Employees Ask Why HR Is Disliked but Rarely Criticized on LinkedIn

A post to r/Showerthoughts on Oct. 24, 2026, said HR is disliked but rarely criticized on LinkedIn. The poster wrote that this “makes it the most feared department also.” The post drew 17 comments at the time of publication.

One commenter offered a theory about which groups dominate the platform’s feed. They wrote, “I think it means that the people who post the most on LinkedIn are either people who aren’t subject to HR (recruiters, etc.), HR staff, and the kind of people who benefit from HR departments,” naming executives and upper management.

Another commenter said that recruiting and HR professionals dominated the platform’s content. They wrote, “A lot of LinkedIn is recruiters and HR people talking like their actions are the foundations of society.” They said people outside HR hold a low opinion of the department and that indifference explains the silence. “The reason you don’t see comments about HR is because nobody gives a [...] about them,” they wrote.

Another commenter described how one workplace’s approach to HR changed with its leadership. They wrote, “I worked at an R&D company where the head of HR was a PhD physicist. He saw HR’s role as helping employees and removing obstacles so they could focus on doing their jobs. He was very helpful and well liked.”

Later, they wrote, “A new head of HR came in with a completely different mindset, focused on efficiency and enforcing rules. Suddenly everything required detailed documentation." Their example involved travel expenses: “If you had a beer with dinner while traveling, you had to deduct it from your expense report, including the beer’s sales tax.” They called it “Just stupidly painful to deal with,” and said, “It was just their style rather than direction from management.”

The Redditor said the company relocated them across the country twice, and “The first move cost them around $17,000.” They wrote, “Five years later, under the new HR director, they only covered about $11,500, even though we had a lot more stuff.” Their takeaway was that “most HR departments see themselves primarily as corporate rule enforcers, but sometimes you get lucky.”

A separate commenter defended the department and explained why organizations maintain it. They wrote, “People don’t understand HR. It’s not evil. It’s not for employees. It’s not for management.” They said the department’s purpose was to provide legal protection, writing, “It literally exists to ensure the agency doesn’t get sued.”

“That’s the reason HR exists,” they added. “Stop taking things personally or making them more than they are. People shouldn’t fear any department.” They wrote, “And I’m sure it’s a great place to work. They’re also SR24+, so they make decent money. It’s not weird why there’s no negatives on any job site.”

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the accounts described in the thread. The details above reflect the poster’s and commenters’ accounts as shared on r/Showerthoughts. The identities of the poster and commenters, as well as the workplaces they described, have not been confirmed.