HR is often described as the function responsible for people, culture, engagement, and employee experience.
But that does not mean HR is always your friend.
That tension is at the centre of the latest episode of Let’s Table That, the HR podcast from Borderless AI. In “HR Is Not Your Friend (And That’s the Point),” hosts Jazmine and Glaze sit down with Samantha Crisp, Manager of HR Operations at TripStack, for a candid conversation about what HR actually does inside growing companies.
Crisp, an HR professional based in Toronto, focuses on employee experience, high-performing teams, and building workplace cultures where people can thrive. Her work sits at the intersection of employee needs and business priorities, which is exactly where the episode spends much of its time.
The conversation pushes past the easy version of HR as policies, perks, and people-first language. Instead, Crisp explains why the real job is often more complicated. HR leaders are expected to support employees, protect the organization, enable managers, uphold standards, and help the business operate effectively. Those responsibilities can align, but they can also create tension.
For startups and scaling companies, that tension becomes more visible as the business grows. The systems that worked for a small team can quickly start to break as headcount rises, managers multiply, and informal communication no longer reaches everyone.
The episode explores what tends to break first when companies scale, including hiring practices, manager training, culture, and burnout prevention. Crisp also challenges common assumptions about reference checks, explains why many manager-training efforts fall short, and discusses how companies can build high-performing teams without normalizing burnout.
One of the strongest themes in the episode is the balance between empathy and accountability. HR can and should care deeply about people, but it also has to help the company make decisions, set expectations, and follow through. Being people-first does not mean avoiding hard conversations. In many cases, it means creating the clarity and structure people need to succeed.
For founders and tech leaders, the episode is a reminder that culture is not a slogan or a set of values on a careers page. It is shaped by the systems people use every day: how managers give feedback, how hiring decisions are made, how burnout is addressed, how policies are applied, and whether employees understand what is expected of them.
That makes HR more strategic than many early-stage companies realize. When the function is treated as administrative support, companies risk missing the early warning signs that their people systems are no longer keeping up with the business.
For Canadian tech companies navigating leaner teams, global hiring, and new expectations around work, the conversation is especially timely. The best workplaces are not built by pretending every priority is simple. They are built by acknowledging the tradeoffs and designing systems that help people and the business move forward together.
At its core, Crisp’s message is not that HR should be cold or distant. It is that HR works best when people understand its real purpose.
HR may not be your friend. But when done well, it can be one of the most important functions holding a company together.
Watch the full episode of Let’s Table That below.
Borderless AI is a sponsor of Techtalent.ca. Through its Let’s Table That series, the company is featuring conversations with leaders about work, people, and the realities of building modern teams.