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

cdoyle.me

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

#41

Post by throwaway98797 »

none_to_remain wrote: post #26
seneca wrote: post #6

I disagree with the "mostly harmless" take in the article. HR is the group everyone, regardless of where they stand in a company, must be the most careful in dealing with. They are beurocrats and, in modern western companies, are becoming ideological commissars. One of the strongest suggestions I would make to anyone going into white collar work is to avoid HR as much as possible, and be extremely careful of everythi…

Yep. This article says HR works for the company's interests, not yours. I think instead maybe HR works for HR's interests.

HR loves hiring more HR

the growth rate from 1 HR to 10 HR is slower than 10 to 50.

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

#42

Post by dogleash »

frellus wrote: post #10

I get the whole "HR can be evil" point, but this article could have also been, "Having friends in management is fine, but management is not your friend". Personally, I'm so sick of the cynicism in general. Can we make points and articles about protecting yourself, as an employee, without resorting to such things? As a manager in a company, I've both had friends in HR and also had HR been my friend. Need to fire that…

> I'm so sick of the cynicism in general.

Cynicism is just self preservation on topics like this. Most people can’t afford the risk of behaving otherwise.

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

#43

Post by acover »

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #19
frellus wrote: post #10

I get the whole "HR can be evil" point, but this article could have also been, "Having friends in management is fine, but management is not your friend". Personally, I'm so sick of the cynicism in general. Can we make points and articles about protecting yourself, as an employee, without resorting to such things? As a manager in a company, I've both had friends in HR and also had HR been my friend. Need to fire that…

> 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.

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

#44

Post by crmd »

frellus wrote: post #10

I get the whole "HR can be evil" point, but this article could have also been, "Having friends in management is fine, but management is not your friend". Personally, I'm so sick of the cynicism in general. Can we make points and articles about protecting yourself, as an employee, without resorting to such things? As a manager in a company, I've both had friends in HR and also had HR been my friend. Need to fire that…

I get what you’re saying but don’t think the Catbert analogy is apropos here.

What I have seen as a senior tech executive and old person is that young people entering the workforce after around 2015-6 often rely on HR to be a neutral arbiter in workplace conflicts, analogous to parental chaperones or university administrators.

What I believe the author is trying to convey is that this misunderstanding can have disastrous consequences on a young person’s career. HR is not a neutral arbiter between you and the business. They are the business.

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

#45

Post by epicureanideal »

Spoom wrote: post #21

HR represents the company. Where your goals and the company's aligns, they can be helpful. Where they diverge, perhaps less so. I think a lot of these sorts of articles discount the idea that your goals and the company's will frequently align. For example, if you're being harassed, it's very often in the company's interest to stop that happening. It will cause you and perhaps more people to quit if they don't, and th…

> HR represents the company. Where your goals and the company's aligns

HR very often does not even work in the interests of the company. Instead, it works in the interest of the HR employees' own political beliefs, which they then cloak in the language of doing what's right for the company, and connect no matter how loosely to any laws, regulations, etc. that they can use to justify imposing the beliefs they wanted to impose anyway.

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

#46

Post by frellus »

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #19
frellus wrote: post #10

I get the whole "HR can be evil" point, but this article could have also been, "Having friends in management is fine, but management is not your friend". Personally, I'm so sick of the cynicism in general. Can we make points and articles about protecting yourself, as an employee, without resorting to such things? As a manager in a company, I've both had friends in HR and also had HR been my friend. Need to fire that…

> 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…

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, I agree there are plenty of cops who are POS, and there are plenty who are not. You're missing the part of the equation where people treat all cops like POS, and frankly -- if you've watched shows like COPS and seen what some of them deal with -- it's not hard to see why some of them probably become worse over time.

Both sides of the equation needs to change if you want a better world.

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

#47

Post by CoastalCoder »

DwnVoteHoneyPot wrote: post #33
darth_avocado wrote: post #4

> Your employer definitely got legal advice on anything they put in front of you, why shouldn’t you do the same before signing? Because it costs $700/hour

I tend to work for smaller companies so I've been laid off a few times. I've hired employment lawyers each time. I've paid them approx $2K-$3K each time and have receive much more back.

Can you say more about how they were helpful?

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

#49

Post by Cupertino95014 »

Someone once said to me, "HR is there to protect the company from the employees." Always keep that in mind. That's what they're paid for.

For some reason, I also think of the quote [1] from Bleak House,

"Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!"

In the old days, they were called "Personnel." Now that's too old-fashioned, and pretty soon the name "HR" will be, too, so they'll call it something else.

[1] https://quotepark.com/quotes/1726203-charles-dickens-this-is...

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

#50

Post by jacobr1 »

bwestergard wrote: post #28

The whole concept of a "human resources" department was developed as a response to workers organizing unions to bargain over terms and conditions of employment. Whatever the flaws of some unions, they are ultimately economically dependent on their members, and the officers are elected. HR is accountable only to executives. https://inthesetimes.com/article/human-resources-me-too-sexu...

Wasn't the precursor "Personnel Departments" which were more administrative? Especially in a pre-computer era with more literal paperwork? It seems like HR evolved out of that to service more "strategic" business needs, which sure, probably included union busting, but also includes many other functions to serve companies in more competitive environments that are dominated by knowledge work.
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