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Thre's also the "faux friend" situation too. The people you work with have to get along with you but they are not your friends. If you're laid off you'll probab

Thre's also the "faux friend" situation too. The people you work with have to get along with you but they are not your friends. If you're laid off you'll probably never heard from any of them ever again. And HR isn't your friend either. Many young people misunderstand the role of HR and believe it is a shoulder to cry on. Think of HR as just another company product or tool.

abandonliberty 8y ago
HR is there to maximize the value and minimize the risk from your humans. Everything in a company is designed to maximize (short term) shareholder value. This isn't evil; the company needs shareholder value to survive.
- frabbit 8y ago
  "This isn't evil; the company needs shareholder value to survive." Viruses need animal hosts in order to survive. That isn't evil either. But if you're the host it's bad for you. Companies as embodied in capitalism are generally bad for most humans in the long term. They are an irrational and little understood mechanism receiving un-critical, near-religious adulation.
- AtlasBarfed 8y ago
  That is junk economics and libertarianism. Companies certainly can and are evil, unrestrained competition is basically drug cartel turf wars/slavery, and maximized shareholder value doesn't produce the most competitive products and long-term health of a company, it produces the most short-term money to investors.
titusjohnson 8y ago
Yeah, lots of people think HR is resources for humans, but it’s really for the management of resources that are humans.
- WalterSear 8y ago
  I prefer the term Human Accounting myself.
Karunamon 8y ago
Your relationship to your coworkers is entirely contextual, varies from person-to-person and company-to-company, and doesn't lend itself well to pithy broad brush statements. Completely right about HR, though. Their mission is to push paper and ensure the company doesn't get sued.
chris_wot 8y ago
Indeed, but you must be careful not to be hostile to HR. You need to work out what they need to hear. So for instance, I was open to HR about some issues I was having but I was very careful to limit my information in a non-obvious way and I couched my explanations in a positive manner, and worked out what they needed to hear. Ironically I wasn’t actually being dishonest (I just can’t do that) but I was very careful in what I said, and I was very careful not to be overly negative. And I did this when I had no other choice... it’s not something I would have done if I could have avoided it!
- dghughes 8y ago
  > Indeed, but you must be careful not to be hostile to HR. I agree, but don't confide in them like a life long friend either. Keep it neutral like a job interview be professional and unemotional. Only state what you did, you said. And ask HR for a follow up e-mail of any conversation you have with them asap.

abandonliberty 8y ago

HR is there to maximize the value and minimize the risk from your humans. Everything in a company is designed to maximize (short term) shareholder value. This isn't evil; the company needs shareholder value to survive.

frabbit 8y ago
"This isn't evil; the company needs shareholder value to survive." Viruses need animal hosts in order to survive. That isn't evil either. But if you're the host it's bad for you. Companies as embodied in capitalism are generally bad for most humans in the long term. They are an irrational and little understood mechanism receiving un-critical, near-religious adulation.
AtlasBarfed 8y ago
That is junk economics and libertarianism. Companies certainly can and are evil, unrestrained competition is basically drug cartel turf wars/slavery, and maximized shareholder value doesn't produce the most competitive products and long-term health of a company, it produces the most short-term money to investors.

titusjohnson 8y ago

Yeah, lots of people think HR is resources for humans, but it’s really for the management of resources that are humans.

WalterSear 8y ago
I prefer the term Human Accounting myself.

Karunamon 8y ago

Your relationship to your coworkers is entirely contextual, varies from person-to-person and company-to-company, and doesn't lend itself well to pithy broad brush statements. Completely right about HR, though. Their mission is to push paper and ensure the company doesn't get sued.

chris_wot 8y ago

Indeed, but you must be careful not to be hostile to HR. You need to work out what they need to hear. So for instance, I was open to HR about some issues I was having but I was very careful to limit my information in a non-obvious way and I couched my explanations in a positive manner, and worked out what they needed to hear. Ironically I wasn’t actually being dishonest (I just can’t do that) but I was very careful in what I said, and I was very careful not to be overly negative. And I did this when I had no other choice... it’s not something I would have done if I could have avoided it!

dghughes 8y ago
> Indeed, but you must be careful not to be hostile to HR. I agree, but don't confide in them like a life long friend either. Keep it neutral like a job interview be professional and unemotional. Only state what you did, you said. And ask HR for a follow up e-mail of any conversation you have with them asap.