It just struck me that people (including me) dislike HR because they are the Internal Affairs Unit of corporate life.
I generally am okay with the HR people I've dealt with. They do paperwork so other people don't have to.
80% of HR paperwork only exists because the government exists, and the rest of it is the kind of paperwork that HR screws up on and wastes more real-employee time than if the real employees just did it themselves in the first place.
not a fan of our HR.
One lady we have here... omfg. She is dumb as a fucking brick.
I was in the dismal situation where I had to sit through a 'seminar' hosted by this woman about updates to the company's infonet. She spent 10 minutes telling a large group of grown adults how to click on hypertext on a website.
I have an HR degree, though it only took a handful of electives to secure that second major... Prior to business schools even offering HR degrees, most individuals working in HR were the rejects that couldn't cut it elsewhere. In most cases, you have a few executives that are good at dealing with labor issues/legal issues/union issues....and the rest of the office are just paper pushers putting in their time. Being in an office that processes a lot of records, you're going to get a mixed bag of results.
My wife's office has had a lot of issues with their HR side...she calls them often about payroll issues, tax deduction, and retirement contribution issues. If she makes a change to anything, it sometimes takes 5-6 pay cycles before things are handled correctly.
It just struck me that people (including me) dislike HR because they are the Internal Affairs Unit of corporate life.
Poor Penguin is just getting beat on.
Doesn't bother me. Most people in my department are actually liked by the majority of employees at my company. I feel bad that everyone here seems to work at such crappy companies.
I've had mixed experience with HR over my career. Some have been fantastic, others were absolutely a waste of space. I find in larger companies they tend to be a little better but what you're describing is just an idiot user and there are no shortage of them.
HR people are smart and do really well with the tools they are given.
I think that many of the opinions in this thread are held because they work in an organization stuck in the 20th century, work for a small company where they have a "one man" HR shop, have no idea what HR really does, want to hate on HR because it's cool, or some combination of the aforementioned.
(insert department here do their best) with the tools they are given.
HR mostly exists as a CYA for businesses in order to reduce the probability of successful lawsuits against them by their workers, or ex workers. They rarely serve any other purpose IMO.
I think you'd be sad to know how many of us work for large, Fortune 500 companies. Unfortunately, most of us don't fit in your "one man HR shop" or "stuck in the 20th century" excuse. Well, to clarify, our HR department is certainly stuck in the 20th century. But that's the only part of the company that is.Doesn't bother me. Most people in my department are actually liked by the majority of employees at my company. I feel bad that everyone here seems to work at such crappy companies.