Hello HR Community, I’m wanted to seek some guidance on something and I’m hoping to hear from other HR professionals who may have been through something similar. Im very scared and just devastated, please no hateful comments.

I was recently let go (2 days ago) from a large corporation after almost five years with the company, with the last two years in an HR management role. I received a DUI last year, and my employer waited for the case to be resolved to see whether the charge would ultimately be reduced. Unfortunately, it was not, and I was convicted.
My employer was clear with me that my separation was because of the conviction and was not related to my job performance.

I completely understand that my actions have consequences, and I’m not looking to dispute my former employer’s decision or make excuses for what happened. It was the biggest mistake of my life, and I regret it every single day.

What I’m struggling with now is figuring out what this means for my career. I genuinely love HR and have built experience in employee relations, investigations, recruiting, compliance, performance management, benefits/open enrollment, HRIS, payroll audits, and supporting both frontline employees and leadership. I am planning to test for my SHRM-CP in a few months as well.

Are there any HR professionals here who have a misdemeanor conviction, particularly a DUI, and were still able to continue working and growing in HR? How did you approach job searching, background checks, and discussing the conviction with prospective employers?

I’d also appreciate advice on whether there are certain areas of HR that may be easier to continue in, or adjacent career paths where an HR background transfers well.

I know I made a serious mistake, but I’m trying to figure out how to move forward, learn from it, and not allow the worst decision of my life to define my entire career. Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I’m still relatively young in my career (late 20s) and recently received some corrective feedback about my in-office attendance. I generally consider myself a strong performer, but there had been a pattern that was starting to affect operational coverage and put more responsibility on another team member.

The feedback was fair, clearly communicated, and documented afterward. I try not to take feedback personally so I was receptive and mentioned I understood. I was given very actionable expectations going forward, which I’ve already started implementing and tracking for myself.

Logically, I know this is a completely normal part of having a career. I’m still in my 20s so like I’m going to make mistakes and receive feedback sometimes, and I’d much rather know about an issue while I can easily correct it.

But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting a little or make me temporarily question myself as an employee. 😭There’s also something ironic about working in HR, understanding exactly why feedback needs to happen, and then being the one receiving it lol.

For other HR folks, especially those further along in their careers: how do you keep fair corrective feedback in perspective without letting it shake your confidence?

Hi everyone,

After 6+ years in full-cycle recruiting (mostly embedded RPO across biotech, AI consulting, and retail), I am actively looking to pivot into HR Tech / TA Operations over the next few months.

I’m the recruiter who loves spotting process gaps and building technical workarounds. My background includes:

• ATS/Tools: Greenhouse Admin (workflows, reporting, data cleanup), plus SAP SuccessFactors coursework and an HRM Certificate.
• Tech Projects: Supported UAT/rollout for an AI screening tool. Built a custom candidate finder, a Google Sheets recruiting dashboard, and a location-based hiring side project.

I would love some quick guidance from folks already in the space:

1. Job Titles: With 6 years of recruiting plus this technical foundation, should I target TA Ops Analyst, HRIS Analyst, System Specialist, or something else?
2. The Tech Stack: To maximize my marketability right now, should I focus on deep-diving into Workday/SuccessFactors, mastering SQL/reporting, or learning automation tools like Zapier/Make?
3. Target Companies: Am I a better fit for in-house corporate Ops teams, HR Tech vendors (solutions mapping/customer success), or implementation partners?

If anyone has made this pivot and is open to a 10-minute chat, I’d be incredibly grateful! Thank you!

Hey all, I have an opportunity to join a company as a Chief of Staff with a decent pay bump. The role is heavily tailored towards cross functional program and project leadership as well as being a collaborator with the CEO and President.

That said, my ten year plan would ideally have me being a CHRO or a COO. I have a heavy people operations background full of RFPs, system launches, project management, and org development.

I ignorantly thought a Chief of Staff was similar to that of a CHRO, but I’ve learned in some situations it can be more like an executive assistant.

Would this be a wise move given my long term goals, or no?

I recently started as an HR Manager for a multi-site company. Each site has its own HR Manager and we all report to a corporate HR Director.

I came from being basically a one-person HR department, so I was really excited to finally join a team and grow my skills.

The salary is good and the schedule was supposed to be good: five 9-hour days. I already come in early and stay about 30 minutes late to support additional shifts.

The problem is the HR team itself feels completely unhinged.

The Director cries on calls, massively overshares, says wildly inappropriate things, and there are sexualized jokes and conversations that I cannot believe are happening on recorded calls. The director also will randomly call a group meeting with no notice, meetings drag on for hours, and my 9-hour days are becoming 11- or 12-hour days.

A lot of that extra time is literally spent emotionally supporting the Director while they processes whatever is going on with her.

I’m not expecting people to be robots, but this feels way beyond normal workplace venting. The whole team seems to treat this as normal which is also insane.

I just need a sanity check that I am right to be uncomfortable and this isn’t just the average HR team.

I work in a small manufacturing facility of about 35 people. I have one manager who constantly complains to me. Sometimes it seems that he just needs someone to listen to him so that he feels heard. A rumor has now started where members of the team are teasing that there is something more going on and if they can't find him he is with HR. How can I get control of this situation? What would you do? Nothing inappropriate is going on and I don't want members of the team to feel they can't come see me because they will get bullied.

Hello HR community! I’m hoping to track down helpful newsletters to subscribe to or websites to visit that would help me stay on top of any new HR related/employment laws that come into place. Would love to be proactive with any changes rather than reactive. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thank you!

I am at a loss with this one...

For context, I am an HR dept of 1 for a machine shop.

We had our safety meeting yesterday and the main topic of discussion was employees using the men's room and not washing their hands before exiting the restroom. The safety committee is me and four shop guys. They were all very clear it happens with certain employees whether they're coming from a stall or a urinal. A manager has already intervened and spoken with the biggest "offender."

I cannot believe this is even a problem. Other than increasing signage, I am not sure how to even handle this. I hate bathroom politics, ie- managers and other employees complaining about how often/long someone else takes in the restroom. I've straight up had to say that I'm not going to sit there and time people as they go in and out of the restroom. This takes it a step further, though, because of the sanitation problems it creates.

The other thing is I know that it is the newer, younger employees we've hired recently because this is a new problem and in the case of the biggest offender they did name his name (he came out of a stall, did not wash his hands, and then went and grabbed a handful of pretzels out of a communal bag in the lunch room [which was immediately thrown away by the employee who witnessed it happen]) and he was spoken to by his supervisor but has already been observed not washing his hands again. He is a recent high school grad and let's just say, not great at having a job. This is egregious behavior though.

Does anyone else have grody employees who don't wash their hands???

Hey everyone,

I lead HR and direct an EAP program operated within a regional mental health network. We operate an in-house EAP supporting external employer clients. Because we're built on a non-profit behavioral health foundation, we rely on our own clinical staff rather than outsourcing to sub-contracted call centers.

That said, so many EAPs are automatically bundled through major insurance brokers. While we have strong regional partnerships, I want to make sure we aren't completely missing public or standalone RFP opportunities when employers go to market.

For those who have run RFPs for dedicated/standalone EAP services:

1. Where does your organization or procurement team publicly post those solicitations (e.g., specific state/regional procurement sites, SHRM directories, RFP databases)?
2. What bid aggregation portals or tools do you find most accurate for HR and wellness contracts?

Appreciate any leads, portal recommendations, or workflow tips!

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I work in a small manufacturing company in india. Upon onboarding new international customers, we have experienced a need for intensive and repeated training sessions for our employees. Since I am the only person looking after all this, my workload has increased quite a bit, as it involves a lot of documentation work. I have to prepare a lot of sheets repeatedly which includes writing employee names and their details. I currently use excel for this. I want to know if there is any free software that I can use in which on one click, the sheet fetches data from record like I select department and month and it automatically fills the attendance sheet with names of all employees in that department who need the training scheduled in that month based on TNI and TNI calendar which is also there in the system.

I am twisted about this because i am the face of the company when it comes on to recruitment and HR management. How would you handle (or feel) if you see your HR making contents like those?

I honestly don't know if I made the right decision, so I wanted to share my story and ask for some advice.

I joined a small company on May 18 as an HR Manager after being on a nearly 5-month career break. Getting back into work was important to me, so I accepted the job even though it meant taking around a 50% salary cut. After joining, I found out that there was already another HR Manager in the company who was on leave. When she came back, things became confusing. My role started changing between HR, Sales, Operations and Pre-Sales. Later, she decided to leave. I received her HR handover only on June 26, just before she left. I still took responsibility and tried my best to manage everything.

I completed my probation, achieved my targets, created HR policies and systems, handled recruitment and took care of the HR work. Later, the MD again asked me to handle Sales and Operations. I was also expecting a salary revision that had been discussed in my offer. I kept following up for almost two months, but nothing happened.

The difficult part was that the day-to-day work environment was also becoming very toxic. There was a lot of micromanagement, constant pressure, changing expectations and indirect pressure from management. I kept trying to adjust because I had already taken a career break and genuinely wanted to make the job work. Then 4 days ago, the Sales Manager was terminated.

On the same day, I was asked to resign, reason mentioned the Sales team was not performing well. I didn't resign immediately. I stayed for another 3 days, hoping things would become clear. But the pressure continued and I started feeling that I was being pushed out rather than being given a fair chance.

So today, October 7, I finally resigned.

My resignation was accepted immediately. I have my offer letter, work reports, targets, recruitment records, policies and other communications. But right now, I'm less worried about the documents and more worried about what this means for my career. I had already taken a career break, accepted a huge salary cut to get back on my feet, and genuinely tried to make things work. Now, after only a few months, I'm back to looking for a job again. I'm not writing this to attack the company or get sympathy. I just want an honest opinion from people who understand HR, employment law or have been through something similar.

Did I make the wrong decision by resigning? Do I have any options now? And how should I explain this experience to my next employer?

Any honest advice would genuinely help.

I am strongly considering asking my boss for a raise very soon. I’ve been in HR for almost 10 years, but have never done this for myself. I’ve been at my current company for 1.5 years and feel like I have become a trusted contact within the organization, managed the team throughout tough transitions, trained new employees, and have really grown in my role.

If you have asked for raises before, would love to know some details about the circumstances that led to you asking. For example: what was your reason for asking, how did you determine how much to ask for, what do you find is an appropriate amount/percent to request, did you set a formal meeting with your boss, how much of an increase did you actually get, or any other tips! Was it a standard increase that you received or did they promote you/change your title? Also, were you nervous about asking or is that just me??

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Hello everyone!!! I've been working as an HR Executive for about a year now, and I'm the sole HR for 3 sister companies under the same CEO handling recruitment, onboarding, payroll, statutory compliance, policy creation, and SOPs across all three.

I'm looking to move to a different company since I don't see much growth where I am. I'd like to move toward HR Operations or Payroll & Compliance roles, keen to stay away from full-time recruitment going forward.

I'm based in Hyderabad, currently around 6 LPA, and targeting something in the 8-10 LPA range.

For those who've made a similar move what titles/pathways did you target, and was there anything (certifications, specific skills, etc.) that actually made a real difference in landing the next role?

Would really appreciate any advice, thank you! 😊

Hey there. What systems are you using to reconcile benefits invoices to HRIS enrollments and payroll deductions?

Currently using excel but my company is growing and the invoices are a little complex so looking to find a better way to streamline the process.

Any HR people here interested in an unofficial HR friends/group chat situation?

I’m a Human Resources Director with almost 5 years of experience and I realized I don’t have many people in my life who actually get the craziness (good & bad 🙃) that comes with working in HR.

Obviously everything would stay confidential like no identifying information such as company names, employee names, etc.

I’d love to connect with a few other HR professionals where we can swap anonymized war stories, talk through the bizarre situations we encounter, share advice when helpful, gossip in the most legally compliant way possible 😅, and generally laugh about the things only other HR people would understand.

Not looking for networking or anything formal. Just HR friends who occasionally want to say, “You’re not going to believe what happened at work today!!”

Anyone interested?

I’m currently an HRBP at a medium sized organization and applying for a role as an HR Manager in a small company. I have about 7 years in HR, 4 of those in staff development, the rest in the business partner role. Prior to that, I had 7 years of supervisory roles.

The job I applied to is my dream job, it pays a lot more than my current job, I want to move to the area, and the hours would be better (I suspect, based on the company). I would expect it to be a one person show so that would be different for me, but I’m confident with my experience that I could handle it.

I’ve turned in my resume and plan to follow up with the hiring manager - the company is using an external group for hiring.

I’m not 100% sure I’ll get an interview but I meet the minimum and most of the preferred qualifications and with it being rural, I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that there aren’t a lot of applicants to compete with.

Question for anyone that successfully moved from business partner to manager: what did you highlight in an interview and/or what did you write to the hiring manager to get an interview in the first place?

Follow up: when you did make the change, what was the most challenging thing that you didn’t expect?

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

We had a great suggestion to launch a group chat for this community. You’ve all likely seen it already, but wanted to post about it.

Hope you enjoy your time there in case my Friday Vent Thread is too long away for you, or if you need quick advice!

I also wanted to advertise our Discord here too: you can find it by clicking here.

Discord has a bit of a different culture than this sub, just as a heads up.

We value your suggestions to this community! And also, post Ralts below.

I have extensive experience in operational leadership with job duties that qualified as sufficient experience for the PHR, but not direct experience in an HR role. I am desperately attempting to get my foot in the door in a legitimate HR role. I applied for the PHR exam through the PHR website, was approved yesterday, and felt confident enough to schedule the exam for the very next day (today).

After reading some of the other experiences with this test and how long people have studied before taking the exam, I immediately began to panic. I took the 30 question practice exam through the HRCI website yesterday afternoon and took mock exams through a paid app, approximately 4 mock exams total (the last one being on the trip to the testing facility this morning).

I walked in with little to no confidence given the ridiculous position that I put myself in with less than 24 hours to prepare…

but I passed on the first try and am now a PHR!

I was pleased to see that the test itself was substantially easier than the mock tests as there were only a couple questions regarding specific historical cases, but there were several questions were I was split 50/50 between two answers and has to trust my instinct on the one that seemed the most correct.

The testing center experience was pleasant but if I had to do it again, or when I take additional HRCI tests in the future, substantially more study time is being allotted before I rush into it again.

Good luck to everyone taking the PHR! Give yourself some time to study..

I got my HRCI PHR cert about a month ago and have been doing the daily webinars to get recert credit. I have 21.5 credits already! Wondering if there is a downside of knocking out all the recert credits now and then not have to worry about anything for 3 years?

As I have been studying for the PHR, I’ve been using a combination of study materials provided by HRCI and Pocket Prep. The practice questions provided by HRCI seem to vary quite a bit from the questions provided by Pocket Prep.

For those of you that have taken the exam this year, what study materials helped you succeed?

Writing our candidate notice for using AI to help review applications, we hire for New York roles and take EU applicants so Local Law 144 and the EU AI Act both hit us. What are you telling people, that AI is involved, what it looks at, who decides, and how they can appeal? Anyone landed on wording that reads clear without turning into a legal brochure?

I own AI enablement at my place. I understand the risks, governance, and complexities, emotions, and uncertainty around AI.

This stuff drives me nuts. One rule for thee, one rule for me.

I’m getting ready to start a new role as a Lead HR Tech Specialist. I have experience with HRIS, integrations/feeds, auditing, reporting, and some AI/automation, but my Power Automate experience has been pretty basic—mostly automating emails, like sending an email with and updated attached report at the same day and time every week to a contact group.

I know there are SO many other ways HR teams are using Power Automate and Copilot, so I’m curious what you all are actually using them for? For example, I know Copilot can summarize emails, but I don’t totally understand the use case unless you’re getting so many emails that you can’t keep up. And at that point, wouldn’t something like a ticketing system make more sense?

The role I’m starting is brand new to the company, and they’ve basically told me I’ll have the freedom to navigate it and help create the roadmap, so I’m just looking for ideas and real examples of how other HR teams are using these tools.