HR Says Workers Need To 'Grow Up' After They Get Upset About Layoffs — ‘Business Is Business’
Human empathy really isn't that hard. So why do so many Human Resources professionals utterly lack it?
sakoqwakestock | Shutterstock It's funny that the word "human" is in the phrase "Human Resources," because if you've been in the business world for any length of time you've surely come face-to-face with how INHUMAN these "professionals" can all too often be.
Somehow, the profession that is supposed to be about treating workers like people instead of robot slaves seems to attract the most inhumane people imaginable. You need look no further than a worker on Reddit's recent experience for quite possibly the most perfect example of this ever recorded.
The worker overheard HR saying workers need to 'grow up' after they got upset about layoffs.
This shouldn't even need explaining, but here is a news flash to bosses, management, and Human Resources professionals everywhere, the latter for whom it is LITERALLY THEIR JOB to know this: Losing a job is not just stressful, it is often traumatizing.
Studies have long shown that job loss is more stressful than a divorce, a loss of vision or hearing, or the literal death of someone close to you. The recently unemployed often experience symptoms of PTSD! And yet, more often than not, the people charged with ending our jobs act like there's something wrong with us if we dare not react with anything short of jubilation when they rip the rug out from under us.
Case in point: A worker on Reddit currently going through this situation. Their job recently announced a dreaded "reorganization" in which they ended up laying off some 20 employees. "They did the layoff and an announcement of the restructuring on the same day," the worker wrote.
On one hand, some might prefer it that way — the old "rip off the Band-Aid" approach. For others, it upends their world and gives them no chance to catch their breath before they face the music. This worker's colleagues were no exception, and HR could not have been more cruelly indifferent about it.
After a colleague had a 'panic attack' over the layoffs, HR was overheard saying they need to 'grow the f up, business is business.'
For those of you for whom lived experience has given you the same kind of anti-HR bias this writer clearly has, the rest of this story will have you rolling your eyes at how absolutely cliche it is.
"The next day the company had a meeting for employees to come in and ask questions," the worker wrote — which seasoned professionals will know is nine times out 10 a performative gesture in which HR pretends to care about your well-being while silently judging you and cataloging everything you say so they can use it against you later.
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"One employee said they had a panic attack with the announcement," the worker went on to say, "and felt their job was a risk and even felt they should not have come in to work but did anyway."
Sorry to be so cynical, but this is a colossal mistake — never reveal your true feelings to HR, you are handing them ammunition. In this case, HR had the typical canned response: "I'm glad you are here," which is so patronizing I just threw my laptop across the room.
After everyone had a chance to ask questions and have their fears (falsely) assuaged, the meeting disbanded. And as they were leaving the room, this Redditor overheard the all-too telling truth about how these supposedly caring HR people actually feel.
They heard the very same HR person who'd said, "I'm glad you are here," tell senior leadership that the staff "need to grow the [expletive] up" and not get so upset about layoffs because "business is business" and "this is just how it is."
No, THIS is just how it is: Human beings are human beings, and when you strip them of their livelihood, they tend to freak out. Just because you traded your own humanity for a fancy Human Resources degree and six figures doesn't change those basic truths.
This story highlights one of the most important truths of the working world: HR is not your friend.
Just a reminder that companies absolutely do not have your interests in mind," the worker wrote to conclude their Reddit story. "The only thing that matters is shareholders and the dividend payouts from profits made each year."
Which is true — and frankly, that IS "just how it is." It IS a business, not a group therapy circle. But mocking employees for freaking out about their livelihood being vanished over a few hours is diabolical.
It has resulted in a crisis of distrust in the HR profession. A 2024 survey of workers found a staggering 86% of workers do not trust HR professionals, and 85% said they are hesitant to ever approach HR with workplace issues — which is supposedly WHAT HR IS FOR.
But HR departments and the people who run them have become so passively hostile to employees that workers have begun hiring outside HR consulting firms, who for a nominal fee will help them with issues ranging from salary negotiations to discrimination, simply because they don't feel their actual HR department can be trusted.
None of this would be quite so galling if HR professionals had the base-level fortitude to simply be forthright about their roles and goals instead of performatively lying to their employees about being on their side every chance they get.
In the end, as disturbingly indifferent as saying a person panicking about their livelihood needs to "grow the eff up" may be, this particular HR exec did their staff a huge favor by letting the mask slip and proving in the clearest way possible the maxim that "HR is not your friend."
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.