This Week's Opening Thought: December 16, 2024

This week's opening thought for HR "professionals": Real talk? When done as intended, human resources is henchmen's work—goon sh-- if you will.

This goonery was the original purpose of HR as a field, and it continues to be the way HR is taught and operationalized. The language has changed in some areas, but the mission is the same: defend companies at the behest of the people's rights and needs. If you consider yourself an HR "professional," at some point in your career, you have to be willing to recognize and digest what the industry and field represent.

Then, you must recognize and digest that this doesn't mean you have to conform to the “industry standard.”

You can evolve, you know. You can do better, be better, than your predecessors.

Just because something has “always been done a certain way” doesn’t mean it is the “right way” or isn’t doing generational harm.

You don't HAVE to be a henchperson or perpetuate goon sh--.

You don't have to choose to be a passive, active participant in the oppression and harm of others in the workplace. No one's forcing you to be a goon.

You're making an active choice to be this way.

You're making an active choice to uphold everything people loathe about HR, so you shouldn't be surprised when you're disliked and not trusted by those you claim to serve.

Just a lil' something to keep in the back of your head next time you're having one of those HR "professional" commiseration sessions about how people don't like HR.

This Week's Opening Thought: August 26, 2024

This week's opening thought: I've worked in various industries and professions. This kind of experience comes with being in the workforce since age 13. But in my almost 30 years of work experience, human resources is the only profession I've ever worked in that seems to constantly be trying to rebrand itself. It's at the point of being ridiculous.

People and Culture. People Operations. Organizational Culture and Belonging. Human Support.

Who wants to tell them?

Yeah...it's still HR, y'all. People still know it's HR. New name, same actions.

Suppose your industry and profession must constantly rebrand because of people's longstanding issues with how your profession handles things in the workplace. Wouldn't addressing their problems and reimagining how people view your industry make sense? Wouldn't rebuilding, not rebranding, be the human approach?

However, that would encompass a level of accountability we have yet to see steadily reflected and implemented in human resources as a field and industry.

Y'all ready for that, HR Folx?

Why are y'all so quiet?

Damnit.

So...that's a no, isn't it?

SIGH.

People and Culture it is!

On HR, Calls for Accountability, and the "If You Don't Like It, Then Leave" Mentality

I talk about the field of Human Resources a lot. Most people would say that I'm draggin' HR as a profession. Because of that, over the years, many HR "professionals" have sent me private messages telling me to leave the field if I can't respect the hard work that HR "professionals" have on their plates. Some have even gone as far as to tell me to leave the field publicly on my platforms. And let me say that the diehard HR "professionals" who get so up in arms about how I talk about Human Resources and aim to check me always give me a nice hearty chuckle.

An absolute side-splitter.

Y'all are hilarious. You mean to tell me you look at the field of Human Resources and its practices and transactional mindsets and approaches masquerading as empathy, and you're OK with it? You don't think there's anything to call out? You don't see things that "seasoned" HR "professionals" are doing that continue to harm people in workplaces that need to be addressed? Don't you see anything happening in the workforce that HR negatively contributes to, which gives you pause? Don't you see the decades-long patterns of behavior that have created the deep distrust that folx have of Human Resources at play?

What are you, that dog sitting in the flaming cafe or something?

But somehow, my calling these things out, proposing solutions, and holding HR folx accountable makes me the person who needs to leave HR.

If you're in a field that you can't hold a mirror to, criticize, and call to task, then you need to find a new line of work.

And if you can't be called to task to do better and to evolve yourself and the field you're in, then you need to wake up and realize that I'm not the problem and thou doth protest too much.

HR as a field, industry, and profession are not fine. You're just too comfortable with everything around you being on fire while being the right hand of the king.

A Tuesday Reminder for the HR "Professionals"

Hey, y'all! Here's a Tuesday reminder for all of the HR "professionals" out there that, as a field, human resources is not about caring for employees. It should be, but historically has not been. HR was created as a tool of capitalism and white supremacy to maintain a particular workplace status quo centered on governing and managing people, not supporting their rights and needs. HR as an industry still operates from management theories and frameworks, many of which are bogged down in early to mid-1900s rhetoric and oppressive patriarchal nonsense. Colleges and universities still teach HR from this lens. The governing bodies of the industry build their certification testing from this lens.

That doesn't mean you must do your work based on that sh--.

It's 2024. The world is literally and figuratively on fire. We're barely 365 days removed from a global life-altering medical emergency that took millions of human lives. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, and oppression are running rampant. The specter of far-right systemic oppression is all around us. If you're still out here calling yourself an HR "professional" and you haven't realized a) how much people loathe HR as a field and b) how necessary it is for you to be a humble, vulnerable, lifelong learner and unlearner that centers equity, inclusion, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive life practices in your work to show people that HR can and must evolve?

Then it's time for you to do something else with your life.

We're well past the days where HR is just some nice, cushy, 9-to-5 office gig. We're well past looking at HR as paperwork and transactional interactions. And we're well past protecting companies.

Human lives are impacted by what HR does and does not do in your workplace every damn day. Human lives are altered, and deep-seated harms are reignited by the situational workplace trauma you foment when you don't center humans in the processes and policies of the place you work. And if you don't get it, how much harm can you do while walking around as the "People and Culture Manager" or whatever other fancy rebranding your company has done to absolve you and the company of having to face the human reality of the workplace and the world around us?

You are a problem.

You are a danger.

And you are more of a cog of the system than the people you've been tasked with oppressing.

But hey, you're one of the good ones, right?

2022: A (Personal) Year in Review

Image Description: A wooden table is adorned with green, yellow, and blue lights. The words “Happy New Year” are spelled out with Scrabble tiles. The year 2023 is displayed below them, each number carved out of white wood.

Sitting in my home on the last evening of 2022, I can't help but take a moment to step back and look at the year that was. 2022 was…interesting. Up, down, surreal, and interesting. For me, 2022 was not only my 40th year on Earth but one big ass learning experience.

2022 was a year of me trying to find my creative spark again while grappling with swallowing the hard pill of why my spark was gone.

2022 was the year that I began taking my mental and emotional health more seriously and learning how to process generational and personal trauma.

2022 was the year I started my lifelong journey of addressing codependence in my personal and professional lives.

2022 was the year I began learning about and recognizing how much harm codependence has caused me in relation to family members and co-workers who have not addressed their codependence.

2022 was the year that I decided to take a hiatus from being an in-house anti-racism trainer and facilitator for companies and organizations.

2022 was also the year that I decided to make that hiatus permanent once I realized how much better I felt not doing anti-racism work as an in-house employee with no autonomy or support.

2022 was the year that I had to sit with myself and mull over if I wanted to work in human resources anymore after realizing how my codependence was interconnected with how angry and powerless I've felt as an HR "professional."

2022 was the year that I began figuring out what being an empathetic, human-centered, boundary-oriented HR "professional" looked like and putting these lessons and ideas into action.

2022 was the year that becoming the HR "professional" I need to be to maintain my mental and emotional health and well-being was met with more jeers than cheers, not just from other HR "professionals" but many people in power in organizations I worked for.

2022 was the year that vitriolic emails, comments, and messages from HR "professionals" expressing their anger with me holding the field of Human Resources accountable for the harm that it perpetuates and upholds outweighed the "hate mail" I received from every other field.

2022 was the year that more Global Majority HR "professionals" and HR "professionals" of color tried to silence me, chastise me, and tell me to leave the field of HR "if I don't like it" than Global Majority folx from any other profession and occupation.

2022 was the year that white "professionals" got angry with me when I would no longer engage in "debates" with them or accept connection requests from them on LinkedIn and my social media channels. How angry did they get? So angry that a group of them collectively reported everything I posted for three weeks, intending to get me banned from multiple platforms for "hate speech." And they almost succeeded, too, with me having to have numerous discussions and go through various appeals with LinkedIn and Instagram safety personnel.

That's a lot of sh--, ain't it?

Real talk? Sure, all of the above happened this year. But I find myself on December 31 healthier than I have ever been. I'm happier. I've had more joy between sorrow and pain this year than I have in years, and that joy has outweighed the pain more than ever. Nothing's perfect. There's still a lot of work to continue doing to take care of myself and to continue healing. But even amid the healing and work ahead, I'm the best version of me I've ever been.

Sometimes you need a year of transformation and intention-setting to set up the next stage of your life. For me, 2022 was that year. If you're going to have a transformational year, having it be your fortieth year on Earth ain't a bad time for it to happen, y'know?

I hope that if you're reading this and 2022 was a struggle for you, there is a light at the end of that tunnel and hope on the horizon. I know it's not always easy to find that hope, to embrace joy amid pain, but I wish you nothing but forward progress in 2023. I hope you can do what you need to process the trauma and pain of 2022 and the years past and begin a new journey of health and joy in the coming year. And whatever your journey looks like, I hope you have people to help you when you stumble on the path because I know from experience that the path is full of rocky terrain.

Out with the old. In with the new. Auld Lang Syne. Drink responsibly—all that jazz. Make it home safe.

Here's to (hopefully) less B.S. and more joy, growth, and the energy to live as authentically as we can in a beautiful, ugly world.

Adios, 2022. Salud, 2023.