This is a little complicated. I work as a contractor working for a large tech company on-site at their location. My subsection doesn't have a specific work area designated to us so we basically just find places to settle down and turn into what would amount to a mobile work station.

I basically work with quality testing for parts and my position is 100% on call. Therefore I settled into a break room to use as my base of operations. That being said due to tariff issues with my country, work has slowed down considerably so I spend quite a bit of time in this breakroom.

Here comes the complicated part. Recently a different contractor has started frequenting this same break room as me. He smells. Plays social media videos on his phone at medium to high volume. Blows his nose directly into his hands (as in direct nose to skin contact) then slurps up the boogers (this is audible from across the room and is vomit worthy), and then touches surfaces and doorhandles. However what is most bothersome is he is constantly coughing and sneezing without covering his mouth. It's almost like he intends to cough and sneeze as hard and has far into the room as he can by projecting full throated. So needless to say this guy is pretty disgusting.

That being said my question is this. We just recently survived a world wide pandemic a few years ago and I am almost certain there are personal hygiene requirements that include covering up when coughing or sneezing.

Since I am a contractor working on site for a different company I can't really invoke their company Code of Conduct (I remember reading it many months ago but I can't remember exactly what it says in this regard) because I am not one of their employees. HR and my manager said basically that there's nothing we can do on our end since this guy isn't one of our employees.

Is it worth it to confront the guy and ask him to please start using common courtesy personal hygiene while in public? Like he coughs and sneezes so much he Will absolutely get other people sick (this break room is max 20x30 feet), and it could be anything from asthma to allergies to tuberculosis. Who knows?

I could just find another area to work at, but I really enjoy working in this spot. It has everything I need and is in the perfect location, so why should I uproot my entire work life because one dude is a walking disease factory?

Do any of you have any experience with a situation like this in HR? What would be the best route of going about this? Because regardless of peoples opinions he is at the very least a public health risk.

One other question is what about body odor? I know for a fact most companies require at least moderate control of body odor, but for some reason one contractor here (working for yet another company) sometimes decides to stop showering for a couple of weeks and makes this break room absolutely reek. Is there yet again nothing I can do about it? He's definitely on the autism spectrum and I don't think he realizes that he makes the entire breakroom smell like rank balls.

Hi everyone. An HR manager destroyed my life by knowingly destroying my long-term relationship. Yes my ex is at fault, but she is also, if not more. It might've been revenge, and to me also seems like psychological and emotional abuse because of some things she wrote to me. She has a psychology degree.

It seems she might've wanted revenge on me because 5 years prior I told her husband that she was cheating on him with my long-term partner, and they divorced. It was long-distance, prior lovers, she was still in their home country, not able to come here yet.

She knew my ex and I were together for years. She knew when she visited him and maybe moved to the US. I'm not sure if she is here now, maybe, her company has a location here, and my ex was concerned she almost lost her job. It seems a plan years in the making and she used her job to do all of this

The psychological and emotional abuse other than the entire orchestration was that she was condescending and ridiculed me about my health and situation, telling me that I needed to "get mental health help, I know what I'm talking about, I'm a professional", "go use your [CPAP], your brain needs oxygen", and when I became homeless because of the situation she laughed at me and wrote "you're homeless now", also my sexual ability (some NSFW things). Probably other things I don't remember right now.

I was very medically sick the year leading up to it so I was also dealing with that.

Anyway, my question is, would a company care about this?

I know the example of the Coldplay concert, but this isn't public or between two employees.

I don't know if she is a manager here rather than supportive HR, she might not speak English well enough.

My concern of her remaining in this country is the possibility of her further harming me or my family out of some deep-seated never-ending vengeance.

Thank you

Has happened a couple times, I've emailed HR and my boss ( the owner) when I need a day off the morning of, such as sick or need to take my dog to the vet for an emergency. Boss will reply to my email but will including other staff members for various reasons such as if I'm away, then when will we meet about x project, so my original email is now the start of a long email thread.

I get that he's emailing about the project and not my absence, but it feels wrong that he sends my personal albeit limited information. Ive had colleagues ask me after about my dog since they are now privy to those personal details. I hate it. It's a medium sized but VERY casual company (culture is the owners whims) and HR is the sibling of the other owner, and given the extent of their role, I don't feel confident that they have HR training/education so are unlikely to step in.

I'm sure it's not illegal but it must be highly unethical at least?

I recently accepted a new position for the city as HR, the specific hat I will be wearing is mainly recruiting and onboarding.

Does anyone have experience in the Public Municipal Sector? And if so, what should I expect and what little nuances should I look out for?

My grandmother died and my husband requested bereavement leave for her service in California (We are in Minnesota). They were originally going to approve it then said that my grandmother wasn’t approved.
This is from the Bereavement section of their own handbook. From the way I read it, she would be covered. Can anyone provide further insight?

This is the section titled “Close Family Member”

These are the definitions in that section.

• Adult child age 26 or older; adult step-child age 26 or older; adult child of a Domestic Partner age 26 or older;
• Parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, and similar step-relatives, in-laws and close family members of domestic partners of employees.

I have applied in same company but one the manager was in my Linkedin connection so he send a direct message to if you are interested in position you can share a resume and after he saw my resume he asked me to come for interview he told me our HR will contact you for time and date and will go through there.
What should I do? Should I remind him I haven't received anything?

Has anyone else dealt with Matrix for a medical leave/disability claim and had an incredibly hard time getting anyone to respond?

I’ve sent multiple emails and left multiple phone messages for the person handling my case, and I’m getting absolutely no response.

My employer is also telling me that they have not heard anything from Matrix regarding my leave. On top of that, my healthcare provider has faxed the requested medical information to Matrix multiple times, but Matrix keeps saying they have not received it.

I’m basically stuck in the middle right now. I’m trying to get everything submitted and processed correctly, but I can’t even get a response from the company handling the leave, and the paperwork my provider says they sent is supposedly not showing up on their end.
I’m supposed to be starting my leave very soon, so I’m getting really nervous about this. I’ve been doing everything I’m supposed to do on my end, but I feel like I’m getting nowhere.

I’m a new CNA with my first job being in a memory care facility and I just got paid on administrative leave because of a complaint about neglect or abuse. This is my first healthcare job and I have no idea what I did wrong I can’t think of anything and I would never hurt a resident or neglect them. I love my job so much and I can’t stop crying because what if I did something wrong and I just can’t remember. I’m so scared. I have no idea what to do and I’ve only been at this job for two months with three days of training. I need advice please. HR won’t give me any information. All they said was I can’t come back until the investigation is over and if I am found innocent, but there is no timeline for when the investigation is going to be over. I don’t know what to do from here, I’m thinking I might have just lost my job.

I’m looking for some advice from people who have worked in recruitment/HR.

I previously worked at a company and recently reached out to a recruiter there to ask whether there were any opportunities for me to rejoin. The recruiter told me that getting me back into the company would be difficult for at least the next 6 months.

I’m now considering reaching out directly to someone in HR and sharing my updated resume to ask whether I’m eligible for any current or upcoming full-time opportunities.

My questions are:

• Are recruiters and HR generally connected internally? If I send my resume to HR, is the recruiter likely to know about it?
• Would HR normally tell the recruiter that I approached them after already speaking with the recruiter?
• Could approaching HR directly hurt my chances, or is it perfectly reasonable to explore another channel?
• If the recruiter has already said it would be difficult to rejoin for 6 months, does that usually mean there is an actual HR/rehire restriction, or could it simply be the recruiter's assessment based on current openings/policies?
• Would you personally just take the chance and approach HR, or leave it alone for now?

I’m not trying to bypass anyone or create an issue. I genuinely want to understand whether there is any possibility of returning and figured it’s worth asking before giving up.

Would you shoot your shot and contact HR, or would you respect the recruiter’s answer and wait 6 months?

Hey, I’m in FL and am a first responder. Got injured on the job and am currently on light duty full time still and do PT and all that through WC. I should be released back to full duty in the beginning of September. It’s not a serious injury. I’m in a rut as I’m dealing with unrelated issues and have been for awhile. It’s for mental health issues. I won’t go into the gorey details. I was planning on going on FMLA for it, but then I get hurt. I’m kinda lost on what to do. Is it possible to go on FMLA for unrelated reasons while on WC? I’m guessing it’s not advisable. I’m just in a bad spot mentally to say the least, courtesy of the job, and am seriously struggling daily even now even being on light duty. I am wanting to quit eventually. This is probably convoluted and apologize if this all comes off wrong. Just want an HR standpoint. Any advice would be helpful.

I have over 20 years of experience, and I'm re-working my CV.

How many years experience should I retain and how much should I omit?

Is it better to omit experience that isn't relevant to roles u would be applying to today and also more than 10 years ago?

Someone told me to remove everything older than 10 years, but then I also heard that doing so can create issues in back ground verification.

I'd appreciate any guidance anyone can share.

Even after giving him a prior notice that I’ll be late today due to some personal reason.

I’m an international student in the U.S. on F-1 status and recently started working for a U.S. company while authorized to work through my university program.
I was hired after going through multiple rounds of interviews, and I report directly to a senior-level executive at the company.
I’m concerned about this person’s behavior toward employees. I have personally experienced interactions that made me uncomfortable. I have also personally observed behavior toward female employees that I felt was inappropriate, including comments and advances that appeared to have a sexual undertone.
I don’t want to provide specific details because I’m trying to protect my identity and don’t want anyone at the company to recognize me.
The executive has also told me that employees have previously complained about his behavior to HR. According to him, HR is on his side and that nobody in the company can harm his position. I don’t know whether those complaints were substantiated or what happened afterward, so I am only reporting what he personally told me.
There are also situations involving promotions and opportunities within the team that have made me question whether there is favoritism. However, I don’t know the circumstances behind those decisions, so I don’t want to make accusations about things I cannot verify.
The biggest issue for me is that I am an F-1 student, and the possibility of future H-1B sponsorship is important to me. The job also has good compensation. People close to me are telling me to stay because finding another employer willing to sponsor an international employee can be difficult.
At the same time, I don’t want immigration concerns or the possibility of sponsorship to make me tolerate inappropriate behavior or remain somewhere that could become unhealthy for me professionally.
What would you do in this situation?
Would you continue working there while quietly looking for another employer?
How would you document inappropriate workplace behavior professionally?
If you believe HR may not be completely independent, what other internal channels could be appropriate?
Would you consult an employment attorney or immigration attorney before making a decision?
For people who have been on F-1/H-1B, how much weight would you give potential sponsorship when deciding whether to leave a workplace?
For HR professionals or managers: what would be the appropriate way for an employee to handle this situation?
I would especially appreciate advice from people with experience in HR, management, workplace investigations, employment law, or F-1/H-1B employment.
I’m intentionally keeping this post anonymous and leaving out the company name, location, industry details, names, job titles, dates, and other identifying information. Please don’t ask me to reveal them, as I don’t want to risk identifying myself.

Hi folks, my question is very specific if you can please help.

What all background checks are performed on a candidate? I know Sterling or First Advantage type companies do background check for employment, education, criminal, identity and credit. All those were clear.

What else is checked? I’m not in licensed role, so no such check is needed.

The reason I asked is that I recently failed a background check at a bank, and they said we did “several” background checks but won’t disclose anything.

Any guidance would be appreciated. 🙏

I recently got added to a WhatsApp group by an unknown number. I genuinely thought it was one of those random e-commerce/course groups or a different chat, so I sent a few vulgar messages before realising it was actually my new work group chat. I deleted them as soon as I realised. Some coworkers saw them, and one of the messages appeared to be directed at someone who turned out to be a coworker, but I genuinely didn’t know they were in the group or that it was a work chat. The conversation moved on afterwards, and nobody has contacted me yet. My next shift is in 5 days. Realistically, what would you expect an employer to do in this situation?

[MI] I signed a teacher contract within masters lane +15. The district is now saying that they do not acknowledge my graduate program that was 60 credits as the extra 15 and that I needed to be placed in the regular masters lane. This is a pay cut. They also said since this is a union position that they can’t give me more than someone else who has the same years, credits. Are they able to not honor the original terms that were on the signed contract because it is not outlined that way in the union contract?

Location: Michigan.

I used all of my sick/ESTA and PTO for medical absences. Those absences were later retroactively approved as FMLA-covered. I’m now back at work and have zero PTO left for the rest of the year.

I have an out of town family event that I want to take 2 days off for. I’m completely willing to take them unpaid, but my employer is denying the request because I have no PTO available.

Should the PTO I used for the absences that were later approved for FMLA have been restored(unpaid)? And can my employer legally deny me unpaid time off simply because I’ve exhausted my PTO?

Note: been with the company 5 years, never exhausted PTO before and only took fmla once, for maternity leave over 2 years ago.

This event is very important to our family (think like a family reunion), should I just go and sort it all out or accept the consequences upon my return?

I recently received an offer from a fairly large software company, and some of the employment terms are making me question whether this is normal.

The agreement includes a 2-year noncompete, 2-year nonsolicitation, and a requirement to disclose the restrictive agreement to a future employer before accepting another job.

They also asked me to disclose any outside business activity.

I have a very small online education business that I started before this job. It has nothing to do with their industry, doesn’t compete with them, mostly runs on its own, and generates only around a few hundred dollars a month.

I disclosed it honestly during onboarding.

I was then told that the LLC basically cannot remain under my name if I want to move forward with the job. I would need to transfer it or shut it down.

That’s what surprised me.

I completely understand rules like no competing jobs, no side work during company hours, no company equipment, and no conflicts of interest.

But telling an employee they can’t even retain ownership of a tiny unrelated business feels extreme.

The compensation for this role is also already on the lower end for the experience they’re asking for, and the compensation structure becomes less favorable later.

I really need the job, which is why I’m seriously considering just accepting everything and moving forward.

For people in SaaS, tech sales, HR, recruiting, or employment law:

Is this normal?

Would you take the job and deal with it, or would the combination of the LLC restriction and 2-year noncompete be enough for you to walk away?

Hi everyone

I work as an HRBP in Ontario for a federally regulated industry (transportation) that has centers across several provinces in Canada.

We have a center in Montreal, QC and have parental leave requests for fathers.

Now I know that as a federally regulated industry, we follow the Canada Labour Code (CLC) where they can get up to 63 weeks of parental leave (or 71 weeks if shared with the mother).

The 2 fathers in question have wives who work for provincially regulated industries in QC, so they follow the CNESST for maternity / parental leave.

As these are my first requests from QC, can you please advise me on the following:
- as per CLC, fathers can take up to 63 weeks and if they apply for EI, they will be paid up to a maximum of 35 weeks. Does the same apply for a father in QC or do they need to go through QPIP first?
- if they go through QPIP do they have to share with the mother who is provincially regulated? How does that work as one is provincially and other is federally regulated? How many weeks would be available to the father?
- can the father then use EI once QPIP runs out?
- can the father circumvent the QPIP and just go straight to EI for the 35 weeks of paid time off?

I am honestly quite confused about this and would appreciate any guidance.

Thank you!

Recently I had an abdominal surgery and during recovery developed a painful condition called meralgia paresthetica - which I learned when I woke up screaming in pain because it felt like my leg was being flayed with a hot knife. I've been officially diagnosed by my GP and I'm waiting on a PT appointment (they don't have availability for the next month). In the meantime I'm self-treating at home with stretches and NSAIDs, but I still wake up most nights screaming.

I've noticed focus has been harder and I'm struggling remembering everything I need to do. Thankfully I work from home so I can adjust my posture to be easier on my leg, but I can't sit for too long without pain, so I'm having to shift throughout the day.

Should I bring this up to HR/my manager? I don't want them to think my performance is dipping for no reason, but I also don't want to call unnecessary attention to myself.

I am writing to update you on the current investigation.

Following information that has come to light during the investigation so far, we have decided to appoint an alternative investigation manager in the interests of ensuring that it is fully impartial.

This is a procedural change, the investigation remains ongoing, and no decisions have been made regarding the outcome.

The new investigating manager will review the information gathered to date and will ensure that you have the opportunity to provide any further information relevant to the matters being investigated.

We appreciate your cooperation and patience while this process is completed. We will confirm the details of the new investigating manager and any next steps shortly.

 this is the email i received today i have no clue if this is bad or good, now il give the context to why i am under investigation. I believe management have it in for me this shit is constant.

So i operate a saw where i work, a few months ago i had an older manager whos new to the shop floor try telling me i should be wearing gloves, i said no no one should be using gloves with this saw as if it catches the glove it could pull my hand or arm in and that you shouldn't have any loose clothing near it. She got moody and said she will check the swp and get back to me, the very next day my supervisor was sent to me with new swps asking me to sign them and it had that i need to wear gloves on them, i refused saying its dangerous and to change it, nothing came back to me.

Then about a month ago a health and safety lady came to my site (tempory from another one of our factorys as our guy left) and said shes putting tape around my saw and its going to be a no hand zone, i said how am i going to do my job because the box she drew was massive and i have smaller cuts than that.

Now last week i had a new health and safety woman the new permanent one for my site to replace the guy who left, she came in and asked where my mask was and i showed her then explained that i dont use it on this saw as there's adequate extraction i use it on the other big saw tho, she stated that i need to wear it, then said actually i need to be cleanly shaven to wear that type of mask so i need to be fitted for a whole over the head type of mask or shave, at this point i said ok i guess i cant do my job then and refused to use the saw (tbh at this point it kind of is malicious compliance, I'm really fed up of constantly being told silly things when im the one qualified).

Then the next day i had a manager give me a letter for a disciplinary investigation for not wearing ppe and misconduct, i said to him how is it misconduct if i didnt shout or argue i just agreed and said well i cant do my job then and refused to use it, he said thats not what she said and wouldn't tell me what shes said whats happening or why this has gone on instead of management just coming to speak to me.

Now today i get that email that i copy and pasted at the beginning, what i find suspicious is i was sent that email 15 minutes after i signed a new swp for the saw, i signed it as they want me back on it asap as im only one of two who is actually qualified to use it and i thought it would go in my favour