If you are managing HR in a small business and you've ever spent more time in a month organizing cupcakes than coaching a manager, this episode is for you. Today, we're talking about what happens when HR becomes the unofficial party planner, morale coordinator, and holiday celebration committee, all rolled into one. This happens in small businesses because we confuse culture with fun. So HR is expected to run culture like it's a never-ending social calendar. And absolutely, recognition and community, that's important. But when your job as an HR leader gets reduced to event planning, the strategic stuff, the people development, the compliance, the retention work, all of that gets buried. So let's cover why this happens and why it's really common in small businesses, what it says about how your company views HR, and how to start shifting those expectations without looking like the HR Grinch. Welcome back to the HR Connection, the podcast for those managing human resources and a small business, one to 500 employees. I'm Sabrina Baker, your host. And before I get into today's topic, I wanted to tell you about a really cool tool we have on our website called the HR Readiness Assessment. It is a quick quiz, 15 questions that will tell you how you are doing in the areas of compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, the main components of human resources. It only takes a few minutes, and you will get your score and some tips and tricks from us on how to future-proof your HR. That link is in the show notes. Let's start with how this even happens. In small businesses, HR often becomes the default for anything people, and that includes everything, monthly birthdays, work anniversaries, holiday parties, employee of the month, baby showers, retirement lunches, office snacks, you get the idea. And at some point, that stuff starts to eat your entire week. What starts as let's make people feel valued turns into, why didn't we get balloons this time? Or whose turn is it to pick the cake flavor? And then someone has the audacity to complain about the cake flavor. Few things frustrate me more than people complaining about free food. You were hired to protect the company and support its people, not to be the party planner of the year. When culture is treated like fun, not function, HR ends up planning parties instead of building people. Culture work, or as I define it, employee experience is very important. But when the only culture work happening is party planning, you're not building culture, you're decorating it. Let's zoom out. When this happens, it's not just an HR issue. It's a business maturity issue. Companies that equate culture with fun tend to lack structure. They define culture as celebrations instead of behaviors. They'll say things like, "We're a fun place to work," or the dreaded, "We've got a family feel." But behind the scenes, there's no feedback culture, no leadership development, no accountability. That's not culture. That's a vibe. And HR gets stuck upholding the vibe. In founder-led or early-stage companies, this is especially common. The CEO doesn't want to be the bad guy ever. So HR becomes the fun committee and the policy enforcer, which, by the way, is a terrible combination. And if you're listening and thinking, "Yep, that's my workplace. That is my whole world," I want you to hear this. If you're doing all the culture lifting, leadership in your org isn't leading, and that's a red flag. So how do you push back and reclaim your time from all the party planning? Well, let me give you a few ideas you can choose from based on where you fit in the organization, your comfort level having these conversations, and your experience level. If you're brand new to HR or maybe not super comfortable having this conversation, you can start with a simple reframe. "Hey, I'm excited to help make our workplace more engaging, but I'm also responsible for a lot behind the scenes. Could we rotate event planning or bring in a committee to help?" You don't have to say no. You can just say, "Not alone." If you've been doing this for a little while and you're pretty burnt out, it's probably time to formalize things. Build a culture calendar, create a shared planning document, pull in one person from each department to help. You don't have to be the DJ, the decorator, and the driver. You just need to be the project lead. And then finally, if you and your organization are ready for a true HR leadership moment, start by redefining culture, not as parties, but as how people experience the workplace. This includes how people lead, communicate, and work together, and then you connect those dots to business outcomes, retention, engagement, productivity. Culture isn't what happens at the Halloween party. It's what happens when someone makes a mistake, gives feedback, or speaks up. Your job isn't to stop the fun. It's to make sure the fun doesn't replace the work that actually matters. So if you're feeling like the party planner instead of the people leader, you're not alone, and it's not your fault. But you can start shifting the expectations. Delegate, structure the fun, and don't be afraid to redefine what culture actually means in the business. If this hit a nerve, please send a message or leave a comment or forward this episode to someone else who's quietly screaming into their balloon bouquet. If you want more help reclaiming your time and getting back to real HR work, we've got tools, downloads, and support waiting for you in the show notes.