This is a rant. I (29M) am a postdoc working at a university lab and I had an experience recently that really upset me. I was in a conversation with two professors, one of whom is my boss, and they began complaining how HR is set up entirely to protect employees and does nothing to protect employers. I couldn't believe it. One prof even said he felt 'abused' by one of his employees. I'm used to tone deaf and frankly abusive behavior at this point, but this level of delusion is extraordinary in my experience. It would never have occured to me that these people could think this way. HR, as I think everyone here knows, exists to insulate a corporation (which is what a university is) from risk, and never has an employee's best interests at heart. I was really disturbed by how casually these people, who have an obscene amount of institutional power and usually treat their employees with no respect whatsoever, can employ the language of victims and be taken seriously. Rant over.