HR used to be called Personnel – The name changed to reflect a more rounded function, which blended training and development with the admin role. It is clear enough that the function deals with the legal and admin aspects of employees as well as training and development. But what we don’t usually see is that HR and employees are operating within a complex system and thus, all their activities are subservient to that system. When the system is intentionally distorted by the law and by whatever becomes normal behaviour, then we get a function that is no longer looking after the best long-term interests of employees but is actually engaged in exploiting those employees to realise such concepts as “sustainable growth” – a discredited whimsey of a sub-set of our economic system and maybe an oxymoron.
Article by John Varney 29 January 2023