Given that a lot of HR is deliberately duplicitous about this, and that apparently -- still -- other "authority" figures in many young peoples' lives don't addr

Given that a lot of HR is deliberately duplicitous about this, and that apparently -- still -- other "authority" figures in many young peoples' lives don't address this (every college "career counseling" center in the U.S.: I'm looking at you), I think one bout of naiveté can be excused -- although still preferably avoided. HR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND! Hell, HR often is not even the hiring manager's friend. "Best practices" are often a poor fit to the real world and individual circumstances. Hiring managers often have to jump through hoops to try to get HR to act on the candidates they actually want. The way to work HR, is to know that -- if they're competent -- they are all about risk management. So, make what you want also the way they minimize their risk, to the extent you can. When I left one of my jobs, some of my PTO time had lapsed per a newer "use it or lose it" policy -- this "loss" probably aided by another prior action, lumping "vacation" time and "sick" time into a single pool. But, I'd done well by my team. And HR didn't want any unnecessary waves. So, they paid it to me, regardless. It was also a time of enough organizational transition, that this individual action would most likely "get lost in the wash" and not become the basis for another employee claiming unequal treatment. THAT's how HR works. They help you, only when it helps them. The rest is all empty rhetoric. If you buy it, they just gained (gamed) some cheap compliance from you -- that's all. P.S. As always, individual circumstances may happen to vary. But regardless, go in with your eyes open and your guard up.