Read on Twitter
Every time that & #39;why didn& #39;t you go to HR& #39; post shows up on my timeline I respond in my head & #39;because HR was the abuser& #39; 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙃" title="Auf den Kopf gestelltes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Auf den Kopf gestelltes Gesicht">
(Note: this story is about bullying, abuse of power and general harassment. It is not about sexual harassment, though I did hear stories about this same guy being creepy to other women. That is not my story to tell.)
I was new to the industry and so excited to be working as a games artist at a well-known company -- my dream job. Never mind that when I got the job offer I was haggled down by HR to literally minimum wage. I loved my project, I loved my coworkers and I enjoyed the work.
After a year on the project, I started running into trouble. Our teams always did a week or two of QA before releasing an update, but the big backend update we were working on had more problems than anticipated. I was put on QA duties for what ended up being *5 months*.
I was employed as an artist, so this did not seem reasonable to me. It was taking a toll & making me depressed. I tried talking to my team lead, to the art director... No one could change my duties or tell me how much longer this would go on for. I started taking antidepressants.
I& #39;d been warned by friends at the company that I should avoid the HR guy. That he was bad news. But I was desperate, so I talked to him. First he told me I should have come to him sooner. Then he & #39;checked with management& #39; & told me that this was normal and I should & #39;suck it up& #39;.
Talking to other people in the company I found out no artist had ever had to do more than 3-4 weeks of QA before, but HR guy told me an artist on another team was doing exactly what I was. I asked the artist. He absolutely was not. HR guy did not like being caught in a lie.
So he gave me a warning. The warning was for an & #39;unsatisfactory attitude& #39;, & #39;not following instructions& #39; (even though I was doing the QA job despite everything) & & #39;being consistently late to work& #39; tacked on too. I was getting to work *2 minutes* late on the same bus as coworkers.
I was terrified. It seemed absurd that I was the one found to be in the wrong in this situation, but they were the ones with the power to decide what was right and wrong.
I stopped trying to get help. I put my head down and did QA. 3 weeks later I broke down & took 2 weeks unpaid leave for mental health. When I came back the update finally shipped. Things got better. HR did block my promotion to mid-level, though, against my lead& #39;s recommendation.
One day I heard from a coworker that one of the other teams was looking to hire an artist, and that he was going to recommend a friend for the job. I had a skilled artist friend looking for work too so I thought that was a good idea and wanted to do the same.
I went to the desk of the main artist on that team and showed him my friend& #39;s portfolio to ask if she& #39;s good for the role & should apply. He enthusiastically approved of her work. I has happy and went back to my desk. This exchange took under 5min. An hour later HR blew up at me.
I was subverting the chain of command. I was undermining him. Disrupting the work of other teams. He wanted to give me another official warning. I apologised profusely, crying. My team lead convinced him to not give me a warning. 2 weeks later he decided to give me one anyway.
The new warning was so vague it& #39;s hard to even summarise what it was for, but it used the phrase "consulted the artist cohort" 5 times so that seemed to be my crime. He tied the new warning to the previous one to give it more weight. The letter threatened me with termination.
By the way, HR was obligated to offer I bring a support person into the warning meetings. He did in the first one but not the second. After the meeting I realised this and asked him in writing why. He said he did offer it and I declined. Another outright lie.
In the 2nd warning meeting I finally said I felt like he was bullying me. He said & #39;then I suggest you consult a lawyer& #39;. I checked the company handbook, which said there was a 3-step internal process for dealing with bullying. Two of the steps involved talking to HR.
The final step involved the CEO. I told HR what the handbook said and that I wanted to file a bullying complaint. He told me that the handbook wasn& #39;t legally binding, refused to let me file a bullying complaint and again told me to talk to a lawyer.
So I filed a bullying complaint with the Australian Fair Work Commission. They got back to me much faster than expected, though, while I was still under scrutiny from the 2nd warning. I was worried that if the complaint went ahead I& #39;d get fired with the warning as an excuse.
Fair Work said they couldn& #39;t prevent that from happening. I withdrew my complaint.
After another couple months I couldn& #39;t take the atmosphere of fear and oppression anymore and gave my two weeks notice.
After another couple months I couldn& #39;t take the atmosphere of fear and oppression anymore and gave my two weeks notice.
On my last day at the company, in my exit interview with HR, he told me I couldn& #39;t use anyone at the company as a reference on my resume. I was astounded -- I wasn& #39;t being fired, I had quit. I told him he couldn& #39;t do that and got up to walk out.
He physically blocked my way and said he would see to it that no one in the company gave me a work reference. I said & #39;ok& #39;, went to my team lead who said & #39;he literally can& #39;t do that& #39; and gave me a reference.
Half a year after I left, a female friend was made redundant and used the opportunity to tell the CEO everything she knew about the HR guy, including what I had told her of my story. The next day he was fired. Too little, too late. At least he& #39;s no longer in the industry.