HR: Another New Responsibility for HR

According to a Forbes' (5/8/09) article, HR is now dealing with a new rash of internal "pillaging," employees raiding the work areas of laid off colleagues. Colleagues are racing to take ergonomic chairs, headsets, phones -- then over the next few days, it even includes staplers, pens, etc.

One HR manager described as a "cathartic process in some ways." In a strangely related case, an employee in England went on a two-week vacation, colleagues thought she was gone permanently and she returned to find all of her things distributed all over the office.

Comment: None really -- just one of those interesting HR stories.