Confidentiality confidentiality confidentiality.... (employee, apply, collect, unemployment)

[rlrl]

a few days ago i had gotten an e mail in error for the office finance director who is a sadistic bully but has since gotten better. i opened it because the e mail said it was from him to me and titled "messages"(i originally thought he was e mailing me messages which he actually has no reason to do)

when i opened it i noticed all the messages were for him so i forwarded them to him

he sent back a message with a "thank u" acknowledgement then a facetious/philosophical quote of "the true test of a man is one who treats well one who does him no good". this is something one might expect him to send, something that kind of looks harmless on the surface but has some facetious theme attached to it

after that there was a "please be mindful of the environment before printing out an e mail as this is confidential". we work with patients and are governed by federal HIPPA statutes so he is always crowing about the confidentiality laws and is always trying to catch people committing violations

now, coming from him, this was really nothing since he has calmed down in his ways but one thing i was thinking of is, say someone sends you an e mail with threats or profane language and you print it out and later use it in court, can the company turn around and say you violated confidentiality by printing it out? (when it had nothing to do with patient information thru HIPPA)



just a thought because this is the kind of guy who will always justify in defense of "confidentiality" to get his way

[yellowsnow]

The way to get around that is to keep everything in a file on your computer and someone else's at work as a backup. Then if you need the records from court, have your lawyer subpoena them.

[Thursday007]

Did you forward the email to him or print it out and give it to him? If you forwarded the email did you by chance forward it to others and not realize it? Did you sign a confidentiality agreement with the company prior to employment?

All that is all well and good - but the real issue is the person who sent it to you in the first place. So, I'm not sure what is going on and who the players are. Was the email he replied to about confidentiality sent only to you or to the other person who sent it to you and you were a secondary person to that email?

[mclarlm]

Probably not, assuming that the information isn't already protected under the law. Your employer saying something is confidential doesn't create law.

Maybe not directly related, but email footers with legal disclaimers don't carry any weight either:

Legal disclaimers: Spare us the e-mail yada-yada | The Economist

E-mail disclaimers are one of the minor nuisances of modern office life, along with fire drills, annual appraisals and colleagues who keep sneezing loudly. Just think of all the extra waste paper generated when messages containing such waffle are printed. They are assumed to be a wise precaution. But they are mostly, legally speaking, pointless. Lawyers and experts on internet policy say no court case has ever turned on the presence or absence of such an automatic e-mail footer in America, the most litigious of rich countries. Many disclaimers are, in effect, seeking to impose a contractual obligation unilaterally, and thus are probably unenforceable. This is clear in Europe, where a directive from the European Commission tells the courts to strike out any unreasonable contractual obligation on a consumer if he has not freely negotiated it. And a footer stating that nothing in the e-mail should be used to break the law would be of no protection to a lawyer or financial adviser sending a message that did suggest something illegal.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by rlrl

he sent back a message with a "thank u" acknowledgement then a facetious/philosophical quote of "the true test of a man is one who treats well one who does him no good".

I think you're misreading him, at least with this quote.

It sounds like he was complimenting you for forwarding him the email even though he does you no good.

[rlrl]

you are absolutely right, but he bothers a lot of employees and has gotten many fired and has even lied when writing people up so they did not win their unemployment insurance claims

he was probably referring to himself in the e mail as he i'm sure knows i never liked him

i guess this is his way of still being in control tho he has changed his ways slightly for the better

thursday 007 i believe i forwarded him only his messages. i did learn later that someone else also received those messages in error but when i forwarded him his messages i did not hit "forward all" only his name

perhaps by "confidentiality" he refers to all internal communications are confidential to the company even if they are not an operation of any particular law?

[kodaka]

say someone sends you an e mail with threats or profane language and you print it out and later use it in court, can the company turn around and say you violated confidentiality by printing it out? (when it had nothing to do with patient information thru HIPPA)

There are a couple of things to address here:

First, 'confidentiality' means more than just HIPPAA. So yes, you can violate confidentiality without violating HIPPAA. A company's proprietary secrets about their organizational structure, billing arrangements, policies, etc, are all subject to confidentiality. If you reveal to a competitor that your company has a special pricing agreement with a particular vendor that gives your employer a competitive edge, that would be a violation of confidentiality. At a certain level, such breaches of confidentiality can be considered industrial espionage.

Second, if documents contain information to be used as evidence then the confidentiality agreement is void for those documents. There is no confidentiality agreement or employee policy that can be used to cover up evidence of a crime or wrongdoing, or to coerce an employee to engage in a cover up.

Finally, the use of profane language is not a crime, and neither are most threats. In order for a threat to be a crime, it has to be specific (where, when, how), realistic (something the person actually has the ability or means to carry out), indicate an intent to harm, and the recipient must fear for their safety. It's a state-level crime and each state has their own exact wording, but the basic gist is the same. Vague statements like 'You're going to regret this' or 'I'm gonna get you back" are not criminal because they are too vague. Also, it is legal for an employer to threaten an employee with a reprimand in response to work performance or workplace behavior.

[student_101]

Originally Posted by rlrl

a few days ago i had gotten an e mail in error for the office finance director who is a sadistic bully but has since gotten better. i opened it because the e mail said it was from him to me and titled "messages"(i originally thought he was e mailing me messages which he actually has no reason to do)

when i opened it i noticed all the messages were for him so i forwarded them to him

he sent back a message with a "thank u" acknowledgement then a facetious/philosophical quote of "the true test of a man is one who treats well one who does him no good". this is something one might expect him to send, something that kind of looks harmless on the surface but has some facetious theme attached to it

after that there was a "please be mindful of the environment before printing out an e mail as this is confidential". we work with patients and are governed by federal HIPPA statutes so he is always crowing about the confidentiality laws and is always trying to catch people committing violations

now, coming from him, this was really nothing since he has calmed down in his ways but one thing i was thinking of is, say someone sends you an e mail with threats or profane language and you print it out and later use it in court, can the company turn around and say you violated confidentiality by printing it out? (when it had nothing to do with patient information thru HIPPA)



just a thought because this is the kind of guy who will always justify in defense of "confidentiality" to get his way

I think he was complimenting you and telling you not to print out the email you received by mistake. Every email in my company (including mine)has a 6 line confidentiality statement. HIPAA is looking for private health information being kept confidential, not some guy emailing you a quote. But as you got an email for him by mistake, you aren't to forward, print or save it. Look at your company's privacy policies, it should tell you what you can and can't do...if it doesn't then they need to get a policy.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by rlrl

you are absolutely right, but he bothers a lot of employees and has gotten many fired and has even lied when writing people up so they did not win their unemployment insurance claims

he was probably referring to himself in the e mail as he i'm sure knows i never liked him

i guess this is his way of still being in control tho he has changed his ways slightly for the better

I really think your view is skewed. He complimented your integrity. Don't read more into it.

Originally Posted by student_101

I think he was complimenting you and telling you not to print out the email you received by mistake. Every email in my company (including mine)has a 6 line confidentiality statement. HIPAA is looking for private health information being kept confidential, not some guy emailing you a quote. But as you got an email for him by mistake, you aren't to forward, print or save it. Look at your company's privacy policies, it should tell you what you can and can't do...if it doesn't then they need to get a policy.

I totally agree. The confidentiality email was simply a reminder--since an email error happened it caused him to remind. HIPAA wouldn't apply to keeping emails that you want to collect for proof if you end up in unemployment. HIPAA only applies to private health information. If an email has any private health information, you can simply use permanent black marker and black out the confidential information if there is some other proof in the email you need to use. If you receive threats, basic company confidentiality woudn't prevent you from using those emails to protect yourself. Heck, police officers could get involved if there were threats. Quit worrying so much.