Respect for Human Resources
I am painfully aware that human resources is often viewed as the court jester in many companies. The Human Resources department is the butt of so many jokes. This becomes a self-fulfilling vicious cycle (and this is a broad generalization):
- Human Resources reports to someone other than the CEO and/or doesn’t have a seat at the table
- Without a seat at the table, Human Resources is viewed as and treated as a support / administrative function vs. a strategic function.
- Working in a department that is viewed as support/admin will educate and expose the department’s members to thinking and acting in a supportive and administrative manner.
- HR hasn’t seen “strategery” or learned how to be strategic. Human Resources hasn’t learned how to earn a seat at the table. (I admit that HR needs to take the initiative here)
(I realize the above is a vast and racist generalization.) There are many Human Resource practitioners whose departments do not report to the CEO and are strategically minded.
I have been tinkering with an additional theory
This is based on a lack of strategic thinking, which I believe is compounding the negative reputation of the human resources department. I found myself guilty of this closed-minded attitude, and this mentality hurt my credibility. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut. On the flip side, this attitude wasn’t helping me either. I thought sharing it here might help others as well.
I always felt that engineers think and act differently compared to just about every other group out there. Most engineers admit to being different, and times are changing because developers are rightfully taking pride in their Geekdom. Engineers are the new black. I won’t go so far as to say “sexy,” but developers are not the nerds they were a few years back. Even playing the cello and the violin is in vogue with the advent of technology.
I work for a company whose workforce consists of 66% software engineers, and I sit 10 feet away from half a dozen uber-smart technologists. Working with this group has opened my mind to a new perspective.
Yes, we are different
I am probably considered a high-maintenance Metro. These guys possess the low-maintenance, edgy, urban vibe that only progressive geeks can. I have a truck and a car with a V8, but this group wants to walk, bike, and eat gluten-free food.
What binds us is that we are all passionate about what we do. We work our 10-hour days within our respective disciplines towards the same goal, and then evenings and weekends are spent working on side projects in these same disciplines. We both think about our craft for 90% of our waking hours.
My budding theory on the lack of respect towards Human Resources in the workplace is based on the following observation.
Developers see “something wrong” or (in politically correct language) “a potential fix” with just about everything. HR doesn’t usually notice a problem unless race, gender, age, or money is involved, and then all hell breaks loose.
I used to think this “something is wrong with everything” attitude was counterproductive and that many developers viewed the world with this “everything sucks” lens. I thought I held a positive, “glass half full” attitude, while developers had this “glass half empty” attitude. But at the end of the day, my co-worker engineers want to fix the problem. This is a good thing. Developers don’t just point out problems; they look for problems because these problems are opportunities that can be fixed and improved. Developers are looking for challenging problems and are vocally and verbally passionate about solving these problems. There is a big difference between just pointing out a problem vs. getting off to solving a challenging or interesting problem.
Human Resources complacency
I am an Apple fan. MacBook Air, iPad, and iPhone are all part of my quiver. I am super impressed that I am not only able to do almost anything I want with any of these platforms, but I can do it in style. Checking the river levels before I go fishing? There is an app for that. Check the tides before I go fishing. Yeah, there’s an app. Currents in the salt water? The phase of the moon? GPS for my favorite fishing spot? Check, Check, Check. I think this is revolutionary, simply amazing, and yes, Nasty. Only a few years ago, I would have had to check 5 different sources in 5 different media outlets, including a newspaper.
On top of that, this information would have been 24 hours old. A few years back, if I wanted to know if the water would be too rough for my boat, I would look at a hanging American flag on my way to the boat launch. Based on how much this flag was waving in the air, I could figure out how hard the wind was blowing, which I then translated to sea conditions. Now, I can do this in the comfort of a warm bed. I am as giddy as a screaming teenage girl who just ran into Beiber and snapped a couple of selfies.
Props to Developers
But to a developer, this isn’t good enough. It isn’t even close to good enough. A developer would ask: “Shouldn’t I be able to pay my boat launch fee with an app instead of putting physical paper money into a machine at 4:00 am? “Yo dude, you got any one-dollar bills?” Shouldn’t I be able to text the boat ramp so they know to pull my boat out of storage and have it in the water when I arrive?”
More often than not, this comes across as an angry and emotional tirade (I am in Human Resources, so let’s call it a passionate rant). Developers do not just wonder why an app can’t perform X, Y, or Z but demand that their technology has additional functionality. In many cases, the technology is criticized for its lack of ingenuity. A few years ago, many Apple fans ridiculed Steve Jobs because the new iPhone 4 didn’t receive a good reception. The people demanded a fix, and Apple complied with their free case program.
Glass half full
I used to think this mentality was looking at the product with a negative “glass half full” mentality. This mentality seeks to fill the glass till it “over-flo-ith” and scales to “glasses of water.” I was thrilled to hold the phone in a specific way to receive reception. Starring in awe at my shiny black phone, open mouth with drool on my chin. I wondered how they managed to get my voice from one place to another without a string attaching our two devices.
Believe in humanity
It used to be difficult for me to see “opportunities” in perfectly functioning products when I didn’t possess the “spill some water mindset.” I am in Human Resources, and I was supposed to believe in humanity, so this didn’t come naturally.
I once interviewed a VP-level developer who said, “I can make a computer do anything.” Although the statement wasn’t made with any malice or cockiness, I heard arrogance. Later, as I went through my notes, I realized it wasn’t an arrogant statement but a fact. This candidate had no limitations. After all, if we could put a man on the moon in the 60s, we could probably make a computer do anything. This was a different perspective on life and something this Human Resources pro-am could learn from.
Impossible tasks become a reality
I left Corporate America to join my first technology start-up. The founders approached me and said, “Your goal is to make this company the Best Place to Work.” I quickly replied, “No problem,” thinking the company was already a good place to work. Great, but a hop and a skip away. He then added, “And get this published”. WTF? Published??? I looked around our basement office with mismatched furniture and used desks where offices designed for a single employee had groups of 4 and 5 crammed like sardines.
Lights and sirens
In my small HR mind, my jaw dropped, sirens were blaring, and lights flashed. “Scuse’ me, I think I misheard you. Did you say published?” Thankfully, I knew how to keep my mouth shut. But you know what? We made the published list in the first year. We were published for the next 7 years and hit spot number 1 and number 2 for two of those years. Human Resources wouldn’t have accomplished that alone because I didn’t look at the “problem” with the same lens of opportunity as my technologist founders. Frankly, I didn’t see a problem; I was perfectly content. It took a technologists perspective to see a problem that wasn’t there, and then come up with a fix so that the “glass over flo-ith”.
New product, new industry
I now work in a start-up that is trying to create not only a new product but a new industry. This is no easy task. Despite the challenges, Fortune brands are calling us up for this new product, and as I look around at the visionaries who created this “opportunity,” I feel pretty fortunate. When we are looking to extend an offer to a potential hire, we are looking for candidates who are not only looking to tackle the impossible but to see the possibility no one else does. It takes a mentality that believes “We can make a computer do anything”. Accepting the status quo will not move a company forward.
This has forced me to admit that for a long time, I had unintentionally settled for mediocrity. My Human Resources discipline trained me to tackle the impossible. It lacked the mentality to see how “the perfect” could be improved. This is key to being strategic. Pushing the limits, thinking outside the box, and never accepting the status quo. Improve the perfect and then iterate. It should come as no surprise to me how often I hear amongst my co-workers, “On a scale of 1-10, I am going to give it a nine because nothing is perfect”. That used to piss me off because I would regularly give an 11, but now. . . I am a believer.
Take the developers view
In working with developers, I have realized that my HR mentality of “glass half full” is still half empty. Next time you see something that is perfectly acceptable, take a developer’s view and try to figure out how to “make the glass spilleth over.”
See you at the after party,
HRNasty
nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.
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