by   Jason Smallbon ?

The past two decades have seen the continued rise of HR domination on a massive scale. Between legislation, policy makers and courts of arbitration, it has now become the bane of many organizations on multiple levels. The most disappointing facet of all however, is that in the majority of cases (Note: not all) HR is directly responsible for causing most of the conflict that exists within the workplace environment in the first place… either through action or inaction.

There was a rather ‘insightful‘ (I still don’t know whether that was the correct word – perhaps I should have used ‘incensed‘) article that crossed my news feed just the other day which completely derailed my otherwise good mood. So here is me doing something I don’t normally do – I’m going to shift my response to this from professional to personal.

Here is one, undeniable, intrinsic fact that cannot be disputed or argued against:

Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Suicide continue to plague our modern day society. We preach ‘enlightenment’, yet our interconnected society has never been more socially disconnected from our basic humanity. This decade alone has seen SADS rise to epidemic proportions and is cited as the primary cause of relationship breakups, career destruction and unavoidable self-inflicted deaths.

Fact: Suicide results in an estimated $51 billion in combined medical and work costs in the States alone. So if you aren’t emotionally motivated, there’s your bottom line excuse to act.

This is something I, and many of my followers, have been fighting on numerous fronts to highlight to the very leaders who are capable of enacting a supportive and positive change. Understand this… the workplace is not separate, nor immune from this sickness. But it has the potential to be a key part of the cure.

Having only recently published two articles on the importance of conscious and empathic leadership (one of which hit exceptionally close to home), and then to see a HR ‘fan boy’ piece blatantly throw those same people under the bus with statements such as the following, hit a raw nerve:

• “If you… are constantly putting your attention on your people to make sure they’re not causing problems or they’re not upset, you are babysitting.”
• “Many workers are bringing issues at home to work – unloading to their colleagues about relationship breakdowns, financial debt and family fights, interrupting work and forcing the boss to intervene.”
• “Employees should be hired to solve problems, not create them, so leaders shouldn’t solve problems for them – and they should be prepared to upset them”
  

If this is seriously the view of someone who considers themselves a professional business coach, then I’m changing my title, because I’m utterly disgraced to be associated with it.

Read the whole article here : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/human-resources-ultimate-idiom-jason-smallbon-?published=t