What is the point of Human Resources?

[undeterred]

I just had a 20 minute "phone interview" with an HR person for a position that I applied for. The interview consisted entirely of asking me why I left each and every position on my resume. This strikes me as a really poor way to find out if someone can handle a job- I have had a lot of short contract assigments which is something HR people don't understand at all.

[NewJeffCT]

1. HR is a real mixed bag

When I got out of college, a female HR person asked me the question (I'm a guy if the name didn't give it away), "What turns you on?"

Unfortunately, I didn't have the nerve to say what was really on my mind.

and, half the time they don't know much about the particular skill sets required for certain positions.

[commander bunnypants]

2. The ministry of people.

kinda of worthless I think. Specially at my gig

CB

[underpants]

3. This reminds me I have to go over there

If you don't hear from me soon send help.

I could be completely erased with one false key entry.

[commander bunnypants]

4. what happened to UP?

He was here just a minute ago

CB

[underpants]

6. I'm BACK!

They were distracted programming their Blackberries...seriously they all have Blackberries.

[undeterred]

7. Treos are better than Blackberries

but for HR people they're good enough

[ForrestGump]

5. It's a cookbook!!!!

Here in Vegas, HR departments of casinos are mind-numbingly pointless, it seems, in terms of the experience for the job-seeker. Behind the scenes, though, their investigators leave no stone unturned...almost as good as the Feds, probably, at background checks.

[skygazer]

8. I cannot imagine

The HR people at my company are a joke. Essentially what they want is for everyone in the place to be a spy and a rat and tell them if anyone at any time does anything that anybody might possibly by the slimmest chance be offended by.

I just had to attend a mandatory sexual harassment class. Now, I realize that sexual harassment can be an issue in a workplace but the extremes they take it to are ridiculous. One of my friends at work gave a co-worker who had lost her son (he was murdered - 20 years old) a hug and was called upstairs and reprimanded by HR because it fell under sexual harassment!

So in the class, the instructor said something about how we have to gauge if a "reasonable person" would be offended by any behavior we witnessed - I immediately asked, "Why would any reasonable person be offended by a quick, compassionate hug between two friends?" She just got very snotty and said I didn't understand. And she's right - I don't.

[Taverner]

9. Remember their title

"Human Resources"

They want us to be quantified, pigeonholed and to act like statistics, not to behave like humans.

All part and parcel of the dehumanization of man and the prostitution of labor.

[Wapsie B]

11. Amen to that.

They've got to find a way to make us drones.

[skygazer]

12. Yeah, you're absolutely right

I used to work road construction, the only woman on a very large crew. Needless to say, there was a lot of naughty banter, none of which bothered me in the least, and every now and then (though less often than most would expect) there was someone who felt I didn't belong there.

I worked all day one day with a guy - we were putting up silt fence, a nasty, backbreaking job in which you have to tromp all over the site in areas that are not plowed or cleared and are located on steep, rough hillsides, pounding in stakes, running fence and burying the lower part under at least 6 inches of dirt.

I spent the day working my ass off while this moran leaned on a shovel and explained to me why women don't belong in road construction! THAT was sexual harassment but instead of bitching about him, I did my job, got noticed by the boss, promoted to a position where I was supervising the asshole who eventually got fired for sleeping in the woods when he was on the clock.

I don't know - I just think things get taken overboard an awful lot.

[hfojvt]

13. I just read in the paper

about the death of Peter Drucker. The writer said that he was key in pushing the idea of employees as "resources" which meant they were treated better. I am also reminded of what Lech Walesa said, that he went back to where he worked and his job was being done by a machine, and because it was an expensive machine, the room had to be air conditioned and dust-free and heated in the winter, benefits that he did not get when he did the job.
When a machine breaks down, experts rush in to fix it, when a human breaks down, they get blamed, berated, replaced with a newer model.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. My husband had to sit through 3 hours of training in hand washing

He wrote on the evaluation:

"I learned this in kindergarten. Please don't waste my time anymore."

[bertha katzenengel]

10. To draw pay while dressing well, smiling, and being entirely useless.

I detest our HR department. The people are nice, but collectively they are worthless.

[undeterred]

18. I think of people in HR as having absolutely no skills

and a desperate need to feel important- they get to feel important by having access to personnel files and screening out candidates who may or may not make good employees. They add no value to the organization at all.

[Nikia]

14. I really think that they hire the wrong sorts of people for the job

When possible, I don't think that they should hire someone who majored in human resources or only have worked in human resources. I have found many of these people to be ingnorant of the type of work that goes on at their company and what the position entails.
Businesses would be better off hiring someone who has worked for their company or a similiar one for 5-10 years. This person would be in a better position to screen and hire applicants and understand the problems that employees at their company face.

[AngryOldDem]

15. To make things more difficult than they need to be n/t

[Orangepeel]

17. it screens out obviously unqualified people

If your answer to the question of "why did you leave your last job?" was "because they fucked me over!" or "because I slept with the boss' wife" or some other scary thing, you wouldn't get past the HR interview.

At every place I've worked that had an HR department, they had no input into the hiring decision -- HR deals with paperwork processing and benefit issues and counseling and stuff like that.

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. This is why HR exists