Protecting the Bottom Line
I worked in HR, and here’s my advice. Never, ever willingly give up any information on questions that are fishing for it. Make sure your answers are brief, succinct, and don’t elaborate unless absolutely necessary. Don’t give second-hand information unless it directly impacts you or your work environment.
My goal was to protect the bottom line under the guise of employee relations. If you become a headache and disruptive, regardless if you are in the right, HR will find a way to terminate your employment.
I spent hours upon hours in training learning how to ask the right questions to get the companies their desired results. I will admit this may not be true for all HR departments, but for larger companies, HR is not your friend and our attitude and pseudo-compassion are used as a disarming tactic to obtain the information they are looking for.
Despite what you may be told, HR does have an agenda.