What is that one trick that "they" really don't want you to know? [Serious]

This was in Ireland.

HR were the ones who stopped us from getting into a union. One office group decided to join a union and got fired on the spot. They brought in lawyers, but didn't win since in the contract it stated that union members were not allowed to work at their company.

HR were the ones who fired my colleagues when they developed an allergic reation to the mold growing on the walls. (We reported it, it never got removed, it was painted over.)

HR were the ones who setup these friendly competitions to incentivize us to perform better, but they never told us there was a competition going on. All we heard were "This month unfortunately one of your coworkers were late so you all lost the competition and the 500USD bonus".

HR were the ones who sided with the menagers when we reported that the chairs were broken and too low to use comfortably. "I know that we made a 4.s billion USD net profit last quarter, but we don't have the budget to buy 50 new office chairs. And no, you are not allowed to bring your personal items, the office needs to be uniform for when the customers visit." Then completely coincidentally the HR department was moved to the larger office space, received new office equipment. We could not use the old stuff since the floor personnel and the HR department had different budgets and their old stuff was accounted as past some arbitrary expiry date.

HR were the ones who said that when I came to work with a runny nose, red eyes and a fever of 104 that I should go home and rest. But because this is an unforseen sickness leave I still had to come back to work everyday in the morning so they could see if I was still sick or not. They also required me to go to the doctor every day, pay for the visit out of my pocket, and bring all the doctor's notes to them.

HR were the ones who approved my and my coworkers vacation days to go to Japan together. But after we had bought the tickets and booked hotel, they were afraid were going to quit our jobs and disappear so they said we were not allowed to go together.

HR were the ones who broke the contract for most of my colleagues. They said that if they didn't sign the new contract they would be fired on the spot. Some of them refused, they were fired and dragged out of the building by security. Lawyers were brought in but I never heard what happened after that.

HR were the ones who wanted to congratulate me on my pay raise. When I asked what pay raise they had discussed with the managers about increasing our salaries and "won". How much? 2 extra cent per hour. Unfortunately since I got a new salary I was ineligible for the open position as QA teamleader, which went to one of the newhires, despite the fact that according to their own rules anyone that has worked there for less than 6 months could not become a teamleader.

This is just not one company, I've worked in several places and I have learned that HR are definitely not looking out for any kind of justice or the employees, they are working monkey wranglers that are there to make sure employees keep their heads down. The good HR guys are very few and far between. Contracts mean nothing at big companies, they change them as they see fit since the employees can't afford to battle their lawyers. If you know of any company that is hiring and has a decent HR department that treats the employees as human beings, please tell me. I will apply right away.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent