Remember, folks, HR is there too protect the company, not you.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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This doesn't surprise me. I know a gal who reported retaliation at Google and was immediately put on a secret HR blacklist that prevented her from getting above a certain perf rating. She was later "laid off" without cause.
She recorded her chat with HR, and this is a direct quote from the HR person: "Oh, that's not retaliation. That's a very specific legal construct. It sounds like what your manager is doing is more like retribution."
It’s easier to shun problematic women from society (in this case fire her) than to educate and hold men accountable on how women are not objects, nor property.
Because "Google employee probably fired after Google acknowledges she was telling the truth about sexual harassment" isn't quite as PC of a headline
Redundant is the British term for being laid off.
It's used outside of UK too. I've seen it used in the US, for example. Usually it's just a corporate term that says "you're fired" but without saying that. They use terms like these all the time to try not to take accountability for fucking someone's life up.
Yes, but this is a BBC article and they don't say laid off they say "made redundant", its not a sanitizer term in UK, it is just the legal term everyone goes by for when you lose your job.
That's not quite true, it's a very specific reason for losing your job. If you are fired for doing a bad job, and said you were made redundant, that would be a lie. Redundancy is about the role, not the individual.
Yes that's why I said Laid off not fired. Laid off is about the role no longer being needed
True, just clarifying to clarify the last sentence:
In UK, it is just the legal term everyone goes by for when you lose your job
Since I think there's room for misunderstanding that it's more generic than it is
Yeah makes sense
It's like I tell everyone else that gets harassed, sexually or non-sexually: go tell a lawyer, not HR.
"Made redundant"? WTF, BBC?
That is just the British term for being laid off/fired.
It's not quite the same thing. If you are 'fired' that's generally to do with performance or conduct of the individual. Redundancy is about not needing (or affording) the role any more (i.e. it is redundant). There are specific legal protections for each case that work quite differently. (You cannot rehire for the same position after a redundancy, for example)
Fair. Did not know about the nuance, but in this case it was mostly just pointing out the BBC was not being callous.
Well, "laid off" and "fired" are two different things. It sounds like this is closer to being laid off.
But, regardless, nobody gets laid off for reporting sexual harassment.
Tell me you're American without telling me you're American.
Does anyone outside the Brits use it though? All this tells you is they are not from the UK
AUS
Tell me you're a corpo lackey buying into the "synergy speak" without telling me directly.
What does "laid off" mean if you interpret it literally? Have you ever even thought about it? At least you understand how the the term "redundancy" came about. But what if the words we use to convey concepts are just the words we use to convey concepts, and not an act of malice or compliance?