• Replies 33 replies
  • Subscribers 20 subscribers
  • Views 22081 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

How are you all doing?

Steve Bridger

The tweet below prompted me to ask this question. You are so busy. You may be feeling undervalued.  

It has been two years since Samantha asked this question, which generated a wonderfully open and supportive conversation days before the first lockdown.

 Are any other HR people feeling a bit lonely in all this :( 

So much has happened since then and while in some ways the pandemic accelerated a pre-exisiting direction of travel with regards remote working and technology, so much was new - not least 'furlough', which we were all talking about here. But there have also been deep structural changes and challenges - for example, in recruitment and retention. Now many of you are considering how you can support employees through the cost-of-living crisis. 

Amid all this, we need to look after ourselves and support one another - our peers. 

So... how are you doing?

  _

Parents
  • Nicolas. I totally agree and have that same experience. I am sorry you feel the way you do. it's been hard for sure. HR is expected to be Jack of all trades and I have got to the point where I feel master of none. There is an expectation that we can have the biggest impact on our staff wellbeing, and we do loads even before the pandemic hit, but it seems the more we do the more people expect us to make their world better. Whilst we can to a point, the workplace cannot be the be all and end all..individuals have to take responsibility. As a team of one strategic, one advisor and a part time admin to 340 employees in a challenging work environment with Govt passing down their ever changing decrees, it is tough. I myself no longer want to be an HR practitioner because it feels to me that whatever I do for our staff, there is no acceptance or understanding that I, and my team, are human too and the ETs that I read up on every day leave me and my colleagues unsupported almost always falling on the side of the employee. What happened to the need to be able to run a business. When will common sense come into some of these outcomes. I feel sad that I am giving up a job I loved but I can't keep giving of myself at the level I have been doing. Its been a tough decision to make. I feel for all my HR colleagues and hope that you are able to take steps to look after yourselves in the coming weeks, months.
  • in reply to Wendy Perry
    I know exactly what you mean, Wendy. With the cost of living rises, I find myself spending more and more time deeply concerned about people who are off on long term sick leave - I have a number who are really struggling financially as they've exhausted company sick pay and SSP and I spend as much time talking to them about other sources of support as I do about managing their absence and trying to find a way back to work for them. I feel exhausted from trying to help them - they view me as some sort of counsellor/social worker/problem solver who should be able to fix everything for them and I feel like I'm letting them down when I can't.
Reply
  • in reply to Wendy Perry
    I know exactly what you mean, Wendy. With the cost of living rises, I find myself spending more and more time deeply concerned about people who are off on long term sick leave - I have a number who are really struggling financially as they've exhausted company sick pay and SSP and I spend as much time talking to them about other sources of support as I do about managing their absence and trying to find a way back to work for them. I feel exhausted from trying to help them - they view me as some sort of counsellor/social worker/problem solver who should be able to fix everything for them and I feel like I'm letting them down when I can't.
Children
No Data