'My entire department quit the same week': HR refuses to give worker a raise even after their entire team quits

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Nov 1, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

It's pretty confusing when your employer is losing workers faster than it can replace them and doesn't seem at all phased. Sometimes, you can chalk this up to general incompetence. Still, it's more likely that there are over-inflated egos involved, with key members of the company refusing even to consider that they, their policies, and the way they treat workers might be the problem. Other executives and HR play along, worried that if they acknowledge the situation, the entire company might implode faster than it already is or that by acknowledging the situation, they might be blamed for the current predicament.

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  • Let's be real here: this situation seems exactly like that of a failing company, one without the resources to save even itself and counteract the death spiral snowball effect that it is experiencing. Lack of resourcing destroys overworked employee morale, leading to higher turnover, which results in brain drain and a loss of institutional knowledge that the company doesn't have the resourcing to acknowledge, let alone afford to replace. This can go on for some time as employees who are positioned to leave depart the company for greener pastures, while those who can't leave, along with fresh new hires who have no idea that they're walking into a fresh-decaying corpse, keep the company limping along for far longer than it ever should have.

  • 01
    Facial expression - "My entire department quit the same week, HR still played hardball with me on a raise."
    via Yasamine June
  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/P22Tyler 18 hours ago My entire department quit the same week, HR still played hardball with me on a raise I'll do my best to tell this story, but there's a lot and I won't be able to include it all. So I worked for a new beverage manufacturer for a little over a year. I was brought in because I'm an expert with the QMS (Quality Management System) that the company uses. I tried to negotiate as you do when you start a
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 03
    Font - new job, but they wouldn't move at all. Fine I thought, I'm not going to turn the job down over that. I found out later that my boss had asked them to pay me $7 more per hour than what they offered me. I was pretty upset but whatever, I like my coworkers I'll make it work. They had another guy doing the same job as me that was useless, I basically did his and my job, so my boss fired him. She told me part of the reason that she fired him was because he made so much more money than I did d
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 04
    Font - A little while after that a manager from a different area approached me about taking a job in their department because I was do good at what I did. It would come with a good raise and an opportunity to learn some more things. I said I would be interested, but it was very informal and just more of an exploratory discussion to see if it was even worth them pursuing. So we both agreed to keep it to ourselves until there was something serious. Somehow, just a few
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 05
    Font - hours later my boss started messaging the other manager about me wanting to switch to their department. We were both completely confused because neither of us had said anything. We had no idea who had told my boss. Turns out it was the head of our HR department. As I came to learn she loves to lie, manipulate, and stir the pot. She lied to my boss and told her I was trying to leave because I didn't want to work for her, she said all this because we needed to hire more people and she was t
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 06
    Font - So months went by and I never heard from HR on the potential job, but I had been hearing from the hiring manager for that other department all along that HR was twisting the position and changing it from what it was supposed to be. Keep in mind this was a position that was created with me in mind. Well by the time HR was done with it I no longer qualified. Someone else got it. I was floored that a job created for me somehow went to someone else. A few days after the job was offered to som
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 07
    Font - else HR finally called me in to talk about it. They denied any responsibility for how things played out, outright blamed the manager of the department who I was friends with, and told me they'd never lie to me (as they were lying to me). They finished it off by telling me I was free to leave if I was unhappy with how things played out. They were not interested in giving me a raise or doing anything to make things right.
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 08
    Font - So now fastforward a month, my boss, her boss, our quality manager, sanitation manager and projects coordinator all quit within a week of each other. Our entire quality department was gutted and we lost hardworking, well liked, knowledgeable people. Our HR department loves to tell us how we're all replaceable, people finally started calling their bluff. Now, an important point here, my boss and I are the only two people that understand how to use the
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 09
    Font - QMS. The QMS is what allows them to track what they make for regulatory purposes, it's where we store documents for making products, all the way down to records I created that literally walked production through a step by step process of how to make something. It is a vital part of the company. Okay, with that established: I get called into HR and they feed me all this BS about how I'm valued and they want to show me that. When just a month prior they had told me basically to go fa myself
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 10
    Font - These MFers still tried to play hardball with me. They offered me a "raise" that actually was just the amount I made with OT over the year, but they wanted me to switch to salary. At this company when you're on salary, you work everyday and you're always on call. I disagreed with them that this was a raise and showed them numbers, at one point she actually said "we wanted to make sure you didn't lose any
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 11
    Font - money...." I'm sorry, but how would there be any way for me to lose money with a raise??? I was told to counter by my old boss for at least $8k more than what they offered because that's how much they paid the other guy that got fired. I only asked for $4k more per year which I thought was more than fair, they refused to come up even $1, so I declined the offer.
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 12
    Font - That all happened on a Friday, I came in on Monday just to give them one more chance to change their minds and negotiate again, they didn't. So I sent my resignation and went home. I wasn't going to stick around and help clean up their messes and teach someone else how to use the system after all the disrespect from them. Not only that, but a couple of people put in two weeks and were walked out immediately even though we needed that two weeks to try and cover gaps. They did this because
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 13
    Font - Last I heard from people I'm friends with that work there is they were in a meltdown and didn't know how to make anything anymore because no one else knows how to use the QMS. Brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. I apologize if this is hard to follow, I had to leave out a ton of information to make sure it wasn't even longer than this, there's a lot more I'd love to say.
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 14
    Font - TL;DR My former employer has an insane HR department that caused my entire department quit. Rather than showing me I'm important because I'm literally the only person there that knew how to do what I did, HR tried to nickel and dime me so I did maximum damage and quit.
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 15
    Font - Naps_and_cheese 17 hr. ago You said you prepared some sort of regulatory, compliance kinda reports or sonething? Who regulates it? Why not call them? I'm pretty sure they're not in compliance. "Hi governmental body? Hey, i used to work at a company run by complete dickheads. Anyway, I was the guy who ensured the company did this thing were required to do by law. Now, nobody there is doing it anymore because all the people who did that quit. But the company is still operating. Maybe go kno
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 16
    Font - Desert Fairy 14 hr. ago ● Yeah... this was my company up until around a year ago when they had major findings by BSI and the FDA. When our software engineer walked I was able to negotiate a 15% raise, but they still haven't replaced him and they keep interviewing new grads for a job that will chew you up and spit you out. 55 Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 17
    Font - TalkingBackAgain - 10 hr. ago You should have told HR: "You do understand that as far as actually producing things in this place, that you lot don't actually do anything, right? You have no idea what it is we are doing or how good we are at it, right? Amiright? We make the product here, you don't. You're telling me to fQ off with my demand, but I'm actually doing the work. When you
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 18
    Font - don't show up there's literally nothing that will be worse for you not being here. Look at where the department is right now with all these key players quitting. Are you going to step up? Are you going to do the work? You're not, right? Because you can't find your e with both hands in the dark. You are surplus to requirement. You don't do anything useful here." as I would not be shy with that assessment. 89 Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 19
    Font - spaceman757 · 11 hr. ago Who the f would give the HR department that much power and why wasn't their bull reported to whomever oversees HR on the executive committee (assuming it's a larger size company based on the description)? 43 Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 20
    Font - Crusty_Old_Fart. 6 hr. ago Yeah, that's exactly what I was wondering. Who oversees HR, and how much of this were they told before-hand and during? It sounds like HR was making company changing decisions unchecked - which really isn't what it should be doing. 13 ↓ Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 21
    Font - P22Tyler OP 2 hr. ago I've honestly never seen anything like it, HR isn't supposed to have this much control. No one oversees them because the head of HR reports directly to the owner who doesn't seem to know what he's doing. He's super rich but he didn't make his money, and he's showing that he doesn't actually have any business sense. Vote Reply Share ●●●
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 22
    Font - silverkernel 2 hr. ago Lots of places give HR that much power. The last place my wife worked at was like this. New HR comes in with tons of power, setups all kinds of burules to literally control employees, but then exempts the HR dept from these rules. Rules like how much of a pay raise per year you can make. Some how HR employees always exceed the maximum
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 23
    Font - At my current job, something similar is happening. New HR a little over a year ago. A lot of the best employees have been fired or driven off and have been replaced with new or bad employees. HR literally said its their jobs to pull the weeds.. the problem is they are getting rid of the talent to keep only the workers who wont fight back about anything. Vote Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 24
    Font - P22Tyler OP. 2 hr. ago I don't know. I've never seen an HR department that has so much power it's so weird. And they picked one of the worst people to run it, and she reports directly to the owner who doesn't pay attention so she's never held accountable. Vote Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 25
    Font - Significant_Trust_31 12 hr. ago That company is failing. It's the behaviour of a company losing money. Huge cost savings letting staff leave, tho it's a vicious cycle where quality follows and they lose more business quickly 10 Reply Share P22Tyler OP 2 hr. ago ● Vote ●●● They won't be able to replace the people they've lost. My boss worked like a crazy person because she enjoyed it and they continually disrespected her. There's no way the next person will work as hard as she did. Reply S
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 26
    Font - cttrocklin 17 hr. ago I'm curious if got a better job 421 Reply Share ● 95 ... P22Tyler OP 17 hr. ago I quit without another job lined up. I've wanted to leave for a while but stayed for my boss and my friends I worked with. When basically all of them left I had no motivation to keep killing myself for a company that doesn't value me at all, and likes to constantly remind me of that. Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 27
    Font - LUNA_underUrsa Major 12 hr. ago HR sounds like a huge problem, curious why you never went to the higher ups yourself about the disfunction, are boards and ceos that intimidating, 13 Reply Share ayamrik 8 hr. ago Sounds like if I wanted to destroy the company, it would be difficult to be more efficient than this HR... 6 Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 28
    Font - P22Tyler OP 2 hr. ago The problem is that the company is owned by one Uber rich guy, the head of HR reports directly to him and we couldn't just talk to him. He doesn't pay attention so his business will burn to the ground without him realizing it. Vote Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 29
    Font - The Story Builder 7 hr. ago HR is filled mostly with power tripping Narcisssitc Psychopaths and I loathe HR with passion. For every decent HR person, there are 20 as 6 Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler
  • 30
    Font - mdk2004 15 hr. ago Do you not realize they have to budget for hiring an entire new department? Doesn't leave much room for raises. /s 22 Reply Share BisquickNinja 15 hr. ago Lol, I'm guessing if they didn't even figure out that people were jumping ship that budgetary concerns never came in. They were just trying to be cheap and squeeze everything from everybody, while the car was driving towards a cliff.... 13 Reply Share
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  • 31
    Font - Deansdiatribes. 14 hr. ago well done but to truly enjoy it once the sOhits the fan let them know that it was all you oh yay baby Reply Share Deansdiatribes 14 hr. ago . i do hope i dont need to tell you to do it in a way that cannot come back at ya 4 Reply Share
    via u/P22Tyler

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