Hmmm, HR is a big field and you can dissect it with a 2x2. Put introversion and extraversion across the page and high and low consequences down the page.

Extravert/low consequences do well on the interface with people.

Intravert/low consequences do well on the transactional admin stuff.

Extravert/high consequences do well on high profile negotiations.

Intravert/high consequences on systems development.

None of us are equally skilled in all areas but to push out the cheerful extraverts now is madness. They keep people smiling and in a frame of mind that they are able to be creative. Then when the other 3 segments arrive with their long term change or tough negotiations or tedious paperwork, they not only cooperate, they point out better ways of doing things.

In bad times we lop off the pleasures of life at our peril.

Do yourself a big favour and refuse to do the 'oh time to get hard tasks' unless you have a counsellor at your side whose one and only job is to keep party and good times going. If you don't have that balance to your judgement, you'll burn yourself and probably every one else around you.

Of course HR people are notoriously poorly skilled but that is a third dimension and applies to all segments equally.

I have been told by many HR professionals that HR is not about helping people. I began my HR degree with the notion of making workplaces more bearable and engaging. The textbooks taught me the ideal version of HR but all the professionals I talked with told me that whats being taught is not really the reality. I still believe that the HR profession is fascinating just because it never hurts to know how organizations work. I myself will be using that degree as a starter. You don't always have to work in the field that you've spent time studying and and HR degree for me is a great general degree to open other doors as well. Thanks for the honesty Lance!

I talk to many people intersted in going into HR because they want to help people and want to make work great for people. What these people sometimes fail to realize is that HR is a business function that works for the company. I know a lot of very compassionte HR pros, some so compassionate that they do things for employees that are to the detriment of the company. They allow themselves to become such a shoulder to cry on that their days are spent attending to employee's personal matters instead of doing the work they should be doing for the business. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of people who think that's what HR is all about - being a shoulder to cry on, advocating for employees at all cost, catering to individual employee's needs to the detriment of the needs of the company.

I've sometimes said, "I do what is good for employees to the extent that it is good for the company, when what's good for the company and what's good for an employee are in conflict, I will do what is best for the company every time (as long as it's legal and ethical)." Now that may seem extreme, but at the core, HR is meant to advance the company's goals on a whole most of the time what's good for employees IS good for the company - but sometimes it's not, and a good HR person has to be able to figure out when that's the case and take the appropriate (sometimes hard) actions.

@Jo Jordan

I don't understand how what I'm saying is any different from any other position within a company.

If you are a salesperson you may form relationships with your clients, you may go out of your way to do nice things for them, you may try to cut them deals when you can, throw in something free occassionally, bend the rules a bit - but at the end of the day you still work for the company, not the client, and you always have to keep the company's interest in the forefront.

If you are a security guard, you may hear people out, go out of your way to help people, be compassionate and listen to people's concerns, and go out of your way to track down some information for them - but at the end of the day your job is to secure the property and assets of the company, and the minute you forget that security is your ultimate goal is the minute that you have ceased performing your job well.

So, in HR, I can be nice, I can go out of my way to help people, I can see if a policy can be bent to acheive a goal for an employee, I can make exceptions, but at the end of the day I work for the company, and if I lose sight of that and start doing what's good for employees but bad for the company, I will have failed at my job.

@Jo Jordan

I agree with the things you mentioned, I think you're misinterpreting what I'm saying, perhaps I'm not expressing it well.

The things you mentioned, aren't what I am talking about when I say ultimately the needs of the company come before the needs of the employee. In fact, I believe that the things you mentioned are for the most part, both good for employees and businesses. Business function best when it's employee's are motivated, well-rested, appreciated, etc.

I'll give an example of the type of thing I mean when I say, HR people need to keep in mind that they work for the company, not the employee.

I knew an HR person who became deeply involved in an employee's personal issues - the employee was a single parent who had a low skill set level and was struggling with living expenses. She spent a lot of time in the HR persons office talking about all her issues. The HR person eventually began advocating for the employee to receive a raise because, "she needs it" despite the fact that the employee's work performance did not justify a raise, nor did market data and the raise was not in the budget. This HR person thought she was being nice by helping the employee out and trying to get her more money.

To me, the HR person acted unprofessionally at best - she had no concern for the company's budget, she had no concern for the company's pay policies, and she had no concern for other employees who may have deserved raises too, but didn't have a sad story - all she was concered with were the needs of one employee.

In my view, the HR person should have sat down with the employee and seen if a flexible schedule would help, or taking on extra projects to earn overtime, or enrolling in a company sponsored educational or training program to help develop skills so that the employee could grow into a more lucrative position in the future. Not just giving the employee more money to be nice because she needs it.

@Jo - I'd love to know where exactly you think I said that HR people were generally unskilled. It seems like that proclamation of HR being "notoriously poorly skilled" is being assigned to my post in some perverse way.

HR is definitely not for everyone. You need the ability to be empathetic but not at the loss of your business. There is still someone making all the monetary decisions and being in HR when times are hard is often one of the worst jobs there is when you are trying to be the one showing support while knowing all along that the person you are trying to support is in for a rough time. Good luck and my sympathies to those in HR, I know I have never wanted to be in that field at all!
Regards
Adirec