I've worked at companies that have got HR slogans plastered all over the walls, telling me that the company is your friend, But it's often the complete opposite, isn't.
It That is correct?
It is the complete opposite. Now, I'm not saying that HR people aren't nice people, or a lot of nice HR people out there, I know quite a few. However, people need to realize that the company pays for the HR manager and the HR department. They're not paying them to protect you against the company or someone in the company.
I've always got the impression that HR are there to protect the employer.
They are. Look, they're pretty much a risk navigating system for the employer. So obviously risk means we want to make sure we're hiring the right people so we don't have to rehire because it's so expensive. We also don't want any grief or anything that's going to disrupt the productivity of the company, because it's faced. Businesses, especially big businesses, are about making money efficiently, so that's their job. Their job is to make sure that's happening. So it's running
workshops or identifying a problem and removing it. But it doesn't necessarily mean the problem that is that is your problem is also their problem.
Do you think it's to your detriment to go to Waitchard? Do you think you're better off just wearing it or moving into another company.
Look, it can be to your detriment unless you have so. For example, if you've been bullied or harass which happens often and people and the bullies are very very good at that. But if you're tracking everything that's happening to you and you've got evidence, then HR need.
To listen to that.
They're not going to listen to you just saying this person's harassing me or this is what's happening to me. You need proof and you need like a log book of what's happened to you. Then they have to take you seriously, and sometimes that will literally remove you from your role into a different department because the person that's doing it to you so high up and they're very connected, or they're not going anywhere.
It seems that if you've got someone who's in a position where they're your boss and they're making your life hard, the longer they've been with the company, the more chances are that this has happened before and that HR are waiting for you to come knocking on the door.
Well, yes, but also what's really disappointing, and I see this all the time with the people I work with in clients, is the fact that that person can cause so much grief for the whole company by retaliation or throwing a tantrum.
Or because they know where the bodies are buried, yes.
With blackmout, so they'll keep them. And then you're the one that's been hurt. So don't rely on HR to be your friend. Use it as a tool, but make sure you're prepared for all options.
And when they plaster their windows with all of these slogans making you think that they are employee friendly, is that a legality or is that just to try and give you the inference that they are In fact, it's there for you.
Well, it's definitely trying to make sure that they're ticking the box, that they're doing the right things by law, that there are a safe place for everyone, and that everyone is treated equally. So they've got to say it, but doesn't necessarily mean that all the companies deliver on that.
So what's the point of HR then?
Is it just something that's perfunctory, that's there just to make you feel secure as an employee.
Oh, it's just a governance and risk mitigating department for the company, for the company itself, and a recruiter for the company. And there might be some training components to you know, a lot of companies offer training. And this is another thing, although offer you know, sexual harassment training doesn't mean it's going to work. But they've ticked the box to say that they've run it.
Do you think that's a government thing that they have to do that they.
Do it because if they don't have all these things written down, for example, they might miss out on contracts, they might miss out on you know, the criteria for ESG or for being you know, workplace gender equality and things like that. So a lot of these organizations play the game, but it doesn't mean it's rippling down to individual.
And so if you go to HR, I've often thought this that there's nothing confidential about it one, and that it'll get back to the person you're complaining about. And also I've often thought that it goes against you in your record somewhere, that you're a bit of a complainer.
Oh. Absolutely, And I've seen so many people go to HR genuinely with you know, their documentation, and they're seen as the difficult person, and then the person they complained about tells everyone and then they all turn on you, and then you're having you're highly stressed at work.
It's it's not worth it.
The only time you should go to HR is when your case is so solid and so powerful and you have a backup job waiting for you, and you can go in there with guns are blazing.
You know, well, if you've got a.
Job waiting for you, it's just really a way of getting retribution, isn't it before you get to go.
Well, it's satisfying, right, But that's what I always say to people.
Always have another job available.
Like, even if you're in a job that you love, all it takes is for them to hire one person or one thing to change and you hate your job.
Have you ever gone to h I have.
I've been bullied in the workplace, but my backup was that I used to tell my manager on a regular basis what was happening. And I actually stood up to my particular bully. And they were a lot older than me. I was only in my twenties and there was a male and then they went to HR and complained about me, and so Hi instantaneously took their side, and it wasn't until my manager said, no, she's been complaining about him for six months but didn't want him to lose his job,
so she didn't say anything. And that's only when she went oh. But the initial was like, oh, she's in the role. We know because you've got all these mates and everything to kind of back him, and my boss went no, No, he's been harassing her for some time now.
Did somebody go, oh, is this about Amanda again?
Well, that happens now, but more like you know, with people I work with. But it's just really interesting. I was in my twenties and this man was in his forties. Like the power imbalance of that was horrific. So it's kind of like the best manipulated, the most connected, the best performer of lies is the person they listen to.