Field Guide 001
Difficult Conversations
The talk nobody is having is the most expensive thing on the floor this quarter.
Trust Recovery ProtocolFour-phase conversation arc
The HR Operator™
HR is not a department. It is an operating discipline.
Field guides and workbooks for the people who get handed the problem at 4:55 on a Friday. Every volume is one system, taught end to end, with the scripts, thresholds, and records you need to run it on Monday.
The frame
Every people problem is a debt you already carry.
Operator Debt™ is the meta-framework behind the whole series. Unpaid people work does not disappear. It compounds, it moves, and eventually it comes due in front of a lawyer, a regulator, or your best person’s resignation letter.
It compounds
The conversation postponed in March is the tribunal exhibit in November. Interest accrues in quiet.
It relocates
Debt you refuse to pay in one system surfaces in another. Skipped documentation becomes a retention problem.
It is measurable
Each volume names its debt class and hands you the instrument to score it, price it, and work it down.
Start free
Read a real chapter before you spend anything.
Every sample is a working excerpt of the full workbook, including its signature instrument. Name your price, including nothing.
Free sampleDifficult ConversationsRead a chapterFree sampleDocumentation & Defensible RecordsRead a chapterFree sampleEmployee ConflictRead a chapterFree samplePerformance ConversationsRead a chapterFree sampleManager Red FlagsRead a chapterFree samplePsychological SafetyRead a chapterFree sampleAi-Powered Workplace InvestigationsRead a chapterFree sampleAccountability SystemsRead a chapterFree sampleOrganizational TrustRead a chapterFree sampleCompensation & RewardsRead a chapterFree sampleOrganization DesignRead a chapterFree sampleExecutive HRRead a chapter
Available now
61 volumes, shipping today
Every volume below is finished and shipping. Start where the pressure actually lands, or read a Foundation in order.
Foundation I
Stabilize the Room
Where the pressure lands first. The conversation, the record, the conflict, the load.
7 of 7 shipping
Field Guide 002
Documentation & Defensible Records
The record decides the outcome long before anyone reads it back to you.
The Record ArchitectureThe Objectivity StandardThe Documentation Pyramid
Field Guide 003
Employee Conflict
Conflict does not resolve on its own. It relocates, and it charges interest.
Conflict Escalation Continuum
Field Guide 004
Burnout & Overload
Burnout is a load problem wearing a wellness costume.
Strain WaveformBurnout Debt cost modelFive-stage strain framework
Field Guide 005
Performance Conversations
Performance drifts quietly. The standard moves before anyone announces it.
Performance Debt ModelDefensible Documentation Sheet
Field Guide 006
Manager Red Flags
The manager everyone tolerates is a cost centre nobody has priced.
Leadership Drift FrameworkHidden Organizational CostsLeadership Risk Maturity Model
Field Guide 007
Psychological Safety
Silence is not calm. It is the rational response to what speaking has cost before.
The Risk Calculation ModelThe Leadership Information FunnelThe Organizational Physics of Silence
Foundation II
Build the Defensible Record
Turning what happened into something that holds up when it is read back to you.
2 of 2 shipping
Field Guide 008
Ai-Powered Workplace Investigations
The investigation that closes in a day is the one that reopens in a courtroom.
Tool Governance LogEvidence Integrity SystemInvestigation Operating System
Field Guide 009
Accountability Systems
Accountability is not a conversation. It is an architecture with owners and dates.
The Accountability LadderThe Accountability Equation
Foundation III
Design the People Systems
The systems that decide who joins, who stays, what they are paid, and what you can prove.
7 of 7 shipping
Field Guide 010
Organizational Trust
Trust does not collapse. It evaporates, quietly, while the survey still reads fine.
Trust EquationTrust RecoveryExecutive Trust Audit
Field Guide 011
Compensation & Rewards
Pay tells people what you actually value. It is read more carefully than any memo.
Compensation Debt™Compensation EquationCompensation Philosophy Audit
Field Guide 012
Workforce Planning
Most headcount plans are last year's org chart with a percentage applied.
Critical Role Risk Matrix™Reactive vs Strategic ModelThe Workforce Planning Formula
Field Guide 013
Organization Design
Every extra layer is paid for twice: once in salary, once in the decisions it slows.
Layer TaxOrganizational Design AuditOrganizational Design Equation
Field Guide 014
HR Analytics
A dashboard nobody decides from is a report with better lighting.
Operator Debt referenceExecutive Analytics AuditKPI Prioritization Matrix
Field Guide 015
Benefits Strategy
The benefit nobody uses is not a perk. It is a line item defending itself.
Benefits Strategy AuditBenefits Alignment Model
Field Guide 016
HR Technology
The system did not fail. It was asked to carry a process nobody had designed.
HR Technology AuditPeople Systems ModelThe Hidden Cost Formula
Foundation IV
Operate at the Enterprise
Where the people function meets the balance sheet and the bargaining table.
2 of 2 shipping
Field Guide 017
Labor Relations
By the time the vote is scheduled, the decisions that mattered are two years old.
TIPS RuleLabor Relations AuditSeven Tests of Just Cause
Field Guide 018
Executive HR
The board does not want the people update. It wants the number and the risk.
Executive HR Audit
Foundation V
Run the Operating System
Running the whole lifecycle as one operating system rather than six processes.
6 of 6 shipping
Field Guide 019
Talent Acquisition & Hiring Systems
Hiring is not a campaign you run. It is a system that is always running.
Req-to-Fill EngineHiring Debt Curve zone
Field Guide 020
Termination & Offboarding
The exit is where every shortcut you took in the record finally gets read aloud.
Exit Debt™Defensibility Triad GateThe Separation Operating System
Field Guide 021
The Manager Operating System
The manager layer is the control surface. Most organizations leave it unconfigured.
Manager Leverage DebtManager Operating System
Field Guide 022
Onboarding & Activation
Onboarding ends when the person is useful, not when the paperwork clears.
Day-One Readiness LedgerActivation Operating System
Field Guide 023
The Compliance Operating System
A compliance calendar is not a compliance system. One reminds you. One holds.
Control LedgerCompliance Debt CurveAudit-Ready Cadence Loop
Field Guide 024
Ai-Enabled HR Operations
Ai does not remove the judgment. It moves it upstream, into what you let it decide.
Ai Accountability Loop
Foundation VI
Operate as an Executive
The altitude where people work becomes capital allocation and board disclosure.
6 of 6 shipping
Field Guide 025
Workforce Economics & Capital Allocation
Your largest capital allocation walks out of the building every evening.
Return on Workforce Capital Ledger
Field Guide 026
Board Governance & Human-Capital Disclosure
What you disclose about people becomes a promise somebody will measure you against.
Board Altitude MapBoard Governance Dashboard™
Field Guide 027
Enterprise Change & Adoption
Adoption is not a communications problem. It is a design problem with a deadline.
Adoption Curve™Adoption Debt registerEnterprise Change Architecture
Field Guide 028
Enterprise Strategy as Competitive Advantage
Most workforce strategy is a budget with adjectives.
Strategic DebtStrategic People Bet™
Field Guide 029
The HR Operating Model
Every people function has an operating model. Most were never chosen.
Operating-Model Debt™The HR Operating Model DesignOperating-Model Debt™ calculation
Field Guide 030
The HR Operator
Twenty nine volumes built the systems. This one runs them as one machine.
Operator Debt Portfolio™
Three ways in
Buy the volume, the Foundation, or the whole system.
Start anywhere. The volumes stand alone, and they compound when you read them in order.
One volume
From $59
Take the single system you need this week. Field Guide alone, or paired with its Workbook.
Browse the shelfOne Foundation
$249
Every Field Guide in a stage of the Operator Path, taught as one continuous system.
Foundation I · Stabilize the RoomThe whole library
$997
All thirty Field Guides and every Workbook. The complete operating system, one purchase.
The Complete Library · releasing soon
The Career Path
Seven levels, in the order you actually climb them.
Each level is a book. Finish one and the next is the job you are being considered for, not a subject you might study.
The architecture
One operating system, taught in six Foundations.
Not a shelf of unrelated books. A closed core of thirty volumes that build on each other, from the room in front of you to the boardroom above you.
- Foundation I Stabilize the Room Volumes 001 to 007 Available now
- Foundation II Build the Defensible Record Volumes 008 to 009 Available now
- Foundation III Design the People Systems Volumes 010 to 016 Available now
- Foundation IV Operate at the Enterprise Volumes 017 to 018 Available now
- Foundation V Run the Operating System Volumes 019 to 024 Available now
- Foundation VI Operate as an Executive Volumes 025 to 030 Available now
How it works
Guide teaches the system. Workbook installs it.
The Field Guide
The complete system in one volume. Frameworks, scripts, escalation thresholds, legal lines, and worked cases you can hold against your own situation. Read it once, then keep it open on the desk.
The Workbook
The application layer. You diagnose your own organization, score it on the volume’s signature instrument, and leave with a filled record: a plan, a ledger, and a thirty day run. Built to be written in.
Who wrote this
Jon Orozco, MBA, SHRM-SCP
Founder, The HR Operator™
Two decades inside the work: the investigations, the terminations, the compensation rebuilds, the boards that wanted one number and the managers who needed one script. These volumes are the operating manuals I wanted on my first day and had to write instead.
The Line is Open.
New volumes are released as they clear the editorial gate. The core is closed at thirty.