This seems to be a US thing. Worked in HR departments across several European countries. Obviously, HR’s duty is first and foremost to the company. It’s the sam

This seems to be a US thing. Worked in HR departments across several European countries. Obviously, HR’s duty is first and foremost to the company. It’s the same for everyone else in the company (to whom else should it be?! [1]). HR is chasing managers for policy adherence as much as it is chasing employees. At least in the companies I’ve seen, managers are typically even more so in the crosshairs of HR because they are supposed to enforce company policies at the frontline. Obviously, this breaks down if you talk about Board-level executives where the Supervisory Board will be involved more strongly. If there are problems between employees and managers, HR should try to mitigate along company policy, where typically the first step would be to get the facts on the table. Potentially this is lived more strongly in Europe, where employees have pretty powerful means after a dismissal to receive severance in case of any wrongdoing of the company [1] and yes, it should be first to yourself but that’s the same for HR