People Are Sharing Stories About When They Learned That HR Is Not Their Friend And Holy Crap, I Have No Words
Note: this story contains mention of violence and sexual abuse.
13 long years ago, Reddit user hammeresq, or Hammer for short, made a post on the popular Ask Reddit page which he titled: "Employees of Reddit: I was just accused of 'stealing water'. What crazy accusation has an employee or supervisor made about you?" He then shared his story.
"I'm a mid-level manager at a 60-person company," Hammer wrote. "At the end of the work day, on my way out I pass the water cooler and fill my bottle up for the commute home."
"Yesterday I was doing just that when our office manager walked up and said the following: 'You're leaving for the day. Water is for employees to drink when they are working in the office only.' I laughed it off, finished filling my bottle, and headed home.
Hammer continued: "I thought she was kidding, or at the very worst having a shitty day and lashing out. She wasn't."
"Today I got into the office with an email from her to myself, my boss (our CEO/founder), and our HR person saying that I am stealing from the company, that I didn't stop filling my water bottle and immediately apologize when confronted, and that she is officially reporting this behavior and asking to have it documented."
"Needless to say, we all had a pretty good laugh about it; my boss called me in hysterics and could barely form a sentence he was laughing so hard, and someone wrote 'Is proper hydration good for the company?' on my water bottle."
"Our office manager, however, is just walking by my office and glaring this morning. I'm the Daniel Ocean of our office water cooler."
Since he asked for others' anecdotes, they replied with workplace horror stories of their own. Here are some of the best:
1."[I was accused of] 'time clock thievery...' while doing volunteer work."
2."I was working retail at Best Buy at the time and they had me working in MP3 players/cell phones despite the fact that DVDs/video games were really more my wheelhouse. But I worked where they told me, and I did my job well."
"During Christmas season, it got really busy so everyone was running around helping every department. I was hanging out in my own section when a woman came over, asked about some headphones, and I helped her.
She then asked me if the Dance Dance Revolution Madcatz (?) mat she bought for her daughter was any good, and I asked if she had any of the games (she didn't) and showed her a slightly more expensive (but better) copy of a Konami mat with a game. She thanked me since she didn't even know it needed a game and went off."
"My department manager comes up behind me, tells me to meet him in the breakroom in five minutes, and rips into me."
"He says that the department with the best revenue gets bonuses (only true for him, not for the rest of us below him) and we shouldn't be helping customers in other sections get more expensive things. He says he'd be shocked if I made it past the winter. I just say 'Yes, sir,' and went back to work.
Come January, I get fired by 'department manager recommendation.' So, when you go to Best Buy, know that all the departments have their own agendas with you."
3."I had an employer of mine write me up for stealing trash. In reality, at the end of my shift, one of my duties was to gather all the trash."
"Oftentimes, I would pick through the trash and sort all the paper, pop cans, and water bottles in our company's recycle bin. We had a special promotion with our trash company in which our company would get money based on the number of pounds we recycled. It ended up being $1,500 per month AND we didn't pay our trash bill.
So long story short, I got a final write-up for stealing company time for sorting our recyclables. So I stopped."
"The following month, our manager was pissed that she had to pay a trash bill. She called the trash company and the company told her that [for] the past two years she didn't pay for trash because our company would recycle so much, we would get a $1,500 check AND free trash service."
"My boss thought that the checks were a bonus for her. Anyhow, the district manager was reviewing the write-ups and saw I got written up for stealing trash, so he called me up and asked me what was going on. I told him the story about the trash company and its promotion. He congratulated me for a job well done.
The next day he flew in to talk to my manager. He asked my manager what happened to the $20,000 that she got from the trash company. Apparently, she tried to pin it back on me, and our district manager promptly fired her.
After escorting her out, he called me into the office. He told me what happened in that meeting, and offered me a promotion to Assistant Manager."
4."After working at Subway for five years, three of those being a manager, I was accused of turning off the cameras in the store and getting high in the cooler."
CBS / Via giphy.com
"I quit shortly after. Turned out the owner was trying to set me up to fire me."
5."I once used the phrase 'more than one way to skin a cat' around a manager who had never heard the phrase. She called me into her office later to ask why I was saying such disgusting things, accused me of being a sicko who kills animals, and then threatened to fire me if she heard anything like it ever again."
6."I worked in a souvenir shop at an amusement park. It was the Fourth of July, one of the busiest days because of the park's fireworks show. We were also understaffed."
"The shop was just inside the gate, so it would get swamped just before closing, as people bought the stuff they didn't want to walk around with all day.
I was left alone in the shop just before closing time running the cash register as people flowed in. It was utter chaos."
"While closing out the register that night, it was noticed that a large stuffed animal had been stolen.The manager simply could not fathom that one person manning a swamped store can't prevent theft because not all the displays are within sight of the register."
"I think it must have been a team effort, with one or two people getting my attention in one area while the other walked off with the toy, but I didn't say that because I really didn't know when or how it happened.
Bastard accused me of being in on it and looking the other way while a friend stole it so we could profit later. I didn't even know what to say.
I was 17, it was my first job, and I cried for days under the assumption that every job I'd ever hold would be like that one."
7."I used to work at a retail store and I had a beard. One day, my boss told me to get rid of my beard, so I came back the next day with a mustache. I was then told I had an attitude problem."
8."I've posted this before but my boss thought I was goofing off in the restroom. For a few months there, he wouldn't let me flush the toilet until he came in and made sure I actually used it."
9."Back when I was in high school, I worked for my town's parks department. One time, my boss (who was a total sleazeball who sexually harassed every girl there and hated me mostly for not being female) called me into his office. While there, he accused me of stealing a $3.00 check, and then said that I had to be let go."
"I told him point-blank that if I was to steal from the department, it would be something a lot more than a measly three-dollar check. (What the hell would I do with that anyway?)
Later on, I found out from a friend of mine that he found the check underneath his desk, and then a month later someone finally reported him for harassment and he got fired too. Karma's a bitch yo."
"Wait a second: the whole point of checks is that if they're stolen and deposited you can prove who stole it, and if you lose the check you just stop payment and write a new one. How on earth could you be accused of stealing a check that 1. hadn't been deposited and 2. you couldn't have possibly cashed anyway?"
10."Last night my manager called me stupid and uneducated for not cheating a customer out of fifteen dollars due to a computer error. She thought it was obvious I should lie about the error and garner another whopping 15 dollars for the struggling hospitality industry. Today, I go in for a meeting to get scolded for not lying, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to burst into tears."
11."A friend of mine used to work for a well-known communications company. One day, the CEO of the company visited the office. He went into the break room and counted the supplies. He then announced that he could tell from the proportion of coffee to sweetener that people were stealing the sweetener and taking it home."
"He then ordered the discontinuation of coffee service for all company offices.
It wasn't too long after that he was indicted for the biggest act of corporate thievery in history."
12."I worked in the stock room of a Gordmans and I was accused of stealing a security cable that goes on jackets... Yeah, what would I do with one of those? Oh and it turns out, our store didn't even carry those cables. It was my phone charger I had in my hand."
13."I was a chemist working for the government. For density, we used to use pycnometers, which were defined volume vessels with a hole for a thermometer, and we would perform our analysis on an old balance. We had extra money in the budget so I bought an electronic density apparatus for a new balance."
"Anyway, my team leader (who was in his 70s) had no idea how it worked and forbade me from using it, telling the lab director I was 'making up science with the balances.'
The lab director walked me into the wet lab and I showed him how this new piece of equipment would save us hours from having to do prep with the pycnometers. He laughed and said, 'this is the government, whats the hurry?' Pretty sad."
14."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 didn'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."
15."I work in Sweden. I had a friend recruited to an identical position as mine. I had to tutor him for a year, given that I have more work life experience for that gig. He came in earning 1,000€ a month more than I did."
Apple TV / Via giphy.com
"When [the] time came for salary discussions for me, I used this example and my manager tried to pass that along to at least align my salary.
The HR partner responded that they didn’t want to make that drastic [of a] raise because, and I quote, 'There might come a time where he (me) wouldn’t do the same things as now, and if that happens, we can’t downgrade his pay, and he would therefore be overpaid.'"
16."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."
17."The HR/Payroll manager at a small hospital I worked at had a bad habit of not disbursing the sign-on bonus that was paid out incrementally in three payments through the course of a year, [or] bonuses for picking up extra shifts. After repeated requests 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 forgot 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 [there was] not much she could do."
18."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. "
Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com
"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."
"I had a similar experience when I worked in cellphone sales in college. A police officer drove up in his uniform and police car, and said he was having a problem with his phone bill. So I asked for his phone number to look up his account, and he said, 'I can't give you that. I'm sure you understand why.'
He wouldn't give me any other information either, and I was forced to tell him I couldn't assist him without accessing his phone account at all and he was welcome to call customer service for help. He finally broke down and gave me his phone number."
19."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 criticizing 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."
20."My former employer sent me to 'employer-funded' therapy and then used the therapist's notes to place me on indefinite stress leave because, as they put it, 'employee exhibits negative views of workplace.'"
"I was a prison guard. Of course I didn’t like being there. That doesn’t mean I’m incapable of handling it."
21."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 organizing). The catering company allowed two people for food tasting, and would charge $100 for additional people. The ENTIRE HR department went in the afternoon (and charged the company for the tasting fee, of course)."
22."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."
23."We got a 'Confidential Employee Survey' handed to us at work. It had our employee number on the top of the page."
24."An anesthesiologist I worked with refused to keep his mask on at the end of a surgery, even though 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. I followed up with HR. After I relayed what happened, the HR lady replied, 'Well, what do you want me to do about it?' I replied, 'Your job,' and then got silence from her.
Never had a good experience with HR.
The asshole anesthesiologist finally got fired after five more nurses came forward saying he hit them, as well."
25.And finally, "I worked in the bakery at a Fred Meyer for about six months when I was freshly 19. There was this 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 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 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 fucking 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."
Mubi, Metropolitan Filmexport / Via youtube.com
"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 fucking NERVE to tell me that '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.
Turns out the creep was the brother of the store's owner, who had been to jail in the past for sexual assault and RAPE but was now 'cleaning his life up.'"
"This would be a good one for the corporate 1-800 number."
"This is a lawyer-up type of situation. EEOC don't fuck around."
"The fact that he does this to all the new girls doesn’t excuse him, and the fact that management knows this makes them an accessory to any assault he commits. They have an obligation to provide a safe place for all their employees, including new young female employees."
These stories are absolutely wild, so I want to hear all your opinions down in the comments below. Feel free to share HR horror stories of your own — or, if you prefer, you can vent via this anonymous Google form! Who knows — your story could end up in an upcoming BuzzFeed article.
Please note: some comments may have been edited for length and/or clarity.
