⚠ Now that you know why HR is terrible at helping employees, will you be more cautious about going to them with issues? ⚠

Just remember that the employee that helped convict the Killer Nurse was: 1) Reprimanded by HR for causing the hospital "trouble" when she first raised concerns to them; and 2) Told by HR to keep quiet and not to talk to the authorities when the FBI started investigating the case. The guy was convicted of killing 29 people (although he claims over 40 victims) and all the hospital cared about was reputation and liability.

It's called Human Resource for a reason. It treats you like a resource, something to be exploited, extracted, and used.

A coworker used to always say, "HR does not exist to protect you from the company, HR exists to protect the company from you".

HR is absolutely delightful when they're trying to get you to join their company. Once you do, then they don't want to know you.

Don't ever trust anybody at work. Your co workers are not your friends.

My mom once went to HR (she was a nurse) she was being sexually harassed by a doctor. She complained to hr. Next day she was fired. She tries to sue but hr had mysteriously lost the complaint document. Lessons: always get copies of documents and that hr is full of awful humans.

I will never forget this: I worked at target in the electronics section and was training this new girl. Our store had partnered with a company so they could sell at&t plans in our store. This guy from the AT&T company wouldn’t stop harassing this new girl to the point she would just avoid the counter (where he stood) cause he wouldn’t leave her alone. I had been there for years and she asked me what to do. I knew none of the higher ups liked the other company in the store so I told her she should tell hr about it. She was let go the next week. I had trained so many people before and she was actually doing a good job. I had no idea why they would let her go…unless it was hr’s move to avoid a problem. She was let go, and that other dude and their company stayed. I still feel terrible for suggesting that she talk to hr. I honestly thought they would take the side of their employee, especially when she’s being constantly harassed. But no. Never talk to your hr.

I started studying HR at university until I discovered what HR actually is...I left that course soon after.

As HR professional for over 17 years, I confirm that he's correct. HR is in the position to protect the company and its resources from liability. Great breakdown 👍

My company’s different! They told me on the first day “we’re all one big family”, and they treat me exactly like my siblings who also mistreat me

My experience with HR is that they have a lot of power to hurt you but very little to help you

In my 20+ years it always comes down not to who was right, but between the two, who is most liked by the leadership. I’m Australian, but this man is spot on for here as well. You never, ever speak to HR. When they have approached me, I snap into Army counter interrogation training mode, they get nothing from me.

I worked at Target as an HR rep, I actually thought my job was to help and protect employees. My boss wanted to do something against HR policy and I said we can’t do that. I dug my heels in for another employee. Soon I found myself the target of my boss, she told me this was not the right position for me and scrutinized everything I did. I was so confused, I thought I was doing the right thing. This video is so dead on, I thought my case was unique, come to find out I was part of the 20% that does the right thing. 😊 it’s been 10 years since I left, but this video has made me feel so justified. Thanks!!!

I'm an HR professional and it's all true sadly. I've been in situations where me and my HR department wanted to help employees, but were powerless to because of management ignoring our advice. And I've also dealt with management telling me to discourage employees from discussing their pay. I even had one department manager tell me to tell employees it was illegal and I was like, "It's actually illegal for us to tell them that." And they didn't want me repeating that.

At the start of my career, I did admin in our HR section…. I overheard two execs (known to be good listeners by staff) admit their willingness to listen was to ensure they could gather enough information to protect the companies liabilities.

HR has 3 main functions. 1) onboard and terminate human slaves. 2) protect the company image with the media. 3) protect the company from or minimize the damage from lawsuits.

I really hate working for people. Bullying does not just happen in the playground anymore it happens in almost every stage of your life especially in the workplace.

One of my best friends who dedicated her life to becoming an HR generalist because she thought they helped people, was devastated when after completing her schooling and getting hired that she found that this was the case over and over again. She couldn’t help anybody if the owner/c-suite didn’t want to.

Wow. As a young and (admittedly) naive employee, this was incredibly helpful to know up front.

If you think about Human Resources as your handler, it makes sense. They’re not there *for* the humans, they’re there to protect the corporation *from* the humans working there. They are 100% enemies of employees.

Well... As a wrongfully terminated former HR professional who suffered from her own department incompetence, I have to say that Branigan's videos opened my eyes on some very important things. My pink glasses are lost forever.

YES, everyone just starting work out of college needs to learn this. I'm an old fart, 30+ years in corp in high tech companies. HR absolutely doesn't keep confidences. The few times I went to them with anything beyond minor, my manager knew I had talked to them before I got back to my office. I swear they have a big red button under their desk which alerts your manager and starts a recording. Document, document, document everything once you start to see a pattern of anything that prevents you from doing your best work. You may never need it, but it helps to show a timeline, a pattern and also to help you think if what you are witnessing is a one-off which you can handle yourself, or a pattern of bad behavior. Companies will keep bad people on and get rid of the one who complains! And if you get harassed or attacked at work, never talk to HR first, call the police. HR will hate this but you need to protect yourself. It's not different than if the incident happened anywhere else, call the police and file a report.

Had an HR rep at a previous company that actually spelled out significant parts of what you said. Management hadn't been particularly forthcoming with the employees about certain issues and was hoping we wouldn't notice certain policy changes or would acquiesce to certain requests without investigation. This HR rep confirmed several items and highlighted others where it was clear the company was not being direct with us but also cautioned me that in her position she could only bend so far before the company would simply replace her with someone more obedient, removing what little she could already do to protect us. I had a lot of respect for her, even knowing that she represented the company's interests first.

I'm in IT and we work very closely with HR. I am Canadian but help manage branches in California, Maine, and New York. HR is a totally different beast in the states. Nearly every communication is some form of "find me everything against so and so," or, "lock so and so out of X and Y," and they are so closeted about every little thing. The difference: HR in Canada is regulated and CEOs have been slapped hard for de-escalating HR complaints like you describe, so HR CAN tell the boss what to do, and I've had the pleasure to see it happen.

Mantra: "I'm here to make money, not friends." Be friendly, but never say anything to a coworker that you wouldn't say directly to your boss. And never talk to HR beyond the hiring process.

It should be called corporate resources not human. Human is a laugh.

There was a huge shift in the role and attitude of personnel department changing to HR. Sometime in the 80’s it went from nice helpful older ladies working in personnel to evil HR director. HR was given power that didn’t exist before. I worked at Caterpillar world headquarters and it was a day and night shift once the switch was thrown. Power crazy.

This video is 100% spot on. I usually tell people that HR knows how to take the “Human” out of “Human Resources.”

When I was working in HR, I was young, idealistic and in a junior role. Over time, people would increasingly come to me with tricky problems because I was the only one they could trust to retain confidentiality. As you can imagine, I worked in the job for years without promotion, and some of my peers were openly hostile towards me. I only advanced in HR when I worked in the statistics, because I wasn't seen a a team player, ie. not prepared to throw innocent people under the bus. In stats, I would never sugar coat inconvenient results with inappropriate chart scales or omitted info. I never got promoted from that one either haha

I never forgot when someone said HR was there for the company, not you.

I was at an employee wellness event and one of the new hr managers introduced themselves. They made it clear they were available to anyone at any point in their career. Very nice, promising, lots of experience under their belt. I was a bit apprehensive, however, when they remarked that while they would fight for you, they would “give it to you straight and not hold anything back.” As in, to say, they’ll tell you if you’re in the wrong and what needs to happen. Walls go back up. As much as I’d like to trust you, my gut tells me I’d be speaking with my union rep first. I’ll know if I’ve done something wrong, I don’t need a company spokesperson burying me under the building.

The only time I hear from HR is when I speak my mind, and they warn me that I shouldn't be doing that.

I thought they were there to protect me as an employee but to my shock and immense surprise they just enabled the people and situation to get worse.

This is exactly what happened to me when I reported my boss for committing fraud and violating the false claims act. Once it became clear that I couldn’t solve the problem within the company I had no choice but to find an attorney and file a lawsuit. Worst two years of my life. But in the end when it all came to light it was very vindicating.

What HR doesn’t know is that keeping a really bad employee will costs them sooner or later, once a situation gets bad enough that the employee gets a lawyer and sues the company, so it worth to investigate, discipline and/or get rid of the really bad actor in the long run.

The people who work in HR are all what they call "Little Eichmanns". I'm now retired, but was definitely raised under the impression that HR were... human. Took a few experiences to learn the truth they are only there to protect the company and can be very, very cruel and dishonest and immoral. Your use of the white board and colored markers is really good!

I actually agree with you. Talking from my personal experience one of my colleagues anonymously sent an email as a Whistle blower to HR (per HR policy) to complain about the supervisor who used to swear and treat employees like trash. Rather than questioning that supervisor HR ended up interrogating everyone in the department harassing them to tell the name of that individual. This resulted in everyone in the department resigning in just a span of 6 months as the work environment became too hostile.

I always had the mentality to not trust HR. In my opinion they are there to save the managers and the company. My only experience was when I made a complaint to a third party, the HR got involved and called me to set a meeting to talk about it. I got wrongfully fired that same day and never got that “talk with” or even another call from HR. The HR/Managers/Loss Prevention were all working together to get me fired. The issue was I complained about the most valuable supervisor at the building so I was fired to just shut me up and have my complaint disappear. Luckily I’m union and I was able to fight and prove I was fired due to retaliation and I got my job back with back pay.

I've been sexually harassed and groped multiple times at work but HR refuses to do anything about it and even asked me why I was so taken aback because I'm a guy. I was put on a final for respect/sexual harassment for bringing in an award winning children's book to the team Christmas celebration. When HR talked to me about my personability and general disposition (I'm a musician and an author so I've learned to become generally amicable and well spoken) they asked if I was abused as a kid, I told them yes and was told that shouldn't affect my conduct and I need to be nicer. They invalidated me and told me to stop using my childhood as an excuse for not being more reverent... HR made it a point to be difficult with the police officers when my vehicle was broken into at the company parking lot. I was told I'm not promptable because I have too much going on outside of work (on a label, traditionally published, teacher, etc...) And the company doesn't want to waste time training someone who isn't invested in a career pathway. They allowed a former supervisor to bully and harass me, to the point where he was denying me bathroom breaks and constantly telling me I was at the bottom of the vitality curve. A coworker at their significant other have begun harassing me and monitoring where I go outside of work, but HR names it as hearsay. The police said they also can't get involved unless they make a physical threat. On that, I was told getting the police involved with anything would result in my termination. And they've straight up told me I'm not allowed to report any harassment, misappropriation, or foulness of any kind as that would be reprisal on my part.

I went to HR once in 13 years of employment due to a manager asking me to sign a “conversation note” for a conversation that didn’t go the way he write it at all. As I was sitting in HR I realized your #1 point here. Then I just felt like I screwed up by going to HR and wanted to get the hell outta there. I stuck to my guns and the manager ended up rewriting his conversation note to what I asked him to make it but HR did not help at all with that.

I wish I knew this info before I complained to HR regarding an abusive narcisist. You described precisely what happened - I had a target on my back, I became the focus of the investigation and got written up for incredibly ridiculous things. To my absolute shock and horror, I became the focus of the investigation and consequently my health deteriorated horribly from the stress of it all. I learned a disturbingly nasty lesson - never talk to HR! I will deal with any problems I have on my own or find another job if the situation is bad enough!

I am a manager at a large company and I can say without a doubt that I have NO CLUE who's side HR seems to be on. Because it's not mine and it sure isn't my employees. I honestly think they exist to keep anything from getting done at all.

The only time I ever went to HR was to tell them that I was quitting and leaving their sorry asses.

When I started out of college in food manufacturing, I've of the most common pieces of advice I was given was, "don't go to local HR. Go to corporate." Local HR sat with management and were friends with them. Not a single individual who had to deal with them said anything other than, "they made it clear they represent management."

I was recently part of a large layoff. I complained along with others (and on their behalf as I was a director) about an abusive Karen we had working in the company. Less than a year afterward, I documented all of the abuse, the DM's emails, etc from myself and others that we endured. I emailed this to the HR "partner" assigned to our group. Without warning, I was laid off shortly afterward. No performance plan, no discipline, no write-up, just terminated. This is a very real issue in America. You have no control of your employment, your freedom, or your life.

My wife specifically went into HR to be able to help workers and be an intermediary. She was really good at what she did. So good in fact that all the people loved her, and her boss targeted her for termination. Turns out the job description, that she was fulfilling extremely well, wasn't really what the company wanted HR workers to do.

They dont want to help employees. They want to have power over employees. They only want to help employees that give them more power

it's right there in the name: "Human RESOURCES". Their job is not to help *you*. Their job is to reduce liability and maximize productivity for your bosses. When you understand this, it becomes immediately obvious why they do things like, force every employee to watch a boring and condescending yearly video about sexual harassment and why it's bad, and then push every real accusation of sexual harassment they get under the rug.

HR is like the olde timey phone operator that manually connected your calls and listened in on your call and then gossiped with their coworkers hoping to have the juiciest story of the day.

The big lesson I’ve learned over the past 10 years or so at my job is NOT “HR is not your friend”,.. but what you mentioned that “Leadership will do pretty much whatever it wants (lacking any accountability)”. Bad Leadership is a far more poisonous thing to an organization than bad HR.

Thanks for this video - I literally removed my HR employee for my company and hired instead a project manager. Instead of my other employees having issues with performance of others and handling projects, the project manager now remediates these issues and brings me in for additional approvals if necessary. My team is only 20 IT professionals and we have to service several clients, so it didn't make sense to keep HR around since we kept having issues on how to handle day to day troubles where 99% of them were "employee X still hasn't handled this issue with a client" so may as well just give my employees a professional resource whose primary goal is organization

Most of the time, HR Department doesn't exist to help human/ employee. They work to help employer. They are like your classmate who reports every single misbehaviour to your teacher.

I went to HR once to ask what they were looking for regarding skills and knowledge needed for promotion in other departments. HR went straight to my supervisor and told them I was trying to move departments. I was quickly blacklisted because i didn't go to my supervisor. Thanks HR!

A friend who's a senior HR manager told me once that HR professionals are like bishops on a chess board: They only move in one type of way and it's an error to expect that be able to move in a different way. Most of the time, they only deal with hiring and firing.

I’m convinced there is a ritual all HR directors go through to extract their souls from their bodies right before they start in their position.

I had it explained as "HR is the left hand of the legal department...They are there to manage a company resource that happens to be human."

I applied for HR recruitment once, the selection went really well until at the final user interview, I disclosed that I was also working part time as a counsellor and they asked me why I worked there in which I replied that I was passionate about helping people. The air kinda changed after that, and soon enough I got an email saying I got rejected. Not fully attributing the rejection because of that, but it's a bit sus lol

HR Senior Expert , 20 years in the HR section. After the transition of my department in an other country, my new Teamleader decided , I am suddenly a low performer and a toxic team member. Bossing for 1,5 years - I tried to stay strong, proofed several times the opposite of her allegations. I asked for help the HR Business Partner. Big mistake: The terminated my contract and now I’m waiting for the hearing in front of the court. I confirm your are absolutely right.

I saw this happen at a prior job. The person who went to HR was put on a PIP and then let go, but the person who was responsible for the problem is still there to this day.

I don’t work in HR and i’ve never had to go to HR for anything but i am a CNC programmer/machinist listening to this video in the background at work and your CNC comparison caught me super off guard and gave me a chuckle, great vid

Long story made short. I worked at Magic Mountain. Saw a minor employee get molested by a manager. Went to report it. The company gave me a couple of days days off, (they have a point system for being late, too many points you get fired). I got called in the office and got fired for being a no call no-show. Also, put me on the no rehire list, which is usually reserved for employees who did awful things. Found out later from friends I worked with over 60 people entered in a class action lawsuit for the same thing. Also, they never fired the manager who still works there. The only reason why they won't fire him is because he works at the Johnny Rockets location, which Magic Mountain has a huge contract with which means this $$$$$$$, and they don't want Johnny Rockets to find out.

I've been telling coworkers this for years. I tell them that unless it's something that the company can get sued for, HR is not going to help you and you'll end up with a target on your back by the boss.

The HR lady at a company I worked for 10 years was completely on the company side 1000% of the time, would actively work against former employees getting workman's compensation or unemployment, and sweep any wrongdoing, negligence, or harassment under the rug. They are not on the employees side, at all.

I worked in HR at a nonprofit organization which I assume is a bit different in culture. I feel like we generally did a good job and really tried to help out with worksafe conditions, giving clear communication about resources to the staff and how to use us to understand things like medical insurance etc.. But some days it really felt like we were the middle sibblings between employees and management. Management wants everyone to act like robots and be perfect while some employees just didn't communicate at all and would let situations spiral out of control until the blame was put on us for not doing anything when we weren't even in the know in the first place. We bought essential safety equipment for every job site and trained everyone multiple times to use it no matter what and told the supervisord they have to ensure that practice, and then a few weeks later we have two employees in the hospital because they chose not to wear the safety equipment 🤦‍♂️. We also had someone who was hired on a casual basis but was required to work at least a few hours every month. When they didn't show up for 3 months even after we were in communication with them, we terminated them and then they got extremely angry and threatened to bring the union into it because we were being unfair despite it literally being in their employment contract

Absolutely right! I went to my local HR rep at Comcast (the worst company on earth) when I was harassed by 2 fellow web developers on my "team". They were 20-somethings and I was a 50-something and they constantly made sport of my age. I had emails, photos, screen captures, names, dates, and places detailed. I turned this over to the local HR person who escalated the matter to the national HR demons in Philadelphia. They turned all my documentation around blaming me for the issue and convinced me to transfer to another department in the same town where I was promptly put on a 'coaching plan' and terminated within a week. HR reps are slimy creatures. The only time I've been fired in 38 years of work.

When I complained to HR about being bullied not long after I got fired their excuse was that my job role was no longer needed

the only purpose of HR in our company is to make sure people get absolute minimum wage, delaying promotions to the maximum, and invent all ways possible to make sure undesired colleagues quit "voluntary" including character assassination and victim blaming. it sure is a special kind of personality that is willingly working in that function

Calling in from a commercial train operator in Scandinavia here. HR is a *bleeping* night mare, and I have come to realize that this is an issue all over the world. IDK what is the matter with them, but the past 5-10 years HR has grown to an absurd size. They seem to think and act in a way that makes it look like they are more important than the crews operating the trains, selling tickets, cleaning or servicing and so on.

My company has 100s of training videos that they expect us to watch on our own time. One of them is titled How to Handle a Difficult Boss. It gives 30 examples on how to handle a difficult boss on your own and never to call HR unless your boss is physically abusive.

This is precisely why the work place is so evil and wicked. The rules and regulations cause workers to essentially not give a shit about anything or each other outside of doing the job and going home each day. It makes you a drone and turns you into a slave. Sad but true. All of this information is spot on and vital to anyone who wants to know the hard truth about human resources at any company and how they essentially function.

I complained to HR exposing the corruption in my work place in hiring and firing illegally, and was fired. Then, I filed suit for retaliation 😂

I've worked accounting jobs at many places and have been telling people basically exactly this for a while now. They shouldn't call it HR. Don't even get me started on how impersonal the hiring process is. Small private companies are closer to caring about employees but they still have lawyers. I used to be against unions and all sorts of things like paid parental leave for pregnant women and now with all the BS I have seen first hand with my wife's pregnancy I think unions are needed almost everywhere. My wife works on the LABOR AND DELIVERY UNIT in the hospital and has been treated very poorly by the nursing director. Yes, you read that correctly. On a healthcare unit where the focus is healthy pregnancy and babies she literally feels like they could care less about her pregnancy and unborn child. Also, this is at maybe the nation's premier hospital located in Southern Minnesota, not some rinky dink rural hospital, so it's even more shocking.

Incredible how I do not live anywhere near California, let alone United States, and this video was still worth gold for me. This guy completely described how HR worked back in my company.

I remember my 1st corporate-type job in my 20s. It was during the in-house customer service training that I realized how the world really worked. People were referred to as end users. Techniques to close sales were actually coercion. During the training, the smart people had the best test scores, but later, on the sales floor, the narcissists & bullies made the money & got the praise. We were penalized for not upselling items, it didn't matter whether the customer needed or wanted the extra items. The customers' personal details were duplicated and sold to other parties without consent. My worst experience was in call centers. It's not just HR or the bean counters that are responsible for the toxic environment. It's our entire system. No matter where you are in the world the very fabric of society has been poisoned. Most comment sections on social media are vapid & dripping with hateful ignorant words from very disturbed people. I feel so sorry for us all and the future that awaits us.

I am now retired, but I worked as a manager for 14 years. HR exists to support management. They will help employees on occasion, but their mission statement states that they provide management quality support. At times, it becomes necessary for employees to deal with HR, but employees should do so very carefully and with eyes wide open. I look forward to seeing the next video.

I am an HR practitioner and a student of law all the way from Ph. Those were straight forward thoughts about the HR profession. I would say, at the end of the day we are all the same workforce under the same employer. I have learned a lot and these are valuable opportunities to gain more insights and learn and improve. Wonderful content! it helps.

I'm a certified human resource professional and damn you for being so right

One of my last jobs had a very snakey HR person. Was gross. Told my manager everything I said as soon as I discussed a serious issue I had with them. I then slowly got pushed out of the company even though I basically ran all ends of the production floor. I was required to use my personal phone while on the production floor so managers could call me, yet the managers were writing me up for having my phone. Stuff like that. Made me furious.

Talked to someone from hr on the phone. Felt like I was being talked down to and being interrogated. I honestly don't feel like anything will change for the better now. Honestly I feel like going to hr has just put a giant ass target on my back. My situation is just going to get worse but because I need this job I need to just suck it up even if that means working with a supervisor who would rather I pass out and bust my head open than take time to make Sure that doesn't happen. I wish I was back in high school atleast the faculty and teachers actually cared about me and took my type 1 diabetes seriously. I honestly feel like....no one cares anymore and that I'm all alone.

You're absolutely right! I was involved in many ethics complaints at my workplace because I'm a shop steward. HR was created by companies initially as a counterbalance to a union. In most of these ethics complaint situations, the company used the actual report made as preload to set up a defense for any supervisors involved and protect the company. Employees were harassed relentlessly because of the ethics complaint to the point where they just drop the complaint.

I agree it's a façade. It's just another box to check off when creating a company. I agree HR protects them not you. I've complained to HR with 3 different companies and it never works. I ended up getting fired or quitting. I discovered that the harder I worked, the more I got taken advantaged of. So now I act like the ones that coast without issues. Ignore everything, act dumb and don't get involve with anything! No team work, pretend your busy or care!

This is so true I had a complaint about my supervisor , & spoke with HR. Then about 30 minutes after I left my Supervisor comes into my office asking me why did I tell HR what happened. She even tried to close the door and confront me.

Exactly. And this is valid for so many things! - HR is not there to protect you, but the company (people in power in the company)! - Police is not there to protect you but the government and people in power! - Military is not there to protect you but the government and people in power! - Regulations are not there to protect you but the government and people in power! continue the list

Nice to hear what I always felt to be true stated by someone in the know. Malignant people in the workplace can make life miserable but rather than solve the issue, HR is there to protect the company, not the workers.

I was bullied out of a job, and when I tried to call HR, _they hung up on me._ The only people who actually enforce labor law are unions.

My HR rep told me that I was “out of ADA accommodation”. That’s not how ADA accommodations work. You don’t run out. It’s not like sick days. I’m glad to be gone from there.

I honestly thought your opening would be: "At some point your career, you're gonna run into a serious problem at work - HR"

Thank you, good clear advice. I work for a large company in SA. The hr has many levels and becomes far more dangerous as you get referred higher up. It is much as you described, but with too few good ones and most suffering from some bullying themselves.

Can confirm. I was in a "me too" situation before the movement where my boss's boss decided I was going to be his girlfriend. I was struggling with a health crisis at the time and was desperate for health insurance. I felt I had to stay and was young and unknowledgeable. HR took me to lunch almost every week. She'd call it "girl talk" and asked if I wanted to vent about any of the guys ganging up on me or my "boyfriend". When I finally quit, she whispered "oh good. Everyone here was really out to get you." And that was our exit interview.

This is 100% right. A lot of HRs now call themselves Employee & Labor Relations which is more accurate. Larger institutions like mine take even greater measures to pull the wool over your eyes--e.g. they will send people to Equal Opportunity Access to "legitimize" telling people they are not truly being bullied

I’m four months into my first HR job and this was eye opening.

my parent had a boss who kept threatening and harassing her, and she went to HR and they did a "unbiased investigation" and refused to show the results, but said there was no wrongdoing from her boss, and the harassment and treats got worse. She had to quit and the company said it was her choice so she had less benefits than if she was fired. After 4 years she heard that he was quietly let go for unstated reasons, but a friend of hers who worked in another part of the company said that there were multiple women who filed harassment claims and quit not long afterwards. It seems HR and the company was protecting him and attacked the women he was harassing. Also I had horrible interactions with counselors in college where they treated me like shit and blamed all the problems I had with the school on me, saying that everything was my fault and the school had no fault at all.

I have been working for 42 years. I have never been helped by HR. I only been hurt by HR. They are the hit men (women) of their executive management team. They are never fair. It is a corrupt profession.

My HR person tried to say I only get 2 days bereavement time because the funeral of my mother wasn't part of the days off since it was on the weekend. Kentucky law states 3 for close family last I checked. This was, by her words, "company policy" and I said no, I have 3, and walked out of her office, got 3 days paid, and she wanted to make it sound like my boss "allowed" me to have my legally required time off.

In my first position in first line management I was first happy when we got a dedicated HR-resource as a result of a merger. Finally, some help to be fair towards the employees!! Very soon i learned that instead of HR protecting the employees from me, I had to protect my colleagues from HR. We are not much different in Sweden

You are absolutely 100% correct! The worst of the worst are the employer's who claim the have a whistle-blower program! They don't. A whistle-blower will always be labeled as a disloyal employee who no employer want to touch! Believe me I know!

This is great information. I had a manager during pandemic telework who would frequently be verbally abusive to me when one-on-one. My wife heard it one day and said to me “what the fuck was that?” I said it was just another Tuesday. She said I should go to HR…luckily I was savvy enough not to do that and eventually found a better job…only to get laid off two and a half weeks ago because IT is a bloodbath right now.

Your prediction of what happens to someone after going to HR was almost prophetic! Spot on!

Oh I got a story for this. Basically at my workplace we need to clean a whole Highschool that is massive, we were 5 people in total and we could cover it all. But one after another left and we ended in only two. HR decided to help us by sending another person after the two of us suffered 3 weeks of headaches and stress. But turns out they were about to give that person my place and didn't realized until she was about to sign the contract. So until they fix that, we are still suffering and waiting.