Employee says 'got fired' after complaining about manager, shares what happened in meeting on Reddit

For many employees, HR is seen as a safety net, a department meant to protect and support them when workplace issues arise. But as more stories surface online, that trust is being called into question. One recent viral Reddit post has struck a nerve, exposing the harsh reality some face after speaking up against toxic behaviour. In a detailed account, a 2-year employee at a mid-sized company revealed how reporting their manager's misconduct to HR backfired in the worst possible way.

The Reddit user, who worked a stable if unspectacular job, described how things started to unravel when micromanagement escalated into obsessive tracking, right down to bathroom breaks, and invasive questioning about routine work tasks. Despite consistent performance reviews, he began to feel like he was being treated as incompetent. The final straw came when the manager made inappropriate comments about his appearance during a team meeting, leaving everyone uncomfortable.

Hoping for a resolution, he did what most would consider the "right thing": he went to HR. Armed with documentation, dates, and even witnesses, he filed a formal complaint. The HR representative appeared sympathetic and assured him that retaliation was against company policy and wouldn’t be tolerated. But just three days later, he was called into a meeting with the same HR person and the manager he had reported. The tone had shifted dramatically. He was suddenly accused of performance issues, presented with vague write-ups, and told he was being let go. As if that wasn’t enough, they offered him a mere two weeks of severance—if he signed an NDA. He refused.

Now job hunting and emotionally shaken, the Redditor is weighing whether to involve a lawyer. His friends are divided: some say to fight back legally, while others warn him that the road ahead could be expensive and draining. Adding insult to injury, he later found out through colleagues that similar incidents had happened before at the same company, yet the manager remained untouched. He signed off the post by claiming, “HR really is just there to protect the company, not the employees.”