I'm HR and you need me, dammit!

How many times have you heard this statement, "Managers don't respect HR." When maybe what they should be saying is "Managers don't respect me as an HR professional." Yes, maybe it's you, not the profession. After all for Management to not respect HR, is to not respect themselves. Duh, they are also part of the human capital.

So if they don't respect you, can you see any reason why they would want you at the table? Let's look at three different reasons why this may occur.

1) You are an asshole.
By Bob Sutton's definition from his book, "The No Asshole Rule": "flat-out rude, selfish, uncivil, mean-spirited and really don't care whom they step on." Yes these people exist in HR. In fact, they may just be the worst assholes. They hide behind their power. They treat their HR staff poorly. They take credit for work that was done by their staff. They make up lies about what their boss told them.

If you act like this especially over a long period of time, the truth will out. Management may not know what to with you because they know you to be overbearing autocrat & a mean SOB. So they ignore you and only ask you to clean up messes.


2) You are a child.
You insufferably whine. You throw temper tantrums when you are not invited to every meeting. You believe that just by your positional placement that you have power, damn it! You assume because of your title and the traditional heirarchy of your organization that you have a rightful place.


3) You are irrelevant.
Are you still relying on SHRM for all of your HR news? Are you over 40 and believe you know what your younger staff needs to motivate them, even though you never speak to them? Do you think about the ways things used to be in your organization and long for the good ol' days? Do you not speak to anyone in the organization about what's going on because you "know" everything already? If so, you're irrelevant.

In all cases, Management knows they need HR. With that HR should not walk around the office as if they are indispensable and behave poorly. Just because Management needs HR to fire employees, does not mean they cannot fire your over-entitled, self-righteous whiney ass.

To be "at the table," is to be respected as an HR professional. My experience with this is that no matter how old you are, no matter how long you have been with an organization, no matter how right you think you are, you need the following three things to be respected:

1) Power: the ability to influence behavior, change the course of events and to overcome resistance.
2) Influence: the ability to change behavior which leads to changes in attitude.
3) Cooperation: the ability to be diplomatic, gain support, network, work with relational positions over heirarchal positions.

So next time you are wondering why you are not "at the table," seriously look at yourself first. If you are either an asshole, a child or irrelevant and have no power, influence and are uncooperative, why do they need you?

Perhaps it is the organization. But if you are doing a respectable job as an HR professional, even within the worst of organizations, you will still have some small victories. The small victories will be seen better than your bad behavior. And you will be invited.

Dr. Smoot's Healthy Advice on Human Resources and Popular Music

What the world needs now is another blog, like it needs a hole in the head. Yet here is where I come in. As opposed to posting on the blogs of others, I just have to much to say on my own. Hopefully this blog is viewed and is helpful to those seeking advice, relevancy & some humor in the world of Human Resouces and Popular Music.