Nonsense

Oh they do that definitely.

Here’s an example from a scenario in a different department with the same HR (wife heard the details from a friend)

A worker requested accessible accommodations. Their boss went to HR to approve said accommodations and HR replied that all accommodations need to be decided by someone impartial. They give some different approvals for things that don’t work for anyone involved.

Employee was upset at the result so filed a grievance with HR and mentioned the boss in the grievance, as the boss didn’t get them the right accommodations for their issue. That shouldn’t have happened as it was HR responsible, but it’s the process.

Now HR tells the boss they can’t interact with the employee alone until this issue is resolved, otherwise there’s no way to protect them. But the boss is their boss so one on ones are kind of required, and they used to be close to the employee, so the employee feels like they’re being excluded and punished.

Apart from this the employee had separately been denied a promotion. Now they link the issues together when they’re in fact totally separate.

The employee then files a new grievance that they’re being discriminated against because of their issues and they feel the boss is now prejudiced against them.

Of course when discrimination comes up legal has to get involved to avoid being sued. Luckily there is a whole paper trail so the legal situation goes away, but the employee feels the situation is toxic and leaves.

So effectively HR took what should have been rubber stamping a mutually agreed upon accommodation request and turned it into a legal situation and an otherwise good employee quitting. Now nobody is happy.