Coming back from maternity leave early to help your team is the kind of thing that should be met with gratitude, not a paperwork demand on day one.

When a new mom who had a fully approved gradual return plan came back ahead of schedule to support her colleagues, HR immediately started making her life miserable with unnecessary questioning.

The worst part? The “policy” HR claimed she was in violation of wasn’t even formally documented on paper.

Keep reading for the full story.

HR has a problem with my return from maternity leave

I began maternity leave three months ago.

Before going out, my schedule was three days working from home and two days in the office.

She secured some extra time off, and she thought she had some options regarding how to use it.

The leave in my state (NY) granted me 8 weeks of disability due to my emergency C-section, and then after that I began 12 weeks of paid family leave (PFL).

So I could have been out for 20 consecutive weeks — but with PFL you can choose to not take it all at once and take it intermittently.

So she used her discretion and made the right choice for her and her family.

I chose to come back on Monday this week after being out for 14 weeks, and to keep the rest of my PFL in case of emergency.

I decided to come back and work my remote days at home, and use PFL on my two in-office days for the month of January.

She had a whole grand plan that her company seemed to sign off on.

Then in February, I planned to start back in the office one day a week, still working my three days at home, and use the one day of PFL on one of my office days.

Then by March, fully back for my two office days and my three remote days.

This was all approved by my manager and completed in ADP more than 30 days in advance.

But HR soon threw a wrench in all the plans.

On my first day back, HR called my manager and stated that I am technically “fully remote” and they do not support that.

They said it was against policy and that I need an ADA reason to be out on my two in-office days.

Remember — I’ve always been hybrid, and I’m essentially just working my normal schedule while taking intermittent leave, with full intention of returning to the office partially in February and fully by March.

HR seemed determined on making her life difficult from that moment on.

They then called me and instructed me to complete a bunch of paperwork stating my reason for working remotely — again, just working my normal three days from home.

After I complete it, they will send it to the HR board to be reviewed to determine if they’re going to either make me return to the office immediately or make me go back fully on leave.

She tried to push back, but it seemed like HR was just making things up as they went along.

When I asked for a copy of their remote policy, I was informed there isn’t one in writing yet.

When I asked how long the decision would take, I was told one to two weeks.

She wonders about the legality of all this.

Can they legally make me fill out paperwork demanding to know why I am taking PFL?

My hybrid schedule was approved by HR last year. Why are they creating an issue my first week back?

I still have an entire month of leave I could use, but I came back to help my team out with end-of-year projects.

Sounds like HR is just taking this employee for a ride.

What did Reddit have to say?

It’s likely worth it to keep digging into the policy.

This story seems emblematic of a much larger issue plaguing modern workplaces.

HR doesn’t really have much of a leg to stand on from a legal standpoint.

It’s possible this workplace is trying to get employees to quit.

If there’s one thing HR is great at, it’s creating problems instead of solving them.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a woman who interviewed for a job, but told the interviewer she thought he was rude before she left.