Bang on! Human Remains is the most hated department in our company. It's staffed by the wicked witch and her sisters and she likes to sacrifice a worker atleast once a week to keep the rest in check. Honestly don't know how they sleep. Last time I had a barney with her she told me direct to my face 'there's plenty more where you came from!'
My view is find another department lol
I'm still working for the same parent company but transferred to a different division in November mostly because of how I was being treated by the previous division and its HR department.
Not saying that all HR organisations are the same but I found this one to be opaque, devisive, obstructive and disrespectful. I appreciate that what they were doing was this masters bidding but they were the face of all the bad things being rolled out so were, as you say, the most hated people in the division.
Ours were instigating indefinate pay freezes (effectively red-circling large groups of employees), removing benefits, regular redundancies (although, irronically I was waiting for the next one as a way out).
The HR staff also seemed to be highly graded, well in advance of their years, experience and ability by simple virtue of their need to access the confidential information and plans of the business.
What was worse at our business is that it could never come out and say "we are doing this because we want to" they always needed to spend loads of money with external contractors to come up with some jumped up reason why what they were doung was good and in line with the rest of the industry. More often than not what was presented was fundementally flawed any questions raised would simply disappear into a black hole.
So some interview answers to "why do you want to work in HR" :-
To receive advanced pay and grade not because of my experience and ability but simply because of the confidential information and plans that I have access to.
I have always admired the work of infamous secret police organisations and I would like to emulate their behaviour but in a legal way.
I have the ability to ignore and disregard any awkward questions raised by employees.
I relish the thought of rolling out processes that disrespect and hurt people.
I am adept at creating and presenting unfounded rationales to support the roll-out of processes that are going to erode the employees rewards, benefits and positions. I will answer benign questions instantly so that the business appears responsive and caring but I will deflect any well-founded awkard questions into a black hole.
I am skilled at creating ficticious FAQs to support unsavoury processes. I will ensure that no questions that are actually asked are added to the FAQ unless they are benign.
I don't have any friends and in general do not like or respect people.
I am physically very flexible and so would be able to walk whilst keeping my nose lodged in the anus of the appropriate member of the senior leadership team.
I find black uniforms decorated with silver skulls very attractive and appealing.
I want to dispel the myth that you have to be female to work in HR - (actually I know that isn't true but in my experience it is a mostly female domain, 80%+ in my long years of experience).
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Nigel