'Fire 90% of HR tomorrow': Viral tweet by Amanda Goodall sparks corporate America meltdown

A blunt tweet by workforce strategist Amanda Goodall, better known online as @thejobchick, has ignited a fresh firestorm in corporate America’s long-running love–hate relationship with Human Resources. She argued that the function produces no revenue, drains morale through excessive policies, protects companies over employees and yet remains omnipresent in decision-making.Her conclusion was incendiary: remove 90% of HR tomorrow and businesses would run “smoother, faster and happier.” Taking to her X (formerly Twitter) handle, Goodall wrote, “HR is the only department that gets a free pass for being completely useless. They produce zero revenue, kill morale with endless policies, protect the company NOT you, and somehow still get invited to every meeting like they're essential. Remove 90% of HR tomorrow and the business would run smoother, faster, and happier. Change my mind (sic).”Within hours, the post went viral, resonating across X, LinkedIn and executive Slack channels, where layoffs, burnout and distrust of corporate leadership remain raw after years of restructuring. The timing mattered. Coming off a year defined by mass layoffs, AI-driven efficiency pushes and a widening trust gap between leadership and workers, Goodall’s tweet crystallised a feeling many employees already harboured but rarely articulated so bluntly.The anger directed at HR did not emerge in a vacuum. Over the past few years, HR departments have often been the public face of unpopular corporate decisions: redundancies delivered over Zoom, return-to-office mandates framed as “culture” and compliance-heavy policies introduced in the name of risk management. For many workers, HR has become synonymous not with support but with corporate self-protection.Goodall’s claim that HR “protects the company, not you” struck a nerve precisely because it reflects how the function is structurally designed. HR reports to leadership, not employees. Its mandate is legal risk mitigation, consistency and policy enforcement, not advocacy. During downturns, that reality becomes painfully visible, reinforcing the perception that HR exists to soften bad news rather than prevent it.At the heart of the backlash is the question of value. In an era obsessed with measurable outputs, HR’s contributions are harder to quantify than sales figures or product launches. Critics argue that HR expands headcount, introduces bureaucracy and slows decision-making, all while avoiding direct accountability for business performance.