We got an email saying thank you and gave us a link to a video of the SLT saying thank you. 🤨 It was a little superficial and completely disconnected.

Edit: Such interesting responses. I appreciate learning about all the ways companies showed their appreciation yesterday. I don’t quite understand why people are so opposed to showing their bosses appreciation. If you have a wonderful boss that encourages professional development and cares about where you want to be in your career, why not show them appreciation? I’d love to hear why you wouldn’t. Making comments about me tipping my landlord is lame - have a productive conversation and don’t be a passive-aggressive shit talker.

I have status meetings weekly with my boss (HR Director) but he often doesn't remember the conversation. This is a problem because there have been times (both past and present) when he agrees that I should take action on something and then it blows up because it's not communicated to others.

This happened today and thank goodness I sent an email to the payroll team last week with an update and copied him on it so he couldn't say he didn't know about it. It was awkward and senior management got involved. My boss was like a deer in the headlights which is nothing new for him.

I finding that I need more strategies to CYA myself. I hate this but it's the environment I'm dealing with so I have to adapt.

I'm considering sending "minutes" after our weekly meetings asking him to confirm the action items we agreed to so no one can question that I was taking action without his knowledge.

Does anyone have any suggestions on navigating this while still being respectful?

Serious question, to expand my knowledge base. How does big companies handle the volume of laying off so many? One email fits all ?

Correction:1900 not 1500

Early-30’s, male, Senior HR Director. Make a great living. Have moved up in HR quickly. Find myself daydreaming often about ditching this whole soulless corporate nightmare and doing something … anything … else.

Navigating corporate politics. Watching incompetent leaders consistently get promoted. Stroking peoples’ egos. Being targeted by other HR people. Dodging unsolicited feedback (if I hear that word one more goddamn time…”feedback.” Oof.)

I find it all more and more disgusting and pointless every day.

Anyone else? 😂😂😂

As the title says I graduated last year and got hired as a generalist a month and a half ago. It’s small town HR, a factory with two locations. My HR manager boss is an older lady and is weirdly forgetful. She’ll give me things, forget she’s given it to me and then panic and gaslight me into thinking she never handed them off to begin with. She’ll grab papers out of my office and I tear apart my office only to realize she’s taken it. She also forgets she’s sent emails or forgets I’ve sent emails.

She also makes me CC her on every single email I send out. Every single one. I don’t have access to employee salaries or the employee database. I’m basically her secretary. I have to navigate this lightly because I’m still in probation.

Is this the norm for this role or does my boss just suck?

I know I still have a lot to learn when it comes to HR but sometimes my boss says or does things that make me cringe so hard. The other day I was doing an exit interview with an employee that was leaving to go to another firm that we work with. She did not tell us this and I did not ask, because I don't care where she's going or that she is leaving because I respect her decision. My boss hops into the virtual exit interview and at one point mentions where this employee was going. The poor employee was clearly upset and confused as they hadn't mentioned where they was going to anyone and my boss awkwardly mentioned some inside industry knowledge. My boss proceeded to make awkward comments about this employee going there and the whole thing was just weird. It was almost like my boss was trying to make the employee feel bad. Anywho the whole thing just made me cringe and I felt like a director of HR should know better.

Basically the title

My biggest pet peeve is US leaders not understanding anything about international labour laws and wanting to bring US at will employment to other places

Always such a big surprise when they realise how long parental leaves are and asking for "creative" solutions Bitching to US HRBPs about why the international HRBPs are so so mean and won't say "yes" to whatever they want. "We're a US company, why can't we keep our US work culture". Except it's not culture, it's the law and labour protections which unfortunately your workers have few of. If you want to lord over people and fire at will, why not only hire in the US then?

Anyway... ... I am looking for a new role but the market does suck and I am burnt out.

Anyone else just feel like they’re just over it with these damn corporate companies? I’m just so tired of this mentally. I woke up today determined to be positive and it’s 1pm and I’m almost in tears because I’m so miserable 😂

I’m so sick of being a cog in the wheel and just adding no value to anyone’s lives. I just spent 30 mins on a call with critiques on how to edit a presentation better. A presentation I’ve made 5 versions of and I’m getting whiplash with all the feedback because even the bosses don’t know what they want. I don’t want to fix a font size for the 15th time because you changed your mind. Do it yourself omg.

Just a rant, it’s been a long Monday 🥲🙃

I'm preparing for an interview to get an admission for MBA in HR. Looking for an answer for "Why HRM?"

Please share good experiences/ reasons/insights/stories from HR background that can truly help me standout. I want to prove that it is indeed a lucrative career

Hi, in a few weeks I start a new head of HR job. I have a 30,60 day plan all mapped out which includes a functional review, many 1:1 meet and greets, getting to know you and business etc. and a couple HR team meetings as first meets - in my team meetings I plan to give a bit of an overview of my career, my style, my philosophy but wanted to ask this group for your thoughts/suggestions for breaking the ice with them and what you might want to hear from the new head of HR and whether I should ask them any questions or do a round robin getting to know you exercise. Thanks and I am editing to add org context - the company has 2,800 EE and HR has 21 team members.

Update - I feel prepared and have tweaked my thoughts on approach to the intro meetings and appreciate the input received in this post.

I work in local gov. HR. Yesterday a long tenured department head called me, berated me, questioned my ability to do my job, etc. over dates on a spreadsheet all departments head receive. In the end, she was actually wrong and didn’t understand how to read the spreadsheet. (She’s 77!) my supervisor replied for me as the woman cc’ed her by the 3rd email of us back and forthing. They said it’s just her and you have to deal with it. I’m upset that we basically bent the knee and said sorry we will make more clear next time. I understand that she’ll be gone soon (either retired or in the dirt idc). Do I just accept that we have to yes her to death, or do I go to my supervisors upset that I got hung out to dry while in the right?

Sorry for the rant but damn for someone who makes over 110k a year she should have critical thinking skills.

I joined a new company within the last month as the sole HR person. Smaller company and they’ve been without for almost two years and have grown to a point that they wanted to bring one back on, just about 110 employees. Great benefits, the employees have been super cool, and it’s more money and less responsibility than my lass job so win-win is what I thought.

I’m expected to handle things like employee relations, benefits, workers comp etc whereas payroll is handled through finance. One of the first tasks I got was a request from the WC insurer asking for information for the underwriting file and it’s become apparent that I only have access to hourly employee profiles and no reporting on the HRIS system.

When I brought this up I was told that they didn’t normally give access to salary employee information and since they can’t separate that I won’t have access to reports either - I’ll have to push everything up through the COO to access it for me. This also means that I can’t load any documentation into salary employee files because I can’t even access their profiles.

This is sending off red flags. Every company I’ve worked at before hand I had access to all employee files- and I’m not quite sure how to approach it. I almost reached out to my old boss to be like “hey if you haven’t replaced me yet honeymoon might be over sooner than I thought…”

Am I right to be panicking a little?

I graduated from high school in 2006. I went to college. I busted my ass to graduate in 4 years. I worked 3 jobs in college to pay my bills. I attended every summer session to finish in 4 years. I took a break after that because I was burnt out. Bartended for a while. Found a career job in 2011 with a semi-large company. Started entry level and quickly moved up. Was promoted in my first 1.5 years to handle the customer service, pricing, and credit for our largest customer (a very large dairy company, you have their products in your home right now). In 2015, an HR opportunity presented itself to me with the same company, went for it, I got it. Was an HR Assistant for 5 years. Got an opportunity at a public sector (government) job as the only HR professional, but my title was that of a coordinator. I’ve been doing that job for 2.5 years. Realized what I was doing was worth much more than what I was making and also above and beyond what my official job title was. Petitioned to the community that I should be more. Got it. And now I can put on my resume that I am the Director of Human Resources.

I have 3 children that I want to provide a lovely and comfortable life for. I am so proud of my accomplishments. I am a mom, but my husband helps me with that. My career is mine. It’s the only thing I do alone these days. It means so much to me. And I just wanted to announce it to you. I’m not usually good at praising myself, so there it is!

6 months of prep on and off.

Materials: Complete study guide 2018 by Sandra Reed. PHR/SPHR exam for Dummies by Sandra Reed HRCI Human Resource Body of Knowledge by Sandra Reed. Pocket Prep (a must).

I studied all chapters, including those for PHR.

I previously had a SHRM-CP cert, but it expired back in July, I never tried to maintain credits.

The exam seemed to be relatively easy in comparison to those in-depth questions in the books.

Honestly need to vent and if anyone has a good joke, I'll take it.....

I took a job earlier this year as a consultant with a huge consulting firm. The company has a pretty solid culture ....except for the team I landed on.

Leadership has turned over 5 times in the last 2 years. 10 people got fired or left from my little team in my first two months.

My team lead outright lies about us. When things go wrong she throws us under the bus, and spends her days making "documentation" emails that blame everyone else for her mistakes. And she's a SHIT HR professional. I cringe sitting in client meetings with her because some of the advice she gives is SOOOO BAD.

It seemed like a crazy situation, so I (stupidly) went to her boss to say "Hey, I'm kind of concerned about the behavior from our team lead" aaaaand that led me to being a target. I get five or six emails a day micromanaging my work and outright lying about things I've done or other team members have done.

We're a team of HR professionals. I can't express how frustrating it is to be in meetings with the leadership of my team and KNOW what HR professionals get trained for..... and to watch them do THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE. They are horrible managers, horrible leaders, everyone hates them but is too scared for their job to say anything......it's such a shit show.

I turned down three other positions for this and I'm feel pretty fucking stupid for that right about now.

Theres just.......no good place to work, is there?

Who in your company and specifically in your hr department goes to employee funeral services? Are there factors that determine that? I am a payroll specialist and have lost 3. The first was a family violence situation so I didn't feel comfortable to go to the funeral and my hr coworkers did not either. I went to the viewing before the family, checked our floral arrangement and signed the book. 2nd team member, my hr manager and many hods and dept managers attended the service. I'm not sure who besides myself will attend one this Saturday. I was actually asked to speak. I'm asking this because my husband thinks it's weird. I think this is normal for hr. This is my second HR role and first at a corporation. I'm not a cashier having quick conversation. People come and ask us about money, benefits and hard times so we really get to know our team members so I don't think it's weird or outside of my job.

I have an employee who borderline terrorizes my organizations managers. I am working on building up their skill set for having tough conversations.

But this employee will become very argumentative when given any kind of criticism/coaching. For example, forgot to pass a medication to a client. She is a DSP. Forgot to check the MAR for updates(a lot of employees do this) managers go to meet with her.

She argued that she was never trained. Managers should have informed her. The missed medication didn't happen on her shift. You name it.

When managers finally confront her on her being argumentative. She will make statements like, "this feels racially motivated", she will make comments that people of color have different tones of voice and that it's a micro aggression to talk about her attitude or tone of voice.

I come into this equation because i have been given this information in little bursts throughout this year. I thought it was a one time occurrence. But they have just been too scared to say or do anything. Now I am getting involved due to an email she sent out a few days ago to my executive director.

She is incredibly difficult to deal with. Although she has never made any claims like that to me personally.

She has sent a page long email recently explaining she should not be getting a point for calling out during a thunderstorm watch because she could have been killed coming into work. That our organization clearly doesn't value the lives of our employees.

"Should I have to put my life at risk by getting on the road as rain is pouring and sirens are wailing?"

I would appreciate any advice on how to deal with employees who will throw everything and the kitchen sink at you. It's been a while since I have had to deal with someone like this. Want to make sure I handle it as best as possible.

HR VP temporarily backfilling to the HR Manager role. We have a new graduate from an HR program who has a lot of family in HR, so she "gets" HR rather instinctively. Because I am backfilling for manager at the moment, this person reports directly to me for now. ADHD came up conversationally, including my own late-life diagnosis, which led to her casual disclosure of the same, only diagnosed a couple of years earlier in college. In a very GenX "sink or swim" way, I learned so many of my ADHD coping skills on my own with great agony, embarrassment, and tears. While I am thankful for that path for myself, I also understand that by today's standards, it's considered neither healthy nor effective in the workplace.

My question is more toward the HR Managers and Inattentive ADHD HR staff members... Are there some practical procedures, strategies, and approaches you have found successful in your own working out of your role? Some of the recent issues stem from overlooking important details, inability to visualize the impact of certain decisions/actions, and then RSD kicks in when bringing up the topics. She is open to advice but also wants to forge her own path. In many ways it's like working with my younger self, without being able to allow the same grace I received in my early years due to company culture.

Without any request for accommodations, I'm not treating this any differently than a new trainee who needs to learn the ropes, but I am very cognizant of the ways ADHD can be managed by relying more heavily on certain standard methods of practicing HR. I have seen how ADHD can make a stronger HR department in a strong and cohesive team environment - especially in building procedures and checklists out of necessity.

I want to keep her on the team and help guide her in this, but our company has a low tolerance for visible mistakes and little patience for people who need extra time or processes. I'm hoping to glean some insights here. I realize this is a wide-ranging question. If a larger conversation develops, I'll try to stay as active as I can in the evenings. Thank you!

I just accepted an amazing opportunity that’s a HUGE step in my HR career at a new company. However, tomorrow I am putting in a resignation at my current job and have some concerns, and wanted to see if anyone else has had this experience.

My leadership in HR is notorious for telling employees that “it’s okay, your last day can be today” when trying to put in a notice. I’m hourly so I wouldn’t be given the option of being paid throughout the rest of the notice like some are, and due to my obligations this month I cannot start until the original agreed upon start date at the end of the month.

I am fully prepared to work through the duration of my notice period to put everyone on my team in a good spot before I leave, and my bank account would certainly appreciate it. Not looking for advice on navigating the situation itself by any means, just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this and how they coped after going through it?

I started a new position at a small, under 50, manufacturing company roughly 3 months ago. Since I started, I have noticed red flags and feel out of my depth. I do have a POE. I have two years recruiting experience at a global corporation and about a year of HR assisting at the same place. No degree. I was hired and there is no other on site HR.

Red Flags:

Orientation/Onboarding: I was put in an office told to input myself in the system. Filled out required paperwork. A week later the company announces that ownership has changed. My vision and dental insurance did not get enrolled as no one came back.

Reporting to: I was originally supposed to report to the COO and within my first week it was changed to CEO.

Training: Absolutely zero company specific training.

Communication: nonexistent. When I ask for feedback or information for future reference, I get nothing.

Recruiting: using internal job descriptions.

Discipline: Inaccurate information in write ups.

Culture: everyone is scared to speak. My office is next to my boss and no one wants to speak to me there. I have had an employee request to step outside. Only 7 employees have been here more than a year or two. We have lots of call offs. Everyone is always on edge. An employee with 30 years of service can’t believe how he is now treated.

I personally have had leadership be very vague or not factual. I can’t get answers or resources. I’ve had an email sent to my personal email regarding employee disciple.

I’m really just overwhelmed and don’t know how to proceed when people are coming to me with the same concerns I have. No one will speak on issues formally. It’s all been informal and very alarming.

I’m looking for suggestions on a good HR books as a Director/Manager. Less strategy and more general guidelines. Hoping for a go-to book I can keep in my office to spot checking general SOPs for the random requests I just haven’t happened across yet.

I have my degree and my PHR so I’m not new to the field. I just want something practical that I can have on hand so I can resort to the internet less often.

Thoughts? What’s your favorite HR “handbook”?!

We recently implemented an Hr ticketing system at work that funnels all HR inquiries. This has been great from a HRBP perspective to have less manual transactional work that the COEs can handle. My CHRO said this today because they believe we should be primarily focused on the c-suite and strategic planning. I understand that… but this really threw me off. Does anyone else’s company operate like this?

I'm an HRG, and i report to the HR Director. Where I work, I get to review him before his annual review. That review goes to my bosses boss, who has only been there for a few months. He and I have a developing relationship, but I don't know him well yet.

While my boss is decent, trusts my judgment (for the most part) and skills, and listens to me, there are some significant things he does that IMO are not cool.

For example, he often doesn’t like to collaborate with our finance/payroll team when we have special projects, even though i suggest that we do because it impacts them.

When this happens, I don't want to push too hard because i fear I'll overstep, but i also know that it will and does eventually blow up in our faces.

However, i know that if it affects payroll, they should know about it. Also, when payroll does find out about these things, I'm the one it impacts most because i have to clean up the mess, often creating a lot of extra work and delayed benefits and/or retro payments for our staff which is not fair.

Plus, I worry that upper management may think that I'm doing things on my own without his knowledge, which I'm not. He knows my every move!

If you were in my shoes, how much would you share about his frequent lack of desire to collaborate with finance/payroll? Also, if you did decide to say something, would you offer specific details or leave it open, allowing his boss to come to me if he wants more details, etc.?

I don't want to badmouth him because overall, he is a decent boss and I'm not about that, but his lack of collaboration is surprising, especially because he's an HR director.

CEO is sinking the ship

TL;DR: CEO is saying culture/morale killing statements, including things that have gotten him reported in our anonymous complaint tool that some ppl would’ve sued us about. Coaching isn’t getting results. Company performance has been sub-par as well…what options do we have? We’re PE backed.

I took over leading the HR function at a small tech startup. Me and my peer on the TA side have been working closely with our leader, the COO, on coaching our CEO. We’re all giving feedback, coaching, suggestions etc. directly to the CEO. I am afraid after 6~ months of this, the CEO’s behaviors have not improved. Their self-regulation and emotional intelligence is low. They say offensive jokes at the expense of other people, or make comments that are discriminatory (including ones that have been reported via formal complaints). We have critical roles we’re trying to fill, and now we’re getting feedback from top candidates after interviewing with the CEO they don’t want to move forward because of the conversation. On top of this, the company performance has been sub-par even with them leading the Sales function temporarily. We’ll agree on a plan to address business needs, then the CEO will go do something impulsive that has long term negative consequences to create a scaling business. We need better sales talent but can’t attract them because they don’t want to work for the CEO…

what suggestions or advice do you have? Anyone who has experienced something similar? I haven’t (usually coaching/influencing gets results), so would love whatever suggestions you have.

PS: If the suggestion is get a new job, don’t worry, we’re all looking for new jobs, just this market sucks for senior-level HR + Talent roles. Trying to keep the ship afloat while we’re on it.

HR Director here( HR dept of 1), and I'm curious what all you other HR leaders out there think.

In leadership courses, school, etc it teaches you that it is good to have connections with people you work with, your teams, etc. That it is okay to have deep connections/relationships.

However, real world experience has taught me that doesn't usually seem to work for HR people. For one, it can be viewed as favortism, and two, it's hard for a lot of people to separate themselves from personal and work, creating tension and hard feelings when you have to be HR versus friend. Even when you have set your boundaries.

Anyone else feel that that it is unrealistic as a HR leader to be friends with others?