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Double standards (slrpnk.net)
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[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

HR is employed by the company to protect the company/capital.

A regulatory watchdog (so not on company's payroll) would be the one to protect the workers. Even a union could to a certain degree.

[-] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago

This can't get said enough. HR is not there to help you. HR is there to keep you from being able to sue the company if something happens.

If you have, or someone gives you a cause to sue the company, before hiring a lawyer and possibly (likely) losing your job because you're suing your employer, you can instead take the complaint up with HR. They should recognize the liability for the company in your situation and take steps to minimize or eliminate any possibly perception of blame that could be cast upon the company.

Here, I'll give you an example of something that actually happened to me. I used to work at a grocery store and to say the "left hand doesn't know what the right is doing" .... Would be an understatement. It was a fairly large place in a national chain of stores. I was working in the produce department at the time.... So, the supplier for grapes informed us that the location where the grapes are grown has black widow spiders in the habitat. Though every effort is made to prevent it, there is still the possibility that the grapes may contain traces of venomous spiders.

Corporate HR appeared, like a fart you didn't hear, but you can definitely smell. They tasked my manager to get everyone in the department to sign a paper that said, and I shit you not: we've been made aware of the possibility of black widow spiders in the grapes, and that we understand that we should use specialty gloves that are bite resistant/bite proof when handling the grapes.... As soon as I read that I turned to my manager and said what fucking gloves? Where are these gloves?

We, of course, didn't have any such thing. I asked the manager if they could get some for us and they didn't even know how to do that.

Simply: after everyone has signed the statement, and if anyone is bitten by a black widow, the HR dickwads that work at the company can hold up the form you signed saying "we tooky them to use the gloves for safety, and they were not using those gloves at the time of the incident" .... Because nobody ever got the gloves. Regardless, it lets the company throw you under the bus for getting injured, while management won't help you in staying safe on the job, often encouraging the behaviour that HR says you should not be doing.

HR is not your friend, they're actively protecting the enemy (the business owners) from you, the worker.

[-] KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago

Why did anyone even touch the grapes after signing the paper? Seems like a good excuse to say "I can't do that. No gloves. I signed a thing, remember?"

[-] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That's essentially what I did. As far as I could tell, I was the only one who took issue with it.

I looked my manager square in the face and told them I would not, under any circumstances, be stocking grapes unless the proper safety equipment was available.

That's a job I never had to do again. Because they never got the safety equipment.

Right to refuse unsafe working conditions is a right where I live. If they tried to retaliate against me it would become a very short lawsuit.

[-] Objection@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago
[-] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 3 months ago

They can't fire you, what are they going to fire you for?

If it goes to an employment tribunal then you simply say "I was not been uncooperative I simply was upholding the rules they require me to uphold, do not touch the grapes without protection." Now they're stuck.

Then the judge slaps them with an unfair dismissal and you get several years wage compensation and the company looks awful in front of the judge. Possibly a safety violation fine as well.

[-] Objection@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

Lol, that's not how things work at all, at least here in the US. They'd just say they fired you for an unrelated reason. And if you took it to court, good luck affording a lawyer that can compete with their team, while being unemployed. Extremely unlikely that the little guy wins there.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago

This is just a tawdry /r/antiwork meme borne of McDonalds burger flipper level reasoning.

Sure, companies maximise profits and hire HR to assist them in that objective.

However, your own interests are often aligned with theirs.

If you want to sue your employer, then obviously HR is not there to help you do that.

However, if your supervisor is an ass who makes witty comments about how many cup cakes you ate, your interests are aligned with HR's - he needs to stop creating fodder for your bullying claim.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That doesn't mean HR is staffed with intelligent people who will back up the smaller paycheck.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

I work with a lot of HR staff and it amazes me at their lack of ability. Like don't know how to do incredibly basic things in excel, my job is to help with using our products, not very basic data manipulation from exported data.

If you wanted a very obscure one off data extract I might write a SQL script for that, but some requests are met by existing export tools and hiding a column or two in excel.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 3 months ago

Are you saying HR will side with the guy making cup cake comments?

That's antithetical to the comment I replied to. It can't be both.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

They literally did. Why are you disregarding her account and acting like this is some kind of hypothetical?

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 3 months ago

That's not what her account said at all. You're making up a narrative that doesn't exist.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

No, that's literally what she said. Get some reading comprehension ffs. HR talked to her instead of the boss who made the rude comment. Read it as many times as you need...

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

Sorry mate all the comments in this thread are asserting different things.

The screen cap says HR spoke to her.

You're saying that means that they've taken the supervisors side.

That would expose the company to a legal claim, which is the antithesis of what every other comment here says HR is supposed to do.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

No, I'm saying a dumb HR worker won't rattle the cage in which they sit.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 3 months ago

How can they protect the company they work for if they can't stave off a cup cake law suit?

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago

She literally just told you HR didn’t help her in her situation and your answer is to tell her that actually, she was helped and her silly little girl brain just didn’t realize it?

I know that you didn’t do it on purpose, but I implore you to do some self-reflection and start believing women when they speak of their struggles instead of dismissing them.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 months ago

Seriously?

She said HR wanted to talk to her.

Maybe it didn't go well because she was labouring under the misconception that HR only protects the company and didn't understand that in this case it would be trivial to have their interests align with hers.

My comment has nothing to do with ignoring women. Your comment says a lot more about the plight of women than mine. Honestly, one of us really does need to engage in some self reflection.

this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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