Me: So where is this approved clinic?
HR: It’s somewhere pretty far from here.
Me: From my past experience and understanding, this organization provides a service to take me to a clinic, another clinic; one that is much closer- and help me get my papers done there.
HR: No. That is not something we can do since you were already a resident here before. You are not coming into this city from another country as a new resident, so we can’t provide you with this service.
Me: But you provided it to me when I was client, how could you not provide it when I am now an employee?
HR: Sorry, that is our protocol.
Me: Okay, can you then send a driver with me there? I don’t know where this place is.
HR: No. What I can do is provide you with the address and get a driver to try to explain it to you, but we do not provide drivers. Don’t you have one?
I am a little stunned and in awe for a few moments because I really sense that this person doesn’t want to try to help in any way. It’s like I’m talking to a machine.
Me: Alright then, I’ll figure this out. Thanks.
HR: You’re welcome.
Yup this conversation is real! I’m working somewhere in the GCC, I recently started a new job and I was asked to provide a medical certificate stating that I was ‘fit for the job’. Now, getting your medical check-up done can be a hassle; you get a chest X-ray, blood sample and an all rounded checkup. So I was advised by other colleagues to enquire HR about the procedures (even though I assure you this wasn’t the first time for me to undergo these procedures with this very same organization.)
It’s no surprise that dealing with HR in any or all organizations can be challenging. In many cases, we rely heavily on the fact that HR stands for ‘Human Resources’ which to the rest of us means helping us ‘humans’ not get screwed over by the system. Little do we know; the role of HR can also be considered as dealing with people as assets or a resource, which then translates to that “they” (meaning us, employees) will/can be commoditized and abused.
But isn’t that something we all expect? We know that certain rights will go to waste and certain advantages will soon become disadvantages. So, after a few years of experience and a few interviews with some unfriendly/unhelpful HR personnel, one quickly figures how the game is played. But for someone like myself, I don’t ask for too much, especially from HR. All I ask for are these two things, and two things only 1) being nice and 2) being helpful (or at least trying to seem helpful). On some occasions I tend to be greedy enough and secretly wish for a smile every now and then but I don’t like to push my luck.
We all know that much of our fate lies in the hands of HRs, they handle all of our paper work, they handle our holidays and tickets, our medical documents and much of the job hiring process. But then why do they have to be so difficult about it, I mean certainly someone must be in charge of their “paper work, holidays, tickets, medical documents and much of the job hiring.” Why don’t they feel for us?
Anyway, the next day, I’m finally at this medical clinic from 8:30 am until 12:30 pm. I am exhausted and tired, and it’s very busy. Once I finish the medical tests, I go back to the office, and share my morning experience with my colleagues, both of which looked stunned by my story and asked why on earth didn’t I get HR to speak to the immigration department to send a driver with me to go to our own approved clinic where they’d have finished all of this work for me in less than 20 minutes. Of course I replied that it was because I already told this piece of information to HR but they said they can’t do that. So, my colleagues took me to the immigration department (who are in charge of all medical things) and asked them if they could’ve helped and this was their response, “Of course, just send us an email with your request, we will then send you a time and date for the car pick up and give you the red carpet service at the clinic and you’ll be done in 15 minutes.”
You cannot imagine my frustration at the HR for providing me with the wrong information, not bothering to direct me to the rightly concerned department -which was immigration, and for not even picking up the phone to ask them if they had any other solutions, the least of which was providing me with a driver.
So I went back to the HR to approach them and try to correct their current information, just to avoid anyone else going through what I went through. I explained the situation to HR and said that immigration along with other employees, confirmed the fact that my medical checkup requirement is a service that they can help with. But this was the response I received:
HR: Oh, well that’s not what we were told by Mr. X. We will check with him about this matter and if we can help then, we will.
Of course I left their office in a profoundly shocked state of mind simply at the lack of any human emotion or sincere interaction, I didn’t expect an apology, but I certainly did expect a little more than an “Oh”.
So when all is said and done, all I can say is HR departments should really try to work more on how they handle their people skills, even if certain rules can’t be bent, there’s always a nice way of applying them and there’s always a way to try to seem helpful and concerned and that’s all I ask for.
Amira Shohdi
Photography: Alia Faramawi
EDITOR: Mennat-Allah Yasser Zohny