How much do you trust the Human Resources Department of your company?

[penultima_thule]

@SanVito

… it always surprises me that the question is always about trust - are they on my side, or the company’s. It seems terribly naive.

A couple of years ago there was a vacancy in another department which was a reasonable and logical career progression for me

They informed my manager of my application immediately.
They told my manager I’d been unsuccessful before they told me.
Sure as eggs they wouldn’t have done that with the external applicants.

At one stage I was doing a presentation for the company and for point of context asked HR if they could tell me roughly the average age of the employees.
“Can’t tell you that, that falls under privacy” Que?

Recently as the business started to return to working in the office I asked what was roughly the vaccination rate amongst employees.
“Can’t tell you that, that falls under privacy” Que?

The very next day the GM gave out stats on employee vaccinations (prepared by HR of course) to a level of detail which allowed you to make reasonable guesses as to the status of most individuals in the company.

That’d be about half the number of interactions I’ve had with them. Apart from the interminable and asinine employee surveys, supposedly anonymous but always structured (please provide department, age, sex, period of employment etc) so they know precisely who are the individual respondents.

HR here has a department of 4 for around 150 employees.
They are remarkably similar in appearance. Lithesome, attractive, impeccably well dressed.
They walk around the office, or more correctly between their offices and the GMs office much in the manner of preening Siamese cats.
They only shake their tails for the GM or the Directors. Indeed one is married to a Director, one is shacked up with another Director.
They aren’t adverse to querying “conflicts of interest” amongst any of the other staff. You need to admire their expertise and effrontery.

This is not in regard to serious matters of corporate governance or policy.

Mind you the best HR manager I every had had a saying “Just because I am in HR doesn’t mean I like people”. But with Robyn you always knew precisely where you stood.

Regardless of the technical difficulty involved, I wouldn’t trust them to sit on a toilet seat properly.

[Uncle_Brother_Walker]

TOTALLY! I had a job once where HQ was local, but then we got absorbed into an evil corporation 2 time zones away and the new HR lady and her troll minion were brought in. Prior to their arrival, I had a personal call (to a private conference room) with my remote supervisor. At the end of the call, my sup told me that out of all the offices nationwide, I was the top producer. Not one week later, the new HR lady pulled me into her office for “a conversation”. We spoke for a while, then she let me go back to work. The VERY NEXT DAY, when I arrived to work my shift, they blocked me at the reception desk and had my personal belongings from my desk in a box and told me I was fired. No explanation, no answers to my questions - just take your junk and get out. The story goes on from there and is still ongoing, but the takeaway is this: HR doesn’t care about people, they only care about the company.

[China_Guy]

Caveat Emptor. Just be very very very wary and there are some good exceptions.

Go to HR if doing so is going to stop a major lawsuit. AND only do so if you have photos. Circumstantial evidence does not count. Of course HR by nature is going to side with the big wig, and to be fair probably have countless experience with made up vendettas. So, you have to be bullet proof if the Exec VP is banging the intern. He said, she said will 99.9% come down on whomever is higher up the food chain.

As a last resort, you can throw yourself at the mercy of HR, but then you’ll be amongst the 1 percenters if that is helpful. A slightly higher probability of success is to threaten HR with a lawsuit, say a juicy scandulous sex tale or a really slam dunk age or sex discrimination.

But, no, to answer the OP, I trust HR about as much as I trust a cornered rabid animal to do me a solid.

[Saint_Cad]

@Czarcasm

Getting a little closer for listen in, I head them talking about what I had just discussed with HR, then the HR person said to my supervisor, “I’ve got to get back-Want to finish this talk at lunch? My treat!”

You should have walked in on them right then and there. Then ask for the HR rep’s manager immediately to discuss the breach of confidentiality.

Mrs. Cad experience was HR blaming her for her boss bullying her and sexual discrimination.
Mine has been HR lying to my face about policy.

[Voyager]

@China_Guy

Go to HR if doing so is going to stop a major lawsuit. AND only do so if you have photos. Circumstantial evidence does not count. Of course HR by nature is going to side with the big wig, and to be fair probably have countless experience with made up vendettas. So, you have to be bullet proof if the Exec VP is banging the intern. He said, she said will 99.9% come down on whomever is higher up the food chain.

Or if you have reason to believe that super high exec wants to get rid of just high exec, and giving them a reason to will be looked kindly on. But even then having pictures helps.

[Czarcasm]

But don’t give them the originals.

[msmith537]

@China_Guy

Caveat Emptor. Just be very very very wary and there are some good exceptions.

Go to HR if doing so is going to stop a major lawsuit. AND only do so if you have photos. Circumstantial evidence does not count. Of course HR by nature is going to side with the big wig, and to be fair probably have countless experience with made up vendettas. So, you have to be bullet proof if the Exec VP is banging the intern. He said, she said will 99.9% come down on whomever is higher up the food chain.

I thought that was just “frowned upon”?

I kind of wonder what sort of fucked up companies people work for here sometimes!

You should probably “trust” HR about as much as you trust the rest of your company. If you work for a company that allows jerkish behavior, HR is not going to be the “corporate cop” to step in. If your company takes that stuff seriously, then HR can be a useful ally.

[Odesio]

@msmith537

I thought that was just “frowned upon”?

My company doesn’t have any rules about sleeping with subordinates or coworkers. If you’re married to another employee, you can’t both be working under the same director but that’s about the only restriction.

@msmith537

You should probably “trust” HR about as much as you trust the rest of your company. If you work for a company that allows jerkish behavior, HR is not going to be the “corporate cop” to step in. If your company takes that stuff seriously, then HR can be a useful ally.

And that’s about the long and short of it. HR doesn’t drive company culture. If you have a bad corporate culture then HR is probably just going to a part of that bad culture.

[outlierrn]

My general perception of HR is that they are interested in protecting the company. That may include supporting staff to keep the union or state regulators off their back, or may include throwing staff under the bus for things that staff cannot control, you should act accordingly.

My personal experience with HR is that outright malevolence is a distinct possibility.