Whose Side Are You On? The Perils of HR
Posted
8:21 PM
by Michael Fox
I have often said that being a front line supervisor is the
most difficult job in today's workplace. I think that is still true for a
specific position. But if there is a department that is fraught with
peril, it has to be the Human Resources group.
The points Green makes, that HR knows things they can't tell
you, that their job is to support the managers of the company not employees, to
list just two, are true, but point up
one of the problems for HR in the modern world.
Too often, the constituency that they are asked to serve is
not made clear, or at least not explicitly so. Is HR an employee advocate,
looking out for the interests of the employees? Maybe, and clearly that has a
role, but in reality, the responsibility is more often in support of
management, although that support often comes in the form of being the
compliance policeman.
This topic certainly deserves a lot more attention than this
brief post. Until this issue is resolved at any
particular company, HR will forever be sentenced to a very unhappy existence.