A career-driven woman was unfairly sacked after a DNA test revealed her boss to be her secret half-brother. She explained how her dad innocently bought the whole family a DNA testing kit as a present - not knowing he has a "secret love child" on the other side of the country.
But in an unlikely turn of events, it turns out the half siblings knew each other through work - with one being an employee and the other the CEO. Taking to Reddit, she said: "Dad's not the kind of guy to gift everyone DNA kits as a way of telling us he had a secret love child, so I don't think he knew he had another kid.
"We're all grown-ups and know where babies come from and that things aren't always what we expect, so I have a feeling this is a shock to everyone." She went on to explain how the CEO of her company is a "proud Texan, born and raised" - and likely didn't know anything about her father either.
"Dad was stationed in Texas ten years before he met and married my mother," she added. "The timeline all fits and so do the genes, I guess."
After receiving her results, the woman was shocked to see her CEO's name listed under 'half-siblings' - and wondered whether he was notified about their connection.
She assumed as much as when she next went into work, she was asked to complete a refresher training course on nepotism alongside her team members.
The woman said: "I've met the CEO a few times but he works out of the corporate headquarters across the country from the smaller division where I work.
"About a week after I got my results, an email went out from the head of HR stating that all staff had to take a refresher training on nepotism.
"The training also included a new clause that said something like 'staff are not entitled to privileges personal or professional if familial relation by genes or marriage to executive or management staff is known or unknown or discovered during employment'."
She came to learn that no other department in her company had been asked to complete the course, making her believe it was specifically aimed at her.
"My manager later pulled me in personally to ask if I had any questions about the policy," the woman added.
"She was vague and uncomfortable, and I said I wanted to know why nobody else was brought in 1:1 to talk about the policy and why no other branch had to do the training.
"She just kind of ignored the question and said she was just following instructions, so now I think this was aimed at me."
The woman says she would have been "happy to drop the whole thing" - but judged him for "weaponising HR" to send a message.
She would have preferred to have received a short and simple email acknowledging the DNA results but asking for it to be forgotten about while at work.
"Even ignoring it would have been fine by me too since I wasn't sure I wanted to be the one to initiate a conversation about this without having talked to my dad first," she added.
After trying to push it aside in her mind, she started to notice her work being deleted from the company's drive, believing somebody was trying to sabotage her.
She said: "Things were quiet for a week until a major project I was working on was deleted from the company drive.
"It was a coincidence that I had backed it up on a USB. Katie [my manager] was suspicious about my project getting deleted and told me to save everything to an external drive and my hardware, and sure enough, the project got deleted again.
"After that, anything I put on our work servers was getting deleted within hours, as well as any correspondence with clients or my team members.
"I started sending all my work communication and attachments to Katie and duplicating them on a USB that Katie kept locked in her office.
"It was like a James Bond movie. He 100 per cent tried to fire me."
She was later called into HR's office over an "anonymous concern" about her "hiding" her work from her colleagues - but thankfully, her manager came to her defence.
The woman said: "Katie must have known something like this was coming because she handled it and BCCd me on all her correspondence with HR and the executive team.
"[She] outlined her concerns about the CEO's and HR's behaviour regarding the DNA results and that she believed someone was remotely accessing my work computer to delete things.
"The company vice president (VP) was horrified. Up until this point, I didn't know CEBro wasn't the owner of the company.
"Katie and I had a call with the VP that day, who assured me that the owners were being made aware of the situation and that my job was not in jeopardy.
"The VP also apologized for the write-up attempt and the fact someone was obviously remotely accessing my work hardware."
While all this was happening, the CEO's mum was trying to get in touch with her dad to explain her reasoning for keeping their child a secret.
"Dad was set up as an unwitting donor for a childless couple," she added. "As a family we decided to support Dad and just drop it because we didn't ask for the complete Jerry Springer package."
But that's when things went from bad to worse, as she was fired on the spot as soon as she walked through the doors the next working day.
She said: "The Monday after dad spoke to CEBro's mother, I was walking through the lobby when HR literally ambushed me and loudly fired me in front of a client and like twenty of my colleagues.
"Security escorted me out in front of my friends and colleagues who had no idea what was happening so that was pretty dark and humiliating."
Coming to her rescue once again, Katie set up a meeting with the VP to explain everything that had happened over the last month.
Astonished by what he was hearing, the VP suspended her and the CEO pending investigation.
"I was suspended with pay, which HR vehemently protested against," she said. "The suspension lasted a week and I had planned to spend that time looking for another job but I just didn't have it in me.
"CEBro did not return after the suspension. I was offered my job back with an apology but I opted not to go back either and have been freelancing and taking some downtime because the last month has sucked.
"I did accept a generous severance package, so at least they tried to do the right thing."
Commenting on her month-long struggle, one user said: "Katie is an awesome manager. Wow."
Another user added: "I’d have asked for the HR goblins to be sacked because they’re clearly malicious, regardless if I rejoined or not."
A third user said: "Wow, CEBro and HR really tried to set up the company to get sued. Your manager is an awesome lady though!"
Do you have a story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
