Uh, I Don't Think So . . ."Poll: Is HR an advocate for the employee?"

The question today is "Poll: Is HR an advocate for the employee?"

What do YOU think?

In my humble opinion, Human Resources, aka HR, is strictly an advocate for the employer, and not for the employee.

Q. Who pays the HR employees?

A. The employer.

Q. Who does HR does its best to protected from potential lawsuits by employees?

A. The employer.

Q. What organization works to resolve any differences between the employer and employee, usually in the employer's favor?

A. HR.

In my limited experiences with HR, I notice that the typical HR person seems to be a nice enough person who is working on behalf of the company. Good people skills, talks well with the employees. (NOTHING like the typical manager at Northrop Grumman.)

Here's a "for instance". When Thomas Lee Hull was my manager in 1999, he evidently wanted me to stay around instead of looking for another job when Northrop Grumman was going through a downturn in contracts and were laying people off.

After I had received the WARN letter (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification), 60-day notification of potential layoff as required by Federal law, he assured me that "we're going to pull the lay-off notice".

OBVIOUSLY he wanted me to stay around and finish the work that I was doing instead of looking for another job as ANY REASONABLE AND SANE PERSON would.

Then I got the phone call from Payroll, asking me to come down and sign the form for my final paycheck(?!!)

I called HR.

I asked, "Did he lie to me?"

The reply was that "No, he may have mis-stated the facts based on overly-optimistic projections!"

I knew then that I was screwed, that I should not have listened to the lies of management HR is an advocate for the employer and company, and NOT an advocate for the employee.


Disclaimer: SORRY - This is only what I know from my point of view. No lies, just what I see as the truth.