To think that this is the best ever sign that the HR department has lost its way!

[OnlyTheDepthVaries]

DH works for a large company. Last week he had to email his HR department asking them to change some personal information. He received this as the automatic response:
"Thank you for contacting People Services. A Support Advisor will reach out to you shortly."

Reach out?? Reach out?? Are they completely mad?? What is wrong with "contact you "?
Should I expect The Four Tops to arrive singing on my doorstep?
Surely this is utter drivel at its best.
Incidentally, this was 4 days ago - they have yet to reach out to him. Good thing it wasn't that important

[EveryoneElsie]

Why did Personnel go out of fashion? Human Resources was bad enough, but People Services? FFS.

[annandale]

I'm on a lot of Facebook groups for my profession with many American members, the advice when someone's had a whinge about a colleague is usually to 'reach out' to them. I'm sure I will find myself typing it some day soon. It's always nice to read a few whinge threads on MN where the advice will be 'they're a twat, ignore them'. I have to turn my sarcasm and bile dials to zero to post on those pages.

[JuxtapositionRecords]

Oh god. I'm so ashamed to admit this but I used the term 'reach out' in an email the other day. I don't know how it happened, it just fell out of my fingers when I was typing!

I'm turning into one of them aren't I

[Mistigri]

If our HR ever use "stakeholder" to me I might find myself tempted to actually hold a stake, and point it menacingly in their direction.

My boss rang me last week to say that the acting head of HR for our division had contacted him to find out who was dealing with my annual payrise (I work for a different subsidiary, but we are part of the same division). My boss wondered if I had any idea ...

[aginghippy]

If they are not American, they have no excuse. It's just utter twatism.

[Pipbin]

I complained about 'reach out' on here a while ago.

People tried to tell me that it was only used when people were contacting someone who needed emotional support.
It really has become a phrase to mean 'contact' hasn't it.

[Balletgirlmum]

I work in personnel & payroll. It's a medium size family company. We arn't changing the name anytime soon!

[EveryoneElsie]

JuxtapositionRecords Its not too late. Get help. We are here for you.

[Temporaryanonymity]

This is brilliant. I've worked in HR for years and have always hated the name of our function.

I've been told often that I'm not normal HR. I shall take that as a compliment and carry on doing what I am doing.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

People Services is pretty old hat now, first came across it in 1997 at the now defunct Birmingham Midshires Building Soc
At some point payroll became known as 'Reward' because the nitty griity operational/admin stuff was outsourced while the policy ie how much to pay etc(usually remained in-house.)
Rare now for companies to have an 'in-house' payroll dept.

[OublietteBravo]

I have a horrible feeling that the 'official' name for our HR department is currently 'People Link'

We still have Payroll though.

[Oakmaiden]

I prefer People Services to Human Resources, to be honest. Human Resources seems to me to reduce people to the status of a pencil - just a resource to be used...

[IceRoadDucker]

The (insert name of project) group or team. I would never use "stakeholder"

But stakeholders are often not part of the project group or team. They're more distant from the project but still have a stake in it.

[AugustaFinkNottle]

But I was directed to a big study recently that found people respond better to "reach out" rather than "contact you" or the alternatives, so it looks like it's here to stay.

I strongly suspect that that was a US study, and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't entirely independent. With one exception (someone working in a US company) I've never come across anyone in the UK who thought it anything other than utterly ridiculous.

If you are organising a workshop to, let's say, start requirements gathering for a new CRM installation - how would you describe that group?

The CRM group. Or the CRM workshop. Under no circumstances would it be "the CRM stakeholders".

[Mistigri]

I've never heard "people services" before.

Have yet to be "reached out" to by anyone at my work, but DH who is self-employed gets "reached out to" every day, usually by project managers who are desperate to place jobs below the market rate. It makes him instantly suspicious - I'd go so far as to say that a British person of my age would probably feel that anyone who "reached out" to them was being condescending or insincere or both.

[wasonthelist]

rare now for companies to have an 'in-house' payroll dept
No it isn't.

[AuntJane]

My employer has offices in three cities. They recently asked staff to come up with a sentence based on ten buzzwords describing what "engagement" means to the company. All staff would then be asked to vote on the submissions, and the winner will be used going forward.

Each office has a monthly meeting with at least one member of the Executive Board where the Exec explains what's happened in the last .month. The vote on the "engagement" sentence was to happen at these meetings.

The meeting in my city was cancelled with less than three hours notice because the only available Exec was ill. No meeting, no feedback, no "engagement" vote - and nothing rescheduled as yet.

My office is not feeling "engaged".

[wasonthelist]

Buzzword bonus there for

......and the winner will be used going forward

[JuxtapositionRecords]

Bullshit Bingo

[SwedishEdith]

At least Human Capital is straight to the point about what you/we are to them.

I'm surprised no-one's a curator yet.

Do HR teams ever get smaller?

[skankingpiglet]

I know someone whose job title used to be 'Regional People Person'. They seemed to have to deal with a lot of redundancies, so not really a person of the people! (albeit because of their job and company, they are actually lovely) The 'regional' part was accurate though.

[ABetaDad1]

"Reach Out"

This has to be an American company. I watch US business TV lot and they use it a lot.

I have always firmly believed HR departments should stick to payroll, sending out employment contracts and dealing with sundry admin. Its a clerical job.

[Chewbecca]

Reaching out is very common in my huge organisation now too. I think people think it sounds softer and less demanding than just to ask someone for some info.

I do think stakeholders has a place though. It's not just about me/my team. It makes you consider who are all the interested people in the project/issue/change etc, you need to make sure everyone relevant is aware/on board or whatever you need. So to recognise the list of stakeholders is a good thing I think.

[OublietteBravo]

I've come across the job title of 'Deal Architect' at work. I've no idea what such people are supposed to do though...

[Thumbcat]

I had to stop watching Elementary because of the over use of the term 'reach out'. It's just so horribly touchy feely.