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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 guess your evidence is probably anecdotal ??

    Certainly not my experience of HR, although mine is probably less than some.

    My 1st job in HR, the CEO , asked me how much we would need to run and develop our own in house training. I can't remember how I worked it out - probably a combination of guesstimates & wishful thinking, got me a training budget of £100,000 which was a little more than the figure I'd estimated without a further comment, and that was 25 years ago - the cost of a nice house then!!  I always felt I had as much influence whilst in  HR as anyone else - and some times a lot, lot more.  Not once since did I ever think I was second best or down the pecking order when it came to working in HR.

    Any job is what you make it. I've learned that by making lots of mistakes - and taking risks too, and  learning that its what YOU do that makes a job better - or worse.

    Pessimists moan. Optimists don't -= Perhaps you're listening to the wrong folk.?

    You can't change others - but you can change your own behaviour & attitude to get the outcomes you want!.

    Its only worth challenging others if you can convince the person you are challenging that their view is incorrect. If you challenge someone whose view, based on experience, is that "Its always the same in HR"; then you are wasting your time.

    One more thought.  You'll never ever get anywhere in a company if you keep your head in your own office.  Get out, find out what the company makes or does and learn how it does it until you know enough about it to start using your own skills and knowledge to influence things for the better.  HR, shouldn't be done from a bubble.

    Good luck!

  • in reply to David Perry

    I've loved and hated every job I've done - there are good times and bad times everywhere

    In addition to the sound advice from David I would also say that HR only ever gets its place at the management table if it can demonstrate that it can add value to the company that others around the table cannot add. That means that in addition to being excellent at our speciality we also must acquire a thorough understanding of how the company actually works and how it makes money.

    Given what we do, we are one of the rare functions that permanently interacts with the totality of the operating and functional activities of a company - a fantastic opportunity to get to grips with how the company really works on a day to day basis. Once we understand these functions we need to learn to speak their language (marketing isn't finance, finance isn't engineering) and their preoccupations within the specific  context of our company. Only then can we start to contribute to delivering what is really needed and gain the confidence of these other that we are not only adding something but that we are talso aking into account their different contexts.

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  • in reply to David Perry

    I've loved and hated every job I've done - there are good times and bad times everywhere

    In addition to the sound advice from David I would also say that HR only ever gets its place at the management table if it can demonstrate that it can add value to the company that others around the table cannot add. That means that in addition to being excellent at our speciality we also must acquire a thorough understanding of how the company actually works and how it makes money.

    Given what we do, we are one of the rare functions that permanently interacts with the totality of the operating and functional activities of a company - a fantastic opportunity to get to grips with how the company really works on a day to day basis. Once we understand these functions we need to learn to speak their language (marketing isn't finance, finance isn't engineering) and their preoccupations within the specific  context of our company. Only then can we start to contribute to delivering what is really needed and gain the confidence of these other that we are not only adding something but that we are talso aking into account their different contexts.

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