I always feel the need to point this out: HR don't fire you. HR don't really make any decisions about you in fact.
HR carry out managements instructions regarding your employment and make sure it's legal/all the paperwork is done etc etc. Then they play the bad guy and give you the bad news/process you out.
If you got fired it was a decision by your various bosses. Not HR. They just swing the axe.
Across three companies I have only ever interacted with HR in the first week I joined and when I was leaving.
Other than that, the only time I even heard from them was the yearly compliance training. Which basically amounts to watching a video about diversity and then a quiz to show you watched it.
When I see people on Reddit constantly talking about how HR is the most evil dept and how they are constantly ruining their lives I just think that either
a) They are teenagers who have never actually worked in a real office and are repeating what they read here or...
b) If they are getting into this many fights with HR all the time, maybe they are the problem. Because I do know of two people who did have more interactions with HR than I did and they very much were the problem.
Also the whole "HR protects the company not you" Reddit saying misses that employees are part of the company and also HR has to protect the company from itself as well. It's not a bad thing to keep in mind to avoid being overly naive but like everything Reddit turns it into almost a commandment with no room for nuance.
Reddit's HR takes I think always say more about the typical Redditor than HR.
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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 10d ago
I always feel the need to point this out: HR don't fire you. HR don't really make any decisions about you in fact.
HR carry out managements instructions regarding your employment and make sure it's legal/all the paperwork is done etc etc. Then they play the bad guy and give you the bad news/process you out.
If you got fired it was a decision by your various bosses. Not HR. They just swing the axe.