Feeling Stuck in My First HR Job: How Do I Cope with Mid-Month Downtime?

Dear seniors, Kindly help me with your esteemed suggestions. I have joined a company in Rajasthan as an HR Executive, and this is my first job. I have been working here since January, but I work at the beginning and the end of the month, not in the middle. I get really bored and want to switch jobs, but since I have not completed one year, I cannot do so. I do not have any seniors or juniors in my department.

Regards,
Asmita

How can you be bored when you have many things to learn? You are new and have just started your professional life, so you have to learn as much as you can. You are an HR professional, and I'm sure you have a good qualification and understanding of what you have to do and have set your goals for your professional life/career.

I understand that sometimes people feel like this, but actually, they just need motivation and the right guidance on how to learn and seize opportunities that can help them establish themselves in the field of work or build a good career.

Let me ask you a few more questions that you actually have to answer yourself.

Do you really think or feel that you have nothing to learn there apart from the work you are doing or that keeps you busy?

We understand your concern, but now you just need to understand how to invest your TIME and for what. This is your learning time. Having work there, no matter for a few days, doesn't mean you are free for a few days or have nothing to learn. Until you show your sincere interest in learning, you can't gain more understanding and experience in what you are doing. You have not shared what work you are actually doing or what has been assigned to you by your seniors, but if you feel like you are free and have no work, you need to engage yourself in strengthening your knowledge about Labour Laws.

- You can invest your time (on days you have no work or are free) to understand the rules and regulations applicable to HR functions such as ESIC, EPF, Bonus, Gratuity, and others.

- You can invest your time by reading discussions here on any topic as you are an esteemed member of this place. The discussions we have here are real-life experiences/issues that we are dealing with and sharing with each other.

- You can invest your time practically, as I mentioned above, to strengthen your knowledge about EPF and so on, so you can practice on your own.

- Ask a question: asking questions to your seniors/colleagues can give you a lot more to learn and chances to develop yourself and your knowledge.

I have two strong beliefs that I want to share with you here:

“If you don’t have a question to ask, you can’t get an answer, and if you can’t get an answer, you can’t learn anything.”

“If you want to learn something in this world sincerely, you don’t need to find a teacher; the teacher will find you.”

By saying this, I just want to say that you need to know WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO and HOW TO INVEST YOURSELF and YOUR TIME.

Hope now you have a clear motive, an idea to work with, and answers to your questions/queries.

Best of Luck

Dear Asmita and Satish,

Surprisingly, (mind the spelling errors in your post). Don't view it negatively. B+. You have the whole world ahead of you. You are unchallenged, with no seniors or juniors, and unconquerable. You are the masters of your world. It's a blessing in disguise. You have lots to do.

Start HR from Scratch

Begin with HR policy, frame the rules, and activate labor laws in your firm. Comply with all regulations. (Beware, you may not be liked by your bosses if you start complying with all regulations/laws). Regularize all appointments, PF/EPF, ESI, and leave matters. Introduce proper records at all levels. You have tons of work to do. Don't end up as a failure. No one is going to direct you to do this and that.

Utilize Resources and Build Knowledge

Take guidelines from various CiteHR posts, and build up a library of reference laws and notifications. Draw out charts and tables of when to do what. This is your job. I'm sure if you start doing all these, you'll start saying, "I have no time even to eat."

With best regards,

Kumar S.

As you have mentioned that you started your professional life in January, in my opinion, you are lucky that you don't have work during the middle of the month. This time can be utilized for the preparation of competitive exams such as IAS or for enhancing knowledge in areas of your interest.

Regards,
Neeraj Jain

Please start preparing for your organization's HR Policies

Please focus on developing your organization's HR Policy, Leave Policy, Working Hours Policy, Promotion Policy, Recruitment Procedure, Discipline Policy, Performance Appraisal Policy, Compensation Package Policy, Incentive Policy, etc. Keep yourself engaged in one activity or another. If the work commences in full swing, you will not have time to formulate any policies. Hence, if you have them ready, you can simply modify and present them for approval when needed.

Career Advancement in HR

If you take the lead in formulating policies for a startup company, you will likely become the head of the HR Department in the future as the organization grows. I hope you have selected your career path. Please try to improve your knowledge in your free time.

Regards.

First of all, thank you for your suggestion. I would like to answer your question: no, I don't think that there is nothing to learn apart from the work I do. However, I do not have proper resources to learn as I am not allowed to implement any ideas. Can you suggest any book related to case studies (HR) so I can learn through practical happenings?

Regards,
Asmita

Thank you for your suggestion. I cannot start preparing for our organization's recruitment policy as recruitment is overseen by our GM & CEO, and I have no role in it. Performance appraisal is not conducted in our company as salary increments are based on the company's profit/loss each year. We do not have an incentive policy as it requires targets, and no targets are assigned to any employee.

I have made efforts to improve our company's operations, but the issue lies in our MD not viewing it as a manufacturing company but rather as a trading company. If you have any HR-related knowledge to share, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

Regards,
Asmita

With reference to your answers to me and to Mr. Bhaskar and Mr. Kumar as well, you have explained how much you have to learn and are already doing, but it seems you are not focused on your learning, which is not giving you the satisfaction of learning.

Could you please explain what proper resources you are talking about and want while working?

You are not allowed to implement your ideas there, so that is your actual problem. One can seek and grab opportunities and express things to seniors and others as much as possible, but one must not forget that your seniors will only allow you to do the same. So you are actually on the wrong path, I would say.

Now I would refer to the response to you by Mr. Kumar here, which I believe is logical and appropriate. You are new and have just spent a few months, and you are expecting, no, in fact, you are not just expecting but seeing yourself as someone who wants to make changes but forget that you have just started your career and professional life. This might not make you feel good, but it is a truth I want to say. I beg your pardon, but you have to put that attitude aside and need to be a LEARNER first.

I won't say you must not expect to get a chance by seniors to express yourself in developing a good system, but for this, you have to show that you are interested, not like a GAME CHANGER. We all expect something and want to play an important role in development, but we must not forget that we still are students (New Personnel) in this field and can't be teachers ever.

You read discussions on CiteHR daily but still are missing a lot, and that I can say by your response. There are many respected seniors who are daily trying to convey the same message to newcomers/students/freshers and making them good personnel by sharing their knowledge and experience, but still, people like you are actually missing a lot of important things.

Mr. Simhan, Ms. (Cite Contribution), Mr. Kumar, Mr. Bhaskar, Mr. TajSateesh (TS), and many more are daily putting their efforts with the same purpose to make a good HR system with good PERSONNEL/PERSON. I request you to follow them and read their communication, and I believe you will learn a lot from them.

And about the library that you have created, let me ask you a question: how much have you benefited from this, and what are you actually doing and intending to have material in your stock? (Please answer this yourself first.)

Now back to the same reply of yours to Mr. Bhaskar, where you have clearly expressed and defined the situation in your company, which is also related to my response that your MD is actually not allowing.

Therefore, after going through all these, I found two major and main things as given below:

- One is that you want your involvement with new ideas to develop a good system but are not getting a chance to do so. That is actually not making you feel good.

- Second, you have to do some work with yourself, your approach, and ways to look and handle the work/situation as a student. You can do that by sharing yourself with your colleagues and seniors tactfully. If your MD is not ready to accept the new change, show them the lacks in the system and difficulties that can turn him and other seniors to accept your effort and ideas.

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

Best of Luck

You need not get completely involved in the recruitment process. However, you can make all the arrangements as per the requirements of your CEO/GM. Upon selection, you can create a personal file for each employee with their application, resume, experience certificate, educational certificate copy, address proof, age proof documents, passport copy, and every year, whenever they receive their appraisal, you can record it in their personal file with the salary revision data sheet, leave data sheet, etc., and keep track of everything individually.

All companies declare performance appraisals and consequently salary revisions based on the profit/loss of the company. You can also maintain the records, and if you keep all the data related to the PA/Salary revision, it will surely help you after some years in finding the statistical data of all the employees, which will aid the management in conducting a proper analysis.

The incentive policy is not only for achieving targets but also for maintaining a cordial relationship with the local public, ensuring good housekeeping, and timely completion of tasks. Furthermore, the incentive may be a financial or non-financial benefit, which will motivate the employee to perform better.

Here, we have provided a suggestion to improve yourself and your organization in your free time during the mid-month. It is up to you to accept it and think about improving yourself or to leave it.

Discussions will generate light and help us develop ourselves, but arguments will lead to generating more heat with less light and will develop enmity.

Wishing you all the best.