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Human Resources Nazis
This entry was posted on 11/17/2009 1:30 AM and is filed under Culture of Perkies, Meritless job culture, Working, Obfuscation, Human Resources Paradox, Banality as evil, Job Interviews from Hell, Cutthroat networking, Jobs and Old Guys, Mean spirited facilitators.
I remember 30 years ago being hired into a big city Park and Recreation Department. They called quite soon after I handed in a resume and application. Their human resources folks screened me, said a few friendly words of encouragement, and sent me to the job sight for an interview.
Long gone are those days. If you are lucky enough to find a job nowadays, it is probably through a relative or labor force service. Try to get a job through your current company lately (if you still have a job)? Human resources seems to be the facilitators of a new cutthroat work environment. It is cutthroat networking. Every man and women for themselves.
"You have too much experience," the perky-breasted 22-year-old human resources woman said.
That's an obfuscated way to say, [you are too old you old bastard].
I thought about saying to her but didn't, [Tell me Perky, I can take it. Really, I have worked for 45 years at one job or another. Never been on unemployment. Have not missed a day in ten years. Been in three war zones, a couple of them twice. I can handle the truth, Ms. Perky].
"Too much experience?...Great," I said. "I will just live in a cardboard box until something high-ended comes my way."
Another time, I was told, "You have too much education,"
That is also code for, [you will be too much competition for the suck asses that run this place].
"Ahh, shucks," I said at that interview unable to sit silent anymore. "I guess all that bull shit about bettering your self by going back to college was a fuck'n canard."
And then there is the human resources coup de grace. Ninety percent of American human resource departments have embraced "applicant tracking" software. They celebrate this little Orwellian gem. The software searches your resume for "key words." So, essentially, you need not be a good employee candidate, but rather you need only be a clever obfuscation writer. Find out what words they are looking for and spoon feed them back into your resume. You could be an ax murderer for all "applicant tracking" cares.
"Applicant tracking" is no more sophisticated than the tricks some of the early-Internet porn sights used to lasso in surfers. They simply flooded their porn sight home pages with sex related words so surf engines would take the bait. Human resource: retreaded porn wizards.
There is the general impression by loyal employees that Wisconsin Huber Law workers (prisoners let out during the day to work), parolees, as well as displaced workers from favored collapsed companies, get preferential treatment over general applicants for a job. There is the assumption that former convicts and special displaced workers afford the hiring company perks from the state and the county. This favoritism aura hanging over the work place makes law abiding and loyal employees feel like there is no point in applying for a particular job. I would love for someone to correct this assumption by the working banal at-large that they are wrong - but the pundit gallery is silent.
Now, human resource departments are so depleted due to the economy, they surrender to floor managers' whims and hire drinking buddies, and relatives. So they have even abandoned their beloved "applicant tracking" schemes.
Human resources, in this age of the "new norm," are facilitators for a culture of prejudice and nepotism they were originally designed to prevent.
The only saving grace is that when owners look around to cut the last of their companies to the bare bone, guess who does not work on the line or build the product? The Ol' Dadio just can't pinch out a single tear at all when a human resource person gets the "pink slip."
Small pleasures in a new-norm, work world from hell.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
This week's Wisconsin military service person to remember is 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corporal Brian R. Prening. Corporal Prening is from Plymouth; he died while engaging the enemy in Babil Province, Iraq, on November 12, 2004. Prening was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve. The unit is from Chicago. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Brian is a graduate of Plymouth High School. He had gotten married on August 13, 2004, and he and wife Amy were expecting their first child. CNN.com lists the Prenings as from Sheboygan. The Journal Sentinel also mentioned Brian went to Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland, Wisconsin where he got a degree completing the tool-and-die program. Brian worked at Kohler Company. His Marine Reserve unit was activated. Brian is survived by a twin brother, Bill, a younger sister, Ann, 21, wife Amy, a step son, and mother and father Brian and Deborah Prening. Corporal Brian Prening was the 27th Wisconsin military service person killed in the fighting in Iraq.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
94,144 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,315 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,367 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
914 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
594 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,571 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,529 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
101 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
16 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
139 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
17 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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