workers higher in your priorities than the output of Products™.

And 2) if you're going to have a principle for what kinds of problems make a studio's output morally untouchable for you, and what kinds of problems you think should make a studio's output untouchable to other people, you do need to apply that principle consistently to the entire industry, and not just to the independent animation studio that happens to be surrounded by the internet's most inflammatory fandom discourse.

If you don't apply that principle consistently, maybe don't send reproachful messages to strangers scolding them for not living up to your standards, and even if you do apply that principle consistently, maybe still don't do that, because it's mostly quite annoying, and doesn't really do anything to support animation workers struggling for better working conditions.

The Animation Guild in the US is currently in the middle of a bargaining process with their industry, and they have a social media press kit as well as relevant talking points on their website which you can use to post in solidarity with the workers. If it comes to a full industry strike, consider donating to their strike funds to help them maintain pressure. Outside of the US, try and find out what (if any) local unions exist for animation workers, and maybe sign up to their mailing lists. They will let you know what kind of support they need from you.

[martinlogicsau]

[thepresence360]

[timelabs]

Make Employee’s Onboarding Process Flawless With Onboarding Software

Onboarding is the process of orienting new employees. They learn about the work culture of a new company. The HR department is primarily responsible for the onboarding of new employees. They are also in charge of recruiting and hiring employees, keeping them up to date on new information and benefits, organizing training programs, and generating pay stubs. These routine tasks consume a significant amount of HR professionals’ time, preventing them from focusing on strategic business tasks. Furthermore, manually handling a large amount of data is prone to errors.

[darlingofdots]

Something I encounter more and more in fiction is a specific brand of assurance to the reader that I can only ascribe to The Twitter Cop That Lives In Our Heads. There's a pervasive desire to make it clear that, see, I'm intersectional, I'm conscious of the potential problematics of this encounter, I'm one of the good ones, and it's not that I don't understand the impulse and the fear of being called out because I do! It's scary out there! But it is often so grating to be reading a novel and have a conversation be derailed by a brief and pointed exchange about accessibility when not a single character in the book is disabled, or to have a heated makeout sesh interrupted by an explanation of the traffic light system, and the sad thing about this is that it would be absolutely possible to show these things in elegant and unobtrusive ways but for various reasons we are resorting to telling instead.

I know that out here in the world, we talk about enthusiastic and informed consent a lot, and those are very important conversations and this topic should be part of comprehensive and widely accessible sex education everywhere, and if you are entering into a relationship with a new partner, you should probably sit down and lay out explicitly what you are both comfortable with and how you prefer to communicate. HOWEVER. I, the reader of a high-heat contemporary romance novel, do not need to have this discussion with the characters who are about to fuck each other blind after their first date. I do not need to sit in on the equivalent to a new employee's onboarding process where they get told how to use the company intranet. It's boring! It's so dull! Instead, how about we package the information that is actually being transmitted (we are two enthusiastic partners about to fuck each other blind and we are also sensible people who respect each other's preferences and boundaries) in a way that doesn't disrupt the narrative momentum? Maybe interject an "is this okay?" or have one character go "tell me what you want" all sexily. Reference the characters taking note of their partner's reactions. There are a lot of ways to work this kind of Statement of Ethics into your writing, whether it's about sex scenes or trans rights or whatever, and personally I find this much more compelling than a neatly-injected soundbite which always comes off as either overly anxious or performative to me.

A secondary issue here, in my opinion, is that the world (specifically social media, but social media is part of the world) increasingly demands explicit statements from artists and uses an absence of "I wholeheartedly condemn x"-type quotes as an indication that someone actively endorses x, because why wouldn't they say so otherwise? This is bad. It's a bad development. It's a really gross combination of the literacy crisis and callout culture and it gets people hurt. So I really do not and cannot blame writers who feel the need to be very explicit about what they believe in, which is why I am not suggesting that you shouldn't include those beliefs in your work; what I am saying, though, is that your work will be much more authentic and touching if you find ways to show me.

[g1deonthefirst]

Your BOE being descended from trillionaires post made me have a thought. It definitely shouldn’t matter, but I always thought it was in large part implied that the trillionaires took/would have a vastly larger amount of support staff on the crafts because they’d need them to operate and the rich people of today are useless without tons of employees and people doing their work for them. I always saw BOE as descending from both them and the rich. The books also mentioned human colonies on other planets prior to earths destruction, maybe they joined BOE as well? So I assumed John trying to destroy the ships to get at the trillionaires was another moment he didn’t care about “collateral damage” and was fully willing to kill the hundreds/thousands of blameless servants, pilots and regular people on the ships.

oh i ABSOLUTELY agree with this. i might be mistaken but i think it's actually confirmed in ntn that they have a ton of support staff on the ship. the point of my post was just that even if boe members were somehow solely descended from trillionaires, it surely wouldn't make any material difference 10,000 years later — but absolutely the majority of the people on those ships were likely support staff, and those staff likely comprise the majority of the original ancestors of non-house people.

which, frankly. can you imagine being one of those people. like, you're an engineer or a cook or whatever, and you've been hired to be staff on an FTL ship. and you're gonna have to leave all your family behind on a dying planet, but it's okay, because the governments of the world have assured you that there's room enough for everybody; they're going to catch one of the later fleets out and join you. so you get onboard one of those FTL ships. and you're just getting out of the solar system when the entire earth dies.