Unpopular and Unapologetic

In a bold effort to glean topics from a variety of perspectives, I identified myself as a HR person on a business blog. The first response definitely confirmed that HR and Lawyers share a similar reputation. I get it. Management allowed HR to evolve when they realized that they could get someone else to handle employee complaints, fire people and prime the employees to line-up and drink the juice. The up-side for managers is easy to see. Luring people into HR was easy, too - tell them they can make a difference by taking care of employees or by allowing the operators to focus on the business. Sounds like an awesome value add and gets operators to cross over the People side, as well as convincing others to specialize in it. The bummer is that HR gets the negative focus, while the company tells us to be an employee advocate, they have us communicating reductions in force. HR is really the second thing, an effort to keep operators focused on the business. This has been my focus, so I don't always get A+ marks on the touchy-feely side. It's not like the Accountants get any love either, so we have found our place between the bean counters and the sharks. If you can't stomach it, or want to be popular, try Marketing and Sales. I hear they are fun and actually get an expense budget.