Having worked in HR, like in any industry, there are good HR personnel and bad HR personnel. The good ones will always advocate for the employee experience and employee rights. The downside is that the business doesn’t have to listen. HR is there to help the people but it is dependent on how much help the business will allow them to provide. HR tells the business what they should do, and the business does what they want anyway. I think this aspect is often not considered when people discuss how horrible HR is. We’ve launched great things for employees when the business allowed it, and had to throw away great ideas when the business refused. It’s a very frustrating industry.

Ultimately, though, we also have to understand and abide by employment laws and the business does try to get us to read between the lines to get what they want. If legislation isn’t clear, they can get away with terrible things.