Why HR professionals are canceling their SHRM and association memberships
Members are dropping their professional associations and skipping conferences because of controversial leadership stances and rhetoric that targets their communities or goes against their values. This leaves them torn between protesting poor leadership by withholding dues and the fear of losing their voice within the organization.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from September 2026.
- This comes up 83.7× more often in r/humanresources than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Switching to alternative certification providers like HRCI
- 2Requesting membership or conference refunds
- 3Convincing companies to cancel organizational memberships
- 4Contacting county and state level unions
- 5Checking union bylaws
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm a 20 year HR vet who has canceled my SHRM membership over their continued rapid decline under Johnny's leadership.”source ↗
“I requested a refund for the conference after he was announced, as his rhetoric is particularly targeted to my community.”source ↗
“I chose not to renew a few years ago. Their service has gone down the shitter and, well, their stance on certain issues that pertain directly to the HR industry have been nothing but disappointing.”source ↗
“Canceled my membership when they announced.”source ↗
“Now I’m in my fifth year in this district and I found out the union president and vice president tried to pressure our new administrators to break the contract again to deny me a position in the district.”source ↗
“However, I am tempted to stop paying dues until the leadership changes.”source ↗
“But I also worry about losing my voice in the union if I’m not a member.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Feeling guilty about cancelling plans at the last minute
- 3Fired after trying to fix a dysfunctional workplace
- 5Why is it so hard to cancel digital subscriptions?
- 3Client tries to reverse cancellation during offboarding
- 2Why does software send popups to all users when you cancel?
- 2How to quit a volunteer project that's a mess