CASE STUDY 17 - HR From Hell

Case Study 17 – HR from hell

The worst HR Manager I have come across to date, was while I was working in a Wholesale Nursery. They were a sycophant out to impress management and in so doing saw the workforce as their play things. ?

On one particular occasion, we received a phone call telling us that a truck was on its way to pick up some stock for an order that had not yet been allocated. We had a time limit to get it out and reach the client by a particular time. It was already quite late in the day. These instructions came from the HR manager, whom from time to time, seemed to double as an operations manager too.

We picked the order, loaded it in stillages and when the truck came, we started loading. The surface we had to do this on was gravel with an abundance of pot holes. So, care had to be taken in loading the vehicle with a forklift while negating the pot holes. In the rush to get the truck loaded I had backed away from the load into a pot hole. Consequently, raising and drawing a stillage back with me; which fell to the ground. My supervisor acted promptly to repick the plants that needed to go out, pack and load them on the truck. My supervisor went above and beyond to get this task done in a very tight time frame.

Then our HR manager came on site and went berserk. Bringing my supervisor to tears. At which point, I pulled the HR manager up. Firmly stating; “What are you blaming her for. I’m the one who dropped the stock! You should be thanking her for getting the task completed!” The HR manager went off in a huff. After which, I spent the next half hour or so consoling my supervisor; whom was talking about going home and not coming back again. I did talk her out of doing so, but probably shouldn’t have. I probably should have said; ‘Yeh let’s go’!

Though we both stayed on, I was expecting to be told not to come back again as a result of my assertive outburst. That directive never came. I suspect the reason had nothing to do with the HR manager seeing the error of their ways, but more probably because they would have to explain themselves to the boss.

Sycophants live in a world of agreeing to every directive that is given to them from their superiors, aggressive in giving directions to the workforce and fail to facilitate the workforce’s needs, blame the workforce for the HR manager’s own shortcomings and cover up errors when they have no-one they can blame. Sycophantic management is a pericyte. Sycophantic HR managers are a cancerous pericyte.?

While this one was the worst, here are some other practices that need to be removed from the industry.

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1.????? Memos aren’t management.

Circulating a memo after an event, incident, accident, near miss, does not constitute action. Nor does it absolve us of our responsibility.

It is our duty to do our due diligence to identify and define the catalyst behind what has transpired so as to mitigate it in the future.

Even if it was truly a human error, we still have to identify the catalyst behind the error.

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2.????? HR is not one size fits all.

One HR manager I had, came from an insurance background to logistics. Massive change, yet they failed to make the conversion. HR in one industry doesn’t equate to the same thing in another. This individual may have been perfectly suited for HR in the insurance field but simply didn’t understand the complexities of logistical HR. One industry is heavily driven by compliance and administrative facilitation. While the other has a far broader spectrum of facilitation needs and there needs to be a far deeper investment in understanding the various characteristics of numerous roles.

This of course is true of all industries and roles. We need to comprehend the nature of what each role is comprised of. Where it sits in the bigger picture of the business and what are the facilitation needs of each role. HR managers need to be able to define roles. This particular HR manager could not define their own role, let alone what was expected of others.

The presumption that all HR Managers are suitable for all HR can lead to gaps in the delivery of our responsibility to those in our charge.

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3.????? Defining roles.

HR managers also need to be able to define roles for the purpose of acquiring new talent, understanding facilitation needs and navigating project planning.

Something I have come across as a Job Placement Officer and in responding to inquiries from clients as a Recruitment Consultant has been those making the inquiry had no idea what it was that they wanted. I had to define and refine the role for them; despite not knowing anything about the specifics of their workplace. In order for me to acquire the skill sets they were after; I had to use a whole lot of leading questions and guide a lot of the dialogue. In some cases, I had to get them to call back once they figured out what it was that they needed.

The fact that we have so many people in HR that don’t know anything about their resource and what they do astounds me. It’s part of the job and negligent not to make an effort to find out.

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4.????? Communicating with the resource.

Almost every HR manager I have had has been averse to communication with the workforce. Instead, most would use downward communication modelling. But it is quite rare for an HR manager to converse with workgroups and/or individuals.

Part of our problem is the neuro linguistics.

‘Speaking with’, infers that there is no listing. Just speaking. While ‘talking to’, is even worse. So, the first thing that needs to change, is the attitudes towards engagement, then the neurolinguistics as to how we go about it.

Consulting with is a two way communication model.

Some HR managers are fearful of engagement. Not a job for people with approach anxiety. Some dislike the engagement because of a perception that the workforce is angry. There is probably a good reason for this perception. Maybe they are angry. The thing is though, if we want them to stop being angry, we need to find out why they are angry. The more invested we are, the easier it will be to resolve the issues. It is most probable that the workgroups are angry because they are not being listened to. As such, mechanisms need to be in place to enable feedback and communication.

Consultation is critical to planning and rectifying issues.

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5.????? Compliance management

I have found a certain commonality with a lot of HR management whereby HR managers see the resource as a problem to be managed, instead of a resource that requires empowerment, facilitation and to be valued. HR managers set standards and rules to police the resource, but don’t value it. In some cases, this style is suffocating, inhibiting and stifling.?

Yes, structure and rules are important, but are these rules supporting workgroups in their ability to do their job. If we can’t trust our workforce to perform, the workforce will have a lessor level of devotion to their work. If the employer does not value the employee, the employee won’t value the work. Particularly where rules are there simply to flex control. Rules and guidelines need to have a value and significance beyond simply governance and posturing.

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6.????? Downward modeling bullying

One of my early experiences with HR involved me having to sit through a three-hour dressing down. They had stated; “I am sick and tired of people like you”! That particular HR manager will be destined to be sick and tired of people like me for the rest of their time in HR, because, I was receiving the dressing down for promoting solutions to existing issues. If the issues remained unresolved, there will always be people like me. The HR Manager needed to take responsibility for what others have felt they have had to bring to their attention. People like me take action in the absence of those willing to acknowledge the need for action.

If someone in the workforce is telling you something is wrong within the business, maybe we need to make an effort to find out more about what is going on instead of shutting it down.

Failing to acknowledge the need of those in our charge. Dissuading feedback. Shutting down objections. Disempowering the workforce is not only the pursuit of ignorance, it is thuggery.

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These examples have just been a selection of some HR habits/behaviors that I have noticed. There are other things that need to change, but let’s start with some of the things that need an urgent cultural shift.