Why People Hate Human Resources (And Why Michael Hated Toby)
Lawyers and HR professionals should always have viable alternatives to avoid being called the 'fun police.'
Before jumping into the substance of this week’s article, I wanted to share an adapted version of the first verse of Don Henley’s Boys of Summer dedicated to our now-departed summer associates. We had a fun group and they were a big help to me and the other lawyers across our firm. (I’ll personally miss their help with these articles!)
Nobody on the road,
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
Nobody on the beach.
I feel it in the air,
Our summers’re out of reach.
Empty rooms, empty seats,
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We’re in the office all alone.
I’m looking for some help,
Though I know you’ve gone home.
Okay. Now for the real stuff.
I now work with human resources professionals a lot as an employment lawyer. But before I became an employment lawyer, I used to not understand what they did or why they did certain things. A lot of the stuff required by the HR department seemed pointless and/or annoying.
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“Why do I have to fill out this stupid time card? They know what hours I work.”
“Supervisor training from HR? That sounds like a waste of time.”
And if you’ve ever been asked to stop by the HR department at work, it can feel a lot like getting called to the principal’s office. You’re thinking about whether something might be going in your “permanent record” and there’s a pit in your stomach.
On my favorite show, The Office, Regional Manager Michael Scott hated HR. The HR representative in his branch, Toby Flenderson, was the target of Michael’s ire throughout the show. Michael hated HR so much he didn’t even consider Toby part of his branch even though Toby worked there every day: “Toby works for HR, which technically means he works for corporate, so he’s really not a part of our family. Also, he’s divorced, so he’s really not a part of his family.” (Here’s the clip.) Michael clearly had issues with Toby and HR in general.
One of the main reasons Michael Scott and most people in corporate America aren’t fond of the HR department is because it’s often viewed as the department of “No.”
A lot of times, the company’s business folks come to HR with a plan or goal that’s been vetted and approved at the business level. The proponent of the plan or goal is then told to “run it by HR” before going live. Checking with HR is, frequently, merely an afterthought. And then guess what? There are problems with the plan or goal from an HR perspective.
An easy example is when someone in the business has approval to create and hire a new position. They’ve gotten approval for X dollars in annual salary. The business person is thus wanting to offer the person X dollars as a flat salary. The business person has gone so far as to screen and interview candidates. But just before making the offer to the candidate (or even after an offer has been made!), the business person checks in with HR: “Hey, just making sure you’re cool with this.”
Guess what? The business person didn’t realize that the position can’t be classified under the Fair Labor Standards Act as exempt. The person hired into the role will therefore be entitled to overtime pay for all hours worked over 40 in a work week, likely making the actual annual pay for the position (possibly much) higher than what the business person originally budgeted.
HR now has to deliver the bad news. “This isn’t going to work the way you’ve planned it.”
A good HR person will also have some potential workarounds, like adding or changing duties to the position so it can be properly classified as exempt. But those changes might not work for the business or there really might not be a way around the issue in other situations.
Either way, this is many times an unexpected hurdle or even complete roadblock for the business folks, who (rightly or wrongly) don’t understand or care about the Fair Labor Standards Act (or any of the other labor and employment laws). They just want to get the position created and filled. So HR, in the eyes of the business people, has shown itself (yet again) to be the department of “No.”
Lawyers of all stripes can relate. We often find ourselves telling clients, despite our most creative efforts at finding a workable legal solution, “Sorry, that’s just not going to work.”
Sometimes clients take it well. Sometimes they don’t. Badly. Either way, our clients and the HR department’s business people often start to think of us as an impediment to their goals rather than as a business partner.
I think the other reason HR professionals (and lawyers, too) are viewed negatively is because they’re sometimes thought of as the fun police. HR sometimes has to put the kibosh on things that may go too far and expose the company to risk (or be damaging to morale, etc.). The same thing that lawyers must frequently do.
For example, Michael Scott once decided to host a casino night charity event in his branch’s warehouse. He wanted the proceeds to go the Boy Scouts of America and wanted members of a local troop to attend to accept the money at the end of the night. Toby wouldn’t allow children to attend Michael’s charity fundraiser because it was going to involve scantily clad servers, alcohol, and it was on a school night. Michael summed up his perception of his HR rep thus:
“Why are you the way that you are? Honestly, every time I try to do something fun or exciting you make it not that way. I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.”
Michael even said once during a staff meeting:
Do any of our clients feel the same way about us? Hopefully not. Hopefully.
In my opinion, the best that lawyers and HR professionals can do most of the time when faced with telling clients “no” or having to be the “fun police” is to try and have a viable alternative when pushing back against the business folks.
Also, instead of starting the conversation in a negative way (“That’s not going to work because, you know, law.”), starting the conversation by highlighting the positive aspects of the proposal can go a long way in setting a good and productive tone for the meeting.
“I think this is a great idea and is going to help the business in X, Y, and Z ways, but we need to think carefully about A, B, and C, and here’s why.” It sounds hokey, but it really can produce some great results. Try it and you might be surprised.
Overall, I think HR departments and lawyers get a bad rap since we’re just trying to do our jobs to mitigate risk and ensure compliance for the company or our clients. But I think good messaging can go a long way in helping our reputations and keeping us from becoming as reviled as Toby Flenderson.
Evan Gibbs is an attorney at Troutman Sanders, where he primarily litigates employment cases and handles traditional labor matters. Connect with him on LinkedIn here, or e-mail him here. (The views expressed in this column are his own.)