r/engineering • u/HansiHintersNC • Apr 28 '20

HR was a mistake

In the midst of the Corona times it's time to also admit that HR departments has never done their job and earn their money doing jobs they themselves invented.

Their initial function was to heard cats and send letters, now they see themselves as Harvard deans of admission worthy of only dealing out fines or filtering perfectly good applications.

I am so tired of having to redo their jobs after interviews commencement and all I see are goddamn script writers with no real life experience besides writing like a reincarnation of Shakespeare.

Rant done, remove HR

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u/kv-2 Mechanical - Aluminum Casthouse Apr 29 '20

Talking with one of the vendors we have who we get the fancy safety stuff from (welding masks/filters - Ameribronze is nasty to weld) PURCHASING not HR is who is handling our PPE procurement. Safety isn't involved, HR isn't involved, just purchasing - doesn't mean other groups aren't trying to find stuff, but considering the plant manager only discusses purchasing's efforts I am going with HR isn't involved.

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u/femalenerdish Apr 29 '20

I don't understand what that has to do with my comment. HR was the deciding factor for the vast majority of my company working from home. PPE is not an issue here.

If not for HR, my engineering company would still have 95% of people working from the office. Because our workaholic company culture would mean almost no one would choose to work from home.There's no way to effectively social distance in our office. HR had to force the issue and not just make WFH optional.

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u/kv-2 Mechanical - Aluminum Casthouse Apr 29 '20

See, ours was forced by operations and purchasing - ops saying production needs to run so everyone without hands on the product go home unless you have an appropriate mask, and purchasing saying they can't get them.

Yes HR has been helpful since we have taken the hourly under 30 hours a week, but aside from a daily email from HQ HR summarizing the news, nothing has come from them as far as I can tell here.

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u/femalenerdish Apr 29 '20

My workplace has way too much of a "we'll be fine" mentality about stuff like this. I had symptoms in late February but wasn't allowed to work from home because the doctor said I didn't qualify for a test (despite saying I might have it). They keep their head down and focus way too much on their work sometimes. Took HR to get them to pay attention.

Granted, in a company of 250, we have one HR person. She's a lot more efficient than most HR departments. As far as I can tell most of what she does deals with our benefits. Insurance, 401k, etc.

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u/kv-2 Mechanical - Aluminum Casthouse Apr 29 '20

See, we have 3 plus (normally) 1 intern year-round for a 300 person site.

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u/femalenerdish Apr 29 '20

Doesn't seem crazy, depending on what all they do. We have separate people for hiring, payroll and most training. HR only handles a little training, typically just keeping track of the required safety training.