Evan Loveless, a senior HR partner, reveals the emotional toll of conducting seven rounds of layoffs over 18 months, personally delivering hundreds of job loss notifications at his St. Louis ad agency. This heartbreaking experience highlights the increasingly difficult realities facing HR professionals today
The relentless cycle of layoffs has left HR professionals feeling emotionally drained. One senior HR partner describes the constant sadness as "like being stuck under a raincloud," highlighting the profound human cost of corporate restructuring and the increasing challenges facing HR in today's turbulent business environment
The emotional toll of layoffs: HR leader Evan Loveless shares a heartbreaking story of delivering layoff news to an employee expecting a promotion, highlighting the increasing challenges and ethical dilemmas faced by HR professionals in today's turbulent job market
The emotional toll of layoffs: HR professionals share the heartbreaking reality of delivering job loss news, often to families facing double unemployment. These difficult conversations leave a lasting impact, highlighting the human cost of corporate restructuring and the increasing challenges faced by HR in today's turbulent job market
The HR profession: From tough to brutal. Layoffs, return-to-office mandates, immigration issues, and the AI revolution are creating unprecedented challenges for HR professionals. This perfect storm of complexities is pushing HR to its limits, forcing them to navigate emotionally taxing situations and demanding new skill sets. Is the HR job description changing forever?
Unprecedented HR Challenges: Layoffs, RTO Mandates, AI, and More
HR professionals face an unprecedented confluence of challenges unlike anything seen in decades. From mass layoffs and stricter return-to-office mandates to navigating immigration issues and the rapid adoption of AI, the workload has intensified significantly. According to Jim Link, SHRM's Chief Human Resources Officer, "the magnitude of these simultaneous events is unlike anything I've observed in my 30+ years as a human-capital leader." This follows a period already marked by pandemic-related complexities, including remote work management and social justice issues. The current demands on HR are intense, increasing, and transforming the profession
HR professionals face unprecedented challenges: From navigating mass layoffs and return-to-office mandates to managing the fallout from the pandemic (remote work transitions, vaccine mandates, social justice issues), and now the rapid integration of AI, the HR landscape is more demanding than ever. This follows years of already intense pressure, leaving HR workers struggling with an overwhelming workload and emotionally taxing situations
HR professionals face unprecedented challenges: relentless layoffs, stricter RTO mandates, immigration issues, and the urgent need for AI training. Experts like Dr. Tracy Brower, a PhD sociologist specializing in organizational behavior, confirm the significantly increased and intense demands on HR teams today, exceeding anything seen in decades. This follows the already tumultuous pandemic years, adding further strain to an already demanding profession
HR's Evolving Challenges: Navigating Layoffs, Return-to-Office Mandates, and the Impact of Immigration Enforcement
HR professionals face a growing crisis: Southeast HR Director Alexandra Valverde reports that immigrant workers, fearing ICE raids, frequently approach her with anxieties and tears. This, alongside mass layoffs, return-to-office mandates, and AI integration challenges, highlights the unprecedented pressures on today's HR departments
HR professionals face unprecedented challenges: Layoffs, return-to-office mandates, immigration issues, and AI integration are creating immense pressure. One HR veteran, working in the field since 2019, describes the current climate as the "hardest year," noting widespread employee fear even among those whose jobs are secure – a stark contrast to previous experiences. This reflects a growing trend of increased stress and difficult situations for HR professionals navigating today's complex workplace
HR professionals face mounting challenges amidst widespread layoffs, particularly concerning employees on H1-B visas. The constant pressure of job cuts adds emotional toll, impacting HR teams and foreign workers alike. This unsettling trend exacerbates existing HR burdens, including return-to-office mandates and the rapid adoption of AI
The emotional toll of layoffs is amplified for HR professionals, especially when involving H1-B visa holders facing potential deportation within 60 days of job loss. This added layer of complexity, alongside increased layoff frequency, return-to-office mandates, and the integration of AI, creates unprecedented challenges for HR departments, transforming the role into an emotionally demanding and complex undertaking
Sixty days isn't enough time to find a new job, even in a strong economy, says employment expert Smart. This highlights the current challenges faced by HR professionals amidst widespread layoffs and evolving workplace demands
US Job Cuts Surge 80% in 2024: Challenger, Gray & Christmas report reveals 696,309 layoffs through May, highlighting the challenging landscape for HR professionals
Making matters worse, the cuts are coming at a time when company chiefs are warning of even more layoffs coming down the line due to the rise of generative AI and AI agents. Last week Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company’s extensive use of the technology is expected to reduce its total corporate workforce, which totaled approximately 1.5 million last year. CEOs of other companies, including chatbot maker Anthropic, freelance-job site Fiverr, and payments provider Klarna, have recently issued similar declarations.
HR workers are used to taking heat for implementing policies that don’t sit well with workers. But lately they say it’s gotten a lot harder to keep their cool.
In the second quarter, employees at organizations that experienced layoffs in the past year committed 67% more acts of so-called workplace incivility on average than those at firms without such cuts, according to new SHRM data. Those acts, which the trade group says includes silencing and excessively monitoring colleagues, were also 63% higher among workers at organizations with return-to-office mandates than at those without.
David Gaspin, the head of HR for a commercial real-estate company in New York, said that at his previous employer he was hit with “some serious vitriol” from a colleague he thought he had a good relationship with after having to lay this person off last year. The tongue-lashing included comments such as “you’re just a corporate tool” and “you’re a horrible human being.”
“That’s never easy to hear,” said Gaspin.
Given the more taxing landscape, it’s perhaps no wonder that fewer people are looking for work in HR. Searches for HR jobs on Indeed.com in the first half of this year were down nearly 5% from the first half of 2024, and they’ve been declining annually since 2021, Indeed data show.
Separately, a 2022 study from LinkedIn found HR had the highest turnover rate of any job function. (The job site hasn’t updated the report since then.)
Rebecca Taylor, a former HR professional in New Jersey who co-hosts a podcast called HR Confessions, said one reason she left the field is that she was tired of always being the office grinch. The final straw came after a worker she was tasked with laying off looked up her parents’ landline and called them repeatedly to chastise her.
“It was scary,” said Taylor, 37, who uses a pseudonym partly because of that incident. If a disgruntled employee is angry enough, she added, what else will they try to find?
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