This sometimes backfires hilariously when HR is trying to do something good. Case in point from my job history: Official policy (mandated by parent company) wa

This sometimes backfires hilariously when HR is trying to do something good. Case in point from my job history: Official policy (mandated by parent company) was that externals (i.e. contractors etc.) weren't included in christmas event or anything like that. Due to unrelated things the "externals" made a significant chunk of the workers, and well, HR actually wanted to do something good and bypass the policy. So they send an email telling everyone in the external group to meet on day X in conference room Y. Imagine bushy-tailed head of HR coming with "hey, the policy doesn't allow it, so we're doing it off the books, everyone is invited just without paper trail" to a big conference room full of people expecting to hear they are going to be fired...