Tuesday, April 6, 2010

HR Canibalism - why do we eat our own?

I recently read in Harvard Business Review about the dangers of envy in the workplace. Along with that there are the deadly sins of sloth (nobody's watching so why do more), greed (only I can have control), and corporate politics (talk the talk, walk the walk, tow the line). These all lead to a perceived scarcity of success resources. Envy causes negative competition. While one HR is promoted and busy learning, the colleagues that didn't get the job are revving up the bus in front of the operators. The negatives and nasty eat away at the parties involved and any coworkers stuck watching. Sloth is that passive-agressive sort of situation. If that person keeps doing all of these extras, they will raise the bar. Let's take shots at them in front of the operators to keep the standard low. Sloths often run in packs with a leader skilled in sniping. Next, there is greed. Anyone that knows the systems, processes, legal info, techno-jargon or other specific stuff and doesn't share. When you go to them they make a public show out of pointing out to the operators how simple everything you asked really is (you know, deciphering Relativity and splicing genes). Nothing equals their joy in making others look bad through lack of communication. Finally, there is corporate politics. The political folks that follow the path of PC, buzzword conformance and work from the vantage of the popular kids in school. The ability to point out to the operators how their HR colleagues are uncouth and not ready for prime time is irresistible and used liberally. Doesn't HR have enough of an image problem without denegrating each other to the rest of the company. This doesn't even cover how we treat fellow HR professionals as candidates for openings in our companies. Just cut it out. It doesn't play well regardless of your position or department. We run into enough jerks between the grocery store and our commute to last a lifetime, so grow up and be a decent human being. It pays great dividends because you won't need to watch your back or practice stretches to pull out the knives. There is plenty of success for everyone!

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People Platform HR by Marti Nelson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.