‘HR Is Not Your Friend’: Employees Share How They Learned This Lesson The Hard Way (40 Pics)

An efficient human resources department recruits the right people for the job, maintains a safe environment, ensures training and development... It's a bridge between the higher-ups and the rest of the company, that should have everyone's best interests in mind. However, that is not always the case. Too much ambition and, incompetence, and sometimes plain bad luck, can plague HR departments, and create a toxic work environment.

A few days ago, a Reddit user with a catchy nickname, u/ceowin, submitted a question to r/AskReddit: "What's the worst 'HR is not your friend' story you've witnessed/experienced?" And it blew up. As of this article, the post has over 24,000 upvotes and 6,6000 comments, recalling some of the worst situations HR departments have created. In fact, people were so eager to share and read these corporate nightmares, they even gave u/ceowin plenty of rewards for creating the post in the first place.

Continue scrolling and check out some of the most popular replies.

This post may include affiliate links.

During an exit interviet with my last job HR asked me where i was going to next.

HR: So whats the name of the company you are moving too next?

Me: I'm not really comfortable disclosing that

HR: Are you sure? It would really help us out

Me: I'd rather not say

HR: Its company policy that you need to tell us

Me: I said NO and if you continue further you'll be hearing from my lawyer

HR: Shocked pikachu face

Told my old boss this after i left and he was absolutely shocked. HR have no right to know anything about the next place you are moving to. Its literally none of their business but they tried to press it out of me anyway, more than likely to call them up and talk s**t about me.

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Final score:

232points

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Hans 3 years ago

Good move with the lawyer!

76points

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u/ceowin said the idea to ask the Internet this question popped into their head right after a job interview where the HR rep was asking the usual uninteresting and generic questions, like 'why do you want to apply for this job?' and 'what is an instance where you handled a situation well?' I've been to countless job interviews, and it's always the same repetitive and bland formalities that I'm fairly certain they only do because 'it's what they've always done,'" the Redditor told Bored Panda.

"Additionally, in my time of being employed for ten years now, HR generally just... exists. I've never encountered an HR rep who looks out for what's best for the company; they only care about the company being compliant with what upper management wants and legal stuff. All of these [things have contributed] to me writing the post," u/ceowin explained.

I went to HR to report that my team's manager was illegally shorting all of our paychecks. HR's response was to adopt a new, company-wide policy addressing the paycheck issue and back-paying most people for a certain amount, and also to frame me for work avoidance. HR and IT disabled part of my login account to a tool we used, and then fired me a few months later after failing to fix the problem and allowing me to actually do my job.

They tried to deny my unemployment claim afterward. Told the unemployment rep that they "had logs" showing that I did something to break the tool I don't even have access to break in the first place. They also didn't think to disable my email access in a timely manner, so I was able to back up all my emails with IT documenting exactly what went down. Unemployment approved my claim and hit them with a major penalty to their insurance.

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Final score:

227points

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David Retsler 3 years ago

ALWAYS DOCUMENT EVERYTHING AND TIME STAMP IT BY EMAILING IT TO YOURSELF! I don't know why people just can't figure this out. You will lose a "he said- she said" case but if you have documentation with legitimate time stamps- your odds of winning are exponentially greater!

87points

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Liz Ryan, who had been a Fortune 500 HR specialist, agrees that in many organizations the main task of HR is to keep the company out of court. "The role of HR is to keep the company from getting sued -- by its own employees!" Ryan wrote in Forbes. "Can you imagine a sadder or less inspiring reason to come to work? Does your CFO stand up at the executives' meeting and say, 'It was a good month -- none of our customers or vendors sued us!' Of course not."

Ryan, however, didn't like to work like that. "I never spent two seconds during my eons in HR worrying about getting sued by my fellow employees. We were having too much fun to think about suing one another. If somebody was unhappy, a manager or another employee or an HR person would hear about it. Then we could figure it out and get past it. Waves of good and bad energy circulate in every organization."

HR hired consultants to run morale building employee input sessions. Basically saying "We're not from the company. You can tell us all the things you don't like about working here and would like to see changed and we'll put it all into a report for management. Don't worry, everything is anonymous, we just need material for our report and you guys get to have your say in improving things around here."
Turns out HR and the consultants recorded all the sessions and played the highlights for management. People were disciplined for criticising the company or their immediate superiors and any shred of faith or trust in management that the employees may have had was instantly incinerated.

Managers now complain that they don't know what's going on in their teams because nobody tells them anything. I wonder why.

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Final score:

214points

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Sara Rodrigues 3 years ago (edited)

Wow this is not an appropriate handling of their answers. Confidentiality and animosity are really important for these surveys

63points

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I reported my boss to HR for sexist treatment. HR said they'd talk to me again before going to him. He fired me two days later, HR at his side. He was friends with all of the higher ups, so I wasn't exactly surprised. They escorted me out before I could collect what I needed from my computer for proof. Yeah, I was young and dumb, and I learned: have backups!

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Final score:

179points

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Hans 3 years ago

This still sounds illegal.

85points

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u/ceowin said they also have had some negative HR experiences. "In my first job at a London-based electronics company, I started working with the engineering team under my post-graduate work permit (for foreign students). After 4 years, it was time to apply for a proper work visa, and the HR rep of the company couldn't be bothered with the details, so she instead told me flat out that I'm 'not a real engineer' and that my role can be easily filled by a local employee anyways. So instead of working on my work visa, she basically gave up on it, which meant that I would be jobless in a few months time. 4 years of contribution down the drain," they recalled.

an anesthesiologist i worked with refused to keep his mask on at the end of a surgery, even tho it’s required to keep the room sterile in case we would need to reopen, emergently.

i asked him again to put his mask back on and he hit my arm. i got in his face about it and told him to never touch me or anyone else again.

i wrote an incident report which went ignored. and followed up with HR. HR lady replied, “well, what do you want me to do about it?” after i relayed what happened. i replied, “your job” and then silence from her.

never had a good experience from HR.

the jerk anesthesiologist finally got fired after 5 more nurses came forward saying he hit them, as well.

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Final score:

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CatWoman312 3 years ago

I don’t understand why there has to be multiple victims before someone is held accountable. Why isn’t one enough?

77points

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HR ordered me to downgrade my three excellent employee reviews to satisfactory because management didn’t recognize their names. I got written up for telling my employees this.

HR denied that they told me anything, even though I had the emails from them documenting it.

Totally worth it. My employees were excellent and got the raises they deserved.

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Final score:

170points

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James016 3 years ago

You are a good team leader :)

54points

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Needless to say, Ryan wouldn't have liked to hear that -- the specialist thinks HR departments have to remain honest and engaged. "Waves of good and bad energy circulate in every organization. All we have to do is pay attention to them. It's easy to do that -- we almost can't help it! We are humans. Humans are animals. We know when the energy around is positive and when it's negative. We need to start telling the truth about that."

We got a "Confidential Employee Survey" handed to us at work. It had our employee number on the top of the page

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Final score:

148points

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WilvanderHeijden 3 years ago

Yes, totally anonymous and totally not traceable to any person, so feel free to let us know how we suck in handling Confidential Employee Surveys. We have fired better people than you....

44points

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A couple of colleagues and I went to HR to whistleblow on the head of department starting a relationship with a junior newbie, who was then quickly promoted 3 times in 4 months to a very senior position which he definitely didn’t have the experience of knowledge to be in. HR reassured us it was all anonymous and there would be no repercussions for us.

Cut to 2 months later, head of department sits me down and informs me I’ll be let go for ‘not being a team player’ and ‘poor performance’. Turns out HR had told them everything, including exactly who had made the complaints.

HR doesn’t work for you, they work for the company, and now I never forget it.

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Final score:

139points

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DKS 001 3 years ago

A scary thing happened at my work. There is a fellow employee who constantly talks conspiracy theory and about hurting people and has displays of anger. I accidently made a statement that he once said he knew where to go in a building to snipe at anyone who can in the door if he had a bad day. I was instructed to put that in writing - WITHOUT MY NAME (anonymous). He knew who told them the next day.

38points

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I reported sexual harassment to HR at a large international company when I was 21. They notified my harasser (an older VP) before I even made it back to my desk. I was fired a few days later, despite an excellent performance review the week before he propositioned me.

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Final score:

133points

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Sum Guy 3 years ago

What people forget is that HR works for the company and not for the people...

81points

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Talking from her experience, Ryan thinks these are some of the reasons why people hate HR: 1) HR people seem to take the company's side in any interaction, never the employee's side. 2) HR people seem to want to get employees in trouble for tiny infractions. 3) HR people are not viewed as trustworthy, even though they say, 'Tell me what's on your mind!' 4) HR people stand idly by while incompetent and abusive supervisors get promoted and mistreat employees. 5) HR people often "know HR" but don't know anything about the business they work for. 6) HR people often spout policy instead of actively getting involved to remove roadblocks their employees face. 7) HR people are seen as political and more concerned with their own place in the company's pecking order than with the welfare of the team. 8) HR people talk more about policies, benefits, and other announcements than they talk about culture, fear, trust, conflict, or any of the million human issues that arise in every organization. 9) HR people often have trouble seeing the "human side" of any issue, from a time-off request to a variation in a pay-grade or a hiring issue, focusing instead on keeping every process uniform and exception-free. 10) HR people, who can be Ministers of Culture in their organizations, are too often seen as culture-killers instead!

#10

At my job we used to hire a few special needs individuals who would do some cleaning and light duty things. One day one of them did something wrong (it was very minor but I can’t remember the specifics) and the manager said out loud, right next to this guy, “why do we keep hiring these retards?” And referred to his job coach as his “handler”. One of the girls that saw it happen was rightfully pissed off and reported it to HR. The next day she was put on unpaid leave for “creating a hostile work environment”. Same manager is still here... she is not.

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Final score:

121points

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Sentinel 3 years ago

This might be worst one yet. Hope someone whistle blow the ass out of this place.

53points

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#11

My much older, married boss kissed me after an all day off-site. I told a woman in HR. She was furious. The next day, she said the MALE CEO wanted to handle the situation. I was removed from the project and my boss was not punished. HR is a joke.

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Final score:

118points

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Mohsie Supposie 3 years ago

In this case, the entire Management is a joke if that is what they call "handling the situation".

46points

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#12

I worked in the bakery at a Fred Meyers for about 6 months when I was freshly 19. There was this like 45 year old guy in meat/seafood who was super creepy and all of the women in my department and even one woman who was previously in my department but was moved to another TO GET AWAY FROM HIM warned me about this man from day 1.

Somehow, any time I was on my break, he would "be on his break too" and he'd follow me into the break room and try to flirt with me the entire time. Not only did he follow me on my breaks and lunches, but if I had to walk to another part of the store to get anything he would run to catch up to me and walk with me, he followed me to my car a few times after I got off shift and the scariest time was when I was closing by myself and he came into the back of the bakery and kept following me around the long table, trying to grab me while telling me how much he liked me and how badly he wanted to be with me.

I told him no and to leave me alone CONSTANTLY while managers just shrugged and said "that's just how he is". My boyfriend threatened him when he got off work one time hell even my father came in and threatened him because NO ONE was doing ANYTHING.

The final straw for me was one night when I was closing alone again he came into the back area and followed me into the freezer and tried to kiss me and he grabbed my ass. I pushed him and f**king ran to the closing manager who also functioned as HR. He said he'd "watch the store footage" and talk to me the next day.

Next day comes and he pulls me into his office and says that he saw the video and saw this man stalking me inside and outside of work and that he "talked" to him about his behavior to which the man responded that it was just a "misunderstanding". I replied that this had been going on for months and I wasn't going to take it anymore and he had the f**king NERVE to tell me that "He just does this to all the new girls. As soon as another girl gets hired he'll leave me alone." I told him he was a bastard and quit on the spot.

Turns out the creep was the brother of the stores owner who had been to jail in the past for sexual assault and RAPE but was now "cleaning his life up".

Tldr: 45 year old man stalked 19 year old me for 6 months trying to be with me. Told managers on many occasions they didn't listen. Guy finally assaults me, managers talk with him - he says it's a misunderstanding. Manager says he "just does this to all the new girls and when a new girl gets hired he'll chase her and not me". Turns out guy is a registered sex offender for sexual assault AND rape but he's the little brother of the stores owner so he gets a pass.

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Final score:

106points

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White Paper Tsuru 3 years ago

That is f*****g insane! Can't the police get involved in something like this? Especially with video footage? What does a girl have to do?!?!?

73points

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Ryan said these problems may arise because "too many executives lead HR, if they lead it at all, through fear rather than trust." According to her, they focus on keeping payroll costs down and keeping "employee issues" to a minimum, instead of setting ambitious goals and then hiring brilliant people to help achieve them -- and letting those brilliant people do their jobs.

u/ceowin believes that not every business needs an HR department but that it's pretty much unavoidable. "If a company is small or a start-up, the founders/original team members can usually deal with the regulations themselves," they said. "I guess when the company reaches a certain growth rate or has a larger number of staff, they would need to have an HR department dedicated to adhering to governmental regulations. So in a way, it seems to me that having an HR department is an unfortunate necessity given that the founders are way too busy to be bothered with HR stuff."

#13

After 4 years on the job, I was given a first and final warning for asking why the hell HR was behind a locked door and now dominated over half the first floor, filled with new furniture that was unused after 6 months, meanwhile, my chair was taken by another employee and I was told to use the chair without padding.

An executive from another department heard my complaint, stole one of the unused chairs from the HR expansion, and gave it to me, explaining that if I did it, I'd be fired, she did it daring them to fire her.

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Final score:

94points

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Gata Nick 3 years ago

That executive is a real leader. As a manager you don't only have obligations towards the CEO and board of directors but also towards the people who work under you. That is the kind of people that should be managers.

49points

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#14

I had an insurance issue that I discussed with one person in HR privately, and mentioned to no one else. My coworker then asked me about it an hour later.

Meaning, my coworker’s buddy in HR must have gossiped about my issue, which was totally inappropriate.

At least it was a small thing, and I learned I cannot trust that particular person in HR.

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Final score:

93points

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WilvanderHeijden 3 years ago

Never trust anyone with private matters in your place of work. It's your place of work, not your little circle of close and trusted friends.

40points

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#15

In the 6 years I worked at a company i forgot to hit the "submit" button on my timesheet once. Queue HR telling me that I wouldn't get paid for my worked hours and calling me in for a disciplinary interview which was 1 hour of 4 people telling me how dare I forget to click submit. I forgot to hit submit because I was so overworked and I couldn't believe all four of them had time to waste an hour on such a useless meeting.

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89points

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Gyro Pilot 3 years ago

Could have been a two-minute conversation. More to the story?

9points

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The Redditor said they aren't very surprised with the replies. They saw it coming. "HR really isn't there to be your friend; they're just there to 'check-off' stuff on their to-do list and to protect the company. It just sucks that sometimes thousands of people around the world realize this in the harshest way possible. And it's even worse if the HR folks think they're doing the company a huge favor if they manage to help the company cut costs by low-balling employees' raise," u/ceowin said.

"The nice thing about my post is that there are some HR folks there that gave some cool advice. For anyone who's starting off or a career veteran, they may find some helpful tips and I recommend they have a look!"

#16

Upon giving two weeks notice, I get this stupid rant about millennial snowflakes, how we can't take the stress of a real job, and how we think we're so important and unique, but in reality the only thing that would happen, is that they would find another engineer to fill in for me, and things would be like I never existed.

After the initial shock, I replied with a "you are absolutely correct. Me staying or not is meaningless. Consider my resignation immediate from this moment, please give me the paperwork to sign."

Daikataro Report

Final score:

87points

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InvincibleRodent 3 years ago

Good move! Reminds me of the time I asked for two days off to mourn the death of a close loved one, and after my supervisor (who was responsible for things like that) approved it, the CEO called me, on my personal number which I specifically did not give him, to inform me that he doesn't care what the person responsible for this said, he denies it, and that I am to show up on Monday, 8 am, no questions. So I did show up. With my resignation in hand, effective immediately. When I put it on my supervisor's desk, she just sighed, said that she had told him this would happen again, and signed it. (I was later informed by coworkers who stayed that afterwards, none of the next five girls hired for that position lasted more than a month. Shortest was three days, longest maybe three weeks. That guy was TOXIC.)

52points

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#17

I worked in HR and here's my advice. Never, ever willingly give up any information on fishing questions. Make sure your answers are brief, succinct and don't elaborate unless absolutely necessary. Don't give second hand information unless it directly impacts you or your work environment. My goal was to protect the bottom line under the guise of employee relations. If you become a headache and disruptive, regardless if you are in the right, we will find a way to terminate your employment. I spent hours upon hours in training learning how to ask the right questions to get the companies desired results. I will admit this may not be true for all HR departments, but for larger companies we are not your friend and our attitude and psuedo compassion is used as a disarming tactic to obtain the information were looking for. Despite what you may be told, we do have an agenda.

TenDollarTicket Report

Final score:

87points

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InvincibleRodent 3 years ago

This counts for job interviews as well. There are so many fishing questions designed to push you into volunteering information that they're not allowed to ask you to tell them.

29points

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#18

At my last "real" job before striking out on my own I had an exit interview with the HR lady. Who was actually just someone who was friends with the company president who was filling in because the actual HR lady with a degree in HR and everything quit.

A lot of people at this place quit. It was a terrible place to work with out of touch management and delusions of grandeur limping along building websites for a business niche that was mostly old people who thought the Internet was magic.

During the exit interview she asked why I was leaving. I told her I liked my coworkers a lot, but hated the company. She got this exasperated look and got genuinely upset, and told me that she'd been getting that same line from everybody else who quit and had their exit interview recently.

It boggled my mind that they could hear the same thing over and over again from so many people putting in their time until they could go on to something better and not stop to think they should change something.

daecrist Report

Final score:

81points

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Daphne Williams 3 years ago

How did you get screwed over by HR? It sounds like the company was just toxic.

9points

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#19

Overall I've been able to get along with HR departments with one exception. I was working a help desk job for a company during college and the head of HR called in for help. He was making an Excel spreadsheet and couldn't figure out how to make a formula do what he wanted. I offered to come take a look as we were in the same building and he told me I couldn't because the spreadsheet was full of confidential information. So I asked then if he could describe what exactly he was trying to do without giving away any specific info, and he told me that what he was trying to do was confidential. So I clarified that he wanted me to tell him how to do something but I couldn't see it and he wouldn't even tell me what it was he was trying to do. At that point he agreed that I wouldn't be able to assist him since he couldn't divulge anything. As soon as we hung up he called my boss to complain that I was useless.

diiejso Report

Final score:

71points

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James016 3 years ago

Had similar but not with HR, I work in IT, someone has an issue but they are always too busy for us to assist them. We would send a 3rd and final message saying please let us know when you are free to assist or we will close your ticket. That gets ignored, we close the ticket, they escalate to our directors, they want to know what is happening so we send them all the communication. They stop the nonsense.

26points

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#20

When I got fired for having depression and being forthcoming about it after getting drowsy when starting a new medication.

HR basically said, "we sympathise with your position but we are not flexible enough for you". I'd asked for 2 days off in a year to just spend time at home while I was adjusting to the new meds and having a really sh*t time, got a letter on my desk from my boss after I came back that was titled with "termination of employment" and asking me to come to a meeting two days later with HR.

I basically went in, said if you are honestly firing me for having depression that's fine but just admit it and don't say it was for my performance which I know for a damn fact has been fantastic, and they doubled down and said that they were not able to accomodate someone with my "unique circumstances".

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68points

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Shelli Aderman 3 years ago

Isn’t that illegal?

58points

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#21

Pulled into a meeting with two HR reps in the middle of my shift. Taken to this really nice boardroom, which was confusing because I was just a grunt and this is literally floors above where I should ever be. They sat me down and said basically what do you have to say for yourself. Me, still confused, tells them I have no idea what they're talking about. Everyone is really quiet and serious and I'm scared sh*tless. And they say you know what you did, this is cause for termination, blah blah. I'm literally thinking this is really excessive for being a few minutes late sometimes. I insist I don't know what's going on. One of them maybe realized something was wrong and flips open a file and says you're xx right? Turns out they got me mixed up with someone else who has the same name. On the elevator ride down by myself I was still sweating. Don't know what that other person did but man, HR does not play.

Gysser Report

Final score:

66points

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Hans 3 years ago

In contrast to the other things here this really seems just like a confusion. And it probably the person this was destined for really did serious things...

28points

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#22

I used the term ‘piss off’ (as in ‘get lost’) in an unofficial online forum. Someone alerted a corporate recruiter, who managed to dig through my previous posts, connect dots, narrow down who I was, and have the head of HR terminate my job offer without discussion.

Never knew ‘piss’ was considered profanity.

demproteinz Report

Final score:

61points

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WilvanderHeijden 3 years ago

Now you know. You also have discovered that your privacy isn't as private as you might have thought it was. And yes, although it sucks sometimes, companies will fire you for whatever you posted on social media.

17points

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#23

I had the Air Force Office of Special Investigations do that s**t to me back in like 2002 or so. I got told OSI called and wanted me to go over to their office. I got interrogated for about 10 minutes, them accusing me of doing cocaine and hanging out with some other dude I barely knew. After me arguing with them for those ten minutes or so, they finally said "aren't you this Airman super common last name?" and I was like, yeah but there's multiple Airman super common last name in my shop alone. Yeah turns out, they meant a different person completely. They saw my last name and never checked my ID or asked my first name. I had to get read into the investigation because they f**ked up.

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Final score:

59points

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Ron Santos 3 years ago

Holy crap. That’s a major f**k up if they read you onto the investigation.

19points

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#24

Pick one!

The HR director who put not one, not two, but three people on the job of auditing everyone's FMLA applications. We were to look up the medical terms, print out layperson-friendly summaries of them, add any notes of our own that might be helpful if we had prior healthcare experience, all so she could make sure no one was "fraudulently" taking medical leave. For anyone who may not be aware: The Family & Medical Leave Act in the U.S. gives employees the right to take up to 12 weeks of leave from their job... unpaid. And while it isn't a HIPAA violation by the letter of the law, it certainly is in spirit. None of this information was any of this b****'s business, and none of the employees had any idea she was doing it.

The HR guy who helped tabulate the test results for the customer service employees and admitted that even though the passing score was, let's say, a 70%... he loved the company so much that he had taken it upon himself to only pass people scoring above 95% up the chain. Might sound reasonable, until you factor in that these were personality tests designed to detect how subservient you were to others.

The workers comp lady who refused to train anyone on how to provide pay information to the feds in order to get benefits flowing, and who had accrued enough PTO to be out five and six weeks at a stretch, leaving injured employees to twist in the wind.

I only spent a couple of years in HR. It was a couple of years too many. I will sweep streets and clean sewers before I will ever work with such psychopathic cunts again.

leavingherewithRoman Report

Final score:

59points

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Meami 3 years ago

I'm the primary on my husband and my insurance. My husband had surgery and I had to take a week off to take care of him when he got home. I took FMLA, no problem - but the company wanted me to sign a waiver so that they had permission to view his medical records (this was after the surgeon had already signed all of the paperwork for FMLA and documented that I needed to be home caring for him). I refused to sign it.

8points

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#25

I worked at a smallish company that grew big enough to hire a hr person. Her office was down from mine so in the mornings I'd swing by and say hi. That turned into grabbing a cup of coffee she had just made, the into having a pastry and talking about life. I found that if I mentioned someone's name in passing, a few minutes later she would spill the beans about that person's life. What work issues they had, health issues, family issues etc. I learned really quick any issues I had not to take them to her. She made it like 6months before she got fired.

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Final score:

58points

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Cigdem Kanburoğlu 3 years ago

So she was recourceful😏

10points

#26

Every second Friday of the month people in my office would get drinks after work. One time it happened to fall on my birthday. Because they let me pick the bar, I figured I would just invite some friends there too to meet up with me after (usually these drinks lasted from like 4-5:30 with my coworkers). Well...one coworker, who was generally a bit odd, stayed and sort of stuck to me and my friends. I didn't really want her there, but she couldn't take a hint and I was 3 cocktails in, so I just gave up and didn't say anything. One of my friends starts talking about sex... nothing particularly vulgar or kinky, or even about our personal lives... it was mainly just about the politics of sex and relationships.
The following Tuesday I got an email from hr about having inappropriate conversations of a sexual nature with coworkers. I tried to explain what happened, and even though I think the person believed me (and other workers corroborated my story) I was written up for sexual misconduct. I obviously did not want that on my record so I escalated it all the way up the company, and eventually, we had a four-hour meeting with a regional HR person where my coworker just cried and caved. Then afterward she had a bunch of people in trouble for a toxic work environment because nobody wanted to be around her and she was never invited to any social events. It was the dumbest thing I've ever experienced.

sorrygirl818 Report

Final score:

55points

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Gyro Pilot 3 years ago

Not an HR problem. Problem was with an off-kilter fellow employee. Standards today dictate that every complaint is documented and investigated, no matter how frivolous or baseless.

24points

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#27

Worked in HR for a time, and it soured my view of HR more than any stories I'd heard. One incident that stands out in my memory was a young casual worker who accused her boss of sexual harassment. I dutifully brought it up the chain, but the higher ups did not care if the boss had done anything or not - the cost of not giving her any more hours was zero, so that's what they did.

That's just one case that I dealt with, but you'd see it on a daily basis. There were literally popup notifications on the phone calls and emails from people deemed too high up to refuse. You're a part-time employee who's done everything right, hasn't been paid in two months, and can't make rent? Oooh, s**t outta luck. Nothing we can do. Meanwhile, their boss who forgot to put in a timesheet? Of course sir, expedited payment sir, will be in your account by close of business sir.

HR is there protect the business. You want protection? Join a union.

VonVaught Report

Final score:

51points

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Bunny Wood 3 years ago

Amen. The union cares. HR are just corporate stooges

12points

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#28

HR person replied to spam email allegedly from the boss, and sent all the Info for all 400 employees. Everything on your job application. Sent to scammers. Thanks, Kathy.

that_one_air_guy Report

Final score:

50points

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I want cake 3 years ago

It's easy to say the HR person was stupid here, but phishing can be very convincing and if the company didn't train their employees on digital security then I'd say its the company's fault more than the HR person's. Of course if the company did provide training then yeah, the HR person f'd up.

2points

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#29

When I started my job, the person that was training me was telling me that a lead in a different department had been sexually harassing her, and she finally told HR about it. HR pulled their chat logs, and since she had called him a dick for calling her a hooker, she also got written up.

charliestick Report

Final score:

49points

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#30

I have two, one not so much HR as a s**tty co-worker weaponized them:

When covid struck, my bosses thought it was a hoax, and they ignored distancing and mask rules, not even removing the "snack bowl" of chips from the heavily trafficked courier area, despite a company wide mandate of rules and guidelines. When I complained to HR, they told my bosses instead, and I was taken aside and written up. I quit that job and I know from former co-workers that not a thing has changed since.

2. A coworker that was 60+ had moved into a new townhome that was owned by a gay couple, and the next morning expressed admiration of the fact we've come so far in society that they can be open and loving without fear. Another coworker (with a gay brother) went to HR complaining it offended her and he was sent to sensitivity training for talking about homosexuality at work, with the extra topping of having his yearly raise denied explicitly mentioning this incident.

RennyNanaya Report

Final score:

44points

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Eric Lafleur 3 years ago

About Covid; Where I work they take it so seriously that they even bought a scanner to take out temperature when we come in, put hand sanityzer avery where in offices and in the shop, gloves are availiable for all and they gave washable face masks at least twice since this sh!t started. Advices, procedures and all sort of documentation flows constantly too. That the USA never took it seriously baffles everyone else, wherever they live.

11points

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#31

HR person used her position to collect intel to get people she didn’t like fired.

Wisebutt98 Report

Final score:

42points

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Natalia 3 years ago (edited)

That's a very common practice. It also happens that the supervisor of HR gives information to managers selectively. Having only good word for those who like and "digging" for those who dislike. They also seem to keep a neutral stance standing on everyone's side, but in the end of the day they support only the employer, because they only want to secure their job and staying at the company. Never trust the HR, 99% they don't care about you.

14points

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#32

We found a spy camera in our department office. It was shaped like a charging brick and had been recording video and audio all night. We copied the videos off the camera after the offender took it down and left it out on their desk. We took the video file that showed the person sneaking around an employee to remove the camera and turned that in with the information of what happened. That was almost a year ago now and nothing has been done. Getting ready to turn it in ourselves to the FBI. The delicious part is now the company isn't just guilty of 2 felonies, but also a misdemeanor because it is a crime not to report that crime. Marshmallow futures people.

MachineGame Report

Final score:

40points

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The Dave 3 years ago

How is it a federal offense?

3points

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#33

I was being sexually assaulted by a 60 year old co-worker when I was 21. They fired him as soon as I reported him, but offered me nothing in the way of help.

I ended up at my doctors office because I thought I was having a heart attack, but it was an anxiety attack. He took me off work for a week. When I went back, I was laid off the minute I walked in the door with 2 weeks severance.

TASpillthetea Report

Final score:

40points

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The Dave 3 years ago

Lawsuit!!

29points

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#34

The HR/Payroll manager at a small hospital I worked at had a bad habit of not paying out the sign on bonus that was paid out incrementally in three payments through the course of a year and sign on bonuses for picking up extra shifts. After repeated request to be belatedly compensated, I took it to corporate who addressed my issue immediately.

A couple weeks later I was terminated on what amounted to a technicality where I forget my badge one shift and my relief was late to take over sitting with a patient, causing me to receive more points against me than if I had called out for that shift.

When I was called in to receive my notification, the director of nursing was shocked but ultimately not much she could do.

Postmodernfinn Report

Final score:

39points

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#35

Office survey.

I put in some honest opinions of a member of my team - they were fair and honest criticisms of a system which was not working as designed. I had little contact with the system, but the whole thing seemed reasonable to me.

I was, in effect, demoted for this - a position was created above me and a colleague who was my equal was to be my manager (position did not exist before). This happened the same week my husband died and the management felt like s**t because of the timing.

But still, on my return to work, I was basically called out for criticising the same system in a whole company meeting and it was explained how x system should and did work and anyone who thought it didn't work was stupid.

Cut to 2 years later.

Person above me quits (partly because they're scared to tell tell company that anything's gone wrong because of how I was treated) and they have to promote me to that position because it now exists according to the rules and I'm the only one who can do it.

Again, in a whole company meeting, they admit "X system isn't working and we're having a consultation to find out why"

I laughed. I couldn't help it. I had to leave the room before it turned into hysteria.

Osito509 Report

Final score:

37points

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#36

Our HR always abuses the company budget. They have the nicest ergonomic keyboards, a fancy coffee machine in their office, and are the first to receive gifts from vendors.

One time they did the food tasting for the company year-end party (that they were organising). Catering company allowed 2 people for food tasting, and will charge $100 for additional people. The ENTIRE HR department went in the afternoon (and charged the company for the tasting fee, of course).

armsupthrowaway Report

Final score:

36points

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Donae Sommerfeld Lugo 3 years ago

And that is your business how? They decided to pay to include the entire department. Don't see the problem here. If it was an issue, I'm sure the owners would say no.

-2points

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#37

Mine was a job where I was working IN HR, getting screwed over BY HR.

I was coming into a job that I was overqualified for, but took it for the same salary as my last job because A. I hated my previous job and wanted an out, B. I really liked what the company did (railroad industry, my dream come true), and C. because they said they couldn't offer me more and it was already more than what they could offer.

I was the IT guy for HR, and one day (about 7 months in) they asked me to pull a list of everyone that left the HR department in the last year. The list only consisted of 3 people, one was my predecessor. When I pull info from their database, it automatically brings in a lot of their HR info that I'm supposed to remove prior to sending it elsewhere in the company, which includes salary.

They had been paying my predecessor, who was less qualified than I was, 20K/year more than myself. I was also driving over 90 minutes to/from work everyday for this job because it was a dream of mine to work in the railroading industry.

I had a new job within a few weeks, only a half hour away from home.

Sushi_Thief Report

Final score:

36points

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NMN 3 years ago

This "negotiate your salary" and "try to pay the least you can" bs some cultures have is ridiculous, didn't even know such culture existed prior moving to US

6points

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#38

Gf's friend at Target, went to HR cause the supervisor was hitting on her, and she constantly turn him down cause she had a bf. When she complain with proof of the manager sexting her and all, she end up getting fired. Nothing happened to the supervisor.

bm_alot Report

Final score:

35points

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Natalia 3 years ago

Yes. Of course! She had something misunderstood! 😤😤 ....ooffffff, I m sick of these s**t happening everywhere.

13points

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#39

HR was the bosses sister and the boss was a narcissist. The sister/HR had very little actual life experience because they both came from a big pharma family and never really had a sense of what working a real job was like. Boss could do no wrong in his sister's eyes, so complaining about anything just got you gaslit. Glad I'm not there anymore.

JAdamsidk123 Report

Final score:

29points

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#40

I gave 30 day notice at the giant home improvement retailer. No one notified me that all the money in my hsa would go away unless I spent it. Only $80. But I helped that b**** jump start her pos dodge twice in the snow during the 30 days, not to mention resolving several computer and networking crisis. No hourly employee had given more than a few days notice.

MrKahnberg Report

Final score:

19points

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michelle s 3 years ago

A always remember a leaving interview I had in my mid 20's that was held by hr ( I'd had 4 years if a head of department that made each day a nightmare for those that she managed), and I told tge truth Hr's reaction "you are only saying that because you are leaving", and I'm like that's the reason I'm leaving you asswipe !

7points

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What do you think ?

Lola DM 3 years ago

Okay so takeaways: have peers to back you up, join a union and keep a log that you can easily take with you if things get sour

cybermerlin2000 3 years ago

Also keep a back up copy at home of everything and copy all e-mails to your own private email address

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Šimon Špaček 3 years ago

If boss asks you to do something out of your responsibilities, ask for email. Is there new procedure which you see as potentional disaster? Send you boss email with your fears and ask for clarification. Was it in Skype (teams) conversation? Email copy to yourself. Oh, and it also helps to play dumb. "Dear bossman, as we spoke about change in procedure X, could you just clarify that you want me to skip step three and four? I have some sleeping problems and just wanted to double-check that I understood you correctly."

0points

Marcellus the Third 3 years ago

Mostly: Use HR speak to HR. You report a colleague for something offensive, you'll get slammed with being "not a team player", can't take a joke ('cause after all, what's a bit of racist banter amongst colleagues, it's the glue that keeps us together amirite?), and thus "creating a hostile environment" which is an undefined, intangible, "you know it when you see it" thing and worthy of dismissal. So in your report of the offense you NEED to state the obvious "hostile environment", which precludes you from this charge and puts the ball in their court. These and similar terms basically force HR to your side. Of course, weak ones will still cave to superior C-level pressure, and corrupt ones don't need it, but the vast majority of cases here are lost by naive/human speak to what are at heart misanthropic, not evil, droids.

Lish 3 years ago

HR personnel here. This is such a f*****g bummer to read. The unfortunate reality is this is how a lot HR departments operate. I take a TON of pride in being at the top of HR game. I make friends with the folks who feel abused by power. Make sure their complaint is heard and responded to appropriately. I will move mountains to make SURE your confidential reports and interviews stay confidential. HR should protect the more junior folks. Pumped I'm able to do that.

Shirley Richard 3 years ago

Sadly, I didn't even have to read all of them to confirm this is true. You might be helpful at your job but I can assure you, it's a slim margin of HR personnel that are like you. I quit my last job because my group manager was harassing me. I had reported him multiple times to HR. Multiple times. When I finally had enough, HR was like, well GTFO then. That was until I told them I kept contemporaneous notes. The then paid me my bonus in exchange for not suing. HR is NOT your friend.

1point

Danieletc 3 years ago (edited)

Do your realize you are sounding like your company's promotional cartoon of HR? And by doing so, you sound too like- I dunno, a cute meerkat or something? Chirping what your bosses want you to sound like? It's like Inception HR, reading what you said. I feel so - confused and empowered. So ... thanks!!

Nevits Yibble 3 years ago

Throughout my career, an HR department that conducts themselves as true business partners has unfortunately been rare. Most carry about with an air of arrogance and superiority, operate as the Policy Police, and typically know very little about the industry or business they work for.

Daphne Williams 3 years ago (edited)

People seem to be very, very confused about HR's role. HR is not in charge of your company. HR is being paid by the exact same people you are. HR has an advisory role - that's it. HR can advise the higher ups to take action on employee complaints until their asses fall off, but if the higher ups have other priorities, or loyalties, there is not a single thing HR can do about it. If the higher-ups want to fire the complainers, HR can advise them that this might result in the company being sued, but they cannot stop their employer from firing them. If you are being screwed over at work, guess what, HR is not screwing you over - the company both of you work for is screwing you over. HR is almost always 100% a reflection of the company at large - if HR is toxic, it's because the company culture is toxic, not the other way around. If HR is helpful, the company culture is good. This is actually a good thing to note in your interview - if the HR person seems incompetent, combative, or crazy - run. It's almost certainly an indication that the company as a whole is a toxic pit.

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