r/AskHR

My company had a flexible WFH policy even before 2020, but since December 2025 we have been required to work 2 days in the office.

I’ve been with the company (tech) for nearly 20 years and I’m a director.

Five weeks ago I was in a motorcycle accident resulting in 16 broken bones in my leg and a good percentage of my lower body has been burned.

I was in the hospital and then a rehab facility and just got home. I’m bed bound, but I have no problems sitting up and working on my computer. My pain is managed without anything that interferes with thinking.

My doctor absolutely does not want me going into the office for the next 8 weeks. It’s too high of a safety risk plus I need assistance with taking care of my ADLs. I only leave home for medical appointments of absolute necessity. My girlfriend has moved in with me and my mom is also staying here for awhile. I also have nursing staff that comes daily.

HR denied WFH, and not just for the two days I’m required to be in the office. They want me to continue my leave. However, my understanding is that I only have 12 weeks of protected leave. I will need this time later since I still need to have between 3-6 more surgeries.

I want to appeal this decision. I have successfully done my full job remotely for years, I’m already set up for remote work as I was doing it 3 days per week and there is no way to safely work at the office.

I genuinely don’t know if I have any recourse here:

I’ve been in sales for 18 years & never before been on a PIP. Not once until now & the timing is impossible to ignore because i was pregnant/maternity leave.

Background: I work remotely for a large Asia based company & I’m on their US team which was only founded a few years ago. I was the first person on the USA team to get pregnant.

I notified my boss in late December 2024. Before that…I consistently got “B” scores on Workday which means “meets expectations”. No complaints from my boss and praised regularly.

Then things changed slowly….my first review after telling him I was pregnant, I got a “C” for the first time ever. My boss actually acknowledged it was partly because a big contract I closed rolled into H2 2025. He told me not to worry, that I was already “set” for H2. So I shrugged it off and wasn’t stressed at all. I went on maternity leave, came back, kept working hard.

This February he gave me another “C.” For that H2 2025… Two consecutive C’s automatically triggers a PIP at this company. So I’m shocked, angry, confused and this feels so wrong. I was literally pregnant, the out for 3 months. I did my absolute best and I genuinely thought I killed it despite what I was going through. I literally went to a conference and met with clients the week before my water broke.

I hit 90% of quota this year despite being out for 3 months on maternity leave. My quota was never adjusted compared to my other 6 team members that are on my team.

The actual written review has no metrics, no quota numbers, nothing measurable. It says my “negotiation skills need improvement”…my boss has never once heard me negotiate. It says a major contract I closed “could have been signed faster if I’d created more urgency.” That contract was a complex sale. He wasn’t involved in it at all.

It also references an implementation issue that happened while I was out on leave, that was something that was completely out of my control, that no one ever told me about. The first time I heard about it was reading it in my own performance review.

Because of this…my annual bonus got cut by a few thousand dollars, and last week I was told I don’t qualify for my yearly raise either.

I don’t even know if I have any rights here because it feels like big companies always find a way to win. But something is very off and I am hoping someone has feedback here

I’ve been working remotely for a US-based company for a while now. I got the opportunity through a relative, but there’s been something bothering me.

From the beginning, I repeatedly asked the CEO for a formal employment document but for a long time, nothing was provided. Recently, after multiple follow-ups, he finally shared a document, but it’s a contractor agreement, not an offer letter or standard employment contract.

A few more details:

- The company is US-based and not registered in Pakistan

- I’m working fully remotely

- There were long delays and hesitation in providing any formal documentation

- Now I’ve only been given a contractor agreement

I’m trying to understand:

- Is a contractor agreement sufficient in this situation?

- What protections or risks should I be aware of compared to a traditional offer letter or employment contract?

- Should I push back and ask for a different type of document, or is this normal for remote international work?

Would really appreciate advice from people who’ve been in similar situations or understand international remote work arrangements.

Hello I called the Labor board for clarification and a better understanding of the Labor Laws and Employee rights but they were of no hope so hopefully I can get some help in here. Sorry if there is any information that is not clear or I am just stupid.

I was 19 back in April 2023 and got my first job at this popular ice cream parlor where I worked until July 2024. They scheduled everyone for 5 hours and 30 minutes straight everyday (with a paid 10 minute break) but never gave anyone a lunch break. Would I be able to ask for compensation during that time period I worked there? There were also times we worked 6 plus hours without a lunch as well but everyone who works here are teenagers or people with their first job and do not understand their rights (including me).

I also emailed for all personal records from 2023-2024 (paystubs, w2, time-sheets) but have not gotten a response in over 2 and 1/2 weeks. Would I need all those information to make a wage claim? And what happens if they do not provide my personal record?

Another question I had was about the paid 10 minutes everyday breaks. At this workplace we were allowed to grab snacks such as a scoop of ice cream on our break, but they would shaved that time off your break. I saw online that your break does not start until you have reached the rest area and does not start when you are still in the work station. When timed for our breaks it starts the moment we are told to go on our breaks (still at the workstation). Sometimes it can take 2-4 minutes to grab our snacks due to heavy foot traffic (usually 15-20 people working behind a small counter with heavy traffic of customer orders) and lack of opportunity to grab your snack ASAP because if the foot traffic. Would this be a violation of the “net” 10 minute break time period or no?

Thank you guys and have a good day!

I am currently in school to get into the water industry. I started school in August, in October I found out I was pregnant. I now have my state certs for treatment and distribution, and have been applying to some jobs. I am not sure if I need to let places know about the pregnancy at interview or wait to see if I get a job offer?

More urgent is I have an interview to do an unpaid, volunteer operator in training spot at a local water district. They are interviewing end of April, I’m due July 6th, so I am assuming by the time I hear back from that I’d only have maybe 2 months I could get hours before I’d have to leave for a few weeks. Should I let them know before the interview or wait until then to mention that? (I did a tour of this water district last week but I was wearing a sweater and since it’s a male dominated field I doubt any had realized I had a bump. If anything they may have just thought I enjoyed a good meal before hand)

Hi guys! I hope y'all are well. So I Just got offered a job and submitted my background check but I didn't add all of my pervious employment because when I was in High school I quit jobs left and right and honestly forgot half of them. I also forgot to fix the dates because when my step dad was helping me with my resume he had me inflate the dates. For example I worked at a place from Aug 2023 - Jan 2024 and on the check it was jun 2023 - nov 2024. I'm 19 and dont have any parental help, as you can see with my step dad having me lie on a resume. I don't have a criminal history. The only thing that was required of this job was a high school diploma and that I do have and submitted. Im so scared and i feel like ive failed. What do i do?? I haven’t slept in 3 days because of the stress and anxiety. People keep telling me im going to be fine but I don’t think I am. I put my two weeks in on my other job and now I’m fucked man.

Edit: I have good credit and contacted HR to make adjustments but haven’t heard anything from them and this is a entry level health care role

Government organization. My coworker and I work on a project together. She is the PM and I am the technical lead.

She is heavy into Linked In. Was messaged by a “online magazine” who wanted to do an article about her. This magazine seems like a weird scam rag where they target people who love talking about themselves and get them to buy ad space in exchange for publishing an article about themselves. Little to no technical content.

She shows me the article, where she takes credit for all my work. I am pissed and go to my manager who tells her she can’t publish it because it doesn’t fit the values of our org.

Last week she came complaining to me again. Turns out she convinced a company we contract with to buy ad space in this magazine for upwards of $2000+. But now she is not allowed to put her fluff piece in it. She hasn’t told our manager this detail.

Is this not essentially a conflict of interest where the contractor is buying her publicity? Wouldn’t you maybe feel obligated to the contractor after this to make decisions in their favour since they paid for an ad for your article to run?

I am currently using my 12 week bonding leave. My son was born at 28 weeks and had a three month long nicu stay. He was finally discharged March 15th.

We have been to two specialists at CHOP and just got referred to a third specialist, apt is for next Tuesday. We have had multiple visits to the pediatrician since he has been home. Early intervention folks ate coming out to the house to see and evaluate him as well on the 13th. So there is a lot going on, not just being home and bonding. The doctors have also said to keep him out of day care for the first year if possible, but emphasized that the first three months from his discharge date are critical. They said if he gets a fever it will be automatic hospitalization. So with all of that going on, I would like to use my accrued sick time to extend my time off as we do not have support from friends or family. Is this unreasonable? Thank you.

Background:

My husband has a BS in Computer Science and about 10 years of experience. His background includes defense, support, and most recently learning technologies. He’s currently a top performer at his company and was recently promoted.

That said, his company is following broader tech trends and pushing heavy AI integration into his role. They’ve already gone through two rounds of layoffs as part of restructuring. Even though he’s doing well, we’re increasingly concerned about the long-term stability of his career, especially seeing what’s happening across the industry.

He’s starting to feel like AI could replace a significant portion of what he does in the near future.

Our situation:

\* We have a young family

\* He currently works remotely and makes roughly 130k

\* We value long-term stability and predictability

\* I’m able and willing to increase my part time work hours if needed

Paths he’s considering:

1. Master’s in Computer Hardware / more specialized CS field

Pros:

\* Potentially more resilient to AI disruption

\* Higher earning potential

\* Keeps him in tech where he already has experience

Cons:

\* Likely in-person work / less flexibility

\* Longer hours and less family time

2. Master’s in Education (teaching)

Pros:

\* He’s genuinely passionate about working with kids

\* Schedule would align with our children

\* More stability/consistent demand

Cons:

\* Significant pay cut

\* Would require lifestyle/budget changes

\* I would likely need to increase my workload

Question:

From a long-term perspective, which path seems more practical or “future-proof”? Are we overreacting to AI risk in tech, or is it reasonable to consider a pivot like this now?

Would especially appreciate input from people in tech or education who’ve faced similar decisions.

i'm a global payroll ops for a mid-size company.

2 years ago we picked our DACH and Nordics payroll provider based on a procurement matrix. feature coverage, compliance certifications, local expertise. every box checked.

nobody asked how we'd get our data out if we needed to leave.

last year they changed their pricing model mid-contract. reasonable decision on our end to switch. should've been straightforward.

their export was a proprietary flat file with field names that matched no standard schema. statutory deduction histories locked behind a reporting module we'd need to keep paying for during the transition. 3 years of gross-to-net audit trails structured in a way our new provider couldn't ingest without manual reclassification.

we ended up rebuilding employee master data for 1,200 people across Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway from a combination of exports, PDFs, and local HR pulling records manually.

14 months. $340K in consulting and internal labor. the actual payroll processing switchover took 6 weeks. the other 12 months was data extraction, normalization, and validation.

first question in every RFP now is about data portability. what format, how complete is the export, do we retain full historical access after termination. if a vendor gets evasive about it they're out regardless of how good their gross-to-net engine is.

we've also started keeping a normalized data layer separate from any single vendor so the switching cost drops close to zero next time. still early but the principle is sound, your data infrastructure shouldn't be owned by your vendor. a platform like datascalehr is built around exactly this idea, which is where we started looking after this whole mess.

curious if anyone else has been through a painful vendor switch and what changed about how you evaluate providers afterward.

I recently returned from FMLA and am realizing that I am not able to continue in this particular position. My medical team was wary about my ability to return but we agreed to try and they will support my leaving. I am trying to stay through next week because that will give me an extra month of medical coverage.

How likely is quitting this position for medical reasons going to impact me when I apply for different jobs within the same agency? I'm in a government agency so they can't just switch me to different positions without going through the competitive hiring process.

How do I word my resignation to make it clear that I am able to work other positions?

Since I am leaving for medical reasons, is it better to submit my resignation immediately with the notice that my last day will be next week OR should I wait and submit the resignation with only 1-2 days notice?

I'm Brazilian, I've been living in Italy since 2007, I've the family visa permit and it allows me to work and study here.

But what if I wanna move to another country in Europe ?

I've graduated in Italy and paid all my taxes here but this government is making every year much more difficult to obtain a citizenship due to those criminals that are arriving.

I'm really exhausted

Do you knwo if there is any easy procedure if you graduated here or have a long residency history?

I'm a lead teapot architect (IC - not people lead) at my company and I make a salary of $140k. Our team is expanding and there is a posting for lead teapot architect with a salary range of $150-165k posted.

I've been in my role for 4 years. We used to be called teapot account managers but at the end of last year, there was this change where everyone is now called some type of architect - kettle architect, saucer architect, teacup architect - but they are all very similar. The job has mostly remained the same except now we can be put on many projects (e.g. I used to only work with ceramic teapots but now I can work on cast iron and glass teapots).

Our compensation cycle just ended and I got a 5% raise which is considered good.

I shared the posting with my friends who are also teapot architects and they don't make as much as the posting either. Do I have any recourse here? Is this just the price I pay by not looking for other teapot jobs out there?

I'm kind of thinking of looking for a new job because of this but who knows how long that could take. Is being paid significantly less than the current job posting anything I could push on or should I just take it as a sign to move on?

Greetings all. I (40M) have just left a meeting with my supervisor where my request to have a direct report (25F) transferred was denied. I’ll try to keep this as vague as possible due to the delicate nature of the situation but I was trying to preemptively avoid any inappropriate behaviour on my behalf. I praised her work and her collaborative efforts, not wanting my personal feelings to reflect poorly on her, which led to my request being dismissed. Unfortunately, she overheard me. Is the new tension that will no doubt result from this grounds to reopen this issue, this time with HR (the first denial was issued during an informal verbal conversation with my supervisor)?

Hi there, I'm in a bit of a pickle. So I just got a job offer from a really cool company, and completed their background check online. However, the resume experience that I used to get the job offer is from student research and engineering teams, and the HR manager said to only put paid work experience in. I was in such a hurry to get the background check in (stupid, I know) that all I put in was my most recent, minimum wage seasonal summer job, which lasted less than 3 months. I realized a bit afterwards that I really should have listed my minimum wage jobs back as far as I can remember them, but now the background check completed itself and is visible to the employer (no discrepancies). Should I email the HR manager and tell her about my mistake, with clarifications? None of the paid jobs are remotely relevant to the position, but I worry it will look bad if I only have the 1.

I work in a very small office. Last week, someone in the office was injured at their desk job (uses phone/computer as primary job duties). It was a strange accident — the person literally fell out of their rolling office chair. They just “lost track” of where the chair was, went to sit down, and fell. This person is now saying that they fractured their ankle and will be out for several weeks - have to wear a boot, can't drive, elevate foot, apply cold/heat.

My biggest questions: 

—Is this a workers comp claim even though it wasn't our "fault?" There is nothing unsafe about the work environment or the office chair. Is this a claim on our business insurance? I'm new to my role and am figuring out a lot of admin/HR items.

—What types of accommodations are we required to provide? Do we have to accept that this person is out for at least a few weeks as long as their doctor says they can't drive? Is it reasonable to tell the person that they need to find a ride to work if we can accommodate other special things (elevate foot, allow to ice, etc). There are no physical requirements for the job. We are going to have to pull another staff person from another part of the office to cover for as long as this person is out.

—If this person injures themselves again at work while they are in the boot, is it another worker’s comp claim? 

I only trust CoPilot so much! Would like to hear from others in the field.

My cousin works at the IT department, I want to work in HR. We don’t share the same last name but I can’t keep it hidden also. I am afraid that they might say that because we are relatives, it’s unprofessional and conflict of interest. I have the interview coming up and I was thinking of mentioning my cousin as the one who introduced me to the company to also let them know I am familiar with the company, but then I thought what if they see this as a bad thing?

What do you guys think?

Good afternoon. A little over a month ago a recommendation was made by one of my healthcare providers to take a break from work due to declining mental health, as well as not having a good grip on my anxiety. My employer (very large multi-national media company) is very generous to offer STD at no cost, which I decided to take advantage of while out alongside Minnesota's new Paid Leave program, and I am not FMLA protection eligible having been with the company for just shy of a year. Prior to this leave, I was placed on a PIP. Our company is methodical in how they operate with these as it either progresses to a higher stage or regresses to lower depending on performance for that month. Only two weeks in the month had passed prior to my leave and I had sales come in during those first couple of weeks, however I'm unsure at this point if my goal would be prorated for the time that I was working in the month - I will find out when I return later this week. Not looking for advice on that piece.

My understanding with leave is that we are only protected THROUGH it, not necessarily after - especially with MN being one of many at-will employment states. I have some concerns around being let go when I return from leave later this week. Does anyone know if there are any other protections either related or unrelated to these types of leave (obviously not counting FMLA since it's not applicable) upon return? Things have improved drastically with medicinal intervention and an overhaul with how I go about my days, but I'm well aware that an employer doesn't owe me anything, including benefit of the doubt.

Happy to provide any clarifying information if requested/needed. TIA!

My friend (M,37) was recently terminated for allegedly saying a slur. A third party allegedly overheard the slur and contacted HR. He and the person he allegedly said it to were pulled into HR and questioned if they had either said or heard it being said. Neither remember the event and said just so.

HR dismissed them both and a week later my friend was called to HR who told him they elevated it to legal and terminated him for "saying the slur".

For background, my friend and his coworker who are friends outside the company too say the slur outside of work, but not at the work place. His coworker is gay, and uses the slur as a term of endearment and a way to take the slur back for the gay community. Even if my friend did say it his coworker wouldn't of cared. I know in company policies it doesn't matter, just thought to mention it.

My friend is wellknown for being disliked by HR. In one on ones with HR they have called him an asshole and made comments to other employees demeaning him and putting him down.

But in his department all the employees revere him and walked out the same day he was terminated in protest. They are extremely upset and refuse to talk to HR alone anymore in fear HR will retaliate against them.

My friends coworker involved in the alleged event met with the director of the plant and say the slur to them and asked what they were going to do about it. (not a smart move, I know) The director replied nothing and left it at that.

I don't think HR handled this with the severity that it deserved. It was hearsay at that point. Reportedly, my friend had shouted it across a loud room, yet no other employees were called for questioning besides my friend and his one coworker.

A separate event recently happened where a female supervisor said the slur to another employee. She did not get terminated and HR did not contact the reporting employee.

Was this taken too far? Did HR apply company policy equally?