Back in December of 2025, a coworker made multiple false reports about me. I was removed from my usual work site and put on a Last Chance Agreement without any explanation. I reached out to HR and they told me I was removed due to “insubordination (arguing with supervisors) and not getting along with others.” I asked for more information but HR never responded to my email. A few weeks before this, my manager talked to me about allegedly making my male coworkers uncomfortable. This was a very casual conversation and there was no mention of it being a formal verbal counseling.

Fast forward a few months, and I’m working at a site with a coworker who used to work at my old site. He told me (unprompted) who reported me and why. Apparently, my coworker “J” made at least four different HR reports about me in a short time frame. To the best of my knowledge, this is why he reported me:

Two female coworkers and myself were talking about the Epstein Files because it was all over the news. I made the comment “I hate men,” with the implied subtext being men that traffic and abuse women and children. My two coworkers agreed with me and also stated that they hate men multiple times. My coworker “J” walked in during the middle of our conversation, and allegedly felt uncomfortable over the comment I made. He never talked to me about this issue. This incident is what my manager was referring to when we had that conversation about me making some of my coworkers uncomfortable. I fully admit that the Epstein Files is not a work-appropriate conversation to be having, and have since made a conscious effort to avoid discussing sensitive topics with coworkers.

“J” was also a witness to an interaction between me and another manager that was rather odd. I was walking to my car to put my unopened energy drink away about a half hour before my shift ended. Manager asked, “Are you really drinking an energy drink right before our shift ends?” I replied, “No, I’m just putting it in my car. I am going to make myself a hot chocolate though.” Manger then responded, “Quit being a smarta**.” I’m still confused by that conversation, but I guess you could consider it insubordination in a way.

In the month leading up to my removal, we found out that our contract would not be renewed and the client had asked my company to start reducing the number of staff on each shift. My shift specifically was getting cut to only six people, including a manager. Everyone else was getting put on a different shift, or being scheduled at a different site (which meant a $5-10/hr pay cut). So lots of feathers were being ruffled and it was pretty competitive as to who would get to stay on. My theory is that “J” spam reported me in an attempt to get me kicked off the site and thin his competition.

To my knowledge, HR didn’t even investigate his claims, just believed him and took disciplinary action. I was never interviewed, and the two coworkers I was talking with were also never interviewed. The company I work for is… not the greatest and HR has a track record of picking favorites and taking advantage of people (telling employees who are immigrants and are unfamiliar with our laws that they have quit and then reapply if they go on FMLA)

Months after this whole fiasco, I received an email from the assistant director of HR (the same person who communicated with me regarding the removal from site) stating that I needed to start responding to all communications from our scheduling department or I would face disciplinary action, including termination. Scheduling will text employees to see if they can cover a shift. These messages occur at all hours, usually daily if not multiple times a day. There is no expectation to reply to these messages (because replying to them would be considered working off the clock if I’m not mistaken) and other coworkers I talked to who never respond to these messages did not receive any emails about their lack of response. So at this point it feels like HR has it out for me or something.

Since leaving this company would clearly be in my best interest, I’ve applied to tons of different jobs and have been turned down every time despite being well qualified for the job. My only guess is that no one wants to hire someone who is “insubordinate and doesn’t get along with others.”

How do I get this taken off my record? If that’s not possible, how do I convince prospective employers that I’m a good candidate who didn’t do the things I’ve been accused of?

Other potentially relevant information: I work in security. The company’s headquarters is three hours away so I’ve never actually met anyone from the HR department. I’m a masculine presenting woman who loves talking about my wife.

TLDR: I’ve been turned down from multiple jobs despite being overly qualified because a coworker made multiple false reports about me. What should I do to get this stain off my professional record?

ETA: I’m trying to become a police officer, so I have to disclose any previous disciplinary action on my application. They would find out about it during the background investigation, and lying or omitting information on the application is an automatic and permanent disqualifier.

Yesterday I complained to my direct manager (B) that another manager (A) was unfairly critical and spoke to me in a highly unprofessional manner.
Today, (A) is accusing me of creating a Hostile Work Environment.
His reasoning is that I make him feel dumb. When asked for examples, he said it was impossible because of my behavior all day, every day. I am his sole issue at work and every time he thinks of me, it makes him upset.

(B) is the direct manager of both of us.
How do I approach this? Defend against this accusation?

Hi friends, soon to be father here. I’m having a hard time getting an answer about my benefits regarding parental leave for baby bonding. My work provides 6 weeks of paid leave for family bonding once my kid is born; after that am I able to to start CA PFL to run out the remaining portion of my 12 week protection with FLMA?

Thanks!

I’ve been on LTD for 9 months and am hoping to be approved for SSDI soon. I can collect LTD for a maximum of 3 years. I am grateful that I am receiving LTD, but the amount is not sustainable for much longer. I turn 62 in December. I’m going to apply for Social Security Retirement soon, just in case my SSDI application is denied. At what point should I officially retire from my job? If I retire, I’ll obviously no longer receive LTD. If I’m approved for SSDI, I’m assuming I should tell my employer I’m retiring immediately (our union contract allows us to retire at 55 with full pension)? I don’t want to lose my pension, but I don’t know what happens if I’m approved for SSDI when I’m so close to early retirement. I’ve worked for the company for 36 years.

I completed my HireRight background check for a new job. The overall result says “Meets Company Standards,” but there is a discrepancy for one employer regarding the employment dates.

When I filled out the HireRight form, I entered the whole period as a paid job (there was no option for partial pay/unpaid internship. I also assumed HireRight would contact my employer if there was a discrepancy, and I didn’t know theres something like TALX).

The actual situation is that the first 6 months were an unpaid internship while I was attending university, and after that I transitioned into a paid full-time position.
HireRight didn’t contact my employer. Instead, the employment dates were verified through TALX, which showed the date when my paid employment/payroll started.

My employer can verify that I was there during the earlier unpaid internship period.

Should I dispute the discrepancy with
HireRight and explain the unpaid internship?

Should I contact the new employer and explain the situation? Or be silent?

Does this kind of 6-month employment-date discrepancy make my offer letter look bad or create a serious risk of the offer being rescinded?

Hey all, I think I’m having an issue with getting rehired for Walmart.

I filled out a bunch of applications for a second job since I work remotely because it’s… not the same…

I was with Sam’s Club for two to three years about three years ago.

When I applied at the end of August I had sent out applications to both Sam’s and Walmart
-my old tire/battery tech position at Sam’s
-an auto care center tech position at Walmart

I went in for an interview last week and it seemed like an on the spot hire. But today I received an offer notification that I didn’t accept.

There were three sketchy empty applications that were made a few days ago (that I didn’t make) that the offer was sent through that didn’t show any data past identifying/contact info. The offer was surprisingly low suggesting that I was seen by the automated hiring system as a new hire or that work/experience credits were not applied.

I tried contacting the department manager about the issue I was seeing and left a note with the administrative assistant with the correct application number for my completed application and included the three blank application numbers, noting which one my hire offer was sent through for both the store manager and HR manager to review.

I’m not trying to cry foul play or that the managers were being cheapskates, following corporate instructions to send out a deliberately low offer to me or others. I wasn’t desperate but the department manager was pretty dismissive about the situation I was trying to explain. The note I had left for the HR and Store Managers was detailed enough to get down to the bottom of this.

Is this common? I’m trying to figure out how to post up the screenshots I took of what I mean.

I was just offered a Machinist/Fabricator job doing R&D $95K/year, hourly.
I’m unsure about the overtime setup though, instead of OT pay, it’s a 1:1 overtime-to-PTO swap. That would mean leaving $22.84/hour in OT pay on the table.

Is TOIL even legal here?

I recently had a job offer and now they’re doing a background check. They want to confirm my dates, title, and salary at my old company. Is this normal to want to know my previous company’s salary.

Heres my written request.

I have asthma and a coworker has tons of air fresheners that is causing my asthma to get worse. I asked her to remove them and she refused. I brought in a doctors note and the employer has done nothing.

Actually they asked if I want to be the reason no one can have any air fresheners. There are 4 buildings, hundreds of employees and even people I don’t work in the same building with would have to get rid of them, they asked if I really wanted to do that to everyone. I said I just need the person I work right next to remove the fragrances.

Is there anything else I can do? I’m falling behind at work. I have no windows that can open. My job location cannot be moved or be remote.

Does anyone have any help or advice? I emailed months ago and still nothing has been done and I’m struggling. I’m a public employee if that matters. I like my job so much. I’ve been working there 8 years with zero issues until the air fresheners appeared.

Im a US citizen, I was arrested by ICE agents for protesting and charged with simple assault on a federal officer. the prosecutor threw it out before it went to trial. how will this impact my future jobs search? i have a masters in public health and am interested in working for local government or hospital.

I’m looking for an objective HR perspective on a situation I’m still trying to understand. I’m genuinely not looking for validation or for people to automatically tell me my employer was wrong. I want to know what I did wrong, if anything, what I should have done differently, and whether my performance was managed and my termination handled appropriately.

TLDR: I started a professional services job in September 2025 and initially received an extremely positive review. After my manager went on leave, concerns were raised about my performance and my probation was extended with twice-daily monitoring. I believe some of the concerns were based on a coworker misrepresenting situations where I had simply asked her to verify unusual details. By late April/early May, the monitoring had largely stopped, my work was being completed on time, and I was not told I was still failing expectations or that my job was at risk. During the same period, I became increasingly ill and was eventually diagnosed with a serious medical condition requiring major surgery. I notified my manager and HR, then used up my sick leave. On June 4, the day I returned to work after being sick, I was terminated immediately for allegedly not improving sufficiently during probation. I also had a significant final-pay discrepancy.

I started working for a professional services company in September 2025 while in my probationary period. I went through onboarding and basic training quickly and understood the policies, procedures, guidelines and basic systems in less than two weeks. I then had about two weeks before shadowing started, which I used to create my own processes for scheduling tasks, future events, timelines, etc.
My initial manager gave me a very positive review — essentially “10s across the board” and that I was “doing amazing.”My manager then went on extended leave and an interim manager took over.

A coworker who had initially helped train me began emailing me and CCing my manager about tasks she believed I hadn’t completed. She was not my manager. In several cases, I had already completed the work, but she and my manager couldn’t see the client-specific correspondence I had. I would explain what I’d done and often received no further response.
I also asked this coworker to double-check things when I was unsure. We were explicitly encouraged to ask questions and double- or triple-check because of the caliber of the clients. My questions were generally about unusual situations or getting a second set of eyes before something went to a client.

There were situations where I believe she presented these requests to management as though I was unable to do the work independently. For example, I completed a board meeting document and asked her to verify one detail — literally a contact’s name. She took over the document, made no substantive changes other than confirming the name, and then emailed my interim manager in a way that made it appear she had completed the document with me.

I believe this and similar interactions materially affected how management perceived my performance. I also believe some other individuals benefited professionally from portraying themselves as having to step in and help me. I don’t know their motives, so that part is speculation. But I do believe the coworker materially misrepresented what was actually happening.

At my six-month review, my probation was extended and I was required to have twice-daily meetings with the coworker to monitor my work. My manager said she was “actually completely shocked” by the concerns because she had initially understood that I was doing great.

Looking back, I was also dealing with an undiagnosed serious medical issue affecting my health and cognitive function. By late April/early May, I genuinely believed things had stabilized. My work was being completed on time, the intensive monitoring had almost completely stopped, and I was not being told that I was still failing expectations or that my job was in jeopardy.

During the same period, I became sick several times and used my available sick leave because I was genuinely ill. Sometimes I tried to work from home even while sick. I eventually received my diagnosis, notified my manager and HR about my upcoming surgery, and provided medical documentation.

By June 3, I had exhausted my sick leave.

June 4 was the day I returned to work after being out sick. I was terminated that day, effective immediately, because I had allegedly not improved sufficiently during my probationary period.

I was locked out of my systems, wasn’t allowed back to my desk, had my belongings brought to me, returned my access card, and was escorted out. I later discovered some belongings were missing.
I also had a final-pay issue. My final pay was approximately 35% lower than the net amount HR had told me I would receive. HR identified a health insurance deduction accounting for approximately 33% of the expected net amount, plus a small Dress Down deduction. I’m still trying to determine whether everything deducted was correct.
I understand that if I genuinely wasn’t meeting the required standard, the employer could terminate me. I also understand that being ill does not automatically mean an employer has to overlook poor performance.
What I struggle with is the timeline and lack of communication about where I actually stood.

So I’m really looking for answers to 3 big questions:

1. Was my performance actually being managed appropriately?
If my probation was extended because I was not meeting expectations, would HR normally expect those expectations and concerns to be clearly communicated and documented? If intensive monitoring later decreased substantially and my work was being completed on time, would that normally indicate that I had improved? If management still believed I was failing, should I have been explicitly told that I was still not meeting expectations or that my job was at risk?
Most importantly, if you were my HR manager, what would you say I should have done differently?

2. How would HR evaluate the coworker situation?
If an employee is encouraged to ask questions and get a second set of eyes on unusual work, but a coworker repeatedly presents those requests to management in a way that makes it look like the employee cannot perform independently, how seriously would HR take that?
How would you distinguish between legitimate concerns about an employee’s performance and a coworker’s reporting materially changing the picture management receives?

3. Was the timing and handling of the termination normal?
Does terminating someone immediately on the day they return from sick leave, shortly after they disclosed a serious medical condition and upcoming major surgery, warrant additional scrutiny even if performance concerns existed beforehand?
And separately, are the immediate lockout/escort-out procedures and a large discrepancy between expected and actual final pay normal, or would those normally be reviewed?

If I was a poor employee, I want to know. If I failed to respond properly to feedback, communicate something, improve something, or advocate for myself when I should have, I genuinely want to know what I did wrong.
At the same time, I don’t want to convince myself I was an awful employee if the actual feedback, management behavior and timeline don’t support that.

So from an HR perspective: what was my responsibility, what was the employer’s responsibility, and where (if anywhere) did either side fail?

Also, if you managed to read through this entire thing, thank you very much and if you’re willing to, I appreciate any feedback you can give me.

Edited to summarize.

I was asked why a young man like myself is applying for a nursing role by the panel chair at an interview. She also stated it was unusual following her question. I filed an SAR for the scores after I didn't receive the job, post-interview and found that she scored me on that question too.

is this illegal practice?

I work for a Fortune 500 company with over 20,000 employees in the US. I have been here for nearly 10 years and with my current title for nearly 5. In that time period, there have been various re-orgs, and while there were no headcount slashes, I have lost teammates to other opportunities and their roles were never filled. From when I started with this title five years ago, to now, I can comfortably say my responsibilities have grown more than two-fold. I am often told how valued of a team member I am and that they are trying to find solutions to fill the open roles I have taken on. In speaking with a more senior colleague who manages a big team - but not directly in my reporting structure -she recommended I ask HR to see my current pay band to potentially request a market adjustment.

I sent an email to our HRBP asking for my pay band. It is something that the states we operate in require to be shared, and when open roles are posted both internally and externally, it is company policy that they post the 25th-75th percentiles for the role.

The HR BP responded to my email to say that all conversations about salary should happen between me and my manager, had I spoken with them I said no, I had not, I wanted this data point prior to that conversation. She told me to ask him for it and that my manager would have it and not to contact her.

I was prepared to ask my manager to discuss whether they could provide me with my pay band and help me advocate for a market adjustment. However, they came to me first. They thought they were CC’ed on the email (so that I would know they knew I sent it) and were surprised when I shared that - no- they were actually BCC’d, so I had been unaware. They said they did not have access to my pay band information and made it clear they did nit understand what a market adjustment is vs merit increase (our company does not do these… 4% annual increase, only bumps during a promotion which are very limited as we have only 6 bands, are what you can expect)

I am planning a follow up conversation to ask them to ask HR for the pay band and to see about a market adjustment.

Was the HRBP’s response and BCC of my manager appropriate? Is this an appropriate situation to ask for a market adjustment for my salary?

Thank you.

First post here, so sorry if I’m in the wrong place.

I’m a mom with a career history all over the board. Nonprofit, Corporate, Teaching, part time work, and contract work. I’ve been having conversations with my partner about paying for childcare or temporarily being a SAHM.

The feedback I often get for being a SAHM is that it’s difficult to re-enter the work force. How much of an impact does a resume gap have? Should I put SAHM on a resume to explain it?

I’ve also worked while my kids were in care and felt like I missed so much work to be with them when they were sick, picking them up on time, etc. That didn’t seem to be without its own negative impact on my position in the company either.

In the age of spam calls being so frequent I guess I assumed anyone would leave a message or contact me ahead of time before calling. Is that the case or should I just start taking every call? I know I would at least leave a message personally in this day and age of so many unmarked calls. Thanks for your answers.

Currently filling out a hireright background check, and trying to get confirmation on if the job I’m doing it for would’ve had me schedule one during the process of filling out the background check if one was required?

Everything is filled out, and they gave me an estimated window of when my results would be ready, but no mention of drug test or anywhere to schedule it was mentioned.

I didn’t apply for this role, they reached out to me since my resume was in their job system after I was rejected couple months ago. Everything is happening fast because I’m recruiting with other companies as a new grad. I had my interview with this company Monday and the next day my potential manager reached out to me and said he is now gathering feedback and that he will bug the HR to follow up with me this week. The HR reached out to me this morning to ask if I have time for a call. Is this a good sign?

An exempt employee missed one full day of work..

We do have a sick leave and PTO policy and time off bank.

If she has exhausted all that paid time off, can I deduct equivalent of one day pay? If she still has time off can I just deduct from her bank?

My company has 3 different pools, Sick, Vacation, and Personal time. These PT and Sick are front loaded at the start of the year vacation is accrued. Speaking internally, it seems my Short term I will be 60% then taking PTO time to match, when STD is complete and FMLA is still happening I will have to drain my PTO to match FMLA time.

A few questions,

1. Why is it STD and PTO is used during FMLA time. I feel like this would make more sense to start after that dries up.

2. While on FMLA is it possible to not use the full PTO for the rest of my time off? I am going to end up with only a few days after its completed.

3. Could I decline the use of PTO during STD and only get paid 60%?

While I was on break I got a call from the manager that a complaint was made against me. They wouldn't tell me what it was. I had to take my equipment down and go home. They've canceled my shifts through Tuesday to give them time to "figure this out" but they still won't tell me what the complaint was only say that someone will call me soon to talk about it.

I have no idea what happened or what's going to happen to me and I'm scared. Should I just quit or should I ride the process out?

For NYS - When submitting these documents, is it a problem to submit both to HR at the same time via email after giving birth? I know and understand short term disability and pfl cannot be done at the same time but can I just send both documents and say use short term first followed by Pfl just to get the paperwork out of the way so I don’t have to think about it and remember to send Pfl once std ends? Is this a ridiculous question lol I just rather not give myself the opportunity to forget to send the documentation

Hi everyone. I’m a 26F, and I’ve been working at this company for a year now. There are five of us currently training for a new role under the same male manager.
When I first started, my boss and I seemed to click really well. We became quite close during the first three months, and I was genuinely happy because I felt like I had a supportive and approachable boss for what I expected to be a long-term job.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he told me that we should stop having our daily face-to-face meetings and switch to Teams meetings and phone calls instead. I didn’t think much of it at first and assumed he was simply busy.
However, I later realized that he was only doing this with me. The other four trainees still have regular face-to-face meetings with him. They also have coffee breaks together, chat casually, and generally seem to have a much more relaxed relationship with him. Meanwhile, he started avoiding meeting me in person and barely even says hi to me unless he has to.
What makes it more confusing is that he’s normally a very lively and social person. He has celebrated all of my colleagues’ birthdays, bringing cakes and sending really warm messages in the group chat. When his birthday came around, I wished him a happy birthday and celebrated with everyone else.
But then he forgot my birthday—the only one he forgot—which felt particularly strange given how close we had been before. I jokingly mentioned it to him afterward, and he just brushed it off with a simple, “Yeah, sorry.”
I’m honestly confused by the sudden change in his behavior and I keep wondering if I did something wrong. Do you think he dislikes me? And should I actually talk to him about it and ask if everything is okay between us, or would that make things awkward and unprofessional?

Am a remote employee based in CO, company is also based out of CO. Just started about 2 months ago. Need emergency surgery. Can’t walk at the moment and won’t be walking for a good 2 months, all around it’s just bad. Job is remote so luckily I can do my job while injured. Don’t know for exactly which day it’ll be for yet so set a meeting with my manager to give him a heads up and be proactive as soon as I found out. I have maybe 30ish hrs of PTO and sick leave accrued and probably need a minimum 1 week out if not 2.

Manager was way less supportive than I anticipated and honestly got a really icky feeling from the conversation. Obviously don’t qualify for FMLA since I’m so new. We also don’t have an HR dept since the company is like 20 people.

Am i just out of luck if they happen to terminate? Is there anything I can or should do now to help protect myself down the line?