Leaders regale us with some truly terrifying tales of workplace horror – read at your own peril
It may be scariest time of year for the general population, but for long-suffering leaders it’s just another normal, chaotic, day. As a sector, we’re pretty used to dealing with the weird and wonderful – knowing to expect the unexpected and prepare ourselves for anything.
And boy, do we mean anything.
The pandemic certainly threw us all for a loop, but for HR leaders it was deemed the “most stressful time in their lives”. Not only did we have to grapple with remote working policies, with supercharged health and safety regulations, and a burgeoning mental health crisis, we also had to act as a sounding board to stressed out C-suiters and anxious shareholders. According to O.C Tanner’s recent global culture report, managers are burning out – and quickly. In fact, 42% of leaders are more likely to say work is interfering in their ability to be happy, with 43% feeling completely unsupported in their day-to-day role. It paints a scary picture of the sector – but it’s not all doom and gloom.
Read more: How to delegate properly (without feeling guilty)
We’ve emerged the stronger for the stress of the past year - and looking back, the pandemic really catalysed the HR function taking it from a ‘nice to have’ to a core strategic partner. It’s been as anxiety-inducing as it has been exciting. And so, in honour of the horror this Halloween and under the proviso of anonymity, we spoke to HR leaders to hear some personal workplace experiences that left them shook.
Knock knock, who’s there?
“Some lawyers and their staff were advised in an email that 25% of the workforce was going to be laid off. They were told to report to their office and stay there with their doors closed between 9:00 am and 11:00 am on a certain day. The managers and HR team would be going through the building and walking into the offices of the people who were being terminated. The email said that, if no one came into their office by 11:00 am, they could assume they were safe – i.e. not terminated. The person relaying this to me said it was an environment of pure fear and anxiety that day. No work got done as they all waited to hear if they would be terminated. They could hear knocking in neighbouring offices and knew by that who was being let go. Staff morale took a nosedive (no surprise there) that’s never quite recovered.”
Woodchipper nightmare
“Once I was working with a very aggressive person and when they finally determined that I was not able to assist them how they felt they should be assisted, they told me that they knew where I lived and that they were going to put me into a wood chipper! Obviously, I opened an RCMP file on this. That one, for sure was a little creepy.”
The hit list
“The leadership of a start-up had secured venture capitalist funding and, as part of the agreement, they had to downsize their workforce. The executive team put together a spreadsheet of all employees, including their name, position, salary, and whether they were going to be let go. The CFO emailed this list out but, instead of sending it to just the executive team, he sent it to the entire organization – none of which knew there were going to be terminations. Worse, the list that the CFO sent out was the first draft and the decisions on who would be let go had changed. So, not only did the entire workforce learn of the terminations through email, they saw a list that had every single person's salary on it (plus severance package amount), and a notation of who would be let go - but that list was incorrect. People who thought they were going to be terminated weren't, and people who thought they were safe were terminated. This caused a panic as soon as it went out, and the majority of the workforce on the "safe" list quit within the month.”
What do you mean they won't leave?
“It was a student intern's last day of work and at 5:00 pm they locked themselves into an office and could be heard crying. When we knocked on the door they indicated that they didn't want their work term to end and didn't want to go back to school! I ended up talking to them, calming them down, reminding them of their bright future. It took almost two hours, but eventually they left the building. It was a frightening and unique experience trying to convince someone to actually leave work.”
Bathroom breaks and bedlam
“Early in my career, I had a manager who wanted to prove herself so much to her boss that she became a micromanager, believing she would get more out of us if she was on top of us. If you were away from your desk for more than a few minutes, she would come into the washroom and look under the stall to see if you were in there, then tell you to hurry up. (Yes, hurry up from your washroom break.) Ugh. Needless to say, she was not a popular manager and she quickly lost any credibility.”
Read more: One in five Canadians don't trust their managers – and it's killing EX
What time do you call this?
“This story is from a friend of mine. He works for a professional services company and everyone is required to email reception when they arrive to let them know what time they got in. If they were late, they got demerit points. If they arrived on time all year, and had perfect attendance, they were awarded a bouquet of flowers and $300. This was not a factory or a frontline role - these were accountants, lawyers, IT, HR, etc. I'm hoping this practice stopped during COVID. We definitely don't want people coming in while they're sick just to win some prize.”
Goodbye creativity, hello micromanagement
“As a young professional, I was so excited to land a much-coveted job, however a day before I started, I got word that my soon-to-be-boss (who selected me) had resigned and the company would fill their replacement soon. Unfortunately, the new leader’s personality was very different than the one I interviewed with. I am an employee who likes to contribute in multiple areas, yet this leader assigned me work that lacked creativity and felt meaningless; the leader also positioned their desk behind the team to ensure no one was ever off task, and created an environment of avoidance. So, I took evening classes, networked, found a better opportunity, and left the company.”
Drunk and disorderly
“We were at a bonding retreat with our senior management team. During the course of the night, one of our managing directors got more and more drunk. He eventually left to go to his room and assumedly fall asleep. Everyone woke up as normal the following day and headed home. The next week, when we were back in our office, we got a phone call from the hotel. They said the MD had completely destroyed the room – including vomit all over the carpets and excrement up the walls. We had to pay a cleaning fee (a big cleaning fee), but what really shocked us is that he just left the hotel with us and didn’t say a thing? Knowing what he’d done in the room? Very weird.”
All jokes aside, HR leaders have had one hell of a year. So remember to prioritize your own wellbeing, practice some self-care, and learn how to delegate without feeling guilty this Halloween.
Have you had a terrifying HR experience? Tell us in the comments or feel free to email [email protected] to anonymously submit your stories for a future feature.
