HorroR or HappieR stories:
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Well, the answer is ‘who’! With the right HR expertise, every workplace issue could have its own HappieR ending. And who doesn’t want that?

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HorroR stories

HappieR stories

Colleagues who clocked in longer hours are praised for working hard. Truth is, they’re all just watching YouTube videos in the office after working hours!

No one ever leaves before 7pm at my company because there’s an unspoken rule that only slackers leave ‘early’. The OT culture is really unhealthy too—my colleagues who clocked in longer hours and had more ‘face-time’ in the office are praised for ‘working hard’. I know for a fact that most of them are just watching YouTube videos instead of working!

– Employee

 

To keep everyone’s spirits up during the COVID-19 pandemic, we assembled care packages for the entire company.

When DORSCON Orange kicked in, my colleagues in HR immediately got into action. We assembled care packages for the entire company. For colleagues on our work-from-home scheme, we made sure they had essentials like Vitamin C tablets, a couple of extra masks, healthy snacks and supplements as well as anti-bacterial hand wash. Colleagues who had to come into the office were given desk-sanitising supplies and catered lunch.

We also tried to inject some positivity into chores like temperature recording by giving out cute stickers. Our colleagues really appreciated how we kept everyone spirits up. It was a lot of extra work but everyone felt like we could get through this as a team.

– HR Professional

The new talent hiring specialist couldn’t pull his own weight and we ended up losing 3 wonderful employees from the HR team.

I wish I could forget about the talent hiring specialist I employed a few years ago. He performed well on the interview but after 2 weeks on the job, it was increasingly obvious that he wasn’t able to do the basic functions of the role! He only recommended his friends for whatever vacancy we had, and even though they did not have relevant experience, hired them anyway. He couldn’t pull his own weight and we ended up losing 3 wonderful employees from the HR team because they couldn’t stand fixing all the messes he made.

– Employer

They subjected me to 5 exit interviews, each with different department heads and HR managers. And all of them felt like interrogations!

I landed my dream job, but after 2.5 years of working 12-hour days, I was burned out and wanted my normal life back. I did everything as HR instructed — filled out a special form and put in my 1-month notice.

Little did I know that I just kickstarted a month of hell! Not only did HR refuse to find a replacement, but they also subjected me to 5 exit interviews, each with different department heads and HR managers. All of them felt like interrogations and it reached a point where I just started sobbing in one of the sessions.

– Employee

My company’s business leaders treat me as an equal and a valued partner in decision-making.

Dealing with the downsizing of a business unit is never a happy job, so it’s wonderful that my company’s business leaders treat me, an HR Business Partner, as an equal. We were on the same page every step of the way as we implemented a region-wide downsizing. From the communications to logistics, I’m happy to say that it was a true collaboration in every sense.

– HR Professional

We’re an outdoorsy company, so HR makes it a point to plan things that strengthens our team bonds.

My company is very outdoorsy so the HR team goes out of their way to plan monthly activities that really exercise our team bonds! Last year, we went sea-kayaking, and the entire company had to ‘raft up’ and join all our kayaks together. It was such a moving moment, we still talk about it to this day. Sometimes, when it gets stressful, we remind ourselves to ‘raft up’ and pull through together.

– Employee

He asked me to go against my professionalism as a HR manager, and use every trick in the book to get a colleague to quit.

During my tenure as a Regional HR manager at an MNC, I experienced first hand the power of having proper HR procedures in place. The MD wanted to wrongfully terminate a senior staff member and asked me to use any trick in the book to make her redundant or reduce her salary in hopes that she’d resign. I refused, knowing that he wasn’t complying with fair employment practices and reported his actions to the Chief HR Officer, who agreed with me. Guess who got the boot instead?

– HR Professional

It took 1 day to film my company’s video, but 2 whole months for my claims to come in!

My department had to produce a video for a project, but our team wasn’t given enough petty cash to pay for the props needed. I ended up using more than half of my monthly salary to pay for everything. The video took one day to film, but I had to wait 2 whole months for my claims to be processed. For the next couple of weeks, my lunch was always leftovers from home…

– Employee

 

An organised performance review system helped me turn my work enemy into a friend!

Even though we joined the company at the same time, I was made manager instead of my colleague. He spent the next year constantly undermining my authority and pushing responsibility to others.

Luckily, our boss had my back and encouraged me to make use of our performance review system to let my colleague know that his work was suffering because of his pettiness. My boss even engaged a HR consultant to ensure that I conducted the evaluation session as objectively as possible. The appraisal turned out great—my nasty colleague is a lot nicer now.

– Employee

Thanks to my HR team, I’ve transformed from stutterer to star presenter.

Stuttering during client presentations was normal when I started work at my current organisation, but thanks to our top-notch HR team, I’m great now! They carved out a learning journey and sponsored my public speaking course.

Since then, I’ve improved leaps and bounds. My organisation now relies on me to make key presentations to stakeholders, and I appreciate their confidence in my ability.

– Employee

Let’s turn those HorroR stories into HappieR ones

Good HR practices are for everyone — from the big boss right down to the new hire — and everyone has a part to play! With IHRP-CA Certification, you can learn how to foster better workplace environments.

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