HR is part of the reason I got out of management. I worked IT for 18 years and five of those years was in management.
I had amazing employees on my team. Best guys and gals someone could ask for and I really enjoyed being down in the trenches with them while we all got stuff done. I took the “whatever you need, tell me, even if you just need to vent” approach to it. I HATE micromanaging so I didn’t want to be that for them either.
Anyway, layoffs happened, company went stagnant and focused on stock price, so naturally tons of people burned out and left for other jobs during the tech hiring boom of 2021.
The whole IT department is down from 40 people to just 7, 5 of which are my team. We are a core IT team for the whole company. Vital to its operations.
I leverage this as their manager and work my butt off to give them high ratings and generous raises. Because they more than deserve it with all they put up with and do while keeping good attitudes and teamwork alive.
Director approves and everyone above approves……but it never makes it to the VP’s desk. Why?
Freaking HR blocks it and says I have to “give ratings on a bell curve.” Meaning I have to INTENTIONALLY give some employees lower ratings so HR doesn’t have to approve too many generous raises because “budgetary issues”. (Yet other public facing teams or C-Suite are handed generous raises and perks anyway)
I protest and point this out and am sternly warned that this is the company rule and I have no choice. I protest further and the director of HR gets on the horn with me and tells me it’s this or it’s my job. That is the choice I have in the matter.
I resigned for another job that same month. My team all eventually resigned and move on too. Company left in a lurch and had to outsource our jobs in a mad hurry to keep from collapsing. Eventually they were bought out by a larger firm.
HR is indeed a cancer to company growth and employee happiness and career growth at most times. It’s sad.