To ask what your HR department are like?

[chxm19]

Honestly just curious.

Whenever I've had to deal with HR at my work I've had nothing but unpleasant experiences and generally find them to be very inconsiderate and unhelpful.

Got signed off work sick for anxiety and depression and got hounded when I finally went back as it "wasn't fair" on the rest of the team..

I am fully aware of how ridiculously overpaid HR is, thanks.

Ours have never won an employment tribunal. Not once. So now they resort to trying to bully people out of their jobs and just pay them off if they face a tribunal. It’s cheaper and less embarrassing than going to tribunal.

And still senior management seem to think those big salaries are worth it. It’s remarkable how incompetent you can get away with being.

I don't need to have myself a google. It isn't the case everywhere. Certainly here you would be on circa 35-45k at HRBP level but that's a fairly senior level post. Anyway, I'm not really sure what salary has to do with whether HR departments are typically shit.

The HR person we used to have at our company was useless. I asked her basic questions (would I get paid for my bank holidays I accrue during Mat leave) and every time I would wait WEEKS for a response and have to re-send the email or nag her in person. If I was similarly slow in my response I would be fired.

I don’t think she knew what she was doing. I wasn’t asking complicated questions and three women had recently had babies so she had gone through the whole maternity thing recently. Felt like I was the first person EVER to have a baby. They were also introducing a new mat bonus scheme that was mentioned to me MONTHS before I was due to give birth, but I asked for details and wasn’t given any. They finally presented the ‘deal’ to me three days before I gave birth.

No time to negotiate. I think they did it on purpose.

It was obvious her interested resided firmly with the company. But her poor communication skills were inexcusable imo. I get you’re waiting to speak to the powers that be, but bloody acknowledge my email(s)

I really like our HT colleagues. Be it during maternity time or when I applied to get my hours removed due to stress or to just deal with day to day stuff.

They are always happy to listen, may not be able to help always as yes, the company may have a different view of things but so far I never had my bad experience.

So, yes there are good ones out there.

NHS HR.. it's unreal how bad they are. Everything is done through a portal and you're lucky if you get a response back at all - they have to be completely hounded to even acknowledge you.

Arranging maternity and back to work stuff has been a nightmare and it still isn't over.

And before you say, ‘Jenny, you seem uncharacteristically angry and aggressive’ - yes, yes I am. I’ve seen HR ruin several people’s careers and in a couple of cases their lives through their dogmatic, inflexible, pigheaded approach to what they consider their responsibilities. None of it was necessary and even senior management have at times been taken aback. It makes me very angry. Not least the incredibly aggressive attitude they themselves always have. It’s like the bloody Spanish Inquisition. The only hope of avoiding it is to keep your head down and not attract their notice. It makes me so cross.

How very odd to think a whole profession is like that. ”the incredibly aggressive attitude they themselves always have”

Must be exhausting being angry at such a large group of people.

What’s exhausting is fighting to save the jobs of people our HR department fucks over.

The question was about our HR department so I’m citing that experience. Perhaps you’re kind and fluffy, who knows.

I'll say it again, HR is not about being kind and fluffy. If that's how you're measuring your HR dept no wonder they're falling short.

Agreed - HR is there to protect the organisation from its human resource!

If that’s directed at me then perhaps you’re not reading my posts.

Sometimes people need to leave - I know that. I’m not going to excuse every bit of unprofessional behaviour. But you don’t know our HR department so you can’t possibly say I’m wrong about my experience in this case.

As I said, touchy.

Our HR director is so unprofessional that she had an affair (very publically) with another director, then they both had a drug-fuelled punch up at a work night out and then she promoted her own son in to the organisation

Another HR guy that works underneath her is lovely and always trying to undo the shit she does

You lot choose to work in some crap places. 🙄

Where I work they seem to be very good, I have never had a real ‘problem’ but from what I hear they do seem to be much better than the ‘average’ HR dept (& I have worked in HR myself).

”It will only be a matter of time before an HR person comes on here and starts wanging on about all the hearts n flowers shit they do for their colleagues, mind you. Not only are they terrible, they’re also pretty thin skinned when it comes to criticism.”

Doesn’t read like you’re limiting your comments to your own department, but fair enough.

I’m not fluffy at all, no. You can’t be fluffy and good at HR at the same time. Or thin-skinned. I like to think I’m pretty competent, like most of the many HR professionals I come across are.

There are clearly incompetent HR people about, like any other job. But the ‘HR people are all useless and horrible’ threads appear more frequently than any other profession, and there is certainly a higher degree of sweeping generalisation than you tend to see with discussions about people in other jobs.

It’s just lazy and makes my eyes roll. But then I ignore the thread and hop back to Employment where I belong.

You know, being kind and competent both at the same time.

Absolute crap, it is one woman who cannot remember what the fuck she is doing!!!!

But the ‘HR people are all useless and horrible’ threads appear more frequently than any other profession

You obviously haven’t seen the hundreds of “doctors receptionists are all nosy useless wankers” threads then

I think the reason HR its this more than any other department though is because employees think HR is there to help them. It isn't. It's there to protect the organisation.

Awful! Always on the side of management!

Pretty useless and inefficient.

“Fighting to save the jobs HR fucks over”

Do you honestly think HR are the decision makers? It’s usually the senior management team......

You know what, my profession has some absolute shitheads in it. Some embarrassing, incompetent shitheads who do the rest of us no favours whatsoever. I hold my hands up to that. We’re embarrassed about them. We criticise them publicly. We apologise to the people they’ve screwed.

I’ve never encountered an HR person who can accept the same about their own profession. Never. Maybe MN users are different though

Axlcat - I’ve literally had line managers and senior managers ask me how they can stop our HR team in some cases. It’s totally bizarre. I wouldn’t believe it if some internet random posted that tbh so I don’t expect you to, but it’s true.

Fucking shite .

flowery well said