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HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

rachelbythebay.com

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Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#21

Post by irjustin »

Agreed with one small correction, HR is your friend before you join the company simply because internal recruiters fall under HR and recruiters are your friends. Literally paid to try and place you into the company.

Back to topic - HR is a tool.

Their job is to keep the company from getting sued by employees, the government and sometimes unions over bad practices. If the company is large enough they also report to the board.

Maybe HR's better analogy for the employee is a double edge sword. If you choose to use it, you'd better be prepared. Know the your rights, local laws/governance about your employment.

If your complaint aligns with laws then you're better setup for success, but again, it can always come back to bite you.

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#22

Post by t-writescode »

scottmcf wrote: post #16
t-writescode wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under your philosophy, how do you manage who should work on a project, how many people should work on a project, whether you need to hire more people and how long something will take? Edit: I notice this person's account posted once 32 days ago, then 44 days ago, then 51 days ago ... I don't expect a response anymore.

HR don't decide any of those things, they're instructed to do those things by management.

> I will never contract myself to those companies and people.

I read that as them saying they'll never work for a company that treats people as 'resources'.

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#23

Post by montenegrohugo »

jiggawatts wrote: post #14

Many people think that they live in a free democracy. In reality, something like 50% of all working people are employed in a strict hierarchical organisation that is essentially feudal in its nature. Most employees are the equivalent of serfs, overseen by lords, with a king in charge. The common employees don't get a vote. Their managers are not elected. They don't get a say in policy. The managers in turn form a str…

I would very much recommend Private Government by Elizabeth Anderson (specifically, chapter 2).

It's a relatively short read, and very relevant to your comment. Personally, I found the book quite enlightening, it gives a very different perspective to the jobs landscape than the one we usually have. An uncomfortable perspective, but one I feel one that is much more accurate.

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#24

Post by viraptor »

jiggawatts wrote: post #14

Many people think that they live in a free democracy. In reality, something like 50% of all working people are employed in a strict hierarchical organisation that is essentially feudal in its nature. Most employees are the equivalent of serfs, overseen by lords, with a king in charge. The common employees don't get a vote. Their managers are not elected. They don't get a say in policy. The managers in turn form a str…

With the major difference that these days a lot of people get to choose their employers. Yes, it's not perfect and not everyone can afford that, but we moved significantly from "you live here, this is your lord".

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#25

Post by shruubi »

Everything makes sense if you go into a job with the mindset you are not a human being, but rather a tool that the company has to give cursory maintenance to, to ensure that you don't break down.

HR is just the department that oversee's the tools and removes/replaces any tools that are not working or are becoming too much of a hassle.

If you doubt that is true, just remember that many companies would willingly have you thrown off the top of the building to your death and replaced within a day were you to even so much as thought about time outside of work if they could do so and get away with it.

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#26

Post by hirundo »

Yaa101 wrote: post #8

The problem starts with the name, humans are not resources. Stones. metals and food are resources. It's a slave term to see people as resources. I will never contract myself to those companies and people.

Merriam Webster definition of resource:

  1a : a source of supply or support : an available means —usually used in plural 
  1b : a natural source of wealth or revenue —often used in plural
  1c : a natural feature or phenomenon that enhances the quality of human life
  1d : computable wealth —usually used in plural
  1e : a source of information or expertise
  2 : something to which one has recourse in difficulty : EXPEDIENT
  3 : a possibility of relief or recovery
  4 : a means of spending one's leisure time
  5 : an ability to meet and handle a situation : RESOURCEFULNESS
I'd say humans are resources under definitions 1a, 1e and 2. Those things aren't particular to slaves.

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#27

Post by blondin »

mesaframe wrote: post #9

Blog is badly written. There are excessive uses of pronoun without proper references to who means whom. Points backing up the idea is shallow. Author looks he wrote the blog while being angry. Everything aside, I do agree with sentiment and would go on to say the nature of HR depend on the company. As it was alluded to later in the company. In my previous company, HR used to tell everything to the manager. Seriously…

i agree with you. not necessarily the pronouns but it's a very fast drop. and i believe it is hinting at what happened at GitHub. fundamentally, it is not telling us anything most of us don't already know.

but go figure...

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#28

Post by MattGaiser »

Yaa101 wrote: post #8

The problem starts with the name, humans are not resources. Stones. metals and food are resources. It's a slave term to see people as resources. I will never contract myself to those companies and people.

Yes we are. We are hired by a company to use ours skills and time to complete a task or set of tasks. Depending on when they want a project done and what skills are required, they must hire/buy accordingly.

I personally find this a very comfortable arrangement. I am a merchant of my own labour. I can upgrade the value of my labour by adding skills (in the same way that a merchant of stone could get a better price by reducing defects). I can seek a better price. I am free to terminate the arrangement when it suits me.

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#29

Post by umvi »

jiggawatts wrote: post #14

Many people think that they live in a free democracy. In reality, something like 50% of all working people are employed in a strict hierarchical organisation that is essentially feudal in its nature. Most employees are the equivalent of serfs, overseen by lords, with a king in charge. The common employees don't get a vote. Their managers are not elected. They don't get a say in policy. The managers in turn form a str…

Are we talking about work or life? Sure, private companies aren't democracies, but why should they be? Democracies are extremely inefficient. Imagine if Linux or Python projects were run as democracies and not lead by BDFLs? I can't imagine them being nearly as effective because democratic processes to get new features would always be gridlocked. Benevolent dictators are 10x, maybe even 100x more efficient than democracies.

Outside of work I certainly live in a free society. I can walk up to a rich person ("a lord") and insult him to his face and nothing will happen.

Re: HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know

#30

Post by tuesdayrain »

Yaa101 wrote: post #8

The problem starts with the name, humans are not resources. Stones. metals and food are resources. It's a slave term to see people as resources. I will never contract myself to those companies and people.

I actually like the name "human resources" because it very honestly describes the way humans are seen by large corporations: not much more than interchangeable resource units. Changing to a more comforting name while keeping everything else constant is awfully typical of superficial modern day activism.
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