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).
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.
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.
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
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!😂
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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...
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!)
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.
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
@@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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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"
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.
99% of this HR nonsense comes out of the USA. In the 1920s, the Yanks started coming up with ideas centred on nothing gets in the way of making a profit. It was more or less Taylorism. Then, at the end of WW2, they tried it all out in Japan because their class system was conditioned to blind / unquestioned obedience. It worked there because that was how the Japanese were 'conditioned' So, rather than except the Japanese were different to other cultures, the Yanks decided other cultures should be blindly obedient like the Japanese. Mixed in with all this is the American project management model developed by former employees of McDonnell Douglas etc in the late 1960s and the US military promotion culture of zero mistakes. Once you see it all mixed together, it is a very subtle form of micro-management where the catch phase is You are a highly competent and skilled person........ but, you are not allowed to make a decision without first consulting your immediate superior. This is how all the Australian Government Departments are structured. The first person people encounter at a government department directs them to 1 of 3 pathways. The second person is trained in the basics of that pathway.......... If they need to make a decision during your meeting with them, they contact their superior and explain the entire situation to them. Then there is a delay...... it is because the 3rd person does or does not have the authority to make a decision and has contacted a 4th person ( their superior) ..... they explain the entire situation to the 4th person............ You can tell when these Government employees are doing this by the time it takes for each level to come back with a response. The longer the delay....... the higher up the chain of command it is being passed...... it usually goes through 5 different people before a decision is made. Where this HR fits into this is You are a highly competent and skilled person........ but, you are not allowed to make a decision without first consulting your immediate superior....... Once your supervisor has made their decision you will obey without question. That is why a lot of businesses do not like employing older people who ask too many difficult questions .... profit is lost when time is wasted answering questions.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Having worked in a couple of Australian government departments, it's spot on 😂 I once got told by my one up that I needed to rearrange my certifications that were up on the window because someone had mentioned to her that someone else could potentially be offended because it kind of looked like a cross (was a + shape for months until I got a 6th cert, was very tempting to put it in a more offensive shape but I refrained)
HR sucks the will to live out of companies. They don’t actually help with anything but load the employees up with shite. I’ve seen all this over the years…love Utopia.
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
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'
Watch all seasons of Utopia:
Stan: bit.ly/UtopiaStan
Netflix: bit.ly/UtopiaNetflix
International viewers watch here:
watch.workingdog.com/page/utopia/
OK you got me, what? Fantastic Vid. Nailed it.
25/03/2023. I was ere.
That's putting undue pressure on the viewers and potential commentators. Is there a YT complaints dept I can report you??
@@kparker2430 Beverley asks the date every time she starts to write something. It's a metaphor for a metaphor: saying HR doesn't know what day it is.
@@AnotherDoug onya got it :)
"Oh my God, have I let HR in the building again?" 😂 The question that begins every bad day in the office.
😅😅
10-15 for manslaughter 😂
Try working in training, you regularly get dumped in with these fucktards.
I laughed out loud at that line but I was on thr bus to work.
Oh deal with it.
"Maybe 10-to-15 for manslaughter" ah man, this show
I was snorting with uncontrollable laughter for about 5 min....😂
What was the show??????
In all fairness, every HR department is exactly the same! They make up issues to keep their jobs
BEST!! 😂😂😂😂😂❤
"I hesitate to use the term 'toxic workplace environment'."
"you just did"
"But she hesitated."
XD
She hesitated.
nO SHE DIDN'T @@spacecadetmcgee7349
After 15 years with a global corporate I heard every single one of these cliches on a ridiculously regular basis.
I spent 30 years 😢😢
Yep, almost every day……
#Relatable
DING - defeatism
Your not alone. Stay strong
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.
Yes, i saw this episode, Tony respected the hell out of her, and HR women gave me the creeps.
Yeah...Nat is the most competent member of that team
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).
Brilliantly written and that HR person is superbly acted. Don't you just hate her.
Great signs of a perfectly executed performance
Yawn
Yeah, she's a great actress
Even has a Karen haircut 😅
I do indeed, yes. Passionately.
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.
I work in IT, can I get the slide pack ? .... please
That's... unwise on his part. Super funny, but unwise
@@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.
Ah evil genius 🤩🤩
One of the few shows that are so good they're nearly unwatchable.
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.
I struggled to watch these snippets, too painful, too close to home
@@timconnors Ex-Victorian Public Service here.
I had to pause at least 10 times through the video, yeah.
Yeah i had it with the original version of The office, the british one. It was just too real to be fun.
People in HR are just hammers looking for a nail.
That's a gracious analogy as I'd suggest a hammer is actually useful and a worthy investment.
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!
*_"People in HR are just hammers looking for a nail."_*
That depends. The _worst_ HR person I have ever dealt with was a rubber stamp for the company.
PLAYSKOOL hammers looking for a NERF nail.
@@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"?
Yeah it is probably one of my chief dislikes of the show. Bosses are usually far more incompetent than their employees.
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.
There is no real world anymore. Okay sorry I lied, there never was a real world. We're just monkeys with lasers.
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
The brilliance of this show is the frighteningly accurate circle-of-inanity so much of public service promulgates.
having worked in both public and private sectors for quite a while i can say that this kind of HR bullshit is ubiquitous
@@bobbrian6526 1000% - this crap happens in all medium to large orgs..
"Divide & Conquer" Of course.
The scary thing is how much of the world is run by the HR (and DEI, the latest variant) Karens. We live in a Karenocracy.
This is my favourite Aussie show. Every episode is as much genuinely hilarious as it is cringe-worthily realistic. Brilliant, brilliant writing.
"Oh my god, have I let HR in the building again" is the cherry on the cake
Notice how he said "10 to 15 for *manslaughter*", because no one would considered the killing of HR as murder.
ok but whoever invented “staff outings” should probably face prosecution
Let's schedule a walking meeting to discuss
I am not sure there is anything worse than when some dropkick suggests in a meeting 'we go out for lunch as a team'.
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.
@@tb7667 If you have a good work environment, teams will do that themselves as a matter of course.
Forced Xmas parties
I retired from public service a few years ago. This is so close to reality that it’s simultaneously scary and funny 😁
It's not just public service
Multinationals are just the same, probably worse because they have reputational branding to worry about
Every episode of utopia makes me feel like I am at work. The writers and actors are amazing
Rebecca Massey just owns that HR role! Her hand gestures and tone - perfect!
This show is up there with Yes, Minister and it needs to be worldwide.
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!😂
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
Can you post a link in this comment when you are done. Thats sounds like a wild thesis
Hey, I would LOVE to read that, for sure! Can you upload it somewhere and post a link? Thank you!
@@deathsirwow I assume it's just "F**K HR!" repeated 50,000 times.
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.
Just love watching these types of Australian polictcal shows more relevant today than when first produced. To Rob and the crew need more like this.
There is new series of Utopia coming this year.
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.
that's why it is not called Human Resources* anymore... It's called 'People & Culture'...
But it's appropriate. HR is exactly what employees are.
MBAs: "...but employees ARE just objects to be used...?"
Why use one word when 9 or 10 will easily do. 😂
@@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.
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.
That hr actress is bloody brilliant 😅
It's that sinister smile.
10 to 15 for man slaughter. What a line!
This show literally saved my life at one point.. I had to see the next season. Love you all so much.❤
When you have people whose job it is to police everyday interactions in the workplace, of course they're going to look for problems all day
Missed the Episode where Nat wanted to manage someone out.
Tony: "But you will have to speak to HR"
I said HR
Just pay her out
"I managed, interacted and interfaced. I don't think I was challenged to my full potential".
What do yu mean "Have I let HR into the building again"?
They interviewed you and I was with you.
The m😱r🥺nic maj🤪rity are in charge.
😢🤑💀
Sooner
The
Extinction
Means
Other
Worthwhile
Lifeforms
Survive
😊😁😂
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.
Like others here, in a lifetime of working in corporate, I have heard all these clichés. It is how HR rolls.
“ I would like to take this off line for a few days” - I will have to use this jargon at my next meeting!
I am glad I am self-employed, I had one year of that bs. So started my own business.
HR, the scourge of many workplaces 😂😂
They are never about people, they are about control.
I've met some awesome HR people, but fuck me dead if they haven't made work life worse.
Human remains
Glorified payroll.
@@advanceaustralia9026 It started that way. Now its the point of access for government to control private business.
“Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned” - Milton Friedman
I love how both micromanaging and lack of mentoring were mentioned in the same set of red flags for Tony to work on.
Though to be fair, I’ve seen plenty of managers who regularly display both those red flags.
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.
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
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...
a humane society would intervene if a child showed tendencies.
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!)
Unexpected Chicago references are always welcome.
"10-15 for Manslaughter" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I was just thinking that .... heehee
A show that grinds your gears but still can't not watch it cause of how good it is 🤣
I have met that exact HR manager before. I swear she is a real, actual person I have met.
10 - 15 for manslaughter always gets me
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.
I'm 73yo, and I'm glad I'm on the way out
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
As a senior manager in the public service, this is all true.
Public Service? Well, what do you expect?
HR are too powerful and untouchable 🤨
@@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
@@bobbrian6526 Anyone who says "the private sector is much more efficient than the public sector" has never worked in both.
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.
geez , this brings back memories ..too real .
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.
Yes, the only inaccuracy ist that HR usually knows not to annoy the leadership directly.
Great show. I’ve seen so many scenes in the series that were so familiar
A true documentary of the public sector and people can’t see this is why Australia is suffering on the inside. Confused about what to cry about.
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
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.
God i miss that show absolutely love the dry wit and humour of the team
"that's where all those 5 & 6 are coming from....
GOLD
That answer to Nat's question at the end always makes me giggle.
Ever notice how HR has an “open door policy” but you need an electric key card to get in? Or someone in HR needs to let you in?
What do you call 50 HR people chained to concrete blocks at the bottom of a lake? A good start.
Spot on….in the natural world HR would be known as a Screw Worm…once it burrows through your skin, it begins to eat the organism from the inside out…
1:07 GO NAT!!!!
"Oh for fuck's sake".
Spat my tea out, eyes crying.
1:55 GO TONY!!!
"You're the one hiring them".
Tony & Nat are the only sane ones in the place 😅 Absolutely love this show. Fabulous cast, great writing.
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.
Reminds me of the NSW Education Department. Thank God for retirement…
Maybe the funniest sketch I have heard in months 😂😂😂❤❤❤
They even wardrobed HR as Karren😂
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"
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.
I worked at a fund manager in the legal department once. The head of hr’s previous job was selling suits at a department store.
Tony used to have hair.
Then he ran into HR.
tony just says the funniest stuff and then the show moves on im crying 😭😭😭i love this show
99% of this HR nonsense comes out of the USA. In the 1920s, the Yanks started coming up with ideas centred on nothing gets in the way of making a profit. It was more or less Taylorism.
Then, at the end of WW2, they tried it all out in Japan because their class system was conditioned to blind / unquestioned obedience. It worked there because that was how the Japanese were 'conditioned' So, rather than except the Japanese were different to other cultures, the Yanks decided other cultures should be blindly obedient like the Japanese.
Mixed in with all this is the American project management model developed by former employees of McDonnell Douglas etc in the late 1960s and the US military promotion culture of zero mistakes.
Once you see it all mixed together, it is a very subtle form of micro-management where the catch phase is
You are a highly competent and skilled person........ but, you are not allowed to make a decision without first consulting your immediate superior.
This is how all the Australian Government Departments are structured.
The first person people encounter at a government department directs them to 1 of 3 pathways.
The second person is trained in the basics of that pathway.......... If they need to make a decision during your meeting with them, they contact their superior and explain the entire situation to them.
Then there is a delay...... it is because the 3rd person does or does not have the authority to make a decision and has contacted a 4th person ( their superior) ..... they explain the entire situation to the 4th person............
You can tell when these Government employees are doing this by the time it takes for each level to come back with a response. The longer the delay....... the higher up the chain of command it is being passed...... it usually goes through 5 different people before a decision is made.
Where this HR fits into this is
You are a highly competent and skilled person........ but, you are not allowed to make a decision without first consulting your immediate superior....... Once your supervisor has made their decision you will obey without question.
That is why a lot of businesses do not like employing older people who ask too many difficult questions .... profit is lost when time is wasted answering questions.
New season coming. Yay
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
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.
Every HR manager I’ve ever met. Closed minded and totally oblivious.
That "Just doing my job, Rhon, just doing my job" with that slight forearm caress.
BP: 160/120 Heart Rate: 118
Wow. Dunno if I want to watch the show, but these rode that funny/scary edge perfectly
"Where's the redundancy? The resilience?" LMAO I've never heard anyone put it that bluntly but it's the outcome of so many meetings.
So, so, so good!!
I used to play bullshit bingo at my work with these sayings.
I have fun writing them down and reading them back later, awesome
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
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.
i dont think admin people (which literally is Hr) should have so much power...
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.
0:56 - that smug face hahaha
If corporations need to save money, get rid of HR.
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.
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
This is brilliant.
Bravo!! You got a subscriber!
Just found out about the new season of Utopia. ....thank you!!!
This pained my soul.
“How about they engage with their jobs.”
Having worked in a couple of Australian government departments, it's spot on 😂
I once got told by my one up that I needed to rearrange my certifications that were up on the window because someone had mentioned to her that someone else could potentially be offended because it kind of looked like a cross (was a + shape for months until I got a 6th cert, was very tempting to put it in a more offensive shape but I refrained)
"Maybe 10 to 15 for manslaughter..." 🤣🤣
“Maybe 10-15 for man slaughter”!!!😂😂😂😂😂
HR sucks the will to live out of companies. They don’t actually help with anything but load the employees up with shite.
I’ve seen all this over the years…love Utopia.
As a manager I once called a meeting and dropped the ‘f’ bomb. Exact same response. I believe it was quite useful as ‘an interest getter’.
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
HR, the wasted profession. Works only twice a year!
Oh the pain, the pain.
@2:09 HR: We need redundancy!
Also HR: Your position is redundant, so we're letting you go.
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'
I'm convinced we are in civilisational collapse!
So good. So true.