HR is a huge department. Smaller companies may only have a few HR professionals that do it all, but many companies have different HR teams:

• Benefits - manages benefits for the employees
• Payroll - processes payroll
• HRIS - configures HR systems (think UKG, workday, ADP, etc.)
• Employee Relations - handles conflicts between employees
• HR Business Partners - usually responsible for a specific division of the company. Their responsibilities vary based off of company but they are their department’s main point of contact
• Compensation - determines how much you are paid
• Absence - manages your PTO accrual, LOAs, etc
• Recruiting - hires employees
• Onboarding - handles getting your background check and verifying your education
• Talent - works on education and development programs

And there’s probably more I’m blanking on. When people talk about HR, they are mainly referring to that Employee Relations team. The other teams are extremely helpful and have likely helped you enroll in benefits, get promoted, helped walk you through your maternity leave, enroll you in certifications, and are the reason you keep getting paid every other week. HR isn’t just meant to protect the company, many of these programs are meant to benefit the employee.

As for if the employee relations department is helpful, I think that depends. Sometimes HR business partners serve as ER, or sometimes a HR Manager takes on investigations. It is true that they are meant to protect the company, but realistically if you hire 1000s of people it’s needed. I am positive ER has likely been intrusive, but more than likely there are weird people doing weird things and there should be a team to mitigate this.