Has anyone noticed this? HR representatives, at least at the Krogers I've worked at, are universally grumpy. Yet their job is dealing with people!
My first experience with a Kroger HR rep was my orientation. My orientation was at a store other than the one I was hired at due to schedule conflicts. My home store's HR rep told me the incorrect time for orientation, so I arrived 2 hours early. The other HR lady proceeds to yell at me, saying she had no idea that I was even coming, and the orientation doesn't start for 2 hours. She then checks her email and says, "Oh, I guess your HR rep did email me two months ago," in a tiny, embarrassed voice. She then shooed me away. Probably some of the most unprofessional behavior I've encountered from someone in a managerial position.
The HR rep at my store is notoriously rude. For example, I went into her office to ask about getting a locker, to which she glared at me and said angrily, "Um, who are you again?" Yeah, your job is human resources but you have no people skills. It's incredible.
We've had 3 HR people at my store. The first two acted like they were managers and the second one went so far as to say she was an extension of management. Our current one is very friendly but corporate have been making things difficult for her.
Um at my store we assign a co-manager to be the HR person. They usually pick whoever is lowest on the totem pole because, let's face it, hiring is grunt work. Basically during an interview you are trying to sell a job that pays a dime over minimum wage. That is like trying to sell a Pontiac Aztek.
I used to be the HR person at my store. It was enjoyable but, like with every other employee at Kroger, I was often times ignored and not given sufficient resources or time to do my job effectively, yet stellar results were still expected. I even had other employees gang up on me and threaten to report me to corporate because I wouldn't hire their friends. In the end I gave up the position because I realized I got paid the exact same amount of money to stand at Uscan at night.. So I decided the stress wasn't worth it.
I was always very nice to employees and always defended employees when I could! There were times that I threatened the managers with union involvement because they would want me to start looking for a new employee because they were trying to get another employee fired who they didn't like.
You have to track down the original posts about Derek, balloons, and microwaves.
That's what I want to see.
HR isn't really even a thing at Kroger. It's just whatever the unluckiest assistant store manager can't pass off to the store secretary or the front end.
Last store I was at had an HR everyone hated. She was always so rude and mean. They kept shuffling her from store to store yet won't fire her because that's what Kroger wants.
That broad sounds nice compared to some. Your division could have a floating psychopath with a private investigator license and lots of seriously ugly connections outside the store. Kroger has a bad reputation for a very good reason.