Anyone have any good stories about their manager or HR actually supporting you? I feel like they’re only good for protecting the company and then a heartless layoff especially if you say anything negative to them...speak up and get fired eh?
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GE HR did nothing to help me. They laid me off after 16 years and never sent me my severance because they said there was another job for me completely unrelated to what I was doing.
HR is only here to protect the company from you. Thats it. Dont talk to them ever unless you have too.
I have a good story about HR. I was hired in 2002. Then I was layed off in June after 18 years. All good things must come to an end.
GE's HR department serves two purposes: 1) take care of the details of hiring (trying to get the best people at reasonable cost), and 2) protect the company from harm/loss/damage from employees that might turn litigious, crazy, disruptive and/or violent. Companies don't spend the money for HR departments of other reasons.
If you went to GE HR about a problem thinking they will help, they are looking at you to see if you will turn into 2).
@1tjq+16eWhwj9 sounds like you were more of the solution than the problem before you retired. Too bad you're no longer with us because you probably would be pretty helpful right about now.
@wjb+16eWhwj9, what input would you have? GE would a) figure demand, b) staff by headcount and specific roles, c) can those first with poor discipline records, d) plan for layoffs by impacted roles by low-seniority first and e) adjust for the previous item (d) for disparate impact so as not impact the pre-layoff mix of EEO protected classes.
The way I like to play it (I'm a retired Director) is if a Manager/Supervisor disagrees with the corporate plan they can submit one that has a) the same cost out as corporate proposed and b) has no disparate impact. If they can fine, corporate will usually make the changes. If they don't submit a plan meeting that criteria and continue to b–ch, I needed to add one more to lay-off the list, the Manager/Supervisor who can't get with the program!
HR -> Human Remains. Remember the head of HR has to be careful not to slip on the bottle when he/she gets up in the morning.
If you want nothing done, call HR.
Based on having my own staff laid off over a period of many months and being laid off myself I can tell you that your local HR and immediate manager have zero input on who gets laid off. Immediate management & local HR are the last to find out. GE does "rooftop" reductions which generally means that there is no site input. In once instance I had 3 employees let go and was informed via generic HR email notification a week prior. The day before the layoff was to be announced my immediate manager and his manager had no idea that staff at my location were being eliminated.
It's a Cancel Culture
I’d have to agree; GE’s HR didn’t help me at all, I think they actually made my situation worse with my manager. Unfortunately after discussions with others, it sounds like HR at most corporations are mostly useless.