Which is more useless at your workplace: IT or HR?

[DeacHawk]

i voted HR. In my organization, there are some talented people working in HR, but the limits of the organization and public sector funding make it tougher for them to do what we'd like for them to do.

IT here does a great job with the limited resources available. One thing I notice is how tough it is to find added funding for IT. It's a back of the house service for the organization, not front line like police or sanitation, and therefore makes it that much tougher to justify adding expenses for projects, regardless of how important they are in the long run.

 

[ImTheCaptain]

HR is basically the government: a necessary evil filled with tedious bureaucracy

 

[bym051d]

HR is basically the government: a necessary evil filled with tedious bureaucracy

Another way to think of it is, most of the things HR does is because of the government.

 

[RollTheQuad06]

I hate that IT has locked down our computers so much that I can't apply updates to installed programs. Every day Firefox and Adobe Flash tell me they want to update but I can't do it. But the IT guys are good people who help out when they can, even if it takes hours and you can't do anything on your computer in the meantime. There is a Help Desk number we can call and an email address we can send to ask for help.

HR, I don't know how to get in touch with at all. The company has consolidated their duties so much that I haven't seen an HR person in a couple years and don't know who I would talk to if I needed to. Right now we are heading into open enrollment which might be all HR helps with, but it is just sending us an email.

We have neither of these departments in-house. They all sit in Charlotte so now and then someone will come visit Greensboro but not often. I bet we could get our problems handled more quickly if we could walk up to someone and ask for help in person.

 

[avalon]

I like our IT group. They’re great problem-solvers. If they can’t figure something out relatively quickly, or if it needs to go through another department, they’ll let me get back to my day and a little while later everything is fixed. Which I very much appreciate since I have no idea what I’m doing IT-wise.

I don’t really interact with HR enough to have a strong opinion. I know they can make things more complicated sometimes, but it’s our own damn fault for being such a litigious society.

 

[smallbigtall]

Another way to think of it is, most of the things HR does is because of the government.

This is 100% dead on. I work in a heavily regulated area of HR so I'm obviously biased, but if you'd rather have the Federal Reserve Board, CFPB, etc. breathing down your throats instead of mine, have at it.

 

[94Deac]

How about this question:

Which is more useless?

A) The IT department at an Amish furniture maker's shop;

or

B) The HR department at Wake Forest.

 

[94Deac]

Another way to think of it is, most of the things HR does is because of the government.

Or legal cases. People who file suits over HR issues also lobby their representatives for legal changes.

 

[smallbigtall]

Or legal cases. People who file suits over HR issues also lobby their representatives for legal changes.

Which are then enacted, and thus requiring more HR staff. The endless cycle

Fucking Lily Ledbetter

 

[davejuice]

who wakes up one day and says, i would like to be in HR.

no one

 

[94Deac]

Which are then enacted, and thus requiring more HR staff. The endless cycle

Fucking Lily Ledbetter

The Ouroboros never ends, only grows bigger.

 

[94Deac]

who wakes up one day and says, i would like to be in HR.

no one

Not true. There are failed proctologists who have to find work.

 

[smallbigtall]

who wakes up one day and says, i would like to be in HR.

no one

haha the offer I got for HR blindsided me at first, but then I said why the hell not. If only this thread was around back then

 

[Demon09]

I work in the field so I don't even meet either of these groups of people. I imagine this is a good thing.

HR gives me useless career surveys/assessments, and IT gave me a computer that is so goddamn useless I haven't turned it on in a year.

I think the HR dept spends more time justifying their position than actually doing anything, while IT occasionally pipes in with an update every once in a while. However, the main company phone number somehow got rerouted to some poor lady's direct line last week, so she's probably not thrilled with them at the moment.

HR is worse.

 

[bojanglefunk]

I hate that IT has locked down our computers so much that I can't apply updates to installed programs. Every day Firefox and Adobe Flash tell me they want to update but I can't do it. But the IT guys are good people who help out when they can, even if it takes hours and you can't do anything on your computer in the meantime. There is a Help Desk number we can call and an email address we can send to ask for help.

HR, I don't know how to get in touch with at all. The company has consolidated their duties so much that I haven't seen an HR person in a couple years and don't know who I would talk to if I needed to. Right now we are heading into open enrollment which might be all HR helps with, but it is just sending us an email.

We have neither of these departments in-house. They all sit in Charlotte so now and then someone will come visit Greensboro but not often. I bet we could get our problems handled more quickly if we could walk up to someone and ask for help in person.

None of this surprises me about TWC.

 

[bojanglefunk]

DBA at my place is another department altogether. And operations covers some traditional IT stuff like videoconferencing or telephony too. Maybe my place is weird. 150 employees, eight or so in IT. No developers or specialists, just helpdesk drones.

Wow, we have 3 for 140 or so employees.

 

[Toogs]

IT actually serves a purpose. HR is a position that should be 1/4 of a low level admin's work share.

 

[EatLeadCommie]

IT by a mile, though their hands are tied a lot of time by factors outside of their control.

I don't deal with HR because I don't have problems with my bosses and, somewhat incredibly, nobody has complained about me yet at work for my foul mouth or inappropriate workplace conversations (*knock on wood*). I'm just that fucking loveable.

 

[WRS]

IT sent me a temporary computer that won't let me log on to the system which means I can't do any work at all. And of course they won't pick up the phone. Thanks a lot you fucks.

 

[DeaconWalker]

IT sent me a temporary computer that won't let me log on to the system which means I can't do any work at all. And of course they won't pick up the phone. Thanks a lot you fucks.

What'd you do to piss them off? That's the one thing I've learned at every place I've ever worked, make friends with the IT people fast. It's gotten me nicer computers, better access to websites, and pretty much anything else I want.

On the flip side, I've annoyed HR at almost every place I've worked and they can't do shit :3