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privacy in the workplace

hiya everyone i havent posted in a while
i have found out that my line manager at work has told someone in another department about my illness,when i told her she is not to tell anyone, there are 3 people that know about my illness in my place of work, is she allowed to do this ? i have found it very upsetting that she thinks she has the right to this.

I'm so sorry to hear about this - what a dreadful breach of confidence.  I wonder whether your manager realises just how much she has upset you?  I hope it will not affect your work too much.

First up - what an appalling lack of judgement and empathy your manager has shown.

Just to give a brief answer to your dilema, it strikes me that the information that you have provided to your manager about your illness is covered by the Data Protection Act.  This is quite a lengthy and complicated piece of legislation but one of it's core principles is that any information about you cannot be shared with another party unless a) you give permission or b) there is a very good reason to do it without your permission e.g. it's part of a police investigation or something like that.

Does your manager have a good reason that they told someone else?  If not it sounds like it was a breach of confidentiality which is just not on.  In practice in the workplace usually your manager plus perhaps someone from HR will need to know about your health so that they can make provisions for medical appointments and any other adjustments you may need to continue with your employment, but other than that it's up to you who you tell.

Where I work, confidentiality rules mean that even if you are off sick for a day, in theory your manager should not tell anybody else any details about your illness - the rest of your team just need to know that you won't be at work on a particular day.

I hope you are able to resolve the situation at work.

All the best

Bhiru

hiya thankyou for your input

i am very upset by what she has done, i have emailed the company director  who is her manager and put a formal complaint in about her so will have to be an investigation into why she did this .

i have it writing that she has told this person via a memo so i have proof .

once again thankyou, i will let you all know i get on

the company director got back to me and said the company has a right to tell any employee of my illness ?

he has sided with my line manager and has not taken furhter action against her?

where do i go from here?