i_am_hrMany people believe HR is:

Old.

Slow.

Dowdy.

Bloated.

Bureaucratic.

Run by middle-aged women who like cats.

Some of that is true — especially the part about cats — but the majority of my colleagues were smart people with big hearts. More than 46 percent of HR professionals pursued graduate degrees. More than 12 percent have Ph.Ds or other post-graduate accomplishments. And not every “HR lady” is a lady. Some of them are dudes.

The external hatred for the modern-day HR department seemed emotional, irrational and arbitrary to me. I worked with interesting and intelligent people who had strong expertise in business and management strategy. I befriended HR leaders who ran small businesses on the side. And I made lifelong connections with HR professionals who had successfully defended dissertations, held patents and wrote books on the subject of leadership and human development.

When I left my final job in HR, I began researching, blogging and writing about human resources so I could answer a simple question:

Why does everyone hate HR and how can we fix that?

I think I have the answer, but you may not like what you read. My writing style is direct and honest. I don’t pull any punches. If you are easily offended, please stop reading. But I burned bridges in HR so I could light the way for you.

I hope you are ready to break stereotypes and reclaim HR.

Excerpt from I Am HR: 5 Strategic Ways to Break Stereotypes and Reclaim HRby Laurie Ruettimann (Rep Cap Press, 2014)

Keep reading: Download the e-book.

laurie_headshotAbout the Author: Laurie Ruettimann is a former Human Resources leader turned influential speaker, writer, and social media strategist. You may know her as the creator of The Cynical Girl and Punk Rock HR, which Forbes named as a top 100 website for women.

Laurie is a contributing editor for The Conference Board Review; a contributor to the TalentSpace blog and Business Insider; an advisor to SmartBrief on Workforce; and her advice has been featured in a wide variety of publications such as The New York TimesU.S. News & World ReportUSA Todayand AOL. Laurie is also recognized as one of the Top 5 career advisors by CareerBuilder and CNN.

Follow Laurie on Twitter @lruettimann or connect with her on LinkedIn.



By Laurie Ruettimann

Laurie Ruettimann is a former Human Resources leader turned influential speaker, writer and entrepreneur. She owns a consultancy that offers a wide array of services to HR departments and technology companies. Ruettimann is also the founder of GlitchPath, an early-stage startup focused on business insights and risk mitigation Follow her on Twitter @lruettimann or check out her LinkedIn profile here. You may know Laurie as the creator of The Cynical Girl and Punk Rock HR (retired), which Forbes named as a top 100 website for women. You may have also read her book, I AM HR: 5 Strategic Ways to Break Stereotypes and Reclaim HR. She has been published in a variety of places including AOL, Business Insider, The Conference Board Review, CFO Magazine, Entrepreneur, Forbes, The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Suicide Girls, The Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report and USA Today.  Laurie has keynoted, lectured and participated at business events around the world held by Harvard Business School, SXSW, Microsoft, Google, NBCUniversal, American Marketing Association, MediaBistro and many others. She is also recognized as one of the Top 5 career advisors by CareerBuilder and CNN. She is an appointed board member at TDn2K, which provides workforce data, business data and social data to the restaurant industry. She also sits on strategic advisory boards of firms focused on the areas of learning analytics, big data, and employee engagement.