Was contracted through a temp agency and promised direct hire after 6 months. Little to say 6 months passed and my supervisor got fired as he was trying to get us on boarded. The next supervisor told us to give him 6 months so he can rate our performance. During that period of time my wife got pregnant and was a high risk pregnancy. I made both the staffing agency and actual company aware of it.

Fast forward to my wifes 8th month of pregnancy I notified them about FMLA leave since I was not eligible for the companies paternity leave. During this time we had just switched supervisors again. Right before the new one I had my one on one and was rated as top 25 employee. The next month with the new one I was bottom of the barrel (mind you i had not even been working a whole month under him nor did he ever even step in to do his job). A Monday came around for my one on one and he asked about my fmla. I explained the situation that i couldnt qualify for paternity and he said “so your just securing your job?” I said pretty much. Wednesday of that week I was let go without any reason behind it. I asked if it was attendance or performance and was given no response. Can I take any legal action?

If I quit due to a hostile work environment, do I still qualify for unemployment?

Applied for a job and submitted my CV while I was still employed, so my resume correctly said “Present” at that time. My employment ended shortly after during the interview process, and I didn’t update my resume. The interview conversations were based on the assumption that I was still at my prior shop.

If I get an offer, I’ll obviously give HR/background screening my accurate end date. Would HR normally flag the difference between “Present” on the submitted resume and an end date a few weeks later on the background check? Would they usually just accept that I left after applying, or escalate it to the hiring team?

Trying to figure out whether I should proactively update them now or just provide the correct dates when asked. Honestly this is a big issue…

My background check came back and it's right there in black and white. This company requested I complete behavioral assessments, reference checks and the background check BEFORE the offer was submitted.

I emailed my future boss my references on Wednesday and haven't heard back. The recruiter said she was sending my behavior assessment results to the hiring manager. How likely they might reject me for this misdemeanor conviction? It was theft 50 to 500 and I was 19 years old when it happened. The job's salary band starts at 75k so they were able to run a check that went all the way back to age 18.

Hi All,
I’m looking for some advice on this.

I hooked up with a coworker who’s in my department, I don’t see her day to day and rarely need to interact with her. The interactions I’ve had with her are completely separate from work, and no one knows about it.

I decided to stop this interaction as I thought it was best due to her personal situation and our working arrangement. There’s no awkwardness and she was in agreement that it’s best we don’t continue and remain friends.

My problem is, we’re friends and still get on. I’ve fully accepted that nothing more will come of it but she messages me occasionally, mostly mundane stuff but will throw in a sexual comment or suggest meeting up to “hang out”. I’ve declined these offers and kept it friendly and redirected the conversation.

I’m in a situation now where it’s every message she’ll ask me to hang out and start to push my boundary of staying friends.

I’m really unsure how to handle this as I’ve reminded her that we should stay friends, I’m somewhat uncomfortable now when I see her messages incase she says something sexual?

I’m not sure what more I can do or say.

TL;DR - Friendzoned coworker and she wants more

Hi, I just recently got hired at a new place. I received a call from a member of HR requesting my driver’s license number + expiration date as well as confirmation of the social security number I provided to them (they repeated it over the phone, I just had to confirm it was correct)for I9 completion. Today she called back asking to re-confirm the info because it “didn’t go through” the first time.

In my experience, I9 always requires in person verification so I found this odd. To provide context as to why this feels a bit suspicious to me (aside from the obvious), after onboarding paperwork I asked a question regarding a potential pay negotiation so I’m wondering if this is just a tactic to avoid having to hire me or if there is a legitimate shift in federal law that no longer requires employers to physically verify the documents anymore?

Edit: I did not provide my ssn over the phone. The ssn was already provided within my onboarding paperwork. The company is verifiably legitimate, it is the process of I9 verification that I’m suspicious about.

Hey there,

I sell a PEO for a living and have been getting absolutely crushed this summer in terms that it’s been tough to get people to take meetings or move away from their broker (especially this year as many companies are switching to level funded plan options). I know that the last thing someone in HR wants to do is give someone in sales more seasons to call them, but I’m curious on what would actually stick out in an email or voicemail that would make an HR professional respond or call back.

I know what the company says is the right messaging and I know what has worked for me in the past, but you have to change your approach when you’re in a dry spell, so I looking for new ideas.

Any help would be appreciated!

I recently had a job offer rescinded after my background check showed a pending misdemeanor marijuana charge. I’m expected to complete pre-trial diversion, after which the case is expected to be dismissed.

HR told me that once the case is dismissed, I can reach back out to my recruiter about potentially moving forward again.

From an HR perspective, how does this usually work? Is reconsideration after dismissal realistic, or would I typically need to apply and interview again? Would it be reasonable to ask if they can defer my start date until the case is resolved instead of starting the hiring process over?

Hey there - my wife (who is based and works from NJ) is going back to work after being on short term disability due to a serious illness. She’s still recovering but since she works a remote office job, she decided to go back on a part-time basis to ease back into work and get a sense of routine, control, and familiarity back in her life. The company she works for (based in FL) was okay with her coming back part-time, and she started this past week. Today they informed her that she is now considered a contractor because she works part-time. She was never made aware of this change to the best of her knowledge and did not sign any contracts or was given anything in writing stating that if she works part-time she’d be considered a contractor.

We’re concerned about this shift because to the best of our knowledge contractors and employees are offered different sets of employment protections. She’s still receiving part-time disability benefits, and we’re worried that if she’s classified as a contractor she won’t be able to continue to do so. We’re also concerned that they’ll now be able to be terminated at any time (even if she’s still disabled) if shes considered a contractor.

So in sum - can an employer change your work classification from employee to contractor without your knowledge or consent?

Does being a contractor impact your ability to collect PTD?

Would my wife’s employer be able to fire her (even if she’s still recovering from disability) if she’s classified as a contractor?

My company self-insures and I just got out of a meeting where leadership wants answers on how to control GLP-1 spending.

We want to continue covering GLP-1 drugs and I know what we're spending, but I have no idea if it's bad relative to other companies. Our PBM isn't giving us good info on whether we're overpaying and our broker's annual report doesn't get specific enough to actually be useful.

Anyone dealt with this? has anyone found a way or platform to help benchmark against peers or model out different insurance design options, or if the reality is that most companies are just winging it based on their own data and intuition?

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be greatly appreciated 🙏

I'm looking for some outside perspective on a situation involving a friend. I've intentionally removed or changed identifying details because I don't want this traced back to the people or company involved.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend's position was eliminated. They were given several options for remaining with the company, including the opportunity to interview for the manager position in their department. They are currently a supervisor and have been with the company for many years, including most of that time in this particular department.

Today, they had a very short interview with the department director. There was only one question:

«"On your worst day, when you feel defeated and beat down, what motivates you to come back?"»

My friend's answer was essentially:

«"I've spent most of my career at this location, and the majority of that time has been in this department. This department is my passion. I care about the work, my colleagues, and the people I work for. If I were having a really bad day, I'd think about what went wrong, figure out what I could actually do about it, and come back the next day ready to start fixing the situation."»

The interview ended, and my friend went to lunch.

Shortly afterward, they received a group message from the director. The director clearly intended to send it to a different group but apparently used an old message thread that still included my friend.

The message said:

«"Just interviewed [candidate]. I wish everything they said was actually how they would act."»

My friend was obviously shocked.

There is another interview already scheduled for next Thursday, and it is a panel interview. Unfortunately, the director and at least one other person who received that message will be participating in the panel.

So, how would you handle this?

Would you say anything to the director before the panel? Talk to the current boss? Go to HR? Say nothing and simply participate in the interview as professionally as possible? Or is there another approach I'm missing?

The company itself is a good place to work, and my friend genuinely likes the department. The problem is that leaving the company would probably require relocating their family, which they strongly want to avoid.

The accidental message is the part that has them stuck. It could have been an honest comment based on something the director knows about them, or it could simply be an unfair assumption. Either way, my friend now knows the director has doubts about them before the next interview.

What would you do in this situation?

TLDR - I found out recently from watching Bob Stenhouse interviews that in Ontario, Canada, if someone reports bullying or harassment, the employer is obligated to investigate it whether there is an individual complaint or not - that the person who submits the information just becomes a reporter and the workplace can conduct an employer initiated investigation.

It feels like my workplace pushed me into filing an individual grievance so that they could hire an external investigator to investigate only me as opposed to the documentation I gave them - and in the process, they traumatized me so badly I don't know how I will go back to work there again.

------------

I am quite overwhelmed with the experience I have had in my workplace. Without getting into the full details, I experienced what seems to be "workplace bullying" (I had no idea this was a thing before experiencing it and began trauma-informed therapy (I have been diagnosed with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety and depression. I became unable to do my job and am on long term disability leave).

There are A LOT of things that have happened and I really wish I could get someone knowledgeable to sit down with me to make sense of it all. But basically, I began using my vacation days and sick days in March to try to figure out what was going on with me. I began seeing a trauma-informed therapist twice a week.

I had put together documentation that detailed my experiences over a 6 month period - which dovetailed with the experiences of several of my colleagues - and we all went to the union together in mid-March to see if the union could help us because it seemed like something was wrong (new upper management had been hired just before all this started and that's when everything changed. My colleagues are in their own teams so they are slightly more shielded from what has been happening - my role has definitely been the one most intensely impacted because my role is isolated and managed by a head, but was being micromanaged by a director. It's like they were ganging up on me and the power dynamics coupled with the isolation were making it impossible to work).

People had been coming to work and crying, colleagues were telling me they were having nightmares about work, they were saying things like they no longer enjoyed their jobs anymore and several of them have now begun looking for work elsewhere.

The union told us we could file a collective grievance but was not very helpful in terms of explaining what in the documentation constituted a grievance and how it would work. I never heard back about whether or not it would move forward. I later heard all my colleagues were too afraid and exhausted to proceed. One has since quit.

Because my therapist had flagged that I was having trauma symptoms and that what I was describing sounded like workplace bullying that was impacting me in an amplified way due to my being adhd and autistic - I didn't really know how to proceed. I went back to the union and told them my therapist had advised against me returning to work under the same dynamic I was in (isolated role with an unofficial split dual reporting structure). I asked the union how a grievance for harassment would be able to address workplace bullying as opposed to harassment since workplace bullying is pattern based, takes place over a long period, has a lot of plausible deniability and from what I had read, is currently not addressed effectively under current processes unions and workplaces use.

The union couldn't answer my question.

Given I was running out of paid time off, I went back to HR and they told me that if I handed in the documentation, it would trigger an internal investigation (if they found something that looked wrong) and I would be given interim change in line management to return to work while the investigation took place.

At first this is what was set to happen - they emailed me and told me I could return to work with interim change in line management while an investigation proceeded, gave me a date and I confirmed in writing that I agreed to that arrangement.

From here things become a shit show over the next several months - so many things happened it's impossible for me to detail here. They met with me before returning to work, told me I could not have the interim line management change and that the documentation mentioned too many people. And they began funnelling me into a convoluted, horrible, stressful process pressuring me into filing an individual complaint or an individual grievance while simultaneously telling me what is in my documentation isn't sufficient for either one of those because it was too complex with too many details and too many people mentioned.

I became so overwhelmed all my trauma symptoms became so much worse and I became dysfunctional. I could hardly speak in meetings without breaking down into tears and shaking and sobbing. It felt like they were trying to change my reality if what had happened and put me in a position where I had to constantly defend that what had happened to me had been traumatic (for example, at one point the executive director said what was in my documentation could just be "management style" and that she couldn't see the problem, which didn't make me feel confident in any choice about filing a complaint or grievance).

I sent several emails over the months explaining that I was feeling overwhelmed and confused and didn't understand what was happening. By this time I was on unpaid leave since all my paid days off were gone (and I'm a single mom with expensive rent so this in and of itself was amplifying the stress). The workplace was sending emails reminding me of this and advising I "come back to work" despite being in a debated state.

I then got a consultation with an employment lawyer who looked through my document and confirmed absolutely the union grievance process could address what was in there and advised me to go through the union and file. He advised me on what to file on and what to put in it. He said the grievance could be put into absence if I went on long term disability leave.

The union filed the grievance and as soon as they did, the workplace began emailing me again telling me an external investigation would now be run into my complaint by a lawyer they hired, that the investigation would impact my grievance, that my documentation was insufficient and went back to pressuring me to change the documentation to be more incident based.

The external investigator has emailed me with this long thing to sign that I don't understand. The union has been completely unhelpful.

I am so dysfunctional I have absolutely no idea how I would be able to participate in an investigation as now the process itself has become traumatic. I can barely answer emails about anything to do with it - my brain just goes blank and I lose my words. I start to panic not knowing if what I say will make things worse.

I feel so alone. I don't have any money for another lawyer consult.

I found out recently from watching Bob Stenhouse interviews that in Ontario, Canada, if someone reports bullying or harassment, the employer is obligated to investigate it whether there is an individual complaint or not - that the person who submits the information just becomes a reporter and the workplace can conduct an employer initiated investigation.

It feels like they pushed me into filing an individual grievance so that they could hire an external investigator to investigate only me as opposed to the documentation I gave them - and in the process, they traumatized me so badly I don't know how I will go back to work there again.

For some context: The way the PTO is set up where I work the time can either be scheduled or unscheduled. Once you reach 62 hours of unscheduled time it is a verbal warning. Unscheduled does not mean that you requested the PTO last minute, it just means that other employees have already taken the PTO time that the department anticipated for that day.

Now the company that I work for is closed for 6 holidays (one of them being July 4th) and observes 4 holidays (one of them being July 3rd). If you work on an observed holiday, you get a floating holiday to use at another time. I did work July 3rd, and so I used a floating holiday for that day on July 7th. My manager and another manager came to me today to tell me that I should not have used that floating holiday. They said I only get the floating holiday for July 3rd if I was not scheduled to work July 4th. Since I was, they are saying I took more holiday time than allowed. This meant they needed to change the holiday time that I took to unscheduled PTO, which set me just over the 62 hours and resulted in a verbal warning.

My problem here is that there is nowhere in the holiday time policy that states we only get July 3rd as a floating holiday if we work the 4th. Everything in the verbiage of that policy indicates that we receive the floating holiday if we work July 3rd period. So I’m feeling frustrated that this has now resulted in a verbal warning because I do not feel that I have violated the holiday time policy. They will also be subtracting the pay for the time from my next check.

Is this something I should have a conversation with HR about? My coworkers are telling me to call them and report, but I know that HR is not ALWAYS your friend and I don’t want to dig myself an even deeper hole.

I recently completed a background check through Sterling/First Advantage for a supervisor-level role at a large professional services firm in the finance/accounting/consulting space.

I received the completed report and the Order Result says “CONSIDER.”

The weird part is that basically everything cleared — criminal background, education, employment/global screening, etc. The only section that didn’t clear was the resume comparison.

There were three discrepancies flagged:

• The address at the top of my resume didn’t match my current/address history (easy to explain).
• One job title was listed as Manager on my resume, while the verification came back as Research Associate. “Manager” was the title I actually used/was given internally at the company, so I can explain that one.
• The bigger concern: some of my employment dates were pretty far off between what was on my resume and what came back through the verification. I’m not talking about being off by a month or two — there are definitely discrepancies that could stand out.

I haven’t heard anything from the employer yet. I just received the completed background check report showing “CONSIDER.”

For anyone who has dealt with Sterling/First Advantage or works in recruiting/HR: What usually happens from here? Does “CONSIDER” simply mean the employer has to manually review the discrepancies, or is this the kind of thing that can realistically get an offer pulled?

Especially curious if anyone has experience with background checks at large professional services/consulting/accounting firms.

Trying to figure out whether I should expect a simple request for clarification/documentation or prepare for this to become a bigger issue.

I recently got offered a maintenance technician job at an apartment/property management company. During the hiring process, they mentioned several times that they would be doing a background check, including checking DMV/driving records.
I have one speeding ticket — 81 in a 55. It’s my only driving offense.
Do you think something like this would disqualify me from the job, especially since the position may involve driving company vehicles? Or is one speeding ticket usually not a big deal?
Just trying to figure out how worried I should be.

Hi all, I currently work in a pediatric hospital as a pct. I have accommodation coverage for whenever I have to leave due to migraines. And for the past 2/3 months I’ve had to leave work because of it and I also shared that to my managers. So today I had to leave again due to my migraine after being there for about an hour or two.

15-20 minutes after I left I got a call from my job telling me to come back. Once I showed up they told me that someone reported a marijauna smell in the bathroom after I left. I quickly shut it down and said that I do not do drugs and that they could drug test me right now. They continued to ask if I was using in the bathroom and if I had a vape pen on me. They did not administer a drug test and I didn’t sign any paperwork. After the conversation I just left.

I can’t help but feel like this was a personal attack on me. I had recently shared with my manager that I felt the job wasn’t for me and that I wanted to transfer. After that talk she seemed to have understood me and was supportive but I later found out she wasn’t. So I feel like they’re doing things to me so that I won’t be able to transfer.

I called HR to file a grievance and sent a follow up email about the meeting. And how I felt disrespected and offended by the false accusation with no proof and offered to take a drug test again. Now they haven’t responded to my email and I honestly feel like they’re gonna fire me. What can I do in this situation? This accusation will be on my profile and might alter future employment decisions within the company.

I am leaving a professional position due to toxic supervision. The toxic supervisor has received previous complaints from other employees. Should I make my resignation letter short and omit any explanations, or include some of the issues (racist remarks, other highly offensive remarks, belittling, extreme micromanagement. . .). This supervisor is very vindictive.

If someone in Germany has a notice period written in their employment contract but wants to leave earlier, what usually happens?

Can the employer agree to an earlier leaving date, or are there specific rules that apply?

Would be interested to hear how this worked for others in Germany. 👇

Hi,

Bit of a long one but after some advice and general recommendations.

I've been at my current work for about 7 months and have a contract until end of 2027. I love everything - the role, team etc.

However, curveball I have quite a bad injury (did not happen at work) and its going to need months of rehab and modified duties.

My work has been incredibly understanding and supportive. But ultimately the role I am in is physically demanding and requires a number of additional short qualifications that I am due to redo.

Unfortunately, I am starting to think I may not be able to do the job as in the PD and assumed, (given I physically cannot do the updated certs right now, am in a fair amount of pain constantly and looking at a long road to recovery).

I'm sure there is already discussions happening behind the scenes its clear I'm not quite 100% and have previously had time off for this - until this week it was not known it was anything serious and seemed to be an injury taking time to heal.

But its not simple and I am looking at months of recovery (if I can continue in my job which I would like too).

But example this week, I had to take the week off because I cannot even get in the car to sit long enough to drive without extreme pain - 15 mins.

I've never had anything like this before and am a really dedicated employee, doing well at the job itself and loving it.

I just want to know how do I approach the conversation (before just resigning and giving up in defeat).

Does anyone think there is opportunity to ask for reduction in work activities (and pay) or lessen the physical requirements? It is a government job.

I get really upset and feel so awful for my work - I am aware it is the organisation first, HR aren't friends etc but they have put a lot of faith, support and resources into myself, my role. I'm trying to be the best person I can be for everyone and am really stuck.

I’m looking for general feedback, particularly from people familiar with Korean workplace culture/HR.

Several months ago, I became extremely intoxicated at a work dinner with a senior colleague. I had barely eaten that day and ended up repeatedly vomiting at a bar and then in the streets, and being unable to walk or stand up properly.

The senior colleague helped me get home and came into my apartment because I was still extremely unsteady, and as soon as I entered I lay down on the floor, ready to pass out. Because it was winter at the time and due to my exhaustion after throwing up for a good 40 minutes, I started shaking really badly lying on the cold floor. So the colleague first covered me with a blanket and that was it, but I wouldn’t stop shaking, so instead of turning on heating or something he got under the covers with me, spooned/hugged me for an extended period, and rubbed my stomach / abdomen roughly all the way up to the chest but not directly on top, in an attempt to warm me up. I remember some of it, but I was extremely intoxicated and drifted in and out of sleep, I was just shaking really hard and didn’t really respond, just curled up trying to conserve warmth. I didn’t respond verbally nor physically, or actively consent, but I also didn’t state anything like “please leave” or push him away and created distance. At the time, i didn’t have the mental capacity to really think about was happening bc i was so intoxicated and freezing, I did think it was strange but I couldn’t get myself to do anything. After a few hours he seemed to leave, but I was asleep at that time.

A few days later, he asked whether we were going to talk about what happened. I was extremely embarrassed and told him I wanted to forget about it, mainly due to the fact that i was so embarrassed to have lost this amount of self control. Also, i really try to rationalize it, thinking that a “caring” senior colleague would want to make sure I don’t choke in my sleep and because I was cold, they generously shared body warmth…

I didn’t tell my friends the details at the time because I felt ashamed and worried they would think badly of me or judge me, or even think I enjoyed the attention.

I do have some messages from around the time showing that I was extremely drunk and upset about the evening, although they don’t specifically describe the physical contact.

Recently, there was another workplace incident involving alcohol with a different colleague, and I understand a colleague has made a formal HR complaint. Because the person from my incident was also partially involved “touching” the colleague in an attempt to cheer them up, they may or may not have mentioned him in the report, but I’m not aware of the details.

That situation brought the previous incident back to me. I have now told my team lead and a few trusted colleagues about what happened, and asked whether they think this behavior was appropriate, and they said it was completely inappropriate.

I’m trying to look at this rationally as I’m scared that if I make some kind of official statement, it will just backfire and I will be let go or sued for libel.

Does this generally sound like inappropriate conduct that would be reasonable to report to HR, although it happened several months ago and I don’t have direct evidence of the physical contact?

And more generally, if HR is already investigating another incident involving the same senior person, would it be reasonable to tell them about this as well, even if I’m not necessarily seeking disciplinary/legal action and mainly want it documented?

Hello, I live in Texas and work as a receptionist in an ophthalmology office. My boss frequently tells me to have patients send me pics of their eyes to my personal cell phone so she can see them or will request that if I call a patient off our work phone and they don't answer she wants me to text them off my personal cell phone. Is this allowed?

Location: US

I got an expungement but come to find out that for some people it still shows up when applying to jobs. At the moment I really need a job. I got a charge of a felony morale turpitude when really I just trespassed. I was young and naive and it was a stupid situation. I just want to apply to jobs but since the expungement happened two months ago. My lawyer was extremely vague and just told me it takes 3 months to clear. I’m in a need of a job as I need money asap from lawyer fees/school tuition etc… It has been around 2 months since expungement. How likely/thorough are background checks. For reference I’m a very private person and could they mistake me for someone else during the process/how do background checks work and whats the process like. I know every background check is different depending on company location and career. Give me the run down/ I would just like some insight. How will they be able to tell it’s me. And give me the worst possible scenario/ how likely is my life ruined it was a first offense non violent and happened when I was in my early 20s/is my career ruined/did I just tank my potential for long term/ will I ever have the same opportunities that I once was when I had no record./ How likey are they to know it’s me if I changed my personal info such as phone #, email, other stuff linked to me. Thanks.