That person would talk to workers about family problems, health issues, and problems with co-workers. It was a time when confidentiality was implicit with this person who became a confidant. Today, the personnel guy/gal is now a “human resources professional” and rather than a confidant is a ‘mini-lawyer.’ Over the decades, the position, like so many other ‘administrative’ slots, have gone away from dealing with people to dealing with case dockets, jackets, claims, and paperwork.

What really brought me to write about this was something I read in a professional leadership journal discussing the needs of today’s effective leader. The author cited a need to “systematically manage human capital.” Whatever happened to “thoughtfully take care of your people?” Where did these utterly impersonal, academic and theoretically-spun phrases come from and aren’t they at least part of the problem with working with and keep good people?

Remember “A Christmas Carol” by Dickens? The movie was easier to get through than the book, but I digress. There was Ebeneezer Scrooge (nobody did it better than George C. Scott) who had somehow become this jaded ol’ cynic and heartless task master. The Spirit of Christmas Past took him back to a younger Ebeneezer and his first boss, Mr. Feziwhig. Feziwhig was a profitable, enterprising entrepreneur and from our brief glimpse of him, never “slacked off” or let his workers do so either. Yet, when it came to Christmas Eve day, the office closed part of the day for dancing and laughter and a celebration of the season. Tasks and titles gave way to respectful merriment and good cheer.

Perhaps we’re in a Scrooge era of human relations because of the demands of “pay for days of non-work” (add up all of the days employers are obliged to pay their workers for not working - holidays, vacations, sick-days, sick leaves, etc.) Add the “free” benefits to cover everything from catastrophic illness to emergency room visits for the baby’s diaper rash. Take a few ‘mandates’ from the legislature about forcing employers to pay a “minimum wage.” Let’s not forget labor unions who demand pay increase schedules in advance, regardless of how the economy, company or industry is doing at any given time. Then throw in the abundance of frivolous lawsuits and the lawyers who write them. Whatever the reason, the backlash is that there are fewer Feziwhigs and more Scrooges -- less personnel managers and more HR directors -- less civility and more polarized litigation.

I long for the nice man or the nice lady who was always available to just sit and listen. Regardless of the ailment, they were there to be the stabilizing, comforting buffer between the boss and worker, co-worker to co-worker and even worker and the problems at home with the family. Somewhere between “father confessor” and “den mother” was that personnel manager.

But alas, in the efforts of a noble profession and a noble responsibility to gain prominence and “get their offices out of the basement,” the pendulum has swung to a heavily-credentialed, legalistic, stoicism where we “systematically manage human capital.” I don’t know, I liked just being treated thoughtfully.

It’s unfortunate that “professionalism” today is no longer kind and responsive but rather efficient and legally-sound. Sometimes you just need a place to hide or be heard -- that was the personnel manager’s office. Today I’m not sure where that is -- the union steward, the attorney or the state EEOC department?

This noble glimpse of yesteryear is just that - yesteryear. Today doesn’t seem to offer much hope of that kind of a position anymore. Maybe tomorrow? In keeping with the “pendulum” metaphor, perhaps this one will swing back to strike some kind of balance. Alas pendulums are either “in motion” or “standing still” and we certainly can’t have employee relations stand still. I do hope HR professionals will however, pause to remember their original ‘callings’ -- to help take care of fellow co-workers with their periodic struggles, not simply to “process claims” and “systematically manage human capital.”