Remember: HR Won’t Do Anything Unless Forced To
Our recruitment manager walks into the office, looking mad. She approaches a coworker and me, as she’s chatty with us.
Recruitment Manager: “Just a heads up, but I might just murder your boss.”
Coworker: “What did [Boss] do now?”
Recruitment Manager: “We just spent all day interviewing candidates for [position] and—”
Me: “—and let me guess, he went for the cutest, youngest woman even though she was likely the least qualified.”
Recruitment Manager: *Blinks.* “This… is common knowledge?”
Coworker: “That he hired a hot young woman isn’t, since that just happened today. Why it happened, that [Boss] is a big ol’ pervert, is common knowledge, however.”
Recruitment Manager: “And… no one has gone to HR about this?”
Me: “Plenty of times, but [Boss] is pretty senior, and he hasn’t actually been caught doing anything bad other than making inappropriate comments.”
Coworker: “They keep slapping him on the wrist, but after hearing some of the stuff he’s revealed to us, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s into that.”
Recruitment Manager: “Ewww. Not ‘eww’ about being into that, by the way, but ‘ewww’ as in he told you he was into that.”
Me: “Well, now we can add you to the list of people who know about him.”
[Recruitment Manager] brought her concerns to HR. Apparently, she was concerned enough about this new hire’s well-being that HR actually took steps to make sure [Boss] wouldn’t be left alone with her at any time, which is a huge f****** red flag if you ask me, but what do I know?
About two months later, I just got back from a business trip and happened to be talking to the recruitment manager again, when [Coworker] rushed up to us.
Coworker: “Welcome back! Did you hear about [Boss]?”
Recruitment Manager: “I was just about to tell her!”
Me: “I just got back from a trip. What happened?”
Coworker: “Apparently, he was so inappropriate with [New Hire], and so often, that she secretly started recording audio on her phone every time he approached her. She went to HR with the recordings of him inviting her to go over and swim in his pool while the wife and kids were away, and so yesterday he was sent straight to his desk to collect his things.”
Recruitment Manager: “The amount of flabbers that I did not gast are uncountable.”
Good riddance! And [New Hire], despite being hired under bad circumstances, ended up thriving with the right training.
