Why is HR so miserable at doing their job? At my two companies, I’ve never had a straight forward, timely, respectful, fair, or otherwise reasonable response to any item I have raised to HR. Isn’t it their JOB to respond to internal questions and concerns about pay, office-related questions, organizational structure, etc? It just baffles me how horrible every HR person is that I’ve interacted with.
I know you are reading this thinking I’m probably an asshole who just doesn’t get along with my HR team. I have never asked anything remotely unreasonable. Im talking simple questions about the percent the merit increase will be. Or asking what my official title will be changed to after starting a new position.
Every question I ask results in 3+week turns on answering the question. It’s ridiculous and I wonder how long it would take for me to get fired if I left an email unanswered for 3 or more weeks.
Felt.
HR innit
If they were smart, competent, responsive or candid they wouldn’t be in HR. Truly the worst.
You realize that HR is there to help facilitate, but isn't the ultimate decision maker in any of the things you asked.
Further, why wouldn't you ask the questions you mentioned (merit raises, title changes, promotions) to your boss who actually makes the decisions?
Do I have frustrations with my own HR, yes. But I also don't blame them for shit they can't control.
Because OP is a shitheel who is dying to flaunt whatever tiny bit of power he has over anyone he thinks is beneath him. People like him are the ultimate bootlickers - he thinks he's speaking some brave truth about human resources, when really he's a coward unwilling to confront the fact that maybe the person making peanuts compared to him is just doing the best job they can and that all of his complaints are completely out of their power to address. Classic main character syndrome, assuming that an entire department of the company exists to make his life as easy as possible.
Your first sentence actually describes the typical HR person beautifully
I asked my boss and he directed me to ask HR
And it never occurred to you that it's your boss who is being lazy and uncommunicative? Why in the world does HR know all these important decisions when presumably fairly senior people in the firm don't?
You, like every other person who hates on back office staff, are at once giving them too little credit and too much. Apparently they're so incompetent that they're unable to respond to basic questions, but so competent that the entire running and management of the firm has been put in their hands
Agreed. I think most will agree with the sentiment, myself included, but these examples are pretty terrible.
Ultimately, HR works for the company and not for you. So if it’s not a major concern for the company, it’s not a major concern for them. Things like answering simple questions get totem poled until they’re bored enough to do it.
HR takes orders from the hiring managers, so ultimately your complaint is with them. You just don't want to imply that the people doing the "important" work might be uninterested in your job application, so it's easier to blame HR.
Also, HR's job isn't to make sure every last generic job applicant gets a reply lickety-split. Hiring is a tiny portion of their job, and not their main function (which is to protect the company). Any job applicant that complained about HR to me would immediately have their resume thrown in the garbage, because to complain about a fairly underpaid junior person following orders makes you a garbage person in general.
And how do you know that HR knows what the merit increase will be? Do you really think that decision comes from some random HR person? It's fucking hilarious that you are presenting yourself as this reasonable person, when you're blaming HR for something they have absolutely zero control over. Presumably you are unwilling to email your future/current boss and ream them out about why you haven't heard about these things, despite the fact that they're the ones making these decisions, so why the hell do you think it's kosher to tear HR a new one?
Well, my guess is when your company hires an HR person they don't put at the top of the job description "making sure @cre debt fund guy gets a reply to an email within 15 minutes".
If HR isn't giving you an answer, the overwhelming likelihood is that they don't know it either! So again, unless you're willing to tell your CEO or fund principal or whoever that they're being "ridiculous" and should be fired for not having this information in HR's hands in good time, maybe you should sit down and shut up. Anything you're unwilling to say to someone in a position of power over you is something you should be unwilling to say to someone who you consider beneath you. It's that simple.
I’m not applying to jobs, I’m trying to get simple HR dumbfucks to answer my simple questions. And i dont know why you all assume I haven’t asked my boss??? He’s the one asking me to ask HR in the first place! Lol
So you are telling me that at the firm you work at, which is apparently a commercial real estate debt fund (according to your username), all hiring decisions, promotions, and raises are decided upon solely by HR? No managing director or firm principal gets a final say, or even to propose a number - it's just a black box over with Jenny in HR? You understand that this is the implicit claim you're making, right?
How you expect any person who has more than 8 minutes of actual work experience to buy that is absolutely beyond me. It's almost as if you don't actually understand what it is HR does, not to mention not understanding the English language (and if you're an ESL guy, my apologies).
YTA.
Why are you mad at HR when your boss can't answer the question? You think he isn't part of merit raise discussions? You think he isnt being consulted about your new title after promotion? I don't see you railing against how your boss is stupid and incompetent, because he can't answer the questions that he should be able to.
This is him being lazy and then you directing your anger to the wrong people. Grow the fuck up and stop shitting on people that are underpaid and doing their best with limited information.
They’re just universally stupid, lazy bootlickers. Sorry, it’s true. They can take their salary bands and shove them, they have no idea what market is and make hiring good people and firing bad ones borderline impossible.
Bad ones are really effing bad and are big driver of poor culture. Can be frustrating to see them spend money and time on dumb things instead of just setting up a good happy hour. Good HR people are great and really valuable though.
Typically (unless it’s a massive corp) they are a reflection of execs/management. Imo shitty HR probably means shitty managers/executives.
Easy to understand why HR sucks. Just ask yourself what kind of person wants to work in HR. Basically someone who likes feeling powerful over meaningless petty bullshit.
Again another symptom of how trash CRE company culture is . Wife works at big 3 consulting firm and they discuss salary openly in office wide meetings on Fridays. People are allowed to bring up any concern they want. Obviously if it’s dumbs they get blasted too but there is openness to bring up anything. What I’m realizing unless your Dad is MD, or founder your focus should be to solely get the knowledge and go out on your own. BE THE CHANGE. Real industry DO BETTER.
.
As others have pointed out your rant is directed at the wrong person. It should be directed at your MD, etc.
If I didn’t know the titles and raises of people on my team then I wouldn’t be doing my job. And if those numbers were determined by HR then I’m a bad boss. I would never allow a % raise to be determined by someone else.
Use one of the buzzwords to get a reply asap.
These include
60% of the time, it works every time
I’m not sure why Ozymandia got so much MS thrown at for defending HR roles.
As someone who worked closely with HR and the C suite folks in my previous company, the department has a lot on their hands.
Hiring is only one function of many - think compliance, laws, etc., that comes with the responsibility. Sure, they may make peanuts compared to bankers and tech, but they also have decision factors that are facilitated through them from other channels.
I wouldn’t want to work in their shoes, either. It’s a tough job and requires a strong spine to handle the amount of work they deal with on a daily. Ultimately they are looking at the best interests of the firm/company, and it’s not easy when there’s a lot of folks who feels entitled to crap on them.
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