Sometimes even your friendly bartender needs advice…
Here at the SHRM Annual Conference, I ran into a fellow human resources consultant who had heard about a difficult decision I’ve been noodling over. He decided to offer some advice….but his words of wisdom were more than a little disconcerting.
He said that human resources professionals are basically ‘warm and fuzzy’ people who want to do ‘warm and fuzzy things’. And, that anyone in the profession not subscribing to the ‘warm and fuzzy’ mantra is really a business person masquerading as a human resource professional (his translation: fish out of water).
This was about as eye-opening as a double shot of espresso in the morning. If people within the profession have this attitude…why would people outside of our profession think any differently?
Folks – if we aren’t going to stick up for our profession, no one else will either.
Lisa Pinkard says
Are you serious???? Warm and Fuzzy???? Not so much in my orgainization…I have thick skin, do the jobs that no one else has the “you know whats to do”. I am the farthest thing from a cheerleader… more like an MMA fighter. HR is not only strategic, it is a profession of finesse and professionalism…. If I were to be warm and fuzzy as a kitten, I would get eaten alive… I like to consider my self a true business woman that can hang with the best of them!
HR Advisor says
Warm and fuzzy, that is simply not true, not in the company I work for and not for any of my colleagues in the industry !!
Unfortunately in HR you can’t afford to be 100 % pleasant 100% of the time !!