'HR is NOT your friend': Fresh out of college employee confides in HR and ends up getting fired

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    Font - HR is NOT your friend Preface: I'm an executive at a tech company. I have a team member (I'll call Rick) who is not performing well and has been on a PIP for a quarter or so. The reason Rick has been on a PIP for so long is I see a lot of potential in them and I've been working with them to improve. It's their first job out of college.
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    Font - HR person (Clive) approached me and the CEO of my company the other day and recommended I fire Rick. When I asked why, Clive told me they went out for after- work drinks with Rick recently and he confided in them that they interviewed with another company and got a job offer which Rick rejected (we pay really well for entry level positions).
  • 03
    Font - I was surprised and thought this was a really scummy move by the Clive, who's known around the office for being "friends" with everyone. The CEO wanted to fire Rick immediately but I pushed back. Rick is showing improvement after all. The compromise I made with CEO is to give Rick till the end of the year to get off the PIP or I'll have to let them go. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of hope Rick will hit all his benchmarks. DON'T CONFIDE IN HR. THEY AREN'T YOUR FRIENDS AND THEY AREN'T
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    Font - Edit: PIP = Performance Improvement Plan. Edit: I let Rick know that they have until the end of the quarter to hit their benchmarks and I made it clear it's unlikely they will be successful. CEO will not like that I have Rick a heads up but I can deal with him. On Rick's last day I plan on telling them what happened so they learn from their mistake moving forward. Edit: Yes, Rick did a stupid thing. They're still green and it was a rookie mistake. Hopefully it's a learning opportunity for
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    Font - Edit: This has come up a couple times in the comments. I don't make the claim that Clive's intentions were to fish for a reason to fire Rick. In fact, I don't think Clive is a bad person and I've never had and issues with them. It was a few people out drinking and it seems to have come up organically from my understanding (work outing so everyone talks about work) Rick also has a habit of talking too much so I'm not surprised he blabbed honestly.
  • 06
    Font - thenegativeone81. 4 hr. ago Treat HR like mushrooms: keep them in the dark and feed them 278 Reply Share
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    Font - KiritoG2772. 4 hr. ago Please don't bad mouth mushrooms they would never become corporate dogs with a leashe. 103 Reply Share
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    Font - One PhotoKada 1 hr. ago Quit - Coasting along on their not... Interesting analogy but I don't think HR is that tasty when used in recipes or even potent enough to be used as hallucinogens.
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    Font - MyOfficeAlt 4 hr. ago Stupid of Rick to go out for drinks with HR and tell them that. Scummy of the HR guy to try and befriend everyone and elicit information to use against them like that. 81 Reply Share
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    Rectangle - 10 SQGNXXnkceeEfhm 12 min. ago Stupid, but honestly what chance does fresh out of school have against intentional, cruel, and experienced manipulation?
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    Font - Antique_futurist. 3 hr. ago Human Resources means "humans as resources", not "resources for humans". T58 Reply Share
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    Font - MorgulValar 3 hr. ago Got my business administration bachelors recently. This exactly. "Human Resources" means you're the resource and their job is to allocate you, manage you, and dispose of you when you're no longer useful. They're farmers, you're wheat. They're miners, you're coal. They are not your friends.
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    Font - South3y 4 hr. ago What exactly was Rick's crime? He knows he's on the bubble and likely to get fired, so he goes to an interview with another company? And he's supposed to somehow be at fault for that? Frankly, I wouldn't want to employ someone with too little sense of self-preservation to do that much to protect their futures. 79 Reply Share
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    Font - 3xoticP3nguin. 2 hr. ago I got recently written up for bad attitude because I told my co worker were being worked to death for min wage. She ran and told the Director that I'm not a good fit....
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    Font - Ukhupa 1 hr. ago No crime. What I gathered from this story is that Clive likes to get to "know" everyone by pretending to be a friend only to extract gossip from them in order to have ammo ready to use to get someone in trouble later or make himself look good.
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    Font - South3y 1 hr. ago That's Clive, who is just a rat. But the OP claims that the CEO wanted to fire Rick after getting the glad tiding, so the CEO must think Rick did some kinda wrong.
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    Rectangle - uxoguy1 4 hr. ago HR exists to protect the company. They are NOT there to help you (no matter what they claim) 462 Reply Share
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    Font - bastardofreddit. 3 hr. ago This. A PIP is a constructive firing. Basically, its getting the paperwork put together to show "ehhh we tried but they suck". As someone who receives a PIP - IMMEDIATELY get your resume up to date, and start applying IMMEDIATELY. You will be getting fired. No ifs, ands, or buts.

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