HR Moments

In my 8 and half years of being in Human Resources, each day would still bring new experiences in HR. There is not a dull moment if you ask me. There would always be something that will just pop out of nowhere and either it would make you laugh out loud or make you cry due to the stress it brings.

You encounter all types of personalities and all kinds of situations that crunches your mind and you just want to flip out, but can’t. (I actually had to go through a transformation from being the short-tempered barbarian, in order to be able to render good customer service) it’s true; I literally would go on a rampage if ever I got ticked off. But when I joined the airline industry back in 2000, I learned how to control my temper.

Now, most situations I encounter, I would just laugh at the absurdity of it. Even if it brings so much stress that I want to bang my head through the wall just to see if any solutions would come out of my cracked brain. Some situations are even so easy to resolve, but other parties are being too complicated to deal with, or are like horse with blinders that go around in circles and doesn’t see the bigger picture or the repercussions of their actions.

Here are my top 5 HR Moments;

No.5
An employee contested a disciplinary action given to her for cheating by sharing her answers to a co-trainee during a training assessment. She claims that she was only helping his team mate out. She then said; “Isn’t that one of our company values, TeamWork?”

No.4
An employee asked for a urine sample from the other team mates, for the medical exam. When I asked for the explanation why the employee did that, the employee suddenly snapped and said, I could give you my urine now if you want. I then just responded; “Do I look like I am interested in getting your urine now? Giving your urine to me at this moment does not relinquish the fact that you allegedly submitted a urine sample that was not yours.”

No.3
An employee came to the HR office one night and said that his wife is on her way to the office to kill him because the wife found out the he was having an affair with a co-employee. Out of utter curiosity, I asked how HR could help. The employee responded and handed me a picture of his wife; “Can you post my wife’s picture at the main entrance so that the guards would know who she is and not let her in, because she will kill me!”

No.2
An employee threatened to file a labor case because the employee claims that the overtime work rendered was not paid. When I checked with Payroll on the amount, it was just 50.00 pesos. (I honestly wanted to go to the employee and give the employee a hundred bucks and say, here is your overtime pay plus 100% interest! Capital OMG and WTF!! You would go to court for just 50.00 pesos!!?? Besides we have a Pay Dispute process, why did you not file for a dispute?? Heaven Almighty!! Please give me the strength to endure such ignorance!!)

No.1
An employee approached me one day to file a harassment case. This employee was courting another team mate only to find out later on that the team mate was gay. (Admittedly, the team mate really did look like a girl) So I asked the employee if there were any sexual advances made by the team mate that might have been offensive, the response was; “None. I was actually the one who kissed her..I mean him..I mean I don’t know if it’s him or her!!” then I responded; “So let me get this straight, you were the one who courted your team mate who you though was a girl, then kissed your team mate, and now you want to file a harassment case against your team mate?” There was silence in the room for like 2 minutes, and all I could say was…”Please tell me you’re not serious about pursuing this.”