weird hr stories, worst hr stories

HR Workers Share The Weirdest Stuff They’ve Ever Seen (27 Stories)

Human resources specialists have a really tough job. Not only are they recruiting and interviewing employees, but they also have to take care of all their paperwork once they’ve been hired, including payroll and benefits, and they’re usually in the room when someone is about to be fired.

They also get to know a lot of people, and to know them pretty well—whether they want to or not. If there is ever a conflict within the office, HR is tasked with figuring out how to fix it (or how to make sure it doesn’t happen again). 

When u/Dankuser2020 asked Reddit, “People who work in Human Resources, what is the weirdest sh—t you have seen?”, the weird HR stories came pouring in. Take a look below, and see if any of your coworkers match these genuinely wild descriptions:

1.

The maintenance guy had been living up above the ceiling of the building. He had built a little cubby living area with electricity and a small fridge and everything. Edit: For years.—u/StaceysDad

2.

I once had a temp job in HR. I was scanning lots of old personnel files, and the one perk of the job was reading old complaints against people. The best one I came across was a mediation caused by one member of staff accusing another of witchcraft.—u/thedarlingbuttsofmay

3.

Guy came in to the interview in sweatpants and a hoodie, and said he didn’t need the job because of how much money he was making illegally, but he wanted to have a job so the IRS didn’t get suspicious.—u/Canuckleball

4.

Had to delete someone from the system following them being murdered. Was a bad day. Edit: Over the years I’ve deleted 7 deaths including the murder, 1 pedophile and 1 murderer.—u/SausageOnToast

I had to do that for a work colleague that died in his sleep. I’d spoken to him less than 2 hours before he died. It’s a weird feeling.—u/Twistatron

5.

An IT guy who worked the overnight shift (because he was doing support for our Asia/Europe regions) got written up for improper use of company systems. He had dozens of not hundreds of Google image searches related to foot fetish stuff. Like insert celebrity here feet along with other random stuff like “cute toes”, etc

Like dude…YOU’RE IN IT. You KNOW this stuff is tracked and that your boss could easily monitor it.—u/Vandelay222

6.

I was a recruiter, and you would be shocked to see what some people actually have as their personal email. Most people have come around to using just their name, but then every once in a while you’ll have to verify that “brownglitter69” is in fact how they would like to be contacted.—u/Blueiguana1976

7.

Call center employee calls HR to complain about their supervisor: “He’s abusive… he won’t even let me leave my desk.” Supervisor calls HR to complain about employee: “can you please tell ____ that she’s allowed to leave her desk. Oh my god… she’s sh—tting in her trashcan!”

It may sound humorous, but there was significant mental issues at the heart of this.—u/JayArlington

8.

The family of the guy who passed away came to speak to us (it was in a factory environment). To get pension docs etc. We sent them away with a to do list.

1 hour later reception pinged us saying Mr Xs family was here. Strange. The documents take a few days to get.

Nope. New family.

Yup. The guy had 2 different families.

Who were about to have a fun surprise—u/meg_w1111

9.

Caught a site manager with like 50+ pairs of panties hidden all over his office in Ziploc bags, a multitude of sex toys, and over 100k in cash stuffed in ceiling tiles. Took awhile to unravel all of that.—u/kimurasftw

10.

I worked closely with HR in a call center. You’d get some crazy stuff. Guy that carried a cooler every day was wiping sh—t on random walls and desks. It was his sh*t in his cooler. We thought it was his lunch. He got caught when he wiped it on the front desk directly in sight of the camera.—u/cincyfan04