[Clubber]

Agreed. For people who don't know, HR is't like "Internal Affairs" like you see in movies, they are employed by the company to do a few things:

1. Create benefit plans. 2. Keep the employer from getting sued.

#2 is particularly important. They are very risk averse, so they will take the quickest path to safety. Post something on social media that someone could take out of context or misinterpret? Fired. Shortest path. Criticize the company or your boss in some way? Fired. Shortest path. Say something overheard by someone else that might offend them? Fired. Shortest path. A potential hire says something odd to the HR manager during an interview? Denied, to risky.

Something funny, at a company I worked for years ago, HR created a questionnaire to gauge morale in the company compared to other software companies. Every department was well below the average (meaning low morale) except the HR department which was well above.

Beware.

[tinbucket]

I couldn't agree more with your comment. I've seen too many people fall into the trap of believing that the HR department is there to protect them, only to find out much too late that the reality is as you described.