Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

What HR? There IS NO HR, at least in the context that HR exists in most companies.
All of their functions have been farmed out over the years. Once upon a time, we had some good HR types in my market that you could reach out to with benefits questions/ concerns, personnel issues, and the like. You know, like HR at a normal company. Those days and those people are LONG GONE.

OP.....here’s a secret....if you want to know who selects those for layoffs/headcount reductions....it’s not HR.....it’s your own leadership .... top to bottom....HR simply manages the process ..... That supervisor or team lead who grins in your face.... they’re the ones that make the decision on how his/her direct reports are ranked......There’s always a list.....in good or bad profit years......But go ahead and keep blaming HR. Your leadership is happy you’re so misinformed. Congratulations....

HR has to be the easiest organization to work in. No Code of Conduct enforcement and cut the head count!!

OP....HR was NOT invented in the 1990’s.....The amount of inaccurate information posted on this site is sad.

HR is a slogan machine

It is obvious that ATT has a significant amount of uneducated ‘rank and file’. The responses here are not only uninformed comments, but they show a sad amount of inaccurate general knowledge about how organizations operate....not just T. Wow!

@ohi+1b4. It’s obvious you don’t know what you’re talking about...’sacred cow’....time to lay off. If you had a minuscule amount of knowledge and information about HR you would know that HR employees, are like every other business segment; they are at will employees. They are subject to the same downsizing, reorganizing, surplussing, outsourcing as every other organization. But, you don’t know that or much of anything else. So you, fella, do what what you’re good at, you spew lies.

Did you see the mansion AT&T bought for the head of HR??

HR is a total waste of cash. It's time we see layoffs in HR, if Stankey tries to layoff rank and file. I realize they claim they are sacred cattle, but fair is fair.

HR can send you a "we care" notice which will get you to complain more because that is what you do, complain.

Actually, @qji+1b4em2u5 raised a fantastic idea: get rid of nearly all of HR and just outsource it. It would save cost and nobody would notice any difference. Especially since all HR does is process new employees, rubber stamp the puny raises and rare promotion, and file away the layoffs.

It certainly doesn't seem like a vital part of the company, nor one anyone would miss. Then again, the same could be said of the C-Suite

HR is more of a policy mouth piece than anything else these days. Executives announce roll backs, HR is there to explain the details on how the roll back works. Last time I check, we are not in kindergarten, and bad news explained in different ways do not become good news.

HR is pushing paper in their own design, it is a non-core function ripe for outsourcing. Non-intelligence, non-value add, non-strategic, moving from point A to point B, generating bureaucracy for the sake for bureaucracy.

Improving employee morale isn't in HR's mission statement, there isn't a metric for that. And this company is famous for what's gets measured gets done.

Hr was invented in the early 90's to protect corporations from employees, never was it about the worker.

I was the OP for that comment, and I am flattered someone thought enough of it to repost. As for the comment by @oxw+1b4em2u5 I again ask what, exactly, can HR do to raise morale? Bowling night? Free ice cream on friday afternoons? Strippers and massages during lunch?

The fact is the low morale is so widespread and ingrained in T's culture that at this point it's impossible for HR to do anything about it - even if they were so inclined (which they absolutely are not). Anything HR tries at this point will seem demeaning and patronizing. At best it will come off as a ham-handed acknowledgement that things are so bad they need some sort of 'bread and circuses' to help keep the employees from revolting.

When the cause of a problem is 10 years of incompetence and utter disdain for the employees, no amount of free coffee or casual fridays will help, because the disease (in the form of senior executives) is still there. Yeah, you might temporarily enjoy your trinket, but you'll still have Stink and his complete hubris running the show.

Again I say asking HR to help is like asking Santy for a pony.

HR can be held accountable to do their job. Improving employee morale is their responsibility. They will deny responsibility, but it falls squarely in their sandbox.