A day after the Russian government withdrew work permits for BP executive Robert Dudley and his crew, the Russians about-faced and granted the visas. Also updating Starbucks' store closures--coffee aficionados are "delighting" in the company's financial woes.

Has this ever happened at your finance meetings? At last week's NFL Rookie Symposium--designed to teach rookie gridders about life in the adult leagues--a simmering dispute between two would-be Tampa Bay Buccaneers erupted in fisticuffs during the money session. Watch your departmental heads' body language when entering that next budget meeting.

Preceding what was described as "America's unhappy birthday" was news of the sixth straight month of payroll decline, with around 62,000 pink slips issued in June. That makes for overdrive time in the HR realm, surely not one of the more admired departments these days.

This as Workforce.com salutes HR personnel inside America's 20 most admired companies, who collectively manage nearly 2.5 million employees. Presented as model HR culture is the think-out-loud world of Google, whose top HR exec Laszlo Bock touts "tremendous accessibility" and "immersing employees in the business flow."

More mysterious by far is the HR story at Apple, Fortune's most admired company this year. Beyond her name--Danielle Lambert--the company reportedly refuses to say another word, including making Ms. Lambert unavailable for comment.

Disclosures to the SEC reveal that she is married to a "valuable" SVP in the iPod division, holds millions of dollars in Apple shares, stock options and restricted stock units, earns extremely well, and lastly, is not an executive officer. Methinks further coring is warranted.

Jeff Heilman

7/7/08