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Prior to going out on my own at a precociously young age, my time in corporate America (~3.5 years) was fairly brief, and less than half of it spent at companie
by abalashov 4y ago
Prior to going out on my own at a precociously young age, my time in corporate America (~3.5 years) was fairly brief, and less than half of it spent at companies large enough to have an HR apparatus in any meaningful sense.
I always found their seeming double-agent role confusing and ambiguous in a slightly sinister way, even as they preached that they were there for us workforce people if we needed anything.
- civilized 4y agoThe dehumanizing name "Human Resources" says it all, doesn't it? We're not people. We're not even workers. We're just resources that happen to be members of the human species. Similar to other resources like staplers. There's no perfect euphemism for what HR does, but something like... I don't know... Workforce Management? Would be a little less awful, I think?
- benburleson 4y agoI've noticed this as well. Especially going through layoffs. It's not "people" getting "fired," it's "resources impacted." Oh, it's also not a "layoff," it's a "reduction in force." Maybe I'm old-school, but give it to me straight.
- intelVISA 4y agoOOM killer
- abeppu 4y agoI think it's a mistake to put much weight on the name. In companies where that department is called "People Ops" or "The People Team", the fundamental responsibilities to the company are unchanged.
- giraffe_lady 4y agopeople operators
- throwawaysleep 4y agoHonestly, it is one of the few honestly named things in the corporate world. You are a corporate resource. Nothing more.
- civilized 4y agoThere is something to be said for honesty.
- barbazoo 4y agoMany companies are moving away from calling it that. Let's not pretend it's like that everywhere. I can't recall the last place I worked that actually called it "Human Resources".
- abalashov 4y agoIt's still common among recruiters and staffing companies. Back in the mid-2000s when I was last looking for jobs, it was the bane of my existence to be summoned as a "Linux resource" or something...
- 7952 4y agoI guess part of the raison d'etre in larger companies is precisely to make humans measurable. And that is necessary to make a company manageable by executives. Although I think in some businesses that kind of work is largely performative.
- throwaway98797 4y agoanything in a large enough company is a cog and should be treated as such legal, accounting, finance, the lower people in those orgs are best helpful drones, at worst agents of petty chaos