HR departments see employees as the enemy

Unions can be very helpful in bridging the gap between HR corporate speak and the employee. I don't mean to badmouth HR really, they work incredibly hard.

“I have had trouble before but always been strongly supported by my union “
Unions, in my experience, very rarely refuse to support a member. I dismissed a member of staff once for sexually abusing a disabled student. The regional union official phoned me to ask if a “slap on the wrist” could be considered rather than dismissal. He had the equivalent of a two word response. “Four legs good, two legs bad” is never the right approach.

“HR are there for the interests of the employer.”
Every thread re HR we see this hackneyed bullshit. Every employee is there in the interests of the employer, otherwise no one would have a job.

Like many functions within organisations, there is good HR and there is bad HR. But ultimately, HR IS about doing what is best for the overall business. It might well be that in a company that cares less about employee happiness and more about revenues, getting rid of a bullying and incompetent manager is less of a priority than allowing that bullying and incompetent manager to continue to achieve good financial results.

I have a number of friends in very senior HR roles, and in my professional life I've had to deal with HR people fairly often. And what I find from the good ones is that they a) are attracted to companies that genuinely want a good approach to their employees and b) they have the ability and interest in doing the negotiating, consulting, strategising that will ensure that the business is functioning well without negatively impacting the people.

I have one global client with a known issue with HR in London. And it all comes down to the local senior leadership team who are complete wankers. As a result, HR is universally hated. Their last few head of HRs in London have left after no more than 2 years and I hear via the grapevine that it's almost impossible for them to hire now because they've got such a bad reputation.

Surely you can't generalise in this way? I had amazing support from HR was I was made ill with stress at work. I appreciate that they were probably primarily concerned that the University needed to avoid breaking the law, but the person I dealt with was extremely kind to me.

Thanks - not inexperienced at making these records, following policy and keeping thorough notes. However we've recently had new HR staff who seem terrified of the employees as a collective, so as a result the tail has begun to wag the dog. It's quite demoralising for the staff as well as us.

There are some really good HR people out there and some who are less good.

I have had to point out the law on reasonable adjustments to a few.

(No, you can't discipline me for being ill in hospital).

It’s actually simple if you do it properly. There are processes and evidence needed and in my experience anges do not keep records of conversations and poor performance therefore making it a huge risk for an employment tribunal. Do it properly and fairly and you can dismiss within a reasonable timeframe

Having worked for 44 years I’ve seen all sorts and have never come across any HR dept or Manager that has EVER had the best interests of the employee at heart. They are basically at the beck and call of the company owners or CEO etc.

This is why every working person in this country should be in a Trade Union.

At best the HR people I know (at my current job) are friendly and listen, at worst they have no power at all to make any HR decisions. They are also prone to gossip, the biggest single thing that removes any trust that any of us have in them. God knows what they do all day, a team of 5 for a company with 125 employees.

Same here, HR forcing us managers to prop up really poorly performing employees. It seems close to impossible to actually dismiss anyone or even get as far as disciplinary action.

I once got summoned to HR for not going to work during a snow storm (despite me informing my supervisor by phone as per company rules), as another person in the village had made it in ( she didn't live at the bottom of a very steep un -gritted hill). Imagine the look on the HR person's face when I pointed out the section in the company's own hand book that stated " if you feel it is not safe to drive during bad weather then DO NOT attempt to do so. Others may feel differently but it is up to you to use your own judgment". I asked why I was being disciplined for following the company's own guidance. The matter was swiftly dropped.

Oh stop it. HR professionals often have law or psychology degrees. It's not a simple role. It's not full of dullards even if you've had issues.

If you’ve had a lot of dealings with HR in every job perhaps they’re not the entire problem.

Have you tried contacting ACAS? I’d also suggest joining a union if you’re not in one already.

Bit like recruitment.

HR departments are not there for the benefit of the employees. Their function isto make sure the employer doesn't get sued. The employee very much is the enemy. The HR department is doing its job correctly if the employees receive all of their benefits that they are unambiguously fully entitled to and get as little as possible in excess of that.

If you can prove that you definitely have the right to something you aren't getting then go ahead and prove it.

I always think it's the opposite - employees see HR as the enemy!

People think HR are there to look after staff. Bollocks. Never forget who pays their wages. They are there to keep the drones in line

I was once in a job [quite high level in a civil service role] which they decided to make the department redundant. I had 2 redundancy meetings with a member of HR and my manager. Meanwhile I was seconded to another role which was still in play when the rest of my department had gone.

When it came to me being made redundant they pretended that I did not have a permanent role, wasn't being made redundant that this was just the end of a timed contract.

I mean, we had meetings which were still in the diary, at their request entitled 'Redundancy Meeting'.

Fuckwits the lot of them.

I once sat in with another team member at another place, when I had to stop a disciplinary meeting and tell the HR Consultant that what they were doing in the meeting was actually illegal and I couldn't sit in there and let them screw over my colleague for one second longer. I marched her out and she never went back.

Hilariously they tried to withold her last month's wages and ended up paying her twice.

Fuckwits the lot of them.

It's because they are not there to help employees. The role of HR is to protect the organisation from employees.

my experience of private sector HR has been as has been stated above, that they are first and foremost for the employer and so I’ve expected every dealing with them to be framed in such a way. Having worked in a sector where there was lots of restructuring and downsizing, my feeling was it must be either a depressing job or one where a good skill to have is to be able to compartmentalise well. I know work in the public sector and haven’t had much dealing with HR but know one of the team quite well - very pragmatic, kind and compassionate.

I cannot speak on all HR professionals, however, I can attest NHS ones are bad. Although, their job is to protect the employer. They often make bad decisions, which has impact on the employer. Tribunal cases are a prime example.

I left the NHS due to bullying and totally incompetent management and HR.

“HR are there for the interests of the employer.”
Every thread re HR we see this hackneyed bullshit. Every employee is there in the interests of the employer, otherwise no one would have a job. The “interests” of the employer are generally broad. For the purposes of HR those interests can equally include addressing, for example, incompetent and/or bullying managers as much as it might include dealing with under-performing staff. Of course there are bad HR staff, but I’m unaware of any occupation that doesn’t have its share of twats.

Most are very much on the side of the employer.

However I have come across a tiny handful who are very good and want everything done by the book so it is fair to both employees and management. Our head of HR seems like a good egg.