The head of HR was working closely with their CIO who quit so she was the best fit for the role. The HR department is presumably small so it's no issue to absorb it into tech. The AI spin sounds a bit fake.
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tkluck
Even under the AI-maximalist assumption that human workers and LLMs are going to be interchangeable, I'm having a hard time seeing the logic.
LLMs are not going to go on parental leave; have various protected statuses; have worker protection, visa issues or a compensation structure. In other words, there's no synergy at all from having them be managed in the same way as actual human resources. (And I'm sorry for using the term human resources unironically -- that just follows from the AI maximalist assumption.)
There's maybe some synergy in workforce planning, but if HR was doing that then there's already something broken in the business. HR is supposed to contribute legal expertise first, cultural and team dynamics expertise second, and process expertise not at all.
alephnerd
A lot of people on HN don't seem to realize they might work in a cost center.
The best thing you can ever do for your career is try to understand how your job directly generates value for customers in a visible manner. If your job does not, transfer to a team where that does hold, change jobs, or learn how to play politics.
conartist6
I give it six years for them to regret this.
At some point, enough of your technical people leaving because they have lost hope for a better future. That is a way that any once-healthy company can die.
nickdothutton
Reminder: In large corporations, HR is mostly just a "people risk" department. People are a necessary input, and with them comes all sorts of risk. It is the HR departments job to advise and manage that risk both in general via policy and specifically from case to case. Once you understand HR like that it makes a lot more sense.
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sys_64738
Human Resources should really be named Employer Resources as it exists to protect the company from liability for their employees.
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constantcrying
The only thing I can imagine being more hellish than your coworkers being HR people is your coworkers being HR people who use LLMs to do their jobs.
This is just guesswork, but I think it is likely that HR came under serious pressure as many of their jobs started to become very obviously obsolete. So the HR chief came up with a plan to combine her irrelevant department with an actually still relevant department, in a bid to maintain corporate power.
There is no real business case behind this. Even the article fails to provide any coherent reason for this nonsensical merger.
https://archive.is/0qWXw
The head of HR was working closely with their CIO who quit so she was the best fit for the role. The HR department is presumably small so it's no issue to absorb it into tech. The AI spin sounds a bit fake.
Even under the AI-maximalist assumption that human workers and LLMs are going to be interchangeable, I'm having a hard time seeing the logic.
LLMs are not going to go on parental leave; have various protected statuses; have worker protection, visa issues or a compensation structure. In other words, there's no synergy at all from having them be managed in the same way as actual human resources. (And I'm sorry for using the term human resources unironically -- that just follows from the AI maximalist assumption.)
There's maybe some synergy in workforce planning, but if HR was doing that then there's already something broken in the business. HR is supposed to contribute legal expertise first, cultural and team dynamics expertise second, and process expertise not at all.
A lot of people on HN don't seem to realize they might work in a cost center.
The best thing you can ever do for your career is try to understand how your job directly generates value for customers in a visible manner. If your job does not, transfer to a team where that does hold, change jobs, or learn how to play politics.
I give it six years for them to regret this.
At some point, enough of your technical people leaving because they have lost hope for a better future. That is a way that any once-healthy company can die.
Reminder: In large corporations, HR is mostly just a "people risk" department. People are a necessary input, and with them comes all sorts of risk. It is the HR departments job to advise and manage that risk both in general via policy and specifically from case to case. Once you understand HR like that it makes a lot more sense.
Human Resources should really be named Employer Resources as it exists to protect the company from liability for their employees.
The only thing I can imagine being more hellish than your coworkers being HR people is your coworkers being HR people who use LLMs to do their jobs.
This is just guesswork, but I think it is likely that HR came under serious pressure as many of their jobs started to become very obviously obsolete. So the HR chief came up with a plan to combine her irrelevant department with an actually still relevant department, in a bid to maintain corporate power.
There is no real business case behind this. Even the article fails to provide any coherent reason for this nonsensical merger.
Sounds like a disaster in waiting.