[ChrisMarshallNY]

Absolutely. This is especially relevant, these days, when HR departments are basically taking an actively adversarial role towards employees.

I used to get crap from HR, if I chose to resolve personnel issues without involving them.

The problem was, they had only two speeds: Do Nothing, or KILL ALL THE BABIES. Nothing in between; despite their constant harping about how they were "on our side." Their job was to keep the C-suite happy. It was absolutely amazing how many rules that were "hard and fast," and "applies to everyone here," would suddenly fail to be implemented, when it was a C-suite doing the rulebreaking.

There were also companywide policies, meant to appease union employees, that would also apply to the other 90% of the company that wasn't union (and thus, did not have the mitigating benefits), or that were in place to manage hourly employees, but also applied to exempt (from a life) employees.

It was my job to try to mask that kind of crap from my employees, and I got called on the carpet a few times, because of it. I would do it all over again, if I had to.

[29athrowaway]

HR job is to prevent unions or any form of collective bargaining and protect the company from litigation.

Susan Fowler's story can give you an idea of how HR works... https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-on...

[ryandrake]

Maybe I'm just extremely lucky, but I think in 20 years of working at multiple companies (as an IC), I've never really even had contact with HR besides my first and last days. I don't think I could even name a single HR person I've ever met. They tend to be there to hand me the benefits literature, then at the end I give my badge back to them, and that's it. What on earth is happening in companies where HR is part of the daily life of a standard "3rd engineer from the left" employee?

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I was a manager, so I had plenty of interaction with HR.

For the most part, they weren't actually bad people, but their job was to be fairly two-faced. I think it caused a lot of issues. HR had the highest turnover in the company.

[wccrawford]

The last time I had dealings with HR, it was because I had reported that my boss did something illegal, and I told the head of the company.

They tell me to deal with HR, and HR tells me that I should have talked to my boss first.

In short, the heads of the company didn't want to hear about the illegal stuff, and HR was their shield for it.

My boss actually told me, "I could get fired for what you said." It wasn't what he did that was the problem in his mind, but that I told people about it.

I didn't last much longer at the company. They didn't fire me, but they also stopped giving me raises. When I asked for one, I was asked if I could "wait a year". I found a new job for a 40% raise 6 months later.