Human Resources
They're not there to assist workers - they're there to assist managers in building cases against workers to keep them in line or get them fired. They wear fake smiles and are always so interested in how you're doing. Fuck em, they exist to maintain the bureaucratic hierarchy that makes modern corporations so successful (at the expense of their workers' individuality and self-respect). If any of you lot work in HR, I apologize, but I've yet to meet an HR worker I like.
( AgentMuu hentai coordination, Sun 30 May 2010, 19:30, 13 replies)

Just out of interest.
Are you on the dole?
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sun 30 May 2010, 19:44, closed)

clicked
In my experience also; HR are at best accessories, helping others to break laws and ethics.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Sun 30 May 2010, 20:17, closed)

Clicko ditto
Two faced fuckers who wouldn't tell the truth if their miserable lives depended on it
(Sir Tainley Barking Ezekiel 23:20, Sun 30 May 2010, 21:03, closed)

Oh yes
and they'll refuse to give any "advice" other than verbally so that when you act on it and it all goes tits up, they'll deny everything...
(dxg, Sun 30 May 2010, 21:37, closed)

All departments have a sprinkling of cunts, but the only people I know who have an issue with HR in general are those who are not good employees. There are some bad HR folk out there for sure but I've met lots of really good ones too - the kind of people who will bend over backwards to assist you.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Sun 30 May 2010, 22:51, closed)

I respect your opinion
But I don't think I was bad for asking the company to honour their verbal promises of more contracted hours, for complaining about managers stealing cash from the staff, for being unhappy about being unfairly dismissed, for complaining about the fire doors being locked during trading hours. I've discussed this with impartial people, and had agreement these are not trivial matters.

Of course I tried to resolve these problems internally when possible; invoking HR was a later step. The sad facts are, I presented evidence: times, dates, names, things said, things done and things not done. There may have been a secret telling off of the manager, but nothing at all to put right the harm, not even recognition that I was doing the right thing.

It's possible, being a smaller company than the competition, that we collected the rejects blacklisted from more prestigious and better paying employers; that seemed to be the case manager-wise. I'm fairly certain that hefty slices of nepotism through the higher ranks didn't help impartiality or competence - it would be hard to rule in my favour against a manager who's in tight with the directors.

I further admit that I could sometimes have used different, more effective options; for example the H+S department might have been a better escalation to compel the managers to ditch the spurious security justification, and have the fire doors unlocked while the building is occupied. However, HR were stated to be the de facto option for problems; and I swallowed that line until it was too late.

In my experience, and over time I dealt with everyone in the department; was in line with the OP: HR are not there to help fix problems, but to get rid of the people who complain.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Mon 31 May 2010, 3:35, closed)

I'd never take a grievance to HR. They're the wrong people
as they represent the firm, not the workers.

I've always been a trades union member. That's where I go for advice about work. They're on my side.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 31 May 2010, 6:30, closed)

That
Sounds like a shocking HR team to be honest.

Any employee should be able to go to HR for help, and the HR team should stick up for the employee if the employee is in the right (which it sounds like you were)

Unfortunately being in HR I come across soooooo many people who just spend their working lives taking the piss, part of the jeremy kyle / new labour generation who believe they are entitled to a fat salary with no work, therefore HR time is spent with these people because at the end of the day if your colleague is swinging the lead then you are doing their work for them, and you don't get your pay rise/bonus because the company is paying their salary instead.

HR should crack down on idiots, but should also 100% support the good employees who do their job
( ogwen69 has returned from Reddit, Mon 31 May 2010, 9:40, closed)

"HR," a wise man once said, "are all overhead."

( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Mon 31 May 2010, 0:34, closed)

Amen!
The most cynical, duplicitous, preyers upon naive workers who believe the PR that HR is there to "help" -- they are there to keep the company, institution, etc. out of trouble. The flip side of doing eff-all to help workers is to watch how poorly they handle a genuinely bad and cunning employee--they faint away like mimosas and wait for everyone else to quit.
(Mrs.Fonebone, Mon 31 May 2010, 2:31, closed)

I always thought
it was the manager's job to deal with bad employees, with HR helping the manager to stay within the law. That's my experience anyway, and my expectation that managers manage.
(Smale is stuffed, Mon 31 May 2010, 8:26, closed)

Some managers are very good
Most are generally average

Some are utter shit

The very good ones are in the minority therefore
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Mon 31 May 2010, 22:23, closed)

All our HR
has been done away with. You might think that's a good thing, but it was replaced with a call centre who parrot out extremely badly-written policies without applying any insight or common sense, leading line managers into situations where they end up with grievances against them from their staff and an exponential increase in personal cases for union reps.
( uncle bastard is twanging a dan moi, Mon 31 May 2010, 13:15, closed)