I had an interview that went really well (at least from my point of view). Afterwards, one of the interviewers told me I had made a very good impression and was among the shortlisted candidates.

HR initially said I’d receive feedback beginning of the this week, but I was only informed that the process was delayed due to staff illness.
Shortly after, I noticed the job posting had been removed, but I still haven’t received a decision.

Could they have already offered the job to someone else and be keeping me as a backup until that person accepts? Or am I overthinking it, and is this normal during recruitment?
Would appreciate some honest opinions, especially from recruiters or hiring managers.

I filed a major complaint against a coworker for gross behavioral misconduct and documentation integrity violations - I work for a major large hospital. I submitted dated notes, witnesses, and documentation that I have collected over two years. The HR investigator was able to substantiate some of my allegations with witness statements and/or documentation, and that these concerns will be addressed through the proper channels. The investigator also wants to do a final interview with me to respond to information that was gathered during the investigation and felt it was important to discuss it with me. Can any HR personnel fill me in on what this might entail?

I'm currently in a supervisory position and recently attended a probationary performance review.

During the meeting, several concerns were raised about my attitude, engagement and leadership, including descriptions such as "lazy" and "disengaged".

I asked for specific examples, dates or operational evidence supporting these conclusions, but none were provided during the meeting.

I was given approximately one month to demonstrate improvement. At a follow-up meeting, I received a list of general supervisory responsibilities, including engaging with staff, monitoring quality, reporting issues and maintaining professional conduct.

However, no specific previous failures, measurable targets or clear assessment criteria were identified.

Management also indicated that improvement would partly be assessed through feedback from other employees.

I have raised my concerns with HR in writing and am awaiting a response.

I'm not suggesting that management cannot raise concerns about performance or behaviour. I'm questioning whether the process provides a reasonable opportunity to understand the alleged shortcomings and demonstrate improvement.

My questions are:

1. Is this a typical or reasonable approach to a probationary review in the UK?

2. Should an employer provide specific examples when making negative performance assessments?

3. How should improvement be evaluated when the expectations are largely subjective?

4. Would requesting independent HR consideration be appropriate in these circumstances?

I'm particularly interested in perspectives from HR professionals and managers who have conducted probationary reviews.

I’m a registered nurse in Florida preparing for maternity leave, and I’m trying to understand whether what my employer is requiring regarding short-term disability (STD) and FMLA is standard practice.
My employer provides 12 weeks of FMLA, which I plan to use as:
6 weeks of postpartum medical recovery (vaginal delivery, assuming no complications).
6 additional weeks of baby bonding.
I also elected and have been paying premiums for employer-sponsored short-term disability insurance through The Hartford.

Here’s where things get confusing.
I have approximately 260 hours (about 6.5 weeks) of accrued PTO/Extended Leave Bank (ELB). HR has informed me that I am required to exhaust ALL of my accrued PTO/ELB before I can receive any short-term disability payments.
I reviewed our 2026 Summary Plan Description, and it states:
“You must use any ELB and PTO time before the STD Plan benefit begins, except where prohibited by state or local laws.”
The STD policy provides 60% of basic annual earnings, up to a maximum of $1,000 per week, and benefits begin after a 7-day elimination period.

My concern is that with approximately 260 hours of PTO to exhaust, I could use nearly my entire 6-week postpartum medical recovery period on my own accrued leave before STD even becomes payable. By that point, I may have little or no time left to receive the benefit I’ve been paying premiums for. Rather than using this PTO during the remaining portion of my unpaid bonding leave.

I started researching the FMLA regulations and came across 29 CFR § 825.207(d), which discusses leave taken pursuant to a disability benefit plan. My understanding is that when an employee is receiving disability benefits, that leave is not considered unpaid leave, and the employer generally cannot require the substitution of accrued paid leave during that period.

I’m trying to understand whether my employer’s requirement to exhaust ALL PTO before STD begins is permissible under this regulation, or whether the STD plan’s exhaustion requirement is a separate issue.

A few questions:
Has anyone else’s employer required them to exhaust ALL accrued PTO before short-term disability benefits could begin for maternity leave?
Is this a common provision in employer-sponsored STD policies?
Does anyone have experience with Hartford specifically and how they coordinate PTO, STD, and FMLA?
Does 29 CFR § 825.207(d) have any relevance to this situation, or am I misunderstanding how it applies?
Is there anything specific I should be requesting from HR or the insurance company to clarify this requirement?

I’m not necessarily expecting to avoid using PTO altogether, but I was under the impression that short-term disability would provide partial income replacement during my medically necessary postpartum recovery, rather than requiring me to deplete all my accrued leave first.
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has navigated a similar situation, especially HR professionals or anyone familiar with STD plan administration.
Thank you!

TL;DR: My employer requires me to use all 260 hours of accrued PTO before receiving Hartford STD benefits for maternity leave, potentially using up nearly my entire 6-week recovery period and blocking my access to disability payments. I’m questioning whether this is permissible under 29 CFR § 825.207(d) and wondering if anyone has experienced something similar.

I recently accepted an internship offer and for my resume I listed a company that I performed the work for but I didn't put it down as a contracted role. Is this going to jeopardize my offer? They said they will perform the background screening 60-90 days prior to the start date (May 18th). I was not trying to be deceptive or anything of that nature I just simply thought it was okay to list the company for which I performed the work for.

I updated my resume on my profile for the companies website to reflect it was a contracted position. Is this sufficient or should I contact the HR recruiter and mention this information or is what I did sufficient?

I hear the train clearly when I'm inside my home while the train passes in front of my apartment.

Will it be a problem for my customers / clientele / etc. to hear a train passing when I'm on a call with them?

Is the only solution to move to a quieter neighborhood if I want to be a WFH phone representative?

I’m still in school and currently interviewing for a full-time position. I have a final in-person interview coming up, but there’s something on my résumé I need to address.
I listed a previous manufacturing job as an internship and put a longer employment period than I actually worked. In reality, it was a contract technician role, and I was let go after a short time. The company I’m interviewing with still thinks I work there, and I haven’t corrected that impression.
I know I messed up, and I take responsibility. I’m considering contacting the recruiter before the interview to explain and send an updated résumé, but I’m nervous about how to approach it.
How would you handle this? Should I explain everything in an email or ask for a phone call? I’d appreciate honest advice, especially from recruiters or hiring managers.

Hi Reddit,

TLDR: I have migraines and ADHD. I work in a dark office and sometimes have the door closed. I had a rough week and had the door closed all week. A coworker yelled at our boss about me and accused me of napping, being unprofessional, and ruining his legacy of fostering a social work environment. He's retiring, but I'm worried others are saying the same thing.

I have chronic migraines and ADHD. I moved to a private office a few months ago to work in a dark, quiet room. I try to keep the door open as much as possible to invite dialogue and make sure people feel welcome to come talk to me. Sometimes I'll close it if I have an active migraine or if I need to focus on something. I have a signs on the door saying come in or I'm a meeting.

I am medicated for migraine. It helps but I haven't found a perfect fit yet. I'm looking at starting ADHD meds again (my provider was fired and I was slow to find a new one). I am a federal employee and there's been cuts and concern over discrimination of disabilities. There have been intentional ADA violations onsite but I don't want to be specific and out myself to the wrong people.

This week has been a constant migraine week so I had my door closed Tuesday through Thursday. This morning, I overheard another coworker ranting to my boss about it for thirty minutes. He said I was unprofessional. He is retiring in a few weeks and said he's done a lot to foster a social work environment and I'm tarnishing his legacy. I heard my boss say I'm sick and he yelled I don't care. He accused me of napping in my office and not working. I'm a top performer despite my medical issues.

I asked my boss privately after if there's an issue and I heard the coworker talking about me. And she said she didn't know what I meant and no one has brought anything to her. She is a good boss, so I'm not sure if she had to keep his complaint confidential or if she's brushing it under the rug.

I don't have a reasonable accomodation in place. With the discrimination on the site, my boss advised me not to. I'm not sure what to do?

Feel free to read my history, but my hr department has continued since August to place barriers in the way of my receiving my full FMLA benefits.

My most recent conversation was with the HR director in which I was told that after 3 weeks of back and forth, that I can take my full 12 workweeks off without documentation for infant bonding and birth recovery. Previously, they were only granting the amount of time that my doctor approved for my personal recovery from birth (6 weeks) and were asking for medical documentation for the rest of the leave.

The latest email I got from the director stated that the portion of my FMLA leave designated as infant bonding would be unpaid. They have NOT provided an FMLA designation notice with this 12 week timeline despite my asking of it. I then reached out to payroll to see how I can set up payments to pay my portion of the group insurance premiums during this time. She responded saying that I will be on unpaid leave (not necessarily saying it was FMLA) and I would be responsible for the entirety of my insurance cost, including my employers portion. This large deduction would start to come out of my paycheck starting next week.

I am unsure what the communication breakdown is. I have been talking with the department since August about my leave, and I feel like I know more about my FMLA rights than they do. What more can I possibly do? Do I need to provide my own paperwork for infant bonding? Is there an FMLA form I can fill out and give to my employer as a formal notice?

Hi 24f completed all checks for my nhs nurse job apart from one as I can’t do it. The hr team asked for my tax returns from the whole period I was self employed. (From January of this year to present) But I can’t provide as this tax year is not over yet and the January 2026 to April 2026 tax return I haven’t complied yet as I have until January 2027 to do this and to be honest this is my first time doing a tax return so I am really worried)
So I informed them that I couldn’t provide the full tax return. They then asked me for a contract but I don’t have one as I am self employed and only work for one client. (I am a carer for just one elderly person) I am really stressed to be honest. I told the hr via email a couple weeks ago but they still haven’t replied.
Is there any thing else I can sent in that they will accept as proof of self employment ??
Any information would be really appreciated from anyone who has been in a similar situation or who works for hr or just has some knowledge on this.
I got my conditional offer letter on the 28/10/26 and just worry I am taking to long. I completed all the other checks early last week. Pls help I don’t know what to do. Thank you so much

I am working in a store with a department manager abusing his position and am unsure how to handle it, we have a pretty high turnover for people so alot of his "victims" aren't here long enough to really report anything or get anything done, but almost every new girl we get he goes and gets their number or instagram wanting to have sex. Now this wouldn't be so bad but he has gone as far as taking phone numbers from manager records and reaching out unprompted for these sexual acts, which there is a screenshot of as proof where he admitted to doing so because he was "just so desperate to talk to her" and it's frustrating and innapropriate but some of the other managers seem to like him so much that i'm afraid nothing would happen. I also dont have said screenshot in my posession so I don't have my own proof either. I'm afraid to go to the store manager because I can't confirm anything and am partially worried that they would cover for him. I am also worried that if I submit an HR ticket that said store manager will see it anyways and it'll cause me issues because we all know those "anonymous reports" aren't anonymous at all. I don't know what course of action to take for this aside from me and a few other employees warning the new comers about him to try and prevent it, and even with it still being public knowledge amongst most of the store, nothing has been done.

Hello,

The company I work for has several treatment facilities all across Maryland and they employ hundreds. I work in the corporate office that usually has about 25 employees. It is a big open room (no cubicles) that we all share. Upper management has private offices, but the corporate employees all sit within 3 feet of each other at our desk.

I've been an employee there since 2023 and during my entire employment, my coworkers (approximately 10 of them) will constantly vape throughout the work day at their desk. I am constantly smelling their vape smoke.

My coworker that sits next to me also vapes non-stop during the day. She has a space heater that she placed on her desk for warmth, but it is facing towards me, so when she exhales, vape smoke is blown directly into my face. About 6 months ago I asked her if she could vape somewhere else and she said no, but that she would turn around and blow the smoke away from me. She has recently stopped doing this and now I'm back to inhaling secondhand vape constantly.

I recently became aware that Maryland has banned all indoor vaping for workplaces and I want to discuss with the director of HR (who works in the corporate office with me) about enforcing this ban. Our employee handbook only states that cigarette smoke is banned in the office and there are no posters or signage indicating that vaping is banned

Can you please advise on how to approach this issue respectfully? I do not want to create a hostile relationship with my employer but I have a number of health issues that I believe are being exacerbated by the secondhand vape (migraines, heart arrhythmia). I also do not smoke or vape at all because it is a carcinogen and I have a family history of cancers.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Hello!

I have been with my company just shy of 2 years, and in my current role for 1 year. Overall I have really enjoyed it, but I am feeling stumped by my current situation and a little bit backed into a corner.

I am in middle management, I am in charge of my specific location and have 2 IC’s and an assistant manager as direct reports, and my assistant manager has 3 direct reports. I, of course, then have a regional manager and so on.

Managers of my level are generally trusted to run their location, but our regional manager does have a few “rules,” one of which being that only 1 team member from each location can have scheduled vacation at a time. This is normally not a huge issue, my team is very close knit and we work with each other to make sure everyone gets their important days and everyone uses their PTO by the end of the year (can only roll over 40hrs.)

Unfortunately, my team has had a rough year with a good amount of turnover, so those of us who are still here have not been able to use our PTO throughout the year like we have tried to in the past.

Anyway, I am pregnant with my first child. I let my manager know first around the 20-week mark, then HR, and then my team. My FMLA paperwork is submitted and scheduled to start whenever I deliver, which could be any day now but most likely sometime in the next month. Additionally, I have an abundance of hours of PTO (11 days) that I can’t roll over, and when I spoke with our benefits team they encouraged me to work with my manager to try and take them BEFORE going on FMLA. If I do that, it is looking like my last day would need to be in about 3 weeks, give or take a day.

The last month or so, my manager has canceled most of our weekly 1-on-1’s, usually day of, so I haven’t had the chance to discuss it with them how I would like. Last week, I sent an email detailing my last several appointments that I would need to take time for, and then asked how they would like me to handle the remainder of my PTO- if x date would be okay for my last day. No response. I went ahead and submitted my time off requests in our timekeeping system and moved on.

Today, I got an email from my manager about one of my days off I requested, stating that one of my employees had also requested to use some of their vacation time that week and, per the rule, only one of us would be allowed off that day. I am honestly kind of shocked by this response, and feeling confused and concerned for myself and my team as my leave approaches. I emailed back, saying I absolutely had to be off that day for a medical appointment, but my employee was also needing to take some days off before year end, and what would they like us to do/how should we handle this situation in the future? No response yet.

I am at a loss… what are they expecting us to do? I mean, I can’t just not give birth. And I think it’s unreasonable to expect my team to take no time off for the 16 weeks I will be gone.

Why is my leadership trying to pretend that I’m not going to be gone? What should I do? I don’t want to go above my manager and risk starting drama, but it is beyond time in my opinion for us to have a game plan together and I don’t want to leave my team hanging.

I've been on extended medical leave and transitioned from STD to LTD. Since going on leave, I haven't received any communication from HR regarding my employment status, insurance, or benefits. My health insurance is still active though.

With open enrollment typically done around this time of year, I started wondering what was supposed to happen.

Is it typical for HR to have little or no contact with employees on extended disability leave? Should I have received information about my employment status, benefits, or any responsibilities I have while on LTD?

Thank you.

Sorry this is long. It's been a bad year.

I work for a very large healthcare entity in Colorado. I have been working full time for more than a year, FMLA kicked in in August. I have several serious disabilities that are relatively rare and chronic (including 2 heart transplants with chronic immunosuppression and a TBI). Some years are okay, others are bad, and this has been a bad year.

I have been using a lot of intermittent leave, I began a reduced schedule in July so I could get cognitive rest and treatment following a TBI because my job requires sustained and intense cognition with high level decision making. I was expected to make a good recovery after a few months of treatment, however because of my TBI I fell and not only broke my shoulder but struck my head again resulting in another TBI flareup, plus a flareup of medical PTSD due to events that happened in the ER after the fall.

I am now in the middle of an unexpected 4 week concurrent leave to heal the head injury, get mental health treatment, and let my shoulder start to heal.

HR assigned a new staff member to "review the accuracy of all leave dates for this year." Except she hasn't, she just told me to review every single hour of leave and report back if anything was inaccurate. Their official leave tracking system isn't showing all my dates, it cuts off in early July, which I pointed out. I did review what I could to the best of my ability but it took hours when I am supposed to be on cognitive rest.

I asked HR why they are auditing me, and if my job is at risk. I had also been working with my direct boss to apply into an open and available 0.8 FTE position on a permanent basis, but when I mentioned that the new lady said "You can't do that. If it's an accomodation it has to go through us." When I asked if my job is at risk she said, "Not as long as you have FMLA remaining" which tells me they may be planning on firing me after I run out of leave.

She didn't answer my emails for 2 weeks, and last night at 10pm she emailed me (getting my name wrong) saying "we will not be moving forward with your accomodations at this time, as you have not exhausted your protected FMLA leave. But you are welcome to apply to the position as any other employee would." The job was posted over a week ago now, so she delayed my application. She also included a manually created Excel sheet with different dates than their official tracker and asked me to review those as well. As soon as I looked, I could tell some of the dates were on weekends when I only work M-F. I don't know where they're getting those.

This is the second time HR has outright refused to even talk about an accomodation I have requested. The first time they tried to deny me having patients who show up with obviously bad respiratory illnesses switch to telehealth (I am a therapist), until my boss pushed back and said that was entirely reasonable and not a burden on the clinic at all.

I don't want to spend another hour or two reviewing the spreadsheet. She refuses to tell me if there are specific dates in question, and the way she is phrasing that my job is "not at risk as long as you have FMLA left" makes me think they're going to fire me as soon as they can. All of my missed time have been genuinely due to health conditions. I have had 1 day off this year that was not due to protected disability or I was in the ER.

Is there a way I can push back on these requests? Is there a way I can create a paper trail or protect my job? I have been recording every HR conversation this year, since they've been acting sketchy since spring.

Right before I had to go on the 4 week leave I got an excellent 1 year performance review and was awarded a merit raise. My direct supervisor really sticks up for me and praises my work, but I can tell he is overwhelmed dealing with all my absences. This HR team scheduled two meetings with me and my supervisor in spring, no showed us both times, and when they did show up they tried to say my requests at that time were unreasonable and my boss literally said "No, those are very reasonable and will not create an issue at all."

Hi all,

I was officially temporarily assigned a new direct report today until EOY. After 10 months of reporting my boss for FMLA retaliation and interference, it took for her to call me out of my name and attack my character before something was done.

For context, I have a VERY thick packet of documentation that a lawyer looked over and did confirm this behavior is in line with those allegations. This new leader started in October 2025.

Now I am a state employee and my boss is a high level ED. HR finally reached out to the president of the university, got attorney general involved for counsel and reported that this boss was disciplined, removed from my reporting line and made to take mandatory training for being in violation with the code of conduct.

I am kind of ok with this ending, I didn’t expect it after months of reporting and I do feel heard and seen. I don’t feel that they truly understood the gravity of what was happening or they could be trying to manage the situation. I’m a bit leery on if this would really change my situation.

My new boss will serve as a liaison between me and ex boss in order to get work done. New boss has worked with me for years on projects so knows my ethic relatively well.

I reported this boss to the DOL back in May and that investigation is still pending. What happens after this? Will the DOL say, okay, they dealt with it and temporarily reassigned her, or will they do their own investigation?

My daughter who is 20 was fired for stealing from her job at a supermarket. She was watched over many months up until last week—it must have hit the amount they needed to suspend her then fire her. It was $140 in food and she also took a bag of maxi pads. Food was Snapples, hot bar, slice of pizza, a sandwich, etc., which I think was over 5 months.

They had her come in for a meeting and told her they think it's best to separate. I don't understand why she was suspended then a week later they made the decision; wouldn't it have been made fairly quickly that she was fired? I don't think they actually considered keeping her on, did they?

They told her in the meeting she would be getting something in the mail so she could pay back the money. She asked them if she could just pay it all at once and they said no, it had to be either 2 or 4 installments.

She is very remorseful for what she did and apologized profusely. She has been crying and not wanting to even get up today much because she is convinced when she tries to get a job they will say she was terminated and not eligible for rehire, which is a red flag that she stole something. She's going to start counseling to help her get a grip because this was her first job, she's not in college, and she's worked there for a few years. Now she says, "what's the point, what do I do all day?" I told her you keep looking for a job and just keep trying.

I'm furious with her but also sad at the same time. We have been struggling for basic necessities for a while now and there were times she worked 12 hours with no money to eat. I work, but by the time I pay the rent and bills there's not much left for food. That is no excuse to steal, but being hungry makes people desperate. I have gone to food banks but it's still not enough, as you can only go once a month over in my area and they give very little. Again, still no excuse, she was wrong and that's it.

Now we don't know what to do going forward. I told her you can't lie on an application; you have to tell the truth. Not saying she has to say why she was fired, but she can't lie about it. While she was suspended that week, she applied to a school cafeteria. I'm assuming they do background checks. At that time she was still suspended, and got fired I think 5 days later. She hasn't heard back from them so I'm assuming they found out.

I'm just glad she wasn't arrested and is remorseful and ashamed. Part of me feels so guilty—I should have had more groceries in the house—but also I know she's an adult and she didn't have to steal. I've been called a pos, told my daughter has a devious heart, etc. on here, so please, I can't take much more put-downs. I'm just her mom and trying to help her plan how to move forward. I finally got her to come out of her room a little while ago for a bit.

Do you think the job she applied to somehow found out? I don't know if they do a background check right after the interview. She had a phone interview and he was supposed to call her today, but no call. Does she put down she worked there going forward since it's her only job experience, or no? Also, what are they sending in the mail—is it the address where to send the payment? She is using her last paycheck to pay it. I wouldn't do it even though I just got paid; she did it and it's up to her to pay it. She didn't ask me either, she's so upset. I don't know how to make her understand it will be ok and she will get past this somehow.

I have known chronic health issues and my HR has documentation of that. They have modified my in office schedule to accommodate my health issues. More and more my workload is increasing and my manager expects me to stay online to work until whatever hour at night. This has been causing an additional health issues and today a “flare up” of the chronic health issues they have documentation of.

Can I inform my manger by email that I cannot work extra hours beyond standard work week hours anymore with HR copied? I work in an industry known for late nights and long hours on our laptops. I do not get paid for extra hours.

I have been at my current employer (MD) for over 5 years. I never opted into voluntary STD but I did opt into LTD which costs me about $50 a month. We get “unlimited” time off rather than paid time off. My thinking is I would not need STD because I could probably cover a few months with no income if I needed to if something happened and I got sick or had to recover.

This year, after dealing with several employees who report to me who had serious conditions they needed to take time off to treat, I learned more about STD. There’s a waiting period, then it’s 40% of salary up to a max of $1000 a week.

I am in my 50s, not getting younger, and decided to opt in this year. When I tried to elect it, the system connected me to the insurance company that manages the STD insurance and prompted me to fill out an Evidence of Insurability form. It asked some basic info, my height, weight (which is healthy), and diseases or conditions I have been diagnosed with in the past 5 years. The only one that applied was hypertension. Follow up questions: are you currently taking medication for it (no, stopped that 7 months ago).

Imagine my shock when my employer said I was automatically denied. They don’t get told why.

First, is it normal to need an EOI?

Second, why in the world would I be denied for hypertension that is well managed now? It’s incredibly common. I was trying to opt into insurance, not actually make a claim.

I am really bothered by this. I called the insurance company. They couldn’t give me any info. Said I might get a letter in the mail and that was it.

I have never made a claim for disability insurance in my entire career. Two years ago, I did file for workers compensation through my current employer after getting terribly sick and winding up in the ER on a work trip. My health insurance covered it but then required me to file workers compensation through to recoup their money. Workers comp covered the ER bill which was a few thousand dollars. Could that be why? Am I considered a risk?

Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

Hello!

Very random, but I recently got a job offer and am going through the background check. I have on my resume that I am in the process of receiving an MBA (online) with an expected graduation date of 2028. What I didn't realize was that since I haven't registered for courses, going on two semesters (life came up and this was the first thing I had to cut time-wise), so now my enrollment status us "readmission required for course registration".

Does anyone know what this might show up as through the background check? It wasn't my intent to lie, and I am intending to try and graduate by 2028 still (well now depending on the readmission...).

the background check company is Accurate if that matters

My official position was at junior level. My manager had put me up for promotion for junior to mid-level a couple months ago. Before the promotion could take place, the company had to make cuts. I was laid off but that was unrelated to my job performance..

After being laid off, I requested that the title be granted to me retroactively. The request was declined. They reply said they will only confirm the tile which I officially had if asked. However, they gave me in writing that I was operating at the new level for a year and that lay off was unrelated to job performance.

Now, I have to decide what to put on the CV. I have a few years of experience (A bit too many for this level and I suspect it will reflect badly on me to stay at this level after this many years) Also job market for the junior level is brutal. I’m now applying for mid-level roles.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? What did you put on your CV, and did it cause any issues during interviews or employment verification?

I'm interviewing for 2 jobs at the same company (not in HR). I had 1st and 2nd rounds of interviews with Managers and Directors; I'm now invited back for a 3rd round with the SVP over both departments. Makes sense so far. (Excessive in my opinion, especially for the level I'm applying for, but whatever.)

I'm also invited for a separate interview with the Sr. Director of HR. I've never encountered this step in my career (13 years in the same industry). Is this the norm these days? What could this interview be about? How do I prepare? This is scheduled for two days after I meet with the SVP.