Enjoying HR? Oxymoron (?)

“Oh! So you’re in HR. Enjoying huh? No work to do right?”

Asked my cousin, when we recently met at Bommanahalli to board the bus to Trivandrum. I tried to educate him “No No, we have lots of work to do..from manpower planning, to designing training programmes to statutory compliance to co-ordinating performance discussions to aligning salary to event management”. He wasn't convinced
“Ok, but still you don’t have any deadlines to meet like us right? Ha ha... You people are enjoying..” “No”, I interrupted him “We have SLAs and deadlines to be met as well. We are accountable for company operations..”
I could see him smirk.. and could read his mind
“Hmm.. whatever it is, you guys are a lousy lot. It is afterall we the software engineers who bring in money for the company to sustain. If it were not for us, you would have been jobless”

I am sure anyone in HR line of profession might have encountered the above situation atleast once. HR function is like a swan in the lake. It looks like the swan is floating, enjoying the surroundings and relaxing, but underneath it keeps on struggling with its leg to keep it moving forward. A home maker to a home is what HR to an organization. Ask the home maker not to do her job for a day and by the end of the day you will get to know her importance.


HR job is more like a double edged sword. We need to please both the management and employees. I faced it when my previous company announced a pay cut during difficult times (Although it was not called ‘pay-cut’, but 'salary restructuring'). On one hand we ourselves had to suffer the cut in our pay and on the other we had to explain to the grieving employees on the justification regarding the pay cut.

Ha, it takes a bold heart to be in HR and sustain.

I still meet my other cousins who are also in some software firm or the other. Perceptions are etched and can hardly be alterd. So I just let it be and have some fun in the process.. When they make fun of HR , I tell them back. ‘Shh.. quiet please. Let it be between you and me. It is true that we don’t do any work. Come in the morning, swipe the card, visit blogs, read newspapers, sip coffee, get into the chat messengers, walk around, meet other fellow HRs who are equally jobless, discuss about the latest movie, send some absurd mails and forwards and swipe out on the dot. Phew man. Pray to God that you be an HR in the next birth. We are blessed souls.”

I feel some sadistic pleasure when I say that.

The questions still vibrates.."You guys just don’t have any work to do and enjoy right?”

No work to do ? – NO , a big bold, underlined, italicized ‘No’. We have a lot of work to do my boy. That too not dealing with the deadwood computer and codes but human beings with flesh and blood. And brains. People like you. Right from the top of the organization chart to the housekeeping boy.


Enjoy? – Yes, a big bold underlined, italicized ‘YES’.

The career fixation crisis

“A drastic shift appears in everyone’s career somewhere between 5 and 15 years of tenure (let’s say X)- a shift which forces her to toss away her (mostly well paying) job and look out for a career which offers better satisfaction. Some follows their heart and be successful in their own way, while others who decide to continue with their line of job, would most certainly leave by the time they reach double the tenure (2X) or will be sacked by then”

- her to be replaced with his wherever necessary. I am not responsible for difference of opinions regarding the gender differences in the above hypothesis.
- the figures are on an average. This could as well range between 2-12 or 4-14 for that matter

Wow! Did I just speak my mind?

Remember : You read it here first. Now don’t blame me if you have to teach this to your kids when this gets printed in one of those management books. :-p

Motivating HR

HR is becoming critical more in recent times like never before, specifically in the IT industry. When there is downsizing, forced resignations and forced transfers, employees are obviously upset and scared. It’s a real challenge for HR to pep-up the whole situation and deal diplomatically. People come up with different ideas to increase the motivation level and productivity. Obviously there can be no raise in salary, and hence HRs are busy searching ways of boosting the employee spirit with some cashless celebration.
Lemme tell the HR heads of various organizations : When you think of ways of motivating employees, do you think of HR team as such? Because to motivate the employees, the motivator needs to be fist motivated. Are you taking care of that part? No HR Executive can device ways to motivate employees when she herself fears that tomorrow she will lose the job. So dear HR heads, please spent time with your team first, address their problems may be one to one, and then ask them to do a large scale motivation plan. That would definitely work.

Happy motivating :)