Karen from HR vs Payroll: The Icebreaker Incident

A cautionary tale in five acts.

Karen organised a cross-functional “team energiser” at 9:00 AM.
She called it “Payroll & People: Building Bridges.”
We called it “Why.”

The opening icebreaker?
“Two Truths and a Lie.”
Steve from IT said:

1. I love debugging code

2. I once met Elon Musk

3. I think payroll is just data entry

We stopped listening after #3.

Karen made us go next.
My truths were:

1. I haven’t taken a lunch break since January

2. I know every country's net-to-gross by heart

3. I love icebreakers

Karen guessed wrong.
Of course she did.

Bob from Facilities brought a harmonica for “fun facts about me.”
We were not consulted.
Nor were our ears.

Karen wrapped up by asking everyone to share how payroll makes them feel.
The words used included:
“Terrified.”
“Grateful-ish.”
And, from someone in marketing: “Wait, what do you actually do again?”

Winner: the harmonica.
It haunts us still.