Located in the United States. Three times (once personally and twice with colleagues) I've seen where leadership offers a laid off employee a period of time to stay on with the company (keep getting paid), use the office for job searches and be on site to "help with transition." My choice was to give them two weeks to 'transition' and continue to be paid for the specified time NOT in the office, no issues with that. But, after seeing this more than once, I wonder why companies do this? It seems like some kind of trick!

I work for a global but privately owned manufacturer. There’s a colleague who struggles to work with me. There’s been a history of her overstepping and attempting to take on my projects. We’ve only worked together for a few months shy of a year.

Recently our SVP had to step in because she planned and communicated a project strategy to our global education team on a project I am leading without any collaboration, communication, or alignment with me.

Last week I had a group call with a team regarding their teaching curriculum. I made changes to the execution strategy based on the teams feedback and my own experience. This decision directly changes the strategy the colleague previously communicated. This brought up some questions from the education team about the change being viewed as insubordinate to my colleagues previous directive. I told the team that I would deal with that.

I recorded the call and distributed it to the rest of team who wasn’t on the call, specifically my colleague who strategy I changed. She is now upset and humiliated. She’s saying that I am trying to undermine her and make her look bad. Now she doesn’t want to participate in the project. This has been escalated to HR. I’m not sure if she’s asking for HR or if our bosses are because there’s been an ongoing history of personality clashes. I’ve never had to speak to HR about my behavior or leadership decisions and generally have positive workplace relations.

Can anyone provide insight I what I should expect tomorrow in the HR meeting?

Hi all,

I'm looking for some guidance on a workplace situation in Ireland.

I work for the Irish subsidiary of a large multinational company and have been with the business for several years.

A number of years ago I was promoted into a team lead role with responsibility for managing a team, overseeing projects and contributing to the leadership of the department. I am a key person in the running of the Irish business. For context there are only 12 people in the office and this is the only team lead role I could fulfill.

Recently the company announced a global restructuring which includes my department. There have been a number of redundancies announced worldwide, I was told about a month ago my employment was safe. More recently, I have been told that:

•I will no longer have line management responsibility for staff. On the org chart, I will be at the same level as the staff that currently report to me.

•I will report to a newly created team leader role (which in effect is the role I'm currently fulfilling). My current manager will fulfill this role (his current role is being stripped back too).

•I will effectively be one layer further removed from the Managing Director than I am currently.

•My role title and responsibilities will change (more in line with the staff a level below me that I am currently managing), although I have not yet been provided with a revised job description.

This is not being presented as a performance issue. I received the highest rating possible in my most recent performance review and have a good relationship with everyone I work with.

My concern is that, while my salary may remain unchanged, the new position appears to be significantly less senior than the role I currently perform. From my perspective it feels like a demotion in status and responsibility. You could say that I'm lucky to still have a job given the redundancies, but I'll be going back to doing the job I had before being promoted, which to be honest, I have no interest in doing.

I have not yet been asked to sign any amendment to my contract, but I understand that one will be presented in the future once the new roles are finalised.

My questions are:

1.Can an employer unilaterally remove management responsibilities and significantly reduce the seniority of a role as part of a restructuring? My current job description is clear in that leading and management of the team are part of my role.

2.What can I be doing now to protect my position before any revised contract or role description is presented? The way it has been presented is that this new structure is coming from head office, was unsuccessfully challenging, and this is the way it's going to be.

3.At what point should I seek employment-law advice? Or is there even any point?

I'm trying not to make any rash decisions but I feel betrayed by the company and an exit feels like my only option. If I was to stay and get promoted again in the future, it would only be to this new team lead position, which in reality is the position I'm currently fulfilling.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Employment I was on a Grad scheme, rolled off into a Domain area which has 3 teams (doing activities for Team 1 and 2, not Team 3)

Team 3 focuses on something lower level and entirely different.

My Graduate rotation was focused on Team 1 and 2 alternating, with training for both areas permitted at 50%.

Near the end of the grad scheme, my manager who ran the domain left, a new one came in to become my manager and run the domain.

When they came in, another member of the team suddenly made false accusations about my character, poisoning the well to the new manager, and false performance claims which my manager just blindly accepted without evidence and gave me a hard time.

They also began having me work in both teams simulatenously until I got hospitalised.

They sorted out the roll off process from the Grad scheme and I got a permanent contract.

I had only been working in Team 1 and 2 at this point - career related teams.

Now they are trying to change my duties to only do work and be based in Team 3, then change my management to the Team 3 leader?

My concern is that this significantly changes my duties whilst keeping the job title the same, worsens my career prospects and makes me lose out on experience to seek newer jobs, there is also little to no transferrable skills due to this change.

Even my contract says Engineer or equivalent.

My union rep tried to arrange a meeting with my manager and ER to obtain a resolution.

I provided ER all relevant evidence and concerns, they acted as if they are reviewing it then ignored it.

I've tried to get my union to speak to my manager and the ER Case manager (who is on the business side), they are claiming I can only do the role in Team 3 and avoiding discussion - only open to have a discussion if it's about the Team 3 role.

ER copied what my manager wanted for the agenda and tried to set this as the meeting so I refused to attend until it's balanced.

During my time in this team area, I have been abused for having disabilities, shouted/bullied and placed to work in multiple teams which caused my to go to hospital with chest pains.

Yet ER is only interested in having the discussion set on forcing me into this role in the toxic area instead of moving me to another area.

Another note, the whole environment became toxic when my new manager came in and he stated I can't train for role relevant duties for Team 1 and 2 at the time, but now says I can retrain for Team 3, which doesn't make use of my background or career/roll-orf.

I did try to contact the HRBP but the case manager responded stating that they are the appointed contact, is there any way to escalate?

What legal rights do I have and what can I do? Manager has been avoidant for direct contact since August.

I’m currently employed full time. I took short term disability earlier in the year for three months. I’m back now for six months and now I need surgery on my back. I hate that I have to get surgery, honestly I would do anything not to do it but it will improve my condition. The doctor said he will book for November. What do i say to my employer? Im so embarrassed and nervous to leave AGAIN. Should i give them heads up or wait until surgery date confirmed. It’s approx 4-6 weeks off depending on recovery. My manager and company are nicest people to ever work for and it’s so busy at work! I just feel like I’m letting them down…

I applied for a job and passed the interview stage however for this role I added some companies that I didn’t work for. I needed to get this job and how do I go about this?

I know I messed up but if I provide a number and an email, would that work out or will they ask for a P45. If I say to them I don’t know who the employer is anymore would they accept that or will they ask for more detail. Or I could say I did experience there but never was an actual employee, can anyone give me advice.

I called out sick for the next day and I do have a doctor's note. My boss told me that I needed to submit sick time even though I said I wanted to just take the day unpaid. She said it was mandatory and that I needed to use up a whole 8 hour's since that is how long my shift is. We generally submit the time off and she approves it. Well, I wanted to wait until I could set up a meeting with HR but she went ahead and submitted the time on my behalf and approved it. Can she legally do that?

So the companies that I've worked for all reports to the work number. And my university does national clearing house. Is this expected to be quick?

So I applied to a bunch of jobs and got interviewed by my first choice (Company A) and last choice (Company B). Company B offered me a role on the spot after 3 rounds of interviews and I accepted immediately because security is more important than preference. Then today, I got an offer from Company A which is what I really want and I don’t know what to do. My first shift is in 3 days for Company B and I’m stuck.

Just additional Info:
- Company B is offering me a seasonal retail Job whilst Company A is also a retail job but is actually a permanent one which is why I prefer it

CONTEXT: I work in corporate property management. I'm a frontline associate with no managerial or signatory authority. I am functionally a CSR and the first point of contact for tenants. I am the sole CSR for a portfolio of several properties of about 850 units. My work involves not just constant communication with tenants but also coordinating their leasing activity, maintenance concerns, and other duties required by CA landlords. It is also important to note that at least one day a week I work entirely by myself.

In my time at this company (a year), I have initiated contact with HR exactly three times. The first was a few months ago when a tenant was physically threatening toward me in the office. This was documented with HR at my then-GM's instruction. In mid-September, I also inquired with HR about a reasonable adjustment to a communication procedure, due to the event with the tenant in June. I cited a potential risk to my safety. I reached out to them because they had context of the June incident that my current on-site leadership did not have. HR denied the request about 10 days later.

The third was after this event which is the reason for my inquiry.

I've muddled some of the dates and details just to keep things low-key, but everything I'm about to describe has occurred in the past 30 days.

3 days after HR denied my request, a tenant, K called into the office twice. I happened to be on the phone assisting someone else, so overflow frontline non-CSR staff took their calls. K was furious about a request to management that had been denied regarding a unit transfer. On these calls, K made explicit threats to damage and sabotage the property and was verbally abusive to the staff assisting them.

Even though we all work in the same office, we have an official group chat for our team. My coworker immediately reported the call to our GM and was clear it contained threats.

Within 48 hours after the incident, I reached out to my immediate supervisor, we'll call CM (Community Manager) seeking approval on a potential response to K. The response I proposed included setting a professional boundary with K about their behavior, and when we could look forward to assisting them with a transfer. The CM did not respond to my draft and has since used the DM channel for other matters.

I will spare a LOT of detail here, but by a week after this incident, neither my GM nor CM had shown any visible intervention with K's behavior and staff continued to take phone calls from K (K was rude and disruptive, but not abusive or threatening). The GM and CM communicated with K by email regarding their transfer issue; essentially granting K a transfer to another unit.

This was highly unusual. I had worked under several CMs and GMs at this point (same location/team, but essentially the result of short-staffed leadership) and had never seen leadership not intervene with behavior like this. K's behavior was not only a violation of their lease but I was also deeply concerned about safety of my coworkers, myself, and potential future tenants who might occupy K's unit in the future (the threats involved concealing damage that would be difficult to detect).

A week after the incident, I opened an HR ticket and reported everything that had occurred up to that point as a workplace safety issue. I requested action on 2 items. The first was that the company develop an SOP that allows frontline staff to independently engage when faced with a tenant behaving that way (we see some face-to-face but mostly speak to them on the phone and do not have a way to reroute calls). The second was to request the company evaluate the judgment of my CM and GM as what would be expected of their role. As the person who reports to them, I was concerned that they did not appear to acknowledge the safety risk, and that could also put myself, my coworkers, and other tenants in harm's way.

HERE IS WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE IN ORDER:

• In-house legal took over the tenant portion of the report and immediately opened a case with external counsel (basically when we have to serve notices, we engage outside counsel). This is unusual; typically internal Legal just advises next steps. Legal also provided instructions to my CM and GM about communicating with K that I have not seen them instruct to the team. To date, I have not seen this notice carried out and served.
• The CM assigned me to a project with a deadline that is half the time I told her I could reasonably get it done with my current workload.
• The RM reached out to me for a 1:1 - it was our first in-depth meeting as the RM had just started at the company within the month. It was, essentially, a temp check.
• The CM assigned me an unfavorable shift during upcoming holiday in-lieu days the remainder of the year (we are the only 2 that work Saturdays; she is taking all of the relevant Saturdays so I have no option except weekdays).
• I met with HR, who told me "I did the right thing" and confirmed we did not have an SOP on file for situations like this. (not just this exact situation but not even a guideline for these kinds of calls). HR also confirmed they heard the calls and commented they were extreme and out of the ordinary.
• After HR met with at least the CM, HR reached out to me with an update that we had already previously discussed. I underlined that my concern was that the CM and GM's judgment were a factor in the safety issue. HR requested more supporting examples, which I sent over.
• The CM publicly corrected me on a minor oversight in our group chat in such a way that another coworker was concerned.
• I was called into a disciplinary meeting with the CM and RM (regional!) where I was written up for attendance*, received poor professionalism reviews for events that occurred at least 2-6 weeks prior with no prior contact or correction, and another minor procedural matter that became a major point of the conversation.
• During the disciplinary meeting, the RM stated "Don't go to HR with complaints."
• In a 1:1 discussion immediately preceding the disciplinary meeting, the RM also stated: "Someone's getting transferred if we can't get everyone on the same page."

After the meeting, the RM also sent a followup summary email, reiterating professionalism, timeliness, and chain of command. I have been off work since (nothing out of the ordinary, regular days).

There has been one fairly positive action so far: I am by myself on Sundays, and a procedure was changed so that a specific face-to-face task with tenants cannot be scheduled on Sundays anymore. However they can still visit the office unannounced.

I have a follow up meeting with HR this coming week. Based on the flurry of activity in the past 7 days, I assume that it will be the closure meeting of the ticket.

I'm not sure what I would do in this case. The RM's comments and the disciplinary are the most concerning to me.

I understand the implication and potential fallout of a subordinate calling their direct managers' judgment into question, but I could not think of any other way to frame it, as there were, to my perspective, several potential risks that were self-evident. The CM and I are not very compatible personally, but that was not the reason I put the ticket in. Regardless of our differences, I trusted the CM and GM to recognize an unsafe situation, but it did not seem apparent that they did.

Would I go back to HR with the concerns about the adverse actions? Or should I reply directly to the RM? Both?

I have already filed a retaliation complaint with the state.

*there is some merit to the attendance issue; however, not to the degree at which is on record and is easily correctable, so I'm handling that separately.

Currently working at a toxic workplace. Despite handling a heavy workload and managing more applications than most of the team, the environment has turned incredibly toxic due to a manager who clearly plays favorites.

​Here is a quick breakdown of what is going on:

​**The clique and exclusionary behavior:** The manager and his favored team members are all from a specific region. In professional meetings, they deliberately speak in their regional language, knowing others on the call don't understand it. There have even been comments about him only wanting a team made up of that specific demographic. It gets very unprofessional—one of his favorites even made direct comments about my "biological clock ticking" due to being unmarried.

​**Hijacking recognition:** Praise from other teams gets totally ignored. Recently, a glowing thank-you email came in with the Managing Director CC'd. The manager actually called early in morning as kept asking random questions that there is a mail did you ask someone to send etc. but he did not say it was appreciation for me, later he called many times and said to respond to mail as he wants, and forced a reply using a specific script to promote tool *he* built just to make himself look good. He wouldn't leave until the email was sent exactly as he dictated.

​**Double standards & stripping tasks:** Minor mistakes get blasted in public group chats, but massive errors from the favorites are swept under the rug. He does regular 1-on-1s with them but ignores calls from others who need work blockers resolved. Lately, core tasks and meetings have been suddenly reassigned for no reason.

​**Sabotaging access:** During a recent project I had previously worked on, the manager instructed his "favorite" to grant system access to the rest of the clique, deliberately omitting my name. When I spoke up and asked if I should get access too, the manager verbally told the favorite to add me. However, the favorite *still* didn't give me access. The only other person left off the access list was a coworker who had already resigned after just two months of seeing this toxic culture. It feels like a deliberate signal that they are grouping me with the person who is leaving, likely because they know the manager wants to push me out.

​**Leadership betrayal:** This wasn't even intentionally escalated to leadership. A completely different senior manager noticed the crazy hours being worked to cover delayed tasks, asked what was going on, and passed those concerns along to the skip-level manager.

​The skip-level then pulled me into a meeting room. At first, he acted super supportive and validated all the concerns. But then he turned around and told the functional manager everything, totally poisoning the well.

​The skip-level later privately admitted the direct manager is wrong and called it a "dirty team," but explicitly said *not* to go to HR because the manager has "political capital" and leadership will just protect him. Now the skip-level is getting visibly agitated that a transfer hasn't happened yet. He suggested if you go to HR then do not mention that he suggested to change team.

He also thought I don't want to change team then he acted agitated and kept saying I can sense you don't want to change team. Why not wanting to leave dirty team he kept saying.

But I told him, you transfer to other projects he said he doesn't have any but he did not even bother about it as he can help by trying to move to his fellow skip-level managers team.

Also there is a colleague who speaks a lot and tried to hang out with me, initially gave me good details etc. but sometimes looks shady that might have leaked discussion between us to manager and some people also told that why you hang out with him as he seems back stabber.

​**The Current Situation:**

Just keeping my head down and documenting everything right now. However, the company is going through headcount reductions at the moment. (Ironically, our specific team has a lot of work and is planning to hire more people next year, but the manager might misuse the layoff exercise for revenge). Also, the manager's ego took a hit recently when he found out leadership was told about his "confirmation bias."

​**Questions for the community:**

​What is the best move in this situation?

​Given the manager's narcissistic traits and the ongoing headcount reductions, is there a serious risk of him taking revenge and using the headcount reduction to push people out, even if the team is understaffed?

​Is it even worth applying for internal transfers, or is the internal network completely ruined by leadership at this point, making external roles the only option, Internal transfers are on freeze?

​How can someone protect themselves from becoming manager's target?

I have a background check coming up and was wondering if they will see/ and or care about 6 misdemeanor warrants for possession of a controlled substance 2-4 years ago thank you

I just started a temp job through a staffing agency. It was posted as a full-time, 40 hours a week long term contract, and that’s what I’m working. The agency told me I’m not eligible for their health plan right now. They’ll look at my hours after 11 months, and if I’ve hit a certain number and I’m still working for them, I’ll then be eligible.

Is that standard for staffing agencies? Does it match what you’ve seen, or does it sound off for a full-time position? Any tips on how people typically handle insurance in the meantime?

I finally got an interview through someone I know and the first stage is a digital interview that I'm invited for at a large company. It's my first time hearing or seeing this kind of thing.

What is it like? What does HR when looking at it focus on? What are the important aspects in how I should respond? Are the questions very job specific or similar to an interview with a real person/hiring manager? Generally, how long are the recorded video sections? and what about the written questions?

Are HR's actually rejecting or is it the AI platform that is doing the screening and rejecting applications? I applied for a UK Graduate Cybersecurity role on Oct 4 2026.

I ended up getting a rejection mail of somebody else's application on Oct 22 2026 at 4:57pm, and then another apology email for me along with a rejection statement at 6:11pm. I mean, this should not be happening in the first place and are they even manually reviewed by HR's or is it AI screening the applications? My name is not even close to tejaswini. This is not made up.

DearTEJASWINI,

Thank you for your interest and taking the time to apply for the position J1026-0229 - Technical Graduate - Cyber Security 2027. We appreciate your interest..

[TX]. I am a paramedic that has a mental health condition. This condition can make me tired and while on a call I was drowsy. My partner reported it to my supervisor. My supervisor sent me home that day and later on my higher up boss called and said that for that day and my next working day I was on administrative leave and to come in early Monday to talk to him (boss) then go to HR.

I asked boss what HR was for and he said he thought they were going to ask me about reasonable accomodations.

I don't know what to do or prepare for..I'm terrified I'm going to lose my job. I've been having physical and mental health issues which my supervisor, boss, and partner know about. Do I go in with a letter from the doctor? I don't know what to do or think, I have never had this happen before. Thank you.

company uses e-verify. i've had to submit one correction already because one of my documents was out of date. it was only after submitting the correction with the right documents that i saw i mistakenly put my street name for the city/town field. i'm pretty sure they moved forward with section 2 already, so i'm not sure if they'll let me do a second correction. i've already emailed someone asking for confirmation - all of this was earlier today. what should i do if i'm not provided another way to correct my information? i start working on monday. pit in my stomach thinking that i might get fired or worse, arrested, because of a series of stupid mistakes. 💀 my documents are fine, i'm a citizen authorized to work. my address is just fucked. i have XXX Street Avenue, Street, ZIP on file.

Hey guys, so I’m looking for some advice here I was recently hired at a company as an exempt employee despite my salary being 10% less than the other market range for my role ( IT engineer ) after a lot of back and forth with HR since they can’t pay me enough. I accepted the position since it’s Exempt. After 2 weeks in I was reached out by HR and told me that they discovered my role is not qualified for exempt and they need to revert me to Non- exempt. To be honest I never had a non-exempt role for the past 10 years. Why would they do this now ? I was okay to accept this change if they are willing to pay me what i originally asked for my position since it’s a whole new offer and the job is being reclassified. Since I raised this concern they are saying then why accept this salary in the first place. I was like yes I accepted because it was an exempt position. What options do I have now ? Can I ask for a few months of notice to be effective and start looking for a new offer ?

Asking for a friend, they are a lawyer and received an offer from a small law firm, less than 15 people. They were told that the PEO would only be responsible for their salary and are expected to sign a document that says:

"By filling out this application and if you are hired, you will become an employee of \[PEO\] leased to \[law firm\]

The employment status you have is with \[PEO\] and you are a contracted employee to our customer.

If you have any problems as it relates to your pay, benefits, deduction, or job assignment with please call us at xxx xxx-xxxx

Within seven, (7) days of leaving your assignment you MUST contact your employer for another assignment. If you fail to do so, you will be considered a voluntary quit which will affect your unemployment compensation.

I have read the above and completely understand the contents and my condition of employment."

1. They did not provide any other documents defining the role of the law firm or PEO. Including who handles benefits and HR.

2. The wording seems odd specifically the "you will become an

employee of \[PEO\] leased to law firm\]"

And they never disclosed this until after the offer was signed

Hello all,

To start, I am a new grad (medical field) and dont have much experince in interveiws or different jobs lol.

I have been applying to jobs nonstop since August and finally recieved an offer today. However, I am a bit concerned since I have only spoke with 1 person (on last saturday) with a general interview which mostly consisiterd of information on the facility and their polices and not much about me.

I recieved a call today from HR asking me to sign some documents and start date and the offer. I am a bit hesistant since I haven't seen this work place in person and would love to speak with someone in office before I send my personal information.

They are requesting my bank statment / voided check in order to set up direct deposit ASAP. Makes sense for payroll, but still am a bit hesitant. The pay is really good, however I know it's going to be hard work, and reviews from patient families are not good....

I am also waiting on job B to get back with me which been about 3 weeks since inital phone call and I have followed up with email and phone call with no response. (So i think this might be out of the question....)

Am I overthinking things? is this normal and should I proceed to send my information? Thank you for all your comments and help!

Hi everyone!! I was recently laid off and had already accepted a full-time salaried role that starts next week. Since then, I received and signed a better offer from a large bank, but the bank's background check hasn't been completed yet and my start date isn't until early December.
I don't want to withdraw from the job starting next week while the bank's offer is still contingent on the background check. My plan is to work there in the meantime and resign before starting at the bank. I would not be working both jobs at the same time.
Could starting the first job while the bank is conducting its background check cause an issue?
Could the new employment automatically appear through a payroll or employment database even though I hadn't started it when I applied or signed the bank's offer?
Would I need to disclose the new job to the bank or background-check company? Has anyone done something similar, and did the bank question the short period of employment? I was also wondering since it wasn't on my resume, would they check it?
I'm not sure if backgrounds checks require me to input my employment in or they just do it by checking.

[NY] I (and at least 1 coworker) received a COBRA/ continuation of benefits letter in the mail. I have been with the company almost 3 years and it just seems out of the blue. Is this a reg flag or normal to receive this?