The great thing about the last scene is that in the show, he'd actually sent her off to be promoted and be given a raise. But by the time HR was finished with her she was doubting herself and ready for mental health leave. Tony hadn't asked for HR's opinion, just to do the paperwork. But they just had to fuck it up.
Early in my IT career, I did six months of IT support for a HR department. Let me tell you, it completely changed my views on women. I was absolutely floored at how vicious and petty they could be to each other and how rapidly cliques would form, dissolve or exist simultaneously. I was so happy that they just saw me as a piece of furniture and ignored me.
@@Sujad I had something similar. Except the female cliques, would attack everyone, and eventually even came after me, when all I did was sit there in the same room and program.
Thats HR, they exist to fuck people over to create problems so HR people can generate reports and reprimands to justify their existence on the payroll. “Look how important I am, solving all sorts of employee problems (that I am busy creating).
I still have the last season on my dusk still waiting to be watched. I was federal public service at the time and it would take me 3 weeks to watch an episode: every scene that resembled something at work (we even had a wifi access point with password "a1b2c3d4e5f6g7") had me pressing the pause button and burying my head in my hands and then rushing off to do something more fun than relive work.
My buddy (brilliant and popular with customers) conducted an IT training for the HR group. He made them go through ice-breakers, slides, games and all such nonsense that he could think of without actually training them on the real stuff. He wanted them to "suffer the IQ level that they force us to go through" in his words. Not surprisingly he was not asked to conduct any more trainings afterwards.
@@govurma I can agree to that. Once the wrong sort get into HR, it can kill companies. I've experienced it first hand where it gutted a great company and forced me to jump ship.
Hey, did YOU peak in high school? Consider yourself a "people person" even though no one who knows you, even your family, can name one person you're actually friends with, and if they did, you'd point out that you don't actually consider that person a friend? Did you ever throw parties just so you could very pointedly not invite certain people? Do you judge other people relentlessly? When you see someone who's more more attractive than yourself, do you immediately categorise them as a threat? Do you hate when you're not the most important person in the room and not getting all the attention, but don't actually want to do anything with your life that would make you the most important person in the room? Do you think Buzzfeed personality quizzes are better than actual psychology or social skills? If you answered "Yes!" to any of these questions, then consider a career in HR!
@@hoilst265And once in the role, add zero to the organization. I had to laugh when I learned that some HR departments had managed to be classed as ‘profit centers’.
In this show, only the two bosses are human, the rest are bureaucrat automatons who behave the way they are programmed. That is *highly inaccurate* I worked in a large bureaucracy for seven long years and discovered that only a few mid ranked people had souls, the senior people were almost as bad as HR. I finally left when I was reprimanded for working (unpaid) outside public service "flexi-time" hours, because I had promised that I would finish a project by a particular date. That's when I realised I couldn't cope with their culture any more. I asked for reprimand for working too hard to be put in writing and used it as a reference to get a job in the real world.
@Dave Sisson Glad you left that one while you still had your soul intact. Perhaps you could offer your services as an expert consultant for the next series!😀 /Being serious for a moment - did you find that anything from that seven years actually DID help with your new job in "the real world"?
I’ve worked in various jobs over three different departments, my experience is it depends on the department. Some are run by tyrants who only want to maintain power for economic reasons (hiring relatives, centralising recruitment decisions, etc); or who want power for the sake of control and bullying. Others are ran professionally in a way I would consider consistent with public expectations (from my observation I think the more dispersed power is laterally and vertically within a department is what determines this) From what I hear from my friends in the private sector, they deal with the similar BS but different flavours.
I always use the “danger close” movie as an example of tick box autonomic managers - these tick box managers would get you killed in a war as they don’t think and are not creative
So we HAD an HR person just like this, who completely just destroyed the best workers in our company because they refused to follow her suggestions on productivity. She loaded them up with unless online workshops and unless seminars to try to brainwash them into doing things her way...she ended up getting let go for wasting company resources... Lets just say there was a company wide happy hour that evening.
We had a similar guy at one of my prior jobs. Completely destroyed the company by pushing out good, solid workers and replaced them with useless people who caused several contracts to be revoked.
You know those girls in high school who held parties just so they good pointedly not invite people? They end up in HR. They mistake needing to dominate and control others for "being good with people".
I remember having to go to a team meeting in a coffee shop and we had to buy our own coffee. Then the team leader lectured us on sustainabilty, then told us how she drove her car in every day instead of using the train like the rest of us.
It is a mystery why no British or apparently American t.v. channel has bought the rights. It has been going since 2014. Can't even find European region dvd's.
Very funny. One of the things I most liked about my time in the armed forces is that much of the 'HR' stuff is done by the line management rather than by an HR department.
I heard a mythical story where they actually fired HR, spent the saved salary on an external industrial relations law firm for retainer (ie, so you could shoot them an email asking stuff like "Are we required to give such-and-such time off for X?"), and just let the managers...do their job and handle hiring in exchange for a small payrise. I wish to work at that place.
Resend Paints NZ had no HR dept each manager in the divisions of the factory in Naenae Lower Hut New Zealandt made their own decisions about who they took on and mainly worked with Key Skills a recruitment agency in Lower Hutt to find people gor them!😂
The HR manager at my previous employer’s, almost caused one of the partner’s to get beaten up because an employee refused to do a task that wasn’t part of his job description. Apparently the HR manager told the employee that the partner had made threats to harm him because of his refusal. The employee was so angry that he reported it to the police and then confronted the man who allegedly made the threats it was so tense the whole office thought that they were going to witness an assault. The partner at the firm denied making any threats and promised to have a meeting between all three parties which never came about. The HR manager left the company not long after.
Back in my day the department was called "personnel". I don't know how "Human Resources" ever stuck. It's super degrading, like employees are just objects to be used.
@@jaimeb5550 Yeah they twigged on the negative connotations of HR, Human Resources, they are now called PO, People Operations. This is uncomfortably close to our division P&O, Platform and Operations, we have been around for years and keeps the billion dollar e-commerce site running. Naturally we own all the PO namespaces in Slack and other internal tools. Occasionally new folk come to our channels asking about People Operations stuff. Our stock reply is "I don't think that runs on Kubernetes", and kindly direct them to right place.
My HR experience: I sat between two guys who were having regular arguments. I would put my headphones on and get on with the job. One day I got called into HR and was asked if could confirm that one guy called the others guy wife a tramp. I had truly no idea what they were talking about as I am also not all the time at my desk. Most of the time when they started arguing I walked away as I was sick and tired of it. They threatened me with dismissal if I did not tell the truth. Ok so now we turned in a pre-world war II German regime. Then they made me sit through a 1 hour video about bullying in the work place. Wtf did I do to deserve this. Eventually my request to be moved to another desk was granted. One of the guys was one morning met by HR and security, given a taxi voucher and send home forever.
Spot on Working Dog....this is precisely what HR is....I am currently writing a thesis on HR to reflect my own experiences of 50 years in the workplace, and wonder if you would like an interim copy before my formal submission to dept of Industry
I’m American and I find this the best office show I have ever seen, thevwriting and the acting is sublime. I never liked “The Office” or any other office show, thought they were boring, badly done BUT this show is hysterical…especially the Fucksake episode and the council meeting! Excellent writing combined with the perfect actors
After working for a state government for too many years, this gives me PTSD when I had to deal with HR. HR works with the managers to shaft the workers and make sure that they don't have enough staff to do their jobs who are then managed out because the worker can't do what the manager wants them to do...
I've met precisely 2 good HR workers. One was a line grunt who actually worked his way up. Another was someone who actually studied it and worked hard at it. 99% of the rest were, frankly, just the sorts of people whom everyone assumed must be "good with people" because they were physically attractive (and had no other skills), and they couldn't turn down hiring a hottie.
Why 10-15 for Manslaughter? -Jury won't regard HR as fully human -He's going to make it look a bit like an accident -He'll plead it down because she clearly had it coming. (and if you'd been there, if you'd have seen it. I betcha you would have done the same!)
In my job I deal with our clients' HR on a daily basis. When training our own staff to be client facing we always highlight that no-one dreams of being an HR assistant/manager/director when they're at school...
They are not exclusive. It would be true for bad bosses/managers if all they could do was be a pain in the ass by constantly annoying employes by telling them obvious things to make themselves look important without actually saying anything useful.
80% or more HR managers have never done a degree in HR. That's the reason HR department are not productive. I have a degree in HR and believe me 90% of my HR interviewers have been having diplomas in hospitality etc. when I see their academic competence like that on LinkedIn and I am going for an interview believe me I Am always thinking what I should say. Should I say technical HR stuff or not, would be a threat for her job as I am more qualified. I regret doing a degree in HR, it was a mistake. It's an industry dominated by people who have nothing to do with HR and getting jobs I don't know how.
The first thing a top HR exec will do is ingratiate themselves with the senior management so they become untouchable. They'll create havoc then sell themselves to a higher bidder after 12mths to 2 years.
Most of the others are sane, they're just stupid. They just go with whatever the dominant person tells them - whether that's Tony & Nat, or Rhonda, or HR. Office drones.
@@sidecarmisanthrope5927 ive worked in the public sector and can say it is uncanny how accurate this show is in its portrayal. On the other hand ive also worked for many years in the privtae sector and it is pretty much the same
A company I worked for had a six month contractor policy for HR. the only full time employee in the HR department was a personal friend if the CEO and only worked there as an excuse to let people go. At the six month review, if there was a hunt of any kind of empire building, their contract wouldn't be renewed.
What makes me laugh is that I have had friends who work in corporate and government offices and this is almost exactly as they describe it when dealing with HR.
Stick around for as long as you can please, we need people who remember what it was like before all this workplace BS as a guide to help us all get back to the fun office
true in the private sector also, if not more so since in the private scetor HR people have that much more desperation and need to demonstrate their importance
You always know when your previously dynamic organisation is on the way down, when management/leadership decides it needs an HR department and you first hear those fateful words: 'Our people are our most valuable resource' and then goes about the business of completely destroying staff morale with the latest HR crap. One of the most common situations is when senior staff are given directions by HR and a quick examination of the organisations model reveals that the HR department has in fact no authority to give such directions. Time to check the leave balance, resign and go to work for the opposition.
The sad thing is that there will be a whole lot of people watching this who are out in workplace doing or participating in this same stuff , and they will laugh at it and think how terrible it is, totally not realising that they are perpetrating and enabling this same shit.
UTOPIA is less a comedy, more a documentary. Management should be made to sit down and watch it, except the joke would be completely lost on most of them
My wife is an executive and in charge of the HR division for a hotel chain. If anyone tried to turn HR into this crap, she'd fire them. I cant even believe how many people recognize this from their corporate experiences. No wonder people in some countries feel HR is useless and counterproductive.
When she tells Buck by his nickname but rejects calling Naomi "Nat" is pure genius. I had one like that, not at the gov but at an educational institution. He was super nice to most of the guys but treated all those he didn't like we were rabid animals about to jump him on the tiniest familiarity and he flooded our emails with workshops and lists of rules about not talking of anything not subject-related to the kids and avoid the use of preferred names and nicknames because they were not the list. It got to the point many students believed we were giving them the cold shoulder because of sth they had done. We started quitting en mass but the head board never actually understood why
I can't help myself. I need to give just one example of the many toxic encounters I had with HR in my time in the corporate world. My company had an issue: supervisors were being promoted from the floor and not given any management training. The senior management team asked HR to devise a training program. They found a ready made program developed by a 3rd party. They organised the management team to come in on a weekend and have the full program presented so we could evaluate it. We spent 2 x 12 hr days doing so. We were then asked our opinions. All the managers liked the program and thought it should be implemented. Then the HR "professionals" absolutely rubbished it. The result was the program was rejected, we continued on the same path of having NO program and we'd all wasted a weekend. Six months later the HR manager who'd organised it all left to another corporate gig.
I had the unfortunate experience of working for a corporate aged care provider when they took over the small privately owned old peoples home I worked in for 20 years ... I got abuse from one of the new supervisors because I did not "action a request"
He is another aspect of work..... Let's say you are given a task to do with 10 people that could be easily done by 5 in say 2 days..... Here is what happens 5 of the people slot themselves into a separate core process of the task. Of the other 5, two stand around talking or disappear..... usually they go walkabout to visit their mates or to get something meaningless from the store etc. The other 3 excess workers then pick one of the core 5 and try to find a mini task to do in order to look busy and 'seemingly help within their process. Now, the job ends up taking twice as long to compete because 3 of the 5 core people have to spend extra time consulting and talking with each of these 3 'assistants'
Oh mate, that is so accurate, even in the tertiary sector, but with more bulldust ideas. This should be mandatory viewing for anyone who works in HR, together with explanations on why this stuff is such shite!!!! Grüße aus Australien.
Funny because if you compare a temp company and HR, a temp company earns nothing if the new hires are unsatisfactory but HR gains power if the new hires are unsatisfactory.
I try to be as accommodating as possible but, I'm sorry, I hate loathe detest HR automatons with their endless supply of corporate BS. These snippets from Utopia aren't satire - they're a documentary of the shit I went through for years. It raises my BP to this day, seeing it on-screen and reliving it all over again. Faaaaark!! #WastingTheBestYearsOfMyLife
I KNOW I’m going to be sledged, BUT as a former long term HR Manager/Director, I totally agree with the nonsense that has become ‘people management’ as beautifully depicted here, AND, this is where I get sledged,did anyone else pickup that the HR Nazis are women?? Soooo true in real life….sad really about how we’ve allowed our workplaces to become, but soooo accurate, especially of the public sector… ‘Do you feel good about working here.’ ‘ ‘Not really’. ‘Oh crisis, shock, horror, the workplace must be wrong for not meeting your individual needs for job fulfilment. Who can we change in supervisor/manager to make you feel better about working here?’ FFS! It’s not supposed to be a family, it’s where people are supposed to PRODUCE ‘stuff’(goods and/or services). DO YOUR JOB for the pay you get. If you don’t like it, get another job!
The nastiest few people in workplaces ive known have all been women. I think the reason is that they've become untouchable, a protected class, so there is nothing to limit their behaviour. Men in particular have no recourse at all against a malevolent woman.
I know I'm going to be slated for this, but did anyone notice how the blatant sexism came from a man trying to justify his opinions based on a comedy program? I feel sorry for anyone who was working in his department. It must have been long-term misery for them. Here's where I'm offering a controversial opinion; too far in the opposite direction is not the right answer either.
The only realistic thing about this is the jargon. It really would be a Utopia to work for a place where HR actually listened and paid any attention whatsoever to what normal staff said in their exit interviews, especially when they talked about how they had been poorly treated by senior management. I've certainly never experienced a place even remotely like that, and I've worked for organisations that like to crow about how much the value staff wellbeing.
After working in the Government space for a short period of time, this is so much on the money. Its spot on. I have hours and hours of new material. WDP happy to be a consultant..LOL
