Location: Michigan, USA

Asking this on behalf of a friend who’s dealing with a messy PTO situation at a new job and wants some outside perspective.

She signed an offer letter for a new job (at a law firm, not as a lawyer) that stated 120 hours of PTO annually, in writing. There were two versions of this letter — the second was sent to correct an unrelated hourly rate typo (an extra dollar per hour), the first version was retracted/unsent by the employer. She still has access to it, and it also listed 120 hours PTO, same as the corrected letter that they both signed.

On her first day, she noticed the PTO listed in the system didn’t match her offer letter, so she brought it up. That’s when HR told her the 120 hours in her offer letter was a mistake and the actual policy is 80 hours. To be clear:

-They hadn’ flagged this to her on their own.

-The 80-hour number only ever appeared in the body of an email from HR, never in any version of the contract, let alone the one both parties signed.

-She made her decision based off what was actually in the offer letter she signed.

-She specifically expressed the 120 PTO as a reason she didn’t negotiate her hourly rate (although the first offer they sent/unsent was for an extra dollar an hour.)

When she asked directly if they’d honor what they’d both already signed, they said “no” — but offered two extra PTO days as what felt like a consolation, verbally and in a follow-up email, not in anything she’s signed. In reality this doesn’t fix anything: she’s still losing 40 hours (a full week) of PTO annually, permanently, starting in 2027. The two extra days only apply to 2026, and given her start date, she likely won’t be PTO-eligible until close to the end of the year, so they may be close to unusable before hours reset in January anyway. The only way that compromise has real value to her is if she can get it paid out (she believes she can request payout for up to 40 unused hours at year-end), which would mean the actual “extra” she’s getting is a fraction of two days’ pay, not anything close to the week she’s losing annually going forward.

Notably, the only concrete thing the employer got out of her when they made this “compromise” was having her send a Slack message — dictated to her by HR in the moment — reminding them to add the two days to her PTO balance. She didn’t draft that message herself, and felt bullied/pressured into going along with it.

They sent a follow-up email regarfing the reduced terms and sent an updated offer letter through their HR platform for her to sign. She doesn’t want to sign it, since it would replace the original signed letter with 120 hours on it. She has the original signed letter, the retracted corrected version (still 120 hours), Slack messages, and the follow-up email as documentation.

Questions:

-Does a signed offer letter carry real legal weight here, or is it moot once she’s started work at-will?

-Is refusing to sign the updated letter actually meaningful, or can they just apply the new policy regardless of what she signs?

-Is this something an employment lawyer would even take, given the dollar amount is relatively small?

-Any experience with how these usually resolve — does pushing back on paper actually work, or does it just sour things?

She thinks she likes the job and doesn’t want to blow this up, she just wants to understand what leverage she actually has, if any.

My girlfriend is a CDL driver and recently switched jobs. It's her time off today so she was setting up her benefits through her employee portal when she noticed this issue. She cannot change it on her own. Since it's Labor Day, HR isn't in office so her dispatcher put her status as "inactive" until Wednesday, aka unable to legally drive a truck until then. (I told her it's likely so that she can call them while she's not driving.)

All the legal documents say she's a woman. She's upset and rightly freaking out since... well, we live in the South.

This is just an administrative mistake, right? What does she do if they don't fix it?

I have an accounting employee who actually used to be my boss 20 years ago in this same industry. He left and went to another company that was high stress. At his mid-60's he had a health incident and "retired", but hated it. He saw on LinkedIn, that I had an AP clerk position open. He asked if he could apply for the job. We discussed his obvious over qualification for the position but he said he just wanted work about 30 hours and have less stress. We had a deal. Now, it's been 6 years and steadily, his work has declined. Because I'm a woman and he is a man of a different generation, I am aware of the dynamic that his generation can have with a woman giving negative feedback. So, I try to be very gentle when discussing any performance issues. For the past year, our company has been growing and my department has been tasked with big projects, but as his performance has been declining, I've been having to pick up the slack for him because he just has excuses why invoices are past due and often doesn't take the time to find invoices on vendor statements. I'm falling behind in my work and I'm working about 60 hours a week or more. He recently had another health incident at work with his heart and so I also don't want to add any extra stress to him, but I can't keep this up. Speaking with our HR and General Manager, they are aware of the issue, but are concerned because of his health and age so I have to be very careful. He is also a really great person and I sat in my car and cried when I found out that he had another health incident on the job so I'm not heartless at all. I am just between a rock and a hard place. There is no other option for him to move to another position to allow me to hire someone who can do the job. He is staying because he doesn't want to go on Medicare and lose our pretty good health insurance. What can I do?

So I’ve been off 75% of the year and the policy says you can only carry over one week leave unless approved by a director.

I have three weeks leave due to being off for cancer, will my leave be carried over automatically because I’ve had cancer (disability) or does the policy win and I have to get approval from a director?

Thanks for your help

I work for a large retail chain in Texas. A male coworker began crossing boundaries, so I cut off personal contact with him outside of work. After I ended contact, his behavior escalated into stalking my schedule, showing up at my work area, and sending me explicit text messages threatening physical and gun violence.

I have screenshots of everything. In these texts, he explicitly states that he is armed, threatens to shoot me and anyone I might be with, and specifically boasts that he wouldn't miss and that it would be "over" for us.

I blocked him and formally reported this to my store-level manager after he escalated one day at work which ended with me needing to be escorted to my ride by a coworker after my shift ended to guarantee my safety. I provided a fully written timeline of the harassment and all the screenshots. Instead of taking action, the manager completely minimized it, told me my evidence "didn't provide the full story," and said nothing could be done.

I have already started the legal process (police report/charges), but I am completely unsupported at work. I am planning to bypass my store management and take my documentation straight to Corporate Employee Relations/HR.

My questions are:

- What is the typical corporate response to a documented threat of gun violence when local management tries to sweep it under the rug? Is termination standard here?

- What is the best way to present this to Corporate HR to ensure they focus on the severe safety liability rather than brushing it off as "store drama"?

- What are the realistic odds of retaliation from my store managers for going over their heads, and how can I best protect myself?

Location: Minnesota, US

I work in IT for a small Minnesota company. I joined last year, am Indian, the only Indian employee at the company, and am on temporary U.S. work authorization.

Facts:

• I am currently the only internal IT employee supporting multiple offices and remote employees. My work includes everything an IT person needs to do and doing all by myself.
• After another IT employee left last year in early 2025 I took on his responsibility with no promotion. Then another IT contractor was doing a bad job and fired so I took their work as well.
• Then my boss left this year and they did not hire anyone replacing my boss, I was assigned 80% of his work
• After my boss left they promoted the white girl working under my boss but not me.
• Any other employee who left or was laid off, his team was promoted (or at least the sr ppl under that person) cause they were all white. I a only asian person in the comp
• In the Jan 26 promotion cycle, all Associates in the company with similar or shorter tenure then me were promoted. I was not. Everyone else is white and was promoted and just me was not
• My annual performance review score was higher then the people who were promoted (the ppl who bfr promotion had same job title as me worked for less months in the company then me).
• I received a $20k bonus. Other Associates told me they received approximately $25k.
• I did receive a $2k annual salary increase but was not told that the increase would be deducted in bonus not was communicated or intended in that way.
• There is one more european immigrant who had a lesser performance review score then me same job title as me bt was promoted. his visa is expiring in 2028 and mine in mid 2027.
• I formally requested a review of my title, promotion, compensation, and bonus. The company did not respond.

I am considering filing a national-origin discrimination complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights so they can investigate the promotion and compensation records.

For anyone familiar with MDHR/EEOC cases:

Is this enough circumstantial evidence to justify filing and having MDHR investigate?

I know they are purposefully trying to keep my on low pay since they know as an immigrant I wont leave and I m brown so they can keep burdening me with work. I talked with one lawyer but since the money loss is not a lot its not beneficial for them. I have global access and can access any document of the company. What all proof should I collect to have a strong winning case or is it even worth fighting? I have documented all the work I have done and its more then anyone in the company. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

I work in HR for a small company in Ireland, and one thing I didn’t really appreciate before taking the role was how different HR can be in an SME compared with what you hear about larger companies.

There’s no big HR team to ask for a second opinion, so you end up dealing with everything from recruitment and employee issues to policies, payroll queries and sometimes even things that probably shouldn’t be HR’s problem. The part I find hardest is knowing when to be flexible and when you have to stick firmly to policy. In a small company, everyone knows everyone, so even fairly straightforward HR decisions can sometimes feel quite personal.

For those working in HR in Ireland, what do you find is the most difficult workplace issue to handle when you’re working in a small company?

I'm in the U.S. The company is Pike's Nurseries, Loader position.

So basically, I have submitted info for a background check and done a drug test, and got a login for an ADP account. On the welcome page, there's a general welcome letter, but part of it raised some concern and confusion -

'your offer of employment is contingent upon the successful completion of all pre-employment requirements which includes the drug screen, physical and criminal background check. Information on the completion of these steps was provided in a separate email from the company. '

I got emails about the drug test and background check, but no matter how hard I look I can't find any about a physical check. I'm worried because I really need this job and I haven't received any instructions for this, and the welcome letter makes it seem necessary.

Internet searches haven't clarified it because they seem all over the place depending on what wording I use. I've tried both emailing and calling the provided HR number, but its been almost two days with no response to the email and my phone call today went unanswered. My hire date is the 9th of this month so now it feels like I'm running out of time.

I'm basically wondering if I should be worried enough to maybe go back to the store and ask about this in person.

Okay, this feels complicated but I’m going to try to remember all the details.

I’m a teacher at a private school. I am salaried at 40/hours a week. I have medical appointments that I take ADA time off for; this year, they changed the policy so it is no longer paid. So, every time I take off for an appointment, I have to log that with my HR representative (which I already do), and that time off (which is logged on an app for PTO requests), is no longer paid. It varies depending on the week, but it’s usually 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Here’s my problem: I’m usually working more than 40 hours anyway, but we don’t clock in and out (because we’re salaried). I talked with my HR representative and she said to talk to my supervisor. I talked to my supervisor and she said “hours for working is needed hours for the schedule to cover time you are away from work”.
I’m really bothered about all of this and am trying to figure out if that’s legal or even okay. What do I say to my supervisor or HR so that this is resolved? I want to be paid for my work, regardless of the schedule. I think it’s stupid to deduct time when I’m clearly working more than enough.

It’s not a lot of time off to be unpaid, but I’m really bothered by the lack of justice (lol).

About a month ago, I finally started a new role at a very large tech firm. I signed the offer letter, finished the onboarding, and everything was fine and solid.

Then I logged into the payroll portal to set up the direct deposit, and I found that the salary in the system was much lower than what I had signed for.

I immediately notified HR and sent them the offer letter as proof. They simply replied and told me that this was a "clerical error" on their part, and that my actual pay is 25% less than what was written in the letter. I am truly shocked that they can just do that.

My supervisor is acting like his "hands are tied," and pretending he has no say because it's an HR matter. He basically told me that it's not his fault so he can't solve it. I feel like everyone is shifting the responsibility to someone else.

The truth is that I still want to work here because the pay is still good even after this cut, and I certainly can't afford a lawyer to fight a multi-billion dollar company. Is there any way I can pressure them, or should I just keep quiet and accept this pay cut?

Security came to me last week and told me they strongly suspect that one of my direct reports is intentionally clogging toilets and that they want to speak with him this week along with our HRBP. I don’t know the exact details of the incidents but I gather that based on the security camera footage they have in the hallway outside the bathrooms they know the clogged toilets can only be caused by this one individual but obviously can’t prove it with 100% certainty.

Can HR terminate this individual based on circumstantial evidence or do you think they are just going to give him a warning? We work in the defense industry if it matters but neither myself or my employee has a clearance.

I’ll be honest, he’s not a great employee so I won’t miss him if they fire him but I’m already short-staffed as it is so I am just trying to understand what I should expect.

I worked in Thailand as an expat for a company for 6 years. I was technically employed through a staffing agency, but worked exclusively for Company A.

After 5 years and 8 months, Company A decided to convert around 30 long-term expat employees from the staffing agency to direct employees to Company A. The transition was done in batches.

I was part of the first batch of 5 employees because we were the most tenured. Company A and the staffing agency prepared the new contracts, we reviewed them, had no issues, and signed. A month later, we officially became direct employees of Company A.

Then we noticed something: our tenure in Workday had been reset to 1 month, instead of our actual 5 years and 9 months.

As the 2nd and 3rd batches started receiving their contracts, they saw what had happened to us and refused to sign. Their contracts were all put on hold.

Four months later our company announced that they're shutting down the expat market. All 5 of us from Batch 1 were laid off first. Company A paid us only 1 month of severance, arguing that our direct employment had only lasted a few months.

Meanwhile, the employees in Batches 2 and 3 who refused to sign the new contracts remained under the staffing agency and, when laid off, received severance based on their full tenure.

We sued, the case is ongoing. How can this happen in the first place?

Hello! Hoping for some advice, based in England. Due to return from maternity leave next month to an NHS reception position, I was previously working 3 mornings a week and I have asked to return for one of them. I’ve been told this shift is no longer available and been offered two afternoon options instead, my question is what if I wanted to return to my job as it was before which was the three morning and they now aren’t there?! Surely my previous role and shifts must be available to me? I’m slightly confused on the legality of this so was hoping for an answer! Thanks in advance ☺️

As the post said leaving my current job as I’ve accepted a job within a different company, I can’t put in a full two week notice though, will leaving a little early about a week in a half affect my rehire eligibility?

I work for a small company as an admin assistant. My direct supervisors are the owner and the co-owner, a husband/wife duo. I organize his inbox, schedule, and also help out with onboarding, filing employee records, and other small HR tasks.

When I first started, I asked who the HR lead was in the company and was told, “You are, I guess. You’re the HR Director.” I rebutted, saying that is not my role nor do I want any liability associated with it.

Well, I recently saw an email between the owners about a woman (call her Sam) they were interviewing. Sam mentioned in her phone screening with the wife that she had recently had surgery or some sort of ailment with her knees. The wife invited her for an in-person interview and then sent a message to the husband to “make sure to interview her upstairs” (implying that he should observe how she walks) and instructed him on what can and cannot be asked legally about her condition.

Sam was rejected the day after her interview. I am disgusted by their behavior. I have no one I can report this or even talk to about it in the company and no idea what to do. Any advice?

Also, I’ve decided to quit this week.

I just got a job offer and as part of the background check process, I signed a form saying that, among other things, they can (or will?) ask former employers about reason for termination and eligibility for rehire.

I was fired from a job in 2023 due to time theft, because of a miscommunication with a manager that I should've done a better job of preventing (but I did not do anything that the phrase "time theft" typically implies). I also know, for a fact, that I am ineligible for rehire with that company.

Is the new company likely to rescind my offer if or when they find this out? I have an otherwise stable job history and references from the former company who work at the new company who can vouch for me, but I don't know if that matters at all.

Hi i have worked at walmart for 11 months now and i am a temp team lead in fashion. i still dont have insurance. Why? because my HR directior keeps lying about sign up times. i was initially hired when insurance could be available after 3 months of employment. 2 days before my 3 months she tells me its now 6 months. so i get up to my 5 months and ask to go ahead and sign up so it can take affect at 6 months like every other job. she tells me i cant do that. so i wait. then my 6 months comes and goes and she tells me i missed it and have to wait for september. and guess what? I GET TOLD I CANT GET INSURANCE TILL FUCKING JANUARY. this cant be legal right? this cannot be ok? is there anything i can do or am i just screwed until she finally feels like letting me get insurance

Context, as I’m not sure what details are important: I am a 24 y/o asian female working as a housekeeping inspector on a contract until the end of
October at a seasonal resort, getting paid $18.50/hr. My coworker is a white male in his 30s. This is both our first time in this position. However, he has worked for this resort before (as an F&B manager I believe) and this is my first year. The resort hires a bunch of J1s and people from different countries, not sure if they get different compensation than I do.

I needed a shift covered this Saturday and I asked my coworker, who we’ll call Brian. Brian was hired after another full-time inspector quit on short notice. I never questioned why, but he never works as many hours as I and my other full-time coworker do, I just figured we only needed part-time help to get through the rest of the season.

Brian said he’d be happy to cover my shift, but we’d need the boss’ approval, and that he might have to work a shorter shift. I asked why, and he explained that he gets paid a different amount because of his previous position so it would be more expensive for the resort to schedule him (he also thinks that’s why he gets less hours). He may have mentioned this because our boss has off-handedly expressed financial concerns for our department. I asked how much he gets paid (in a light-hearted way, because I was surprised) and he said he wasn’t comfortable sharing. I don’t care that he didn’t share, but the fact he wasn’t comfortable sharing makes me feel like he gets paid significantly more and might feel bad about it. I don’t remember why, but in that conversation he also explained other stuff about his previous position that made me feel like he might have been salaried, but was still getting paid his old position’s amount in an hourly version if that makes sense?

I feel like I wouldn’t care as much about this issue if I didn’t feel like he was a less competent inspector and that I work harder than he does. He asks questions that I feel there are obvious answers to, and inspects less units in the same amount of time (units are different sizes but it’s a mixed bag as to who inspects what, we just go by check-in time priority and whoever’s done with their last inspection first).

Is this something I should raise to HR or someone outside of the company (Department of Labor)? I would love to make whatever he’s making.

For context I started a new position on August 24th. My boyfriend just won a trip to the bahamas that would be around 2 weeks. Would it look bad if I went ahead and requested off the two weeks right now or should I wait. The trip is in early December. It is also unpaid vacation hours.

Hello, I am currently applying for jobs during an extended probation period. My notice period is 1 week. I want to lie about my notice period and say it’s 5 weeks because I want to quit and have a break. Can they find out about my notice period length during background checks? Should I just tell the truth and say it’s 1 week?

I was out for 5 weeks following a planned surgery. I submitted all my documents well in advance and very clearly stated on my claim for my leave that I did not wish to use any PTO to supplement for the pay I would not be getting while I was out. I confirmed that they had everything they needed, and then convinced myself to trust that whoever was in charge of processing would do it right so I didn’t check pay stubs or my time card. Instead I focused on recovering from a rather major surgery. When I left I had around 30 or so hours.

When I got back 3 nights ago my PTO accrual bank stated I had 3 hours. My most recent pay stub says I have 11. I’ve gone back several paystubs. The paystub before I submitted my leave paperwork has my PTO correct. Then the paystub that covers the dates where I would’ve submitted my paperwork has my PTO tanking to 11 (I cannot stress enough that I did not take a day off during the 2 weeks this paystub covered). The next 2 paystubs which were from when I was on leave have it at 2 hours. The most recent (also from when I was on leave) has it back at 11. These paystubs also show that my salary was supplemented so I did get the money for the PTO hours that were applied. Something I, again, never asked for

I don’t even know where to begin with expressing how confused and frustrated I am. With it being a holiday weekend no one from HR is working. I submitted a ticket through our portal (with paystubs and my leave paperwork attached) and will call Wednesday if I don’t hear back tomorrow, but what’s the most likely outcome here? I need those PTO hours back, and I’m assuming they’re gonna want their money back if I want my hours. Can I press them to reinstate the missing hours ASAP and then pay back over time? Do I have to pay back all of it before they give me back my hours? Will I have to pay a lump sum? Any advice or insight would be appreciated, thanks

Hello!

Looking for some feedback because I feel like I am going crazy.

Been in my role for over a decade. My direct boss was promoted from my role into their current one and has now been my boss for almost 3 years. Gave a lot of grace and patience initially to give them room to find their groove but as time has gone on they have not leaned into leadership and the flakiness, lack of guidance, communication and consistency has completely turned the district upside down and everything feels chaotic and mismanaged pretty much all of the time. I am not the only one who is unhappy.

Most of the frustration is on these sort of general weak leadership things, but recently I learned of two situations where fraudulent purchases and inappropriate relationships were brought to their attention and they did not directly address or hold the offenders accountable. Instead, they suggested the entire district “go over” these policies with our teams. Both of these offenses warrant immediate termination based on our company policy. There have also been instances in the past where they have directed us to misrepresent promotions to push sales and at least one situation where they encouraged a direct report to quit after she reported some of their behavior. I have also asked for their assistance with several issues that are within their role over the years that have been brushed off and they have given us incorrect policy information or directive many times. I am well past a breaking point with the lack of structure and accountability, but also now very concerned about the ethics of what is happening.

Doing nothing feels irresponsible but I also don’t want to be the next one “encouraged” to quit. Is any of this worth reporting to HR? Or is this just a “keep your head down” and let it run its course sort of thing?