HR Headliner: December 2019

It’s time for our third annual installment of “just when you thought you’d heard it all” stories from the world of HR. We know you work hard every day to protect your business and advocate for your employees, and it’s nice to know you’re not alone in the craziness that happens! Here are a few lighthearted reports we’ve gathered from around the interwebs.

“One of the senior executives at my company called me into his office very early in the morning, and informed me that I was to lay off a particular employee that day. I was quite surprised since this employee had been part of the firm for several years and was generally regarded as a very hard worker. But having just started on the job a few weeks ago, I didn’t question the decision and had a brief chat with the employee in question, who then proceeded to pack up her things and leave the office. Later that afternoon, the senior executive approached me and asked why the person I was supposed to fire was still on the premises. I looked at who he was pointing to and was puzzled. I told him that he had asked me to fire someone else. There were actually three people at the office who had the same first name, and it turned out that, in his haste and morning stupor, he asked me to lay off the wrong person!”

“My company hired a new paralegal, and by 11:30am on his first day I got a call saying he needed to be fired. What could he have had done? Picked a fight? Destroyed the IT system? Propositioned the CEO? No… it turns out, on his first day of employment, the guy had strolled over to the break room fridge and calmly eaten three employees’ lunches! By 11:30! When he was confronted about it, the man claimed he thought the lunches were for ‘general consumption’.”

And speaking of break room drama… check out this fake but hilarious fridge-note war created by the folks at College Humor.com. (Be sure to scroll all the way through!)

“I used to manage a Blockbuster and after one particularly awful interview I walked the candidate out toward the parking lot and the alarms went off. It turned out he stuffed three DVDs in his suit jacket before being called back to the office. He did not get the job. Or Mama Mia, Fool’s Gold, or High School Musical 3, for that matter.”