Death by HR: How Affirmative Action Cripples Organizations

482 Pages·2016·2.09 MB·English

by  Jeb Kinnison

Contents
Copyright
Title Page
Author's Note
Introduction
Death by HR
The Great Enrichment
The Great Stagnation
Process Optimization and Specialization
Bucket Brigade Model
Levellers vs. Redistributionists
Best vs. Good Enough
Gender Pay Gap
HR and Labor Regulation
History of HR Departments
HR: Widespread Dissatisfaction
Who Staffs HR? Women
Pink Collar Ghettos
HR Degrees: Biased Programs
Affirmative Action
History
EEOC
Outside the US
India
Malaysia
Nigeria
Other Countries
US: Mismatch and Injustice
Reform and Rebellion
HR Hiring and AA
AA and Hiring Processes
HR Stockholm Syndrome
Private Sector Unions
Dirigisme comes to the US
Performance Evaluations
Rigging the Game
Hiring Today
Ban the Box, Credit Screening
Social Media Screening
Fair Housing: Soon, Fair Jobs?
Advances in Hiring Science
High Tech: Diversity Pressures
High Tech: Activist Entryism
Cost of HR
The Diversity Industry
Diversity Programs Don't Work
Corporate Resistance
Employee Resistance
Future HR
Conclusion
Appendixes
Bootleggers and Baptists
The Science of Stereotypes
Men of Honor vs Victim Culture
Why Aren't There More Women Futurists?
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Online Resources
Bibliography
Notes
© 2016 Jeb Kinnison
www.jebkinnison.com
[email protected]
Library of Congress Control Number:
2016955985
Cover photo: Shutterstock

Author’s Note
Like most programmers, during my career as a software
engineer I dealt with HR as little as possible. They
seemed pleasant enough, though their obsession with
collecting signed paperwork was odd. My career started
thirty or more years ago, and mostly at smaller companies
—and I understand that HR requirements are now worse.
It can be harder now to get a hiring manager to see you
and your portfolio of work face-to-face, especially if
you’re older.
In Silicon Valley, I mostly managed money for
wealthy technologists. No longer in engineering myself, I
got a look at the VC and management community. HR
was always considered a necessary evil, ideally put off as
long as possible. Usually the first HR manager hired was
a smart, no-nonsense woman whose husband worked
elsewhere in tech, and she would single-handedly manage
personnel with the help of contract payroll services and
benefits managers. But at some point in the growth phase,
the hiring of more HR employees would begin—and they
weren’t as accomplished, or as motivated to make the
enterprise grow smoothly. It was just a job for them.
Researching this book, I was astounded at how many
examples there are of absent, incompetent, or even
criminal employees of large government bureaucracies
like the VA and EPA who keep their jobs, paychecks, and
pensions after years of malfeasance. In the private sector,
HR is under pressure by unions, the Dept. Of Labor, or
the EEOC to apply civil service-style standards to all
employees, especially those of protected classes. As this
dysfunction creeps into private business, the hard-
working and competent lose heart and commitment. The
entire economy slows and the US becomes less growth-
oriented and more status quo-preserving. It’s not
surprising that US family incomes stopped growing
significantly two decades ago.
A corrupted system built on staggering piles of debt
and regulations from Washington, with asset values
artificially propped up by central banks holding interest
rates near zero, is going to fail—and probably soon. It
may be too late to stop the decline—but keep your friends
and family safe, and keep your skills sharp. A crash, if it
comes, will provide an opportunity to rebuild the right
way, with more freedom and less regulation.
Introduction
This book is about the new Age of Incompetence, with
brain-dead, unaccountable employees holding sinecures
at the heart of our government agencies and regulated
institutions like banks and hospitals, protected by
affirmative action and union policies. The rot is spreading
as pressure from state and federal regulation of
companies has increased, empowering an internal
compliance bureaucracy—Human Resources (HR)—that
has devalued the best job candidates and employees and
promoted affirmative action and diversity over team
productivity.
The result has been ever-more-costly failures and a
steep decline in organizational performance. From the
mortgage meltdown that brought down the world’s
economy in 2008, to the disastrous launch of the
healthcare.gov website for Obamacare, major segments
of business and government in the US have grown more
expensive and less competent over the past few decades.
Billions of dollars of waste in government contracts for
IT projects, boondoggle weapons systems, and deadly
service failures at the VA are in the news every day.
Public schools are widely seen as mediocre, and in the
poorest urban districts they are failing to provide a decent
education for the students who need good schools the
education for the students who need good schools the
most to make up for bad family backgrounds. Costs for
regulated services like schools, colleges, medical
insurance, drugs, courts, prisons, and infrastructure like
roads and bridges rise far faster than inflation, while time
to complete major projects stretches out to decades, and
many fail completely and are cancelled after billions have
been spent. And the rot is spreading as government
pushes businesses to adopt similar employment policies,
with HR enforcing government mandates that
compromise competitiveness and give overseas
companies the advantage.
This book will trace the factors that have hobbled
growth and damaged organizational competence.
Government regulation has led to HR departments that
actively sabotage the hiring of the best candidates for
jobs, with by-the-book mediocrities placed in positions of
responsibility.
Silicon Valley and the tech industries are the next
targets. If you’re a manager at a tech company, I’ll
suggest some ways to protect your people from HR and
its emphasis on credentials and affirmative action (AA)
over the best fit for a position. Corporate leaders need to
be sure their HR departments are managed to prevent
infiltration by staff more interested in correct politics than
winning products. And I’ll show why appeasement of
diversity activists is a dangerous strategy that may make
your organization a target for further extortionate