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Who are all these people who think a small startup has a HR department?

by jeremyt 10y ago

emodendroket 10y ago
I guess the same ones who imagine that all the employees have an employment contract.
hermannj314 10y ago
Really? I'm pretty sure my advice has merit even if you don't have any HR professionals on full-time staff, just like 'lawyer up' has merit if you don't have a lawyer on staff. It really isn't hard to piece together. If you have no HR staff or lawyer on staff and have a question requiring their expertise, you can hire consultants or lawyers to assist you with your problem. If you are a really small start up and can't afford to do any of this, then you should read the law yourself and make your own conclusions. If you don't have time to make your own conclusions you should just do whatever you want. How many contingencies do I need to assume here? I'm giving advice on the Internet.
- jeremyt 10y ago
  With respect, and I'm not saying this applies to you, but I'm poking fun at the people throughout this thread who keep saying that these incidents should be reported to HR, or we should get HR involved, or some combination. In my opinion, these are comments from people sitting comfortably behind their chair at insert Fortune 500 company here, who have no idea what it's like to work at or run a startup. The suggestion that said startup should go out and hire an HR consultant is equally ridiculous. That's not to say "lawyer up" isn't good advice, because I think it is, but startups routinely hire lawyers; they do not routinely hire HR people. My startup was almost 4 years old and well past a B round before we ended up hiring our first HR person. So, to be clear, what I'm saying is if the problem is bad enough, you should consult a lawyer. If it isn't, you should handle it in-house with common sense and perhaps some advice from advisors/lawyers. At no point do I think it's reasonable to advise someone to go out and hire an HR consultant.

Who are all these people who think a small startup has a HR department?

by jeremyt 10y ago

Who are all these people who think a small startup has a HR department?

emodendroket 10y ago

I guess the same ones who imagine that all the employees have an employment contract.

hermannj314 10y ago

Really? I'm pretty sure my advice has merit even if you don't have any HR professionals on full-time staff, just like 'lawyer up' has merit if you don't have a lawyer on staff. It really isn't hard to piece together. If you have no HR staff or lawyer on staff and have a question requiring their expertise, you can hire consultants or lawyers to assist you with your problem. If you are a really small start up and can't afford to do any of this, then you should read the law yourself and make your own conclusions. If you don't have time to make your own conclusions you should just do whatever you want. How many contingencies do I need to assume here? I'm giving advice on the Internet.

jeremyt 10y ago
With respect, and I'm not saying this applies to you, but I'm poking fun at the people throughout this thread who keep saying that these incidents should be reported to HR, or we should get HR involved, or some combination. In my opinion, these are comments from people sitting comfortably behind their chair at insert Fortune 500 company here, who have no idea what it's like to work at or run a startup. The suggestion that said startup should go out and hire an HR consultant is equally ridiculous. That's not to say "lawyer up" isn't good advice, because I think it is, but startups routinely hire lawyers; they do not routinely hire HR people. My startup was almost 4 years old and well past a B round before we ended up hiring our first HR person. So, to be clear, what I'm saying is if the problem is bad enough, you should consult a lawyer. If it isn't, you should handle it in-house with common sense and perhaps some advice from advisors/lawyers. At no point do I think it's reasonable to advise someone to go out and hire an HR consultant.