#HRtruth #ChangingPerceptions #BehindTheScenesOfHR
Have you ever introduced yourself as HR and instantly seen people cringe? 🙄 I’ve been there! Let’s talk about the hate HR gets – it’s ridiculous, right?! But here’s the thing, HR does a lot more than people realize.
Did you know HR saves employees from unjust firings, helps them advance in their careers, coaches bad managers, and investigates harassment cases? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
So, have you ever been judged for being in HR when you’re actually not a dirtbag? Share your stories with us! Let’s set the record straight and show the world what HR is really about. 💼✨ #HRheroes
Oh, and about that sarcastic idea of a social media page – maybe we should actually do it? 🤔 Let’s make it happen together! #JoinTheMovement
No innocent person has ever thought I was a dirtbag other than maybe a few ex girlfriends who are mad that I moved on quicker than they did. The same people that hate HR hate all forms of authority. The people who blame HR for their career blame everything in their lives on something else.
We are the Internal Affairs of the corporate world. I don’t mean we are perceived that way, I mean we actually are.
I take no issue with how ppl choose to view HR anymore; I’ve been in for twenty years and I’ve learned now that every field, every industry, every business has the same resentment for disciplinary hierarchy, just to differing degrees.
I don’t need ppl to know everything I do in order to present them with what I stand for. You issue guideposts as to what HR is, and what it is not. Employees will draw their own (often crowdsourced) conclusions regardless.
I’ve tended to find that the people who have a downer on HR have a significant overlap with people who don’t understand how businesses, or the functions within them, actually run. I also referee rugby, so not being the most popular person in the world isn’t really an issue for me.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I’m resistant to your idea, for more than one reason.
For every great practitioner who speaks truth to power and saves employees from, eg, being fired as in your first point, there’s a group who see their role as simply fulfilling management requests, and are justifiably seen as management tools.
We can’t shy away from the fact that sometimes the ‘people’ answer to a business problem is letting people go. I’ve been responsible for initiating that idea and implementing it on more than one occasion.
Like most good HR pros I have a long list of the unseen work I’ve done that benefits employees. But that isn’t the whole picture, and it isn’t a universal. I also don’t have tickets to Iron Maiden baby.
Just be the change you want to be. Do the best you can for your own company.
You won’t change the world or public opinion. Too many people have had, or heard, of a bad experience with HR.
I just really want people to know that I don’t care about them enough to enact all these conspiracy theories they think is going on.
Like “No Brenda, I’m not blocking your raise because 2 years ago you briefly mentioned you suffered from depression. Your boss said no to your raise because you’ve had 15 tardies this year and argue with them about everything”
When my coworkers see someone sitting in my office, they always say “uh oh what did you do wrong” and “you getting fired?” Etc.
A good motto to have in life is “if it doesn’t apply, let it fly.” People speak louder about bad experiences over good ones, and that applies to everything in life. It doesn’t matter if it’s social media or word of mouth.
HR will always have bad PR because too many businesses use HR as their scapegoat. And there are bad HR practitioners out there (as there are bad apples in every profession.) It comes with working in this field. If you feel you operate ethically and built trust and respect with employees you support that’s all that matters.
Thick skin comes with experience, it’s difficult to ignore at first but the longer you work in this field the less you’ll care.
This is such an HR thing to say. Yes, you do those things, but you know you also sometimes fuck employees over or are the ones who have tontell people they’re being fucked over while making it sound nice. Highlighting only the good and pretending that’s all the job.is while omitting the bad is classic HR.
I mean, even in a perfect world, we still sometimes have to be the bad guy. Pretending we aren’t is completely misguided. I’ve absolutely gone above and beyond to save an employees benefits after they missed an enrollment window, but I’ve also had situations where I’ve needed to inform them of the consequences of their actions and fired someone on Christmas Eve (due to CBA, it couldn’t wait, and we couldn’t wrap the investigation before then).
At the end of the day, all we can do is try to show that we are more than the executioner, and the employees who can see the good we can do, tend to be able to have a decent working relationship with us.
Why HR gets hate:
HR does ALL those points in the context of protecting the company not keeping and retaining employees.
And I’m not a 20 year old, I’m a Director with 20 years experience.
All I ever did was paperwork so I quit
The key is to stop caring what people think.
You will be much happier in life.
I hate HR people they’re assholes
I may get downvotes, but here I go. I don’t hate HR but honestly in my 7 years working, I never met an HR to do/talk about any of those things you mentioned. I spoke to a HR while I got hired, wanted a transfer and for an exit interview. Some of my current colleagues don’t even know who our HRBP is. So, it’s plausible to people like me to think HR is only to hire/fire/discipline employees. And we all know how recruiting is broken for everyone(candidates, recruiters, HR and hiring managers) involved and HR is the face of it, so that’s where lot of people associate HR with. Do I love to be told by my HR about roles in my company? Yes. Do I want HR to train my shitty manager, thwir manager and their manager above? Absolutely YES.
I completely agree. I’m an HRBP and this week alone I’ve: gotten a sizable group of employees comp adjustments with big raises, built partnerships with state-run veteran orgs to offer better job opportunities for veterans and to bring in state and federal organizations to explain government benefits on company time, and gotten approval for a more robust development program for high performers.
We get a lot of hate because we’re present when people are getting fired or reprimanded but what employees don’t realize is that we’re in those processes to ensure equity and laws are followed. We don’t make the final decisions. Most employees will never know the difference that strong HR teams can make on the employee experience and that’s honestly ok. Most of us didn’t choose or fall into HR for the glory haha. We do it because of the difference we see we can make.
Edit: I should note that this is not a normal load of accomplishments for a single week haha. It’s been a productive week and I kinda wanted to brag.
People hate on HR because HR is there to protect the company, not the people.
I understand HR simply enforces company policy. But everyone knows whose side they’re on.
Well, as with anything, not everything is absolute. There are outliers. You have bad HR managers and you have good HR managers. Overall, HR is not your friend like people believe which is why the distaste is there- we were always told they’re our friend and there for us, but at the end of the day, we know it’s just a job.
You aren’t the bad guys! I also come from working in businesses where HR is there to solely protect the company from risks. I’m not mad about that whatsoever. I can take care of myself or find a new job.
There were so, so many bad things that happened to me in my last role. I’m honestly afraid to share any of them out of fear someone will recognize me. I also knew if I shared it with HR, nothing would happen but me getting let go. In theory, it would be harder to find a replacement for my boss. Sooo. It would come down to me.
Got laid off anyways and pray I can find a new role, where I’m not working for the Devil Wears Prada.
I revel in the hate like a pig 😀
Adults who have life experience know what y’all do and appreciate it
If you aren’t immune you haven’t been in HR long enough or it’s not cut out for you. Work is work don’t bring it home unless you are a VP or CHRO where you have to cause making high six figure or more.
Oh yes, the number of times I’ve walked into a room and someone says ‘shh, HR is here!’ is comical. I switched solely to talent acquisition about 5 years ago and everyone hates us too. Ah well.
If you’ve worked with someone in HR who falls for every accusation by jilted employees, you’d know why they get hate.
My hr person has been in my work place for a decade and has no idea how to preform a investigation, routinely just believed who ever the first party to approach her.
Has no idea how to get new employees set up with our corporate beneifts.(call their help line)
Won’t assist in discipline if the accused party had a sob story
Not all HR sucks, but boy, when they do, it’s invasive
All of that is true.
But at the end of the day your mandate is to protect the company over the employee. And that’s why you get the reactions you get.
The thing is, when the company culture is toxic and top management is the problem, the leadership is all too happy to make HR do their dirty work for them. What the employees see is HR doing the unkind, cruel stuff – but a lot of it is driven by bad leaders. A fish rots from its head.
It hurts to hear sometimes because I have saved many employees’s jobs from managers who had poor documentation, and I’ve helped arrange employees leaving via mutual agreement to help many employees in very difficult situations. I’ve made sure employees are treated fairly, even if they don’t see it that way. I love “HR isn’t your friend.” Duh. We aren’t, but we are there to ensure you get a fair shake.
I require all performance reviews to go through me first. I’ve talked more than a few managers into increasing an employee’s merit increase (sometimes significantly) and I got no credit whatsoever. But I am very happy working in the background. Every once in a while, I’ll receive a very genuine thank you note/recognition from an employee, and they probably have no idea how much that means.
The only time people deal with HR is when shit is going wrong. Layoffs, PiPs, firings. Y’all the dentist’s of the corporate world.
Your whole job is to keep my manager and my managers manager out of jail. You’re all rodents who carry water for corporations that exploit people.
Literally no different from the Nazis who were just “following orders.” All the hate you get is totally justified and should honestly get more.