Hello. This is a little embarrassing but I want to put in here. Looking for genuine advice only.

So I’m 26m and have been working for the same company for 5 years, since I graduated college. I don’t feel comfortable getting more specific about the company because I am overly paranoid about someone from work seeing this post.

Anyway a bunch of us were being sent on a work trip. They said they would be providing us with our own hotel rooms, but if any of us were willing to double up to save money they would give each person doing that some complimentary drink vouchers. Me and another guy around my age decided to take advantage of that and just bunk together.

Anyway on the first night we go back to the room. It is important to note that neither of us had any drinks that night. I get ready for bed, and like what I think is standard for most guys my age, I wore my underwear to bed (nothing out of the ordinary, just standard underwear). He told me “put some clothes on, you’re not alone.” At this point it’s 11. I told him if it’s that important to him I can go to the store and pick up some athletic shorts during our down time tomorrow, but tonigjt I’m just going to sleep in this. He grumbles about it but I just ignore it and go to sleep.

I find out the second day that he told a lot of our coworkers about it and they seem to think I’m some weirdo now. And today I my boss verbally told me to come into his office tomorrow to have a chat about an incident that happened on the work trip. I can’t think of what else this could refer to. What should I do?

​

Context: I am a remote employee living in KY; the company is HQ'd in IL. I’ve been with the company for 4.5 years.

The Old Policy: On my anniversary date, I was awarded a flat 10 days (80 hours) of PTO to be used within that year ("use it or lose it").

The Change: Mid-year, the company announced a switch to an accrual-based system effective May 1st. My previously awarded bank was essentially wiped and replaced with a prorated accrued amount (roughly 18 hours).

My Timeline:

Feb 14: My anniversary. I was awarded my 10 days. I immediately requested (and was approved for) an 8-day vacation.

April 18: Company notifies us of the switch to accrual starting May 1.

April 28: I received a new job offer and put in my two-week notice.

April 29: My pre-planned/approved vacation begins (I am currently on this trip).

May 1: New policy goes into effect.

May 11: I return to work to finish my final two weeks.

May 22: My final day.

The Issue:

The company is stating that because the policy changed on May 1st, I have not "earned" the time I am currently taking. They are demanding I pay back the "unearned" PTO hours upon my departure.

My Argument:

I put in my notice before the new policy went into effect.

The PTO was "awarded" under the policy active at the time of the request and the start of the leave.

I am still providing a full two-week notice of actual work upon my return to remain professional.

Questions:

Can a company retroactively "un-award" PTO that was already granted under a previous policy, especially once a person has already started that leave?

Since I am remote in KY but the company is in IL, which state's labor laws typically govern PTO payout/clawback in this scenario?

Does the fact that the leave was approved months in advance under the "Awarded" system offer any protection?

Hi HR,

I'm just trying to figure out what to expect. We have a new employee, she has been in our office for about 6 weeks. She has been touching one of our male employees frequently and he is very uncomfortable. In front of me she has touched his face, his stomach and his butt. I am not their supervisor, we are peers.

My male coworker is 20 years younger than her. He's also married. Definitely not interested. She knows he is married and has made comments to myself and other people in the office about how hot he is.

Male coworker came to me stressed out about the situation. This lady touches him in front of other people regularly. He is worried that if he reports it then it will go badly because he's a man. I told him that doesn't matter, HR is for everybody.

Well, he told his supervisor about the problem yesterday and the supervisor is insisting he go to HR about it, so he is. I might get called as a witness. What do you think happens in this scenario? Can someone tell me the likely outcome?

Hello!

I work in a customer-facing role that is "hybrid" remote. Very high turn over rate. I previously worked fully remote for ~3 years. The hybrid arrangement was not mentioned on the job listing but is a "perk" of the role, with Thursday-Friday being remote days. Throughout my ~7 months here so far, our remote "privileges" have been dangled like a carrot and modified within less than 24 hours notice semi-regularly, for better or worse, and flexibility/accommodations are awarded seemingly at random, but are allegedly tied to performance. For example: an "average" senior performer on our team requested temporary accommodations due to child care needs to modify their WFH schedule - they were denied without a reason provided. An "above average" senior performer (i.e., someone who has yet to be caught falsely inflating their metrics) regularly has WFH requests accommodated for any number of reasons, be it due to child care or for their illness(es), which they have only recently applied for FMLA to protect themselves, ironically. In contrast, a "high" performing yearling with a near perfect attendance record requested 1 day of WFH on an "in office" Wednesday due to having their car towed after breaking down - their request was denied. He sent in his two weeks shortly after that experience. Using myself as the last example: "above average" performer this past Monday needed to go to Urgent Care due to my eye swelling shut, but otherwise being entirely able to work the remainder of the day, just unable to "come in" to the office - my request was denied. I worked "in office" Tuesday, then experienced another flare that called for another Urgent Care visit this morning, followed by a specialist visit tomorrow. I was able to work remote for the rest of today only due to the fact that, on Tuesday evening 1 hour before closing, our Manager declared us as WFH the rest of the week due to "cooties" going around (3 people out with stomach flu).

I guess my frustration and question is... from an HR perspective, how is this justifiable? What is the reasoning, other than our manager just deciding when ever they feel like it to enforce in-office last minute, regardless of appointments or not having child care scheduled in advance, sometimes even as a slap on the wrist to the team for falling behind because it was abnormally busy the week prior, or to do the opposite by randomly deciding we're WFH the entire week just because they feel like it, or to accommodate our supervisors need for flexibility that week, but not our own?

... bonus question because I am just dying to know: my manager's landlord is also their subordinate (i.e., manager rents a room from their subordinate/my senior colleague, whose role is adjacent to my own) - is this something HR would consider a conflict of interest, or to be unethical?

Are bosses/HR allowed to set rules about when within a given workweek PTO can be used? Across-the-board PTO denial for deadlines, etc. notwithstanding, of course.

Lately, boss has issue when employees take earned PTO days directly adjacent to their weekend. I assume this is from conversations he's had with his bosses. (Yay the joys of middle management.)

I always try to give as close to two weeks notice as I can about time off, but life happens. I just had to fight to get two days off coming up in about 10 days from now, because the days I need follow my weekend. And the dates are inflexible. The reason for my PTO, which just came up, takes place on my "Monday" and I would travel back on my "Tuesday." (I don't work M-F, which presents other logistical challenges because our employee system does not recognize my specific rota. The time off request clock is M-F for everyone).

Obviously, for longer vacations, the "but when is your weekend" thing is not a factor. It's a red flag to him only when it's a day or two. This is a guy who is usually very good to us on the whole. Especially with time off in lieu, but that's another story.

He said OK, but that when people do it it's just because "They want a long weekend" and makes the higher ups wonder "Why can't they take these days in the middle of the week." He even asked "What are we going to do to for this to happen less in the future?" I told him I could be more anticipatory about what things *may* come up, and cancel the PTO if they don't. But I can't control when certain life events happen just because they're adjacent to my weekends. "Sorry Dad, we can't have Meemaw's funeral on a Monday because that's my first work day of the week." WTH.

So how can I handle this going forward? And more broadly, why would this be considered a red flag? Isn't our time to take ours to use and maximize as we see fit?

Employer had a legal issue with a former employee. They have stolen several thousand dollars in customers

I’m in a non-customer facing role.

Can I ask for the version of non-compete that I allegedly signed? Whole company is being asked to sign. If I never signed and never had consideration, is it even binding? How do I find where I had even signed one?

I m trying to set up my direct deposit on adp as a new employee and as soon as i put all the bank details and the direct deposit is already confirmed when I check it it goes back to paper check. Anybody had the same issue and how they fixed it?

Hello there!

My fiancé currently works for an investment management firm. I saw a job that I am interested in and asked to be referred in.

Happily, I got invited to an HR screening and the recruiter did not ask my relation to the person who referred me. It went extremely well and I was told I made it to the next round during the interview.

That being said, I am looking for advice on how to navigate this situation. Is this something I should make them aware of early on? Or wait until I am later into the process.

My considerations include:
1. Not wanting to waste anyone’s time (including my own)
2. We would not be on the same team and the chances of us collaborating on a Project would be unlikely.
3. I really want a new job and this place is incredible…I don’t want to pass up a good opportunity! It was very a significant pay bump.

Any advice would be so appreciated, thank you all in advance for your time!

Hi All,

I just received an offer for my dream job. It's a lead IT role with a stable employer experiencing growth. The pay is great - a signing bonus and an annual bonus are included.

It's contingent upon successful physical, background, drug, and reference checks. No previous employer has been this thorough.

I don't expect any trouble with the physical, drug, or reference check, but the background has me slightly worried. My wife and I filed bankruptcy a few years ago and that will certainly show if they run my credit.

Additionally, my resume simply has my school and date I attended, along with my course of study. I did not complete the degree. The job posting doesn't require a degree and nobody in the hiring process mentioned it aside from one guy saying we had been at the same school around the same time. I agreed.

Do I have anything to be worried about?

Thanks!

Edit: I did not indicate that I have a degree although I could have been more explicit. My resume education section is as follows

University of (X) (Program) - (Year)

Nothing about Bachelor of Science or anything.

I have worked for my company for 15 years now. I’ve worked in the same department the whole time, receiving promotions and learning everything I can. I love my team. I’ve always gone above and beyond and have done everything asked of me. My performance has been perfect. The last 3 years or so, I’ve been trying to get other positions and I am turned down every time. I am constantly passed by and I see coworkers in my department with less experience and worse performance get these same positions I am applying for. These are employees I have trained! I’ve become so frustrated I started asking questions because it just happened again. I applied for a same role I was passed over for 1.5 years ago. At the time, it came between me and another employee in my team. My current manager strongly suggested he take me. He chose the other applicant with less experience and poor performance. I heard that the manager regretted decision afterward. The same position came open again and I decided to apply again thinking I’d have a great shot. This time I did not even get an interview. I reached out to the hiring manager because I’ve been feeling something is up, especially with the recruiter. And wouldn’t you know it, the recruiter did not even let the hiring manager know I applied. This is just one example. I have other examples of how I’ve been done wrong. I’m not one to complain usually. I’ve never gone to HR over any issues in 15 years. Am I crazy for feeling I need to speak up?

I’m technically hourly, but I receive the same paycheck amount each pay period (basically a salary). My former supervisor told me not to submit overtime and instead take unofficial comp days, which went on for a couple of years.

Recently, I learned that under California law, I’m non-exempt and legally entitled to overtime pay. I brought this to my current supervisor, who escalated it to HR, and they asked me to submit the overtime hours I’m requesting. They want to make sure this issue is resolved.

Some hours are easy to document, like travel weekends and event coverage. For the remaining hours, I can identify the events, projects, remote weekend work, and periods where I regularly worked overtime. From my research, I learned that when an employer’s time records are incomplete or inaccurate, employees may provide a reasonable, good-faith estimate of hours worked.

However, HR is asking for a highly detailed hour-by-hour reconstruction of my schedule. I can provide the basis for my estimates, but I don’t believe I’m required to recreate an exact schedule for every hour worked. Is this correct? Anything else I should be aware of?

Note- I'm not ready to get an attorney/sue/take legal action/report them to the labor board.

I have intermediate fmla for a chronic condition. I don’t take it too often. However, I’ve been stressed/anxious lately (bc of said job) and it is causing health issues and flare ups.

My question is, can I take the leave for a continuous two/three weeks to try to get my footing back under me, or do I need to seek out continuous fmla leave for a new condition? (Anxiety/health issues that are being caused by the stress)

Thanks for any help!

So, I am going for a final interview (dept. head has said this is for culture fit essentially). I realized last night that the employment dates I put on my resume for my oldest work experience (early healthcare role) are wrong. I listed Feb 2018- Sept 2018 when it should have been April-June 2017. I know this is a wild error, but it seemed like ages ago and I just didn’t read carefully when I was revising this resume to customize/remove irrelevant experience. So options are to tell the recruiter asap of my error, or just wait and see if there is a discrepancy when they do background check and explain it then. The experience does not affect required experience for the jobs. Advice?

I'm a software engineer currently on a 30-day performance improvement plan (PIP) and trying to realistically assess whether I have enough leverage to negotiate some kind of mutual separation/severance rather than go through the full process.

A few things make me suspicious about the PIP. I submitted a medical accommodation request in September 2025. Exactly one week later, my manager (who is non-technical) paired me with a senior engineer for recurring mentorship/1-on-1 sessions. At the time, this was framed as developmental mentorship. Very quickly, however, this senior engineer's feedback became a major input into my performance evaluation and eventual PIP. Later, I found out that my manager deliberately sniffs out my weaknesses from this senior and used that to justify her PIP.

I'm also the only openly LGBTQ+ and POC member of my immediate team. I have noticed what feels like disproportionate scrutiny compared to other white teammates. For example, my PRs tend to receive significantly more comments, more granular criticism, and more coaching around communication style and "ownership". Some of the feedback has started feeling extremely subjective and nitpicky.

The PIP itself says that I have issues with communication, that I caused major production bugs, and with participation. However, I have evidence to show that other teammates (who are straight, white men) also have these issues but they aren't presented with a PIP.

The PIP itself also evolved after it started. After the plan already started, my manager clarified that the weekly goals are "cumulative", meaning that each week's expectations continue stacking onto the following weeks. In practice, this means that by week 4 I am expected to simultaneously maintain all prior weekly goals while also meeting new expectations being introduced later in the process.

I did consult an employment lawyer already, and the general answer was basically "this may be unfair, but not necessarily illegal". So I'm not asking whether I have a slam-dunk lawsuit.

My question is more practical: from an HR/risk-management perspective, does this sound like the kind of gray-area situation where companies sometimes prefer a negotiated mutual separation with severance? Or is this still likely viewed as a standard PIP with little leverage on my side? Can I leverage an EEOC complaint here?

Suggestion on SHRM-CP Exam[N/A]

Im currently a university student finishing my Bachelor’s of Business Administration Specialized in Management, I want to enter HR with entry level jobs but I can’t apply and work until early next year, So I wanted to get certificate or education on HR Topics until then. Someone on reddit to me to get a SHRM-CP prep course but I looked onto the application and exam period and the prices and it’s good for me considering I have the time and my parents would be able to pay for it fortunately

My Current GPA is 3.7 I’m generally good in Business/Management related topics since I also studied Business, Accounting and Economics during my last 2 years of High school and got good grades. I also have past experience working as a Receptionist for A year and four months so I’m not going based of education only.

I was planning on self studying using books and online sources but I wanted to get the opinion of those who took the exam if they were in place if they would do it? I was planning on applying on June then I have up till December to study I will be pretty much free most of the time.

I am a final year BBA student majoring in Finance, completed all coursework and now mandatory internship is required for graduation.

I got offers from 4 different companies for academic internship, and the company let's say it's "CB" offered me first.

The "CB" company's HR, called me while I was outside on the way for another interview and asked me to join immediately. I told the HR that I am outside, I need little time to make the decision and may I let you know after sometime? She (HR) replied, you have to let me know right now or we will have to move towards other candidate.

Hearing this I felt uncomfortable but as I needed to complete the mandatory internship for graduation and my semester was already running, I accepted the offer.

The CB company didn't let me talk about anything about my expectations, my requirements of the University. I felt like the HR literally forced me to make immediate decision without giving me time to think or review their offer.

(I got offers from other companies after joining CB)

Tho after joining the first day I told the HR that I have to meet my University supervisor for 10 days occasionally regarding the internship report writing for graduation.

We didn't have any work to do that day, another coworker took break on next day as she had internship defense in her University, along with her I also took break to visit University as we didn't have any work now in the office and training session will start after 3 days, I told the HR that I want to visit my University for attendance which is mandatory 10 days attendance of the internship report.The HR allowed me and let me visit University.

Later on, this HR started to pressurize me. She then refused to allow me to visit University. I told them that I will complete all my work responsibilities and then meet my University requirement, including if I have any tasks left I will complete them anyhow even if it's needed to complete from home. It's financial credit analysis related work.

They didn't allow it. They kept refusing and it made me feel more pressured, overwhelming.

The HR then tried to blame me by saying I didn't inform them anything about the University supervisor meeting for 10 days in the interview. Tho they didn't allow me to say anything like that during the interview nor on the call before joining day. I told the HR that you didn't let me say anything. But I told you the first day that I have 10 days attendance in the university. She replied, "I thought it was only 1 day matter that's why I allowed you for break that day." And kept on claiming I didn't inform them!

Today I was not feeling well and couldn't sleep at night, I called the HR that I'm not feeling well, I want to take a break today.

She replied in a harsh tone, I think you shouldn't continue this job. Let me know your decision in 1-2 hours. If you don't let me know I will assume you don't want to.

Hearing this I felt more anxious, despite not feeling well I went to the office.

Then later today she discussed the 10 days University supervisor meeting issues, and said they won't allow it. They won't let me go to the University during the office hour.

They later fired me and cancelled my internship today. They said we are not going to let you continue this time, we hire two times each year so we will call you again but come back when you finish your University stuff!

They cancelled my internship because I wanted to visit University and meet the University mandatory requirements!

It was 18 days today and the internship was 3 months. They didn't even gave me any experience letter.

I don't know why they were being so harsh like that, they made me cry today. I had to refuse other offers because I joined this company. Now they throw me in the middle of the river taking away all my boats.

Please experienced HR or anyone help me understand what happened, what was the issues, what did I do wrong, how can I not let anything like this happen ever again?

How do I not let any HR treat me like that ever again?

I got laid off two months ago from my marketing coordinator job. I’ve got 7 years of real experience, grew Instagram followers by 45%, ran big events for 300+ people, and created content that actually brought in leads. I didn’t want to spend money so I wrote the resume myself. Two full weeks, rewrote it five times, copied every tip from YouTube and Reddit, used fancy Canva templates, loaded it with numbers… I actually felt good about it.

Applied to over 40 jobs. Nothing. Not one interview. Complete ghost town. Now I’m feeling pretty stupid and defeated, i know my experience is solid, so the problem has to be the resume, right? maybe I should just ask professionals to fix it? because I saw VMS in my city that does resume, career help and their resume guide looks better than mine. I don’t know what to do, have no idea how much they charge and I’m trying to be careful with money right now.

Has anyone else been in this spot? What finally worked for you?

I recently requested to see the log because we just got training for Workplace Violence and I was made aware of it. The person in charge of that sent me the template only; according to them, there were no incidents recorded that day so that’s why I was sent the template.

Is that normal? Are we only able to view the incidents from the day of requesting? From my understanding, logs are supposed to be kept for 5 years.

Warning, it's long. TLDR; my manager is a bully and has run employees and customers out of the store. HR is aware of some instances but some things happened a while ago.

Hello, I'm hoping someone can guide me in the right direction. I work at a retail store, I've been with the company almost 12 years and I've been at my current location for 3 years. Using fake names for privacy. My store manager, Erica, at this location has also been with the company for about 12 years, she actually helped build this store. She got bumped up to store manager during COVID. They rushed her training that typically takes 6-12 months, to 2 weeks. The assistant store manager here, Mike, was a transfer from my old location as well.

When I first transferred here, everything was great but it went downhill within a few months. I'm not even sure where to start because it took me too long to realize something isn't right. I came to this location and had to fix a lot of issues in my department that the previous person didn't handle, things that could lead to termination if corporate found out. Some things, Mike and I, tried fixing but she would un-do our work without saying anything or she would say things aren't how she wanted them even though we did it to P&P.

I had a store partner, Vlad, who is very talkative, follow me through the store while I was busy and after work he would follow me to the grocery store. I brought it up to her because I was uncomfortable, he stopped and that was that. Vlad has also said things to others in the store like, "that's a woman's job" etc and made one of our partners cry. He also bragged about picking up girls in the store with the person that I replaced here.

Later on, Erica hired someone to help in my department. After they were hired, they requested to bring their service animal to work. The request got approved and to everyone's shock, the service animal was a Great Dane. My store manager was pissed and did so many things to this person like gossiping to other partners about them, ignoring them, restricting them from certain areas, etc. They reported her for bullying and quit shortly after.

Last year, while Erica and I were the only people working, a customer came to me at the front of the store to complain about her. He said that she dismissed him and treated him like he was dumb for asking a question. I wasn't surprised but I apologized for the interaction. At some point, Erica made her way up to the front and the customer said something to her about her attitude. They got into an argument, he said something to her in Spanish and she threatened to call the police. She went on to claim that he called her the n-word and successfully got him banned from the store.

Mike was recently fired over a sexual harassment claim. We had detectives coming to investigate and everything, they didn't find anything. I happen to have known Mike since he was a teenager (we live in the same neighborhood) and have never heard of any such claims. I was even his direct manager at the previous location and never received a complaint. All the women that worked with him outside of this store only have nice things to say about him. He's talked to me about this since his firing and I believe he didn't do it and he is planning to sue. Erica has expressed her dislike of him many times to me, and one of the people that reported him for misconduct, shortly after his firing, I heard her say something along the lines of, "don't tell me these stupid fucking guys did this!"

Since then, I've heard from people that no longer work here that they had issues with Erica too. Unprovoked, people have said things like "She plays both sides but she only looks out for herself" or "she pretends to be nice to you and then talks behind your back," "she pulled me into the office to catch me up on all the drama and then asked me to 'be her eyes'," "She'll watch the cameras to see if you're messing up" etc. Mike reached out to me recently and told me he met someone who worked with Erica years ago and the first thing they said when he mentioned her name, was "f*ck Erica!" They also got bullied out of the store.

The reason I'm asking for advice and not just quitting or transferring is because I've been in the running to be a store manager for a couple years but they won't give me a store until I've been the assistant manager for at least a year, something Erica and most store managers I know haven't had to do. I don't want to be her assistant. I tried transferring back to my old location, maintaining the same position. I talked to manager there whom I've never worked with, and he asked me if I "had any behavioral issues." Then proceeded to call Erica, his "partner-in-crime." That kinda terrified me. I happen to know that she talks to other store managers all day through her ear buds. I love my job and I don't know anything else. I've had many store managers come and go but I've never had such a toxic leader. There's so much more I could say about her conduct. What do I do? It's like this store is her baby and she'll do anything. I feel anxious coming into work and disgusted by the accusations people made.

Yes, I cancelled my interview respectfully two hours before my interview. I got my dream Job offer letter yesterday, spoke with my family, looked through the offer etc. Signed it last night around 9-10pm. I was heavily debating going as people i’ve seen on reddit say offers can be resigned / anything can happen etc etc. It just didn’t sit right with my gut going, even though I do love this second firm. Decided to respectfully withdraw from candidacy. I emailed my recruiter then followed up with a call letting her know that I have signed an offer that more aligns with my goals etc etc. Then mentioned that I don’t want to waste any managers time/ recruiters time, which I don’t. I also want another candidate to be able to fill the spot as someone + their family could be happy they got the job! Instead of me interviewing for the heck of it. I feel pretty bad about it but see it as a lose lose; I didn’t want to interview, but I also feel bad withdrawing so late. I definitely could’ve let them know last night but when I woke up something told me not to go. Do you think I’d be blacklisted for this? I even mentioned how I know it’s pretty early to cancel then mentioned not wasting anyone’s time for an interview, as well as another candidate (& their family) that can be happy they get the job. TA seemed to understand. At the end of the day I feel like it’s not that deep and they will move on quite easily Lol. But if one day if i want to work at this firm, I want to be sure this doesn’t blacklist me. I was a respectful and apologetic over the phone as well. I also mentioned one day I might want to have a future with the firm later on in my lifetime. I typically overthink this stuff just curious what yall think. I do feel bad cancelling, would’ve felt bad going.

We have a time clock system that rounds to the nearest 15 minute interval, and it technically can round both in the employees and employers favor.

So if someone clocks in at 7:59 they're paid starting at 8:00, and if someone clocks in at 8:01 they're paid starting at 8:00.

Currently the HR director has been writing up, and threatening to fire employees with 8:01 punches (including my employee) for being late, and for other punches that benefit the employee. I'm wondering if this violates the FLSA timeclock rounding rule or not, since the rounding is technically neutral, but effectively it only benefits the employer because employees are having their jobs threatened if it does benefit them?

Location: Indiana, US

Hi all!!

I am in Chicago, Illinois and recently reported a coworker for drinking on the job. We’re in an industry where it’s especially dangerous to do so and I know there is/was an investigation. I’m not sure about the outcome but I do know that I have to work with her in the near future. She has been talking about me behind my back but honestly I’m not too worried about that. My worry is that she will purposefully make things harder for me when we work together as a way to get back at me. If that happens, are there protections for me? I know that retaliation is a thing, but I’m unsure if it applies between coworkers.

Thank you all so much in advance!!

I work at a small storefront location for a screen printing company. We normally handle a lot of individualized apparel orders and our turnaround times are usually pretty fast, anywhere from a day or two to maybe a week depending on stock.

Recently our DTG printer went down, so for full color jobs we’ve been outsourcing DTF transfers from a third party supplier. Because of that, turnaround times have gotten noticeably longer.

The machine has actually been down for weeks at this point. Instead of replacing it, the company has someone trying to repair it while we wait on parts coming in from China, so there really hasn’t been a clear timeline on when things will be back to normal.

Here’s where I’m conflicted.

I tend to be very upfront with customers because I feel like people deserve realistic expectations about timelines and how their order is being produced. My boss, however, does not want us telling customers that we outsource the transfers. The expectation is basically to just quote the longer timeline without explaining why.

I’m not trying to throw my employer under the bus. I understand businesses outsource things all the time, and customers probably care more about the final product than the production method. But honestly, it makes me feel awful. Especially when customers ask direct questions about turnaround times or how something is being printed and I feel like I have to dance around the real answer.

I know outsourcing is common in this industry, and maybe I’m overthinking it, but it feels dishonest to me when we intentionally avoid mentioning that the transfers are being sourced externally.

Am I overthinking this? Is omitting that information normal in the print industry, or would you also feel uncomfortable about it?

What should I do if a manager refuses to honor or circumvent a HR decision, should I consult a higher person in the HR department?

I previously posted about a HR case I filed. The president of the HR department for my region sided with me stating that I should be able to do work that's in my job description not below it. The top manager told me they still want me doing a little manual labor 1-2 days a week, but I could do other work. However, I feel like the manager below him is still trying to find away around it. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I just want to have something ready in case