Depends. I’ve thought of it as a way to document for a lawsuit, especially if they don’t fix a real problem.

Man, this isn't always true.

At least not in civilised world... maybe US is such a shithole but HR can do a lot of good when the manager is shit at their job.

Lemmy is basically site wide antiwork subreddit so I'm not surprised.

They are not your friend but they are also not your manager's friend. They're there to protect the corporation, the CEO and the board. If your manager is doing something that can get the company in legal trouble then HR can absolutely shed the manager. Especially if you demonstrate that you're building a solid case (e.g. documenting each incident while memory is fresh).

Correct. HR is not your friend and they are there to make sure that the company is not liable for any damages. If you are in the rare position where upper management is not your opponent and whatever shit is happening can float up to them, then HR can be used as a weapon.

Well, it really depends on how strong your areas labour laws are. HR will protect the company from violating labour laws and being sued/fined and the HR people might be happy to help you, but in the end you don't really matter. All they're doing is protecting the company.

Entirely dependant on the company culture, and the legal protections for workers. It isnt that simple.

Sometimes they are there to protect upper management from the liability of employing an idiot in lower management.

HR recorded my sexism complaint against an old manager. Got me moved to a better team at least

I thought they meant the stuff growing behind the fridge.

For years I had asked people to reach out on my vacation because I thought it would keep things from piling up and give me a less stressful return. This past year they actually were calling me everyday and while it felt cool to feel needed when I came back I did not have the same energy I had when they wouldn’t call. Like I never took the vacation in the first place.

Take real time off people. Those moments of rejuvenation matter.

I work through lunch so I can get off earlier, but I also work from home

It's good what you're doing, but I believe that if you want people to do better in work-life balance, the change will have to start with you. If it doesn't, I'm fairly certain that young people will start to emulate your work habits either out of shame, guilt or a misguided image of what the path to success looks like.

Be the team leader you wish you had. Hell yes.

Well, it exists to smooth over friction between staff in order to maximize profits.

Sometimes that means telling a middle-manager to stfu. Sometimes it means pulling up a bunch of bullshit to justify a firing "with cause". Sometimes it just means putting down a notice of events in a registry that nobody will ever read, on the off chance it needs to be recalled in an employment lawsuit.

I ate at my desk because I didn't want to interact with most of my coworkers in the breakroom. I had my PC locked so I was out of contact the whole time though.

Several months ago my manager wanted us to track our time throughout the day. Part of it was to assist with load balancing where if person A spends 80% of their time doing reports and doesn't have time for other stuff while person B only does 25% reports then some can be shifted. But the bigger portion was because Person C pretty much did fuck-all all day and played on their phone, but that's beside the point.

After about 7 months the manager started to phase it out and said we don't need to. Overall I didn't mind because it helped me track the day and keep me a little more engaged. But the biggest reason I do it is to better track and manage my true time. If I start the day a little early and don't take a full 30 minute lunch, you bet your ass I'm slipping out a little early!

In the US, it is extremely common for people to only get a half an hour, and not even a full hour, and it's usually unpaid.

EDIT: Oh, and I left out the best part. At many jobs it doesn't count toward your work hours either, so you work an eight and a half hour day or a nine hour day because you got your lunch break.

I've been arguing with my HR department for 13 years. How can I accrue vacation each week, use my vacation in the same year I earn it? If my last earned vacation doesn't stay until the last period expires I December, I can't use my vacation...

It's frustrating trying to explain the rules to them and not understand.

Much like that old clip about someone trying to explain their data charges to the ISP customer service rep