HR Managers & Company Affairs -or How weird is my workplace?

[Waffle]

Yesterday in the course of telling me about a coworker who turned in her resignation, another coworker also told me that the boss of quitting co-worker is supposedly having an affair with his boss, who is our HR manager. It got me thinking. There have been 7 different HR managers since I've worked here - dating back to the days when they were Personnel managers.  Only 1 of which wasn't rumored to be sleeping with someone in the company. 

I can't think of any other position in the company that has that kind of track record. 

So in your work experience is this just weird, or is it a common occurrence with HR managers everywhere?

[zibazinski]

It certainly is the same way in my old school system and the bank where I worked when I first got out of school. Sad that women still have to sleep their way to better jobs. Or in most cases, promotions. Because merit doesn't count in the good ol boy system. I worked with a guy that had an affair with a co-worker. She was fired, he was transferred to my school. Typical. 

[wvugurl26]

I worked one place where it happened sometimes. I think it happened less than the rumors were though. My boss ran into an old teacher who basically implied that she must be cheating on her husband because everyone who worked at x company screwed around. My boss was certainly not cheating on her husband and was very hurt and offended by that comment.

Six months later it comes out the VP in the building next door is screwing his secretary. That's the only one I knew about. He got a new secretary after that. His wife busted him on an international trip to finalize a huge takeover. It was ugly. I knew many other people there happily married and not cheating on their spouse or SO.

[Waffle]

Of the 6 managers I referenced above 3 are women. Two of the six (1 man and 1 woman) were let go. 2 supposedly cleaned up their acts (these were the first two many years ago) after our first sexual harassment training courses. One went to another company and one is our current manager. As I wasn't directly involved, I don't know for a fact that the rumors were true. But I do have pretty strong reasons for believing a few of them.

The especially odd thing was that these were all Human Resources managers.  There weren't any other jobs in the company that had those kind of rumors.  Sure there was the person here or there who was said to be cheating, but it wasn't like 6 out of 7 accounting managers, or 9 out of 10 plant managers, etc. 

[alabamagal]

Well HR is a "touch-feely" kind of job

I once worked for a 25 person company.  The owner was sleeping with his HR/accounting person.  So never going to HR to complain about the boss.

Working for a large corporation I don't really see that happening all that much.  But maybe I am naive and out of touch (literally).  There were always people "dating", some of them even got married to one another, but mostly co-workers, and I really never saw anyone advance their career that way.

[Lizard Queen]

I never encountered this with HR, but a few other positions. I recently applied for a payroll job (in the HR department) at DH's company, but pretty much was rejected due to DH working there. DH is a staff accountant and is salaried, and the only issue would be my knowing how much his coworkers make. We pretty much already assume they make more.

[hoops902]

Sept 19, 2017 9:14:45 GMT -5 Waffle said:

Of the 6 managers I referenced above 3 are women. Two of the six (1 man and 1 woman) were let go. 2 supposedly cleaned up their acts (these were the first two many years ago) after our first sexual harassment training courses. One went to another company and one is our current manager. As I wasn't directly involved, I don't know for a fact that the rumors were true. But I do have pretty strong reasons for believing a few of them.

The especially odd thing was that these were all Human Resources managers.  There weren't any other jobs in the company that had those kind of rumors.  Sure there was the person here or there who was said to be cheating, but it wasn't like 6 out of 7 accounting managers, or 9 out of 10 plant managers, etc. 

Do you work in HR? People tend to hear these kinds of rumors about their own areas, but not about other areas.

[Waffle]

No - I don't work in HR.  Once, while in purchasing I reported to an HR manager  (one of the ones who was let go).  But, I've spent most of my career in operations.

[Deleted]

At a former employer I knew of one HR partner and a fellow manager that got canned for an affair. The manager slept with so many people at the company and a lot of people knew it. All married of course. Another instance someone from my team was shagging someone from my co supervisors team and her husband found out and allegedly was waiting outside work with a gun one day, nothing like having something like that going on when you are trying to run a business.

I don’t shit where I eat and have always had the policy to not date anyone from the office.

[Phoenix84]

I haven't seen this in my workplace. Maybe I'm just naïve or they're good at hiding it, or maybe people don't sleep with each other here. Either way, I don't see it.

We don't have many women that work here though.

[Tennesseer]

It happens.  Seldom as fact and often pure fiction.

[Pants]

There are 140 people in my department and I've never heard of anyone having an affair. 

There re have been some unhealthy dynamics though, that raised eyebrows. A woman who was overly friendly with her male reports but not female ones. A man who only hired young women right out of college and ran his area like a cult. A guy managing interns who posted pictures to Facebook of them at his house drinking late on weekends with him and his wife. 

The first two people are no longer here. The third got transferred.

[TheOtherMe]

In the federal agency where I worked, there were numerous affairs.  It was well known not to say anything bad about other co-workers because they might be dating the person you are talking about. 

[Happy prose]

Well no one in their right mind would sleep with our HR person, so she just goes around stabbing people in the back! 

[TheOtherMe]

I never heard of an affair with anyone in HR.  By the time I retired, HR wasn't in our city.

[empress of self-improvement]

DH worked for a large grocery chain. The place was a friggin' soap opera. Everyone else was sleeping with everyone else. It was absolutely ridiculous.