I’ve gotta hand it to Manpower, the contract recruiting agency, for fully embracing social media: They’ve got a YouTube channel and a whole series of blogs.

One video that I stumbled across the other day is a Simon and Garfunkel spoof, highlighting their “Up Close and Personnel” Tour Kickoff.

The video is funny – I don’t want you to think I have a stick up my ass. But the video also reinforces some crappy HR stereotypes: that we’re all about policy enforcement, compliance, and baby-sitting grown-ups.

In another video (The Tour Comes to Iowa), they sing about excuses employees give for not coming in to work.

Hello boss, I won’t be in. I’ve got a goiter and the gout again!

Again, funny stuff… at least, if you’re an HR nerd, anyways. But is that what our profession is really about? Policing grown-ups about when the come to work, what they wear, and so on, instead of worrying about driving their performance and blowing our business goals completely out of the water with rock star like awesomeness?

So what do you think, am I just too uptight?