EVIL HR Lady

Hi,
I am amazed at the response I am getting to my request to my network thro Linkedin. This is a good tool to establish your contacts and networks. I thank all those who accepted my request(some of them blind) to be part of my network.

Ok, on to the subject. I came across the interview with the Evil HR lady at the Cranky middlemanger podcast. The lady who is HR manager at fortune 500 Company, anonymously blogs on HR aspects. HR is mostly Evil, I guess, and many of us would agree. I think HR is mostly set out to Hire and fire in most sense and most of the time are there to make the hiring of people at the lowest cost to the organization. I waned to see how it is to be a HR person, thats why I chose to do my MBA in HR. Its an interesting experience, Will share that some other time. I also agree with the Evil HR lady that one thing that an organization really need to introspect and work is the compensation structure.

My interaction with HR during offer stage has been mixed. In 2 situations, I was extremely fortunate. I have my own personal doubt such HR professionals do exist any more. One was my Sandoz hiring in 1991. The HR Manager stunned me completely (after 3 rounds of interview) by offering me a monthly basic salary in the offer, which was more than the monthly gross salary at that time (all perks included). At that situation, I was so raw person, (Forget soft skills I was just 5 years in to my career) that I asked for Still Rs. 100 more in Basic salary, ( I was just married and I thought that Rs. 100 would help me for the Milk powder for the Baby that was to come in 10 months time) and he readily agreed even to that and increased the offer by Rs.100/-. I was on the 7th Heaven so to say, I can still remember that moment as to where it happened and how it happened. So that was a great experience in contrast to these days where everything is calculated in terms of % increase. Of course, Sandoz always valued people the most. We always worked there with the philosophy that rules are meant to be broken and are to be used as an exception.

The second experience was the BASF offer in 1997 for safety Manager, the then GM BASF HR, sent me the offer letter, (there was no discussions at any stage during the interview about compensation) and I just went through the offer letter (Waited for 2 days anxiously as there were no courier service) and joined the company. The offer was more than I could have even imagined in my wildest dreams. (More of perquisites too,which was till then unknown commodity to me).

All the other job offers were kind of bargain and negotiations which calls for a kind of compromise on both sides. No wonder, I gave my best best of the best effort from my heart in these 2 organizations. I had to leave these two organizations for totally very personal reasons where the Job situation mattered a little in making the decision to move. Also the Sandoz and BASF experience made me a complete HSE professional and career Manager respectively.

My thoughts to pen the blog were also triggered by the Manager tools podcast on Set the bar on effective hiring by Mike and Mark. My 2 job offers are the real life situations which are explained in the podcast which go above and beyond the need.

Also wanted to touch up on the liveearth concert. I remember the 1984 Band aid concert for the famine stricken Africa, where we struggled even to listen to it live on Radio. So much technology has moved. The global warming is a big concern, no doubt. I am touched by the efforts kid put in to it to make the earth a better place.(My thoughts on that later).

I have subscribed to the Economist magazine, I tell you,its a great one stop source of information to know all the happenings in the world. My Sunday morning,is spent in completing the 100 page magazine. (8 to 12). No Email, computer till 4 pm on Sundays.

PS: I was also excited by the comments posted in my Blog last week.

Till next time, take it easy& take care and Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.