Re:Having friends in HR is fine, but HR is not your friend
by ravenstine on Thursday January 05, 2023 @01:44PM
(#34264482)
Not only is HR incentivized to defend the company over its employees whenever possible, but I think it's a position that attracts psychopaths. Being in HR takes no extraordinary talent whatsoever, yet HR has massive power over the destiny of individuals. They get to decide whether you have a chance at landing a job you want, make your rent next month, whether a coworker who bullies you gets to keep their job, and so forth. There's good HR people out there, but I've seen a substantial number of dumb, ego-tripping, completely unhelpful HR people as well. If you've got nothing going for you and you have an inferiority complex then HR is for you because you can take out your frustration by deleting resumes that use present participle instead of past participle.
Managers on the other hand may or may not work in your best interests, just like any friend. Meanwhile, HR is literally tasked with protecting the company from me. So I would not lump the two into the same basket.
I've been lucky enough to have experienced managers who see my current position as inherently temporary, and would consider it a personal failure to not help me develop my overall career as best I can. I know not all managers think like this, probably not even most managers, but the point is they are allowed to. HR is not.