#HR Tales: 10 Weird Things I did at Work

Office life can be pretty boring but there are a few things that stood out for me in my past HR career.

1. Learning how to play piano at work.

We have moved to a tiny office space opposite busy toilets for more confidentiality. Our HR office didn’t have any windows and I ended up staring at the wall all day. Luckily, I handed my notice in by that point. To stop time standing still I was learning how to play piano using the app on my phone.

2. Pretending I was at work and driving to a job interview which was an hour away.

Looking for another job whilst working at the same time is hard especially because you have to go to many interviews and it may become obvious to your boss. I used to set up my desk in the morning as I was at work with my laptop open and my papers and pens everywhere and then leave. In a busy office no one noticed my absences.

3. Pretending I had work to do.

I had to do it so many times… You know you are a new starter and no one cares and you spend your days pretending that you are busy. You end up opening and closing various boring documents and sending emails to yourself. With love X

4. Using a psychic to investigate a misconduct.

I had a mystery to resolve: every morning for two weeks I kept finding my laptop opened and switched on in my locked office. I called our new building maintenance manager who revealed that he was a psychic and it was my deceased grandad who was coming to my office in the middle of the night to leave me the signals that he was around. The building manager gave me and my team a full reading.

5. Going to work in the middle of the night.
Going to work at 2 am in the morning to hold a meeting with the night shift, promising them changes and regular communication and then desperately trying to avoid working so late again.

6. Playing Nintendo Wii
I was setting it up with our HSE manager for our team wellbeing day. Of course, we had to test it and ended up playing wii for a few hours. Wellbeing rules!

7. VIP Health and Safety Walks

Every month I had to figure out any potential dangers I may face whilst at my desk (Sharp pencil? Angry mouse?) to fill in the accident prevention form before the executive health and safety walk.

8. Flirting with my boss.

Full stop.

9. Gossiping online

I was gossiping with my colleague about my boss via internal messaging. And ooops I sent the gossip message to my boss by mistake who sat opposite me. I knew she read the message but kept her cool. It was a long day for me before I actually found the courage to apologize.

10. Wrong address

Turning up at someone’s house who was on a long-term sick whilst on a staff home visit. Asking them many questions with authority and assertiveness about their illness and their future plans and then realising I was at the wrong address.

What are yours? 😉