This Human Relations Specialist clarifies that his job role is more of a problem solver than it is about relating to humans. Other professionals have also shared their professional stories with AsianHires.com, like a Computer Engineer and a Teacher.
I am a human relations specialist in the Western regional corporate offices of Sears. I have 5 years of experience at this company, and 10 years of total experience in this job specifically.
On a typical day I am communicating with various people from different divisions of the company to solve all types of problems. I am a problem solver. It is my job to make sure that no disagreement goes beyond the two people that it starts with. I am also responsible for hiring and firing new employees, as well as recommending to upper management decisions on the macroemployment issues of each division. I am also responsible for evaluating the performance of management and coming up with solutions for better performance if they are not working up to par.
I am Asian and male. I would say that this has definitely hurt me in many situations with co workers. Many of them seem to not take me seriously, especially when it is my job to evaluate them. I have definitely heard some people express themselves in less than professional ways after evaluation sessions with me. Fortunately I do not have far to go in order to obtain recourse for these actions. I am able to put down any misconduct that I see directly on performance reports, and you would think that this would curb some of the more negative actions of my coworkers. However, it does not for certain people, who have decided that they are not going to like me simply because I’m Asian. When this is the case, there is little else that I can do other than simply avoid that person, because I do not want to be dragged into a personal vendetta in a professional place of employment.
I speak Mandarin Chinese as well as English, which does help me with some of the employees in my division. Also, it seems to be a mark of distinction to be bilingual at all. I do gain some respect simply because I can speak two languages.
I would rate my job satisfaction at about nine. In order to get to a 10, I would definitely need to experience less discrimination and whispering behind my back when it came to the issue of ethnicity. I wish there was more I could do to create a more professional office.
I learned the hard way in this job that human relations is a lot less about relating to humans than I thought. It is more about matching human behavior to a preset value system and weeding out any behavior that does not match that. What allowed me to learn that was when I brought up some changes in the system. Upper management simply refused to listen to those changes, preferring to keep things as they were even though there were obvious holes in the system.
What they didn’t teach me in school that would’ve been helpful to me was how to match psychology with business. I wish that I was better able to incorporate some of the natural human behaviors into the system that the corporate office goes by.
I got started in this line of work through my university career center hosting a job and resume writing event. They had some recruiters from corporations come, and one of those corporations was Sears. I had originally wanted to get a job in the finance department, but none of those jobs were open. However, the recruiter said that he liked me and somehow my resume went over to the human relations department.
The strangest thing that has ever happened to me in this job was a married couple on the telemarketing for actually getting into a personal argument on the job. I had to break up the argument and send them both outside.
When things are going really well, something that makes me feel really good is the smile on someone’s face when they receive a good progress report. I really like telling people that they have done a good job.
When absolutely nothing seems to go right, some of the things that I handle are arguments between employees that can get pretty heated. Many of their concerns are about salaries and benefits, which I have no direct control over. The people who control that are nowhere near my office.
My job is actually quite stressful, which is why I maintain a great work life balance. I talk to no one from the office once I go home, and I make sure to take all of my vacation days every year.
A rough salary range for the position that I hold is between 75,000 and $90,000 a year. I live pretty well off of my salary because my wife makes about the same amount and we live within our means.
The most rewarding moment that I’ve experienced in this job was when I actually got promoted to my current position. There were no Asians in a position that high in my division, and so I really felt like I was representing something positive for my race.
The most challenging moment that I have ever experienced was when I had a group of people come up to me wanting to know why they had not received their paychecks that week. I had to run around to three different offices and stay on the phone all day to get the issue handled.
To get hired in this field it would be good to have psychology classes and a business degree as well as a pretty social attitude. I would tell a friend that was considering this line of work be ready to argue. I take four weeks of vacation a year and no it is not nearly enough. The most common misunderstanding about human relations is that it is not about human relations at all.
This job moves my heart because I do like to be a problem solver and if I could write my own ticket in five years, I would be a vice president at this company.
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