Coworking with Kristen Parisi

On Wednesdays, we schedule our weekly 1:1 with HR Brew’s readers. But today we’re thrilled to introduce our newest reporter, Kristen Parisi. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Kristen Parisi spent the better part of a decade working on consumer and corporate public relations campaigns, including for Kayak, Personal Capital, and Adecco, and she joins Morning Brew after freelancing for outlets like Today.com, BuzzFeed, and Screen Rant. She won a 2019 Gracie Award for her Today Digital piece advocating for authentic disability representation in the news, and is a dedicated caretaker for her two feisty pets.

What are you most interested in exploring as you begin reporting on the HR industry? I love how HR leaders are creating inclusive, educational workplaces, even when those offices are in the home.

What’s the best interaction you’ve had with someone in HR where you’ve worked? I worked at a small company where the culture director had weekly check-ins with each employee, just to gauge how employees were feeling. It created a deep feeling of trust and transparency.

And the worst, or most awkward, experience with HR? I interviewed for a big job and when the recruiter reached out to say that I had not gotten the job, she said, “But you’re truly an inspiration.” It’s not something that anyone should say to a disabled person and revealed the individual’s unconscious bias.

What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked? Way back when I was an intern, I instituted intern-only lunches as a way to collaborate, commiserate, and learn with each other.

What’s something you do unrelated to being a reporter that might surprise or impress us? I’ve completed four half-marathons, and I’m eager to start training for the next one!

If you could live and work anywhere in the world for six months, where would you go? Northern Norway so I could see the northern lights, watch wild orcas, and have waffles at lunchtime.

What’s the best book you’ve read in the past year, and why? American Royals by Katharine McGee because it (spoiler alert) depicts a female ruler-to-be and was an entertaining, fun escape from the heaviness of 2021.