You should always feel empowered to speak up for yourself at a job. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, but it is essential. If you don’t speak up for yourself, you might get walked all over. But it can be hard to have the confidence to advocate for yourself. This is why it’s so important to have a good relationship with your HR representative. It’s their job to make you feel comfortable and to hear out your complaints with compassion and understanding. It’s literally the whole point of their job. But that doesn’t always mean that that’s what ends up happening. 

Sometimes HR is cozier with the enemy than they are with you. When that happens, it can be quite jarring as an employee. You muster up all the courage to speak up for yourself and then it backfires in your face. It can make you feel completely disrespected.