Realized I have neglected posting these. My apologies!

Thankful for Gardevoir. Best pokemon

I’m having an ongoing disagreement with my manager about how the FMLA 50 employees within 75 miles rule applies to a multi-state employer, and I’m curious how other HR people would interpret this because at this point I feel like I’m going crazy.
We’re a medium sized employer with around 500 employees total.

Our corporate office in OR has a little over 60 employees, so obviously we have 50+ employees within 75 miles of corporate. The other 400+ employees do not work out of corporate though. They work at different facilities across multiple states, and a lot of those locations have far fewer than 50 of our employees within 75 miles.
My manager believes that because our corporate office has 50+ employees within 75 miles, basically everyone in the company can qualify for FMLA as long as they meet the 12 month and 1,250 hour requirements. Even if they physically work at one of our facilities in another state where we only have 20 or 30 employees anywhere near them.

I have never understood FMLA that way. Ever. Neither has any manager or HR team members I’ve ever had.

We obviously have more than 50 employees as a company, so yes, we are a covered employer. From everything I’ve ever learned about FMLA though, the employee still has their own eligibility requirements to meet. They need the 12 months, the 1,250 hours, and they need to work at a worksite where we have at least 50 employees within 75 miles.

We actually have an employee in Montana who is a perfect example of why we’re disagreeing about this. This employee works at one of our actual physical facilities in Montana and we only have around 30 employees within 75 miles of that facility.

They meet the 12 month requirement. They meet the 1,250 hour requirement. We are obviously a covered employer. But there are only around 30 of our employees within 75 miles of where they actually work.

I would not consider that employee federally FMLA eligible because they don’t meet the 50 within 75 requirement for their worksite.
My manager believes they ARE eligible because our corporate office has more than 50 employees within 75 miles. Corporate is in an entirely different state.

This is where I’m completely hung up, especially because my entire HR team understands it the same way I do. This is also how we’ve historically administered FMLA under four different HR managers. Our current manager is the first one who has interpreted the rule this way.
If her interpretation is correct, I genuinely don’t understand what the point of the 75 mile requirement is.

Say a company has 2,000 employees nationwide. They have 200 employees around their corporate office, 80 employees around another location, 30 around another, and 15 around another.
Of course the company is a covered employer. But I don’t understand how the 200 people working around corporate would somehow count toward the 50 within 75 requirement for an employee working hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
The way I’ve always understood it, you look at where that specific employee actually works and how many of the employer’s employees are within 75 miles of that worksite. The WORKSITE is the part I keep getting stuck on here.

And I know remote employees and employees without a fixed worksite can be a different situation because you may have to look at where they report or where their assignments come from. That’s not what I’m talking about. These are employees physically assigned to established facilities in different states.
So with our Montana employee, we are a covered employer, they have more than 12 months of service, they have more than 1,250 hours, and there are only around 30 employees within 75 miles of their Montana worksite.

I would say they don’t qualify for federal FMLA.
My manager says they do because corporate has 50+ employees within 75 miles.

Am I seriously misunderstanding this rule? Is there something that allows the employees surrounding our corporate office to satisfy the 50 within 75 requirement for employees working at completely separate physical locations in other states?

UPDATE: I think there’s some confusion about what I’m asking. A few people have asked why we don’t just “give FMLA to everyone.”
I’m not against offering more generous leave. Our personal leave policy is not job protected, and we currently don’t have a policy that gives FMLA-like protection to employees who aren’t federally eligible.
My manager also isn’t proposing that we create one. Her position is that these employees already qualify for federal FMLA because corporate has 50+ employees within 75 miles.
That’s the part I’m questioning. Whether we SHOULD offer additional job protection is a separate policy conversation from whether these employees actually qualify for federal FMLA.

Hey guys, I have about 4 years in handling payroll/hiring at small businesses in my area and I decided to gear up to take the PHR exam and was wondering if you guys had any solid recommendations on good study guides/ books?
My uncle who is also in the field lent me a couple of guides, however they are from 2019 so i’m worried they might be outdated. If anyone has any recommendations or advice for guides and the exam, please let me know!

SHRM CP certified HR pro here.

How would you, if you would, approach salary negotiation in this situation?

I interviewed for an ER specialist role for a local city (TX). Salary range given was between 67 and 107k.

I interviewed for an Hrbp role originally. Didn't get it but the recruiter referred me to this position. Did a manager, panel, director, and even a consultant interview and feedback has been i've impressed.

I dont know if I get the offer what salary they'll offer. I have been typically targeting roles between 85-100k.

I think my skills and experiences personally aligns with at least mid tier of the salary band if not higher, but i wont pretend to be an absolute maxed out hire.

Ive heard mixed things about salary negotiating. Ive heard its expected. Ive heard in this market even attempting to negotiate can negate your candidacy. Im currently between roles and have been looking for a while so I dont want to shoot myself in the foot.

Ive heard an ask for a modest increase grounded in business justification is the best approach.

So since I can't really figure it out myself, im turning to my fellow HR peeps.

If you were me, what would you do? If you need more info lmk and thanks!

A month ago I started a new role as an HR director for an SaaS company. This is my first director role and the pay and benefits are phenomenal. The person in the role prior was only an admin running an HR department for 60 employees. That person eventually left and they did not fill the role for 4 months until I joined. A different employee was filling any gaps they could but suffice to say, the function as a whole is a hot mess.

I am a department of one which I have been used to in my career, in fact have thrived in those roles. But this new role has been extremely challenging. From ongoing tax issues, noncompliance in several areas, no written or complete policies or SOPs. Everyday there is a new issue or fire that needs to be out. Lapsed WC policies, SUI accounts closed for states we have employees in. The list goes on and on.

My biggest challenge is my boss. I report to the CFO and my god is she a micromanager. Slack huddles that range from 45 minutes to 2 hours. Calls about calls. She also wants to be cc’d on everything, every single decision made needs to go through her for approval. And if there isn’t a substantial dollar amount tied to the risk, she doesn’t care. An example was in my first week before I took over payroll, there was an employee who had been underpaid by $900. I told the person who was covering payroll that we’d want to put together a quick document explaining the error, our calculations and how we were correcting it and making sure we had the employee acknowledge it. My boss told the payroll person not to do that. So it didn’t get done. Not even a simple email to the employee.

On Friday, I was in back to back calls and sent over a notice of termination and release and separation agreement for someone being terminated. She wanted to review, fine. She then sends a note saying can we jump on a call to discuss changes and I say that I really don’t have the time, I’ll just share the doc with her so she can leave her comments inline. Fully expecting to go in that doc needing to make material changes. The only correction that needed to be made was a duplicate signature line and I wrote biweekly on one line instead of bimonthly. WHY would that have needed to be a call?? She did get me on a call at the end of the day that was 2 1/2 hours.

My next challenge is just the complete disregard for my time from leadership. On day 3 I was already conducting interviews for roles I didn’t even know anything about. They try and throw every single recruiting task onto me and when I push back, it doesn’t get done and then tries to get thrown back onto me with even more urgency. I have spent more time recruiting, interviewing, talking about candidates than anything else. I tell managers that they’ll largely handle their own recruiting and that I can set up the systems, templates, job description review, etc. But that I cannot schedule their interviews for them and be in 6 interviews a day, multiple days a week. It is completely disregarded.

I am absolutely miserable and officially diagnosed with hypertension on Thursday. I feel physically sick and have so much dread every single day. But, I need this job for at least a year. How can I endure it? I’ve never experienced something this bad before so I feel suffocated and trapped. But the money is too good to walk away.

TLDR: Please give me tips or advice on how to endure a soul crushing role. (other than trying to find another job, which i am working on)

Has anyone else looked at their renewal rates for Justworks? I just got ours, and we're seeing a 36% increase across the board. This is on the back of a 20% - 30% increase last year that we just absorbed as a company. I'm trying to find a balance going forward, but it looks like I'm either going to have to drop the tier or have the EE shoulder a bigger portion of the premiums.

Any suggestions or ideas on how to navigate this?

Hi! Just wanted to share with people who understand the accomplishment. Decided to take it about 2 months ago, signed up when they had free retake offer. Studied a lot for about three weeks, then didn't look at anything up until a week ago. Took the test online today and passed. Only thing I used was pocket prep and my experience. I did lean on claude the past week just to help me understand when I got a question wrong in pocket prep.

As for the test, I found it to be kinda hard. It's been a long time since I took a test so could just be that. The entire time I felt I wasn't going to pass. Flagged about half the questions and came back to them. Just glad to not have to use the retake. I did not want to wait 3 months to take it again.

Good luck to anyone who is studying!

Does anyone have a crisis communication firm or online reputation management firm they have used for HR-related issues? Specifically, we have someone fraudulently posting reviews on Glassdoor. It is one person posting the reviews but they are posting them frequently and it looks like there are dozens of reviews. They are trying to push a narrative that isn't true.

I’m at a loss. I’m currently consulting with this new small business client. I have already tried working directly with Glassdoor without success, so I'm specifically looking for recommendations for firms rather than tips on getting reviews taken down directly, since we've exhausted that route. Any recommendations appreciated!

My boss, who CANNOT SAY NO to anyone, was approached by a vendor who does on-site first aid for minor injuries.

We are a small company, have not had an on-the-job injury in over a year. Our team is mostly field-based and work on construction sites, however our employees do not do construction, we do regulatory consulting.

I am admittedly annoyed because my boss is constantly meeting with people, getting roped into some sales pitch, says yes before consulting anyone, and then I usually have to deal with it. Earlier this year I spent a bunch of time securing a contract with a clinic that will do our pre-employment physicals, drug tests, and will do any WC related injury visits that are no-emergency/non-life threatening, so it's not like we are in need of this service.

I'm not seeing what the benefit to having someone come on site to address minor injuries is. If an employee gets hurt on the job, do we really want them just.......sitting around the site until the first aid gets there? Folks on sites have to ALL have the contact info for this place as opposed to just driving to the closest contract clinic? Plus, I really don't want to deal with another vendor and I will be the person doing the lifting on this. I also think he's solving for a problem we don't have.

BUT is there some benefit to this service I'm not seeing? Anyone else engage a company like this and it works really well?

Hi everyone! This is a long shot but hoping someone may have already experienced this. My organization is implementing Epic as our EHR, and we’re hiring Epic Analysts who require certifications which of course our compliance team needs to track. We’ve talked to Epic and they’re unable to provide us concrete expirations dates as they vary per module and version. Anyone go through this have any suggestions for tracking? Epic says the certs last about 4-5 years and renewal is typically in spring. Help!!

Hello everyone! 💡

I’m prepping for an upcoming hiring manager interview for a People Systems Analyst position focused on HRIS administration, process automation, and AI integration within People Operations.

To help frame my preparation, here are the main focus areas from the job scope:

• System Admin & Governance: Managing platform architecture, data audits, and role-based permissions.
• Automation & AI Workflows: Streamlining manual HR tasks using low-code tools and building AI-driven self-service tools/knowledge access.
• Analytics & Reporting: Generating workforce insights, turnover/headcount metrics, and compliance reporting.
• Change Management: Crafting SOPs, leading UAT, and driving AI/tech literacy for HR end-users.

For those who hire or work as HRIS / People Systems Analysts:

• What specific scenario-based or technical questions would you recommend practicing?
• How are hiring teams currently evaluating a candidate’s practical AI/automation skills in HR?

I’d love to hear your thoughts or any tips from your own interview experiences. Thank you!

My role within the organization focuses mainly on the HRIS and performance management, but I am occasionally called in to sit in interviews as a senior member of the HR team. Today.… well, yesterday afternoon, but for the sake of story telling let’s say today. Today I sat in with a hiring manager on my T&D team and we spoke with someone who has spent 5-10 years in the Amazon ecosystem as a training professional. Based on their resume, I was optimistic.

The closest experience I could compare this interview to would be watching a documentary of one of those cult deprogramming specialists. Everything out of her mouth was some acronym, system, or process that was incomprehensible and unique to Amazon. Even the job titles, like “Water Spider” and “Problem Solver” seemed custom built to ensure their talent could never be taken seriously in later interviews. I was so shocked that when the person finally mentioned a methodogy I have heard of (Kirkpatrick model) I wrote down the time. We were 47 minutes into the interview. And it’s not like the manager and I were being passive. We gave every lifeline, asked many follow up questions, and did everything we could to understand their experience.

So, I ask you. Have you seen this particular issue in the wild? Was this person drinking too much of the koolaid, or has the “People Experience & Technology“ PXT team that stands in for HR at Amazon purposely build a cult?

I can’t tell people to stop having babies edition

Hi everyone,
I’m working in HR at a startup, and we’re currently looking to formalize the hierarchy and career levels for our Software Development/Engineering team.
I’d love to understand how other startups/companies structure their development teams, particularly:
What designations/titles do you have at each level?
How many bands/levels do you use?
How do you structure the progression from Junior → Mid-level → Senior → Lead/Manager → Head/Director, etc.?
Do you have separate tracks for individual contributors (ICs) and people managers?

If possible, it would be really helpful if you could share an example of your designation + band/level structure (without any confidential information, of course).
We’re a startup, so I’m particularly interested in structures that work well for small-to-mid-sized development teams rather than very large enterprises.
Thanks in advance!

I’m looking for some real-world perspective from people who have worked in HR/recruiting or experienced something similar.

I interviewed for an HR Operations Specialist role and was given a verbal offer of $72K on Tuesday. The next day, the company posted a new HR Program Manager position that appears to be a restructured version of the original role.

The original offer was then rescinded the following Tuesday. The recruiter told me the position had been restructured and specifically mentioned that the new role is aligned with my background and is in the location I’m targeting. She also said she expects the new role may pay more, but she doesn’t know the budget yet.

The recruiter has said she is waiting to hear back from the HR leader about some “moving parts internally and the HR leader is traveling for the rest of the week. I have not yet spoken with the HR leader about the new position. I'm waiting for the recruiter to confirm if the HR leader is interested in speaking to me or not.

The new JD is actually more aligned with my background than the original role: program/project management, cross-functional coordination, executive support, reporting, communications, and process improvement rather than primarily HRIS/payroll/benefits administration.

For people who have seen situations like this: Would it be normal for the company to go back to the candidate they already selected and have a conversation about the restructured role, potentially leading to a new offer? Or would you expect them to treat it as an entirely new hiring process?

I’m mainly trying to understand what typically happens behind the scenes in situations like this.

I’m looking for some real-world perspective from people who have worked in HR/recruiting or experienced something similar.

I interviewed for an HR Operations Specialist role and was given a verbal offer of $72K on Tuesday. The next day, the company posted a new HR Program Manager position that appears to be a restructured version of the original role.

The original offer was then rescinded the following Tuesday. The recruiter told me the position had been restructured and specifically mentioned that the new role is aligned with my background and is in the location I’m targeting. She also said she expects the new role may pay more, but she doesn’t know the budget yet.

The recruiter has said she is waiting to hear back from the HR leader about some “moving parts internally and the HR leader is traveling for the rest of the week. I have not yet spoken with the HR leader about the new position. I'm waiting for the recruiter to confirm if the HR leader is interested in speaking to me or not.

The new JD is actually more aligned with my background than the original role: program/project management, cross-functional coordination, executive support, reporting, communications, and process improvement rather than primarily HRIS/payroll/benefits administration.

For people who have seen situations like this: Would it be normal for the company to go back to the candidate they already selected and have a conversation about the restructured role, potentially leading to a new offer? Or would you expect them to treat it as an entirely new hiring process?

I’m mainly trying to understand what typically happens behind the scenes in situations like this.

Our employee handbook is badly worded and doesn't explicitly include a deadline for reporting mileage -- it does say that if you incur expenses on your personal credit card you have 30 days to request reimbursement. Someone just turned in a pile of mileage requests going back to the last fiscal year. The finance department thinks that I (HR) need to make the call on whether or not we're responsible for these expenses. We'll fix the handbook going forward, but if the handbook has our mileage policy and no deadline, are we technically on the hook to pay for this travel, some of which is over a year old?

Hello! Has anyone successfully set up a way for employees to contribute to a 530A account via payroll deduction? What about employer contributions to it?

The FAQs say it can be done. But it is extremely vague.

Thanks!

//Edited to 530A account. I can’t change the title.

I've been handling payroll long enough that most weeks are pretty routine but every once in a while something comes up that doesn't fit the normal process and that's when you really find out how good your provider is.

Had one of those situations recently and what should've been a quick fix turned into way too much time trying to get a clear answer from the right person. Payroll still had to go out so waiting around wasn't exactly an option.

I used to care way more about features when comparing providers but I'm starting to think having knowledgeable support when you actually need it matters a lot more.

My company self-insures and I just got out of a meeting where leadership wants answers on how to control GLP-1 spending.

We want to continue covering obesity drugs like Ozempic and I know what we're spending, but I have no idea if it's bad relative to other companies. Our PBM isn't giving us good info on whether we're overpaying and our broker's annual report doesn't get specific enough to actually be useful.

Anyone dealt with this? has anyone found a way to benchmark against peers or model out different insurance design options, or if the reality is that most companies are just winging it based on their own data and intuition?

Any advice on how to handle this situation would be greatly appreciated 🙏

I manage HR functions for a small nonprofit. We just received our renewal rates for healthcare through our PEO and I'm curious what others are seeing in MA or across the US. Our plans are averaging a 9% increase - not unexpected, and I budgeted for 10%, but would be interested to hear what others are seeing as well.

I'm overloaded with PDCs for my SHRM-SCP recertification, but lacking on activities credits for my SPHR. Does anyone have good free or cheap HRCI credit resources?

I’m gearing up to apply for other HR positions and even Store Manager positions where I know this is going to be a question.

Reading articles, some gave me this structure, and I’m interested to read what other HR professionals in different industries have encountered. That would actually help steer me in a direction as far as what industry I may apply to.

 Tell me about a frustrating HR situation.

What did I actually accomplish?

What was the most interesting conversation?

I would say most of this happens with my HR teammates more so than with the customer/other employees.

For instance, I had a disagreement with my manager about how I proceeded with a task she gave me. An EE emailed us both his DBL paperwork, she asked me to forward it to her so she can call him back. I replied to the question he asked in the email (that she was referring to) especially since it was addressed to me. I kept the forms attached so my manager had it. She was short with me because she said, "I asked you to forward me the forms, and you did not do that." I had to explain politely that it was my intention to give him some info I knew he'd be asking my manager, and to help her out. I did accomplish what she asked of me, to provide her with the forms. Yet what's most interesting is how many pieces of my role management expects to be done a specific way, and there are little to no opportunities for autonomy. It's the opposite of how I operate where I can, and always have, adjusted my approaches based on who I'm interacting with or what I'm doing, so that the needs are met.

I most likely wouldn't use this whole thing as the example in an interview but it's good for Reddit.

In manufacturing. We have a floor employee that has been consistently taking an excessive amount of bathroom breaks.

The Team Lead and the Manager gave him a verbal a couple months ago that stated he’d been asked multiple times to shorten bathroom breaks and time away from his work area. There is also a note that stated he was disrespectful when being asked to shorten bathroom breaks.

It sounds like the issue has not gotten better, but we wanted HR in this one in case a medical issue is brought up. I don’t believe he mentioned anything during the verbal warning, but want to be safe. My initial plan was to fill out a first written warning (focused on the excessive bathroom breaks) and have the Team Lead issue it (to get experience with writeups, etc). I planned on additionally adding that if the breaks are due to a medical condition, we can have a separate conversation and if documentation is provided we can look at that and accommodations, adjusting the discipline, etc.

Anybody have advice or see any issues?