Over the years, Human Resources personnel have shared the following information with me and others outside of their department:
- Salary information (the higher the pay, the more likely I was to hear about it)
- Performance review results (the looser the cannon, the more likely I was to hear about it)
- Terminations and layoffs to come (the who, what, where, when, and how -- dang)
- Who the CEO "did business with" on his desk last night (gross)
- Who's zooming who in the office, in general (okay, that is usually pretty juicy)
I think that gossip is a normal and acceptable part of working in Cube City, as long as you're not in Human Resources. I'm really conflicted about workplace gossip. It's like I want to know what's going on...but sometimes, once I hear it, I wish I didn't know about it.
What is your experience with Human Resources? Let the gossip begin!
3 comments:
In a past job, I know for a fact that one of the HR people had a grudge of some kind against a couple of employees, and would actually bait and encourage people to file "reports" against them so she could legitimately get rid of them.
It backfired, though, and she ended up having to process the promotion that one of them got instead.
A past HR manager I worked with actually shared knowledge gained through insurance claims -- who was pregnant (before they wanted to tell), who had different illnesses and conditions and so on. And not just about the employees, but also their spouses and kids. To me, that wasn't juicy -- it was just cruel.
Now I guess if someone had come up with something like two employees who both had mono at the same time, THAT might have been interesting...
The only tidbit of confidential information I ever got from HR was actually about myself. As a part of the hiring process, this company made you take a big personality test that was evaluated by a psychologist. The results were confidential, even to the job candidate, and even after they were hired. But my friend in HR let me see my report. The psychologist said that I was likely a cross between the father characters on Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best. WTF does that mean?
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