How to Respond When HR Isn't Helping You

How to Respond When HR Isn’t Helping You –…

by Angela McConnell

Unfortunately, we’ve all been there: Something seriously messed up has happened at work and HR is doing their very best head-in-the-sand ostrich impression.

It’s a tough situation. If you don’t get help, the bad behaviour will continue and your work will get increasingly toxic. But sometimes trying to get help from HR – who in theory works to protect employees, but in reality works to protect the company’s bottom line – can make you seem like the problem and put a target on your back. Eek!

Talk Outline:

This talk will focus on how to work with HR to get your concerns taken seriously – without risking blowing up your career. We’ll cover:

What to do when HR isn’t taking action on a concern you’ve raised
How to document your challenges to maximize your chances that HR works with you and not against you
Tips for escalating your challenges to ensure they get action
Key things to do to protect yourself from unexpected career repercussions

The goal of this talk is to give you a practical roadmap to get your HR concerns addressed at work without taking on too much risk.

Rachel Maxcy

Independent Workplace Investigations and HR Advisor

Rachel Maxcy is an independent workplace investigator and HR Policy Advisor based in Vancouver, BC. She conducts external investigations into harassment, discrimination, misconduct, and workplace violence for organizations that require a neutral, thorough, and structurally independent process.

She brings over 15 years of experience working inside HR and labour relations across unionized and non-unionized environments, with work spanning compliance, policy, employee relations, conflict resolution, disability management, and workplace accommodations. Her experience includes nonprofits, public sector organizations, and professional associations across multiple jurisdictions.

Outside of work, Rachel is a Quaker, a fiber artist, and a mom to a preteen — and she believes workplaces can be rigorous, fair, and humane at the same time.

Follow: LinkedIn | Medium

Holly Burton

Executive Coach for Women in Male-Dominated Industries

Holly is an executive coach for women in male-dominated industries. She works one-on-one with ambitious women to help them lead, get promoted, and create the careers they actually want in industries they love.

As a mining engineer for the first ten years of her career, Holly was exposed to one of the most male-dominated spaces -- just 17% female. She uses the unique perspective she gained as a woman in mining, alongside her obsessive nerdiness for all things feminism, leadership, and career to help women create the working world they deserve while they wait for the rest of society to catch up.

Follow Holly: Website | LinkedIn