HR is not merely about punitive measures.

This would be escalated to upper management to find out why people are under so much time pressure that they need to take calls in the bathroom, and at the very least doing so would be made some kind of violation of new policy.

These are the kinds of reports the organization needs as ammunition in order to fix what sound like bigger problems with the organization and work culture. There's very little chance this hasn't been noticed and isn't a symptom of something more going on.

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closewith 9 hours ago | parent [-]

> This would be escalated to upper management to find out why people are under so much time pressure that they need to take calls in the bathroom, and at the very least doing so would be made some kind of violation of new policy.

Or why there are people so idle that they can defecate without working.

Remember, HR protects the company, and complaints about heavy hitters because they work on porcelain aren't going to reflect well on the complainant.

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sublinear 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, that old chestnut. It's such insanely toxic advice too.

You're correct that HR is there to protect the company. The original post did not specify "heavy hitters", nor did I ever say to make an accusatory report. HR doesn't have to specifically know who is taking their calls this way.

I'm sorry if you or others have had such bad experiences with the most basic of HR interactions, though if I assume you're taking your own advice I doubt you've ever tried.

There's the tactful way to do this, and then there's whining to HR. I would be very careful taking advice from whiners because they're the ones who keep propagating this bad faith myth about HR.

All I'm saying to do is notify them about ongoing behavior with an emphasis on how it probably makes the company look bad and that it's done by many. They don't care who is doing it and it's not personal. I'd honestly be very surprised if this behavior doesn't already fall under some existing policy.

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closewith 7 hours ago | parent [-]

> I'm sorry if you or others have had such bad experiences with the most basic of HR interactions, though if I assume you're taking your own advice I doubt you've ever tried

I use HR to protect my company from people like you.

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sublinear 7 hours ago | parent [-]

And there it is.

It's exactly as I suspected. The only people spreading the toxic advice about HR are the ones who benefit most from making the workplace suck for everyone else.

I can only hope you just think HR is there to insulate you this way and haven't had to test it, because it simply isn't. You really don't want to be on the losing end of a wrongful termination suit. It's only because people rarely bother that you may not have come across one of those. Then it then escalates to worse when all of HR spills their guts about the pressure they were under to protect higher ups.

There is no loyalty after all. It's just a job to everyone else.

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closewith 7 hours ago | parent [-]

HR insulates me and the rest of the heavy hitters from people like you. It's a Godsend, obviously.

Surveilling co-workers in the bathroom is more than sufficient grounds for dismissal - gross misconduct.

	▲	sublinear 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's obviously not surveillance, and if it's as common as OP made it seem everyone already knows. HR isn't that dumb and doesn't need to find another squealer.