Seriously, why does HR suck so bad almost everywhere?

[Anonymous]

I work for HR in a fortune 100 company. Our days are spent doing Organisational Behaviour type work and all the work commonly associated with HR has been outsourced to contractors years ago. It is upto all non revenue divisions of a company top prove their worth and we wouldn't be here if we weren't bringing something to the table. Same goes for other non revenue functions like IT Finance Legal etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only the "special" kind can get a job in HR.

Mean girls need jobs too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH has experienced over and again that HR is there to protect the company at any cost mainly by protecting/covering up/ignoring the egregious behavior going on at the top of the company

This is really it. I actually feel for a lot of the HR team because they are between a rock and a hard place. I believe that as a company grows, HR becomes less compassionate and more interested in representing the needs of the exec team, which means slashing benefits, decreasing meaningful communications with employees, etc. It's difficult because it's so transparent to everyone.

BTW, I have been burnt by HR many times along the way, but I have also worked at very large (3000+) and very small (under 60) companies. The split between WHO is being served by HR is significant. And it's truly unfortunate. FWIW, HR has come through when I'm in a real bind, but there has been much stupidity along the way.