Workplace rules can reveal whether an HR department supports employees or simply enjoys controlling them.

One new HR director arrived at a kind company and quickly removed traditions the employees enjoyed.

Instead of helping staff, she built a reputation for harsh firings and public humiliation.

Read on to see how the company eventually followed her own example.

Mean HR lady’s comeuppance

In 1995-1997, I worked as an HR manager. It was a good job, in a generally kind corporate culture, and my focus in the job was to work for our employees, not try to police them.

Once I knew I was leaving, I gave plenty of notice, to train my successor.

The company brought in a new HR director.

They did a lot of nice things for the employees, but the new HR director didn’t seem to like that.

I told her about good/fun things we did for employees – for example, we gave everyone a turkey and $100 at Thanksgiving, etc.

Another thing was that our managers liked to celebrate Secretaries’ Day (as it was called then). People enjoyed recognizing their aides’ hard work, gave them at least a card with a check in it, flowers, gift cards, took them out to lunch, etc. It was a long-hours company and aides gave of themselves for it.

Well, this new lady – one of her first acts? Banning Secretaries Day company-wide. Bc, in her reasoning, what if one boss forgot? The neglected aide would feel bad and possibly try to bring legal action.

I swear to God. (I had no say in hiring her, by the way.)

It gets worse.

Other company-wide customs followed on the chopping block.

After I left, people told me that the new lady seemed to take an unhealthy pleasure in firing people.

In one case, New Lady had been building a case against one woman for evidently personal reasons. Fired this woman in front of her kids (take your kids to work day) with no prior notice and had them all escorted out to their car.

OP was a much better HR person.

We’d never done that escorting thing in the past. We didn’t even have security guards, so she told the mail-room guys to do it.

They were apologizing all the way while the kids were crying.

(When I was there, if someone needed to be let go, we (I) would give them career counseling, help edit their resume, suggest job openings elsewhere. The contrast was stark.)

I love how they fired her!

So – when New Lady was fired within the first year, the company took their cue from her.

No notice, no references, escort to car, all other employees watching and some of them clapping.

Not a totally symmetrical come-uppance, but a good start 😆 and word got around – nobody in town wanted to hire her.

She deserved that, especially the clapping. They should’ve actually thrown a party.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Yes, like that.

At least it was only a year, but that is an awfully long time to put up with her.

This person has worked with people like this horrible HR lady.

Another person worked with a horrible HR director.

That is interesting. Unless it’s a major violation of the company rules, I would think the manager would make the call too.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an IT employee who thought a ticket was closed, only to hear otherwise from the client’s manager.

She had to learn these bad ideas somewhere.

This HR director banned popular traditions and reportedly took pleasure in dismissing employees with no warning or kindness.

When the company fired her, management offered the same sudden exit, public escort, and lack of support she had given everyone else.

She created a brutal departure policy and became its most memorable demonstration.