Policy Break [IN]
I work in HR in Indiana as a manager and report directly to our HR executive. She’s always been extremely strict about policies and consistency, especially when it comes to attendance and leave policies.
For example, she’s very firm about bereavement leave. Employees have to take the days consecutively, documentation is required, and she’ll even audit timecards to make sure bereavement is coded correctly. She’s also very suspicious of abuse and has looked at social media before to verify situations.
Recently though, someone on our own HR team had their girlfriend’s father pass away. Our policy doesn’t specifically mention non-married relationships, but historically we have not approved bereavement for boyfriends/girlfriends or non-legal in-law situations. We’ve been consistent about that with employees.
My boss approved bereavement pay for him anyway because she “felt bad.”
I confronted her privately because it bothered me that HR enforces policies so rigidly for everyone else, but then made an exception for someone on our own team. I also asked whether this means we’re changing how we interpret the policy moving forward so it’s applied consistently.
Now she’s basically avoiding the conversation.
I genuinely care a lot about HR and try hard to balance empathy with fairness and consistency. To me, HR should model the standards we expect from everyone else.
Am I being too rigid here, or would this bother other HR people too?