Employee gets reported to HR over pettiest reasons ever: Mismatched socks and not mingling enough

While most workplaces are tolerable, some employees struggle with trivial complaints raised by co-workers. Sharing a similar ordeal, an employee on October 25, 2025, described how she was reported to HR for petty reasons, which has now left online users equally baffled. u/Extension_Sweet_1606 took to Reddit to share a complaint the HR had received about her for three petty reasons.  In an exclusive interview with Scoop Upworthy, the employee, who goes by the initials CL, said the complaint came as a complete surprise. "My boss was the one who presented the claims from HR. She seemed to side with HR, claiming it was unprofessional and made her look bad," she said.

Firstly, for wearing mismatched socks. Sounds silly, right? Well, the company doesn't think so. The employee said she often wears mismatched socks to the office, but the company decided to bring it up as an issue. "There is nothing in the employee handbook that says anything about my socks needing to match. I am also unsure of what mismatched socks have to do with my ability to do my job," she wrote.

The next complaint raised by the HR was about her not mingling "enough." She shared that the office had recently arranged a cookie event. CL decided to drop in at the event with her introvert co-worker, took two cookies, and decided to stop by to say "Hello" to a few of the employees and leave. But she was deemed unprofessional due to this behavior. "Who gets to decide what the appropriate amount of mingling is? Is it by the quantity of people I talk to? How long I stayed? How many words I said? This one feels really subjective," she shared.

Lastly, CL revealed that someone at the office had wrongly accused her of sleeping during her work hours. "This is a complete lie. I have never slept at my desk. I have never even put my head down on my desk," the employee alleged, adding, "So it means someone must have lied about me to HR, and HR believed it without any proof? I told my boss to check the cameras because that is simply untrue." She later found out that it was the CEO who made the complaints. " I figured, as she’s very particular. Everything has to be pristine, and I guess my socks are included in that, too," she said. When asked whether such complaints had happened before, CL told Scoop said it was "completely out of the blue," adding, "We had executives visiting, which only happens once or twice a year."

In a study authored by Alexander Alonso in 2020, it was found that 99% of employees had witnessed petty behavior at work, and 75% said no action was taken when it occurred. The study, which was conducted by drawing experiences from more than 15,000 business professionals across various industries, highlighted that such behavior can undermine trust and increase stress among employees.

When asked how the experience affected her outlook, CL admitted it was the final push to move on. "If my boss had stood up for me, maybe it’d be different, but I realized in that moment that the company doesn’t really care about me. They care about their optics," she said. Still, she is taking it in stride. "I won’t let anyone dull my sock sparkle! I’m currently interviewing for some other positions. After I put in my two-week notice, I’m going to wear the wackiest socks I can find each day until I leave," she added.

Soon after the post gained traction, many users urged the employee to raise a counter-complaint. u/Signablesire wrote, "I'd go to HR and say I'm being harassed by petty complaints. List those as you have and forward any future occurrences. If I didn't like the job, I'd probably start job hunting too." u/MrCanoe shared, "I would definitely talk with HR directly. I wouldn't be surprised if this was just your boss airing her own personal issues and no one from HR has received these complaints. If these are actual complaints, as others have stated, file a complaint yourself about a hostile work environment of people creating petty or frivolous complaints about you." u/KawasakiMetro commented, "One brown sock and one white sock that will from here be the subtle sign of rebellion against the system. It seems like someone is out to get you. I wish unions were stronger in the United States. This is absolute bullshit."

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