Though I enjoy “The Office”, other commitments on Thursday evenings generally keep me from watching this quirky television show. A more relaxed schedule this summer has given me the opportunity to enjoy the reruns.
Toby Flenderson, Evil HR Guy
Recently an episode opened with the lead character, Michael, walking through the office and encountering “Toby the HR Guy”. Michael screams “Oh no! It’s you!” and proceeds to run to his office where he texts “911” to his supervisor. The supervisor calmly explains that Toby has been in the office for the last week and Michael just needs to try and get along with the guy. Michael grimaces and defends his dislike by saying “That’s like trying to be friends with an evil snail!” He then spends the remainder of the show trying to get rid of Toby.
Toby is not a bad guy; in fact in most episodes, he is barely there– an innocuous character with no sense of fun or humor that is into rules, policies and procedures. That is the real reason Michael doesn’t like him.
The entire episode bothered me. When I go out into one of our departments, I’m excited about going in to make a difference. I began to wonder: do my organization’s employees see me and want to shout “Oh no – it’s HR!”?
I decided to ask friends about their perceptions when HR came to their offices. The answers varied only slightly and almost all of them began with “oh no”….
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“Oh no… something is up. I wonder who did something stupid this time.”
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“Oh no… are we going to have to sit through another boring training session?”
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“Oh no… are we going to have to do team building again?”
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“Oh no…someone’s about to get fired…”
They laughed when I asked if they ever thought “Wow, HR is here – something good is going to happen!”
As HR professionals, we do so much more than disciplinary actions, terminations and compliance training. How do we reverse this image of the dreaded visit from Human Resources?
Maybe one of the networks will develop a television show about the exciting and often humorous world of Human Resources. The main character will be attractive, smart and have a great sense of humor. He/she will be a caring “people person” whose insight and actions will make a positive change in the corporate world one episode at a time. (This could do for HR what CSI has done for forensic technicians!)
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be happening this season. Until that time, we need to continue to use our relationships, knowledge and commitment to make a difference in our organizations. We also need to keep our sense of humor and remember when out in other office areas if an employee doesn’t make eye contact not to take it personally; they are probably just texting “911” to their coworkers.
