# Workplace Surgery: The HR battleground - **Episode:** [176](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/176.md) (2025-03-04) - **Type:** workplace-surgery - **Tags:** hr, battleground, conflict, director - **Time:** 45:55–51:37 (start 2755s) - **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/176?t=2755](https://truthliesandwork.com/176?t=2755) --- [45:55] Al Elliott: This is from— is this from Google? I don't think it's from Google. As an HR director, I'm receiving heated emails from both sides, some claiming it's destroying work-life balance, others saying the previous system was inefficient. My inbox has become a battleground, and people are expecting me to either champion their cause or explain the company reasoning which I wasn't involved in. I'm caught between genuinely trying to help my coworkers, uh, doing my HR bit, and then leadership insisting that I'm the one who roll out these changes, which is obviously the transactional part of the leadership. What the heck am I supposed to do for the best? Should I even pick a side? [46:30] Leanne Elliott: No, don't pick a side. It's not, it's not your job to really pick a side, is it? It's your job to try and, try and, try and Implement these things in the best way that, that you can. And this is something I hear a lot from HR partners actually, is that kind of rock and a hard place, um, type scenario. There are some people that will say, well, you know, as an HR leader, you're there to— you work for the business, not for the employee. You're there to make the policies happen. There are other leaders that I might be more inclined to camp with who would say, well, actually, it's my job to To, yes, execute these policies, but in a way that actually serves the workforce, because I know if we do that, it's going to ultimately be better for the business. This person didn't say where they are, did they? [47:16] Al Elliott: No. Looking at the language, I think it is an American spelling of things. I'm going to guess America [47:24] Leanne Elliott: I mean, if you are in the UK or Europe, your rights are different in terms of flexible working. That was built into policy over the last— government policy over the last 12 months or so. So, you do have a legal right to request flexible working if you have reasonable reasons and need those adjustments. If you're in the US, well, I don't— sorry, I'm not saying I agree with the work culture in the United States of America, but it's a very different beast, and flexible working and human-led initiatives don't seem to necessarily be prioritised in these times. What do you do? I guess really you've got to stick to the The rulebook in terms of executing this policy. That's what you're employed to do in an organisation like this. That's not to say you can't speak to people and empathise. It's not to say that you can't maybe think about some out-the-box ways that you could potentially offer flexible working without having to offer flexible working. And really, that's going to be talking to your people. And I guess it's how strict this flexible working is, isn't it? Like, if it's a It might be, I don't know, for example, is there a way to go, right, we're still not gonna— everyone's still gonna come into the office because apparently that's a thing. Everyone's still gonna do 60 hours a week because apparently that's a thing as well. But half people are gonna work 7 till 4, and then some people are gonna work 9 till 7. And just seeing if there's any patterns of these frustrated employees coming to you in terms of what they're having to sacrifice or what— how their life is made more difficult by this flexibility going away. It could be caring responsibilities. It could be something around disability. It could be something around family commitments. It could be around travel. It could be around the costs of travel at peak time. There's lots of different things that people could be kicking off about in terms of flexibility. Once you get past the fact that people are just kicking off because it's a change that they didn't want, and they're still going through that psychological transition, don't forget, change is external. It's done to us very quickly. Psychological transition we need to get through to accept that change is much slower. And with that comes a lot of anger, a lot of resentment, a lot of frustration. That's just people working through that psychological transition. Equally, during that time, there might be some themes and patterns you can pick up on that actually, if you could maybe just tweak this new policy a little bit, it might— for the majority of people, might make a difference. Collect your data, be curious, have the conversations. Ultimately, it's your job to execute workplace policies as an HR practitioner. And if you're working for an organisation where it is being mandated, that they're not particularly interested in that consultation before the change is made, it's not great, but it is what it is. And maybe, maybe start brushing up your CV as well. Fundamentally, you feel this is an incorrect way to manage HR and people and culture in an organisation, then [50:16] Elaine Smith: Yeah [50:16] Leanne Elliott: Maybe it's a point of reflection for you as well in terms of finding a better fit for you to be an HR partner leader somewhere else [50:23] Al Elliott: I love how Leanne's cut to the real chase of this. It's like, it's not that it's a tough decision, it's more that it's a change that has been done to people. It doesn't sound like there's much consultation. If there was, it'd be worse because they've ignored it and people are just unhappy with it. There is a great episode with a lady called Hillary Scarlett, Dr. Hilary Scarlett. I think she's a neuroscientist and she talks about the neuroscience of change and what happens when you actually implement change. It's definitely worth spinning back and having a listen to, I wanna say somewhere around about 160, 170, something like that. But just search for Hilary Scarlett, you'll find it. But yeah, good luck with it because this sounds like a tough thing that you can't really go, oh, do this and you fixed it. But as Leanne said, your job is likely to implement. the policies that the leaders come up with. You're very nice by taking on all the complaints about it and trying to resolve them, but a great leader will say, I totally understand what you're saying. Let me go and look at the fine print of this and see if there is a way that we can actually do what you want to do in the framework that has been handed down from the gods above. And that's a really, you know, really nice and a good way to be a great manager. Leanne, anything to add before we say goodbye?