They aren’t, on an individual basis. However, on a gestalt basis the sum of the individual components can feel as though other employees are meaningless micro-cogs. Why? It is important to understand a few things about HR.
1). HR exists to benefit the company, it’s reputation, and the bottom line. HR is NOT your friend.
2). HR views team members as “resources” to be managed, think light bulbs. If they see too many light bulbs, they reduce the number or vice versa. If a light bulb is flickering, they determine if it needs replacing or just a tap to improve the connection. THIS IS NOT A TARGET HR CREATED PROBLEM. This is the norm for the HR industry at all large companies that view workers as ‘resources’ and not people.
3). Most HR specialists are folks that prefer order, direction, and simplicity. They’re not id–ts or don’t care - they have been trained and conditioned to recognize following rules & checking boxes makes them able to exist in a preferable work environment and the more boxes they can check in making (or not making) a decision, the easier their job becomes.
4). HR specialists are more likely to,face termination or legal action than almost any other team member and act often out of self-preservation. HR policies exist to protect information deemed by local/state/federal rules/laws as confidential. A breach of those rules/laws open oneself, if not the company, to potentially serious consequences.
5). A lack of consistency of how/when a policy is administered reflects less on Target and more on differing rules/laws enacted by local cities/counties/states. What may be legal & acceptable in one area may be illegal in another, even if in the same county or state. Big HR has to track these variances and ensure policies reflect either a corporate wide response or a focused response, keeping dispersed HR specialists informed/updated.
6). Those who make-up the HR gestalt are human. Some are kind, empathetic, willing to do all they can, are all always happy no matter what life tosses at them. Those who are not their polar opposite fall somewhere in between. They make mistakes, rely on bad data or advice, or bang their head against the wall.
Promises or dreams that you could work for a company the size of Target & not run into something similar is a lie. I know because I worked for a much smaller company (350k).
As long as workers are resources, it is pointless to ascribe good/evil, right/wrong, etc. to HR at the group or individual level. Until workers are treated as people in all ways human, HR will be seen as evil.
I know because I was put on STD at recommendation of my boss to deal with a mental health issue interfering with my job; apparently crying and screaming is not appreciated by peers. The STD turned into LTD which ended when a doctor permanently disabled me relative to here-to-fore unknown issues I had coped with until the coping ability went down the toilet. As I went through the various stages I dealt with pencil pushers and rule readers until the last person I dealt with - the one who made a difference for me. Although monetary benefits from LTD provider were ending and there was nothing more to be done, this specialist extended the date of my “administrative separation” by almost 3 months so I could achieve 30 years of service. It may seem trivial to some, but it was important to me and this specialist was willing to show compassion and honor me in granting the request. It was something that cost nothing, but it was beyond guidelines & rules and treated me as a human - not as a resource.