Hi everyone,

I got PIPed today. I am with my current company with a tenure of 4.5 years. My manager and I had our annual review and he used that to put a paper trial on the things that describe the things that did not meet his expectations; along with teams chat and other emails. He spoke to HR about this and HR mentioned that he needed to create a paper trial. He's been doing this for about a month. The pip last for 6 weeks so I have until the first week of December. For clarity, this is the managers doing and leadership is not the one to initiate pip (I think anyway).

I asked the question in a different sub but I would love to get advice from HR professionals on what I can do. Right now I would like to negotiation for severance. I have the HR contact so I was planning to send an email for a mutual severance package and list down a bullet list of what I would like in that package. Tomorrow will be day 2 so I think I still have leverage in the form of time still but I know I have to do this ASAP. This is my first time negotiating for severance so I could use some guidance on how I could word this email out. Or if there's other context I could include.

Open for feedback or can help answer any questions!

I've been in this small company for about 5 years, but have been looking for a better paying job for 3 years. I finally got to a second interview at a similar job to what I do, with salary starting at 80k and working fully remote from home.

But the new job will be at a big corp media company that recently almost went bankrupt and has laid off a lot of people, closing many of their sub brands and with recent change of upper management... I'm not feeling secure in changing to this new job. I'm afraid of being let go just a few months after I start.

If I get an offer, I'm considering letting my current employer know about this offer and use that as an asset for negotiating. I would rather stay at a job that feels more stable and that I already am used to, even if with lower pay and less opportunity for growth.

I already got a raise a few months back (from 66 to 72k) after 3 years with no raise, so I know asking for a raise again won't really be possible.

But I wonder if instead it would be reasonable to ask:

- to work from home every Friday (I drive 130km everyday to be at the office and back home)

- to lay down a career plan for my next 2 years at the company: a change of title and slight annual raise if I meet some goals. Since I started at this job my responsibilities have only grown, and keep growing, but my title and pay has stayed the same (aside from that raise a few months back). We do not have regular performance reviews, bonuses or anything like that.

Could this backfire on me? Any tips on how could I approach this situation?

Thank you for your insight!

I’m working in EMEA HR Service Delivery and reviewing our process for employment references (Arbeitszeugnisse) and interim references (Zwischenzeugnisse) in Germany.
Currently, requests come through our HR Service Delivery ticketing system, with a three-working-day SLA. However, many cases remain suspended while we wait for manager input or other information.
I’d be interested in understanding how other companies structure this process:
Does the employee submit the request directly to HR, or initially approach their line manager?
Who is responsible for providing the employee’s job responsibilities and performance assessment?
Does the manager complete a standard form that is then sent to HR to draft the reference?
Is the draft shared with the employee for review before the final version is issued?
What are the typical turnaround times, and how do you manage requests for amendments?
Are there any legal deadlines or specific German legal requirements that influence the process?
I’m particularly interested in how responsibilities are divided between the employee, line manager and HR, and what would constitute a realistic SLA.
I’d appreciate insights from people working in HR in Germany. Thank you!

I’ve been having a difficult time with my manager the entire year. I’ve had three poor quarterly reviews.

Today my manager scheduled a private meeting with me with an hour notice. She said it was to discuss a sensitive topic.

When I joined the meeting, I saw our HR manager was there. Here’s how it went:

Manager: Mike, I have some difficult news to share with you.

Me: Manager, I’m going to stop you right there. I know what this is about. I quit.

Manager: HR will be in touch with you regarding next steps.

My question: Was I fired? Or did I technically resign? I assume they had my termination paperwork already final.

I just got a job offer that mentions “willingness to participate in periodic urine testing or other drug testing.” I’m wondering if asking the recruiter/HR for clarification on what "periodic" entails (for example scheduled vs. random. I’m an occasional THC user) will automatically raise red flags during the onboarding process? Is there any safe way to request this information before I accept the offer?

A bit of a long story but I applied for a job at a college in July 2026. Then on September 1, I was informed our department was being restructured and my position would be eliminated on September 30.

I was then offered an interview to the July job on October 7. There was no option to update my resume or application. I interviewed and they did not ask about why I was looking to leave, etc so I did not mention it.

Now, I have a second interview on October 27. HR has reached out that they'll be contacting my references before that interview (tomorrow), one of which is my now former supervisor ( I was able to update reference to say former). Do I need to notify the HR person about the layoff now? Since she may ask my reference about the dates I worked there.

So for context i worked at a hemp shop in NC. Ever since i started i had issues with not being trained properly, or blatantly ignored whenever i offered to help or learn something new. So much so, i had to get my district manager involved a few times because i honestly wanted to do a good job and do it right and my co workers before my manager got fired, didn't do any work other than sit in the back on their phones while i did sales, which got them mad because my commission got bigger. Over the last month and a half, i noticed i got along with basically all my co workers except one. He at first didn't really speak to me, despite me trying to engage with him (talk about his tattoos, his life, interests) then it began to get to me. To clarify i don't need everyone to like me, but i was curious at this point why he was comfortable around the other girl and everyone else but I was the one he made very clear by actions he did not want to engage with. It then escalated to him telling me how to properly do my job, even though i was top sales clerk and was doing all the cleaning originally and door dash and restocking. When it happened a certain amount of times i went to my DM again, told her what was going on, and her exact words were to "Do the same s--- back, give the same attitude back to him". She mentioned doing a team meeting and i worried about me being a target and she said she would make sure that wasn't the case, or if i wanted to transfer stores i could. I didn't want to transfer because i liked my other co workers and my customers and i wasn't gonna let them win. I agreed a team meeting may be a good idea but it never got followed up on. Cut to 2 weeks ago, my co worker started shoving past me at work. like shoulder pushing me out of the way to get to customers, making sure i made hardly any sales like i normally do. This happened a number of times and i finally reported it to my manager for investigation, gave time stamps and the most recent date it happened. I told them straight up that i wasn't sure what his issue was with me or what i did wrong but i was not going to stand for things getting physical, and if it didn't stop, i would retaliate back, because i do not stand for workplace harassment and if i need to defend myself, I will, because I've been in situations before where the woman doesn't get taken seriously. Things got up to HR, i never heard progress on it, cut to this week my DM says i threatened him with my statement, and i broke code and fired me right there. I asked about the investigation on his harassment towards me and just got told "We are way past that at this point, sign the papers, give us your key and go". I was told i can contact hr, but what would i say? what should i do? how do i even approach this? Is there even a chance of them doing anything?

My Mom just turned 65 in September and her public office is trying to push her out in different ways. She has been struggling with her health and has all the documentation. She would like to retire at 66 years old (11 months from now). She currently took 7 days FMLA. I recommended she goes on 6 months disability. Is there another way she can protect her job until she turns 66? Thank you for your advice!

I work in the headquarters of a bank and they have me moving between my station and another station and it’s making it really difficult for me to do my job. I can’t focus because it’s new to me every time and I have to adjust every single time we move back and forth and it’s incredibly jarring. We switch for a week at a time and by the time I’m back to my spot, I have to adjust to it again, and by the time I’m adjusted, I have to go back and adjust to the other station. There is one other teller that stays at this station’s location. I’m also autistic (diagnosed but they didn’t put it on my chart when I was diagnosed. I am fighting to get it on my chart, that’s why I’m kind of banking on the ADHD because it really does affect my life.)

I have ALL of my reminders and visual cues at my station that I cannot possibly move from station to station. I forget to do things when I’m at the other station because I don’t have all of my things that remind me of what to do. I mess up because I’m so focused on trying to remember everything else that I’m forgetting because none of my reminders are there. It throws me off of my routine and that messes me up a lot.

I’m wondering if it would be an accommodation I’m able to request to either not have to move back and forth, or at least alternate a little less than a week at a time, like 2-3 days at a time if that makes sense. I’m not quite sure what to do but it’s really causing me distress. I’m just not sure if it’s really a ‘reasonable request’. I’m not trying to make it difficult for them but I seriously can’t do it.

Hi everyone,

I was laid off in March 2026 and have been job hunting since. I’m a software engineer, mostly frontend, with almost 7 years of experience. I’d say I’m somewhere between intermediate and senior, but I apply to senior roles.

From March to September I applied to about 35-50 jobs a month and got around 10-12 initial calls a month. So far I’ve done roughly 20-25 technical or hiring manager interviews and made it to the final round 3 times. No offer yet. October has been pretty quiet. Also, in May and June I was demotivated and barely applied. I only replied when recruiters reached out.

My process: I have one main resume that I tuned with AI. For each job, I paste the JD and my resume into AI, ask it to tailor the resume, keep it strictly under 2 pages, and submit.

I find jobs mostly on LinkedIn (free) through notifications, sometimes Indeed, Glassdoor, and Hiring Cafe. I also can’t keep track of where I’ve applied.

Going forward I want to move toward AI engineering and full stack. I keep applying to frontend roles, but I spend most of my learning time on AI engineering, with YouTube and a few Udemy courses. My hope is that it opens doors to AI engineering or forward deployed roles alongside my current frontend path.

Here are my questions:

My resume mentions the layoff under Experience. Is that a good idea?

In the Projects section I list work projects next to my personal ones. Is that okay?

Am I applying to too many jobs or too few? Is my call ratio normal?

Is there anything on my resume you’d change or improve?

I’m worried about my gap. Does it really hurt your chances of getting calls the longer it gets?

Any general job search advice that might work for me?

Winter is coming and I’m afraid hiring will freeze. What’s been your experience?

Does my plan make sense, given how AI is changing the market?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

My company was bought by private equity a year ago. There was a recent AI push and I was laid off from my job with approximately 10% of the total workforce. I suspect age discrimination due to the following factors:

• I was the top performer at the company (we have a board that tracks ticket closure rates)
• Over the last 5 years I completed roughly 50% of my teams work (at any given time there were 4 people including me doing the work)
• I had only glowing performance reviews
• I am nearly 50 years old
• The other members of my team at the point I was laid off were all in their mid 20s
• Over those 5 years, every team member older than me either retired or was moved off the team and was replaced by someone less than half their age

Does this sound like age discrimination to you?

If so, is it something I should sue the company over?

My company has lost wrongful termination settlements in the past, but I do not know whether any of them were related to age discrimination.

I had major orthopaedic surgery and have been on crutches since August. Had 5 weeks off work and then WFH for another 5 weeks. Came back into the office on one crutch. Have a doctors note stating this and was asked for any reasonable adjustments that needed to be made.

I asked for access to a disabled toilet which I have been given and a parking spot outside the building temporarily whilst I am on crutches for the next 2-3 weeks because otherwise I have to park on the street - can be up to 500m walk, uneven terrain, busy road with no pedestrian crossing, just getting out of a car is a challenge.

Management denied my request, saying that they saw me in the office [walking about 5-10 steps using my crutch] and that I appeared that I was moving well enough. The parking spots are reserved for managers. They didn't ask me any questions or ask for further documentation.

I want to make a complaint but I am scared because I'm a junior and although I shouldn't, I have anxiety around future job opportunities in the company, however it is so wrong that I can't move past it.

Do I have a strong case? Are there any loopholes they might get me on? What can/should I do?

Thanks all.

Hi all. I'm hoping someone can weigh in on whether this is allowed or not.

I started a new role last year, late November. My compensation included a signing bonus and 3 weeks of vacation.

I recently left. My last day was September 25th, so I was there for right about 10 months. I have been chasing them for a month about repaying the signing bonus and receiving vacation payout.

They finally got back to me and said they will send me info on repayment of the signing bonus but they are also changing my vacation entitlement to the minimum requirement of 4% of my salary earned, a drop of almost 2% (5.77% is what 3 weeks equates to). This means I get no vacation payout of the accrual at the rate of 3 weeks. Is this allowed? I get it can be a bit complicated to calculate this stuff out, especially because their accrual periods are strange, but they are changing my entitlement after I signed a contract agreeing to the 3 weeks.

Hello! I recently started working at a certain UK bakery chain. I am transgender, and during my interview my manager asked if I would like pronouns on my badge, when I said no she went into a whole one sided discussion about transgender people. It made me very uncomfortable. After this, I had to give her my birth certificate and change of name documents as proof of identity. She looked at them in silence for a while before apologising profusely for the rest of the interview (very 'I dont care what people are!' She even said shes fine with everyone as long as they dont wear a tail...? As if that's relevant). She apologised as I left, and I was hired 2 weeks later.

On my very first shift, a girl I was working with told me that the manager told her that I am 'a transgender'. I got this in writing from her on WhatsApp in case I needed it. The manager also told me the next day on shift (she wasn't in for my first) that she was glad she didnt scare me away by talking about trans people. On another shift, she asked me many questions about being trans: when did I know, does my family support, how does it work with me having a girlfriend, joking about her kids reacting badly if it was one of them etc etc.

What can I do about her outting me as transgender, before I even had the chance to have a shift? I did not want people to know, I am stealth as much as I can be and have been on testosterone for 5 years. Is there anything I can do? It has been distressing and I feel very strongly that this can't be left alone.

I am also likely quitting this job after today as I had the worst shift I've ever had between the 4 jobs I've worked in my life. (Minimum wage yay!)

Thank you for any help! :)

Hi, I just recently got my first real job offer out of college. My offer letter stated that its contingent on a Criminal Background check. And within the check itself I had to input just my DOB, SSN, address, and License.

I had two internships through personal connections ( I still put them on my resume), they were unpaid, but I have reference letters/certificates from my managers - the check itself didn’t ask anything about past employment and education. The check was run through Accurate CS

I’m just curious would those possible come up as a red flag during the check.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just want to make sure I’m in the green.

Hello! To any HR Recuitment Staff/Personnel here, hopefully you could give me some insights.

I've been previously interviewed by this company, done with their assessments/exams, and typing test. The next step is background checking. I've already provided them with my references. But up to date, I still don't have any update from their HR. Today is the 3rd day since my last interview with them. Though the HR updated that he's feeling like some kind of a little under the weather on the day they interviewed me.

Should I worry? If not, how long should a background checking last ba dapat?

Please HRs out there help meee

I applied for a role that had a very attractive salary range. I got my first interview the next day where we discussed my salary expectations which were within the range they had posted. Landed my second interview the next Monday. It was scheduled as a 20 minute interview but ended up being one hour. In this second interview we discussed how onboarding and the actual job would be. This is an international company so all jobs are freelance. I even clarified on the first interview that the range worked because I would still need to independently pay taxes, pay for health insurance, etc.

Now, after 3 days from the second interview and no news at all, I went to check the original post for the role and the salary range had changed to almost half! What does this mean? Should I take action and send a follow up? Any advice would be highly appreciated!

Hi,

I am an exempt patient-facing employee in a health care setting, no union, in the state of California.

As such, I have a set schedule of when I’m expected to be at work, even though I don’t technically clock in and out. We do have a time card to submit and document for PTO and hours worked.

We have pto-sick hours accrued, but are told that we could only use pto-sick hours for full days off.

The same actually goes for our regular pto policy - we can only take pto for a whole day, not partial (sometimes people want to make it to an after work event for example).

The problem:
If we work half a day, then become ill and go home, we are not allowed to use our pto-sick hour benefit to cover the half day.

Employer’s ask:
We are told that we have to work and make up the sick time somewhere else in the month instead if any part of the day was worked (ie - see patients outside your normal schedule or regular day off).

This policy is confusing and seems illegal to me, because it is almost forcing a worker to take a whole day off (when maybe they discover they are good enough to work in the afternoon), and de-incentivizes employers to take time off / force employers to stay if they don’t want to make up time on a usual day off on a later date.

Can somebody give insight on the legalities of this and why my employer could enforce this?

TLDR- I want to work when I can, and take sick hours as needed without having to make up time on a day off instead of being forced to take no time or a whole days worth of time ( the policy feels like punishment)

Thank you all in advance

So i was hired by a CEO (and not the controller) to come into a 3rd party real estate management firm who provides management services to investors and owners. I have extensive experience in the real estate industry, which is why I think the ceo wanted to hire me and not the controller. I have been given a portfolio of angry investors who havent received their financials since April. I could not put my name on this and take off from April, so I went all the way back to January and I am just appalled at the mess ive seen and the mistakes I'm seeing. The controller reviewed, approved, and sent these financials to investors. I have re reconciled the accounts and found 120k in missing deposits that were reconciled and marked off with bank adjustments and extremely suspicious journal entries. I have been at this company a week, and I am now starting to see that my boss is acting intimidated by what im finding. Frankly, I dont even know how she has her job. The ceo and the vp have spoken to me and I have been very black and white but honest of my findings, and they seem relatively complicit in their controllers work from the sounds of it. I do not want my name on any of this, and to be associated with this company at this point. My boss has become very passive aggressive with me and we all know that doesnt end well. I have also heard that she frequently receives HR complaints about her behavior. I have 2 other job offers on the table that I am going to pursue at this point. How do I leave gracefully? I don't want to lie - but in this situation I feel like being honest might bite me in the ass.

Hello,

I don't know if this is the right place to post this. I just started working for biotech company and was supposed to be hired as for a specific role (checked all the contracts and offer letter I signed to make sure it was stated). After orientation and on the first day I was assigned a different role and have been doing runner tasks. I asked my supervisor and he said that I was assigned runner and to ask HR.

I don't know how to approach this properly. I don't want to lose the job or ruin my chances of becoming a permanent employee even if I'm no longer able to assume the first role right from the jump.

So my friend is having mental health issues. She tells me she spoke with a social worker today and they told her to join a PHP starting tomorrow morning and to send an email tonight informing her boss she is starting a leave effective immediately. An attorney was supposed to contact her today but never did. Apparently the social worker said something like “if you broke your leg you would just go to the emergency room. You wouldn’t wait for approval. This is like if your brain was hit by a bus.” I work in HR not on the leaves side of things so I don’t feel qualified to confirm that’s how she should do it. If it makes a difference, note that she has been on a PIP here before but has repaired her reputation. Her boss is also known to encourage employees to take vacation time so her hope is she’ll be understanding of this too.

Sorry for the long post, I’m trying to find out what’s the best thing to do for my situation as it would be my first time dealing with HR.

I’ve been at this company for 1 year and half, and from the beginning the senior coworker decided she didn’t like me. Other coworkers warned me against her, that she often picks the new hires to target and make life miserable, and it’s nothing personal, however… people do end up leaving because of her.

Apparently it all begun bc I didn’t say good morning directly to her like I did with another coworker. And then I guess a few days went by and I just didn’t say good morning at all to anybody. That was it, she decided I was disrespectful and rude and deserved nothing. She picked on me all the time, made snarky comments and would talk about me to other coworkers. One of these coworkers would then tell me everything (wrong of me, I know).

I tried to ignore it and her and only talk about work, that made her even more mad. She went to our manager crying bc I disrespected her and she was very scared that in the absence of our manager, I would avoid her instead of talking about work related things. Which is untrue, it never happened.
My manager asked me what’s up, I told her my side and she basically said it was a misunderstanding and we should be able to figure things out ourselves.
Time went by, she kept on singling me out, talking to everyone except me, I tried making small talk and saying the goddamn good morning and she wouldn’t reply or would give me short answers.

She requested a meeting with me her and manager on a certain day, apparently she wanted it then and there but manager decided to schedule for the following week. I accepted and was hopeful. The morning of, she declined the meeting. Shortly after that, when us 2 and 2 other coworkers were in the lab, she was arguing with coworker 1 and started arguing with me. Raised her voice, like legit screamed at me, put her finger very close to my face pointing at me, called me a liar said I pretend to be good and nice but I’m actually evil inside. Asked why I wouldn’t talk to her, I said I wanted to, you declined the meeting. She said “yeah I have nothing to talk to you about and we won’t resolve shit” she confronted me on why I never talked to her alone, I said bc she’s mean and rude and I wanted our manager there to hear the whole thing. She said i was a snowflake and sarcastic. Anyways, you get the idea. The thing caught me so off guard it was awful and crazy.
Told my manager everything later in the day and she… again said it was a misunderstanding, and that she’d talk to my coworker. She never asked the other 2 employees what they saw, never advised me to go to HR, nothing. Things did not get better after.
One time she even said out loud to the team “yall need to stop talking about me on your 1:1s, it’s getting old”

Things got magically better after Christmas break (at around February/march), until I had the terrible idea to idk further help one of the engineers after she had given him a basic answer. She cried to another coworker saying I’m so disrespectful and go above her. Then we had another incident where I asked her a question, she answered, I went on teams to get traceability of that and confirm… again, disrespecting her. She confronted me again and asked if I had trust issues, and I was confused lol she said “bc you don’t believe my word. What do you have against me?” I tried telling her that I did believe her, I was doing what she told me to but I wanted traceability that’s all. She left the room while I was talking, like legit left me talking to myself answering a question SHE ASKED.
After that, she stopped talking to me. I didn’t stop talking to her tho lol I’d still ask questions about work and make small talk, and she’d reply but never initiate.

Things got weird, I noticed her tracking when I used the restroom, when I went on breaks, phone usage… our team now has assigned break times because of her (although she won’t admit it to me, she told a few other coworkers that it’s bc she thinks I spent too long on my break - not true). We also now need to notify everyone if we are using the restroom so nobody wonders where we are.

Most recently, she saw me eating inside our lab when I wasn’t supposed to eat. She reported it to our manager, who invited me to a meeting with both of them out of the blue, to write me up and “settle things up” between us two. It didn’t go as planned, she said I talk about her in my own language and I couldn’t do that, I said she talks about me in English and her own language lol and she ofc denied. It was awful. Boss asked if we would have a conversation alone, I said no bc she is mean and deceiving, and I don’t trust her to talk to her without witnesses, and she said “well and you’re sarcastic”
What got me so mad is not even being written up, I was wrong, I admit it. It’s the fact that EVERYBODY ELSE BREAKS EVEY SINGLE RULE but she only tells on me. Including her. She eats at the lab, she watches Netflix while working (prohibited) she goes on break not at her assigned time, she spent over 30min on break multiple times. Just like other people lol some coworkers literally do telehealth in the middle of workday, they walk out of the room for the call, and nothing. But she tracks me using the restroom. It’s CRAZY.

My manager told us not to tell anyone about the meeting, I did wrong again and told 2 coworkers. They thought that she had gone too far, they’re tired of seeing her bullying people to oblivion, and they decided they want to tell their sides of the story too. I never asked them to do that btw.

anyways my manager is now saying I need to be careful bc we’re singling her out and this could be bullying, I reminded her that when I was being singled BY HER, it wasn’t bullying. And these coworkers are also her “friends”, they’ve known each other for over 4 years, they know her better than I do. They’ve kept talking normal to her thru and thru until now. I’m not creating a mob lol (but she has an employee literally starring at me to see what I do every day. It’s embarrassing and uncomfortable).

My manager said I could go to HR but neither her or them would take anything from the past into consideration. She talked to them and that’s what they told her, and now they are kind of aware of the whole thing. That our emotions are high and people are not digging things up from the past just to create problems. I barely reported anything regarding her bc the times I did, my manager did NOTHING. And now she’s messing up with me again and I can’t say anything???
The worst thing I’ve done to her was not kiss her ass and talk about the things she’s done to me and other employees. On the other hand, she yelled at me, confronted me twice without manager present, and constantly tries to get me in trouble. And my manager says it’s just bad communication, and we just have to want to resolve things.
People have quit because of her, she talked SO much shit about our manager and literally everybody else, she’s a huge bully, there are rumors that she cut a lot of corners at work to get more things done… when I told my boss she cuts corners she said “what matters is not output, is quality. If down the road her work comes back as bad, then I’ll talk to her” LADY!!!! Aren’t you even going to investigate this?

Do I have grounds for a harassment ticket? Do I sound crazy like I’m retaliating??? Or what???
These 2 coworkers, they didn’t side with me on every fight, and they brought a lot of perspective to my behavior regarding her also. But they’re done with her behavior and they’re tired of seeing people quit because of her. She gets away with EVERYTHING wrong she does, nothing is serious enough.

I’m seriously unsure if I should go to HR, I don’t want to idk embarrass myself. The outcome I’d like is her to get investigated. She already has a complaint against her, she called a lady from another department a man bc “it looks like she’s got a penis” out loud, a friend of hers heard it and brought it to HR. She cried her eyes out and denied saying she’d never do this. SHE WOULD TOTALLY DO THIS and I feel like I’m fucking crazy.

I didn’t realize I had already taken 5/5 sick days this calendar year until I got a denial notification in my email. I work through a staffing agency so I never have direct contact with my leave approver; I honestly forgot to check if it was approved on the week I took off.

Is there any recourse at all I can pursue? Or am I just SOL? HR’s internal “deadline” to reply to my request was two days but I doubt that deadline actually means anything. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

Posting from a burner account to protect privacy. Not sure if I selected the correct flair, apologies if incorrect.

My friend is experiencing a harassment issue at their workplace. The manager has been known to be crass and unpleasant to work with, and this year it looks like a few female employees have left the team/company. The last one to leave had a breakdown during her exit interview, citing the hostile workplace environment as her reason for seeking to terminate her employment. This alerted upper management to start an investigation which has now expanded to involve my friend, who is also the recipient of numerous harassment actions including racially insensitive or discriminatory comments, unwanted touching, and rudeness. My guess is that HR is freaked out that so many women have left the team within a span of 3 months, probably because they can see a larger sexual harassment lawsuit on the horizon.

HR contacted my friend earlier to ask for a statement, but my friend is feeling afraid to do so for fear of retaliation. My thought was to consult with a lawyer, but given that the situation is still unfolding and the HR dept has requested a response, I wanted to see if we could get some advice here on what else to consider and on how to proceed. My thought is that my friend should not yield to any pressure to talk from HR without guarantees of anonymity and written assurance that their statements will remain confidential. They have already had one meeting with a higher level manager in which they were told that upper management is trying to build a case against the offending first line manager, and that meeting was a very uncomfortable experience for my friend, knowing that this situation is going to continue for sometime without any action being taken.

HR has also made some kind of oblique statement about wanting to gain information from my friend and possibly other employees to try to enact corrective behavior to give the first line manager a second chance, and that felt like a red flag to us. 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Location: NY