“Human Resources (HR) Management is an easy job.” “I have studied HR for one semester in my bachelor or master’s programme so I think I can handle HR job.” “I think HR only does administrative work, so anyone can do HR’s jobs.”

You may have heard people saying these multiple times in your career as a HR professional. I am not surprised by that. I have heard and seen this in many companieswhere HR are treated like a general assistant job even now. In fact, HR job has remained as one of the most hard-working jobs for decades, but still it is undervalued.

In recent times, HR department has gone from its traditional administrative work to focus more on shaping company culture, employee engagement, and managerial effectiveness and all the different aspects of an organization. They have evolved according to the changes that have 
revolved around them. But, do you find the HR profession appealing?

Well, recently during one of the lecturesessions in a college onestudent shared that she wants to choose HR as her profession. I asked why she wants to become a HR professional? She replied that she loves working for the betterment of the people and she loves HR job because HR profession is for nice and polite people. I told her if you think HR is for nice and polite then you may be choosing a wrong career. She seemed bit puzzled at first and slowly she asked me, if I can explain what I said in detail. I said, HR is a difficult job to be nice and polite all the time. Although people expect HR to be very nice,but you can’t be nice all the time. There are roles which you need to take upthat requires lot of courage and emotional self-control. I have few examples in my life that will tell you how difficult HR is.I had a colleagueworking with me and we were close. He was from different department, but we got along very nicely from the start of my HR career in that company. After working with him for 5 years together, I was informed by the management that they no longer require his service due to the cost cutting in that department. I had to sit with him and had to inform him that he will not continue with the company from coming week.When I handed the letter signed by CEO to him, he broke into tears in front of me, and as we were so close, I struggle to hide my tears in front of him. It was very emotional moment for both of us.

On the other occasion, I had to fire someone who was involved in taking drugs during office hours. I knew her personally from years and she was always nice and calm lady. She never ever had bad relationship with anyone in the company. She always used to come to the office on time, dressed up always neat and tidy, very polite when talking with colleagues and seniors, always up for helping colleagues, very friendly to all. All of a sudden, her behavior started to change. I tried to talk with her few times just to ask her if everything is ok with her and family. She always tried to hide things from me and use to skip by saying everything is just fine with broken smile. I knew something is wrong. I started to receive many complaints about her from her colleagues. The complaints were mainly about her late comings and skipping from the work time without informing to the seniors and colleagues. I was in the office one morning and someone informed me over the phone that he saw the lady outside the office parking lot smoking some weird smelling stuff. I had to go there to check if that is real. Unfortunately, I caught her smoking weed in the office during office hours. And, substance abusewas a serious breach of code of conduct. For such offence, there was an immediate dismissal provision. With heavy heart I had to ask her to pack her stuff and leave the office. I never understood the reason for her changed behavior until one day after 6-7 months of her dismissal, I met her close friend who told me informally that she was in depressionafter she lost her mother, her boyfriend beat her and left her, and she had to look after her only little sister. For her age, it was a huge responsibility. I felt very bad for her. I tried to contact her just to find out how she was but her mobile number was changed.

There are many other examples also such as compensation. We don’t develop compensation package to make staff happy. HR always tries to be fairer than to be nicer at workplace. So, not all staff are happy with HR. They don’t even consider HR department to be a nice place.Once during recruitment, I was sent many emails by a candidate who was not selected just to ask why she was not selected. I don’t hesitate to inform candidate what they lacked for the position but that does not always sound pleasant to the candidate. One candidate sent me an email after 3 months after we interviewed her. She did not get job at that time. She wrote to me that “you can reject me but that does not mean I can’t find another company for myself. Your judgement was wrong because I have joined a company now. The company is better than yours and I have been offered better position than what you could not offer me.” Although I congratulatedher butfelt the pain of rejection which she could not handle emotionally. 

So, after the session I have explained the student why HR has become one of the most challenging profession. And, I have offered her a mentorship which I love providing. I am happy that she has taken HR profession very seriously and working hard to complete her degree so that she could join HR as her career.

Source: Liberty of HR Thoughts