Workplace policies promise protection, but reality doesn’t always follow the handbook.

One employee with solid reviews turned to HR after a manager’s toxic behavior crosses the line.

But when they were wrongfully terminated for speaking up, it revealed how quickly “doing the right thing” can backfire.

Read on for the full story.

Got fired after complaining to HR

I’ve been working at this mid-sized company for about two years. It was a decent job—nothing spectacular—but it paid the bills.

Her manager always made her life more difficult.

My manager has always been kind of a micromanager, but it got way worse over the past few months.

She started tracking my bathroom breaks, questioning every email I sent, and basically treating me like I was incompetent, despite my performance reviews being solid.

But when she crossed a huge line, the employee couldn’t take it any longer.

The final straw was when she made some pretty inappropriate comments about my appearance during a team meeting that made everyone uncomfortable.

I decided to go to HR because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?

At first, she thought HR would be on her side.

I had documentation of everything—dates, witnesses, the whole nine yards.

The HR lady seemed sympathetic, said they’d look into it, and told me not to worry about retaliation because that’s illegal.

But soon, reality set in.

Well, guess what happened three days later?

I was called into a meeting with HR and my manager.

They said I was being let go for performance issues.

It was clear there was no line this employer wouldn’t cross to get rid of her.

Suddenly, I’m getting written up for things that were never problems before, and they’re acting like my complaint never happened.

They offered me two weeks’ severance if I signed an NDA.

I didn’t sign anything and walked out.

The employee now wonders what happens next.

Now I’m job hunting and wondering if I should talk to a lawyer.

My friends are split—some say fight it, others say just move on because legal stuff is expensive and stressful.

The kicker is my manager is still there acting like nothing happened.

Apparently, this company has quite the storied past.

I also heard through the grapevine that this isn’t the first time something like this has gone down at that company.

HR really is just there to protect the company, not the employees.

Sounds like this workplace is about as toxic as it gets.

What did Reddit have to say about this troubling story?

Perhaps a lawsuit is in order.

What happened here is simply unjust.

Offering an NDA was basically an admission of guilt.

This commenter suggests employees should leave HR out of all matters of importance.

HR closed the case without ever really opening it.

Ultimately, this employee was promised protection, but received quite the opposite.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.