They are not your friends.

I'm the VP of HR for a large dress manufacturer in NYC and I view my role as ultimately protecting the health of the company. What I've learned in 35 years of doing this work is that if the employees aren't taken care of, the company doesn't perform. EVERY decision made by our senior executive team (CEO, CFO, COO and me) is reviewed from both the perspective of the company and the needs of the employee. I push back when necessary, but I've also worked very hard to make sure that those discussions have been framed in those terms since my tenure began. I am fortunate that our CEO is very progressive, and that's a huge help in achieving this mission.

Do I have time to review whether my employees are posting their resumes online? Hell, no! But, I also do frequent touch base sessions with both managers and rank-and-file so that I can determine if anyone is at risk. We work hard to make sure that their needs are met, and the results of our engagement surveys show that our number one driving characteristic is employee commitment to the company. I think that's because we show our commitment to them and their well-being.

I was an HR Director for a large corporation, and I agree with your approach to this responsibility. While I always kept the company's interests in mind, I fought against any regulations or changes that impacted the employee's well-being. The CEO of Southwest Airlines once said (I paraphrase) that he "never worried about making his customers happy. He worried about making his employees happy. If they were happy, they would make certain the customers were."

As for employees'resumes online, as with MANative, I didn't have time to worry about employees posting resumes. If an employee is unhappy enough to look for other work, it is not the company's business to pry into their private life. However, companies should create an environment that fosters job satisfaction and stay in touch with the managers or employees as much as they can and attempt to solve issues before they become problems.

I worked with many HR managers who only cared about the company, but there are a few of us who did care about the employee.

I was asked to do something directly in violation of the FLSA last week and called on the carpet as an obstructionist when I pointed out it was against the law. The manager said out loud that he wanted to reclassify an employee from non-exempt to exempt to avoid paying her for travel time to trade shows. I'm losing my mind trying to find another job. I've applied to 263 jobs since October with very few nibbles. I feel like an animal in a trap ready to gnaw a limb off to get away from this nightmare.

Although I am suspicious about what you claim, I really have no basis to challenge your claim. I CAN tell you that I've known several HR friends over the years, including one who was a VP of HR for a major corporation. They tell me that over the last 30 to 40 years, they watched HR morph from basically a compliance organization (OSHA, EEO, etc.) into a "cost of labor management" organization.

I had to deal with HR weekly during my career, through several major changes. Their lack of honesty and openness was shocking. Through one very serious change to the healthcare which was going to cost employees with chronic conditions (or their dependents) literally thousands of dollars, as HR rolled it out, the HR reps consistently misrepresented the magnitude of the impact. During annual performance reviews, my reviews had to go through several layers of management, but HR had "veto power" over ratings and could change them. We were then coached to say that we agreed with the ratings, even if we did not.

The last couple of years, our division was in the process of increasing the size of the employee population by 50%. We were hiring like crazy. We had trouble meeting goals and objectives on hiring. The problem was that our offers were insufficient. HR consistently explained that they were having trouble finding qualified candidates. That was a lie I corrected multiple times. I explained many times that I had found, and made offers to 8 candidates in month. I got one acceptance. Every single time, the candidate explained that the offer was insufficient. Worse, I was losing our best people to competitors who WERE making sufficient offers. Yet HR repeated, every month, that the problem was finding sufficiently qualified candidates.

Today, HR is to the corporation, what unions used to be for the employees.

I'm glad you are apparently one of the good ones. You're one of the few. I'd bet you it's far more like the head of a Bar association said one time with tongue firmly planted in his cheek, "The problem is that 95% of the lawyers are giving the other 5% a bad name."

HR finalized their "Lateral Move". HR will be the one to finalize them on the way out the door.

where some people seemed to think that working there was such a privilege that I should be paying my employer instead of the other way around.

If they cut your pay, they should expect this. On the other hand, if they give you a $20,000 raise from here and backdate the difference, you should consider taking your resume down.

resume online. That doesn't mean you're actively seeking another position.

But everyone should have the right to be passively looking by keeping a resume online. Somebody with a better opportunity can find you that way.

I just think its none of their business. Employment is "at will" and either side can terminate employment at any time. The employee is expected to give 2 weeks notice. The employer, not so much.

And everyone is potentially open to other interest, but I don't think your employer has a right to grill you about it. :/

It is absolutely both your right, and not at all out of the ordinary, to have your resume "out there." It is entirely common practice -- and one must assume that your manager is well aware of this. In that light -- I have to wonder if this wasn't a "play" on the part of your manager to put you off balance. i.e., "head game." I'd advise that you redouble your efforts in looking for a new opportunity.

(Did your manager mention anything regarding efforts to "restore" you to a previous pay scale? Or was it all, "Oh, you know -- out of my hands."..)

HR pretends to have empathy.
The manager who told me it was a lateral move pretended to have empathy, and told me he "had my back". Load of crap.
Basically I'm just a cog in their machinery.

online.

Heck, I advise people to always always always keep your resume up to date no matter how comfortable or happy you are with your current job. You never know what can happen out of your control.

But they did ask me to do an exit interview. I told HR that when they did that, they made it an adversarial relationship in which they are looking out for the company but not the employees.

I'm going insane right now trying to find a new job because my employer went from employee-centered to ..... lost their damn minds! it's a race to the door mass exodus now that people are getting vaccinated. Unfortunately, I'm in the position of scrambling to find an escape route while having to backfill these vacancies and convince people to come work for a company I loathe. Consequently, I haven't slept a whole lot lately.

In my case, the company was taken over by a private equity group. In 6 months they got rid of hundreds of long term US based employees, and outsourced many of our jobs to El Salvador, India, and the Philippines. $$$Money$$$

Two years ago he was managing 11 direct reports. Now he has none. Everyone else let go and the group's work was outsourced to India. it's a miracle he still has a job as far as I can tell.

It used to be that people were trying to "buy American". Now they aren't even willing to "hire American" for the thousands of jobs that Americans spend years training for.

I wouldn't tell a young person to go to college to study IT. Its being gutted.