HR doesn’t care about your work/life balance.
Well, that’s harsh. They care, but they have problems of their own.
Human resources departments have undergone a transformation. They are agile, data-driven, and aligned with the executive agenda. Employee advocacy, when it happens, happens because it benefits the company’s bottom line.
Your work/life balance bottom line is your own to manage, bub.
Beyond that, your local HR lady was told to “do more with less” during the recession—and was promised a pay increase of her own and a day off once the economy started to improve—and she is still doing more with less. On top of being short-staffed and busy, she works with executives and vendors who complain that she’s out of touch.
If your HR lady got fired, it would be a blessing. She could take a nap and get some laundry done.
If you think going to HR will solve anything—refrigerator wars, the dude who smells like body odor, your personal struggle to maintain some semblance of normalcy in your life—you have another thing coming. Before you go to your local human resources lady, look around you.
Does everyone work crazy hours? Do your colleagues complain about work-creep in their personal lives? Do you receive texts from your boss and co-workers over the weekend?
Maybe it’s the company. Maybe it’s a broken brand. Maybe it’s a jacked up management style. Whatever it is, HR wants you to come to them with ideas and constructive solutions.
Short of that, you should get back to work. We’re all busy, and your work/life balance is on you.