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Fellow HR folk – are you happy?

Maria

I’ve made some bleak observations recently with certain key trends coming through:

  • HR professionals (especially at mid and senior levels) are “open for new opportunities” on LinkedIn although more often than not they have only started their recent role in 2018 or 2017 (I saw this via recruiter licence)
  • A phrase I keep hearing from my more experienced peers and leaders is “Well it’s always the same in HR” or “That’s HR for you” on things like always being managed by Finance for some reason (i.e. Finance knows nothing about HR but always has the final say, and everyone in Finance is paid higher than HR), having to go with bad management decisions, being actively disliked by all employees for bizarre reasons, getting silly comments like “Oh HR is here I better shut up” when you’re trying to have lunch
  • Managers not owning up to any unpopular decision making and blaming everything on HR “HR said you couldn’t get more money”, “I gave person X more money 2 years ago and now person Y is peed off, but HR didn’t make the right decision then” etc
  • HR always being bottom of the pile for any budget decisions or pay rises, always the scapegoats, last in line, first in, last out “because that’s HR for you”

These are depressing. They happen over and over. You change a workplace and history repeats itself. My HR friends are not happy, my HR colleagues always muddle through, every week is a power struggle, politics everywhere, everyone is complaining all the time (staff, that is). We take crap from anyone and everyone every day. You never win or get any credit. Is it just me?

I am aware of the need to build up resilience, I am aware that I am not here to make friends, rather my mission is to make the organisation a better place to work and support our leaders with their decision making. Yes. The work is never easy, especially the higher you move in HR and I have felt it for a while. But do you ever get to enjoy it? What is rewarding about it to you? The rewards seem so scarce and precious sometimes, that it’s easy to lose sight of them in the daily struggle.

My questions are…

Does anyone feel the same?

Does it get better? If it doesn’t what do you do?

Is it the same in any other profession (in terms of degree of difficulty and emotional impact) and I am just blindsided by HR?

Have you worked in an environment where you truly were prepared to stay for years and enjoyed the role and the organisation (in HR)? Or is this unrealistic? (reference to all HR people already looking for a new job even though they started this year)

Any tips on raising own morale?

Is it worth challenging the phrases around “I know it’s not fair but it’s always the same in HR” if they are said to me in 3 different workplaces in a row?

Parents
  • I too am in the fortunate position of being able to say that I love my job. I have had a couple of chances to move into other fields. I did a few years in sales during which I reached a management position, but I moved back to HR (with a degree of difficulty, having been out of the field for a few years) because I get much more satisfaction out of it than I did from sales. Some years after that I did an MBA. Many people use an MBA to bridge into other functions but once again I chose to stick with HR.

    My LinkedIn profile says I am open to opportunities. That doesn't mean I have the slightest intention of moving, just that I want to know what's out there.

    I get so much more satisfaction out of HR than any other function (and I've also had IT, Facilities and Finance report to me) because my work and the work of my team makes a real, tangible difference to the working lives of our staff. HR gives you a vantage point to survey the whole of the organisation and a reason to get to know and understand the whole organisation. Although I don't want to fire-fight all the time, I have to admit that I sometimes enjoy that feeling of jumping in when a crisis bubbles up - I enjoy it when a manager gets into a real muddle and can't see the way out, and I can come in like the cavalry to save the day. I like being part of the planning process. I like problem-solving. I enjoy keeping up with academic research and translating it into practical action that helps the organisation to run more efficiently.

    There are all sorts of stereotypes about HR (Human Remains) but there are about Finance (bean counters) and most other functions. It does irk me to see HR misrepresented on TV:

    "Celia Imrie as Philippa Moorcroft
    The scatty and disorganised manager of the Human Resources department, having apparently landed the job because she was having an affair with the factory manager, Mr Michael, who she refers to as Mikey. Her well-meaning attempts to relieve the dinnerladies' stress or help them in their personal lives generally have the opposite effect: in the first episode, she tries to organise Scottish country dancing sessions." en.wikipedia.org/.../Dinnerladies_(TV_series)

    We have to keep on upholding our own standards, behaving like professional business people so that our colleagues think that their HR person is different, their HR person is an ally and a support that helps them get the job done.
  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    Hi Elizabeth,

    I agree with you about the HR stereotypes in TV programmes, but Celia Imrie in Dinnerladies still makes me laugh!
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