[fredkbloggs]

There are two separate functions here. Recruiting is one, protecting the owners from the employees is another. Not every company assigns responsibility for recruiting to HR; some make it primarily the responsibility of the hiring team/manager, others have a dedicated recruiting team separate from HR, others outsource and/or spread the responsibility around.

Recruiting (however and by whomever it's done) is essential to your company's ability to create products or services and generate revenue. This is what most people think of when they think about what success means, so it's not surprising that you would think of HR as key team members if you're accustomed to them doing recruiting. However, the other function, of protecting the company's owners from its employees, has nothing to do with the success of the company in that same sense; it doesn't help to generate revenue and may even hinder your progress toward it by separating the company from some of its most productive and creative employees. Instead, this function serves to direct as much of the revenue as possible to the owners of the company rather than employees (and/or their lawyers). Since most people who aren't the owners are focused primarily on products, services, and growing revenue, they don't think about this as being part of "success", so this traditional HR function makes them "the enemy" and an obstacle to success as they define it.

Both views of HR are correct; which is appropriate depends on who you are and on how your company assigns responsibility for recruiting. But make no mistake about it: if you're an employee, as the OP is, the part of the company that protects it from you is not your friend, even if the same people also help you recruit great teammates who help you achieve your goals.