Human Resource Problems

Whoever said that the life of a human resources professional was a simple one, obviously hated them. For the myth he/she perpetrated continues to live on to this day.

Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.
Author: Margaret Mead

Quite frankly, the job of a human resource professional is not a simple one. At the face of it, all they do is to get hold of the right people, at the right price to do the right job and stay with the company for the right amount of time. But this is easier in the ideal world than in the real world we live in. And secondly, and in my humble opinion most distastefully, human resource professional are the ones who have to handle any of the myriad human resource problems that are likely to crop up in a course of a normal days work.

What kind of human resource issue are we talking about? Well, the modern corporation have a number of divisions and departments. In addition to this there are scores of policies, guidelines and unwritten rules.

If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all.
Author: Joey Adams

Add to this the tremendous superstructure of bureaucracy and you have a quagmire of human resource problems for the professionals to deal with. Take the case of something as simple as an employment contract. You would believe that this offers no scope for human resource problems right? You couldnt be more wrong. The industry statistics reveal that most of the cases where the management and a former employee end up in court is over the fine print in the employment contract. Now if these are not human resource problems, I dont know what would make the cut.

Another instance of human resource problems is the case of workplace policies. The modern day corporation has a tremendous range of policies and guidelines designed to make the lives of their employees better. But the human resource professional is scarcely one of the beneficiaries. This is because, in most cases, they are the ones tasked with the implementation of these policies. And with the advent of certain difficult to prove policies like the sexual harassment policy the nature and scope of human resource problems has only grown.

Ever since the phrase conflict resolution entered the corporate lexicon, human resource problems have seriously multiplied. What, in the earlier days would have been nothing more than a petty disagreement among colleagues today takes the form and shape of conflict resolution. And it forms another of the insidious weapons in the arsenal of human resource problems that continue to plague our professionals. Actually, if this state of affairs were to continue and if human resource problems do not subside, a time will come when the human resource professionals will themselves be in dire need of counselors to heal with their human resource problems!

A cluttered desk is a sign of genius.
Author: Unkown