In the corporate world, some people value fancy titles over actual experience.

So when a new HR executive tried to discipline a young product designer for not clocking enough hours in the office, she didn’t realize he was one of the original employees leadership fiercely protected.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

HR wasn’t informed of changes in my working.

I work as a technical architect/product designer for a software company (medium enterprise), and I am only 24 years old.

At 24 years, you don’t usually see a lot of people in that designation, so most of the new senior hires look down on me.

But this employee thinks she’s more than earned her keep.

I have been working my *** off at this place since this was a startup with less than 50 employees, hence I’ve done all sorts of jobs for this place. I’ve taken letters to the post office and even cleaned the office on odd nights.

Probably that, and maybe that I am good at what I do, has helped me be very known and loved by the CEO, CTO, and people of those ranks.

So while she was away, there was a new hire in the HR department.

We got a new HR in October, and I was on medical leave during those months. Her designation says she’s the Senior HR Executive, and we’ll call her Janice, and when I joined back, I did not bother to inform her because I did not know she existed.

Now, that is kinda bad on my part, but I directly walked into the CEO’s room. He hugged me and welcomed me back.

The HR Director was also there. We spoke for 15 minutes, I was assigned my new project, and honestly, that was it.

It turns out this HR executive has quite the problem with her.

Janice just walks up to me and tells me that I am supposed to have my induction and joining-back training conducted, and I tell her that I would do it once I am free as I have certain meetings aligned with my team already to understand the new project.

And trust me, I know the policies around as much or better than most people, so I did think that I was above her law.

But I think I ticked her off as I immediately got a mail with the HR Director looped.

The employee did everything she could to get back on this HR exec’s good side.

I canceled my events and decided to attend her session, but I think I fell into her bad books that day.

During the session, I said that I was unaware that this training was to be done and that is why I had set up meetings, and Janice told me, “Things always change and it is your job to be aware!”

So she did just that, to the best of her abilities.

Months pass, and I am working from a client’s office in the city, which means I just log in to my building after winding up my tasks at the client location. With the traffic, I reach back pretty late.

Around 11:00 p.m. And I spend an hour or 2 here and call it a day.

But that still wasn’t enough for this HR exec.

One fine morning, I receive a mail saying I’d have an inquiry this month as I have been clocking less than 2 hours in the office and that I have a one-on-one to explain it to Janice why I wasn’t here.

Now I am ticked. In all the years I have worked here, I was never asked in for an inquiry.

What ticked me off even further was that I had to explain to Janice of all the people.

So she tries to explain herself.

During my one-on-one, where a lot of HR Associates were present, I tell Janice that I work out of the client’s office and that those 2 hours she sees is me traveling over 20 km from the client’s place and then working from here after my time there.

I also ping my CEO in this span as I did not have time for Janice’s crap.

Luckily, the CEO had her back.

The CEO walks in and we explain the whole situation to him, and he blasts Janice for asking me to explain stuff to her. He also tells her that I am working at clients’ and that exempts him from these policies.

He also adds that “These policies don’t apply to my kids.”

So when the HR exec finally backed off, the employee threw familiar words back in her face.

She, now at a loss of words after understanding there is no point in messing with me, says, “But we were not informed of this change.”

And I said in a Buddha-like voice (I’d like to believe), “Things always change and it is your job to be aware!”

Sounds like Janice should have checked her ego at the door.

What did Reddit think?

Janice should have at least had the courtesy to talk to this employee privately.

This situation was really just about control.

Flexibility is a strength.

This commenter isn’t buying HR’s excuses.

Policies matter, but knowing your people matters more — particularly in HR.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.