No Wonder They Hate HR: And This Ain’t Gonna Help!
We have all been hearing for a long time that lots of people despise HR; here at George’s Employment Blawg, we have followed these developments in great detail.
George in particular did a lot of writing about an article that appeared in Fast Company in August of 2005 on this topic (go here) and I wrote about some ways to reduce some of the negative feelings held by top management regarding HR (go here).
Now, a former HR executive has written a book entitled “Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know,” that attempts to share what appears to be the “truth” about human resources!
It doesn’t, according to one writer, appear to be a very glamorous view of HR. According to one review of the book, here are some of the HR secrets your company does not want you to know:
- Managers have a “blacklist” of which employees they are eager to get rid of if there is a layoff; some of the factors that get you on this list are not even legal, as far as I can tell, such as you have taken a medical leave recently or filed a worker’s compensation claim;
- Work-life balancers are more likely to get fired than midnight-oil burners;
- But, as you may have always suspected, the author argues that human resources is not to be trusted by employees — the author suggests you don’t share personal information with HR. And don’t go first to HR to solve any work-related problems — talk to your boss first.
I haven’t read the book. Based on the article about this book, it isn’t going to make HR look any better.
Expect “why we hate HR even more” articles to appear next.
I can anecdotally vouch for this – I went to HR just once for advice – and the next thing I knew, I’m on a conference call being asked if I want to resign.
It’s not that HR doesn’t want to be compliant – it’s that they rarely have any power. Managers implicated in wrongdoing aren’t looking to be fair, they are pressuring HR to come up with the least risky wway to fire you.
I’ve known a lot of HR folks in my career, and their actions on the job are far different than their words after they’ve left the company.
Like the Fast Company article, the problem starts with the executives, and HR is the easy target.
I’ve read this book and it is a heart stopper! I read it cover-cover one sitting and couldn’t put it down. it’s compelling, scary, but also incredibly inspirational. I feel like I see my career in an entirely different light now. The website for it is http://www.CorporateConfidential.com and has all kinds of terrific resources. This little book is truly a life/career changer. How many things can you say that about?