This HR pro makes sure she can ‘answer the why’ for every HR decision she makes

Here’s this week’s edition of our Coworking series. Each week, we chat 1:1 with an HR Brew reader. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Christie Moon has worked in the HR function at a restaurant group, for a symphony orchestra, for an aquarium, and now for the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, as its managing director of HR. This HR pro has more than two decades of experience as both an HR team-of-one and working among HR departments of various sizes. Along the way she realized the immense emotional labor associated with the job, and that’s impacted how she understands the work. 

“[In big HR teams], it can be very easy to put the policy or best practice first because you don’t know the people that it’s impacting, and it makes sense in your HR brain,” she said. “When you’re in a medium-sized organization or a small organization, you know every single person who’s impacted by those things, and you have to reconcile that when somebody is sitting across from you.”

Moon said that she understands sometimes her work might negatively impact employees and while those consequences won’t influence the decisions she makes as an HR leader, it does help her recognize the importance of internal communication, helps her “answer the why,” and prepares her for the employees who may come to HR because of that decision or policy. She’s committed to making sure “the resources are actually for the human beings” and she’ll spend the extra 20 minutes talking through issues with employees.

“It taught me how to own my decisions, and it taught me how to look at somebody and take responsibility for whatever decision I had made,” she said. “It forced me to be much more responsible in my decision-making from the beginning.”

And sometimes, Moon needs to come home after work, pop in her headphones, and zonk out to a TV show for an hour to “reset” after a days-long drain on her emotional gas tank.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s the best change you’ve made at work?

Helping the leadership and staff understand the power of a strong HR team. Moving toward open, honest communication and [providing] more transparent information around pay and how decisions are made. Being my authentic self, which inspires my fellow executives and leaders to be their authentic selves.

What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?

That we are the corporate police or that we are the enemy!

That’s so frustrating for me, and it sometimes feels like it’s just this tidal wave of distrust that I’m constantly trying to [dis]prove, and it takes a lot. It can be very demoralizing and discouraging.

What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?

Helping people solve problems. I love that sigh of relief at the end of a great meeting, even when the topic was really difficult.

What trend in HR are you most optimistic about and why?

I am optimistic about how the workplace is changing, thanks to the willingness of young professionals to speak up about what they need and to set healthy boundaries around what they are willing to accept. They are making us better bosses, better workplaces, and better companies!

What trend in HR are you least optimistic about and why?

The fear so many companies are exhibiting around DE&I work, due to the current political climate.

It’s still the right thing to do. It is still the right thing to make sure that your workplace is somewhere that anyone can thrive and anyone feels that they are welcome there and that they’re not going to be asked uncomfortable questions or tokenized.

We all know what the right thing to do is, and we can change what it’s called or whatever, but we have to do the work, and so if you’re not going to show up and do the work, that’s the problem.