Is HR causing the competency crisis?

[Xarpho's Return]

There's probably a better way to say this, but when I read biographies and stories of how the world was, there's usually a theme that there's a number of brilliant if "weird" people out there and those people helped change the world.

In the case of AT&T, the original company, way back when, had a president who knew very little about how the phone company actually worked, but was brilliant because he knew that the phone system could be improved by new technology and engineers, and sub-delegated it to engineers, who in turn hired other engineers and scientists, who, under their Bell Labs subsidiary, made a lot of money for AT&T but created a bunch of other things too, including the transistor, the whole concept of information theory, and many other inventions in computer science and technology. Likewise, something like DOOM never would've happened if Al Vekovius didn't personally recognize the genius of Carmack and Romero, giving them a job at Softdisk and starting their careers.

The issue is HR departments are in charge of hiring people these days and either don't understand or willfully spite the "unusual" people, instead people who are more "social" but don't power innovation, or worse, people who are only hired because they aren't a white male. As a result, people with potential get locked out of industries, and creates a generation who can't innovate or even maintain the systems their predecessors built up.

 

[Al from Dadeville]

Whenever I apply to a job I have to tailor my resume to the specific listing, because I know some mouthbreathing leech in HR is going to have to interpret a job listing and resume that they have 0 understanding of

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

Only indirectly, the bigger problem is the consolidation in certain industries that allows these HR departments to have so much influence to begin with. I think the very shift in term from "Personnel" to "Human Resources" itself is indicative of the problem - you're not a long-term asset to invest in, you're a short-term resource to be consumed and discarded.

In fields with low barriers to entry and a lot of competitors there is no competency crisis. I think raising interest rates and the end of money printing are starting to flush this out and restore competency in more fields, but it's going to take a long time to fix something that's been nearly 20 years in the making.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

You are absolutely correct that HR is a huge part of the problem. I say it a lot but: the people that built the machines are dead.

Now a bunch of headstrong morons that have been told they know everything are in charge and they can't even turn a wrench or fix a broken sink.

How the fuck can you balance a budget or conduct worthwhile hiring campaigns when you can't even fix a sink?

 

[retard strength II]

Yes, they are a cog in the competency crisis machine. They help to propel people that have no business working a shift at Popeyes upwards into key positions in vital industries.

 

[Chongqing]

I think a lot of this comes down to race and sex. If a company is hiring based on those two metrics, it's going to stifle any innovation that could have occurred.

Yes, it's HR departments, but it's HR departments specifically because of this.

If HR departments were dedicated to getting the most qualified people possible to work for their company, along with giving them support to hire their own subordinates based on their own merit-based systems, it could be a lot better.

Unfortunately, a lot of these ladies see their job as a way to contribute to the dismantling of capitalism by upholding intersectionality, which sounds insane but I promise I'm not even making that up.

 

[Norbert the Tiger]

There is a youtube channel called A Life After Layoff and while it offers some good although often quite obvious advice, it does show you what an insane society we find ourselves in, especially in terms of the white collar workplace.

Here is a video confirming that HR attaches stigma to anyone who was laidoff or fired.

Here is one imploring the viewer that your coworkers are not your friend:

Things did not used to be that way. I understand and agree with not talking politics or religion but the result is someone has to be in a constant state of phoney game show contestant mentality where nothing is sincere and one must audit everything that is said or uttered because some of your coworkers are invariably passive aggressive cunts who have nothing better to do than create stupid power struggles that should not exist.

I won't post it for opsec reasons but someone I know looking for a job sent me a linkedin job listing that was classified as "entry level" but required five years experience for all of these software platforms that one could probably gain proficiency in a week or two. Employers no longer want to invest in people or develop people.

 

[Chongqing]

Things did not used to be that way.

I think the tech industry importing millions of Indians who brought their workplace culture with them is responsible for this shift.

We hear these stories about bosses telling recruiters insane things, and we assume these are rich, old white men, like J Jonah Jameson. But I would bet anything that most of these stories are about the whims of Indians and Chinese.

Especially the one about not wanting to hire people were caught up in the mass layoffs at Facebook and Google (100,000 people in one day, if I remember correctly?) that is 100% Chinese thinking, derived from communist thought. It's like executing your soldiers after they were returned to you as POW's because...wait, why do we do this again?

Anyway, same thing.

Most Americans have been trained since birth to think that all foreign workers are good people with a heart of gold. They're simply not ready to encounter an Indian department head at their American tech company. The culture of our past has been steamrolled by this.

You know at convenience stores how they have the "leave a penny, take a penny," in case you're short ten cents or something? Well, it's not illegal to just go in and take the coins without purchasing anything. Society isn't ready for that to happen at scale, but it's legal. Now, imagine that every city suddenly had 100s or 1000s of outsiders who go into all the stores every hour and take all the coins. The leave a penny take a penny trays would disappear, and we would all complain that convenience stores just aren't as convenient and friendly as they used to be.

The same thing is happening in the workplace.

 

[Norbert the Tiger]

I think the tech industry importing millions of Indians who brought their workplace culture with them is responsible for this shift.

That might have exacerbated things but it is not incidental that HR is almost exclusively women and gay or at least effete men.

To further the point, this video from the old guy who used to do those Truth about videos on Cracked is funny but also dread inducing.

 

[Conspiracy Mawile]

HR: Humongously Retarded

 

[User names must be unique]

HR is part of the management apparatus, management is hilariously and infuriatingly incompetent in 98% of the places I've ever worked and I used to do a lot of temp work I've seen more than my fair share of shitty management.

I think the most egregious was a warehousing gig where half the workforce could have been lain off for the cost of a around 5 wi-fi enabled raspberry pi's, project boxes, monitors, and wall mounts. They were pissing away over a quarter of a million pounds a year for no reason other than no one from management thought it might be a good idea to join the crews for an afternoon to see how shit their system was. Not that I was going to jump in with the suggestion fuck 'em.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I don't think it caused the competency crisis, but it definitely accelerated it. The main cause of the crisis is that everyone delayed the issue that the boomers in charge retiring until it explodes in our face. Though it doesn't help the new generation being idiot faggots who can't pick up the slack.

 

[sadrefrigerator]

Weird autistic savants are overrated, largely by people who watch them in movies. Working with autists is horrible. Building scalable teams is what allows a company to grow. Catering weird people because they might be "brilliant" is a good way to drive away talent.

 

[The Ugly One]

No, not directly. The problem is why we have HR departments in the first place, and that is because if you don't hire enough women and blacks, the EEOC can sue your company into the ground. You need to create a paper trail to prove in court that you hired a white male because he's competent, not because you irrationally hate women and blacks. And look, it's just easiest to not hire the competent person and hire the black woman instead. Then, of course, you have the mass influx of cheap Indian labor, which has nothing to do with HR.

 

[Lemmingwiser]

There are many moving parts contributing, but the lack of focusing on competency in education and business must be one of the core drivers. Representation, social justice, quota's are all anti-compency measures.

I'm guessing it also prevents giving the most competent the opportunities to grow and become more competent, as they otherwise would've.

Weird autistic savants are overrated, largely by people who watch them in movies. Working with autists is horrible. Building scalable teams is what allows a company to grow. Catering weird people because they might be "brilliant" is a good way to drive away talent.

They're valuable, but things go wrong when a team has more than one.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

I really don't want to power level, but, frankly, it breaks my heart to read these old biographies and autobiographies, and to learn the stories of people who were accepted into departments or government projects to do great things, and who succeeded at it. I have novel ideas; I have the intelligence, will, and competency to carry them out, but my society is dying, and I must do these things alone. This atomization drives depression and hatred, and I'm certain men who were just as good as I have fallen to those things.

I want to join Xerox PARC, the MIT AI lab, or even Bell Labs, but I'm not aware of anything like them that currently exists. I want to add someone once told me that she hoped I could find like-minded people and do great things, and I had to remind her that's what university is supposed to be. I was in a college class once, and the professor played a fucking cartoon to placate the class, because he was busy. That's when I was completely disillusioned to all of this bullshit.

Here's something fun: "Idiocracy" was inspired by a story titled "The Marching Morons" and, in the end, the cabal of smart people keeping the morons alive successfully kill all of them.

 

[Drkinferno72]

That's cause they hire peeps who nail the interview, not the most competent

 

[The Hardest R]

HR dumbfuckery goes only as far as management allows it. At the same time, HR allows management to throw their hands up and say that they had no choice but to let HR run roughshod over them. Unless it’s a nepotistic hire or someone they really find valuable, which then they will go to the mat for them but whether you fall into that category or not, there’s only one way to find out. Most senior managers believe everyone under them is replaceable unless they’re related or connected to the right people. Many senior managers up through the c suites are true believers who believe a pajeet with a degree not worth the paper it’s printed on is every bit as valuable as a senior engineer with 30 years of experience. Even more valuable in fact because they tick off the right boxes.

I really don't want to power level, but, frankly, it breaks my heart to read these old biographies and autobiographies, and to learn the stories of people who were accepted into departments or government projects to do great things, and who succeeded at it. I have novel ideas; I have the intelligence, will, and competency to carry them out, but my society is dying, and I must do these things alone. This atomization drives depression and hatred, and I'm certain men who were just as good as I have fallen to those things.

These places exist but in small pockets and generally the innovation at those places get snuffed out once venture capitalists or private finance get involved. I do see these places still obtaining government grants. Basically they get grant money, lock in contracts, then they need to expand. At that point, they bring in private finance who makes all kinds of demands. The owners usually cash out at that point and walk away with millions. After that the businesses appoint a pajeet, a woman, or a faggot, someone who will comply with every demand their owners make. All the talent leaves for the next startup and the cycle begins anew. I’ve seen resumes from people in their 50s who have done nothing but bounce from startup to startup all their post-collegiate lives.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

HR dumbfuckery goes only as far as management allows it. At the same time, HR allows management to throw their hands up and say that they had no choice but to let HR run roughshod over them. Unless it’s a nepotistic hire or someone they really find valuable, which then they will go to the mat for them but whether you fall into that category or not, there’s only one way to find out. Most senior managers believe everyone under them is replaceable unless they’re related or connected to the right people. Many senior managers up through the c suites are true believers who believe a pajeet with a degree not worth the paper it’s printed on is every bit as valuable as a senior engineer with 30 years of experience. Even more valuable in fact because they tick off the right boxes.

This is why the C-suite and people managing HR is to blame. They're either unaware of, or caused, the issue of bad delegation...and with companies being massive bureaucracies these days it's unlikely that someone at the top could have any success unfucking the company, because there's so many things tied into it.

Just imagine this scenario:
1. One-in-a-million person rises from the ether and becomes a high-level executive.
2. Said executive is aware of bad conditions and/or poor compensation at the bottom of company.
3. Does research and finds massively bloated middle management/HR segment.
4. Proposes cutting X number of jobs.
5. Most of these happen to be women, or diversity hires, or just a big number, despite the cuts would free up a significant budget for the rank-and-file, investing in the company, etc.
6. Wall Street hit pieces attack executive as being a scumbag, stock price takes hit.
7. Fixing the company never happens.

The other big problem is that the system has engineered a world where it's now impossible for a normal person to start a business--even a brick-and-mortar restaurant is hideously expensive and outpaced inflation by a massive degree.

There is no one starting a company in their garage that will grow to be the next Apple, AT&T, Walmart, Westinghouse, or McDonald's, and even now companies "start" their histories with investors, not the original. Keurig Dr Pepper was "founded" in 1981 when Bob Stiller, who made a small fortune selling rolling papers bought a "small specialty coffee roasting company" in Vermont following a good cup of coffee. We don't actually even know when this facility was founded, or its original name, all we know is some pot-smoking investor bought into it in 1981. (The Founder touches on this subject, but in that case he wasn't lying, he created a company to franchise McDonald's restaurants before purchasing the company).

Weird autistic savants are overrated, largely by people who watch them in movies. Working with autists is horrible. Building scalable teams is what allows a company to grow. Catering weird people because they might be "brilliant" is a good way to drive away talent.

We're not talking about Rain Man-style autists, we're talking everyone who doesn't fit into the "normie employee" template. (Hint: if you're on Kiwi Farms this is probably you.) Even then, it's not and was never "he's weird, therefore he's brilliant", it's "he's got a ton of potential even if he is weird".

 

[SIMIΔN]

Another aspect is that management sees employees as a replaceable component to hire and fire for just the current project or quarter.
They forget the importance of institutional knowledge, and the slowdown of existing teams when they have to get a new worker up to speed.
Also

Myth of the man month: Complex programming projects cannot be perfectly partitioned into discrete tasks that can be worked on without communication between the workers and without establishing a set of complex interrelationships between tasks and the workers performing them.

Therefore, assigning more programmers to a project running behind schedule will make it even later. This is because the time required for the new programmers to learn about the project and the increased communication overhead will consume an ever-increasing quantity of the calendar time available. When n people have to communicate among themselves, as n increases, their output decreases and when it becomes negative the project is delayed further with every person added.

• Group intercommunication formula: n(n − 1)/2.
• Example: 50 developers give 50 × (50 – 1)/2 = 1,225 channels of communication.

Larian's excellent CEO said something similar this week.

"It's always the quarterly profits," he continued, "the only thing that matters are the numbers, and then you fire everybody and then next year you say 'shit I'm out of developers' and then you start hiring people again, and then you do acquisitions, and then you put them in the same loop again, and it's just broken...

"You don't have to," Vincke went on. "You can make reserves. Just slow down a bit. Slow down on the greed. Be resilient, take care of the people, don't lose the institutional knowledge that's been built up in the people you lose every single time, so you have to go through the same cycle over and over and over. It really pisses me off."

AI is making the hiring service worse, not through replacing knowledge work, but by making it super easy to filter applications, but also spam hundreds of job applications designed to bypass the filters far better than a normal human could.