Top Ten ‘HR Is Not Your Friend’ Stories

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Aug 18, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

We know that the HR team members are humans too, but that doesn't make us friends! You might be one of those working folks who has managed to successfully form friendship bonds with your coworkers. Perhaps you have a work spouse. Perhaps you occasionally grab a drink with your team outside of work hours. Perhaps you text each other memes and pop culture news every day. Obviously, this kind of friendship is necessary. You're spending more time with your coworkers than with most people in your life; you might as well open up and make a friend or two.

However, there's a danger when you start viewing anyone from HR as your friend. No matter how kind or seemingly harmless they are, always proceed with caution because there may be an ulterior motive here. Perhaps they're trying to get some dirt on you or a coworker. Perhaps you'll let something slip and it will be used against you weeks or months down the road. All of these mishaps can be avoided if you simply draw a professional boundary between you and anyone from HR. As we said, we know you're humans too, but we just have to be that careful. It's not personal; in fact, it's the corporate structure of the workplace that has forced us to create this barrier. But that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Keep scrolling below for this collection of "HR is Not Your Friend" stories, compiled from this r/AskReddit thread. For more stories like this, here's one about a choosing beggar coworker who ruined the office pizza party.