"The Top 5 Reasons to Hate Your HR Department
July 9th, 2007 · 8 Comments
Your human resources department might be a fantastic resource for you in the workplace. Some organizations have taken the responsibility of relating to their employees seriously and approached the task with subtlety and attention to detail. If this sounds like where you work, love your HR department.
For the rest of you, however, you want to see this top 5. Without further ado, here are the Top 5 Reasons to Hate Your HR Department:
They think you are a resource
Petroleum, water, lumber, and humans. One of these things is not like the others—unless, that is, you consult the HR department. They view you as a resource, and they are not shy about it. This helps make things a lot simpler, and it helps the decision-makers in the organization feel better about making “difficult decisions” involving people. After all, it’s much more comfortable to talk about squeezing the last drop out of your resources than it is to talk about pushing people beyond their limits.
While subtle, the name indicates a desire to be unaware of your problems, pains, goals, and frustrations unless it will get them sued or cost them money, and that’s about right in most cases. In fact, the name “Human Resources” is a little refreshing in its honesty. It’s just a matter of time before a gentler term is adopted to describe the same practices.
Talking to them accomplishes nothing
While your meeting with the HR rep may be the closest you get to being heard, the fact of the matter is, he or she is probably someone who can’t change the landscape very much, if at all. The people who could do something about, the ultimate decision-makers, do not want to be bothered by a sea of personal stories. Therefore, your meetings with HR are the equivalent of having a pillow to shout into. You may feel better for getting it off of your chest, but you probably haven’t accomplished much else. The exception to this being, of course, a legitimate opportunity for litigation. That one will be run up the flagpole.
No real understanding of you or your job
With a professed disinterest in the details of your job or your life and the complete lack of ability to do anything about either anyway, it’s not really surprising that the HR department makes little to no effort to really understand what’s going on in the trenches. On top of that, they are removed from the sort of casual venting and frank discussions that most of us share because if it hits their ears it might have to go in a file and up the flagpole. As a result, the HR department is detached from the very employees that they are supposed to be the front lines of communication for, and it’s probably the last place you want to go with your problems rather than the first.
Inflexible policies and red tape
The policies of the HR department are designed to cover a ridiculously broad range of circumstances with one fell swoop. Making blanket statements about how much of a raise you can give someone, how quickly you can promote someone, and how to move an employee from one role to another laterally is just another step toward oversimplification and homogenization of human dynamics down into human resources. I understand the professed reasons for having such standards, but for the most part, it just seems like a lack of ability and effort to make wise decisions concerning the individuals in the company.
They pretend to be on your team
As the employee relations branch of the company, the HR department bears the responsibility for the false claims companies make about how they plan to treat their employees. Mission statements and other motivational blurbs abound with proud declarations of how much employees are valued and respected. “Our people are our key asset, everything we do is informed by our constant vision of teamwork and shared opportunity…” Well, it doesn’t take long to realize how far that is from the truth in most cases. Most companies try not to see people at all—they see resources. The game, for them, is about getting away with whatever you can without causing such a disruption in labor that profits are affected.
While most HR people are well meaning and while some HR departments are helpful to their employees, there is a reason why so many negative stereotypes exist. If your HR department doesn’t fall into these categories, that’s great. For most of us though, there’s a lot of truth to be found in this list. Don’t forget, the entire concept of the HR Department is geared to help the company, not the employee".
what i can infer from the last line is very disturbing in a sense if as HR professionals we are not accessible to the employees then for whom are we working ?
Its not easy to differentiate between the organization and the individual but at some point of time is it not our duty to listen to them, help them, and ensure they perform their best cause that will only make an organization better ? I think we are starting to lose the "Human" element of "Human resources". The person has voiced his opinion against being called a resource and being compared to physical objects.
and finally we listen to the venting out on policies and calls it red tape-ism. This is just an expression of how we are failing to see and recognize the employees and have fallen in love with recruitment, performance appraisal, PF , Gratuity ! that we have failed to even think of the people for whom w eneed to help. Personally i just pray that this is a temporary blip and we will start doing what we love
Cheers
Arvind
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