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Is your HR job making you miserable?

Steve Bridger

Last month we were discussing What key challenges are you currently facing in your role? 

One of you mentioned "the impossibility of balancing different priorities, when you have a genuine desire to do the right thing by the people you work with. I've always chosen to work in a relatively small organisation, so I'm close to the people whose jobs I support. For the first time, I'm thinking that I'd like a bit of distance!" (Which, incidentally, reminds me of this thread from the archive...)
Should HR have employees as Facebook 'Friends'?

Another community member said, "...with so much change in the business, it's so difficult to keep everyone feeling safe and secure, informed to the right level."

I know that so many of you find this Community a comfortable space to share your highs and lows with your peers, but it's almost two years to the day that I asked How are you all doing? after the worst of the pandemic.

We have been talking about this NYT article at CIPD this week... which has prompted me to ask that question again: how are you all doing?

So, Human Resources Is Making You Miserable?

HR managers... say that since the pandemic, the job has become an exasperating ordeal. “People hate us,” one said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/03/business/human-resources-professionals-workplace.html

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  • Ooof, so much to unpack here.

    I know everyone's perspective will vary, but I personally don't correlate "challenges" with being unhappy at work. Sure, some aspects are challenging because I really don't want to do them, but for the most part I think creativity, ingenuity etc. are forged in challenging situations, and I generally love a good challenge for that.

    If the core elements of your job role - i.e. HR - are making you unhappy, then leave. It's clearly not for you. I think it's more likely, however, that it's the business or industry that is making people unhappy.

    The quote from the NYT article, "People hate us", really needs to be viewed in a bigger context. Over the last 10 years, in various businesses, I have had to dismiss people, terminate contractors agreements, run large scale redundancies, discipline etc. etc. as most of us have had to do. I can count on one hand the number of people I feel genuinely disliked ME. The vast, vast majority of people understand you are there to perform a role, and if you are respectful and empathetic, people understand. They might not like the business for it, they might not like the situation, but they don't really hate you.

    A business that treats employees poorly, has a toxic culture and so on, will not exclude HR from the poor treatment.
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  • Ooof, so much to unpack here.

    I know everyone's perspective will vary, but I personally don't correlate "challenges" with being unhappy at work. Sure, some aspects are challenging because I really don't want to do them, but for the most part I think creativity, ingenuity etc. are forged in challenging situations, and I generally love a good challenge for that.

    If the core elements of your job role - i.e. HR - are making you unhappy, then leave. It's clearly not for you. I think it's more likely, however, that it's the business or industry that is making people unhappy.

    The quote from the NYT article, "People hate us", really needs to be viewed in a bigger context. Over the last 10 years, in various businesses, I have had to dismiss people, terminate contractors agreements, run large scale redundancies, discipline etc. etc. as most of us have had to do. I can count on one hand the number of people I feel genuinely disliked ME. The vast, vast majority of people understand you are there to perform a role, and if you are respectful and empathetic, people understand. They might not like the business for it, they might not like the situation, but they don't really hate you.

    A business that treats employees poorly, has a toxic culture and so on, will not exclude HR from the poor treatment.
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