Everybody is expendable in a corporation unless you of course wrote the multi million dollar undocumented soft ware program the company depends upon to stay in business.Then u could show up in your bathrobe and fuzzy slippers stinking of gin and muttering obscenties about the bosses wife and mother.

It was sounding for a minute there, that your retirement conundrum was settled for you Hugh.

Glad to hear it's still in your hands.

Cheers Richard

When one of the engineers got fired, I was called into HR for several hours. He was suing the company, and had a number of charges, many of which I was involved in directly. I crushed him, and he deserved it. Of course in those days my memory for detail was almost absolute.

Even so, he wound up getting a severance package that was pretty darned good.

My wife is the HR manager at an automotive supplier. I told her about Hugh's experience.


She advised that it may have been simply the only time the HR person had time to meet and they didn't want Hugh to be unavailable at that time.

In my opinion, she must be one of the good HR folk because she really does care about the employees at the plant. I could tell you stories of her going out of her way, on her own time, of helping someone out.

She's just a little cog in the bigger wheel of the business but she has turned around the moral and productivity at this plant because of her caring nature.

At least it wasn't about training your replacement. The mouse does that, I'm told.

I am HR.

Fear me.

Head Bozo of the clown department?

I'd rather be in the lions' cage...but you just might scare small children :)

Nothing personal...99% of 'em give the rest a bad name....

Agreed. Try looking to hire a senior HR leader who can actually get things done. Damn near impossible.

I've been doing this for 30 years and can count on one hand...

Employee: Hi! I'd like know more about the 401K program!

HR: Go to the company website.

Employee: Ok. I also need to know about my health coverage.

HR: Go the the website.

Employee: How about overtime and vacation?

HR: Website.

Employee: How do I log on?

HR: Talk to IT.

etc. ...

Most HR people are there because their yoga degree didn't pay off like they hoped.

Lee

HR is for the company, not the employee. I can't tell you how gratifying it is to see the look of despair on their faces when they find that out first-hand (company stabs them in the back).

My only meetings with HR have been on behalf of my employees - hiring and firing. Know who you can talk to at work, and keep dirt on those you can't.

That is great example of someone trying to save the company money, but not enough attention to small details to actually make sense on P/L statement.

I suspect that was a while ago.

In the good old days, HR cared about and helped people. It is now there to keep the company out of legal trouble and fill out mountains of paperwork required by the laws setup to protect idiots and the rights of wackos. Frivolous lawsuits are started by opportunistic employees using the race card (I saw it happen), religion, etc as an excuse poor performance firings and the company has to cover its six. All this is not the fault of the companies but bleeding heart politicians and the laws they set up, a court system that won't say "you're stupid and wasting my time", and publicity whores.

HR now uses the an old Italian proverb, "Its nothing personal, just business"

At times like this I am glad for the incompetence of our HR.

As I like tho tell my co-workers "it is a matter of mind over matter... they don't mind and we don't matter."

i witnessed a production manager assaulting a location manager, on set.
if happened during lunch break. in front of the catering truck. dozens of people watched it go down.
a really large teamster stepped in and broke it up, when the PM pushed the LM backwards, over a loading ramp,
reason? the PM wanted the LM to ignore the curfew, to obtain more production time.
lots of friction on a film set. interdepartmental, as a rule.

I left the corporate world in the year 2K......and never looked back!

Veee have veys of making you talk....

HR is only as bad as the labor and hiring laws they are responsible to enforce.


IOW they are really really bad. The very worst are in California.
But it isn't their fault.

If we drown all the bleeding heart asshats making the ridiculously stupid laws, HR could start being human again.

I guess I did have (barely) one other interaction with HR.

Back when I took the job in Atlanta, my wife (who worked for the same company) was initially told that she would be able to keep her job and work remotely. Between the time this promise was made and when it came time to make it reality, my wife's area had switched which vice president was responsible for it. The new VP said no to my wife working remotely. I asked for HR to get involved. They scheduled a meeting--and never showed. I literally sat in the room by myself for an hour. I called an e-mailed. I never got any sort of response.

Then, 4 months later, the HR rep that blew me off had the nerve to e-mail and ask if everything worked out okay. I wrote a sternly worded reply. I never heard from her again. I have a low opinion of HR.

Lol .... one of my BIL's is a grip. He worked for a traveling circus as "The 6' Tall Man Eating Chicken" before the grip gig.

Yes, in excess of twenty years now. Guess I'm a dinosaur at this point when it comes to HR practices.