HR are lying? Aibu to be worried?

[ijustwanttodu]

So HR have fabricated an entire meeting. I had a meeting with them and they said we discussed this issue with you a year ago.

They claim I was taken into a small room and talked to by someone who has since left. 3 weeks into me starting there. I was taken aback and said what date was this and she got quite flustered and tried to change the subject and then gave me the vague answer of what month it occurred. And then she said all this bad stuff about me, how I kept coming into work late during that time.

I don’t know why she would do this.

Verbal warnings should be written down and signed by the employee and employer with time frames and put on file.

Surely you would have had an email invite or copy of the minutes to this meeting

Yes if it had happened.

So I put a request in to the person in HR to get more information and so far she’s just ignored it.

I’m 99% sure this meeting never happened, I briefly discussed it with my manager as well and she looked worried and also confirmed she remembered no such meeting.

Are you in a Union or Professional Organisation you can take advice from?

I would out in writing to them that I was concerned at this conversation as I have no recollection of the meeting they are taking about. Then ask for very specific times and dates - should be easy to prove if you weren’t there with meetings or emails being sent at the time they said. Also ask them why you didn’t receive a follow up email in writing following that meeting. Start there and then go back to then with evidence.

I second what Gliblet said.

What has triggered this meeting, almost a year later?

There should be records on your file of any meetings and warnings, whether verbal or written.

12 months is a long time to not follow something up, especially if no next steps were implemented at the time. Some warnings are live for 12 months but as you don’t remember having the meeting at all, it is reasonable to determine a warning wasn’t issued.

How long has it been since you emailed the HR person for clarification? It is worth chasing that.

I disagree with previous posters who say that HR are always “awful and not to be trusted”. What they are is people in roles where, as in any other, mistakes can be made. They owe you clarification on this issue.

Why has this raised its head now?

A few people have asked for more context. I think it's necessary.

Definitely ask for the minutes of the meeting. In many companies minutes should also be signed by both parties.

If you've worked there less than 2 years, they don't need to make stuff up in order to get rid of you - they can simply dismiss you.

She may be able to do them for some form of discrimination hence the fabrication.

Incidentally I knew someone who won a high profile court case due to the employer fabricating meetings and emails. When they were asked for the original records off the server they couldn't produce them so she won. This was not what was reported though.

Is it possible that this has been noted on your records by mistake

It's not clear why HR are apparently circumventing your manager in this situation? Do they share HR's concerns? What industry is this?

Also, agree with other posters that HR is 100% a management tool. You need support from a union or ACAS.

Absolutely. Too many companies try to circumvent their own disciplinary policy by claiming an informal discussion counts as a verbal warning. Not if it wasn’t documented, it doesn’t - and similarly, a written record of a verbal warning is NOT a written warning.

Send a follow-up email stating that, as per your previous request, you want confirmation of the date and time of the meeting, the name of the requesting manager, a summary of the topics covered and a copy of the outcome given to you at the time.

Put everything in writing and do not be fobbed off. If, or more likely when, they say, “Oh, well Jean handled this, and obviously we can’t ask her for the email as she’s left”, tell them IT will need to retrieve it, or that you will need other details such as confirmation in her handover document. If they say, “There was no meeting invitation as it was informal”, tell them it still needed to be recorded if they wanted to claim this meeting was part of any performance management process. If they say nothing was written down because it was a verbal warning, remind them that a verbal warning only constitutes a warning if recorded as such.

HR want you to roll over. Make sure they know you won’t.

No I’m not

So OP, did someone from HR just schedule a meeting with you to bring up these alleged events from a year ago or has something recently happened which they are trying to address and have cited the previous events to strengthen their case against you?

I am not discussing this. Honestly it’s just people being nosey. It has no relevance to my issue and frankly I don’t want it to be too identifiable.

I have no issue with what HR were speaking to me about. I do have an issue with them fabricating meetings and saying topics that were discussed when they weren’t.

It's not someone being nosey it is just someone trying to make sense of the situation you are posting about.

Yes it is. I clearly don’t want to answer that question and yet people still keep asking.

If people believe that cannot answer the question because they don’t have the full facts then no one is forcing anyone to answer anything.

My aibu to solely around someone in HR fabricating a meeting.

You didnt say anything about being called into a meeting regarding a different issue but no probs.
Good luck with it. I'll drop off the thread.

It really is simple.

You tell them the meeting didn't happen and ask for documented proof of the meeting.

HR document such meetings.

If it didn't happen there's no proof and therefore cannot be used in the current process.

This. I'd start job hunting now OP

I remember at the start of my career (40 years ago) being told that HR were not to be trusted; that they were not your friends...

Spot on 40 years ago and so it always will be.

Never trust HR, it's obvious to say, they are there for the company and will never be on your side.

It takes a certain type of person to work in HR.