Let me preface this by saying that I know you all think HR is not your friend…and sometimes, we aren't. But there are good people in HR who genuinely want to help their people. That's why I got into it anyway. However…I think I'm the only one at my company (or at least this branch of it) that actually feels that way.
Anyway, I started at this big company about 5 months ago and I was SUPER excited. The company has an excellent reputation in my town and around the world really. The pay was pretty great and at first I was just in heaven…and then my boss found a new job and HER boss came from corporate to run things in our department. About a week after that, my daughter (who is autistic) stabbed herself in the chest with a pencil. She was fine (physically) but I needed to rush out and get her. Before I left I broke down in a co-worker's office…(a co-worker who is in her 20s and had never been very nice to me in the first place…she wasn't MEAN per say…just unapproachable). Anyway, I rushed out and then later on, texted my new boss and asked if I could work from home the next day because my daughter was having a hard time and I just wanted her to know I was there for her. She told me NO, (even though every other person in our department frequently works from home). I was told to use my PTO…which I did. The next day, when I got to work my new boss scheduled a one hour one on one with me and, after asking me if my daughter was o.k. and me telling her the whole saga, she basically told me to quit. That I should just focus on my family because it seemed like I couldn't focus here. I was floored. I told her that I loved our company and I was super excited to be a part of it and she told me 3 more times that I should either quit…or have my husband be the main point of contact for the school because I needed to focus 100% when I was at work. …please keep in mind this was the first time that this had ever happened. I told her that from now on I would have my husband updated as the first person to contact and tried to keep my head down and just do my work. Fast Forward a few weeks and she wants to have another one on one. This time, she tells me that I'm not picking up on things fast enough. That I ask too many questions that I should already know the answers to and that I need to show more initiative. I feel like that's ridiculous because I'm new, and if I don't ask questions…how can I learn the processes needed to show more initiative? She also nit picked me about responding to an internal email and using the word “Legal”…but the question I was responding to was about HIPAA, so IDK what word I could've used in it's place? And that in a meeting I didn't anticipate a question she asked and have the answer to it off the top of my head, so I had to go back to my records and find it. At the very end of the conversation, she said that corporate was hiring a new boss to replace my old one but that she was taking my office from me because she would still be coming to our location 2 days a week and I would literally be moving to this teeny tiny desk without even cubicle walls in the middle of a room…and I deal with FMLA and medical issues and other sensitive issues all day long. She's trying to push me out and I really do not understand why. I show up every day and the OPs team loves me, the workers love me and I get told, literally on a daily basis how refreshing it is to have someone in HR that actually cares and takes the time to work with people. It's gotten to the point now where I overheard her and my co-worker talking about me behind my back, about how annoying my questions are and how they cringe when they see me coming. So now, instead of liking my job and feeling good about myself and what I'm doing, I'm crying at my desk everyday and crying to my husband every night. …and there is no one for me to talk to at work because I AM HR. I could go above her head to corporate, but that will tank my career…I'm sure of it. So my question is, what do I do? Because I don't want to quit. The benefits are amazing and I love everyone other than the people on my team. However, I now feel like there is no way I'm going to advance here. She would never let me. Who can you talk to when you work in HR?? I am so sad that she hates me and is actively trying to get me to quit a job that I was over the moon to get. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you!