This sounds like what HR wants you to think about your colleagues. Can’t organise if can’t trust your colleagues.
You don’t need to trust your coworkers to organize. And they will take advantage of you if you work their shift etc and often will not reciprocate. You can acknowledge that coworkers aren’t your friends while understanding that organizing is good for everyone. If someone is gonna try to sabotage your attempts at organizing that’s just how it is but there’s no reason to trust a coworker to pay you back. Also, I’m sorry but if you’re putting people at risk I don’t care how friendly you act to me I’m reporting you.
The truth is that all your coworkers are not automatically your friends. You CAN become genuinely good friends with some though.
Sounds like you work somewhere shitty. Most of my coworkers mind their own business because they are too busy working to do anything else. Only time I’ve seen people “snitch” was to throw poor management under the bus, or corroborate sexual harassment complaints. And I’m not going to complain about that.
And HR people can never be trusted to be on your side on any issue. Never, ever confide in an HR person, getting rid of you in some way is always the easiest solution to any problem.
Only when you first take outside council and then go to HR through them, do you have some sort of protection from getting swept under the rug.
Exactly. It’s no different than never, ever, EVER saying a word to the capital defense force police(in the US). Nothing good and only bad can come of it. The rare honest US cop will tell you that themselves, when they aren’t busy beating a minority/homeless person senseless and planting drugs on them, at least.
That is what HR is, your office cop. Anything you say can and will be used against you.
Ok, counterpoint.
As a white-passing clearly upper middle class person, I have been in situations where I just told the cop exactly what I was doing and why I was there, and got told “well you can’t be here now, go home”. It helped that I wasn’t up to anything illicit, but the determining factor was my Pantone ranking and grooming.
If I’d said “I won’t say anything to you without a lawyer”, I probably would have been in for a lot of hassling.
I’m not saying “be respectful and it’ll be good” or any of that bullshit (got biracial kids, that isn’t the talk I’m going to have).
The bit from formerly-funny Dave Chappele where the white guy tells the cop “I’m sorry, I didn’t know I couldn’t do that” has a chunk of truth in it.
Awesome generalization. This is so wholly dependent on the country, company, HR policy and HR person, that it’s a pretty useless statement.
While it is a generalization, HR is there to represent the company, not you. Good HR personnel will do their best to accommodate both… but their job is on the line if they cause harm to the company by supporting you instead.
It’s not good to just assume that everyone in certain positions is an evil ghoul who is just out to screw you… but it’s worse to assume they’re your friend and there to help you no matter what.
Don’t know what country you live in, but I worked in HR and I would’ve had the company’s ass if they’d tried to fire me because I supported a co-worker. And that’s why this generalization is so sucky. In my opinion generalization is one of mankind’s worst diseases we have. So be terrific and be specific.
As a Union member, allow me to remind you all that HR do not care about you and will never address any grievances you have because their job is to limit the legal liability of the company and stop you suing.
Do not trust HR.
Do not think they have your best interests at heart.
In the private sector*
Public sector is a bit different, as there’s no profit motive involved and the HR equivalent is literally just (most) peeps making sure everyone is following the law/regulations, including bosses.
Sounds like something an HR professional would say to make sure everyone coughs up the info when they ask.
No, jobs are what let’s you live with a paycheck, if someone is scared of their job or worried it’s between you and I. They might snitch or say something to help their case over you.
Basically no one has your back at work but yourself.
