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Point number 1 is very important to never forget. No matter what level you are at, HR's job is to protect the levels above you, not help you. If you are an engineer that means an opaque shield of HR policies to protect the company and all people in your management chain. Middle manager? HR will shield the directors and VPs above you, concentrating particularly on keeping the VPs safe no matter what they do.

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I always figured it was more like, they protect the company aka the group. If your interests and the company's align they are in your corner; if not then you are the "other" and their enemy. The bias towards protecting the upper ranks not being their mission statement, instead the company's interests simply more often align with the VP than the NCG.

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