Feeling Out of Place as the Only HR in a Busy Tech Team – How Do You Cope?

I have a problem. I am not busy throughout the day. I am the sole HR person sitting amongst a group of technical guys. They are always busy and pressured as they face customer demands, data deadlines, etc. My work is more routine, so I am generally relaxed, which makes me look like the odd one out. My colleagues always pass jibes about this.

How to Deal with Feeling Out of Place

How do I deal with this? Do I pretend I am busy or what? Have some of you at least gone through this?

Regards.

The simple answer to your question is always to chat on Cite HR. It will help you the most, increase your knowledge, and be a good way to pass the time. Alternatively, ask a technical person to teach you something, which can also be beneficial as you can help them. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

First of all, we have no knowledge about your business, manpower strength, organizational structure, etc. However, you can assess the HR setup, analyze it contemporarily, and suggest methods to improve it to facilitate employee empowerment, motivation, complete compliance with various social security legislations, and other legislations related to your company. This includes succession planning, better training and placements, improved housekeeping, grievance management, etc. You may also develop a good rapport with others by helping and advising them in various professional fields based on your knowledge beyond the HR arena. Additionally, you can enhance your skills by utilizing spare time.

Anyway, be devoted to your profession by continuously improving yourself and helping the company to enhance HR practices.

Best of luck.

For a change, I think we saw a posting/thread quoting something different... seriously. Most of the postings mention the tough life (due to various/different factors) of the HR position.

Responding to Your Query

Coming to your query, [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons] gave a good suggestion. Apart from utilizing your time in a better way, you also learn a lot about the profession. Another way could be to review the HR policies of your company and figure out ways to improve/refine them. CiteHR would surely come in handy in this effort.

If your background is technical (meaning the basic degree before your MBA in HR), [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons]'s suggestion would surely expand your knowledge base into technical areas too — which would come in handy when you need to get into recruiting later.

All the best.

Regards,
TS

My sincere thanks to you, Mr. Nair. I really appreciate the specific guidelines you provided. In a broader sense, I must take the initiative in exploring and doing things beyond the specific tasks allotted to me. Your reply was the perfect answer to "what are those other things I can do." It was exactly what I was looking for.

Dear Tejsateesh, I was running the risk of sounding ridiculous when I posted this thread, and I am happy that I took the risk. I will definitely take up your suggestion of learning a few technical things. Although I am not from a technical background, I can surely learn some basics of what my company does from a more technical perspective.

Thanks to both of you for your valuable time.

Regards,

You are not the first or the last to be in a situation where one has more time on hand than work and gets frustrated, as others around are busy. I know of a Work Study Officer who was very busy in his job. When he was promoted to Assistant Manager for the area, he had comparatively nothing to do while sitting among a number of clerks who worked very hard calculating workers' bonuses. When his boss died and he became the Acting Area Manager, he realized that his boss had nothing to do either. However, the boss was fortunate as he sat in an enclosed office and could pretend to be busy whenever someone walked in after knocking on the door.

The Assistant Manager then kept himself busy by reading relevant material and taking up a part-time course. Eventually, he quit the job and went on to teach. So, kindly follow the advice given by others.

Regards.