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Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

cdoyle.me

221–230 of 235 posts

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#221
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, I'm so sick of the cynicism in general. Personally, I'm so sick of there not being nearly enough cynicism in general. I've met cops that aren't total pieces of shit (who all ended up quitting in less than 5 years), but that doesn't mean cops aren't total pieces of shit. If the nature of the job is unethical, you should rightly call it out as such. HR's job is to pretend to be your friend while doing wha…

Why is the nature of being a cop unethical? I agree there are abuses of the power but from what I've seen in real life it's important work.

It’s unethical because of the kinds of laws the legislature requires them to enforce. Prime example: civil asset forfeiture.

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#222
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, I understand why most people think this way, and I'm not going to call you naive - just cynical. From my experience (not all of it, but a bunch of it) -- HR has been the balancing force against bad management and even CEOs because, like the lawyers, there're there to protect the company. I've not been in a room where the CEO is sitting there telling the lawyers and HR how to abuse employees -- sorry. Likewise,…

The equation is far from balanced. What we need is far more cynicism in order to cause change. We've tried less cynicism and it hasn't worked. It just leads to maintaining the status quo.

cyncism or skepticism?

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pet projects by any department that aren't in the interests of the company should be discouraged. Especially by HR, because unlike an engineering pet project that may waste some time, pet projects by HR can significantly impact the quality of life of every employee at the company, cause people not to join the company or quit the company, and so on. Dysfunctional HR (which is almost all HR) is just about as bad as hav…

>pet projects by HR can significantly impact the quality of life of every employee at the company, cause people not to join the company or quit the company, and so on Reminds me of the time I almost rage quit when HR's pet project was to implement a "baking roster" for the purposes of "team building". Like... No effing way am I spending time baking shit just because you want a supply of freshly baked goods to eat? I'…

At one place, we had a potluck where clearly some people went way above and beyond so we decided that if you don't want to cook, you can just pay USD 20 instead. Those who cooked and baked were clearly spending way over twenty dollars each anyway. That's not a potluck! Anyway, nobody complained anymore after this one change.

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-j...

That's the one! Thank you! And that article mentions this book: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Equal-Opportunity-Frank-Dob...

Interesting! I overlooked that reference.

Another, more polemical book on the subject would be Christopher Caldwell's Age of Entitlement, which I haven't had a chance to read yet, but from what I understand makes the argument that the 1964 Civil Rights Act caused these issues.

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, I'm so sick of the cynicism in general. Personally, I'm so sick of there not being nearly enough cynicism in general. I've met cops that aren't total pieces of shit (who all ended up quitting in less than 5 years), but that doesn't mean cops aren't total pieces of shit. If the nature of the job is unethical, you should rightly call it out as such. HR's job is to pretend to be your friend while doing wha…

Cynicism tends to go hand in hand with defeatism. I have no problem with cynicism, if you're the rare person willing to take steps to fix or mitigate the problems you are cynical about. In the more common case, it just leads to giving up. Cynicism is a mistake when it leads to inaction, and inaction is responsible for a lot (arguably most) of the world's problems. I've known people who didn't recycle because they wer…

It's so nice of you to grant people posthumous permission to have been cynical about Hitler's promises of peace or Nazi ideology in general, provided they were deeply committed to making Nazism actually awesome.

You seem blind to the difference of being lazily cynical about something flawed but ultimately beneficial (and with flaws that you could help address) and seeing through cons dressed up in edifying language about noble causes. Ignore it at your own peril. A lot of very sincere communists met a sticky end under communism as a reward for the sincerity of their beliefs, and very sincerely trying to embody "googly" (etc.) values as espoused by HR may well proof equally terminal (if only to your career). Especially as a slightly aspergery nerd prone to take policy statements at face value.

> inaction is responsible for a lot (arguably most) of the world's problems

Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dehumanizing name "Human Resources" says it all, doesn't it? We're not people. We're not even workers. We're just resources that happen to be members of the human species. Similar to other resources like staplers. There's no perfect euphemism for what HR does, but something like... I don't know... Workforce Management? Would be a little less awful, I think?

I've noticed this as well. Especially going through layoffs. It's not "people" getting "fired," it's "resources impacted." Oh, it's also not a "layoff," it's a "reduction in force." Maybe I'm old-school, but give it to me straight.

OOM killer

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should mention I am referring specifically to police in the United States. The short answer is because cops defend cops, including bad cops. People like to say it's just a few bad apples, but it's far more prevalent than that. And even if it were just 1 in 100, the fact that the cops band together to protect a rapist/murderer/whatever shows that they care more about unity than morals. I realize this answer is lacki…

> The short answer is because cops defend cops, including bad cops. Show me a group that doesn't do this. In Seattle's 2020 cop-free zone CHOP/CHAZ, the self-appointed "security forces" killed an unarmed 16-year-old. It's all on video, and the statements made by the assailants in the aftermath are heinous. Plenty of people were there to see it, but nobody's talking, and at this point it looks like they'll probably ne…

Police abolitionists talk about plans and years. The Seattle police abandoned a neighborhood when not asked and faked reports of armed terrorists.[1]

The 16 year old was Antonio Mays. He drove a car through the occupied park and at a group of protesters. It's all on video? Not only parts of the aftermath? Where?

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/seattle-police-carried-...

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#228
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my life experience an unsavory character turned law abiding citizen I found that I used to think ill of cops but after I changed, miraculously cops seemed to turn into amazing fantastic people. So I take all of these "cops are evil" claims with a grain of salt and seek out more context clues to what would initiate an interaction with LEO in the first place.

This reads like "the problem disappears as soon as I'm no longer impacted". Just because cops see/treat you differently now doesn't mean they aren't still treating others poorly.

I guess my point was too subtle

Re: Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The short answer is because cops defend cops, including bad cops. Show me a group that doesn't do this. In Seattle's 2020 cop-free zone CHOP/CHAZ, the self-appointed "security forces" killed an unarmed 16-year-old. It's all on video, and the statements made by the assailants in the aftermath are heinous. Plenty of people were there to see it, but nobody's talking, and at this point it looks like they'll probably ne…

Police abolitionists talk about plans and years. The Seattle police abandoned a neighborhood when not asked and faked reports of armed terrorists.[1] The 16 year old was Antonio Mays. He drove a car through the occupied park and at a group of protesters. It's all on video? Not only parts of the aftermath? Where? [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/seattle-police-carried-...

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