How to set boundaries with a work friend who is demanding HR info
When a coworker you have befriended demands confidential information she is not entitled to, it blurs the line of your HR role and leaves you wondering if it is your responsibility to fix. This tension stops you from maintaining professional distance and turns a supportive listening ear into an entitlement problem.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1lying to diffuse an aggressive confrontation
- 2suggesting EAP repeatedly
- 3ignoring the tension and waiting for the employee to cool down
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“A particular EE has become a type of work friend, and I have been there for her to listen, advise her on moving through the ranks, out of Reception and so forth.”source ↗
“My question is, is this for me, as HR, to fix?”source ↗
“The line between friend and an ear to listen as HR is getting blurred here and now she is feeling entitled to information she is not, especially about herself.”source ↗
Where this came up
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