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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

#321

Post by rocqua »

z3ugma wrote: post #2

Oof, this hits home. Out of college I worked for a large company that's well-known for hiring lots of folks straight out of undergrad with high salaries and a demand of high hours. Despite an almost cultlike devotion to meritocracy and micro-feedback, the "merits" only mattered if it was in furtherance of already established norms of success. In a large company like that, deviation wasn't viewed as having a unique sk…

> deviation wasn't viewed as having a unique skillset, it was viewed as making it harder for other people around you to fit their work

If your unique skillset makes it harder for people to work with you, it might not be that much of an asset, even if the skills are impressive.

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

#322

Post by Mountain_Skies »

ncmncm wrote: post #76
drstewart wrote: post #43

IT is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Legal is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Janitorial staff is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Sales is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Marketing is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you.

This is the starry-eyed, optimistic view of workplaces. In fact, in each case management works for themselves. HR, most of all. While engineering management has some pressure toward development goals, sales toward sales targets, and top management toward business development, HR has no such objective targets. Typically they even farm out recruiting. What motivates HR management? In most companies, HR is the center of…

I've only known one person personally who has ever done the cloak & dagger wearing of a wire to record a co-worker saying something that they wouldn't want the public or a judge to hear. She was the head of HR for a F500 company and did this to the COO. The buyout package for her to leave and agree not to disclose what she recorded was apparently quite substantial as she didn't have to work for years. Still a bit amazed that she both had to guts to do it and actually got away with it. HR is a completely different world.

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

#323

Post by dhekir »

baby wrote: post #278
akmarinov wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about Thailand and it really depends on your lifestyle, but 100k will get you through 2-3 years at most in the other countries, if you live in an urban setting, not really pinching pennies.

I can tell you that you can live in the center of a French city for like 10 years on that money. You won’t have a crazy lifestyle but you can live in the center and do groceries and the occasional restaurants and drinks for that money. Most people would take like 5 years to make that much AT LEAST.

Can you get a long term visa without any job affiliations? I'm not sure that simply having the money is sufficient reason for an European country to give you a long-term visa (> 1 year), depending on which country you come from.

Also, some countries have a "negative privilege" situation, where even if you try to get a low-wage job, you'll have less priority than others, or your employer will need to pay an extra fee to be able to hire you. Many will resort to illegal employment to avoid that.

And do not forget issues about guarantors: some places are really strict about proving you have the money, and simply making a 1-year rent deposit in advance is not enough.

Overall, even when having the money, some people don't have the "privilege" of being able to spend it as they please, in the country of their preference.

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

#324

Post by Uberphallus »

baby wrote: post #278
akmarinov wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about Thailand and it really depends on your lifestyle, but 100k will get you through 2-3 years at most in the other countries, if you live in an urban setting, not really pinching pennies.

I can tell you that you can live in the center of a French city for like 10 years on that money. You won’t have a crazy lifestyle but you can live in the center and do groceries and the occasional restaurants and drinks for that money. Most people would take like 5 years to make that much AT LEAST.

> I can tell you that you can live in the center of a French city for like 10 years on that money.

What city, though? I live in a small city (coast, but still), and the absolute crappiest studio will chomp 500€/mo out of your wallet, which roughly translates to over $70k. Anything decent goes easily over $100k and that's rent alone.

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

#325

Post by stretchcat »

hirundo wrote: post #100
stretchcat wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be a valid use of the word resource, but it's still dehumanizing to think of people as resources.

It isn't dehumanizing to consider someone "a source of information or expertise". It's humanizing in that those are predominantly human things. And that's one of the primary senses of the word. It seems uncharitable to assume someone must mean some other sense.

Suppose I call you an ape. It's literally true, isn't it? Yet you would naturally assume I meant it in a dehumanizing way.

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

#326

Post by nicoburns »

rocqua wrote: post #320

I really don't enjoy the tone here. The derision with which it speaks about managers, like they are either evil or incompetent, is unfair in my experience. (my) Managers are just people. They have a task, they do their best to get that task done. Sometimes they decisions that seem bad to me. Often that is because I misunderstand their goals. Sometimes, it is because I know something they don't, and something they cou…

> But often it just has to do with wider business goals than what I am working at.

I think the problem comes when you work at a business whose wider business goals are unethical, or simply don't include respecting the needs and rights of their workers. This definitely isn't everywhere, but from the stories I've heard this seems to be some companies.

Totally agree that managers aren't a bad thing in general though.

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

#327

Post by a_imho »

mcv wrote: post #311
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…

It is important to understand that in a lot of ways, corporations are completely contrary to how we like to see the world. We want democracy, but corporations are often essentially feudal, like you say. We like the free market, but internal economies of corporations are entirely plan-economy. I often wonder if we shouldn't just ban large corporations. Make everything small business.

Not sure where to draw the line between big and small, but instead of the current notion of employment which for wage slavery is a very apt term, society should look into worker owned businesses and/or collaboratives.

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

#329

Post by bigpeopleareold »

firecall wrote: post #73
ser0 wrote: post #42

HR is not your friend and your company is not your family. Regardless of intent there are commercial realities that exist within the context of a company that may never be present in a non-work relationship. This has varying degrees of impact on the nature of the relationship itself and may not present itself until you are at your most vulnerable. I find that a collegial environment with shared goals and responsibili…

Exactly. And nor does anyone have a 'career'. You have a job. When you lose that job, you may not get another one. It's an illusion. One minute you think you are a high profile manager with budgets and power. The next you are packing your desk up into a box and rethinking your entire life. We are not our careers!

This is just my opinion, but "career" always felt like a narrative one must construct to fit in as a modern worker. It feels like a form of signalling - "I do this" where "this" is some high-skilled activity, particularly with the real intention of just ending up in management just to make more money.

And, regardless of skills, connections, etc., I still am concerned of any change in my job status. Career narratives or hoping to join the managerial classes don't pay bills or save for retirement. I wish I gave more stock to this idea when younger.

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

#330

Post by elihu »

pugworthy wrote: post #208
drstewart wrote: post #43

IT is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Legal is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Janitorial staff is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Sales is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you. Marketing is not your friend either. They work for the company, not for you.

So who is your friend? Your team? I mean they work for the company, not you.

Your friends are your friends. Your friends are the people who help you remember who you are. Some of them might share your same employer.
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