Raise your hand: who is fed up with HR?
Maybe you’re irritated by the endless stream of messages and forms, many of which need to be filled out ASAP. Maybe you’re irritated by human resources (HR), which never seems to run out of new initiatives, not all of which are necessary or particularly wise, in your opinion. Or maybe you have a problem with management and don’t trust the HR reps to actually help you. They’re nice, sure, but they’re paid by the job. In a crisis, it’s easy to see whose side they’re on.
Human resources departments are a nuisance to many employees and executives, and they seem to have more detractors than ever since the pandemic. That’s when HR began administering rules around remote work and pay transparency, programs to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, and everything else that’s shaken up and changed the workplace over the past four years.
But if the HR department is bugging you, here’s a fact that might console you in a somewhat ironic way: You’re not as irritated or depressed as the people who work in HR.
That’s the takeaway from Unleash, the annual three-day conference held this year at Caesars Forum, a massive convention center near the Las Vegas Strip. The May event brought together about 4,000 HR professionals from around the world. The conference was billed as a place where “the world’s HR leaders come to do business and hear inspiring stories.”
Rather, it was a place where HR professionals came to complain.
“It’s all an obstacle course,” said Kyle Lagunas, a former HR executive at General Motors who now works at Aptitude Research, an HR consulting firm in Boston. He had just finished a lively presentation on HR technology to an audience of about 50 people. He sat down in the press room set aside for this purpose and began to expound on the maddening challenges of managing human resources during and after the turbulence of the pandemic.
“For years we fought the fire with cans of gasoline. And now here we are, having literally given everything we could, and they say, ‘Oh, thanks for everything, but – and here’s the censored version – go fuck yourself.’ Don’t work too hard for me… I’m the business and you’re HR.”
More notes to come
Part of the frustration comes from the fact that post-COVID-19 office behavior has become decidedly less polite, meaning HR is being called in far more often to mediate conflicts. Everyone at Unleash has had a story about explaining basic etiquette to sassy, rude, or vulgar coworkers. No, you can’t microwave fish for lunch. And don’t clip your toenails at your desk.
Do not bring firearms to the office.
HR knows that employees and managers are annoyed by their grades, by their processes, by anything that interrupts life as it was. When an email goes out encouraging everyone to take that 45-minute online tutorial on, say, data security, HR can almost hear the eyebrows furrowing.
That said, don’t expect an apology. The consensus at Unleash is that most of these new ideas—greater diversity, for example—or standardized workplace assessments are designed to make the workplace more equitable.
So you have to get used to the memos.
Also, while you’re complaining, get used to human capital management software. A recent article by Business Insidertitled “Everyone Hates Workday ” asked why half of the Fortune 500 companies were using this particular software — which manages benefits and recruiting and facilitates pay equity analysis — even though it creates “a mountain of work for everyone.”
It’s not the software’s fault, HR veterans say. It’s your company’s fault, for failing to set it up wisely or train you adequately. Workday and other software of the same kind are here to stay.
Very high turnover rate
Mostly, though, the tone at Unleash was relaxed and friendly. Attendees exchanged ideas and bonded over lectures, meals, and cocktails held after work hours. They received gifts like stuffed ferrets donated by a social-media filtering company called Ferretly. They ate chocolate-dipped “veggie” waffles. They watched a competition-style Shark Tank between five young technology shoots linked to human resources, all in the running for a check of 50,000 US dollars.
In a less formal setting, participants complained about low wages, low retention and increasing workloads. One spoke of work-induced depression. Participants were particularly concerned about artificial intelligence, which appears set to take over recruitment jobs.
Many HR executives have left the industry in recent years or are looking for better opportunities. In 2022, LinkedIn found that HR turnover was the highest of all jobs it tracks.
“Everyone hates us,” said Hebba Youssef, chief human resources officer at Workweek, which produces a podcast and newsletter for human resources professionals called I Hate It Here (I hate this place). Some of the articles published include “Why Does HR Feel So Lonely?” and “Everyone hates their job, right?”
Mme Youssef particularly laments employees’ distrust of HR. It’s discouraging, she says, because most people get into the field to be helpful. “HR tends to be very compassionate and empathetic. But a lot of employees see us as the representatives of evil.”
This article was published in the New York Times.
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