Any time you have trouble at work you’re supposed to be able to confide in the human resources department. Right? Maybe not. It seems like there is a common trend of horrible HR people across the workforce. These folks sure had a rough time. Content edited for clarity.
You Know What You Did
“I was pulled into a meeting with two HR reps in the middle of my shift. I was taken to this really nice boardroom, which was confusing because I was just a grunt and this was literally floors above where I should ever be. They sat me down and basically asked what did I have to say for myself? Me, still confused, told them I had no idea what they were talking about. Everyone was really quiet and serious and I was scared out of my mind. They said, ‘You know what you did, this is cause for termination, blah blah.’
I was thinking this was a bit excessive for being a few minutes late sometimes. I insisted I didn’t know what was going on. One of them seemingly realized something was wrong and flipped open a file and said you’re xx right?
Turns out they got me mixed up with someone else who had the same name. On the elevator ride down by myself I was still sweating. I don’t know what that other person did but man, HR does not play.”
The Creep
“I worked in the bakery at a Fred Meyers for about six months when I was freshly 19. There was this 45-year-old guy in meat/seafood who was super creepy. 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 one.
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. He 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. 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, tried to kiss me, and he grabbed my ass. I pushed him and 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.
The next day came and he pulled me into his office. He told me he saw the video and saw this man stalking me inside and outside of work and that he ‘talked’ to him about his behavior. 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 NERVE to tell me, ‘He just does this to all the new girls. As soon as another girl gets hired he’ll leave you alone.’
I told him he was a bastard and quit on the spot. Turned out the creep was the brother of the store’s owner who had been to jail in the past for felony sexual assault charges but was now ‘cleaning his life up.'”
Hostile Environment
“One of my co-workers accidentally backed his company truck into my personal car while it was parked. He alerted our local manager and me immediately. We took photos, filled out the incident report, yada yada yada. Everyone in our office was in agreement about what happened; that it was an honest accident and the company’s insurance should cover the cost of fixing my car.
Then the HR director got involved. First, he tried to get me to assume liability saying it was my personal vehicle that ’caused’ the accident. My car was parked in the parking lot and I was inside at my desk when it happened. When I pointed this out he backed down and said he would file the claim. I thought that would be the end of it.
Later on, I got a call from a hostile insurance adjuster from my company’s insurance demanding that I provide my insurance information or they would be pursuing legal action. It turned out the HR director had filed the claim saying that I had run into the parked work truck with my car and tried to flee the scene but was witnessed by a co-worker who reported me. I informed the adjuster what had actually happened and emailed her the photos and signed incident reports and witness statements that we had filled out. She changed her tune pretty quickly and said she would get back to me.
The next day I got a ‘settlement agreement’ from HR asking me to accept $1100 for repairs and to sign a form releasing the company from any further responsibility. I had only just dropped my car off at the body shop and hadn’t even gotten the estimate back yet. I declined and was told that I either had to accept their offer or be out of luck.
At this point, I reached out to my own insurance and told them what had happened. As I went through the sequence of events I could hear my agent getting almost giddy about all the blatantly illegal tactics HR had tried on me. In the end, they processed my claim and pursued my own company’s insurance through subrogation. He also mentioned that they would probably be seeking additional damages due to the falsification of statements in the initial claim. Don’t mess with USAA.
In the end, the damage ended up costing over $4,000 to fix but I didn’t have to pay a cent, not even my deductible. I don’t know if the HR director experienced any consequences, but there was a comment in our finance VP’s year-end report about needing to ‘reduce extraneous costs due to reporting delays and inaccuracies in liability claims.'”
Trouble From Within
“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: they said they couldn’t offer me more since the salary was already more than what they could offer.
I was the IT guy for HR, and one day (about seven 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 three people, one was my predecessor. When I pulled information from their database, it automatically brought in a lot of their HR info that I was supposed to remove prior to sending it elsewhere in the company, which included salary. I had to read the number over a few times before what I was seeing would register.
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 every day for this job because it was a dream of mine to work in the railroad industry.
It wasn’t worth it to stay. So, I had a new job within a few weeks, only a half hour away from home. Also, the new job I got came with a pay increase.”
Playing Telephone
“I asked my boss for a desk phone with a speakerphone function because sometimes I need it at work to conference people on the phone with people in my office. We had these old, yellow phones. So he told me to make a request to him and CC our office manager, then he’d send it to the HR department of our region via e-mail.
So I put forth a nice e-mail outlining what I was requesting, and why I needed it for HR’s request. My office manager replies all and asks HR ‘per [my name]’s request, should I order the phone through the same channels I have used before or is there a new policy?’
HR responded lividly. She demanded to know why I needed this phone (it was in the e-mail…) and then accused my office manager of going behind HR’s back in ordering phones before without approval.
My office manager told my boss, who called HR and chewed her out and I could hear yelling. My boss came out of his office and yelled at me, ‘See what you’ve caused?!’
He was fired up but I know he didn’t mean anything malicious by it. I just laughed.
HR had to apologize to the office manager for the accusations. Turns out, after everybody yelled their lungs out for an hour, the speakerphone I needed was literally free and we had boxes of them in storage. I had it for a month before HR rolled out new fancy phones that were actually expensive and convoluted, requiring training to set up and use.
At the company picnic, we had to wear stupid nametags and I had never met the HR lady face to face. She came up and said, ‘Oh we haven’t met, what’s your name?’ and I was trying to hide my nametag but she read it and didn’t seem happy to see me.”