Dear Meenakshi,
Sorry for delay in reply to your post due to my preoccupations.
About the plight of the HR personnel that you pointed out, I can understand to some extent it is there for them, as sometimes top management tries to use HR personnel as their tool by keeping themselves in disguise to avoid anger of the employees against them. But, it is not there in every organization. If such type of position arises, an HR man has to tackle that situation quite tactfully to avoid the wrath of the bosses as well as not to invite anger of the employees.
You can well understand, every employee has his/her duties and responsibilities expected to be discharge sincerely under some set of laws, rules and regulations, without fear and compulsion of any one and not as a puppet of any super boss.
I can quote two examples that happened to me when at one occasion my boss conveyed me that his boss verbally instructed him to get signed and issued a Charge Sheet to one of my subordinate, as was received from HQ of the organization. I had a discussion with my boss for about 45 minutes and convinced him that being a Disciplinary Authority, I could not be directed or pressurized by any superior authority to take any disciplinary action against any employee unless I was fully convinced about the offense of the employee. Moreover, the super boss, who would become an Appellate Authority in case I issue the charge sheet. Thus, as an Appellate Authority, he would become fully prejudiced and would not do justice in the case if the employee preferred an appeal against my decision, as he himself was directing a Disciplinary Authority to do a wrong thing for an incident which I was not aware of. I just asked him, either the Charge Sheet should be signed by the authority of the HQ who framed the charge against the employee, or the super boss who directed me to sign the Charge Sheet and become the Disciplinary Authority, himself. In that case I offered to serve that Charge Sheet to the employee. Since the employee was a very popular trade union leader and my super boss was afraid of him, but knew that all union leaders had a great respect for me. So he decided to use me as his tool to his own advantage and my disadvantage to make the unions against me. I further requested that if he still insisted, I would have no objection if he issued such direction to me in writing, so that the employee should have the right to submit his appeal to the next higher Appellate Authority, if not satisfied with my decision. On that I was given written direction to sign and issue the Charge Sheet. I had to do that. But since the Charge Sheet had two big lacunae, which I knew very well, I did not make any correction as I was directed to sign the Charge Sheet and was not authorized to make any correction. The employee pointed out towards the same drawback of the Charge Sheet on which I used my power as Disciplinary Authority and exonerated him. This way, I could not only abide by the direction of superiors but also could do justice to my position as a Disciplinary Authority.
Another example that occurred several years later when I was at three ranks above my previous position, my boss directed me in writing to fix responsibility of an Accounts Officer as well as a Chief Accounts Officer and take disciplinary action against them for some irrecoverable revenue for some irregular service restored to a high dignitary public man. That was a clear direction for me, but I decided to get the case investigated at my own level and found that irrespective of the due action by the Accounts Officer and the Chief Accounts Officer, the service was restored by the technical wing on verbal instructions of the counterpart of my boss that too of another Unit and without the knowledge even of my boss and what to say of the knowledge of the A.O. and the C.A.O. The boss was accordingly apprised of the facts on record. Thus, I avoided wrong action as advised by my boss with appropriate and genuine reasons on record.
So, if you are expert in your HR profession and the HR laws and Rules are at your tips, you can just make use of your knowledge to convince the interferer and try to get the adverse or illegal decisions postponed for some time. That way you can see that the matter would have subsided. But, if you work just as tool or puppet of the super bosses to please them, you will not be doing justice even to yourself, what to say of employees. Since you are at the forefront and the employee sees your action, may be you are doing at the behest of your super bosses in disguise, employees will see their enemy in you only and not the super bosses. So, you have to remain very cautious in that situation to avoid wrath of the bosses on one hand and on the other anger of the employee.
Hope, your query is satisfied now?
PS Dhingra
Vigilance & Transformation Management Consultant
Dhingra Group of management & Educational Consultants
New Delhi