Confidential medical info shared - am I right to be annoyed?

Salmotrutta

Sorry if this is long, but I'm incredibly annoyed with my line manager today. Long story short, I've had some medical issues lately which have only slightly affected my work (public sector with the usual HR policies). It's likely to be a long term illness which may impact significantly on my work in the future, possible disability, just waiting on full diagnosis, but with new treatments now available I may well be able to have a full career without too much disruption.

The issue is that yesterday my schedule was affected by a 2 hour MRI scan - when I returned to work I had a few reports to get done and ended up working til 8pm to try get them finished. By 8 I still had one to do, but my fingers were so sore (symptom of the illness) that I couldn't do it, and sent my manager an email to explain the situation and say I'd do it today (it's not critical and today would be no problem). I've already been treated for this symptom and am quite hopeful it is only temporary.

Anyway, my manager suddenly has concerns that my condition could be quite serious, and forwards the email to someone in HR, without informing me. His concern was quite unwarranted - whether I was fit to drive - and could have been resolved with a phone call to me to check (no problem with driving and consultant approval). Instead of consulting me, he decided to share my confidential medical information with another staff member, without either informing me or obtaining my consent. I was absolutely furious that he shared this info, particularly as this is an ongoing, new issue and I'm still undergoing tests. My opinion is that other staff, including HR, have no business knowing my medical info until I get a full diagnosis and know whether it will impact on future work - and certainly not without my knowledge and consent. I'm now seriously pissed off that I shared any info with a previously trusted colleague, which I did as a matter of courtesy when this cropped up, and asked him to maintain my confidentiality.

Am I right to be mad? Did he act in the wrong?
I'm hopping mad but tomorrow is my last day before 2 weeks leave and don't want it to be a big issue as I have a lot to finish up, I may decide to take it up with him/HR when I come back to work..

Penny Tration

Tbh, if your work is being affected, I'd say he's right to inform HR.

MagicMarker

To be honest, if you want information kept confidential then you shouldn't tell anyone. You should have kept the specifics to yourself until you confirmed the diagnosis. If he genuinely thought your safety was at risk then he's probably just covering his arse by involving HR, what if something did happen to you in a work vehicle (I assume?) and it turned out he knew you had medical issues and kept it to himself?

Salmotrutta

green_screen wrote: »

Tbh, if your work is being affected, I'd say he's right to inform HR.

There are plenty of other examples where staff have had medical issues that only slightly impacted on work (as in this case) and HR were not informed. It may well turn out that this condition will have no future impact once I start treatment, but I have serious concerns now that I will be treated differently from other staff in the future as they now know what condition it is, and tbh most people think it is a lot more serious condition than it actually can turn out to be...

MagicMarker wrote: »

To be honest, if you want information kept confidential then you shouldn't tell anyone. You should have kept the specifics to yourself until you confirmed the diagnosis. If he genuinely thought your safety was at risk then he's probably just covering his arse by involving HR, what if something did happen to you in a work vehicle (I assume?) and it turned out he knew you had medical issues and kept it to himself?

Yeah, I get that and reckon he was totally just covering his arse. But we had already had that conversation - I had already told him I was safe to drive and that I had that on authority from the consultant. Either he didn't believe me, or he didn't care and just wanted it on record that he had concerns. But at the very least he could have informed me that he wanted to inform HR - I only found out about it afterwards. Lesson learned anyway, will not be sharing one iota of info with him again

_Brian

If as you say this is likely to be an ongoing condition then he would be correct in discussing this with a HR employee.

Honestly there is very little that you discuss with your manager that impacts your work ability that he won't discuss with HR/a senior manager. Your direct manager is their representative close to the coalface, not a completely separate entity there who can make up their own rules..

I'd say relax, focus on your condition and your last day before hols.

Work with this manager and HR, (OH too if you are lucky enough to have such), and hopefully they will be flexible to your needs when you might need some in the future..

Mrs OBumble

Salmotrutta wrote: »

Am I right to be mad? Did he act in the wrong?

No. And no.

Anything you say to your manager may be shared with his/her manager, and with HR: there is no such thing as "confidential", and under some manager's employment contracts, it's actually a disciplinary issue to keep secrets on an employee's behalf.

Also, your manager was right to be concerned about your working outside core hours (quite likely with no one else in the building anywhere near you), and possible consequences. The only thing s/he did wrong was not phoning you immediately. If I was the manager, I would have probably insisted on providing you with transport home, no matter what you said about being fine to drive. (Reasoning: if you're not fine to type, you're not really fine to drive, either.)

Having an illness like this sucks sometimes, not the least because managers and the like start fussing like this, because they're worried about liability issues (as well as about you as a person if they're any way decent).

and other disasters

Your employer has a duty of care toward you and the manager was acting in your interest (as well as their own admittedly). Things like this that are shared with HR are confidential, and whilst I can see from your post that you are angry the information was shared, I would say the manager was right to do it.

I've no doubt it's stressful time for you but this information was shared between two professionals with regard to employee welfare, which is very different from, for example, your manager heading off to lunch with their mate from HR and sniggering about yer wan in the Department with the medical issue.

jackboy

I think you are right to be angry. If he needed to inform HR then he should have talked to you first. Even if he had the right/responsability to do what he did it was ignorant not to talk to you first.

_Brian

jackboy wrote: »

I think you are right to be angry. If he needed to inform HR then he should have talked to you first. Even if he had the right/responsability to do what he did it was ignorant not to talk to you first.

Employees need to understand that talking to your manager is not like going to confessions, unless its specifically agreed to be confidential, if it may affect business then it may well be discussed with HR/Senior managment.

Only share information with your manager that you comfortable with him sharing with other senior people in the organisation..

Now if he shared it with team leaders or other employees below his grade or your peers - then I'd be out for his skin !

tenifan

Your manager did the right thing. By your own admission, your symptoms are already affecting your ability to do your job, you're missing time at work, and it's a long term illness. Of COURSE your manager has to report this to HR!! He would be in a lot of trouble if you suffered from exhaustion or your illness got worse as a result of continuing to work if he hadn't report it to HR. He's simply covering his own back, and doing his job.

Your manager is not your buddy. He is a representative of your employer. When you tell him something, you are telling the company, and any manager or TL you deal with, and the HR department. If you don't want the company to know, don't tell your manager, don't confide in HR, don't even tell a co-worker. You have little or no right to privacy as soon as you tell a company representative your personal business.

Now, they would not be permitted to discuss it with other staff, but even so I was surprised when my TL was out on maternity leave and the acting TL (a co-worker of mine) was tasked with discussing my (small, annual) payrise. But, that's life I suppose. If you want privacy, don't work for a company -or public sector in your case.

Eoin

I think he was in the right.

Mrs OBumble

tenifan wrote: »

Your manager is not your buddy. He is a representative of your employer. When you tell him something, you are telling the company, and any manager or TL you deal with, and the HR department.

thanks for a very nice statement of the situation - be surprised if other people start using that phrase here!

(meaning .. I'm gonna steal it myself!)

tenifan

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

thanks for a very nice statement of the situation - be surprised if other people start using that phrase here!

(meaning .. I'm gonna steal it myself!)

lol
Maybe I'm too cynical sometimes!