Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Cry me a friggin RIVER. HR is loathed by most people for good reason. You are every company's kneescraping lackeys and paper pushers. Utterly useless and a fiscal waste. Better to have a Director of Operations and ONE manager. Scrap the HR.
Get a life... and a serious career. Your tears are whining make me sick.
I am a long time lurker but never have posted on the City-Data board. I enjoy the HR bashing the most. So many times I wanted to register and fight for my career field but never got around to it.
My name is Alice and I work as a Human Resources Manager for a financial company of about 400 employees in Midtown Manhattan. I have been there one year after getting a Masters Degree in HR from Marymount University and experience as a HR Generalist.
NYC is one tough town but being a HR Manager is even tougher. The politics and criticism directed at me and my staff is incredible. They blame me for everything that is wrong with the company. Benefits, compensation rates, small holiday bonuses, layoffs, terminations of popular but incompetent employees, hiring of incompetent employees (that were selected by the manager not HR), aloof uncommunicative executives, and general bad morale.
I got my last performance appraisal and was blamed for most of these things. I told them it was out of my control, but was ignored.
What do you think, are the things above my fault as HR Manager?
HR Gal- It is sad to hear that your are constantly blamed for everything that's wrong with the company. No, not your fault. Who sets the tone, the culture, the vision, goals..etc. in the company? HR certainly doesn't. HR establishes its operating policies/procedures and carries them out based on guidelines provided by the CEO, the Board or COO, or the Founder...who also sets the tone, culture, vision, goals, sets the pay standards for everyone...or at least approves them, etc. If the operating guidelines provided or dictated by the execs are wrong to start with...then the company will likely fail. HR is just a cog in the wheel...not the wheel itself. Even if you are reponsible for pay setting...you do it based on the policies put out by top management. Compensation...the same. HR may recommend the appropriate compensation package...which is based on budget allocated and decided by management responsible for managing the company's resources. Who decides layoffs? You don't. You simply carry out orders from the top boss...the commander. And you are right, you don't hire incompetent employees....that's management's job. But HR is the one who makes sure that the candidates referred for selection are among the best qualified. Now if politics plays a role in this process...and some manager insists that you refer such and such applicant (whom the manager may personally know) regardless....and if you can't take it up to someone higher than that manager...and have to do it....annotate it...document it. That such person name requested by management does not meet the qualifications for the position. You're covered. It is unfortunate that you have to work in such corrupted environment.
In your defense...review all the policies pertaining to HR operations and if you find anything that's out of sync with employment legal/regulatory guidelines...annotate it. Document, document, document. Date, if possible, time that you received a mandate, and your take on it...whether it violates some regulation or law...or even company policy. The names of people (managers/others you discussed the matter with). Annotate anything that's being done that is not in compliance. Collaborate with, discuss with...your HR boss...if there is one. Unless you are the top boss in HR.
Even if your HR boss is in cahoots with the rest of the uncommunicative, aloof executives...it doesn't matter. You've done your job and documented everything. Bottom line is....document everything that you feel is not consistent with HR/employment laws, regulations or policies. For your own protection....so that when push comes to shove...you can defend yourself...in court, should it get to that point.
From what you described, you're working for a hopelessly sick company. I was going to suggest a number of ways to turn things around and make HR come out on the top...but if that's the general atmosphere throughout the company then it may be hopeless trying to salvage what's left. Time to abandon the sinking ship! You know what I mean. There are lots of HR jobs out there. You don't have to sink with the company...or wallow in the muck that it is in.
HR folks are widely disliked because embittered, desperate job seekers unable to land decent jobs (welcome to the 21st century) have a burning desire to cast the blame somewhere... HR can't hire them all, only make the best choice possible. Everyone (re: entitled folks among us) ASSUMES they are the best choice and hate anyone who thinks otherwise. Sorry, that's what it is, for the most part. However- I have interacted with some extraordinarily incompetent HR departments, but tellingly, they tend to be in the government sector. Interesting.
HR folks are widely disliked because embittered, desperate job seekers unable to land decent jobs (welcome to the 21st century) have a burning desire to cast the blame somewhere... HR can't hire them all, only make the best choice possible. Everyone (re: entitled folks among us) ASSUMES they are the best choice and hate anyone who thinks otherwise. Sorry, that's what it is, for the most part. However- I have interacted with some extraordinarily incompetent HR departments, but tellingly, they tend to be in the government sector. Interesting.
Not entirely. Except for the last part - that's true.
HR departments and their garbage "science" have made my job infinitely more difficult and expensive in the past 17 years. I've literally done the math - their bull**** and the disease ridden donkeys it rode in on have created expense loads that amount to close to $25 per FTE job in corporate America right now. All while slowing the hiring process and screening out otherwise good candidates. 5 years ago I fought for my division to pay them to stay away. Worked great - we went from 3 HR idiots to one moron paid to sit on her ass and open mail.
Still waiting for the day when HR does their job as defined in my Introduction to Human Resources Management course back in 2nd year. Probably gonna be waiting for a helluva long time.
Sounds like the chickens are coming home to roost. You make a living defending a company's position against employees and have the audacity to look for sympathy on a forum, really? Hope you are a troll because if your name truly is Alice and graduated from the college you claim, it won't be hard for your employer to find out you posted this complaint and fire you. A simple google of "alice human resource manager new york city marymount" is all it takes.
Sometimes I wish I was an accountant where I could just sit in a cubical and do my work and not talk to anyone or have anyone gossip about me or second guess me being an arm chair quarterback. In HR (where I am an a manager in charge of the whole function), there is always five or six ways to handle every problem and what ever solution you come up with, people will complain you made the wrong decision.
I am a long time lurker but never have posted on the City-Data board. I enjoy the HR bashing the most. So many times I wanted to register and fight for my career field but never got around to it.
My name is Alice and I work as a Human Resources Manager for a financial company of about 400 employees in Midtown Manhattan. I have been there one year after getting a Masters Degree in HR from Marymount University and experience as a HR Generalist.
NYC is one tough town but being a HR Manager is even tougher. The politics and criticism directed at me and my staff is incredible. They blame me for everything that is wrong with the company. Benefits, compensation rates, small holiday bonuses, layoffs, terminations of popular but incompetent employees, hiring of incompetent employees (that were selected by the manager not HR), aloof uncommunicative executives, and general bad morale.
I got my last performance appraisal and was blamed for most of these things. I told them it was out of my control, but was ignored.
What do you think, are the things above my fault as HR Manager?
That's why it is called "Human Resources"; in essence, you get paid to be blamed for everything. I have some experience in it; however, I did mostly payroll. I had people whine to me about their payroll, and there were policies that had to be followed. If they failed to follow those policies, they would be told to "stop whining and follow the policies so we avoid these conflicts". I would be forced to investigate, and fix the issues as needed. You are responsible for taking all complaints from internal customers. Did you investigate the issues, especially when multiple people were complaining about the same issue? I only had to go to HR one time to file a complaint against an unethical, dishonest manager. Normally, you can decipher which problems are legitimate, and which problems are just whiny employees. I do not have the personality to do HR, although I interview candidates from time to time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Probably gonna be waiting for a helluva long time.
