Making Alliances 101

The best place to start is the beginning. At some point in the interview process you’re going to interact with HR people. These people represent the bridge between employees and management. They have horribly boring jobs and are normally horribly boring individuals. Find one that shows signs of having a soul (a young hire that isn’t on the bottom rung of HR is ideal). Make dry jokes, show interest in the 401k, employee stock option programs, anything that they have interest in that will make you stand out.

HR people are looked down upon by upper management, fight with lower/middle management, despised by employees, and generally hated by everyone. Your initial goal here is quite simple: Have 1 HR person like you and remember your name. Your ongoing goal is to meet with them once every two or three months to talk about benefits and use this time to make them like you even more (be formal, be polite, be likable); make sure to schedule it with just that one person. IF THEY LIKE YOU, THEY WILL BAT FOR YOU. Most lower rung employees don’t realize that most HR employees will out-rank middle to lower management in a pissing-contest. Take any problems that arise to this person and try to bring it up at an informal time where you’re approaching them as a friend and let them take care of the details (if this happens too much they will assume the problem lies with you and won’t help).