Annoying behavior or illegal behavior? There’s a difference.

“My boss picks his teeth during meetings,” is annoying behavior, but not illegal and does not have to be investigated.

“My boss looks at porn in his cube,” is illegal and must be investigated.

“My boss quotes scriptures,” is not illegal and does not have to be investigated.

“My boss quotes scriptures and…” can be illegal and probably should be investigated.

In all fairness, it’s hard to say what the HR person in this case actually said, or what ALL was said. The OP only shared what she felt was relevant to post the issue and her question. Rather convenient when she clearly wants someone to side with her. Don’t we experience that on a regular basis? Only getting the information the speaker wants us to hear, and not necessarily the whole story?

“Do you want me to say something to him?” isn’t just an “inappropriate” question, it is a really stupid question to ask in this situation. HR upon hearing this complaint should respond that they will check it out and “thanks for bringing it to our attention.” (Which, in my opinion, is the professional HR response for most complaints)

Yes, it would be okay for HR to suggest to the employee that the manager might guess at who issued the complaint; but, they will do their best to keep it confidential. Good HR and good upper management should know how to check things out without “spilling the beans.” (hint: don’t approach a manager and say “we hear you like to quote bible verses, Is this true?”)

Look at it this way; while you seemed to have jumped “he isn’t doing anything illegal!” rather quickly; Unless this is a faith-based organization, this boss is clearly making some employees feel uncomfortable with behaviour that is not normally accepted in a secular society. So, of course, HR should do something about it.

I’m not saying that there aren’t times when HR isn’t sure if they should act; or there aren’t times when the employee isn’t just venting; this clearly isn’t one of them.

Surely, you know that quoting religious stuff is not the same as quoting pop songs or being a Yankees fan; too many wars and killings have been done over religious differences throughout history. Few have died because of pop songs (The Beetles’ White Album being one exception.)

Quite frankly, if I “spoke up” and brought to HR’s attention that a manager was doing something that was obviously marginalizing employees and HR responded with “do you want us to say something?” I would say “no, don’t bother” and then look for another job. Which, perhaps, would lead HR to believe that I was “just venting” and that they did nothing wrong.

if they aren’t in pharma, where are they?

I thought they were all in Hollywood.

I learned very quickly not to get into Bible discussions with Baptists. I am Catholic. Baptists beat us into the ground with scripture knowledge.

They also know all the hymns by heart.

The only place I don’t wear a kilt is at work. Since I work in the right of way I have to wear long pants.

If I move to an office job, you can bet I’ll wear one to work!