Maggie's Farm

One of the companies that I worked for, for years, was an American company that was bought out by the Brits. Because of the size of the two corporations, cultural differences meant that the American and British operations took a long time to normalize.

Our HR VP (American) had started out as an executive secretary, gotten her law degree, worked as a company lawyer, and then transitioned to HR VP when the takeover occurred.

She was fantastic - a 'people person' to begin with, she set up a pension plan very much unlike the British (socialized) pension scheme. Ours was a 401K. The company would automatically kick in 6% of your salary. You could kick in up to 6% yourself, and the company would then match that point-for-point. In other words, you could triple your money, from the get-go. She had other terrific HR ideas as well, and every single one of them was with the humans in mind, not the corporation.

That is where modern HR fails, and that's why, later, after she retired and the HR department reverted to its usual playbook, we started calling them 'Human Remains'. Human Resources today means that you're the human they have in mind, as a resource. They always seem to get a position on the high executive level, and they never seem to bring anything useful to any of the meetings I've sat in, as an executive.