Comments on: HR Diaries: What’s the Worst Thing You Could Do on the Job?

By: Mad Madame Mim

Mad Madame Mim — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 19:51:33 +0000

I had an employee request a Personal LOA, said her daughter (a minor) had been sexually assualted by a neighbor. We generously gave her the four weeks she requested to care for her child. Some people even donated PTO so she could be paid for some of her time away. Found out later she made up the whole thing to take a trip to Jamaica.

By: Karla F.

Karla F. — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 20:27:52 +0000

After reading all of the above, I don’t think mine story is so interesting. However, here goes….I was at this position only a few weeks when this happened. The phones were monitored for quality purposes. Two employees were engaging in phone sex. The Director of Sales, listened in for an extremely long time. He could’ve disconnected them, hung up, or jumped into the call and told them to stop. But, he listened to them……..for a long time….

By: Karla F.

Karla F. — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 19:47:47 +0000

In reply to _ism.

I swear this happened to me at Starbucks!

Now I know there is a possibility and not something I imagined (possibly).

WOW.

By: Evil HR Lady

Evil HR Lady — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:33:47 +0000

In reply to Angelica. Yes, you win.

By: AC

AC — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 01:06:48 +0000

I had an employee actually stab another employee with a piece of metal. Apparently, the one employee (we will call him A) got mad at something the other employee (we will call him B) said. So A, picked up a piece of sharp metal and stabbed B in the wrist. We never saw A again. He disappeared, only to be arrested by the police a few blocks away. And wouldn’t you believe, B did not want to press charges, so A was let go. No charges were ever brought and we had to pay for the stabbing injury through workers comp because it was on the job.

By: Anonapus Rex

Anonapus Rex — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 21:09:02 +0000

In reply to danprime47. I am horrified that the third-party contractor answered that question. That is extremely personal information and even if she was pre-op, she would still be a woman and entitled to use the women's restroom. But thank you for not asking the lady directly!

By: Nanc

Nanc — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 19:07:42 +0000

In reply to Hairy HR Guy. Oh my--please tell me your benefits include emergency mental health counseling (for you, or maybe the employee, too)! Ew ick gack yuck!

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 12:09:40 +0000

In reply to Angelica. No. Words.

By: charles

charles — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 01:43:25 +0000

I seen more bad things done by employers and bosses than employees; but, since you asked for the worst done by employEEs here goes.

We had one male employee who everyone, or I should say almost everyone, knew lacked the habit of washing his hands after using the restroom (I guess even the women knew because the guys gossip as much as women do. ha!)

Well, anyway, one day after I finished my “business” and was standing at the sink washing my hands this employee did his “business” and then walked out of the restroom without washing his hands.

About 2 minutes later I walked out of the restroom to see that our soon-to-return-from-maternity-leave co-worker brought her baby in for everyone to see – and this clown who no less than a couple of minutes before was holding his, well, you know what, saying “cootchie cootchie coo” while sticking his fingers in the kid’s face!

I was torn between yelling “get your dirty hands out of that kid’s face” and keeping my mouth shut as the germs were already spread. I opted for keeping my mouth shut and felt guilty about it afterwards.

By: Florida

Florida — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 16:34:03 +0000

An employee embezzled $10,000 from an arts-related nonprofit over the course of year. That was bad, but to make it even worse, the executive director held an emergency all-staff meeting the afternoon it was discovered. He told us the situation, and asked us our opinion on how we should handle this. Should the employee be fired? Should he be allowed to stay if he repays the money? Should he be allowed to stay if he goes to counseling? The executive director said if we had any thoughts, we should put them in a memo. It was HR and risk management by a committee of everyone.

The next day, the employee returned to the office and threatened to kill himself. At that point, he was fired. He also repaid the money to avoid prosecution.