Managing staff can be both rewarding and painful. Sometimes it can be downright strange! We asked some of our members to tell us about the strangest HR incidents they’ve had to deal with and got some very interesting responses. Here are some of our favourites!

Managing staff can be both rewarding and painful. Sometimes it can be downright strange! We asked some of our members to tell us about the strangest HR incidents they’ve had to deal with and got some very interesting responses. Here are some of our favourites!

I once disciplined a member of staff for posting inappropriate comments about colleagues on Facebook.

In her defence, she claimed that the Facebook profile was that of her cat and should not, therefore, be subject to disciplinary action.

Strangely enough she didn’t have much to say when I pointed out that very few of the posts on the account (which was in her name) were cat-related, nor were they from the point of view of her cat - or about things a cat would generally be expected to be interested in. Also, cats can’t type…

A senior manager was being reviewed under a PIP for their performance and ability to do their job...

The same person was a line manager for others, therefore involved in appraisals and disciplinaries. It was suggested that he arranged a capability meeting for one of his staff members as there were complaints from colleagues about their ability.

He asked me what a capability meeting was. He hadn't a clue. This chap was appointed by the doctors 'because he wanted the job' - no regard for ability. Needless to say he was gently coaxed into working somewhere else!

The Friday before Halloween, an employee turned up to a disciplinary meeting – only to find staff had dressed up to mark the occasion.

The employee, who’d been suspended, arrived to find the office decked out with spider webs and the colleague he’d chosen to accompany him dressed as a zombie.

Part way through the meeting, at a particularly tense moment, another colleague dressed as a devil wandered in. After briefly sitting down at the table with a cup of tea, she looked up, commented she was in the wrong meeting and quickly left.

I was leading an investigation meeting in which it was alleged an employee had been involved in a case of gross misconduct...

As I stood up to leave the room following the meeting, the employee in question asked if I had considered their request for a pay rise and if so, they would like to know what the outcome was.

I politely advised them that their request had been put on hold and would be considered once the current situation had reached a conclusion!

As part of a card game involving dares brought into the office, an employee decided to email colleagues inviting them to a swingers party.

For some reason he decided to invite the whole department. He also attached a picture of naked people dancing in a field.

His mitigation was that the dare card came from his Team Leader and he therefore assumed it was OK. This turned out to be true and the Team Leader admitted lying to the Department Manager about checking to make sure there was “nothing dodgy” in the game.

To congratulate a colleague leaving for a new job, a member of staff wanted to bring in a cake which he felt was “a bit rude… but she’ll love it!”

They wanted to know if it was OK to bring it into the office if it was in a tin. Whilst I agreed it may indeed appeal to the departing colleague, I refused on the grounds that I could name several colleagues who would be very offended by said cake.

I also did not trust the cake-provider not to put the cake in an equally rude tin, as I thought it was just the sort of thing he was likely to do!

First Practice Management members can steer clear of HR disasters by getting in touch with our HR helpline – just email us at hrhelp@firstpracticemanagement.co.uk.

Plus, you can find a comprehensive range of HR-related documents to download in our FPM Core system.