Reviving HR Carousel: Reflecting on My Blog Journey and Future Plans for 2026

Reactivating a blog after a long pause is never easy. It means returning to a space that once held your ideas, opinions, and experiences—and deciding that it still matters. For me, reviving The HR Carousel was more than restarting a website. It was about reclaiming a space where honest HR conversations could happen—without filters, polish, or performative expertise.

Over the past months, I’ve written and published a significant number of posts covering different facets of human resources. This piece is a reflection on that journey: why I came back, what I learned along the way, and where I hope to take HR Carousel in 2026.

Reactivating HR Carousel blog dashboard

Why I Decided to Restart HR Carousel

After a period of inactivity, I realized how much I missed writing about HR from lived experience—not from templates or textbooks. The HR landscape continues to evolve, but many of the hardest challenges remain deeply human and rarely discussed openly.

I wanted HR Carousel to once again be a space for hard, deeply human HR realities—down-to-earth stories drawn from lived experience, mine and others’, that are often too messy, uncomfortable, or nuanced to appear in glossy presentations, seminars, trainings, or HR books.

Restarting the blog meant setting clearer intentions:

• Writing consistently, even when topics were uncomfortable or unpopular

• Covering HR realities that don’t always come with neat or concrete answers

• Engaging with readers who value honesty over buzzwords

• Building a resource that reflects how HR actually works—not how it’s marketed

  
  

The Volume and Nature of Content Created

Since reviving the blog, I’ve published over 50 posts touching on employee relations, workplace behavior, HR policies, leadership challenges, compliance gray areas, and the kinds of situations HR professionals quietly manage every day.

The posts that resonated most weren’t trend-driven. They were the ones that tackled:

• Difficult employee conversations no one prepares you for

• Ethical gray areas where policy alone isn’t enough

• Workplace behaviors that HR is expected to manage silently

• The emotional labor that comes with being in HR

These stories weren’t written to impress—they were written to reflect reality.

Lessons from Writing Consistently Again

Rebuilding HR Carousel reinforced several important lessons:

• Consistency matters more than perfection.

• Reader response isn’t always loud—but it’s still informative.

• Clarity beats complexity. HR is already challenging enough.

• Visuals help, but honesty sustains engagement.

Most importantly, it reaffirmed that showing up consistently—especially when topics are uncomfortable—is what builds credibility over time.

Some of these stories are difficult to tell, and I share them not to point fingers, but because they carry lessons, I’ve learned firsthand. Being able to reflect on these experiences—even without naming companies—has been an important part of understanding the complexities of HR. My hope is that sharing these lessons can help others who might find themselves in the same challenging situations I once got sunk into.

My Place in the HR Community

My place in the HR community has never been about taking sides. It has been about reflecting the true, gritty stories and situations HR professionals get involved in—often quietly, often uncomfortably. This is the real essence of being in a profession that sits in the middle ground, expected to consider both management and employee perspectives.

For those who feel HR is pro-management, it’s important to acknowledge that HR work is no easy job. At the same time, HR also recognizes employees’ perspectives and that they are not automatically at fault. We try our very best to balance both sides fairly, but at the end of the day, nobody is entirely happy with the decisions made—not even us in HR. Sometimes there is no perfect solution, and the truth is that our role often involves navigating these uncomfortable realities.

HR Carousel exists to give voice to this space—the realities, tensions, and gray areas that are rarely discussed openly but are deeply familiar to those doing the work.

Feedback has been limited—and in one instance openly critical of me as an HR practitioner—but that experience became a quiet reminder of how uncomfortable honest HR conversations can be, and why content that reflects real-world complexity, not just best practices, still matters.

Looking Ahead: Plans for HR Carousel in 2026

As I look toward 2026, the focus is on depth, sustainability, and intention rather than noise. Plans include:

• Maintaining a steady, realistic publishing rhythm

• Sparking discussions around hard-to-answer HR stories—drawn from my own experiences or sourced from HR forums and social media. These real, often messy situations provide a rich source of material and sometimes stir debate, making the conversations lively and thought-provoking.

• Covering normal HR concerns, including government advisories, DOLE regulations, and other common HR topics that need to be addressed or clarified.

• Offering occasional audio discussions to complement blog content, especially for nuanced HR topics, with the possibility of eventually migrating select topics into a full podcast (ehem...), while I continue to review and assess that option.

• Considering alternative discussion spaces such as Discord in the future, though for now the focus will remain on sparking discussions directly through the blog and social channels.

• Hosting or participating in live discussions, remaining open to collaboration with others to address real HR issues.

• Creating practical tools such as templates, guides, and checklists

• Sharing personal stories—travel, multisport, and other experiences—to give readers a glimpse of life beyond HR.

The goal is not expansion for its own sake, but usefulness.

What Readers Can Expect Moving Forward

In the coming year, HR Carousel will continue to offer:

• Honest, grounded HR content across different formats

• Practical insights that acknowledge real-world constraints

• Opportunities for thoughtful engagement and reflection

• A growing space for nuanced HR conversations

HR work is rarely simple. Writing about it shouldn’t pretend otherwise.

Final Thoughts

Reviving HR Carousel has been both challenging and affirming. Writing consistently sharpened my thinking, strengthened my resolve, and clarified why this platform exists.

As the blog moves forward, the purpose remains unchanged:to create thoughtful, grounded, and deeply human HR content—especially for the stories that don’t make it into slides, seminars, or textbooks.

I also want to sincerely thank everyone who has taken the time to read my posts, even though I admit some of them can be long. Your time, attention, and engagement mean a lot, and they inspire me to keep sharing these real HR stories.

If you work in HR and have ever felt that the real work happens in the spaces no one talks about, you’re in the right place

About Me:

Joseline M. Alosbaños, known as the HR Carousel Ringmistress, is a Philippine-based Certified HR Practitioner with over twenty years of experience in Human Resources Management. Her extensive career spans various sectors, including corporate, freelancing, and consulting, equipping her with a wide range of skills. Joseline excels in employee relations, talent acquisition, total rewards management, HR operations, and organizational development, successfully implementing HR strategies that align with business objectives and promote a positive workplace atmosphere. If you require my services, feel free to contact me at joyce.alosbanos@gmail.com.