Why I Hate HR

HR is a profession that is very close to my heart and I love and enjoy being in this field and take the compliments and the brickbats in the stride and aspire and work hard, like others in this field who are in love with this profession, and want to contribute in the growth and development of this profession.

However, as it is the case with other professions, there are aspects which hurt me and disappoint me and sadden me and at the same time inspires and challenges me to better/improve and change those perceptions and facts about the HR and HR professionals.

It is important to love your profession but, at the same time it is also important not to get obsessed with it to the extent where you turn a blind eye to its deficiencies and become closed and that you cannot hear anything against it and stop being open to learn and improve. It’s important to be self aware and open and make a constant and conscious effort to change and improve things. By this piece have tried to do that.

Coming to the point of this piece, let me share some things that irks me about HR and about some HR professionals:

• When HR do not understand the business (or don’t even try to understand) and become or try to become business partners
  When they do not understand their customers and their needs and pain points and stick to themselves and their policies, which may not be relevant

• When they forget their raison d’être, and focus more on policies and processes than people and organization and ways to connecting the two

• Wait to be told from business, what needs to be done, instead of being proactive and having the ears to the ground

• When HR is visible just twice in your period of stay with an organization: at the time of joining and at the time of leaving

• When HR confines itself just to celebrating birthday parties and fun outing

• When HR is playing an administrative role and they become bureaucratic and inefficient and start playing God!

• When they say “they like working with people, and they want to be helpful”

The list is long and am sure there are people who can add many other points to this. However, this list is just from my top of mind recalls from the several interactions I had with non-HR AND HR professionals and my own observation and experience.

So, let’s ponder, as to what are we doing and how we can better the perceptions and also the stark realities of this profession, which is such an essential and critical function of any organization and plays an extremely crucial role in differentiating great organizations from ordinary organizations! Let’s make efforts to make things better.

Regarding the subject, well it is taken verbatim who say this openly or secretly and also from the famous article by Keith H. Hammonds in Fast Company titled“Why We Hate HR” (by the way, I myself do not agree with all the points mentioned by Keith. Look for interesting rebut at “Hating HR is easy – coming up with a better alternative is damned difficult”) to bring attention and spur debate!
Open for views!