Human resources professionals often find themselves in a unique position inside organizations. Leaders rely on them for guidance, compliance, and people strategy, while employees often turn to them for support, fairness, and problem solving. That position in the middle can make HR work both meaningful and complicated, especially when workplace tensions rise. The role requires balancing empathy with policy, and professionalism with difficult conversations.
During the early months of the pandemic, those pressures intensified dramatically. Organizations were trying to keep operations running while interpreting constantly changing public health guidance. Employees were worried about safety and job stability, and leaders were making decisions with incomplete information. HR professionals were responsible for translating all of that uncertainty into clear guidance for the workforce.
For Jamie Jackson, the responsibility was immediate and overwhelming. At the time she was working as an HR director overseeing four nonprofit health clinics and about 150 employees. Each morning she and the organization’s medical director reviewed what the CDC had changed overnight so they could determine how new guidance would affect employees and patients.
“I just felt like this huge burden,” Jackson said. “There was just so much going on.”
Eventually she found herself searching for a way to release some of that pressure. Her solution was unorthodox, to say the least: she started making memes.
A Pandemic Outlet That Grew Into Something Bigger
Jackson launched the Instagram account “Humorous Resources” during the pandemic without expecting it to become anything significant. She had posted humorous content on her personal page before, and friends often told her the jokes were funny. Creating a separate account gave her a place to process the daily frustrations that came with being an HR professional during an unprecedented moment for workplaces.
“I needed an outlet to be a little silly,” she said.
At the time she was working as a department of one, which meant there weren’t many people inside the organization who could relate to what she was experiencing. HR professionals often deal with confidential information and complicated employee situations that they can’t easily talk about with others. Turning those experiences into humor gave Jackson a way to release tension while still respecting professional boundaries.
What she didn’t expect was how many other HR professionals would immediately recognize themselves in the jokes. People began sharing the memes widely and commenting about how closely the content reflected their own experiences at work. Even before the account reached large follower counts, the reactions made it clear that the humor was tapping into something familiar. “I didn’t realize we needed it when I did it,” Jackson said. “I needed it.”
The Reality Behind HR Humor
The response to Jackson’s content revealed something important about HR work. Many professionals in the field experience similar pressures, but they rarely talk about those challenges openly. The job requires a high level of discretion, which means frustrations often stay internal rather than becoming part of public conversations.
During the pandemic, HR professionals were responsible for implementing policies that sometimes triggered strong reactions from employees. In healthcare environments, those reactions could become especially intense because safety guidelines and vaccine mandates carried significant personal opinions. Even though those decisions were made at government or leadership levels, HR professionals were often the people communicating them to employees.
Jackson recalled moments when employees would come into her office angry about policies she had no authority to change. After those conversations ended, she sometimes turned the experience into a meme that captured the absurdity of the situation.
“They’d leave my office and I’d make a meme about it,” she said.
The humor wasn’t directed at the employees themselves. Instead, it highlighted the strange position HR professionals often occupy inside organizations. They’re responsible for delivering information that affects people’s jobs while having limited control over the broader decisions behind it.
Finding Humor in Everyday Workplace Moments
Not all of Jackson’s memes focus on major policy issues or high stress workplace moments. Many of them highlight small behaviors that people recognize immediately because they happen in offices everywhere. Those everyday situations often create the kind of shared recognition that makes humor work.
One example she mentioned involved communication habits on workplace messaging platforms. Being called unexpectedly when her status showed green was something she found especially frustrating. Another common situation involved coworkers sending a message that simply said “hi” and then waiting for a response before explaining what they needed.
“Just say ‘hi there, how are you,’ and then tell me what you want,” Jackson said.
These interactions may seem minor, but they represent the small frustrations that accumulate during a workday. When people see them turned into memes, the humor comes from recognizing something they’ve experienced themselves. The joke lands because it feels true.
Humor and the Emotional Weight of HR Work
Behind the jokes, HR work often involves situations that require emotional resilience. Professionals in the field regularly handle conflict, investigate workplace complaints, and manage sensitive personnel issues. Those responsibilities require maintaining composure and professionalism even when circumstances feel stressful or uncomfortable.
When I asked Jackson about the line between humor as a coping mechanism and humor that hides burnout, she responded candidly. “I don’t think there is one,” she said.
For many HR professionals, humor becomes part of how they process the emotional weight of the job. Laughing about strange workplace situations can help create distance from experiences that might otherwise feel overwhelming. It allows people to acknowledge the challenges without becoming consumed by them.
Jackson also pointed out that workplaces occasionally produce moments that are simply unusual enough to laugh about. She described situations where employees behaved in ways that left HR professionals shaking their heads. Stories like those become part of the informal conversations HR professionals share with each other because they highlight the unpredictable nature of human behavior.
Why HR Often Feels Like the Villain
Another theme that appears frequently in Jackson’s humor is the idea that HR professionals are often perceived as the villain in workplace situations. Employees sometimes assume HR is responsible for policies they disagree with. In reality HR is often communicating decisions that originated elsewhere in the organization.
Jackson explained that many workplace policies exist because something happened previously that revealed the need for clearer guidance. An incident might prompt leadership to create a new rule or update an existing one. HR then becomes responsible for explaining and enforcing that policy.
“There’s a policy in place because someone broke it,” she said.
That dynamic can create tension between HR professionals and employees who feel restricted by new rules. Humor allows HR professionals to acknowledge that tension while still maintaining professionalism in their roles.
Supporting the People Who Support Everyone Else
Jackson has been thinking more about the pressures HR professionals face as she prepares for an upcoming keynote presentation. The conference theme focuses on the idea of HR as a hero inside organizations, but Jackson’s perspective centers more on how HR professionals can support each other.
The role can be demanding and emotionally draining, especially for people working in small teams or departments of one. HR professionals spend much of their time helping others navigate workplace challenges. They don’t always receive the same level of support themselves.
Jackson believes it’s important for people in the field to build networks where they can share experiences with others who understand the job. Those connections might include professional associations, local HR groups, or trusted colleagues in similar roles. Having a place to talk openly about the realities of the work can make the role feel less isolating.
Laughing about shared experiences can be part of that support system. Humor creates a way for HR professionals to recognize common challenges without turning those conversations into complaints.
Authenticity and Community
Part of what makes Jackson’s content resonate is the authenticity behind it. She approaches her humor as someone who has lived the experiences she’s joking about. That perspective allows the content to feel relatable rather than exaggerated. “I’m 100% me 100% of the time,” she said.
Jackson has also been open about challenges in her own career, including being laid off from a recent HR role. Sharing that experience with her audience allowed her to talk about the emotional impact of the situation in a direct and honest way.
That willingness to discuss both humor and difficulty has helped build a community around her content. People who follow her accounts recognize that the jokes come from real workplace experiences.
The Value of Finding Perspective
Workplaces will always contain moments of tension, confusion, and occasionally absurd behavior. HR professionals often have a front row seat to those experiences because their role involves navigating the complexities of human behavior inside organizations. The work can be challenging, but it can also reveal moments of perspective that are easier to process with humor.
Jackson’s meme accounts began as a personal outlet during a stressful period in her career. Over time, they evolved into a shared space where HR professionals could recognize the realities of their work. The jokes provide brief moments of relief during a job that often requires constant composure and professionalism.
In the end, humor doesn’t solve the challenges HR professionals face. But what it can do is remind them that they’re not alone in navigating those experiences.
Brandon Laws is a workplace culture and leadership enthusiast, host of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, and VP of Marketing and Product at Xenium HR.