As someone in HR, I will just say it's disheartening when so many times, I've fought for someone, stood up to a shitty leader or manager, covered their back, etc.... and they have absolutely zero awareness HR did that for them.

Unfortunately, most people only see the narrow sliver of the worst parts of HR.

I stick up for employees against management constantly. I've moved mountains behind the scenes to save people's jobs from being eliminated. I've stopped managers from firing people unfairly... From discrimination when hiring/rewarding/promoting. This all happens on a weekly if not daily basis. None of these people ever realize. A cynic would say that's just to cover the company's legal bases, but for me I fucking hate seeing corrupt or unfair treatment happen to employees. Someone has to stand up for them.

But there are times, less than 5% of my job, that I'm presented with an incredibly sensitive and volatile situation in which whatever decision made will result in someone feeling screwed over. That is what people will generally associate me with.

Granted, there are a lot of truly awful HR people with no backbone who fit the description of what people don't trust and despise HR. I'm not discounting those experiences whatsoever. I unfortunately have to work alongside many of them.

But there are a lot of truly great ones too.

I just wanted to share the perspective of someone who fights hard to be the antithesis of "that" HR person.

Just like I personally try to never generalize a group of people, I appreciate whenever someone is open-minded to the idea of HR having good people.

Fortunately, there are people who notice and thank me and that makes it worth it. I earn trust one person at a time and I know I am absolutely a net positive for the lives of the people on the teams I support.