HR should have resources to be human

At certain times of the year, in certain companies, a certain feeling of apprehension descends upon a certain number who have to justify their role during the proceeding 12 months to the company's human resources department.

In itself, not a bad thing. A time for reflection, for a cool detached review, can be of immense benefit. And the company I work for presently, let me put on record, has the most compassionate, visionary, professional HR department I have ever had the pleasure to be reviewed by. Let me also state for the record that my compliments have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that my salary is up for review in two weeks.

But I have toiled for companies previously where the HR department has not been, well, so humane, and I have been the recipient of questions that bordered on the bizarre.