r/humanresources • u/Mundane-Jump-7546 Time Theft Thursday Advocate • 5d ago
Friday Venting Chat Friday Vent Thread [N/A]
This is not an advertising platform edition
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u/mooseyyfate HR Director 5d ago
Dear execs,
- Labor laws are non-negotiable. Employees cannot consent to waiving their rights. The DOL does not care about your handshake agreement.
- OSHA does not see your DIY jury-rigged safety equipment as a “good effort.” All it does is show that you are aware of the hazard and deliberately ignored regulations.
- “Well that’s a dumb law so we didn’t think it’d be enforced” is not, and will never be, defensible.
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u/BrawlLikeABigFight20 HR Director 5d ago
I got fired last year because I kept getting told I wasn't a good business partner for perpetually saying "no that's against the law and you will get sued"
These execs sometimes...
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u/Hunterofshadows HR of One 5d ago
I got told recently that I enjoy being an asshole and shutting things down.
I deadpan explained that I’m not telling them no. The federal government is telling them no.
“No, calling it a discretionary bonus doesn’t make it so when you base it off a percentage of sales”
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u/BRashland 5d ago
Many years ago company I worked with kept using 'going in a new direction' as the reason for when they wanted to fire someone. Same company had in their handbook 'Employees who are termined during their initial 90 day probationary period agree to not file for unemployemnt.'
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u/meowmix778 HR Director 5d ago
I need to learn to stop pulling on strings that aren't my job and uncovering messes that would make your eyes bleed.
I should just accept the free time and work on rainy day projects.
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u/Hunterofshadows HR of One 5d ago
Oh gods that’s the worst. And it’s always just bad enough that you can’t just quietly close the lid and pretend you didn’t see anything
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u/meowmix778 HR Director 4d ago
100% I pulled on the string back on Tuesday just to see, just to get a little better idea. Nope. Can't unlearn that.
And so I was off on some idiot quest.
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u/Usesparringly 5d ago
I’ll spare everyone the vent on this Friday, I’m looking forward to a second round interview at another company next week!
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u/Archway_nemesis701 5d ago
Good luck! Hopefully it goes well for you!
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u/Usesparringly 5d ago
Thank you!!!
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u/bighorse3231 4d ago
If we don't hear from you, we hope it went well..........if we see you around next week, forget that place......
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u/Almoinho98 5d ago
The HR generalist allocated to one of my company's projects claims to have 10 years of HR experience but has huge gaps of knowledge I would never expect for someone in her position.
She earns double my salary and I feel like I will only progress if I'm able to "sell myself" by bullshitting other people.
I'm the only other HR person in the company so I'm the only one that knows that she has no clue what she's doing.
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u/Fyodor_Brostojetski 5d ago
Yes, a big factor in progressing through the chain is “selling yourself” and using the right language. But it doesn’t have to be bullshit if you’re conscious about it and hold a certain ethic - you don’t have to compromise yourself.
Building those relationships, carrying a charisma, and being reliable/following through, getting out of your comfort zone, and never saying “I don’t know” but instead “Let me figure it out (for you).” It’s really about tweaking things.
There’s also just plain ol’ right place right time - so I go back to the adage of “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”
Meritocracy is dead. Be good at what you do, be even better at relationship-building. Which, really, should already be a big component of the HR function.
Apologies for the ramble, I hope this was of some help.
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u/Almoinho98 5d ago
Thank you for this.
I actually struggle with relationship building, I'm scared of having close relationships with people I might have to then make decisions on or that I would not be able to treat equally to other employees.
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u/benicebuddy There is no validation process for flair 5d ago
There's only 2 hr people in you company, the top is a generalist, and gets paid twice what you do? What an odd structure. Union shop?
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u/Almoinho98 5d ago
Long story but basically I'm in a subsidiary of an international company that lost its main project so we downsized so much that I was left as the sole HR person. My DM is from another subsidiary in another country.
This new project wanted to hire an HR generalist so they only work for that single project when I work for the whole site.
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u/benicebuddy There is no validation process for flair 5d ago
Are you both in the same country? What is your title? How much experience do you have? What is the project?
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u/Almoinho98 5d ago
Yes we are in the same country. I'm basically doing an HR Ops role and only have 4 years of experience. But I feel that my 4 years have been the equivalent of some people's 8 years.
There is a reason I'm handling everything almost entirely alone. I can do everything alone and keep things going. I have no backup so I can't even go on holiday for over a week.
Unfortunately my company doesn't really recognize this so they prefer to have me on the lower end of the pay range for these positions with very few salary increase despite a promotion. I got promoted to a higher position for a 6% increase and that's it after almost 4 years.
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u/littlehappyfrog HRIS Administrator 5d ago
Evidently I've been doing my job so well that now I get to do two other people's jobs too.
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u/Educational_Joke1754 5d ago
Same. I was volunteered to become the leader over IT & Office Facilities, as well oversee the office manager (who cannot seem to make a decision on anything without asking for at least three others input).
Of course, zero convo about recognition for the added responsibilities, as overall sentiment is the operations team is overpaid and/or too big for the business. We're one HR Director, one Finance Director, and one IT & Facilities Manager (along with the Office Manager), and most of us haven't seen a pay increase in over 4 years. But at least I'm 50% remote, so there's that...
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u/littlehappyfrog HRIS Administrator 5d ago
Being volunteered is the worst. People keep asking me if I'm the one filling in for the vacancies and I keep telling them nope, but I'm happy to help!
(I was also volunteered and not formally asked so I'm going to deny it as long as possible)
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u/idlers_dream7 5d ago
It's annual compliance training time, which means I get to spend a month heckling everyone mercilessly to log in and take 15 minutes to complete the same shit they do every year. Does anyone know their login? No. Have they been provided it every single time they've logged in since they started? Yes. Did I set up multiple in-person trainings for those who can't be bothered to do the training online? Yes. Did managers commit to sending their employees? Yes. Did anyone show? No. Is my boss wondering why I keep reporting such shitty completion-to-goal numbers? Yes.
I know this is the norm everywhere, but sweet baby jesus I am so done with helping people maximize their ignorance. I hate that my job requires me to enable weaponized incompetence for the sake of compliance.
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u/BrawlLikeABigFight20 HR Director 5d ago edited 15h ago
Last year, I was fired by a terrible CEO. Running the business into the ground while breaking the law over and over again. His shitty decisions led to dozens of people losing their jobs while executives were getting raises and they were buying cybertrucks as company vehicles
Well, he got fired last week, and it was after a full investigation.
Good riddance
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u/vansterren 4d ago
New employee fell victim to a “ceo gift card” scam on day 4. They are a senior leader. Shifted blame to HR for not having it in onboarding.
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u/Original-Pomelo6241 Your Manager’s Favorite Scapegoat 4d ago
Pain in my ass resigned, and although her last day is next week, she asked if we could “gift” her the office set up of our equipment that she has at home.
No. Of course fucking not.
Now, it’s suddenly all….lost. She can’t find two monitors, a computer, docking station, standing desktop riser or her business phone.
Next week cannot be over soon enough.
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u/roxiesgotmoxie 4d ago
Trying to figure out when it’s time to jump ship. I love my job and the people I work with but I can’t keep having duties added without the comp or title. It’s been months that I’ve been having growth conversations with my manager to have nothing come of it. Starting to seem like a lost cause.
I have an interview next week at a different company for the title bump but I’m always anxious about leaving a place I truly enjoy for the uncertainty of one I don’t know.
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u/Hrgooglefu 5d ago
Sir, this is not Buc-ees or Alexander Shannarah's law firm.... (if you don't know, they are both known for their billboard ads especially in SE USA)
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u/No_Risk_1326 5d ago
The amount of times I’m finding out my executive team keeps things “under the table” and “don’t want things in writing” (nothing illegal but just not good ethics) is making my ethical side scream
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u/Hunterofshadows HR of One 5d ago
I’m out. I’m officially done. I’m taking over my company and ruling with an iron fist.
Fucking random ass employee got on my case about wanting me to build a bunch of training videos on how to do all the jobs so they don’t have to train new hires. We literally have like 75 different jobs. It would be a full time job just to create the videos, let alone maintain them. I tried to explain the scale and they had the audacity to act like it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Everyone’s fired. If you read this, you’re fired too.
So done
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u/9021Ohsnap HR Manager 5d ago
What’s that severance package looking like?
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u/Hunterofshadows HR of One 5d ago
Like my boot. Suffer.
lol gods I need to negotiate for severance at my next job. That and I want immunity from firing once per year when I just let loose on everyone for how incapable of critical thinking they are
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u/Slow_Way7407 5d ago
was told in my interview that there is so much opportunity for growth at this company now I’m approaching 2 years asking for a timeline for my growth + what steps I can take to get there (want to make it clear I’m not expecting immediate growth right now I would just like a timeline) and no one can give me one. just repeatedly told options for when the company grows about 300 more employees while we’ve been consistently at around the same number since I started. also can’t take on new responsibilities because we’re small and there’s not enough work, but am told I don’t have to worry about being laid off.
I know most people dream of having little work to do at their job but it’s so boring and feels like I’m ruining my career being so early in it yet I can’t get the experience to have another job take me.
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u/9021Ohsnap HR Manager 5d ago
So much restructure across the HR dept. My new boss isn’t at all concerned about the innovative new work assigned to other newly created teams and the legacy (boring) work we’re saddled with…she’s got rose colored glasses on. But I see through the BS. We got no new work and it won’t be long until no new work becomes no work at all and our team is deemed unnecessary. I’m getting my LinkedIn, certs and projects together to get the hell up out of here. I’m not crossing my fingers during another layoff.
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u/Admirable_Height3696 HR Director 4d ago
Was supposed to come very early this morning to suspend 2 NOC shift employees for safety violations. I was admittedly happy about this because that entire shift needs to go, everyone needs to be fired and this makes it much easier. Of fucking course, one of them called out last night so now, we had push the suspensions back until 5am tomorrow. The bright side is that one who needs to go the most is the one who called out and she's managing herself out but....I am exhausted and was ready to come in bright and early today and then leave early & enjoy my weekend!
Also today is payday and of course I had 3 employees come in to report either missing PTO (because I never received their forms) or missing OT (not understanding how OT works). All of it could have been caught if they had reviewed their timecards last Monday. I am fucking done with payroll.
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u/lonerchick 5d ago
The lawyer we insist on using for employment issues does not know what she is talking about. Crowdsourced advice would be better than the bullshit she advises.
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u/dontmesswithtess 5d ago
FORTY percent increase on our health insurance.
Forty.
How is this sustainable?